Episode 0: Welcome to our gaming group

JP  0:25  
Welcome to "Whose Turn Is It Anyway", a podcast all about our gaming group where we talk about board games, gaming culture, and much, much more. I'm JP and I'm joined by well, pretty much most of the group So hi, everyone. Hello, here we go. So I think let's get everyone introduced is a new podcast we've got new people on the on the show. So as gaming fashion, we're going to go clockwise. So starting with you.

Becky  0:50  
Hi, I'm Becky. I have been a part of the group for since 2017, I think. or there abouts anyway,

JP  0:59  
a while. 

Becky  0:59  
Yeah a little while, I like a very lot of different games. Nothing too heavy. 

JP  1:08  
Good stuff

Kerley  1:11  
My name is Andy Kerley. Everyone calls me Kerley. So please do that. So I joined this group back in 2017 as my first game been gaming extremely regularly ever since probably one of the more regular gamers I would say. Still loving it. Loving all my new board games love and all the old ones and yeah, look forward to many more in the future.

JP  1:33  
Yeah, good stuff.

Ian  1:35  
I'm in. I think I also joined the group around 2017. That's roughly when the group started, I think wasn't it?

JP  1:40  
Yeah, pretty much in the early months. Yeah. Of 2017. Give

Ian  1:44  
Give or take. I'm sure we'll get more later. But yeah, I'm more of a casual gamer. Probably the lightest stuff a bit like Becky. I'm a big fan of dexterity games, though, which I'm sure we'll discuss later. But yeah, that's me.

Rob  1:57  
Cool. I'm Rob. I again joined in 2017. I got introduced to it by JP, you will who bullied me into playing the game because he had nobody to play with then the group was formed. I prefer Co Op games dungeon crawlers. I don't like competitive as in competitive against other players. I quite like the team effort. And yeah, that's about me.

JP  2:24  
So true. Yeah. What you just said about starting the game. Rob, you need to play games with me, because I've got no one else to play with.

Rob  2:32  
I thought you were mad.

Ian  2:34  
So you're not agreeing with the bit where he said he's a team player?

JP  2:37  
No, no, no, no, no.

Kerley  2:39  
He's not a team player. He just was a co ops. It's two different things. Yes.

JP  2:44  
But no, welcome, everybody. I think it's also worth mentioning that we've got quite a few other people in the group who aren't here today, and will be joining us on future episodes. So they will know that introduce themselves as and when they turn up at some point anyway.

Ian  3:00  
Anyone who's in this hobby knows how hard scheduling is. And that's basically what happened. We're trying to get everyone around the table for this first episode. We

JP  3:07  
We had eight, we are now five

Ian  3:10  
Quickly became seven and then it became five. 

JP  3:12  
Yeah, but we press on and we game regardless. So exactly. 

Ian  3:15  
I will introduce them when they turn on. Absolutely. 

JP  3:18  
So yeah, so I think the best place to start really is to talk about the podcast and kind of how it's gonna work. And I was going to be structured. So we'll run through that. And then we will spend a bit of time in ourselves introducing ourselves a bit more and kind of cover a few questions. And we're probably going to gamify that a little bit because why not? We're gamers it's what we do. So podcast wise, we're sheduled is probably going to be a fortnightly release. That's what we're planning. And we're going to try and stick to that. So every two weeks, we'll get a new episode out there. And why are we doing it guys? Well, I think for me, it's we talk about games all the time, I think about games every day, because I'm just that kind of person. And I think collectively as a group, we have a lot of spread knowledge of games and the gaming culture and all that kind of side of it. So yeah, it's just really good to kind of record the record some of the conversations that we naturally have anyway, I

Kerley  4:18  
think it's really good to talk about the things that you're most interested in with your friends. We can record it and people find that interesting or you know, useful then great.

Becky  4:28  
Yeah, yeah. Yes. A few more people interested in the hobby. That's,

Ian  4:33  
yeah, exactly. And like maybe give other people ideas about things that we're doing in this group that might work for them and their friends or their groups. But it's like we were saying, even before we started recording this episode, we set it for almost an hour chatting about games, and we all said we shouldn't be recording this really.

JP  4:49  
Yeah, it's completely true. And I think the the fact that I want to kind of focus this podcast around our gaming group I think the gaming group is is the heart of kind of what we were going to do What we're going to talk about and I'm really like the group's the star, if that makes sense. And, and that's a good segue into kind of the host structure as what we're calling, it's the first player kind of concept. So again, taken from games, we're going to have like a first player, of which they are kind of the main host for a short period of time. And then the other kind of hosts on the episodes will be the other players that kind of joins in, and discusses all the different topics and things that we've got. But like all first players, it doesn't last long, and someone's always gonna steal it from me. So we're gunning for you. So I have managed to secure that first player token, and, and taken that worker placement spot. So that is 

Ian  5:41  
Through sheer force of will, 

JP  5:43  
yeah, from sheer project management and sorting all this out. But what we're doing is roughly around four episodes, we'll switch it around. And I think that's quite good for everyone as listeners, because it kind of brings a bit of variety as well, to whoever's the first play will kind of curate the various topics for that run, and, and get other people involved. And then as we pass that along, you're naturally going to get different influences on the kind of topics and episodes coming up, really. So that's how that's gonna work. And then the structure itself is we're gonna break it down into various different segments. So we've got the first one, which is "LET'S TALK ABOUT HEX", which is, which is all about kind of what we've got to the table. So what what have we been playing? What's been really good fun, What haven't we enjoyed just all that kind of gaming eventy stuff that who backstabbed who and all the usual shenanigans? 

Kerley  6:41  
Usually, Tambo 

JP  6:43  
we've got to get Tambo on this podcast at some point

Becky  6:46  
He's not here to defend himself.

Kerley  6:49  
It's way I prefer it

JP  6:51  
Never sit next sit next to Tom Buck. So that's going to be you're going to be that segment. And then we're going to move on to the main event, which will be the core focus of the episode. And we've got to kind of mix that up a little bit. We might do some deep dives on specific games, we'll probably do some bits around gaming, group gaming, culture, anything and everything really that we feel kind of makes sense. And we want to talk about so 

Becky  7:16  
new releases maybe when they come along, 

JP  7:20  
whatever.

Ian  7:22  
Like JP said, as well, stuff to do with, like how you organise a gaming group, because there's probably a lot of people out there maybe game with like one or two friends or they have a very small group of people. And what we've managed to do in this group is get together a much wider group of people and kind of get more regular nights. And there's a lot that went into As JP will tell us all there's a lot that went into organising all of that. So yeah, probably some useful stuff that people as well, 

JP  7:45  
it's become a cult

Ian  7:47  
has it? Am I part of a cult now? I always promised myself I wouldn't, but I knew it would happen.

JP  7:53  
Eventually. It's Doc JP.

Ian  7:57  
Coming down his kool aid people that drink.

Becky  7:59  
The more people you have to choose from the easier it is to get the stuff you want to play into the table, isn't it? Especially where think people like me who are not perhaps into some of the really kind of heavier games. It's nice to have a night every night again, that's just the kind of lightweight, more fun, perhaps

JP  8:16  
Yeah, kind of other party side of things. But, and that's the great thing, I think about our group, and without kind of going into that episode, because I will absolutely be one of the episodes is that we've got such a diverse set of gamers that all like different things, which can be a challenge sometimes when you want to get a specific game, because everyone likes different things. But I think in the majority, a lot of people will be willing to play different things and try different things out. And naturally, I think we've got enough people in the group now that we can comfortably get the right player count and on the table, which is amazing, considering five years ago, but exactly more on that later.

Ian  8:54  
as well. The only other thing to say on that is that it should be quite good for the podcast as well, because we've got those kinds of different perspectives, especially with the first player concert, like JP says with it passing around, we're going to get a different kind of flavour from every every first player as they get their turn. So that should be quite cool.

JP  9:11  
Yeah. Good stuff. So that's the main event. The next bit will be kind of question time. So again, encouraging you as listeners and kind of anyone that's out there to kind of get in touch with us in the show. And we have a Facebook page, which is "Whose Turn Is It Anyway Podcast, where you'll be able to regularly kind of get in touch with us and kind of send us anything you want really well within reason, behave.  But anything gaming related that we can answer. 

Ian  9:38  
I mean, you can send whatever you want, we just might block you. Buyer Beware 

JP  9:43  
that that is very true. So obviously that's going to be might take a few ghosts or a few episodes to get up and running. But we will be regularly checking on that and maybe getting some questions from the group in the meantime, just to kind of kickstart that one off. The next bit will be the penultimate turn. So that's kind of our warm down where we wrap up the topic, we kind of wrap up the chat, we'll talk about what's coming up in our lives, whether it's certain gaming news, we're looking forward to getting that kickstarter, or the gamefound release that's coming. And I've got plenty of though.

Ian  10:13  
I was gonna say that's just gonna be the same segment every single episode for JP, I'm still waiting for eight of these Kickstarters that I backed during the pandemic

JP  10:22  
lockdown, so a lot to answer my bank balance, but there we go. But now just generally, it could be about you know films are you excited to see and, and all that kind of jazz, really? And then we get to the final turn where we close the show. So that's the structure anything else to add?

Ian  10:40  
No, I think I'm excited to get into it. Obviously, this episode is a bit different, isn't it? Because we're going to do the kind of individual intros in a minute. But yeah, looking forward to seeing what topics you've got lined up for us, JP, absolutely,

JP  10:52  
absolutely well, you'll have to wait.

Ian  10:54  
Of course, keep everyone in suspense for a bit anyway. 

JP  10:59  
All right, cool. Well, let's get into it. So the core kind of focus for this, as I said earlier, is to introduce ourselves. And as I mentioned earlier, we want to gamify it. So as per usual tradition, before we start any game, we have our first player choosie app thing, which, obviously, the phone is locked itself, because of course it has, and I'm going to basically say the question, we're going to see who's going to answer it each time. And then obviously, the person who's answered them doesn't go in the next time, and then we'll eliminate it down to everyone's answered the question is,

Ian  11:30  
just in case anyone doesn't know what a put your fingers in the first place. That we should probably explain that slightly. Because we can all see that there's a phone in the middle of the table, and we will understand it. But basically, a lot of gaming groups will be familiar with this. But there's there's an app where you can just touch your finger on the screen on the phone and it picks the first player

JP  11:49  
is called Chuwazi. I think she was he sure was a

Becky  11:52  
It's French for choose right. Or choice. 

Kerley  11:56  
I'll take you word for it my dear

JP  12:01  
You've convince me Becky

Becky  12:03  
I'm going to have a more authority. Yeah, that's what it is

Ian  12:06  
I'm gonna volunteer JP, who I'm assuming is going to edit this episode. He could put it in the show notes

JP  12:10  
in the show notes and work that out

Rob  12:13  
 I'm looking forward to seeing that amendment.

JP  12:15  
So think is in the first question. Before we question. The first question is, how did you get into the hobby? Alright, so here we go. We're gonna fingers and fingers going in

Ian  12:26  
thinking. Is it gonna be it's JP it's rigged? It's rigged.

JP  12:31  
I've talked enough and I'm still gonna carry on talking. Yes. So how did I get in the hobby? Well, I think as a kid, so as a kid growing up in the 80s, we obviously had monopoly. At time at the time Monopoly was like everything it was, I thought

Ian  12:47  
that was gonna be like a band point of discussion. 

Rob  12:50  
You said we weren't allowed to swear.

JP  12:55  
Me to be fair to Monopoly. I liked as a kid because there wasn't options and that was until Hero Quest came

Becky  13:01  
I'm gonna join him in that gap. I liked Monopoly as a kid as

Kerley  13:04  
It's a great entry gate. That's that's the reality. Okay, 

Rob  13:07  
Get out the lot of you

Becky  13:10  
Rob is not pleased

JP  13:10  
It's become popular to hate on Monopoly. who's been in the industry industry? Like we've been in the industry. You know what I mean, as in we as consumers consumers

Becky  13:20  
will tell someone at work or a casual person. Oh, we like working. Oh, like Monopoly? Yeah, we play that. You know, we've talked about real different games. 

Ian  13:27  
But you also got to remember like, back when we were kids in the 80s and 90s. Let's be optimistic in the 90s. There wasn't as much choice as there is now. Right? So like, monopoly was just one of the games that everyone had it everyone knew how to play it. 

Kerley  13:40  
It's a bit like comparing a Commodore 64 80s PC game or whatever it was back then Spectrum to an Xbox Series X is is just not a hobby has moved on a little bit. And it's great is had its time people still love it. Fantastic. 

JP  13:57  
But yeah, but I kind of got into HeroQuest. And that blew my mind. Like that was like, oh my god, this is amazing. And he used to love being the you call it the Games Master or the Dungeon Master forgetting that it's been that long. Instead of doing that, setting up all the rooms and all the orcs and things and then my brother at the same year, got it for Christmas, he got Bloodbowl. And that was amazing. We just used to have the two teams going head to head which for anyone that doesn't know BloodBowl is like a fantasy version of American football where you score points and kill each other. Again, lots of fun that a lot of rules, like for 10-11 year olds are gonna consume,

Ian  14:37  
like a gateway into kind of Wargaming is yeah, in a way. 

JP  14:40  
It's a bit more structured and in the way that you have got a board with squares, rather than measuring tapes and armies and things like that. 

Ian  14:47  
I think there's still quite a big Blood Bowl community out. Yeah, there's still a lot of like Bloodbowl that goes on. Yeah.

JP  14:53  
So that kind of got me in and then there's been a hiatus of just growing up and drinking And, and then getting into Xbox and gaming and, and I was a heavy kind of Xbox gamer for a long, long time until I pretty much got a copy of XCOM. Which for anyone who's heard of that game or played that game, the board game, I wouldn't recommend it as a gateway game to anybody, it's very stressful. It's a good Co Op game that you're playing with an app and it's got a timer and just causes a lot of stress and panic. So again, not really friendly for new players, but hey, there we go. I find it is great fun. And that was the the game that got me back into the hobby because I'm thanks to Fantasy Flights. Product Catalogue, which in there because you start to see your Game of Thrones. Oh, Mansions of Madness. Oh, anything else? Yeah, it's

Ian  15:45  
almost like one lead. One thing leads to another board gaming, isn't it? And then you end up with an entire room in your house full of board games. 

JP  15:52  
Exactly. Here we are five years later, and Kallax's everywhere. Anyway, someone else's turn. I'm sure. I've talked enough.

Ian  16:00  
Alright, we're doing a different question this time

JP  16:02  
Same one, i'm not in it obviously

We've got Rob is Rob

Rob  16:09  
Oh geez. I basically got into the hobby because I was bullied by JP to play Netrunner one night. I had no idea what I was doing. Oh, no, not a clue. My wife looked at me like I was mad when I was going to say that I'm going to play a board game with with JP played the game had no idea what I was doing and absolutely loved it.

Ian  16:35  
That's a pretty common summary of everyone who plays Netrunner for the first time, I had no idea what was happening. But I loved I couldn't

Rob  16:40  
I couldn't even tell you how to play it. Now. I couldn't, I couldn't remember how to play it. But it was just the whole it's almost like an RPG in in card format. I play a lot of video games. So it was quite nice to physically be able to see somebody opposite you to interact with them. And did that and then join the game group where I met you guys and we played Game of Thrones, I think we said earlier was the first one where it basically got battered by all of you.

Ian  17:13  
And again, some things never changed. Again, absolutely

Rob  17:16  
loved it and then got led down the rabbit hole of Fantasy Flight Arkham Horror the Card Game. Again, it was a it was an RPG every game was every game night was three hours of a different story. It was it was brilliant. And really, really enjoyed it. So that's kind of how I got into it. And then still here, somehow I haven't been kicked out with a group 

JP  17:42  
We won't kick you out mate. 

Kerley  17:45  
Yet

Ian  17:46  
I think that's quite a common story. They like net run, it didn't get you then Arkham will is kind of like fancy flat are gonna get you one way or the other. 

JP  17:52  
Or it's Marvel Champions 

Ian  17:54  
Or now it's Marvel Champsions

Rob  17:55  
Which we are in a deep hole with that. But, but like you said about when you get it and you see all these different games that are coming anything that looks cool, that looks cool. And it's almost like the fear of playing a game is far more than actually playing it like yes, 

Becky  18:13  
I totally agree with you on that. 

Rob  18:14  
It takes a little while to get used to it takes a little while to get your head round. And once you have though, all the games that I've played I've loved bar one, which I'm sure we'll talk about at some point. 

JP  18:14  
I know what it is

Rob  18:25  
It's gonna cause a bit of controversy. But no and yeah, absolutely love. Absolutely, bro.

Kerley  18:31  
It's quite interesting to hear that your first games you played and the games that you prefer a really heavy thematics it's like when you're looking at Netrunner I think of like, it just it doesn't speak to me of a card game. It speaks to me of you know, it's such a good thematic storyline. And the fact that you're breaking into location is just conjures images rather than any sort of you know, and it's what you move straight on to Arkham. Which again, I don't know if you could actually imagine a more theme heavy story based heavy game. So yes, nicely. Two of the best possible games you could have had.

Rob  19:08  
I think I lucked out. Yeah. Good mentor. I'd say mentor, but I don't think I had a choice.

JP  19:17  
Cultist

Rob  19:18  
Yeah, it was gonna happen whether I liked it or not, I just went with it.

Becky  19:22  
I think that's one of JP strong points, not you know, wanting to sing his praises and make his head massive, he's a really good facilitator. And, you know, really good at making sure that everyone understands the rules, and everyone's having a nice time. And that is fun. And is really good at suggesting games, probably because you own about a million of them. You're really good at Oh, well, if you like this, maybe you might, you know, and it's only for his own benefit. 

JP  19:47  
It's all selfish

Ian  19:51  
your first is free and then before you know you're finding out what the biggest Kallax you can buy

Kerley  19:56  
for you though you're spending 600 pounds on Too Many Bones. Yes.

JP  20:01  
I'm gonna cover that it's going to be

Kerley  20:03  
that we'll talk about everyone that like that. But like JP, for me is just You're absolutely right. But I think actually, more than him enjoying playing the game, I think he'd rather everyone elseenjoyed it, which is which is a really good trade.

Rob  20:16  
That's why I stopped playing the game that I mentioned earlier.

Becky  20:20  
I don't know what this mystery 

JP  20:21  
It's Scythe

Becky  20:21  
sorry you we will be well, okay.

Kerley  20:24  
I would argue that I would say we played in one game that made you absolutely melt that's worse than Scythe

Ian  20:30  
Oh, I know what this is. Captain Sonar

Rob  20:35  
I nearly flip the table i was so mad

Becky  20:38  
It can be fun, it's just a bit frantic. 

Rob  20:40  
If everyone sticks to the rules

Kerley  20:43  
Don't go down that road again.

Ian  20:45  
We're gonna have the argument again.

JP  20:49  
Okay, I'm gonna put that back in the box. We'll deal with it another episode.

Ian  20:53  
We will definitely have a party games episode where Captain Sonar. Captain sonar is a phenomenal great good game, Greg. Yeah, even Rob knows

Rob  21:00  
I really enjoyed

Ian  21:02  
really bad time that night.

Rob  21:05  
If everyone sticks to the rules, and only one person speaks at a time, it's fantastic. When everyone's speaking and you're trying to live up to No, no, it wasn't that it was North. Are we going north north? You sure what? Is that one north?

Becky  21:23  
So for those of you who haven't played Captain Sonar, I've only ever played it once. And it reminded me of like battleships on steroids turned on to 12

JP  21:33  
real time battleships. 

Ian  21:34  
Yeah. With multiple players on each side who has to be able to work together?

Becky  21:39  
Yes. One speaking, one drawing and one deciding 

Rob  21:42  
one supposed to be speaking. 

Ian  21:45  
Okay, Rob, 

JP  21:46  
Put it back in the box

Ian  21:52  
And this is from someone who explicitly says that Co Op games are what they like, which is but the level of cooperation he was getting was not up to his standards. It was

JP  22:03  
going on next next player. All right.

Rob  22:07  
The suspense is killing me

JP  22:10  
it's going counterclockwise. 

Ian  22:12  
So I've probably got a similar start of my story to rob actually, because I think again, it was JP who really got me into the hobby, having played some board games as a kid. And I've always liked games and gaming and was into video games for a long time and then wasn't and did various other things, but probably for board gaming, you know, in terms of what then led to this group. It was me and JP were actually on a work trip over in Maine. And it was winter, wasn't it? It was like February or something in Maine says snow everywhere was a horrible trip. weather wise and work was from what I recall. But JP had bought this little game with him called Netrunner. And I've never heard of it. 

JP  22:51  
It's a common theme

Becky  22:52  
So it's your fault, then. 

Ian  22:54  
Everything's JP's fault

Rob  22:56  
 cost me a fortune

Ian  22:58  
And one night, I think it was the night after we'd been to that bar across the road from the hotel because they said they had a games night and we were like, oh, we'll go check that out. That'd be cool. And it was kind of underwhelming and maybe we'll discuss that another time in more detail. 

JP  23:11  
Good stories there

Ian  23:11  
That was a really fun night. Really fun night. But yeah, we weren't we weren't too impressed with the games on offer this bar across the road. So JP so well, I've got this new game. Netrunner. It's meant to be really good. I'm enjoying it. Let's give it a go. And you sort of taught me that night. And I like Rob I don't think I really understood I didn't really know what was going on. But I just loved it. I was like, exactly like Kerley said like the way that the theme and the mechanics were strung together. And I know Arkham does this as well. And Marvel Champions is really good at this as well. It's a thing that FFG have just got nailed down. It's just tying the thematics the universe and the game all together in a way that like you said, Rob, it's more it feels like more than playing a game you're not playing a card game you're living I don't know it sounds really pretentious, but you're kind of living an experience like you can you go on a journey and Yeah, after I played that what we only played I think two games that night because I was new and we were so slow we neither of us really fully understood all the rules and got lots of things wrong. But I was just hooked and just immediately got into Netrunner and then yeah, the group came along start playing some more tabletop stuff. Again, I think I was at that Game of Thrones game that first one I remember finding that very frustrating. But yeah, then over time, you play more different stuff and you kind of expand out a bit and yeah, I've kind of skewed definitely more towards the casual end of things I enjoy a party game I definitely like Captain Sonar now I can't be said yes around the table lover because it's not and in fact I specifically love the role that you hate which is the navigator having to try and try because you you're being everyone followed the rules. Yes, 

JP  23:16  
The Radio Operates

Ian  24:58  
 sorry radio operator. Yes. Exactly, yeah, the navigator is like the captain. He's the one who's saying the directions. But yeah, the one who's basically trying to track the enemy sub. And you're right. It's definitely stressful. Causes frustrations I don't think I've ever quite got as frustrated as you did that though. I can emphasise sound like,

Rob  25:18  
looking back, it was one of the funnest nights that we've had. It was the funniest nights and when one of us is about to lose our shit, like Game of Thrones, where the first time we played it, we were all meeting each other for the first time. Yeah, we were trying to be nice to each other. And

Becky  25:37  
like, last year to two and a half.

Rob  25:41  
And we, you know, we kind of come to the conclusion that we're gonna screw each other over, let's just get on with it. 

Ian  25:48  
That's the best way to bond. Right.

Rob  25:50  
But as well, we played Battlestar Galactica. And I think that was the night where the group was fully formed. I feel it was even because it we went on for like, seven hours or really three o'clock a morning by the time we finished. And it was

Ian  26:05  
then you find out that the guy had been sat next to all right, is it good damn Cylon. had been trying to screw you over every step of the way is fantastic. It's fantastic. I mean, we've got some other very, very good stories about Battlestar Galactica, but we'll maybe wait for Chris to join us. We discuss those but yeah, so that's pretty much me. I then got into a whole bunch of different games through the group. Probably not one of the most regular players to the table trying to be a bit more regular work can be enjoyed bit of everything. And I do occasionally play the crunchy stuff. We've played some Twilight Imperium, and we although I suck at it, and I just spent six hours just foiling my own plans, which is annoying, but yeah. And then yeah, I've also ended up getting into a lot of like tangental games I've become a bit Crokinole head so quite enjoyed dexterity games. Yeah, I suppose partly your fault partly Shut Up and Sit Down. Yeah, a combination of the two. So I did end up shipping a board over from Canada. And yeah, 

JP  27:04  
It is a beauty though

Becky  27:05  
It's one of the best games. The reason why it's been in the top 100 Forever

Rob  27:11  
That is a level of commitment though that I don't think I could have physically sure 

Kerley  27:16  
ahem Witcher 

Rob  27:19  
I will poliently sit down and shut up

JP  27:23  
good stuff.

Ian  27:24  
Yeah, that's me. All right. 

JP  27:25  
Two left.

Ian  27:27  
Who's it gonna be?

Rob  27:29  
I would do a drumroll but..

JP  27:31  
it's Becky. 

Kerley  27:32  
Saving the best toolbar.

Becky  27:37  
Bit similar to JP, I suppose I started playing. I don't know, you know, monopoly as a kid. I mean, I've got siblings, but they're much older than me. In fact, their children would come. So I was kind of like an only child. So playing Monopoly was like a treat or playing any kind of game Mousetrap. I think on the day. Yeah. So playing board games with other people was like, you know, a rare thing.

Ian  28:00  
What kind of Mousetrap player were you? Were you the kind of master player who just wanted to build a machine because it's fun, to set it off you weren't actually interested in playing the game. 

Becky  28:10  
I am really competitive, but not maybe very good necessarily compared to other people. So I have had to learn how to lose

Ian  28:21  
I'm with you. 

Becky  28:23  
But I like I do like playing. I don't think there's a particular style of game my like, we were discussing this earlier. I think I'm just I'm an impatient gamer. So if turns take too long. If it takes a long time to learn. I'm going to check out even if the game is awesome. I'm just not going to be

Kerley  28:39  
interactions key for you. 

Becky  28:41  
Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So I like a bit of all sorts really, but just nothing that's gonna take six hours of my day. I'm probably just not not prepared to

Rob  28:52  
with you on that, though. Like playing Twilight Imperium.

Becky  28:54  
Yeah, I'm happy to host it in my house. That is no problem. But don't expect to be perfect my lovely place

JP  29:00  
I like the way you say I'm happy to host "IT" in my house.

Becky  29:02  
It's no, it's fine. It just I get bored. And I'm because those kinds of games are so reliant on everybody being really focused and you can't just drop out halfway through, because the it will be ruined for everyone else. I just know that my interest levels will not be sustained for long enough to actually play.

Ian  29:22  
I like as well that not only is Twilight Imperium "IT", but also that it was your house, despite the fact that you're sat here next to your husband.

Becky  29:30  
Well yeah, I don't I like hosting. In fact, I'm almost just as happy to have people around playing the game that I'm not playing in my house. That's great. I'll do cups of tea

Ian  29:40  
You are an excellent host. 

Becky  29:43  
That's, that's very nice way to say. Yeah, I'm just if the game takes too long. All my other bugbear is if I can't learn it quickly. Yeah, I hate learning a new game more than almost anything. Because you don't know what the point is. You don't know which direction to go. You don't know what's worthwhile doing because? Because you don't know yet. So you don't know if it's worth investing in path A or path B because I find that really frustrating.

Kerley  30:11  
We found that better. And because what we've started doing is watching videos online before hand

Becky  30:15  
that's my only way. Yeah. 

Ian  30:16  
Get a little primer 

Becky  30:17  
Yeah. I'm not bothered about winning on this good, because, unfortunately, I'd never do especially even if I'm playing, you know, to players with my husband. I don't always lose. But he is just very good at gaming.

Rob  30:31  
You're not alone on this.

Ian  30:32  
Everyone in the group knows what it's like to lose to Kerley

Becky  30:35  
He doesn't win all the time. 

JP  30:36  
It's taken 30 minutes Kerley. 

Kerley  30:41  
It's not that bad

Becky  30:43  
JP is a facilitator, he's great that Kerley is just an innate efficiency machine. Yeah, she's that and that's his, that's his ability. It does, however, mean,

Kerley  30:55  
I thought we're talking about you

Becky  30:58  
it unless, you know, unless you know the game really well. You're not. I'm not ever gonna beat him. I have beaten him on a few games. And then I feel very excited about. And that's really nice. Because you get the same. You know, that you have you know that you've played it. He doesn't mind winning. I think he has to be able to know he played a good game. And I feel exactly the same. I don't care if I win. I just need to know that I did it properly. Yeah, like I made the right choices, or I was efficient. Yeah, that's it. I don't care about really winning.

Ian  31:29  
I can totally relate to that. Like, I think me and you are very similar in the way that I could I hate the learn as well. Yeah, I hate learning the game. Because of all the things you said is this, that I don't know if what I'm doing is good or right, or why I'm doing it, or experience

Becky  31:43  
And that's how you find learning new games. You treat it as a as a game. And that's brilliant. And I wish I could have more of that opinion. Because Rob's very much like yeah, I'm happy to learn a game. Yeah, the first games right off, it's fine. I wish I could have that opinion. And, you know,

JP  31:59  
I can learn anything i don't care

Becky  32:01  
I just Yeah, Rob superly like happy to just yeah that's fine

Rob  32:05  
that's because I don't expect to win either way, even when I understand what I'm doing.

Ian  32:11  
This is why you like co-ops at least then you can win together exactly.

Becky  32:16  
You're really good at picking up the point of the game really quickly and being able to identify the need because

Ian  32:22  
you've watched to know maybe I mean, I guess I just got that's just like how my brain works that kind of logical brain but but then it frustrates me that I can't translate that into good strategic and tactical decisions. You know, I still end up being my own worst enemy and it's always my I know it's always my fault that I haven't done as well as I wanted to and I'm fine with that. I don't let it bother me maybe as much as it used to but I'm like you I'm also really competitive. So it's like it's a pretty bad combination being very competitive and also not very good

Becky  32:53  
I wasn't going to call you rubbish I'm quite competitive. I think I'm good at doing efficiency things like in in life, especially if it means I get to be lazy because I've worked out the most efficient way to do it. Yeah, I just can't then translate that into a competitive element where I need to do that but the the downfall of someone else or Oh no, I need to do that one first because they might do that and that will hamper i that isn't where my brain is but Kerley is really good.

Rob  33:20  
He doesn't care about taking people down

JP  33:28  
how did you get in the hobby Kerley? Obviously to annihilate people?

Kerley  33:31  
Yeah 10 years old. That was my primary objective. I've been in trouble gaming aliens. Similar to you is all I can say really sorry for the smaller games from Monopoly. But I suppose the big one for me was hey look it was Hero Quest. It was Space Crusade. 

Rob  33:51  
Again, I forgotten about 

Kerley  33:53  
dexterity games was Crossbows and Catapults. So it was those type of games but I suppose the big one that made me go wow was probably Lord of the Rings Risk. That was it for me like the strategy, the thematics I'm obsessed with Lord of the Rings as well, which we'll see how all of that tied in together. And I don't even know when that was released. But I imagine I would have got into it when the films came out. So that would have been like 18 years old. Yeah. 2001

Ian  34:19  
is worth pointing out that you do now own a small collection of Lord of the Rings swords. 

Kerley  34:24  
Not just swords they're just the ones that are most easily kind of, you know, seeable around the house.

Ian  34:29  
He has the swords on the wall they in your old house that used to be in your kitchen. 

Becky  34:33  
It wasn't a kitchen it was an armory

JP  34:36  
 It was an armory wasn't it

Kerley  34:38  
But no so that was probably my right this is my thing. You know, I've always been Patreon people, my grandparents and my parents to play games and things and yeah, I probably say I went out of the hobby a little bit similar to most of you guys, in my I'd say mid 20s I was more interested in drinking and Xbox and PCs and all that kind of thing. Again, it was just was we living with you? We were certainly very close friends. Yeah. And I remember you going into Maine with JP, you played Netrunner, you came back and said eh look.

Ian  35:13  
Because I knew I knew you'd love it as well. Because actually, for different reasons, I think then why I loved it, but I just knew there's it. There's enough complexity, and enough, and because it's a deck builder, as well, like this, there's infinite customization, and I knew that you would just love the challenge of figuring it out. Yeah. And yeah, I look back on some of the games we played in that house. And the meta that we had in our net run home games was so weird. There were there were cards that were just like power cards in our games, because we were building certain decks a certain way. But it just terrible cards. Just awful. You'd never see them play. But they worked for what we were doing.

Kerley  35:53  
It was almost like watching evolution in like a totally isolated environment. Yeah. And you can see all of the different weird things that happen with that compared to the rest of the world because

Ian  36:04  
like we we played so many games with net runner for so long without any outside influences. So it took a long time even for me to start kind of like going online and finding out well. Oh, what do other people do? Well, can I can find decklists. Online, we didn't know about any of that. It was just us with our partial collection building deck. So it's a remember, we used to build decks for each faction. And then we'd face them off against each other on like a rotation basis and see what was winning and then try and tweak them to make them better. It was just it was amazing.

Becky  36:34  
They really got into it.

Ian  36:36  
Very serious. Well, that was the start of my Netrunner collection. I ended up buying you out of your heart when I moved.

Kerley  36:43  
But no, that was kind of my poor game with Ian, but then he invited me to Game of Thrones. Yeah, and that was my first game. And this is where I met JP met Rob. Met a couple of the others and, and you have all this accent? Yeah.

Ian  36:56  
I wish I also knew you'd love Game of Thrones, like guys. So up your ally

Kerley  37:01  
as well, yeah, I think fantasy is all good. And anything strategy fancy as well. Oh, my god. That's so good.

Ian  37:07  
So you can sculpt with someone else along the way. And then well,

Kerley  37:11  
someone in the back. But no. So that's how I got into it. And probably I don't want to say maybe the but I probably say that was amongst two or three of them more regular gamers. Yeah, pretty much for any game. There's very few genres that I totally write off. I'll do party games. I'll do strategies. I'll do lighter, euro games, I'll do pretty much anything. That doesn't mean to say that I love every single game I've ever played. But I'd say I like certain games of every genre. Yeah. So yeah, that's me. All in all,

JP  37:44  
awesome. Cool. Well, I'm just looking at the time we're getting close to it. So last question. Very quick fire. I'm gonna go reverse order and go back to you Kerley. Okay, ever again. Ever? What is it? And what are you enjoying right now? Which could not be might not be your favourite thing.

Kerley  38:00  
I mean, okay, to keep it quite short and sweet. I would say there's a few games right at the top that I'm struggling to pick out a winner of Yeah. And I tend to say the games that are at the top of their genre. Because a few. Okay, so I think Terraforming Mars Nemesis has gone up there recently, Twilight Imperium and Eclipse, I would say that is probably I struggle between those games. Yeah. Those are my top ones. As far as what games I'm enjoying at the moment. I think at the moment, I'd have to say I'll Ark Nova. And I will say that with a little bit of a because I think that might actually break into the top. I don't know yet, so but it's certainly got the potential very early. Now. It's definitely a great game is whether it's a Terraforming Mars, which, if I was pushed, I'd probably say for longevity is probably my favourite game. Yeah. Yeah. Cool.

JP  38:53  
So Becky

Becky  38:57  
We're playing mostly Ark Nova at the minute and that is quickly becoming probably one of my favourite games, because it's got so many different elements.

JP  39:05  
Because it's got animals in that was

Becky  39:08  
gonna be the second point. The artwork is beautiful. And the all the iconography and pieces are, it's obvious. It's just a really obvious game. Would I have would I have liked that so much. Had I not played Terraforming Mars? Maybe not because there's a lot of crossover. And yeah, Terraforming Mars is the other game. That is one of my favourites ever. It's not because we've got the Kickstarter pieces that are very very tactile. wouldn't like to say we don't like it as much as if we had little tokens.

JP  39:37  
You would have 3D printed someone

Becky  39:41  
was looking upon Etsy You can get little metal square. little cubes. I'm not gonna lie. But yes, the Terraforming Mars is one of my favourite games ever. Because it's, I mean, we played an entire day when you were sort of teaching. Yeah, okay, we were eating food and other stuff. But yeah, yeah, it was great. And I did win that one, but that's because I was being coached by Kerley. This is amazing. It's just brilliant. And I, it space my favourite thing? No, not particularly, but it's sort of doesn't matter what it's about. It's just such a good game.

JP  40:11  
Awesome, Ian

Ian  40:13  
Yeah, yeah, I guess I talked a lot about Netrunner before that would definitely be up there kind of is one of my top games. I'm not going to play as much in the last couple of years with the pandemic, I used to play a lot of kind of events around the country and stuff like that, and some of the bigger competitive events, but it's definitely still up there. I mean, I would always play a game if Netrunner with anyone, anytime, wherever decks or cards we've got available. Yeah, I'd always play it. And for all the reasons we discussed before, it's just such a brilliantly designed game is it's fantastic. And more recently, yeah, I suppose Crokinole is the one that's kind of taken over for me as far as tabletop gaming is concerned, to the point where I'm kind of looking at organising the UK championships and stuff like that.

JP  40:59  
You were so close with the bloody pandemic took that off you

Ian  41:01  
I know. We were we'd sold the tickets. The event was good to go at the Expo. And yeah, then COVID 

Becky  41:08  
We were taking boards we were getting, we had it all sorted.

Ian  41:12  
But we're about to put the tickets back on sale again for this year, so we will be at the Expo. So yeah, I guess Crokinole is really the one now and then slightly skewing outside of board gaming. I've been doing a lot of VR gaming, I've got quite into VR. So I'm kind of quite heavily into that scene as well. A lot of event organisation there as well that I think we'll talk about this more in other episodes I'm sure about like building groups and communities and stuff but that's that's definitely been a big thing for me is kind of just bringing players together organising tournament that kind of thing. So, but yeah, Netrunner Crokinole can't get much better that

JP  41:48  
No, I would have picked it for you. There we go. Rob

Rob  41:52  
I'm gonna pick three if that's okay, and pick my favourite game my own favourite game with the kids. Okay, and one of the favourite one of the best games I think I've ever played or most enjoyable. Yeah, I'm probably gonna steal

Becky  42:05  
Is it Captain Sonar

Ian  42:07  
Oh Scythe

Rob  42:08  
it's not okay. favourite game my own is Descent. Just the longevity of it. And again, it's an RPG you know every game is different and we play quite a few in the whole 3d terrain.

JP  42:23  
So this is the Legends of the Dark the new one, have both to be fair

Rob  42:28  
Yeah, the second edition I've still got stuff on pre order that's never got his own battle but the way that the 3d terrain is used, it's not there as a you know, just as a 3d terrain the story in each chapter really evolves using the terrain and for me that makes it makes it awesome. Yeah. favourite game of the kids we play Descent together but it's a bit of a party one but the the Marvel Villainous? Yes. The we they really enjoyed the Disney one. I enjoy the Marvel one just because a bit more combative. And it's again, really simple game. But they really enjoy it. And we played it recently we did with our wives and my wife hated it all the way through. Until the point that she realised she'd won. Ah,

Kerley  43:26  
Became very popular

Rob  43:27  
she enjoyed it. 

Ian  43:28  
So we know what kind of games she is.

Rob  43:30  
Yes. But like we talked about it Too Many Bones is one of the funniest games I think I've played

Becky  43:38  
I really need to play this

Rob  43:41  
shows that there's not a lot of pieces. It's it's a really simple 

Becky  43:45  
Why is it so expensive than if there's not a lot of pieces 

JP  43:47  
It's made out poker chips and neoprene. So the quality of those pieces are mwah

Ian  43:53  
just because there might not be many doesn't mean there's not expansions. Yeah, this is a game that JP owns. So there are expansions

Kerley  43:59  
Big old chest

Rob  44:00  
and it's made an neoprene so you can play in the bath what's not enough, but the mechanics of the game, the way the story is driven, the characters. You know, when I get why you've got all the expansions because each character makes it feel like a completely different game. And if I had a spare 600 quid, I'd probably go for it. Unfortunately, at this point in time, I don't so I'm gonna have to come around and play it with you. Sorry about that mate

JP  44:34  
well, unsurprisingly, my favourite game is Too Many Bones. Because I've spent so much on it, so I have to justify it somehow. But now the fact that I've got a whole Kallax cube devoted to that game, the Trove Chest and everything and it's just a thing of beauty. And but for me having played it 70 odd times. It's just probably testament to how much I really enjoy it and even solo like can you play it? Yeah, happily play that solo. Whether that's kind of just one of the characters or three at the same time or whatever really it's just a good fun when I'm in the mood for it, you know because it's a bit of a setup and all the bits and bobs

Rob  45:10  
but which is ironic considering there's not much to set-up

JP  45:13  
well, there's a lot of chips in the baddies you've got a sorr 

Ian  45:15  
and you know you've got to you've got to run the bar got the bubble bath in the bath

Rob  45:21  
The villains are cool baddies. Yeah, they literally is brilliant.

JP  45:27  
So I think that's my favourite but the one I've been enjoying recently is Nemesis. And I think again, it's a game that every euro euro gamer will probably hate because it's it's on the thematic side but it's essentially puts you into Alien the film and you feel like you're in that film you get the sense of stress of being in that kind of film and you're playing a character in a story and you might not survive

Kerley  45:51  
so again so difficult isn't it genuinely feels like an achievement

JP  45:55  
just being alive

Rob  45:56  
never enjoyed losing so much as when I played that game as I'm

Kerley  46:01  
not winning doesn't matter but I've had some of my best experiences in that game and got a right hiding.

JP  46:09  
It's just it's been a lot of fun. And I'm enjoying just exploring that game with the expansions generally again, as you said earlier, different group different mechanic different different kind of feel for the game. Everyone's treating things differently. So yeah, there we go. 

So we got that didn't we use themselves

Becky  46:31  
to pack up the pieces and put things in the little baggies

JP  46:34  
Absolutely. So yeah, so let's wrap up so yeah, we got to count those those pesky victory points to CS one but we weren't obviously so it was actually but no, no, 

Ian  46:46  
we know it's Kerley's

JP  46:49  
Well done Kerley

Ian  46:51  
But thank you everybody for listening. And if you enjoy this show, please like subscribe and review on your podcast player of choice. And if you want to find out more about the show, you can check us out on our Facebook page, Whose Turn Is It Anyway Podcast, and we'll be back in two weeks with another episode. So until then "Whose Turn Is It Anyway?"

Transcribed by https://otter.ai