Hey guys, welcome to episode 154 of Maple to Maple. It's the 5th in my Community content creator community series, so thanks for joining me. My guest today lives at the crossroads of social content, tabletop gaming, and audio storytelling. I'm really excited for you guys to hear this conversation. He brings a very special wit and insight and an infectious energy that I am so jealous of to everything from life reflections
to board game breakdowns. He has recently built a devoted following by being unfiltered, curious, and deeply rooted in the world of modern tabletop. Just a true, true gem in the community. Here's the thing though. He isn't just playing games, he talks about them. He's been featured on board game podcasts such as board game Hot Text, where he dives into his favorite dice mechanics.
He's also growing his own podcast ambitions, aiming to bring the same warmth and authenticity to the mic that he brings to the table. So today, we're going to tap into those threads, his path from gamer to content creator to tabletop guru of podcast magic. What inspired him to lean into the podcast, the stories behind his favorite games and what's next in the universe of rolling. Reggie. Reggie, thanks for joining. How are you, man? I'm doing all right. Thank you.
Oh, my gosh. It's like when you're when you're at a your birthday party and everybody's singing Happy Birthday to you and you just have to smile and like, please stop saying nice things. Please stop being good to me. I can't handle it. I'm doing great. Thank you. So excited to be here. You have picked some amazing folks, like a lot of my favorite people in the hobby and some people I haven't met. So I'm very excited to learn about them.
Yeah, when it happens. So. By the way, Merry Christmas. As Christmas has just passed and we've got the new year to look forward to, I am happy to say that by the time that we've recorded this, I've decided this is probably going to be the permanent direction of the podcast. Early in the series I had some amazing responses and I've had people you want to talk about humbling. So humbling. Recently I've had several people who asked to be on my show like
what? You know, people actually are listening and y'all want to join me? This is this is incredible. But enough about me. Let's talk about you, Reggie. Awesome. No, you are awesome. And that is great. There's no better feeling like going to like a convention. Someone's like, hey, Rolling Reggie, I'm like, why do you know me? Like, please, here's a sticker. But that feels good, yeah. That's the content creator obligation. Have a sticker.
Got to give everyone a sticker. I mean, if you I give away one or two every convention because I'm like, if you are really going to go out of your way to say hello to me, you are an awesome human being and I appreciate it and it warms my heart. And yeah, yeah, people DMS. That's the thing about our well, we'll talk about this, but just yeah, everybody feels so approachable.
You know, it's like you're yes, people feel com feel comfortable sending you a DM and saying hey, like I'd love to be on your your show. Your show is also. I feel like it's not that way in a lot of industries or communities either. No, it's definitely not one thing I struggle with. Yeah, you are. Whereas I've been doing this for almost 4 years, so every week. But I always think about the problem is, is that I haven't. So when I'm at a convention, nobody comes up to me.
And we're like, oh, you're from meeble to Meeble or oh, you're the Cajun gamer, which is separate from the podcast. But no one, you know, no one recognizes me. So I always think about having like a catch phrase if you see me at Gen. Con or insert your favorite convention, yeah, I'll have like a special thing to give away to the first person, right? And maybe that's what I need to do to get people. Shit, that's how you. Do it, you rock. Yeah, I, I have stickers.
I always have stickers. You get, you got to do. I have friends everywhere, you know, have a little, have a little secret passcode. Yeah, it'd be great. I also have one one thing at conventions, I always have Colorado. Are you a fan of Colorado? Do you know that game? I'm aware of the game. I've never played the game. So I don't know box like this big great little drafting set collection game from like 2003 and I love it so much and I just always have it.
It's just one of those. I brought it to my very first convention and I just always have it to bring out because it's just so easy to teach and play. So if you ever see my convention, we can play Colorado together. Colorado OK, so here's the problem, and we're going to get this out of the way early in the episode. Everybody knows my favorite board game is Obsession, and so the one request I usually get is people want to play Obsession with me. I can't pull that out of my pocket.
Yeah, I'm sorry. It's too much. Too many meatballs in there. It's too big. Oh yeah. You know, I've actually never seen it in real life. It's a it's hard to find it. It it like it is tough to get your hand on. I've I've played on board game Marina several times. I think it's really cool, but I really want to. I feel like I would enjoy it way more if I played it IRL with with accents and yeah. Top hats and a tuxedo. Yeah. Yeah. And you got it. You got it.
So, Reggie, let me ask you. I've been starting this conversation with this question asking to everyone, what was the first board game you ever played as a kid? Wow, that's a great question. I mean, if you count chess. I mean, my dad taught me chess pretty young. Yeah. But like I have very distinct memories of like sorry and trouble, you know, anything that you just moved around a little Popomatic are probably when I was a little kid and and then another, I played all the big
mainstream games. I've talked about this in many videos of like I loved Monopoly, I loved Clue, I loved risk. Like those were the games that kind of, I thought that was all board games could be. And I always thought they were fine. You know, I enjoyed that. But when I got older, I was like, why would I ever go back to board games? Like, that's the ceiling, you know, But it was fun. I always think about, I feel like people do hate on Monopoly a lot.
And I just made a dedicated video on it like not too long ago. And like, me and my mom and my sisters especially, we would always have our like your Pete. Like what was your piece in Monopoly? You know, I think I was the top hat. Actually, Speaking of top hat, I think my mom was always like the iron and and my sister took the dog. And it's just like, there's so many cultural touch points to it. As much as we want to hate on it now, like we all had some good memories.
Yeah. Play a Monopoly. It's true, but I think that those early classics are the reason why we as gamers today in the hobby struggle with when we meet non gamers, you know, they think they're just toys, they're for kids and they don't because it's like you said, you were going to grow up. Why would I play these games again? Little did you know. Little did we. Yeah, That's a great.
I mean, there's so many. I have so many aha, moments like that that I'm sure we can get to in this episode here, too, where I'm like, well, what board games can do this? Yeah. Well, you know, we're going to talk about that because that's that's my next question. So first you said chess. Sorry, trouble. There was no surprises there. I'm always interested in my next question. OK, I get some interesting answers. So what was the first board game that got you into the modern game hobby?
OK, so you know, without giving the full history, I do like to talk about the modern game. That really hit me, Yes. There's two that I could answer and one that everyone knows. If you watch my top ten, it's King. Domino is one of my big ones. OK. Yeah, was a modern game that really blew me away. And I gave the whole story on on the Punch Board Cathedral podcast, Ken and someone, you know, Yep, Yep, him and all that. We did this and it's beautiful.
I really just encourage you to go listen to that actually. But the thing about King Domino that blew my mind, especially when we talk about these games, we just talked about Monopoly, Risk, Clue, Sorry. First and foremost, it's it was a board game that we were playing at a board game cafe. My, my girlfriend at the time, now wife, always known as Her Majesty the Queen, you know, to bring out the obsession vibes as well. We were sitting down.
We were sitting down and playing at a board game cafe and they said it's a game that won some German board game award. And they put it down in front of us and there's no board, you know? And I was like, wait, how are we playing a board game with no board? And like, Carcasson had been out at this point. This is 2016 when King Domino came out. So like, at this point, Carcasson's been out for 15-16 years, right? But I hadn't experienced it. And I was like, OK, so let's see what we do.
Then they told me that when you draft your tiles, sometimes that's going to change the turn order. And now I might take two turns in a row and my wife took two. And I was like, you know, when I was a kid, the craziest thing they could do is the turn orders would go clockwise and if they wanted to be wild, they'd go counter clockwise. There was never like turn order drafting, which I have found. I love, love, love and. Then. And then the biggest thing was that you started learning.
It was a game that it started. You started playing it and drafting the tiles, and then you started learning like, oh wait, I am actually paying attention to what my opponent is taking in front of that, like hate drafting and also just knowing what's left face down. There was just a lot of things that way that just kind of blew my mind. With King Domino, it was just something I really, really loved. But what predates King Domino
actually, if I'm being honest? OK, my first job out of college, I'm working at a university and I have a Co worker named Emily and she has a partner named Jeff. And Jeff is he has like a vision impairment. Like he's legally blind. He could barely see any. He's very, very, very light visuals. He would totally be APC video game guy if he had, you know, if he did not have an impairment, right? But he could play board games and he played miniature games because he get the tactility of it.
He's able to participate in board games and enjoy it like that, right. So I knew that about him. I'd never really played a lot of board games and so I asked him. I said hey I'm having a game night. It's my first apt. I have like 8 people coming over and he's like oh wow, that's a lot of for a game night which I know now it's like once you get over 4 like you're pushing it with game. So he handed me a game called Bang the Dice game. Have you ever played this one?
Yes, as a point of fact, that was one of Gareth, my partner in the podcast. That was one of his first games, really. Yeah. I have it right here with me bang the dice game here, we're looking at it here and I have one expansion in here. This is you can kind of see my corners are like beat up on this
for the visual watchers. You know, this is the same copy I bought like immediately after that weekend and we, me and my buddies, my close friends referred to as the dads we every time we get together on a weekend, we will always make sure we sit down and play at least one game with this just for the nostalgia. And it's got a Yahtzee mechanism. That's true. Yahtzee is another game I loved as a kid.
Oh yes, Which was roll and lock is what you would know that mechanism now, you know, and that is just, it's like Yahtzee but battle Yahtzee, but also with Werewolf because you're trying to figure out who's the deputies, who's the outlaws and that game. And I think the thing that really blew me away was a lot of people tried to get me into board games before Bang the Dice game. But the asymmetry was actually the thing that I was like, wait, we all have special powers in a board game?
That really, really shocked me and I really loved that about it. So yeah, Bang the Dice game. Yeah, Yep, I love it. And so I'm listening to you, Reggie. And you're just like, OK, so bang the dice game king domino, right. Like the list just keeps going. No, there's really something magical about the asymmetry, asymmetrical nature of board games that's so different from when we were growing up with Sorry and trouble, etcetera. Exactly.
So tell me, here's here's the controversial question. Let's get it out of the way real quickly. What's your favorite player color? That's a great. I mean, that's not controversial at all. Yellow. I've always been yellow. I play yellow every time. If you want to be yellow and you're at a table with me, I will most likely move your meatball accidentally. You know, it's just going to happen. Yep. So yeah, I like it.
I do like Gray, which is like really, which is weird, but if I, if a player, if a game has Gray, I really do gravitators that Imhotep, Babylonia, those come to mind. And then like creature comforts has Gray and yellow, which is like, and Pan Am and I'm like my only two colors. Yeah. So yeah, yellow I, I, I feel like it's more more popular. What what's your color? You're you're purple. Nice. I'm purple. Yeah. And, and I've told that story so many times.
It goes back to my days at undergraduate LSU. Go Tigers to go Tigers. Shadow Shack. Yep, I bleed purple and gold. Nice. Also Mardi Gras purple, green and gold. So it's nice. First I'm purple. My wife is usually gold, but if there's a pink, she's going to be pink. So if I can't be purple, then I'll be gold. But if I can't be purple and I can't be gold, then I'll be green. But usually you can't be green. So then I just, it just kind of it falls apart. After, yeah, there's a tier
list. I randomly I like to be orange if like if there's none of my colors, you know, I'll throw like a random color out there. But yeah, my buddy, one of my closest, but he's Joey. He's also a purple player, so purple's always taken. He loves purple. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's it's a color of royalty. Yeah, color of the the Bayou Bengals. I mean, so out here it's you dub in the, you know, a lot of our a lot of people where I grew up are big Husky fans. The university, which is purple,
purple, which is also purple. Yeah. So. So that's why. Yeah, so, yeah, nice. So for our international audience, Reggie is talking about the University of Washington. That is the state of Washington in the Pacific Northwest, which you might know by another name, Cascadia. Cascadia, There you go. That's how we get board gamers to know US geography, but also not to be confused with Washington, DC This is not the capital. This is very, very far away.
I know you talked to one of my good friends, Iris Crimson board games. Yeah. And she lives in the Netherlands, and we talk all the time. My board game bestie and literally explaining to her the size of the United States and driving, you know, I, I'm on, I did a video with Chaz, Chaz Marler. He's game night picks. We live in the same state and we're about 2 1/2 hour drive
away. And we did, you know, so it is, that's just how it is. It's really funny because and I promised Iris that I was going to make fun of her with you talked about this because she when she was on earlier in this series, she was talking, I think I was asking her about another player in the Netherlands and she's like, that's a 45 minute drive. That's nothing. So far. Hey man. And you have public transportation, right? And you have bikes, no? No, no, you good.
Good, good, functional, clean. Yes. You have nothing to complain about Europeans. That's right. Yeah. It's so funny. Yeah. It is really interesting the the perspectives that we all bring to the table. Yeah, I mean, cuz like I am, I'm in the middle of Illinois and I am 3 1/2 hours from Chicago. I mean. That's so that's crazy. Same state and people are like, wait, what? Same state. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is such an interest. Well, I will say, do you have
any? So are you from Louisiana? I am. I am so like I am from Baton Rouge, born and raised. Yeah. Are there any games that like represent your region, like where you grew up or like did you have a lot of pride in because they're they're like located there? You know, it's really interesting. I'm I'm there's one game that I absolutely love by weird draft games, and that's Big easy busking. Yeah, I've played that. I've actually played that game. Yeah. I will tell you that.
They captured the feel of going in the French Quarter, the different colors, listening to the buskers on the street corner. Or in the case of the game, you actually are the buskers, Yeah, trying to get money. But like, they really captured the feeling. There's nothing great. Colors in that, too. Like, it's very vibrant, yeah. Absolutely nothing about Baton Rouge proper, but you know Baton Rouge is. Isn't there a game also called French Quarter? There is. There, yeah, rolling.
Right. Yeah, that's that's an interesting that that's 25th century games. Yeah, that's a that's an interesting game. They packed a lot into a rolling right. And while they like they got a lot of things right, they got a lot of things wrong. Yeah. But you know what? If you've never been in New Orleans, you wouldn't know the difference. So it's fine for sure. Yeah, that's trying to. When I went to the England, went to England for the the England.
When I went to England for the first time, I met Gareth and he pulled out French Quarter and we played it. I had to explain to him what a second line is. OK. Which is. So a second line is a funeral procession that's usually led by a rambunctious jazz orchestra, Yes.
Yes, right, I have seen. These particularly, particularly all right because you you see it on TV all the time to be honest it's mostly amongst the African American and Caribbean communities yeah in. It's more of a celebration of life you know it is, than like a depressing funeral. Yep, you do see. Second lines in like after weddings, like you'll have a, you'll have a jazz band lead the the wedding party and all their guests from the church to the
reception hall. Yeah. Wherever. Yeah, it's going to be. Yeah. So you see that the other concept of the second line our our Mexican neighbors with Dia de Los Muertos and another good, another good board game is Potsuara, which captures that really well. Ofrenda's coming out here soon, too. That looks beautiful. About Dia Los Muertos, Yeah. So. So there's always the procession to the grave sites during the Day of the Dead. And when the procession passes you, the spectators follow
behind. They follow the procession to the gravesite. Those spectators, they are the second line. That's why we call it a second line. That's awesome, yeah. So. That's really cool. That's see now we're getting some nice Louise here and history in here. I, I will tell you when I when I was asking the question about the region is there is nothing that will make me buy a game faster than it being Pacific Northwest team, which we have been spoiled. We have a glut of them right now.
I will say there's a lot of true great designers out here to Beth Sobel, you know, like artists that are from here. Yep, I very very much love love the PNW theming too, so that's great. Love that. I really want there to be a Mardi Gras board game. Yeah, why? I can't believe there isn't 1. So I I can tell you what mechanics it would incorporate, but I'm not a board game designer.
You would you would think after as many designers that as designs I'm friends with, that I've spoken to, I listen to them talk about their design story, you think I could design a board game? But yeah. I'm really, I'm really good at talking about board games, not designing. Yeah, those who can't talk about it. Of course, those who can't pod, Yeah. Exactly. No, you got it right. That's good. That is why you're joining the podcast community. Yeah, yourself. Right.
Hey, so let me ask you, in all the laundry list of games we've just gone through, do you have a favorite board game mechanic that you just you're in? That's, that's a great question. I think the easy answer for me would be like tableau building. Like I love building a tableau. You know, I, I think if I'm being truthful because you, you asked me what, what got me into
the modern board game earlier. But you know, when I was thinking about this, like, how did I get into the hobby as a gamer, I couldn't help but think I have to go back to TCGS. And I think like I discovered Yu-gi-oh when I was like 11 or 12 and just know, you know, there was, there's an era, you know, it, uh, in a home in the church, a God fearing home, there was number Yu-gi-oh, no Pokémon.
They were Japanese demons. You know, there is a tradition, there's a trading card game out there called Redemption that is literally like biblical card games. And I had all these cards and no one in my, no one in my friend group would play with me. So I had to play my mom and just like cast pillar of salt on her all the time. You know, it's like Noah's Ark cards and stuff.
But Yu-gi-oh was like the worst culprit because the back of the card, you know, it sends you to the shadow realm or whatever. But you know, but by the time I got 1112, it's anime, it's everybody's doing. Like I loved Yu-gi-oh and the card, looking back on it now, the cards are tiny. They're, they're like Japanese size. They're not the size of a Magic card. And there's so much text on them. And The thing is, it really is a tableau building.
Trading card games are tableau building, engine building games. You know, it's like you're getting a lot of cards out, you're triggering off of other cards. And that is the games that I gravitate towards. But my top five games are all card games, you know, very much card based. I, I really do love engine building, tableau building, I would say my like, not my favorite, but one that I've been just every game I've played in this genre I've been really liking lately is auction and
bidding also. So I want to give auction and bidding a shout out. I've been really. Enjoying that too. Yeah. So Reggie and I are going to take you on a journey across all mechanics and all board games. Yes, we will name the entire oeuvre of board games. Yes, by the time. Every single one. The whole board game geek mechanism catalog. Yep. So now I got now comes this is evolved. If you guys remember 1111 weeks ago I had I had bands on bands and she helped me launch the series.
Since then, this question has evolved and many of you have heard this question. It is A2 parter. It's a 2 parter because I love you and have compassion for you and I realize that the first part is difficult. Do you have a favorite board game of all time? Yes. If not, OK, great. And I want to hear about it because I also want to hear the second part. Do you have a favorite board game right now that's hitting your table constantly? That's great that I love. I do enjoy both of those.
I have great friends, but my. Favorite. Be on a lookout for that. My favorite board game is Wingspan and I think people, you know, people within the hobby can have love worms band more. I've got the dragon on the T-shirt here. Fin span came out this year as well at the very beginning of this year. But wingspan for me is my favorite podium.
And I I think if I were to, it's going to be tough for me to do a top 10s in the future because I just don't see a game supplanting it because it has so much emotional and sentiment like it, it really dove me into the hobby. I love birds. Like that's a big thing. Like I got into two hobbies around the pandemic, seriously, and that was bird watching and board games. And then and then I discover a game that is literally both of those things together. And it has three expansions.
And so Wingspan is my favorite game. It is, it is, you know, sold 2 million copies. It's very popular. It's like saying you like Superman, which you know, is kind of tough, but it is it just is my my favorite board game. Nice wingspan. I don't think we've talked about Wingspan in since the beginning of the series. Oh, great. Yeah, it hasn't. It hasn't come up. Solid game. It's a strong game. Yeah. I don't have anything to say, good or bad about him. It's it's like liking Superman.
You're you're it. Is it is it really? And that's what's so funny is like, you know, I like Batman, I like Iron Man, I don't like Cap or Superman. But but wingspan for me, you know, it just evokes so many feelings. And I think when I really sit down and think about my favorite games, a lot of it comes down to just I like that every single time I play, I'm going to have a different combination of things in front of me, you know? And that I think that's what what you might call BDE games,
big deck energy games. Do they have a lot of cards, you know, and that's what TCGS do. It's like, I can make 100 deck, commander deck for Magic the Gathering and it's going to play so different every single time I play. So I really do enjoy that a lot. And, and by the way, commander's the only way to play Magic. Yeah, of course it is. Yeah. OK. If if it's the only way my wife will play Magic, then, you know,
for. Yeah. That's the way to go. Wow, I I even have a bird themed commander deck after Bloomberg came out. And then there's a lot of the Lord of the Rings eagles are in there. It's really fun. It's actually a solid deck. So my wife has my wife has a cat's only great commander deck. We got to get some birds together. That's just going to be I could just sit here. I could sit here and commentate while you play and that'd be great. So Reggie. Reggie just tapped 1 green mana
and two blue to play his. I don't know, whatever. I don't know what the birds are. Yeah, that's like Esther versus Tweety, the match off. What about a board game today? That's like hitting your table a lot right now. Oh, man, this is so this is a tough question that I feel like this is tougher. Yeah. Because OK, so I'm between 2:00, I'm going to go. And I've talked about both of these.
That's why I was trying to come up with something maybe I haven't touched on lately, but I I gotta this is a game that like I haven't been smitten by a game in in a long time.
That's a good feeling. Yeah, it was just like when when you're a game where you're learning the rules and this is the cool thing about being so well versed in the hobby is when you're learning the rules and someone's teacher, you're like, I'm going to love this, You know, I love being able to like read a rule book and be like, oh, this is my kind of game, you know, or it's not. But that game is a Stefan Feld,
my second Stefan Feld ever. I I love Castles of Burgundy rolling Reggie. The second one is Carpe Diem. Have you have you played Carpe Diem? I have not. OK. It has. A very similar depot kind of to castles of Burgundy, but it's it's more like a Rondelle. It's it's very easy drafting thing. You're taking these tiles. They make these buildings we're kind of like Roman patricians or something like that.
And you build these tiles and a lot of the buildings are a size of two and when you cap, you know, the half of the building with the other half of the building, it triggers an effect, you know, very Stefan Feld, you know, you get all these different things. But there's also like like this prestige track, excuse me? And on the prestige track, the person who's on top or furthest is going to be a first player, also straight out of Castle Burgundy.
But my favorite thing is it's got every single time you play, it's got all these random scoring cards that come out in a random order and they each have a half a semi circle on either side. And at the end of each round, I think it's 4 rounds, who get to take whoever's in first player turn order gets to take their disc and puts it between any 2
cards. And they get to score those two specific conditions, you know, And so then they score those two conditions and then that location is blocked for the rest of the game. So that might be, you know, 3 grapes and how many yellow buildings do you have? And I have both those things a lot. But now I can never get those two again the next three rounds, and neither can anyone else. But I can get, you know, any other side. It's really, really clever.
I wish more games did that. That one little scoring mechanism is so clever. It's like 40 minutes completely language independent, which I'm finding I like a lot more too. I love cards, obviously, but games that are just like boom symbols, great Carpe diem. That's been one I I've blinged it out a lot by the way, too. I play I play with ironclays instead of the victory point cards.
That's a big important thing. It comes with these like tiny cards that just are are just not it and and I and I learned it on Ironclay. So that's the problem. Then I bought these cinch bags, like silky velvety bags to pull the tiles out of because sure it didn't come with those. There's no. My wife, because she crafts a lot. She's so quilts, she needlepoints, she crochets, she makes all those bags for us for
games. You know what my wife is an amazing crochet IST or whatever you want to call it. I should have her make some bags. You should crochet, crochet, crochet, crochet in. OK, so it's all right. So it's funny that we're talking about this because I'm going to talk about someone who is a crafter, who's a mistress of cosplay and yet she works for Queen Games. So guys, if you guys go back to episode 145, she's the second in the series. Is Rachel Mullen awesome? She works for Queen games.
That's awesome. And so, you know, Stefan Feld is, I mean, he's. Always got the city collection. Yeah. He's got so much there, yeah. So she and I, after we were done recording, she's going to try to help me, help connect me with Stefan and get him on the show in 2026 because that would be cool. I'd like to be in this room. I'll be silent. My mic can be off. I'll just listen. I just want to be there live, you know, to talk to. It it's in the live audience. I want to shout out crafting
though. I have I've always felt myself as just not artistic. You know, I, I never played an instrument, but since board gaming, you know, I do a little print and play, you know, I like to do, I like to laminate like player aids and stuff. I do, I, I do a lot of different things crafting wise that I think I never would have done
without this hobby. You know, and I, I'm, I'm like on the precipice of becoming a miniature painter and I just can't afford another hobby because that's a hobby within a hobby. It is. It is. But there's a lot of overlap. There's a Venn diagram of like crafting and board games that I think is bigger than people might give credit for. I've got Nemesis Retaliation that's unpainted. I've got Legends Academy finally came in and it's partially
painted. We've got Ether fields by Awaken Realms that is unpainted because these campaign games, because my wife's the primary. What has happened is my wife and I were doing painting together. Yeah. And then we realized that I don't have the pages for it, so she's relegating me to priming and lacquering at the end. Oh man, you're just a prime like machine. Yeah, right. Look, I can prime Mini. It's like nobody. Nobody.
'S business. If you're gonna, if you're gonna play a campaign game with us, she's gonna have everything painted beforehand. Awesome. Because what she loves is you're playing Frost Haven or Bloom Haven, and you retire your character and you open up the miniature box. She wants that mini to be painted. Yeah. And you get the joy of watching you go. Whoa. Yeah. Yeah, cuz so you're you love it. You're a two player like you and your wife play mostly together, right?
Almost exclusively we've got a we've got a local group here that comes. So we're in the middle of a Frost Haven campaign. We play awesome a bunch of other games as well, but we're the we're the couple where so two things are guaranteed to happen. One is if we're talking to a vendor, publisher, designer, etcetera. My wife's going to ask the first question. How does it play it too? Yeah, great question. If you say there's a dummy third player, she's going to turn
around and walk away from you. I also am not a big fan of the dummy third player, I have to admit. Yeah. Yeah, just it's it's not good. So we love, we love two players. The second thing that will happen. This has been a this has been a frustration for me for some time now. When we go to big conventions. It is unfortunate not to be a downer, but I like to be realistic. Let's keep this conversation there. We're still victims of systemic sexism. Mm hmm. In this industry.
And if we go up to a vendor at a convention and that person looks at me like if my wife asks about tell your new game and they talk to me the whole time. Yeah, let me talk to the real gamer, is what they're thinking subconsciously, Yeah. Yeah. And, and to be honest, I kind of clock out. Yeah. I get more angry than she does now because as a woman, she's used to that, unfortunately. And I just kind of, I walk away or I pretend like I'm looking at something else.
And those are the two things that happen. She's gonna ask that question and that will inevitably happen. And it's just. That's such an interesting thing that it's it is still pervasive and I and I was going to talk about solo gaming here. So I'll I'll lead into that and say, but I want to address what you said. That's interesting. Like my wife is the most gracious, lovely person when it comes to my hobby.
Like this is not her hobby. She just played more games with me than according to my BG stats. She's played more games with me than Eddie, what even my closest buddies, and she's never going to say I'm excited to play a game tonight, right, which is why my biggest reason why I think I am a solo gamer also. But because of that, I think, and all my buddies who are video game guys, which is what I came
from the video game world. You know, I, I think of men, you know, so I know when I started in this hobby, I was ready to like explain games and be like, Oh, here's what you can do on your turn and all this thing to women.
And then I'm like, I start going to conventions and I start hanging out with women who are gamers that are way, way more intense gamers than I am and have way, way higher tastes, you know, so it's just like you learn really quickly if you're actually paying attention that it's like that dynamic. But but you know, you have to be, you have to be aware. But but like I said, my wife is, you know, we will play weeknight games. She loves a sea salt and paper. That is what she's in the mood for.
And she's always in the mood to play a game that she knows, you know, and I am, I get that, yes. And, and I unfortunately, I'm just like, I'm an addict. I want, I would rather play 10 new games than a game I love 10 times. Like it is just how my brain works. Like I like discovery. I like the potential of learning a new mechanism. That is where my and my wife's
the opposite. So that being said, sometimes it's just like Wednesday night and I'm just like, I want a crunchy complex experience and my wife is not up for that. And I don't want to subject and torment her to that. And so that is where, you know, I sit down and I play a wingspan solo against the Otima, which is a very, very good Otima or a Marvel champions against the villain deck. You know, those are the type of games that I think I really get
satisfaction out of solo. And that's the biggest reason that there's there's more nights where I want to play games than my partner in my player 2 in the house does. So that's fair. I end up, you know, that's how I kind of like relented on solo games. And now I've kind of gone, gone in the deep end there. Yeah, I get that. So that means that when you meet somebody at a convention, the first question you ask is how
does it play at solo? Well, and that's the thing, if I'm buying a new game, I do actually take that into consideration. You know, if I so Speaking of Stone Meyer games, you know, I think they do a great job with the Ottomas. They just came out with a trick taking game called Origin Story. It's a trick taking engine building tableau building game that superhero themed, which I'm also a big I love Cape Cape stuff, as the Internet calls it.
I mean I'm censoring Cape stuff and it's the worms band artist who she does this like amazing watercolory. I don't know if you have seen the origin story stuff and I was like about a lot of trick takers are three to five, three to six. And I'm like it has a solo mode. Whoa. And I'm like, how does that work? You know, but I was able to, I was willing to buy that sight unseen for very cheap, $20 if you're a Stone Meyer champion, by the way, we're not, we're not, we're not, we're not
sponsored. We're not, we're not chilling for them. But I'm just there are no but we are looking for sponsors both regions of. Course we'll take them, yes, but my point is I am more willing to buy a game sight unseen if it is solo mode. That that's my big thing is like, I got it. Yep, if it's two only if 2 is the minimum and I can't even
learn it on my own. Like I like even just learning games of solo mode because she also doesn't want me checking the rule book in the middle of the teach, you know? I have to know it really well to present it to her so that she's not like that. That's wasted time. That's not efficient and that's how that's how it gets there. So. I am fortunate in that I married a woman who is both 1000 times smarter than me and same is all about the rules and the rule book.
So I'm the, I'm the. I'm the tabletop Princess. Yeah, yeah. Like a passenger Princess. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'm just want to show up and play the game. She reads the rules. She boy if I even think about picking up the rule book to check a rule. Wow, yeah, that we are the complete. Opposite, you know, roles in our households. That's crazy. That's it happens. But this is what I love about the community. This is what I love. It's awesome.
So because I want to get to your thoughts on the community. Yeah, talk to me about your transition from becoming just a casual gamer to being an intentional content creator. Great question. Yeah, I, I, I really, I was listening to one of your episodes about something like how in the it's one of those weird things you said the same thing. I was like, how did I even like,
why did I start? But I will go back to just like I was always a video game guy like that was it that I think that's the biggest reason that board games were off my radar that I didn't become a board gamer earlier is that it just didn't hit me with enough stimulus at the time of like PC gaming like I was. I went from Game Boy to GameCube to Xbox 360 competitive games and then PC like about 2013 on I've been a PC Gamer. I still play PC games with my buddies. So I started streaming video
games actually. And so I started on Twitch under the moniker Chrono, which is it comes from a League of Legends reference, actually is what it is. And so I played video games and in COVID era, I was, I was like working from home on my computer all day. And then I would stream, you know, for three or four hours at night, like I was on a screen so much. So I, I think that kind of helped me go towards board
games. But in that same era when I wanted to make an Instagram account, which I think was like, I wrote this down here, June 2022, I made an Instagram account and I did not. Have the For the record, I have the same date because I I checked. You went and looked. OK, Great. Thank you. You went and saw my first one. Yeah, of course you're thorough. You would have done. You would have done your research. Like this guy knows his stuff. This is 150 plus episodes here
peeps. But funnily enough, with your meeple to meeple too, I was like, the one thing I don't want to name myself after is a meeple because at the time I want to give a shout out to Foster the meeple. They were like the biggest YouTube channel that was on my feed and I was watching them like all the time and Jeff and Jamie. And so I was like, you know, I should just do a different. I was like, should I be punny?
But also with Chrono, like people when, when people would say my name Reggie, like it was so weird to them. Like people could not see me as anything but Chrono. Like when you stream under a moniker, you know, like that's your name, you know, it was like a stage. And so I wanted to put my real name in it. So rolling was like rolling dice. And that's where that came from. I like it though. Yeah, I like it. I like it too. I I think it's, it's people think people mix it up with
rolling with Reggie a lot. I think there's a couple people who do rolling with so and so, but just rolling Reggie. That was Instagram, and I just started posting pictures of games I was playing. You know, I got to that. You know, I had a couple games and then I you bang the dice games in there, King Domino's in there, Sushi Go. You know, my shelf was like, it was one shelf in the linen closet of our town home. And my wife was like, this is too much. You need to stop.
Now. I have an entire room like little. Yeah, talk about little. Did she know? Like I had one shelf and that was like, what are you doing? You think this is too big of a connection? So you were a streamer before you were a tabletop gamer? Yeah. So it was, yeah. It was a natural fit for you. Yeah, Yeah. And I don't know why, I truly don't know why I started Instagram. I just was like, I just wanted to share the board game.
And so I started doing it. And then I have to give a big shout out to, you probably know them, our families plays, our family plays games, games Nick and Starla. And they invited me to do some videos for their channel while I was just an Instagram account. And that was a huge impetus to get me confident behind an iPhone camera. It was just just on an iPhone, like I wasn't doing anything special. And so, yeah, my first YouTube channel or video came out in January 2023.
So I've actually only really this is go. We're going on three years here now that I have been making YouTube content. But yeah, that that was kind of the story went from like Twitch video games to making an Instagram to making videos. So what's your favorite or your preferred platform that you like to create content right now? I still think YouTube is my favorite platform. Yeah, I just enjoy the process of making a video. I have a trillion ideas, you know, I have so many ideas that
show. Yeah. But just no time to make them all and I consume and The thing is YouTube is, is my biggest, you know, consumption as well. You're like, I don't even have Instagram on my phone anymore. Like I just check it on my browser because it's just just a time sink. You know, if I'm going to do something on my phone, it's usually watching YouTube or just just looking at my BG stats collection. You know, we all we all we all know that I get my screen time.
It's like it's like messages YouTube BG stats most like how in the world are you spending two hours a week on BG? But I do, and I think that's why because I watched Youtubers first. You know, I love sure. And like shout out to all you can board. Those guys haven't made videos in a lot. They've been they they're on like a long hiatus. I love them. They the 2 Canadian they made,
they basically shaped my taste. I think a lot of my like family weight, medium weight tastes come from them and actual all British one who you've probably watched too. Very funny, big YouTube too. He's solo also, which I think having a partner, which we've talked about with your podcast, you know, it's it's more fun and I will tell you like the lat.
The other, the third platform I have now is podcast, which you already mentioned board States and jazz and I have just been doing this because we're on opposite sides of the country. You know, PGI, we're talking about this before because it's like we it's tough, you know, you got to plan time zones, you gotta, you know, being on a platform like this, you know, it's you got to have rapport and and so, but we've been really enjoying it because it's just more long form.
You know, you can, as you are all witnessing right now with your ears, you can yeah, for extended periods of time. So. Boy, I've. Been really, yes, yeah, yeah. So I do like podcasts too. The time zones is I don't know that people people realize it's really funny. So when we first approached the podcast and decided that this is what we were going to do, right? What I have experienced is people are like just do a podcast or people are like, you should just do a podcast.
I hear that all the time. I'm like, you don't just wake up and do this. This is not like it's not. We talked about this has come up so much throughout the series. Content creation. Yeah, right, is hard work. Thing is hard work. And if you're going to have a global audience and your guests are all over the world, you want to talk about. So you're lucky because your partner on your on your podcast is in New Jersey. So there's a three hour time difference.
There will always be a three hour time difference. I have no idea what's going to be the time difference from day-to-day and week to week. When I'm recording, am I talking to Australia? Am I talking to? Yeah, that's you. You're 2 hours behind me. Where am I going to be this week? Right. So my wife is always like, when are you recording? Don't know, you know, I mean, that's more work. That is true.
I didn't even think about that. Like I I think that's one thing about bringing on guests like you are doing, you are doing a lot more pre emptive work to bring those guests on than jazz and I are. It's like we can meet at like we're meeting usually at like 6:00 my time. So it's 9:00 PM for him and it's not too bad. But I'll I'll say talking about tick tock and Instagram, like you were saying, just content creation, like saying what's my favorite? Instagram is my least favorite.
If you go to my Instagram, like there's not that many posts on there. I I like to post on my story. I like to tell people what I'm playing day-to-day. But like making reels and making TikTok for me is exhausting. Like it is that attention to detail on a phone or doing it on an iPad or whatever. Whereas like doing a long form podcast or doing a long form YouTube channel like editing that I find more relaxing, less, less stressful that that is
interesting. Yeah. It is less stressful, but I think it takes up more time. Yeah, of. Course, yeah. Because you have to listen to, you basically have to listen to the entire episode unfiltered so that you can catch everything, right? Yeah. You don't. You don't want to rely solely on the automation. Plus trying to find that really sweet sound bite for that Reggie. What was that really cool thing that Reggie said? Yeah. Where was that?
Because I'm not sitting here taking notes, going at at 51 at. 51 minutes, he said, yeah. And there's nothing worse than your own voice. Like I, I hate listening. I hate listening back to it. Like that's one thing maybe that the Instagram or like if you're because like there's some great people out there who are making like beautiful reels that are like beautiful. Thinking of the number of shots that you have to do to do this look blows my mind, yeah.
Yeah, let's let's shout out Dana from Better Mood Board Games. I want it to be that That is who I was thinking in my head was Dana. I'm just saying that out loud. OK, I knew who you were talking about. That's why I'm referencing. When I when I think about the best reels and the most beautiful images and cinematography on Instagram right now, hands down, I'm going to say it. It's Dana from Better Mood Board Games. There isn't anyone that comes close and she does it all using her phone.
IPhone yeah crazy and I just when I see what just knowing what it would take to do that I'm just like you're you're better than me. I can't I just can't do it. I can't do it. That's. Awesome. And I've been promising it. Dana will be on in the new year. Awesome. You know, it's really funny because she's like 3 1/2 hours north of me and just trying to trying to get, you know, just the holidays. It's it's been a tumultuous year. I'm ready for 2025 to be over.
Yeah, yeah. At least it's not 45 minutes, you know, in Netherlands, you know what I mean? Right. That would be tight, so. If if you could hop on a train and nether that would be different, way harder right? That's so hard. It's. So hard there with the free health. Iris, 45 minutes is just so long. You know, if Reggie packed up his family and I packed up mine and we moved to the Netherlands, we never see you because we live 45 minutes.
But by the way, we love you. Iris Yes, that is why we that is why we do that. So let me ask you, I want to ask you about the community. Cool. What is it? What is it that you think the community does really well, that you're so proud to be a part of it? Yeah, I think we kind of mentioned it earlier, but like the approachability, like people
are truly so nice. And so, you know, I came from Twitch video games and like I would, you know, you'd you raid somebody on Twitch, you know, and you try to get into their video game thing and it's just they'd be like cool, awesome things. But it's like, it just felt so transactional, you know? And I feel like I can message somebody's story that we follow. We don't know each other. We live literally across the world, and we can start having a
conversation. I think the common language of board games, for whatever reason, maybe because it's niche, it's more niche, It's smaller. The common language, it there's just, it's better. Yeah. And I also think we do conventions really well. I think.
I mean, I went to Twitchcon in like 2019 or something like that and it was, you know, I had fun, but like nothing compares to like my, I go to Dice Tower W typically every year in Vegas and it's a smaller con like relative to the big boys, but you know, 3 to 4000 people and there's enough of a hall to check out. But also you just sit down and play with so many people you know. You know, yeah, people, people talk about, they talk about the
big boys, right? They talk about Gen. Con, they talk about S and Spiel, they talk about UKGE. Here's the one thing about those big conventions, you know what most of them don't have Is that open gaming. Gaming or or just there's no tables available if it if there is one, yeah. I have. I have one criticism of Gen. Con, and I guess I'm vocalizing it for the first time. Great. Having having gone to Gen. Con since 2017. Wow. I have one complaint. Gen. Con touts itself as the four,
the best four days in gaming. I don't believe that that is true at all. I believe. He said it here first, people. Yeah. He said it. Yeah, it was true. It's not true anymore. It is the best four days in the gaming industry. That's interesting. That's a distinct. That's a distinct difference though. I don't get much gaming done at Gen. Con. Yeah, but I can go to Origins and there's open gaming with a beautiful games library and it is right adjacent to the vendor
hall because it's all there. And either food carts were amazing this year or food trucks or whatever was that was that the food trucks origins the. Food trucks are a Gen. Con. OK. That's Gen. Con. OK. And the food trucks were amazing at Gen. Con. OK, I mean, Gen. Con's a bigger beats. To give them credit, yeah. To give them credit, right. I just I want to gain for me, and This is why I do the podcast. This is how the series came about. It's all about nurturing
community. It's all about overcoming my personal failings. Yeah, which I talked about in my announcement, little 4 minute video back in October. It's about sitting down across the table and having a shared experience with Reggie. Yeah right. Seeing you in the flesh. That's just, that's real. I want that. I don't want a hug. And oh, you got a meeting? Yeah. Now there is a business. I understand there's a business behind all this, so I don't take any.
That's why I say Gen. Con might be the first best four days in the industry, but it's not the best four days in gaming anymore. That's interesting. I origin, just to put it out there, I probably origins will be the convention I go to next year instead. Good, because I will be there. OK Oh, that's awesome. OK, so we'll have to make sure we touch about this I and I'll you know what I'll give a big announcement here. You I hopefully have told my community by the time that this
episode drops. Yeah, but my lovely wife the queen is like due in January with a baby girl, our first child. Yes. And so my normal conventions, which again starts. First of all, we're so excited. This is going to be amazing. I can't believe we got a player 3 coming in the house. Player 3 at the beginning of 2026.
How amazing is that? It's gonna Yeah, like I'm so excited and petrified, but also I go to Orca Con usually in January. I go to die * W is in March and like none of that's going to happen. I have made the agreement with a newborn is like maybe by June I'll be able to go to Origins. That's probably going to be my only convention of the year, you know. But anyway, that just there you go, there's an announcement, the meeple to people, meeple to meeple people know that there'll
be a little little rolling. Reggie, that's exciting in the hub. Yeah. But board games do three things for me. And so I wanted to address that like and, and so engage my brain and I think and stimulate it in such a way that I just not much else has done for me in my adult life. It's an excuse to socialize. I think that's a big thing. It's like, Hey, let's cut, let's have a game night.
And it's like, I can, we can open up a bottle of wine, I can make some dinner and then it's least we, we're not just sitting around yap and we can at least do something while we're while we're hanging out. And also it's an analog activity. And for me, increasingly all I want to do is like get, like I said, not down deleting social media apps on my phone. Like I want to get off of my phone. Like it's just something that I'm doing. I'm on it too much.
So those three are big and I I just can't help but agree with you. I love that. I love that. That was a really succinct description of not only what the community does well, but why it why it brings it to you. I love it. Let me ask you about the flip side. Yeah. What does the community just it needs to work on? Yeah. I have one big one which you kind of touched on with the industry part and I would and I was trying to look up what it
what the term is called. It's called choice overload or, or, or another term for it in psychology, analysis paralysis, actually in real life. But like there's so many games and there's so many posts like this is if we're talking about the content creator side and also the community side.
Like there's just so much hype. There's the hotness, there's so many kickstarters like, and at the same time, there's these amazing gem games, you know, that have been tried and true from 2011, you know, that are amazing, right? And, and I can't pretend like I'm not a high priest in the cult of the new because I am also, but at the end of the day, like half the hobby is like shopping and storing your games, you know, more than it is actually playing the games.
And like, I keep a really lean collection As for a board gamer, But when I tell my normal people they're like 200 games, like you are a, you're a psychopath, you know, and, and I think your idea of playing backlogs that you mentioned a long time ago now is so genius. And that like, we need to start an LLC like back the backlog boys. You know, we're going to come in coveted player game.
But Bonds was right because she was like, you have to also be willing to teach it, you know, and if you're not the rules guy, like so we got to, we got to figure that part. Out it is true. You know who else is going to join that group? And that's Lincoln Hot. We from BGG. Everything. Yeah. Yeah, we talked about this. I, I shared with him the whole concept of the board game backlog and how we play all of our games once a minimum, once a year. And yeah, 300 for us seems to be
the sweet spot. Yep, you know, good for you. So you're you have 300 games and you're getting them all played at least once a year. Yeah, so. Crazy. Yeah, we're at least we're at like 94.2%, yeah, which means we got to be hurrying because we got like 2 days left in the year, yeah. Yeah, yeah, for sure. But we're close. Yeah. Last year we played it 100% was the first time, but we're usually in the upper 90s. It also helps you to know what games you need to just sell.
Of course, and I think that's a great and that's a great. I go back and look. I mean, that's why I love I made a video on like why I use BG stats and that was one big thing is like I love be able to look at and see like when's the last time I played this game? Oh, I haven't played this since 2023. Like can I justify keeping this in my collection? Like is it sentimental or or what? So, yeah, that that's big.
The only other thing I would say, you know, I think we talked about, you know, women and diversity, I do think is a big a big factor that we can we can be more welcoming. That's always a given. I think we should be more. But one thing about the welcoming side that I really try to combat is people. And this is something that's in a lot of hobbies. You know, it's happened in golf, it happens in billiards, probably. I don't know. But people forget what it's like
to be a beginner. You know, it's that they call it like a the curse of knowledge or the curse of expertise. You know, you have that math professor that's trying to teach Algebra 1, you know, and they can't do it because they, they just can't even imagine what it's like to not remember. And so with board games, I think it's really pronounced. And one sentence I've been really trying not to say is it's
super simple. Like I when I'm teaching like it's super simple because then as soon as you say that, people feel dumb because you're and, and my, and we're going to bring up Wingspan again, but like infamous clip. Do you know what I'm about to say? The infamous clip, Mandy Patinkin, you know who played in Inga Montoya, his son is teaching him and his wife Wingspan. They're reading the rules and they are laughing with hysterics.
There you go. Because because it's so complex to them and any board gamer would say Wingspan is a gateway game. And I think that's one thing that I made a video on being the absolute beginners guide to board games. Like, I just think there's a lot that you now have subconsciously on the on the under the iceberg that you're not realizing when you say it's a trick taking game or you say it's a deck building game.
You automatically know half the rules as a as a veteran board gamer, you know, and so then you're like, this is so easy. Like, why are you confused? You know, like that's a baby game or that's a gateway get like the the snobbery of veteran hood. I think is something I that that get that grinds my gear since you since you gave me a platform, you know? That that is, that is fair.
We dedicated an episode. I really wish I could tell you which one it is. We talked about how do you talk to non gamers about our hobby without losing board game lingo. It was a great conversation guys. Go back and check that out. Yeah, I gotta find that myself. I will tell you that it's before episode 100, so it's audio only because it was. That was back in the day.
Speaking of, back in the day you referred to yourself as the High Priest of the Cult of the New just a moment ago, which I love, by the way. I stole that. I stole that from Big Pasti. You got to give Big Pasti his credit. Yeah. On YouTube, yeah. I am, I'm the hierophant of the classics. Beautiful. So it's the opposite, right? Love it. What when? When this whole concept of community, this whole concept of this series came about.
We were talking about back then tariffs on China, 140% what's going to happen, the cult of the new that our content is completely dependent upon, right? It's like, and yet you hear people talk about it all the time, but we don't play Catan anymore and we don't play name name the classic right that we don't we don't get to play. And I want to see those games hit your table.
My challenge to the community is that you pull out Alhambra, you pull out aka Romana, you pull out Twilight Struggle, right? Play that with your spouse, right? Let's let's they're on your shelf for a reason. You fell in love with them. That love did not disappear. It just got buried by the new. And 100% and they build, I mean they're building on the like shoulders of giants a lot of times too. You know, I am, I am very much getting to the point like Carpe Diem is only like 6 or 7 years
old. But I've really been trying to get into these old school games. There's a Guild on board Game Geek called the OGS which stands which is old school German style. Do you know this one? I know them. Yeah, and like every game on this list I love. And it's like I'm finding that a lot of game, again, this is this now. Now we're talking about problems of the industry where I'm just
agreeing with you here. Something I find is that every game that comes out, a lot of the games that come out are adding complexity for the sake of complexity, you know, And I think a game that has streamlined rules, I mean, my ideal game is like a medium weight 45 minute per player game like that is perfect for me. And so I I just think sometimes with all the more complexity and if it's got an hour long set up like I am out, you know, so I think those older games like
they it's old because it's good. It's the test of time. Are you prepared? Because this is real talk now, right? Please understand this is coming from someone who does not have a child so I do not understand what fatherhood is like. Are you prepared for how much that's going to change in the new year when your child arrives? No. Yeah. OK, no, Alex. OK, no, I'm not mentally prepared.
I I already feel so time poor, to be honest, but it's one of those things where I'm like, I just just by the age of five. A shout out to board game blitz. Again. We were talking about talking about podcasting and everything. They do a great like 30 minute episode. But Andy, she's got two sons and she always talks about all the games that they play and like teaching them games earlier and just like modifying rules and stuff. So I'm very excited about that. My wife is like trying to tamper
my expectations. They're like, she's not going to be playing a big euro at two years old, Reginald.
No, no, she's definitely not. So I think what's going to happen here is based on my understanding, and I would send you back to, I think it's Episode 127, OK with Susie from Games with Beanie. We talk about bringing your family to game conventions and the strategies of being able to the go to the board game as a content creator, but managing your parental duties and ensuring that your kids are having a good time as well. Now you've got a few years
before that I understand. I got some time and what people tell me who are parents is like newborns, you know, they kind of just sit around a lot, you know, So there's time to, if you're a solo gamer, like that's a good time to get some stuff in. And it's also not putting on headphones, like I'm, I'm being attentive. I can hear her, right. And also, again, this is all in theory. This is all theoretical, you know, in practice. We'll see. We'll see.
What happens? But you know, you've got it, you're going to do well. So getting to the end here, I want to ask you, I've got two more real kind of questions I want to ask. First of all is when you got into, when you pivoted your content creation from video games to board games. And I think you've mentioned them, but who really inspired you the most? Got it. OK. I'm sorry. I'm going to shout them out again. Yeah, Thank you. Yeah, definitely have to give our family plays games a big
shout out. You know, their their OFPG Voices team was inspiring, even though I was on it, because there were just so many people from so many different walks of life. And it was just all about, like, showing how diverse the amount of the gaming community actually is. You know, more than what you might think of when you say, imagine a board gamer in your
head. So they're great I got to give them because they really inspired me to like make videos because I had to make some for their channel first. I got all you can board if you guys are listening to this. I think one of them had a kid, which was a big reason why they stopped making content. So I'm like, I hope hope that's not me deadline, but who knows. But but they did so many great
videos. I thought they just were so awesome on YouTube and, and my personal favorite YouTube is actual LOL, who is a British guy and he makes these just incredible videos that are just so well produced and he's got an editor now and everything. But I was watching them really those three, I was watching really early on and that kind of
was like inspiration for that. But I will also say as just a content creator tip, which again, I still don't really view myself as a content creator, but because I consume so much content is that, you know, I, I watch video game people, I watch like sports channels, I watch booktubers, you know, I watch these people in different fields and I get, you know, you can learn from anybody, you know, and I think that's a big thing that I've learned when it comes to making videos is that I, I've
taken complete, I do a board game tag in the middle of the year. It's like one of my most successful videos. Every year I tag a bunch of people, the mid year board game tag every year in about June. And I took that strictly from a booktuber. You know, that was someone who the booktube community did that and so I don't know what we are BG tube, Maple tube, I don't know what our what the YouTube give you to do. That's a. Great question. I'm not really. I don't know.
My last question to you is what advice do you have to someone who approaches you is like, hey, Reggie, I'm thinking about really getting intentional about my content for my board games. Wow. Yeah. Definitely learn from anybody. Like consume a lot of content. Of course, it's like they always say, like good directors have to watch a lot of movies, you know, and I, I do think that like good authors have to read a lot of books.
You do have to consume a lot to actually, I do think there's a lot of people out there and I sometimes get my feelings hurt because I'm like, I'm watching all my friends out there, you know, and I'm commenting and I do those things and sometimes I'm like, where are my big content creative friends that I'm watching their videos? But it's not, again, it's not transactional, but sometimes I'm like, what what what's what's going on with that? But what I will say is numbers.
I think the biggest thing is like, you just, and this goes for anything like my football coach used to say, like the most insignificant score in football is at halftime. You know, like you should not be looking at the scoreboard to influence how you do things. So what I'm saying is you shouldn't be looking at the subscriber count. You shouldn't be looking at your followers, how many views that
thing got. Like yes, you can use analytics to like inform what videos are doing well or what posts are doing well. If it's reels or tik Toks or whatever, what podcasts are doing well. Like maybe I need to do a better title or do something, try something. If it's a lot of experimentation. It's a lot of trial and error. And I just noticed my friends who focus on the numbers too much, it's just, it's just so hard on your mental.
Like it's just such a negative loop where I'm just like, it's OK. And I can tell them all the time, like, why do you care so much about it? But they just do, you know, And I, and it's so hard for me. I'm, you know, I see this as a hobby and so like taking it too seriously. If you do have a day job, if you are paying your bills to as a caveat is is a lot, but then same in that same vein, content output is like just do it when
you have the capacity. Let let's shout out my my board game bestie, Iris Crimson board games started a channel like a year after me has like 100 more videos than I have on my channel and and she's just doing great and she has more subscribers. She does great and I think that's awesome for I just I have less videos because I just sometimes I'm in a spurt of
making. I'm making a video a week and sometimes I haven't made a video for two months and it's just depends on what's going on with life. So I think that's that's the big thing like when you have capacity and just really don't care about the numbers too much because it just this is not good for your mental health. There's no way. Well said. Well said, Reggie. Thank you so very much. This was just, this was a treat for me. It was treat for me. Thank you.
Thank you for all these amazing people you're bringing off to on your platform. Like thank you, keep. I love this. I love this idea, like giving people a space to talk and also keeps it fresh for you. But like, it is more work for you. So I want you listeners to know he is doing way more work than we are doing to bring you this lovely content. So yeah, I really appreciate it. Yeah, so Reggie, remind everyone where they can find you if they want to reach out to you or
collaborate or anything. As I always say, I am found at Rolling dot Reggie all over the interwebs, but primarily YouTube, Instagram, Blue Sky not X. And I'm also on a lovely podcast on all platforms with my buddy Jazz called Bored States BOARD States with the best logo in the biz designed by Ken and it's very cool. So Bored States Pod is where I would direct any new people to check us out right now. Excellent, guys. Don't forget to hit the like and subscribe.
I know we just talked about that the numbers don't matter, but I'm doing all this hard work. Still help, still give some dopamine. I need feels good. I need a little bit. I also need to know if this is gonna be the thing for the future. I need to see that you're watching so you know and comment. I will comment. I give them some new questions, give them some fun questions to ask. Like that's great. Like get, get some, get some ideas out there. There's going to be a lot of That's great.
Podcaster, how about that? My God, I'm my God. I'm old. That's great. It's a great reference. But as always, guys, remember, be kind to each other. Let's play more games, those Vamos.