E120. Springtime Strategies for Easter Escapades

Hey guys, and welcome to episode 120 of Maple to Maple. It is springtime strategies for your Easter escapades. I'm PJ and with me today special guest Co host, I've got Michelle. Michelle, how are you? I am doing great. I'm so happy to be here. I love seeing your face, so thank you for having me. Thanks for being on. It's always a pleasure to chat with you. And yeah, this is exciting because you post, you suggested, hey, let's talk about Easter

games. And so we're going to talk about whatever we want to talk about, but we're going to talk about games. I promise. I feel like some of my listeners are like, great. What quotes are PJ going to come up with this week from from rare ancient philosophers or something like that? I love that. And I have a few just in case. I'm sure Easter is, you know, very historical, so I'm sure you have many, many, many quotes. So OK, you are remind me, you were in Montreal, right? I am, yes.

Are O what does Easter look like for you specifically, you and your family? And then what does it look like in Montreal? Because there's a whole heavily French influence. So I'm really curious. Yeah, so Easter here. That's a very good question for my, I'll start with my family. We're pretty lucky about it. I think a lot of families are low key about it. If you're more religious, you know, there's the church aspect and that's a big time for those families to spend time at the

church. But it's not something that everyone has plans like Christmas or Thanksgiving where it's hard to see anyone. So I have specifically turned Easter into three days of board gaming for about the past four years. I use it as a time to see my brother because I don't always get to see him. And then I invite friends who don't necessarily have plans. So that's kind of why I don't know what the rest of the world

is doing. I like to turn it almost into like, you know how some people and they have Thanksgiving, they open their doors to everyone who might be lonely. I kind of do that with Easter. I love the colours. I love springs, my favorite time of year. And I also love the colouring eggs every year so I'm able to feed people and play games and just have a good time and that's what Easter is for me. That's cool. Yeah. That is awesome.

Yeah. So, yeah, here, at least here in the US, we do what's called friends giving instead of Thanksgiving, Yes, which is what you described. And it sounds like you just do it at Easter time. That's it is awesome. Yeah, And you know, I have always just kind of loved toys and games and play and all of these things. And Easter is a really great time for that because of the colours. Because in Montreal it's finally starting to to usually the snow

is starting to melt. So people are very excited. And a lot of people, especially if they don't have kids, they haven't coloured eggs in years or done something like that. So they just kind of put it in front of them and you just see their minds kind of like expand back to childhood and let loose and have a good time. So I really love witnessing other people participate in that, yeah. That's awesome. That is awesome. So how do you so I guess three days, right, three days.

Do you do like a Friday, Saturday? Do you Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday? I like what is that? So the holiday here, you get to choose between the Monday and the Friday if your company doesn't mandate it. So typically, I think my brother often gets the Monday. So for us, it'll be Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Cool. Yeah, and usually the by the, the, the mutton day we're kind of a bit more low key, a little bit more chill.

But the the Saturday and Sunday can be pretty rambunctious. Wow, That's cool. So did you know, did you know that Easter actually is a season and not just a single. Yeah. So in the liturgical calendar. OK, here we get. Yeah. So. So technically Easter starts in the Catholic Church. The Easter starts on Saturday night, right? There's like an Easter vigil mass. It's, it's, it's long.

It's usually in the evening because like all the lights are off in the church because all that, you know, Christ is dead, right? And then the lights come on, the candles are lit because he's, you know, the resurrection. But that starts the Easter season. So it goes until Pentecost, which is depending upon the calendar is usually the end of May.

So like you can celebrate Easter, Easter tide all throughout April and all of May, which is great because for the two of us, the Tori right, birthdays in May are during the Easter tide. So, so yeah, you theoretically could play, you could, you could extend your Easter celebration with your friends. If there's Easter themed games you want to play, you could play it. I mean, obviously you could play board games whenever you want,

right? But if you want to focus on Easter, you could go all the way to May and do that. And I don't, I think that gets lost sometimes. I think we think of it as just the day or the weekend, right? Is it near Easter where we give up something for a week? OK, so yes, I love I used. To do that I I. Yeah. So. Yeah, the season we're currently in right now is called Lent It.

So it starts on Ash Wednesday, which is the day immediately following Fat Tuesday, my favorite day of the year, and it ends on Easter Sunday. So typically broad strokes right within the Catholic Church, there's two types of fasting. There's a public fast where you don't eat meat on Fridays. Stop. That's it. You're just not allowed to eat meat on Fridays. And then you're supposed to do some sort of a personal devotional fast, one that you don't share with people.

It's just a thing between you and the Lord kind of a deal. And that's up to you. So the individual can can celebrate that in any way they're comfortable with and. It did not give up board games. I apologize. Good for you. Good for you. So I think the point of giving up something during Lent is that it's supposed to be some sort of a vice, right? And I don't know that board games are a vice. So I don't blame you for I don't know. I had to be a vice. I thought.

I had to just be like. I thought it was more symbolic. I gave up chewing gum when I was in elementary school. That's how I remember it. A lot of a lot of people like give up chocolate like, because it's bad for you. And the whole point is you're giving up something that's bad for you to draw you closer to the Lord. That's the that's like real bare bones. Strip away at all. That's why we do it. And yeah, so there you go. There you go.

Don't give up board games for Lent and play more board games in Easter tide, which is what we're going, which is what we're about to celebrate. So, so that's pretty exciting and it's kind of the highlight of the liturgical season, you know, so and I imagine Montreal being heavily French influenced, there's a large Catholic population in Montreal. There is, and there's a lot of end.

So do you have, do you have like a favorite game like when you get together at Easter with your brother and any friends that is it kind of a hold on, Let me ask this first. Is it an open door? But so you and your brother for the weekend isn't an open door. People rotating in and out, friends know you're going to have folks over. Or is it like the same 5-6 people or what is that? Changes every year. It's a little bit different.

Sometimes it's a revolving door. You know, I've had a lot of friends who work in like the restaurant industry and stuff like that. So they actually work on the weekends, but the day that they have off, they'll come in and be able to at least celebrate Easter for the portion that they're available 'cause they know we'll be up and doing something. Sometimes it's just me and my brother, depending on, you know, how often I've seen if we just

wanna have some time together. So yeah, it really depends on the year. This year, I think it's gonna be primarily me and my brother. We might invite one or two other people who are close to, but it'll be less of a revolving door. It's been a, it's been a long winter and an interesting, I don't know, it's been an interesting year. So I just it has just a bit closer to home this time. So don't show up on your doorstep. I mean, if you show up, I'm not

gonna turn you away. Like how could I do such a thing? I love it. So do you and your brother have a favorite game that y'all like to play when y'all get together for the weekend? Easter weekend. I started this tradition, I'm gonna call it prior to my like a year that my brother didn't attend and there was a game that became kind of like the game

that we play. OK, For some reason he has just rebelled against it and he does not want to play it, but I might ask him to because it's important to me. I have that here. I realize I put everything on the floor, so it's a bit awkward, but I will grab that. Very thematic. OK. That's why I chose it and it is Bunny Kingdom. OK. And it was the first real like, thematic the year I started my Instagram, I believe. Like I started at around Valentine's Day.

Yeah, it was like the first holiday, actually, No, I guess there was some Saint Patrick's Day stuff too. But this was the first like, thematic. Like I'm doing a holiday. Bunny Kingdom did my. I think my first reel might even be like me unboxing this game. I'm not sure. But it has a place in my heart. And have you played this one before? No, actually I'm very aware of it. It's just having, you probably know this, there's so many board games, right? So many board games.

So many board games. So many board games. So she's holding up Bunny Kingdom, guys. So I encourage you to watch the YouTube channel and you can see by Richard Garfield. Yeah. No, it's OK because I have a lot of listeners who like, yeah, we just listened to you in the car and we can't ever see you. That's amazing. I get it. I get it. I was like, what? Yeah. So Richard Garfield, very classic, classic person there. And it's a a drafting game.

OK, So you draft cards and basically you're trying to make thiefs and they score every round and it's like multiplied by the size of your thief, not your size. Excuse me, the amount of castles you've been able to build in your thief multiplied by the different types of resources. So there's like different terrains that are resources, but also cards that you can draft that can add resources. So it can multiply quite heavily depending on what you're doing.

There's also some of the cards you can draft are like hidden scoring objectives for end of game. And a lot of what you're drafting, sorry, I used to say a lot of what you're drafting are the tiles on the board. So or the squares are not actually tiles, but it's like a grid of terrain and you take the spaces that you're trying to make them touch, but also get the ones that have the resources that you need to actually make them worth anything or to be able to place a castle or whatnot.

So you're drafting like a Nine and B7 and like C2 and trying to put your resources into them at the same time. Cool. Yeah, and like, I love the bunnies. I'm going to show you the bunnies, OK? Show me, Show me the bunnies. I'm all about the colors and the pieces and the stuff like that, so. So y'all are just gonna for those of you in your car, you're just gonna miss out. You're not going to get to see the cute bunnies. Oh my God, look at that. They're. So good. They're banking for Yeah.

So we have them all on the board. They really pop out and I have, which I haven't played, but they have like a nice blue and they're just super fun. And then you have all the castles that you can place on the board too. So it looks like you could play 5 or 6 players. Is that 5 or? Six. It is 2 to 4. One of these fours must actually be from the expansion. I must have put it in the wrong, Hawk. You know, when you're filming content, everything ends up

everywhere. It's every bit of a disaster. And yeah, you have this cute board. I know the people in the car can't see it, but I'm gonna show it anyway for those of you watching. So you're just like drafting where you're gonna put your bunnies on this board and then. The OK. Scoring goals and additional resources and stuff like that. And they're not tiles, they're cards. So you're drafting the cards that represent which tile you get to put your Bunny on. OK, so like, if I have a four, I

get to put a Bunny on a four. OK Yeah, But some of them have, like, the resources on them. So it's like you get Carrot and you want carrot He. Doesn't. Like carrots, that's a multiplier. So important. Yeah. So it's super quick and easy, but it does get a bit puzzly because of the drafting element and trying to make everything connected. I love a little little puzzly. And, you know, I like interactions.

So as much as you're doing things on your own, you're also trying to make sure, like, there could be a really good spot for someone else. And you're just like, I cannot let them have that. And that's important to me in a game. Absolutely. Yeah, That's, that's great. So I was just, so I'm thinking about Bunny Kingdom and I was thinking about the Bunny bunnies and eggs and Easter, right? That is a really weird combination, right? Because bunnies don't lay eggs.

They don't. And then, and then if the whole point of celebrating Easter is the resurrection of Christ, what's it got to do with a Bunny? So fascinating story. Really quickly. I told you I had lots of facts about Easter. So ancient Pagan times, long before Christianity came on to the Mediterranean world, Easter was a celebration of fertility, Right. And rebirth, obviously springtime. And then we get the word Easter from the German word. I'm going to. Yeah. I didn't take German.

Well, that's not true. I took a semester of German, but I can't speak German to save my life. But that's where the word Easter comes from. Is the springtime, the word for springtime. And there's like, a goddess, which is pretty cool. So that's how we get the Easter Bunny. Well, you get these German immigrants who come to the United States, particularly in the Midwest where I'm from. And so the Easter Bunny reign supreme. OK, why do we tell you this story?

Because now we have a game that you just showed us about Bunny Kingdom, right? Like maybe if we didn't, if that if that concept did not made its way to America, maybe there would not have been a Bunny Kingdom. It would have been AI don't know Raccoon Kingdom or something. I don't. Know yeah, it's true. Yeah, so there it is. I thought it might have to do with another aspect of bunnies, but well, he said fertility and bunnies and I was like oh Nope. There's definitely that

springtime. Springtime's all about rebirth and reproduction and renewal, liberty, all that. So yes, it's definitely there because it's all fertility, right? So yeah. Yes. So that's interesting though Bunny Kingdom became a tradition between you and your brother and your brother refuses. He rebels and the but. He wasn't there the first year to that.

I didn't, so it was with other friends and then it became so important and I don't know if he was just hungover or tired or just didn't like it, but we started playing. He was just like, no, he just totally mixed it and never played again. So I don't know what happened. Who knows? You're gonna have to ask him when you see him for Easter and record his. In the video. Record his, record his response, drop the comments. Yeah, because I want to know.

I I think that's really interesting because I've never played it and it looks cool and cute and you can play purple it looks like. Yes you can. I love purple. Me too. Love playing purple. Oh my goodness, purple and gold. Oh yeah, the yellow. And there's really bright and luscious, too. So I noticed that as you were holding the pieces up. Yeah. So what about Does your brother have a favorite game? Like he's like Michelle, we're going to play.

So for Easter, not particularly outside of Easter, my brother and I have been running through all of the Villainous games. We've been doing that for some time now. That's has nothing to do with Easter. We just like the two player asymmetrical vibes. But I did introduce him to a game a couple of years ago, I think it was a couple of years ago now for Easter that he really enjoyed and we brought it to a family gathering recently and it's just something that was a big hit.

We laughed a lot but bend over weirdly again here to pick it up off the floor. And that's actually hues and cues. Yeah. So this is a great game and one of the reasons it reminds me of Easter is because when I do the Easter egg coloring, you know, I color them all the different colors. So it's like painting. So it fits into my experience of Easter with this cover and. So cool. Yeah, I love that. You know, You know, I've never

played hues and Q's. It's like it's such a good game, and especially one of those games, if you play with the right people, you know they have to be into it and then you give the clues and like, it just makes for a lot of laughs. Do you know the concept of it? Do you know how it so? Sort of walk me through it because it's like my understanding is like you have someone who what they, they say a word clue, single word clue. And that's just to draw the rest

of us to a specific color. Exactly so you have this big board with all these colours and when you have like all these colours that are similar close together, they start to like the human brain doesn't process the same than the same. Exactly. So someone could give a clue like sunset and you know, you'd be like, oh gosh, is the sunset yellow? Is it orange? Is it, is it Oh my gosh. So you're trying to narrow down with your first clue to give each person a turn to place a

token in that square. It's square can only be taken once and then then you get to give a two word clue and it goes the other way around and everyone gets to put a token down and the the two word clue kind of helps hone in on what you are really trying to to trying to say. My favorite clue ever. Is there some lighter pinks on the bigger board? Was anemic salmon my favorite favorite clue? Anemic salmon, yeah. So good. It was like. Oh, gotcha. OK.

Yeah, and the the way it scores is that there's a 9 by 9 little grid that you place. So if your clue, so the clues, I should have said there's a clue giver. Hopefully that was kind of evidence someone has a colour that they're giving these clues about. And let's say it was like a nine and that was a nine. You would put your little square of 9 by 9 around it. And if someone was right in the middle, they get, I believe it's three points. If they're anywhere else in the

square, they get 2 points. And if they're on the outside of the square, they also get one point. And the clue giver gets a point for everyone in the square, so you can also get quite a few points for giving good clues. So it incentivizes you to really do give those good clues. So the scoring's kind of like it's a little, the scoring is kind of like Dixit. Yeah, a little bit like that. You're right to make sure that you're actually trying to help

people get it right. You don't want to just to give bad clues. So right helps is for that. So like in Dixit, if everyone guesses your clue correctly, you don't get any points. Is there some sort of penalty in hues and Q's if everyone gets it right? Because I believe it too easy a clue. No. OK. No, there's some restrictions and it's it really depends on the group of people you're playing. But you can't say colors and you know, the names of colors can

expand. Like is eggplant a color name or is it a vegetable? Like it really depends how fussy you are about those types of clues. And so you have to kind of set some ground rules if you have fussy, fussy fussy's not the right word because I can be pretty, pretty compliant. So shout out to all of you people who are a little bit strict A. Little bit strict A. Little bit strict. I'm thinking about, Oh my God, I'm thinking about that movie

from the 80s. Sorry guys if I'm too old but it's like fly to the navigator and the computer would be like compliance and that. That's amazing. Yeah, you would say do that. You know, he would. He would issue a command and he'd be like compliance and you're like. Here we go. Oh my God, people. Can. Be like, what is what is with y'all tonight? I don't know. This is great.

No, that's that's cool, though. So I understand now why Hughes and Q's is so accessible to such a huge audience and bring that to your family. Yeah. Yeah. So I've. I knew it was, but I had no idea. That's cool. Yeah, like I've played with my family. You know who are 6070 years old and they can play and they can have a good time and laugh and you can play. If you're the type who like to have a few beers, you can get real wild with it.

It gets kind of funny. So I haven't done that in a long time, but there was 1 Easter, the year of the anemic salmon there was. You have a few beers at the table. So when you drink a few beers and anemic salmon makes its way to your table and there you go, that's just what are. You gonna do? Yes, yeah, yes. So that's awesome. So keeping keeping with the theme of eggs, I think a game that that comes to my mind for Easter is really obvious, yet

accessible to family. And that's Wingspan, right? Yes, I haven't played. I'm gonna disclaim that I haven't played it. See, there you go. Yes. So what I like about Wingspan is if I were to get together with my family, how about would you like to hear my family tradition for Easter? Absolutely. I'm sorry I didn't ask. I was like I was just commanding the but I should have asked. You're doing great. No, this is fine. I'm just thinking about it, so keep this in mind.

I'm going to tell you this story, and if I were still in Louisiana, I would bring Wingspan to this event. So on the Friday before Easter, which is known as Good Friday, the requirement in the Catholic Church is that you're only allowed one meal for the entire day, and it has to be meatless. Well, I can tell you in Louisiana, that's so easy. So easy because there's so much seafood, so we can get away with it. It's great. But you're only allowed one meal.

So typically what happened is the family would get together not on Easter Sunday, but on Good Friday, and there would be a massive crawfish boil. OK, amazing. For those of you who've never been to a crawfish boil, you buy them by the sack and they're usually 10 LB sacks and they're live crawfish. And then you boil them with artichoke hearts and lemons and corn and sausage and potatoes and turnips just in this big huge pot over a propane tank.

While you're outside. You use your wooden paddle to stir the pot. And then you dump the you dump the pot over like a picnic table that is covered in newspaper because that's how we do it. And then you just eat. You just, you know, you peel the crabish tails and suck the heads and so you can snack all day and it's one meal. Yeah. Leave it to leave it to the Cajuns to find loopholes in liturgical requirements. Right. It's like, what? It's only one meal. I've only had five crawfish

tails. I've got to eat more. Right. And so usually you're doing them in batches of 10 or 20 lbs, depending on the size of your pot. So while you're doing that in Louisiana and it's hot and it's sweaty, but that's fine. You've got, you know, you go inside with the kids and the the wives or whatever to be in the air conditioning and you play Wingspan. So why?

Like Wingspan is first of all, it's probably the most accessible board game because there's like a tutorial that tells you what your first five turns are going to be. You pull out specific cards and hand them to each player that each have like a not a player map like this. It's like a player aid, but it tells you specifically discard these food resources, keep these specific bird cards in your hand. Player one, turn one, play this

bird. Spend this resource Berry worm, whatever it costs, and play it into your habitat in front of you. So it does that for your first five turns, at which point you've seen all the different actions you can take, and then you're on your own after that and you just play the game right according to the goals, birds facing to the left physically on the card or the size of the birds or whatever. But I the thing that makes this game so I think relevant to Easter are the eggs.

Eggs. Those are cool and you can't. You could accidentally eat one thinking they're a mini egg. So you could, because they do look like Cadbury mini eggs. And I think that there's some gamers who do that, right? They play Wingspan at Easter and instead of using the eggs, they use the Cadbury mini eggs that have that hard candy shell. Afterwards. You then eat all the eggs that you laid on front in your board or something like that.

But that's what I think about when I think about Wingspan is you're playing the cards, you're playing the eggs. The eggs are just cute and adorable. I mean, I know Worm Span also has eggs as well. They're less cute for Easter. But but yeah, but I think Wingspan, I think Wingspan is it's accessible to family and it's so colorful and vibrant even without upgrades. I of course have everything, the nesting box and whatnot. I even have drum roll. Please. I have. I love that you took me

literally. I hope y'all heard that. I have special cards that were hand drawn by our dear friend Goja wingspan girl on Instagram. Her son Anthony drew them from Poland and he shipped them over and he drew some birds and sent them to me. And he included a card with our now deceased cat, Shrimp. So Shrimp has a card in the game because, you know, birds like to chase. Cats like to chase birds. Yeah. So I'm like I'm all set so. Kind. Yeah, right. Yeah, I love that.

And one of the birds is the Pelican, because the state bird of Louisiana is the brown Pelican. He knew that. He knew I was from Louisiana, so he made sure to include a Pelican. And I'm like, yeah, that's just, you know, lovely. I'm going to try not to tear up there. Aw, the board game community is so wonderful. I've been given some things. They're just like, you're just going to give that to me. And it's like, boy, and they're just so happy to. And you're like, this is

incredible. Yes, yeah, that's wonderful. Absolutely no. Yeah, our community is is just so giving. We really are. And to people that you've never, in some cases you've never met, you know, it's like I don't and and just so wonderful. I wouldn't absolutely. I wouldn't trade them for anything in the world. You know, they make they make the day brighter. It's why I do this, so I can reach out to all of you like I haven't seen you since Gen. Con last year, so I get to see you right now.

This is great. I'm so happy we're doing this. We put off chatting for way too long and that's my fault. I've been so you're busy. You're so you're busy being famous and taking over the world. Taking over the world. You are? Yeah, 1 Lorcana card at a time. You know, I have so many comments on what you just said. My brain went into so many

different places. OK, the with the wingspan first being that I have started baking cheesecakes with those mini eggs in them for Easter. So like mini ones with them. So those are delicious. OK, I do brownies or anything like that. It's a super fun touch to Easter. I highly recommend baking with the mini eggs. Whoops, but also one of the games they had in front of me on the floor here.

The same reason I haven't played Wingspan is the reason I don't like the real version of this game as as a real, I don't think there's enough player interaction for me. Not to say I wouldn't enjoy Wingspan, but it doesn't scratch that itch for me. It's a fairpoint. Yeah, so I did try Everdell, which had the same problem, and then I tried my little Everdell, which I think is a cute kind of spring. Bring one here. I don't, I haven't played it much, but I have played it and I

think it's cute. I think I prefer it to Everdel because it's quicker. I can survive the fact that I'm not interacting with you too much and that it still has those beautiful tokens in it. Are you an Everdel fan? I know that Everdel would be such a good Easter. Like it would. Table present. Situation, yeah. It it definitely would. I would have to say in our household, Everdel was just underwhelming, right? Not a bad game and I know everyone loves it. I'm like the king of unpopular

opinions sometimes. But we saw a demo of Everdel Duo at Gen. Con last year. And because I'm lucky enough to have a spouse who's in the hobby with me, we play a lot of two player games. We think Duo is probably better for our gaming style. But you're right, Everdel, Everdel has the same, it presents the same scenario as Wingspan where there's very little interaction. And I agree that is a that is a flaw. I don't know if it's a flaw, you know, it's AI don't know. Yeah, it's.

I, I wouldn't call it a flaw, something I learned that I had no idea. Like this is something that I did not know until I started my Instagram and became friends with different people in the community in different parts of the world. There are some people who find any kind of confrontation or conflict very unenjoyable or uncomfortable or something. They just don't want to do it all. And they actually only really play games that have very limited interaction, and that's

how they like to game. So I think those games are really great and satisfying, that kind of gamer style. I am from a family with two older brothers. And you were trying to take each other down. Like, that's why you played the game. So I didn't. Yeah, I didn't know. I didn't know that you could play a game and just have a good time in this kind of solitaire shared experience. So it was interesting. Apparently you can. Apparently you can, I'm working on it.

I think I think that that accessibility to our non gaming family and friends is what makes those games strong. I'm and why I I embrace wingspan. It's just so that I can introduce it to people who are non gamers and maybe they'll get into more advanced heavy euro games. That's kind of our that's our favorite. I want to think I want to be put to the test mentally, sometimes emotionally as well.

So I really enjoy that type of game and but I'm, I'm OK playing a more gateway entry level, easily accessible game. I think you know, and it really does though, and it's perfect for Easter. It is after. Absolutely eating 10's and 10's and 20 lbs of boiled crawfish. I love it. I love it. So that is part of your tradition, you're. Sitting at home, Yes, the. Crawfish and the wingspan combined. I have not. I have not had boiled crawfish. Wow. I haven't had boiled crawfish in five years.

Yeah. Sounds like you're going to need to to go have some crawfish for Easter soon. Yep. Well, unfortunately it won't be for Easter, but I will. I will during Easter time because I'm going home in May from my niece's graduation. So I was like my sister said, what do you want to eat? I said boiled crawfish. I don't care what where we go. That's what I want. That's awesome. Yep. Yeah. So what is next? Cuz you what is next?

Well, other games, yeah. This is one that I'm actually excited because I forgot about your historical stuff and I'm not sure I remember the story entirely. Maybe you do. I should because I'm the Canadian here, but I have gift of tulips in front of me. And are you aware of the gift of tulips that we are sent in Canada every year from the Netherlands?

I believe it is no. So all those tulips are in Parliament, if I'm not mistaken, are a gift from, I believe, from the war, one of the World War 2 perhaps. Oh, gosh, I feel like I need to look it up now. I don't remember the juicy tidbits to the story, but it is a gift from them. I believe it's the tulips come from another ones, Right? That's what I mean. Yeah. And they send us this gift of

tulips every year. So when I saw this, I thought that was just so fitting for my little Canadian heart. And it's beautiful. So I should hold? It up better. It's such a beautiful, beautiful game. This one's my weird giraffe. Have you played it? You have it. It is excellent. It is a it is definitely a favorite in our local game group. I it was, I found it. So we're really big fans of weird giraffe games. I've had Carla Copp on the show.

Amazing. Talking about Reef and Ruins, which fulfilled on Kickstarter some time ago, is. It because they make gig easy busking, is that why? Yeah. Yes, it is. It is in fact why they. Yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm not ashamed to say it. Yes, That is why, although that's not an Easter game, but that is why I love Weird Drab. So we found Gift of Tulips and I was like, it was like, is this

cool? Like you could get points for gifting tulips to your opponents, which could help them score points at the end of the game, but you score immediate points. So you're constantly weighing the balance of points now or points later. It's yeah, yeah. Tell me, besides the national historical symbolism, which I think is amazing, right, what else? What is it about that game? What is your favorite thing element of the game?

OK, so I did have to do a quick Google, so I'm going to go back to the historical element very quickly. But apparently we housed the royal family during World War 2 and that helped liberate the Netherlands. So it's been an ongoing gift the Dutch royal family sends them. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah, so that's pretty cool. What I love about this game, like you were saying, I'd love that you can gift the tulips.

And for those of you who've never played, there's kind of it's like an economy kind of game. So there's that open market in front of you and the tulips are worth different amounts depending on what's happening in the market. So if you gift something that's worth more or less, you get more or less points kind of situation. And I think that's really cool. I love that you can get points for giving somebody something else because it's like, I'm being so sweet.

Look at me, but you're like, hey, I'm getting points. I also love. So part of that market element is that the end game scoring, depending on what the market is doing, that's how they will score the most. But there's a hidden part of the market that you can feed into.

So depending what comes out of there and you don't take all of those cards to determine what will affect the end game scoring, but you might be trying to like funnel in all of one caller to sway the market by the end of the game. I love that aspect of the game because you don't know what's going to happen and you have to hope that your influence was strong enough if you're playing that strategy to actually get the outcome you want. So it's tricky the balance. Of. What to do?

You would get along really well with our local game group when we play Gift of Tulips. However, you would probably make my wife angry. So. She not want my gift of tulips. No gift she likes to give the Tulip or keep the two look. But our friends are like, put it at the secret festival or you know, it's like he's always encouraging us to put it in that secret festival like you're talking about. And she just gets frustrated because our friend Eric love Eric to death.

He loves to, he loves to suggest in whispering tones what you should do. But it's always put it in the secret festival. It's never give it to me. I'll take it, you know, like we do in a game. I know it sounds ridiculous. Is this friend a friend who might be described as an agent of chaos? Yeah, yeah. Can I tell? Yeah. Oh, yeah, Eric loves chaos. And this game just really feeds that, right?

It's supposed to be cozy. And, you know, you're gifting tulips, and it's commemorating, you know, the Dutch royal family and their gift of tulips to Canada. And he's like, chaos. Like, OK yeah. Love. That. No, it's great. I think that's the strength of that simple card game is that it can scratch the itch of if you want a cozy pretty game, you can. You can get that out of it. And if you want a chaotic manipulation game, you can get that, yes.

And like, and it's not like if you play nice, you're necessarily going to lose. You really could win with that strategy. So it's it's interesting that it scratches the itch, but you're also being competitive while doing that. You're being competitively, competitively friendly. Yes, like I said. Here, have this Tulip. Isn't it so nice of me? It is so nice of you. Yeah, absolutely.

And and the market shifts because you can put it in the open market instead of gifting or keeping, you can put it in the open market. And depending upon the ranking, they shift in their value exactly at the end of the game. So yeah, you got to balance it. You got to balance all about the balance. It's all about the balance and it's so pretty. I yeah, it didn't show a card back, but I loved their choice of like the almost like like the porcelain style like. Yes, yes, old.

Kind of silverware. Not silverware, but like. It's a it's that blue and white porcelain. I can't remember what you call that. It's. Called either. That art style, but yes, yeah. I love it. It's great. No, it's awesome. That is fantastic. So let's talk about I've got one more, OK? It's not going to, it's not going to come as any surprise at all. And that is Jerusalem on Odomini by Devere Games, right? So for those of you who don't know, have you played Jerusalem?

Have you had a chance to? I have not, but when you get hype about a game, I want to play it so. It is. It is. So it's really good. OK, so basically it's two to four players and you're playing kind of like the leader of a small group of Jews in Jerusalem at the time of Jesus and it. We are closing in on Monday, Thursday in during Holy Week. It's called Monday, Thursday. That's the night of the Lord's Supper, the Last Supper made famous by the painting.

So the whole thing is you're trying to get you have it's a worker placement game. It is a straight, beautiful, seamless worker placement resource management game. So if you'd like that, you will enjoy this. But the theme is so well informed as well. You're sending your people from your camp out into the wilderness to gather stone, bread and fish.

If you're trying to manage that because you're trying to get your group into the upper room where the Lords supper takes place and get them seated as close to Jesus and the table and the 12 apostles as you possibly can. The closer your people are to the table, the more points they get at the end of the game. But you can manipulate like even though I put a guy out in the room, you can take an action that could potentially move them later and you have to be

invited. So in order to do that, you got to take actions that where you go and visit the 12 apostles because they don't start at the table and then actually puts them out and they are they're the the apostles act as point multipliers at the end of the game. It's, it's, it is crazy. Yeah, it's, it's, it's a cool moment, right? It's just have them over, come

down. And we're going to, we're going to, we're going to try to get as close to Jesus as possible, but we're going to get our wooden pieces close. That's so interesting. You know, it's cool, but it's very approachable. The game, like I said, even if you, even if the theme doesn't sing to you, I understand. It's not like it's not preachy, but the parables are represented. The components are beautiful if you like. If the theme offends, you can still play it. It's a solid worker placement.

You're just trying to get your guys closest to the table to score points. At the end of the day, that's all it really is. But the the theme really informs the play in an interesting way. Yeah, it's it's very cool. I didn't know what to think. I was like, OK, and then we played it and we're like, what this is, this is seriously, it's a it's a good game. And yeah, so we try to we keep it. That's an Easter game,

obviously, right? Yeah. I don't think I would play that in like the middle of the summertime. I don't, I don't feel like it. But, you know, it's devere. So, you know, it's a quality game. I think. Devere. Devere and CGE. Have really been knocking out of the park with their quality games, quality themes, quality production value and and Deavere just did such a great job with this one.

It's just, it's amazing. So you'll just have to come over for the weekend and play it. You'll have to spend Easter with us one year. I mean, I'm tempted, but this year I have plans with my brother, but I'm kind of maybe. Oh my gosh. So I have an idea. My brother is not one who travels like he's this comedy does. He's very homebody, but he wants to go to Louisiana. He wants to try out.

The only thing we've ever really, we just started cooking together recently and we made was that we made gumbo. I always get gumbo and jambalaya mixed up and I can't remember which one it was. OK, is it, is it mostly like a soup or is it a rice dish? Because you serve gumbo over rice, but a gumbo is a soup. Yes, it was, I think it was gumbo then. Yeah, the one that supposed to have the ND we in the okra. That would be gumbo. Yes, it was definitely gumbo. So I had it right the first

time. OK, we didn't put in the okra because we were both afraid of the slimy factor and it was our first time. So we didn't we didn't go that route. But he he would have a great time going to play board games, any crawfish because he's never done that and I think that he would do that. So why don't we meet you down in Louisiana for Easter? We. Could do that. We could do that. We'll go to Easter and we'll we could do that. Definitely. That's something we can make happen, absolutely.

I would love that. That would be I. Love it. Fantastic. Yes. Do you have any other Easter traditions? Easter board game traditions. Not particularly. The painting of the eggs is actually quite important to me because I do it with my father or I used to do it. I still do sometimes. But it's just one of those those things that stuck with me. But we were talking about community and how nice people are and getting wonderful presents.

And I have a shameless promotion of something somebody sent me that I just love so much and just wanna show it. And it is the gamey Susan with all the colors and. From modern people. Yes, because for me, Easter is very colorful and this is just something that I love and I'm definitely gonna use this Easter and fill it up with all the tokens that I can while I paint my eggs and play board games. So try. To make a spin, but I can't hold it and spin it. Yeah, yeah.

This is really cool because Josh was just on the show a few weeks ago. Amazing. Yeah, and he was talking about his product and I'm like, this is what I was impressed by. You probably know it because you're holding his product right now, but it's not, it's not that re wood. It's like this compressed wood. It's not 3D printed. He's. Not. No. Alfibery yeah, in a good way. Yes, it's all machine. He he machine. It works.

Josh, if you're watching this, I apologize for getting all the terminology wrong, but there thanks for holding the purple one too. I appreciate that. Yeah, I, I want to comment on, I think one of the things that you're known for is your bright yellow calyx shelves, which are out of production. You you can't get them anywhere. Is it IKEA anymore? You cannot. You have to hunt for those. Yeah. And I did one year. I remember that.

So guys, if you know where you can find yellow Cadillacs shelves, you've got to contact Michelle because she's going to need them. It's her game, Collection continues. To grow as it continues to grow, yes. Yeah. I had two, there's a third one on top now.

It was a whole thing. But the community, you know, another community that's interesting are those they're called like buns or like it's, it's basically a group where you can trade things on the Internet and they make Facebook, there's an app for it, but they also make Facebook groups called

that. And man, if you're looking for something specific, like leave it to the sleuths of the Internet to come together and be like, here, I have this and Oh my gosh, people are like, we're gonna get you your yellow Cadillacs. People will start to comment just to be able to follow the thread. Like it's incredible. When you need something niche it's like super fun. I definitely, I remember you hunting for that and I remember following along. It's like she does have yellow shelves.

Yeah, yes, yeah. It's usually the dark black or like the wood grain that you can find nowadays. I have to admit I have very few Cal axes I use off brand from Menards or wherever we can find it because. But we could drive down to Saint Louis and go to IKEA. But it's just, you know, it's just easier to go down the corner and they're almost the same. They're a little different. Honestly, maybe this is an unpopular opinion, but I think it's actually starting to grow.

The Calyx have been the shelf of gamers for a long time, but they're not actually that efficient in terms of like the space used with all the different shapes stuff now they fit the square ones the best of any shelf I think. But you know, as I expand and grow, it would be wonderful to get those kind of customizable shelves one day. That's the dream I think. Like All Play and other companies like that are starting to make some pretty cool selections of shelves that you can get.

So it's definitely board game table first, that's on, that's the one day on the agenda and then maybe some custom yellow shelves one day. I think so. You know, Katie and I were pricing game tables. We were thinking about maybe just getting a game table for Christmas or something. The tables themselves are relatively inexpensive. It's when you add the chairs.

Is it the chair? Yeah, because you have to have six of them and then the cup holders and it's when you Add all the things it's like yeah, yeah, but you're definitely right. The all play shelving are amazing right? Yeah. Because they're designed by a board game company for board gamers. So there's a there's a cube specifically for Frost Haven. Wow. Yeah, and that's a big box, but I agree with you. So Bandzinator, she posted like maybe a year ago, she redid all

of her shelves. She did the bus size so she could fit them all in. And so you you take your widest or your deepest boxes to the left of several cubes and then you build out from there. Doing this vertically, of course. I think she ended up opening up like 2 cubes so she had two empty cubes when she was all said and done. Because it's just being efficient with the space. To your point, they are not the most efficient shelving system as the standardization of board

game size has evolved. Right, so. I am grateful for the yellow though, I feel like it has really helped with the pop of some of the photos I take and stuff so I do love them. So all play needs to come out with yellow shelving and they'll be. The Treasure Bell shelves. See, you've already got your that's your brand right there. It's Treasure Bell shelving. I love it. That's great. That is awesome. That is so cool. Oh, that's great. I love that.

I love that. So I have one last question for you. You were trying that. You were trying to fit into the conversation today the game Root. Yes, it's right here. But I want to ask about it. Absolutely. And I told you before we recorded is that I've only ever played it once. It's not. So I don't. I don't know a whole lot. I don't really remember the experience that well. It's not something I own. What is it about Root by Leader Games that attracts you or connects to Easter Tide?

So there are woodland creatures that also have rabbits and the expansions have all sorts of different. There's raccoon, there's a a raccoon in this version, there's birds. And so I was just looking, I was looking for things with rabbits originally. That was kind of a theme I was going for. I have not shown Root to my brother. I've only played Root a handful of times.

And what I like about Root, it is one of those games that in your early teens, I feel, I mean, you can play it older as well, but it's asymmetric powers and you can always kind of keep scoring. So people need to just keep turning on the leader. If you don't turn on the leader, they're just going to keep going and you're never going to stop them entirely. But you can help swing with

what's happening. And it's just one of those games, you know, that makes me think when you were young and you had time, that you would just want to play over and over and over and like, learn the powers and destroy your friends and like, and it gave me that vibe of a game that you could just play for a very long time. A lot of people who are route enthusiasts do by all the expansions, and then they do get it to the table fairly regularly. So I do wanna try it with my brother.

I wanna see how he feels about it. It has all the elements that I like in a game. I feel like it's the type of game that could make my family yell at each other, but sometimes that's a good thing. I'll just hold it up really quickly here. But yeah, it was just the creatures that originally made me think of Easter vibes. I think it's I don't know how many play. I know you can play up to four. It says 2 to 4 but I. I think the expansions increase.

Imagine playing this game with two players. I don't know if there's a different rule set, but it's really, it's really like, you know, you want to go after the leader, you really want to have that. I like I said, I don't know, there's a different rule set, but with the rules I've played, I've always played four players and that's the way I want to play it.

I think. I think that's why we never made it to our collection, is that I don't know that it plays very well at 2:00 because now that you're saying it, it's conjuring memories. Yeah, because you're always attacking the leader. Well, in a two player game, one of us is going to be the leader. So how is it any different from any other two player game? So. Yeah, so that could be why. It's definitely when I want to

play more and more and more. And now that you made me think of it, maybe I'll see if I can find two players, two other players to play with me and my brother over Easter, Yes. You need to do that. You need to so your brother's not going to want to play Bunny Kingdom, so you introduce in the root. Speaking of another game that I do not have in front of me that I got rid of because it almost destroyed my family for real. With my brother specifically.

OK, it's killer Killer bunnies. Do you remember that game? I mean came out a long time ago and it is pure chaos. It's like it is pure. Anything where the rules can be left to kind of interpretation does not fly in my household because there's no referee. And like, it just causes drama. So we tried to play that one Easter. And like, I'm not joking when I said it almost ruined our relationship. Like, it turned into like a great experience where we learned from each other and it

made us closer. But for a hot minute, the chaos was out of control. That's incredible. It's like it's like like the anti monopoly or risk, right. So the problem of Monopoly and Risk is there's like the game drags right on and on and on and on and on, whereas this is like just exploding. Exploding. Explosive. Yeah, that's crazy. That was. Crazy. I even looked for it because for a long time I just kind of kept it around me, like maybe I'll play it again.

And it seems like I recently brought it to the thrift store and was just like, this cannot be in my house. There's no reason that I need that drum, but someone else will have a great time with it. Yeah, so, so do you. I don't want to say routinely, but you're obviously not afraid to cull from your collection as necessary. Or do you routinely call to kind of moderate the size of your collection usually or? It's a great question. I have not done a really big call.

I have a small stack of things that are just like obvious things I don't play and some prototypes that actually never really made it past Kickstarter and some stuff like that. I was in a very collector mode for a long time, but I've gotten to a point where I don't think it's reasonable to keep adding shelves and I, you know, wasn't able to get things to the table that I actually wanted to play because I was in a constant like rotation of new things. And I'm kind of over that.

I'm more of the type of person who wants to, you know, play like a root and learn the insurance and outs and tell you everything you can possibly do. See if you can break the game. I don't get time to do that as much as an like an adult and working. And not to say some adults don't have time, but like with my schedule, I don't always have time for that. But that's more what I like to do. So I do want to sit down and kind of get rid of things that aren't bringing me joy.

I learned this the hard way. So here's an unpopular opinion. I bought tickets to ride years ago to try and gateway friends into the game. And like in a, you know, it could make approachable games, something that they like. And it worked, but I hated playing it 'cause I don't like tickets to ride. I find it's more manual labour

than playing a game. You're constantly just flipping cards And like, and I, I don't mind playing on the app when it's streamlined and it only takes me a couple of minutes and it's still fun. Like there's a point square system, but I just, it feels like labour. I don't know, for the amount of like cerebral joy versus physical effort I have to put into play that game, This like doesn't match up for me. So I've just, you know, yeah.

So I've just kind of been like, you know, why would I want something in my collection that doesn't bring me full joy? If someone comes over and wants to play it, then I have to have this uncomfortable moment of being like, well, I don't really want to play that, which is why would I want to put myself in that position when I have enough, enough games that I would love to play so. It is absolutely true. Get that? Everything you say is right, however. You love Ticket to Ride.

So Ticket to Ride is there's a, there's a, an emotional nostalgia to Ticket to Ride. It is the game. It's the first modern game I ever played with my wife when we were dating. Oh OK, I get. It and so because I you know I had played Catan and Carcassonne, but she introduced me the Ticket to Ride and a few other games when we were still dating and so when we finally got married as more map. Collectors. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Was she the gamer first?

We were. You said that she introduced you to these. She introduced me the ticket to ride. I was. I was a gamer, but she was like a gamer longer, right? Yeah. So she was in the hobby when we met. I was. I don't, I don't know that I would say I was in the hobby,

right? I mean, I had a foot in the hobby, but I wasn't in it. I was, I mean, I was a gamer, but she had just, she had been gaming from high school and it just continued on. So yeah, she introduced me to Ticket to Ride. And it's like, OK, so now we got Catan Carcasson and Ticket to Ride in our collection. And then River Dragons and a couple other games come out. But we started collecting the maps and we kept playing them. And it got to a point where, you know, the boxes, they're this

tall. Her father out of wood built us this beautiful box with you remember. Do you remember the card catalog in libraries? Yes, yeah. OK, there are going to be some of you listening who don't know what I'm talking about. Yeah. So when you went to a library, you had to pull these wooden drawers with these little index cards that would tell you where the book was on the shelf. And so he made those so that we could sort all the pieces and all the cards and a spot for all the rule books.

And it had a big handle. Of course, it's made of wood, so it's heavy, but that was incredible. And and since he's made other things for us in our gaming hobby that he's made for us, including our game table Topper. He made a game table Topper for us. Amazing. But yeah, so it's like, you know, it's it's it's fawn collect anymore. The last map we got was Poland. I think we got Poland because of Goja. I just it helped connect me to friends in Poland by having the Polish map.

Like, I don't know. I love that. But everything you said about the game itself is 100% true. It is monotonous. It's just draw cards, draw cards, draw cards. I got my cards, play the trains. Yes, but there's some emotional connection as well. So yeah, I understand it here, but I love it here. You know, love that and some games are like that, like I'm still like A10 girly, like I'm never not going to be. I've been playing that game for like 20 years. Like it's not just going to go away.

Like there's other things that I probably want to play more now. But you have 40 minutes and you don't want to think or learn something new and you still want to get that kind of like, right, get the whole package in that game. Like, yeah, I know some people don't love it, but for me it's always going to have. It's going to scratch the itch if I just need one game. Quickly I get it I get it we used to keep Catan Catan was permanently set up when I was an

undergrad at LSU. My roommates, we had Catan set up on the dining room table all the time and she's. Basically I would. Get out of class, get off of a late night shift at the hotel, whatever. I would come home and either my roommates were already in the middle of a Catan game or they were waiting for me and we were gonna play. Yeah, I play with. I play with my roommates and when I had to work, I worked.

I went to school and I worked in a bar like every spare minute that I had time to. If I was working a slow day shift at the pub, they would bring Catan to the pub and play at the pub so that I would have some entertainment. I mean, you know, that's, that's what got us into the game. And so there's value, there's an intrinsic value to these games because they trigger a memory and you gotta respect that.

So yeah. You asked me if my brother had any other favorite games, but I was actually thinking of showing him some things he hasn't played before. They're not new, but one game that I thought was a bit on the right track was Battle Sheet, if you've played Battle Sheet before. I have not flocked to greener pastures. Yeah, so. This is a super simple game. I'll actually just show you really quickly because it's easier to explain. You just put these kind of together in any shapes you want

to make one, one big pasture. And then you each your color get like the stack. It's bigger than this, But like this is the white sheet. There's white, black, blue and red, I think. And you put it at the edge of the field and everyone puts their pile at the edge of the field. And on your turn, you have to move part of your stack entirely across the board in one of the like hexagon directions. But you can, you have to leave at least one behind and move at least one.

So you can take half your stack. You can do whatever you want, but you start, it starts blocking the board and the game ends when there's no moves left. And whoever has the most like spots where sheep are wins. So it's really simple and quick and it gets really messy and it feels really good. Things are like quite. Thick. I mean, yeah. Yeah, and they just kind of hop over. I think it's on BGA if ever you want to play a quick one and see how.

I didn't love it on BGA, though. It didn't have that tactile, quick experience. It kind of was a bit finicky for this game, but sheep are pretty Easter themed, right? Little Lambs. Absolutely. Yeah, super easy, super quick. There's not really a teach involved at all. That was the whole game. It's been right for quite a while now, like I want to say at least 10 years. Wow. Yeah. So that's. Cool and very appropriate. I like that.

Yeah. See. But you, you have another one you want to show him, right? There's. Yeah, there's another one. I don't know. This is more like if we have a few few people over and this is more for kids, but it's actually really fun to have like a chaotic moment. Do you know piles? Have you heard of? Piles. Piles. I've heard of piles but I'm not played it. I've not seen it in person, but. Yeah, so it's really interesting, the spot by Lost Boy Entertainment and they also

make plunder. I'm going to do another shameless shout out because they're the first company that ever let me do something with them on my Instagram. Very cool so. There's a spot in my heart there, but you just there's 4. I stopped being able to speak there for a second. There are 4 cards face up in the middle of the table and they're like different pieces of

clothing. This is matching because we probably just played, but they're different pieces of clothing and you have 6 piles in front of you. So you have 6 stacks of four cards in front of you, face down, and you can only look at one at a time. And you're trying to make piles that have four of the same piece of clothing in it. And you're all playing at the same time. So you're just kind of like, oh, there's a skirt on the table and I have two skirts.

I'm gonna Chuck out whatever card and take the skirt. But you're only grabbing and trying to fill your cards, but you can only look at one of your own. 6 stacks, one at a time. Oh, OK, so. You're like, Oh my gosh, which pile had the skirt? Someone just threw a skirt and you're just like, oh, this skirt? And you're just like throwing things back and forth and trying to be the first person. And once you finish a pile, you can flip it face up and you're just trying to finish all six

piles. So very fun for like younger family and yeah and just a little bit of a mess and and the reason I think this is kind of the. I got yes. I was like, so you're talking about the clothes and I'm thinking about. So this is what it was like before we started recording. I just picture you. You're like, I gotta give because OK, so for those of you who are watching, you're still with us at this point. We, we were like, we're gonna wear Easter colored outfits on the show, right?

So we got our pinks and Blues and whatnot, although I'm all washed out, but it's OK. And I just imagine you like going through the closet looking for that one shirt. Try to find it. It's like you watched me do it before because that's exactly what it is. And then like I make these doom piles of clothing that I thrust off the hangers that I don't feel like dealing with. And I'm like, no, but that's exactly, that's exactly what it

looks like. But we, we shouldn't give away all your secrets because you're put together so well, right? You've got the matching necklace and everything. Just you've got it's it's if you plan this. You know, like what? This whole thing. Exactly. No, I get it. I get it. Thank you so much for joining me to talk about Easter, your traditions, gaming. I really love the story of Gift of Tulips. That's incredible. Yes. Yeah. Where can people find you?

Social media, if they want to reach out to you, ask you more questions about some of the games you talked about. Yeah, so primarily on Instagram, which is the treasure bell, but there's some underscores in there screwing it all up for you. So it's the under score treasure, under score bell. That's bell with an E at the end. I do have a YouTube, but I need to a hot minute to do some new, new filming.

I've been really busy with work. I do work in the board game industry and things are a little but all over the place at the moment and everything's good and great and wonderful for the most part where I'm working. But you know, it's just there's a lot going on and there's a lot of conventions and all that stuff. So I'm very, very busy. I'm very, very grateful to be this busy. But primarily my Instagram. Sorry I digressed so much there but Instagram? What about what about upcoming

conventions? Are there any that you know you're going to be at where people could find you? So I am aiming and almost 100% chance, but it's never 100% chance, right? I haven't booked my ticket or anything yet, but I'm aiming to be at PAX East.

That's just for fun. So I have never done a con just for fun aside from like a very small one here in Montreal, but I have a lot of friends in the gaming industry down in Massachusetts. It's an easy drive for the most part and I just wanna go and hang out and see my friends and play some games and that's coming up in May. It's near my birthday too, so it's a good excuse to just get down there and hang out. That's awesome.

Do me a favor. So one of my guests just a week ago, Ahmad from Perth, Australia designed a game called Usoli and it is a card game So this strategic card game set around the Salah, the five, the five daily prayers of Islamic faith. He said that it's been picked up at PAX East, that there would be a, the games won't be for sale, but there's AI guess you could demo it. I'm trying to remember what he said. It's been, it's been a little

bit his own. Booth or is he like participating in like an unpub or something like that? It's not his booth. The game has been on Kickstarter, it's been fulfilled, it's been funded, everything. It's already been distributed, but it's going to be featured. So like AI think it will be available in a collection? If I would recommend you listen to episode 1 18 where he was my guest Co host and he talked about it and he talked about Paxies.

Check that one out before you go so you can at least go check out the game cuz it sounded really cool. That sounded cool. Will you be at Origins this year? I have no plans to go to Origins. OK. Origins. Origins has a deep, has a special place in my heart because it's where I first met you. I know, okay, all the whole time we've been on the on the phone, on the this call here, I have been thinking about how we ate Polish. Was it Polish food? Wasn't it the pierogies?

Yeah. Being pierogies. And we've been talking about food and we've been talking about I'm like, I don't want to just blurt out without context about how we ate the Polish food and got to finally meet in person and bond, but it's been on my mind this whole hour. Yeah, I was such a hog that day. It was so good. It was great. It was a great, it was a great time. I'm really glad I had that experience. Met some really good people. I finally got to meet Danielle Reynolds and.

I was nurture. Yeah, nurture of beginning friendship. I mean, we don't hang out or anything, but I feel like we can be friends and that's I can call her my friend. I think if she's listening to be like, no, you can't do that. I love Danielle. For those of you know me like I did, my code names live with Danielle both times. She's one of my friends in Massachusetts that I'm definitely gonna hang out with that taxi. She helped design this game right here. Her story, She's a lovely human

being. Beautiful. Woman definitely wonderful, wonderful personality, great. Absolutely. Great advocate for the community. I mean, when I think about community, I think about Danielle in so many ways, right? Absolutely. Yep, so. I owe a lot of my experience in the board game industry to her, if I'm being honest. She just, you know, yeah, put me under her wing and off I went. So. There you go. Thank you. Danielle. Thank you, Danielle.

So guys, thank you so much for listening and putting up with all the shenanigans towards the end here once again, please make sure to smash the subscribe button like it it's somewheres. It's probably down there like it subscribe comments. I need comments guys. I've been doing this, I've been on my own now for like 18 episodes and that's that's 18 weeks. I've been doing this on my own with generous community who's welcome to come on the show and guest Co host with me 18. Weeks already.

It was like it was yesterday where you were like, I need to do this alone. I know, I know, I know, I know. Yeah, there's a part of me that misses Gareth dearly. Just can't wait for him to come back eventually. The other part we don't talk about. Gareth, I love you Gareth. I can't wait for you to come back. But yeah, so it's just been a while and I'm ready to see what the next year holds. There's a lot going on, so make sure to like subscribe. I need your comments. I need this.

Let us know. What you would play for Easter? I want to know. I need a clearly I need new things in my repertoire, so. You do, you absolutely do. Because we need to get you more yellow calyx shelves. More yellow calyx and more games that my brother won't be upset about. Exactly. Please give your love to your brother and your friends over

the Easter weekend. I hope that we're able to get together in New Orleans or something for I want to, I want to be a part of one of your Easter game weekends that that just seems incredible and I love it. So thank you so much.