The Ascent of Board Games – Details, episodes & analysis

The end of the year draws nigh, so of course we have to do a year-end countdown. All five of us - even the near-mythical Jayson - have prepared a list of our five favorite games from The Year That Was - enjoy!

• We argue about what a game's name means because of a (missing?) apostrophe
• Frank teaches Jayson the lore of the Mothman
• All of Frank's choices are, for once, board games!
• The same cannot be said for Joe.
• We are definitely NOT starting The Ascent of Role-Playing Games, but here are some TTRPGs that we like and you might want to check out:
  • Nimble
  • Daggerheart
  • HEDGE (Kickstarter ends Tuesday!)

Also, we're bringing our Discord server back, and there's been more activity in the last week that we've seen in a long time! Come along and chat with us and some other like-minded game nerds!

As always, thank you for listening. Please consider writing us an iTunes review if you like what you hear! We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Discord, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofboardgames on Bluesky. Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them.  As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there, and happy gaming!

• Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
• Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
• Discord: https://discord.gg/tdH3QAn 
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ascentofboardgames.bsky.social
• Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
• And, occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames

Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.

Thank you for listening!

Happy post-Halloween! Now that everyone's hopped up on sugar (and/or in a sugar crash coma), let's finish our discussion of party games! Come along as we discuss:

• Mike's greatest weakness - a limited knowledge of Campbell's Soup varieties!
• What game company was founded because of a flooded salmon boat?
• "They're Belgian, but that's French enough." (We're sorry.)
• A mercifully brief digression into Marcel Proust's 7-volume À la recherche du temps perdu.

And a few video/picture links we mention along the way:

• A well-shot, well-edited game of Skull: https://boardgamegeek.com/image/2432884/concept
• Polygon plays Wavelength: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS-XT-5R26Q

As always, thank you for listening. We return you now to our monthly begging for an iTunes review. We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofboardgames on Bluesky. Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them.  As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there, and happy gaming!

• Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
• Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ascentofboardgames.bsky.social
• Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
• And, occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames

Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.

Thank you for listening!

Wildlife games! They're full of adorable meeples, heartwarming themes, and...interesting mechanics (which lead to some differences of opinion between us and the mainstream). Come join us as we talk about: 

• Big chonky animeeples!
• We stump Frank on a Phil Eklund game, which turns out to not belong in this episode at all.
• Possibly the most useless insert ever to darken a game box.
• Contrariwise, here are some very GOOD component storage tools.
• Why does Mike hate birds? Their eggs are so pretty!
• Why does Joe hate zoos? Their Arks are so Nova!

Thanks as always for listening! If you have a few extra minutes, we'd love it if you could give us an iTunes review. Please leave one if you can - it helps us a lot!

We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofboardgames on Bluesky. Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them.  As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there, and happy holidays!

• Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
• Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ascentofboardgames.bsky.social
• Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
• And, occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames

Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.

Thank you for listening!

Happy New Year, everybody! To kick things off right, here's an episode looking at all the cool games we're hoping to play in 2024. It's full of plenty of laughter, largely because of the maniacal giggling of Curtis, our newest cohost! Among the things we're laughing at:

• This map from The Stifling Dark amuses Joe.
• There is much wailing and gnashing of teeth as we pre-empt each others' picks (although no one else wants any of Brian's picks)
• This terrifying array of tokens from Magic Realm, which is getting an unofficial remake this year.
• And then, to moderate the mood, we take a sharp and unplanned left turn into games that make you feel icky to play, including John Company, Doubt is Our Product (read this amazing designer diary), and An Infamous Traffic.

Thanks as always for listening! If you have a few extra minutes, we'd love it if you could give us an iTunes review. Please leave one if you can - it helps us a lot!

We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofboardgames on Bluesky. Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them.  As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there, and happy holidays!

• Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
• Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ascentofboardgames.bsky.social
• Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
• And, occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames

Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.

Thank you for listening!

Happy December, everybody! It's time to conclude our year-end wrap-up episode, during which we each count down our top 5 games or game-related things from the year that was, from #5 to #1. We covered our #4 and #5 entries last month, so here are our top 3 from 2023, including several unexpected entries. You'll also hear:

• Frank continues to assure us that our opinions are wrong.
• A subtle but delightful piece of box cover art.
• Mike and Joe both rate games at #2 that they haven't bought.
• An asymmetrical, real-time, cooperative roll-and-write? In SPACE?!?
• But Frank, if it's your "greatest game ever," why isn't it your #1? (Because your #1 is a COMPUTER GAME, you cheater.)

Thanks as always for listening! If you have a few extra minutes, we'd love it if you could give us an iTunes review. Please leave one if you can - it helps us a lot!

We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofboardgames on Bluesky. (We've decided to leave Twitter, or rather X.) Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them.  As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there, and happy holidays!

• Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
• Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ascentofboardgames.bsky.social
• Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
• And, occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames

Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.

Thank you for listening!

Welcome, everybody! It's time once again for our year-end wrap-up episode, during which we each count down our top 5 games or game-related things from the year that was, from #5 to #1.

...or rather, from #5 to #4 this episode, with the rest coming next month, because BOY, do we like to talk about games. Highlights (and/or lowlights) include:

• Use This One Weird Trick to Diversify Your Damage Portfolio - Glyphids Hate It!
• PLEASE LET MIKE PLAY THE GAMES HE BOUGHT
• Sometimes, more is just more.
• The slightly bonkers player board from Revive
• The Adventures of Robin Hood: Friar Tuck Is Stupid
• Made-Up Place Name: Ominous Subtitle

Thanks as always for listening! If you have a few extra minutes, we'd love it if you could give us an iTunes review. Please leave one if you can - it helps us a lot!

We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofboardgames on Bluesky (new!) or @ascentofgames on Twitter (for as long as Twitter still exists). Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them.  As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there!

• Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
• Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ascentofboardgames.bsky.social
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
• Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
• And, occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames

Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.

Thank you for listening!

Happy spooky season, everybody! It's October, which means it's time for a horror game playthrough. This time, Frank brings us Hotel Lovecraft, an audio-powered paragraph-style game from Story Master's Tales. We've trimmed the game down to make for a reasonable episode length - and we got a few rules wrong along the way, to be honest - but hopefully you'll find it entertaining!

• Frank and Sandi's character develops a taste for blood. (Metaphorically. (We think.))
• Mike introduces us to the concept of a "comfort knife."
• We are all very bad at Egyptian mythology. Except Mike.

Thanks as always for listening! If you have a few extra minutes, we'd love it if you could give us an iTunes review. Please leave one if you can - it helps us a lot!

We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofgames on Twitter (for as long as Twitter still exists). Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them.  As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there!

• Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
• Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
• Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
• And, occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames

Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.

Thank you for listening!

It's time for another game designer interview! Kyle Rowan is the lead game designer at Wyrd Games and the main brain behind last year's smash hit Vagrantsong. In addition to talking about how Vagrantsong came to be and the exciting pair of expansions coming up on Kickstarter, we discuss:

• The game's esoteric set of inspirations, including the works of Jack Kerouac, the comic book Harrow County, and the computer game Kentucky Route Zero.
• Why some people (*cough* Mike *cough*) bounce off the Runaway character.
• RPG discussions, including Eat the Reich and the forthcoming Blades in '68.
• And a (not sponsored) flashback to local barbecue that is totally Kyle's fault.

If you want to hear our original take on Vagrantsong, it's in Episode 44, Part 2. And if you want to follow Kyle on "the socials," he's @rowanoake on Bluesky and The Platform Formerly Known As Twitter.

As for us, we appreciate your listening as always, and would love to get an iTunes review if you have a few minutes to leave one. We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofgames on Twitter (for as long as Twitter still exists). Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them.  As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there!

• Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
• Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
• Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
• And, occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames

Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.

Thank you for listening!

We're back with even more SCIENCE! The nerdery continues as we discuss more recent science-themed board games, and offer such tidbits as:

• "BoardGameGeek - full of lies." - Joe Streeky, 2023
• A brief digression on the interior starship lighting design of Picard season 3.
• The cards in Space Race mix English and iconography, but for why?
• The overarching threat of an all-Phil Eklund episode
• Frank's last minute addition this month is Expedition Zetta, with space exploration plus intrigue and romance!

Thanks as always for listening! If you have a few extra minutes and are willing to help us with our scientific research, we're trying to study the effects of an iTunes review on our number of listeners. Please leave one if you can!

We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofgames on Twitter (for as long as Twitter still exists). Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them.  As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there!

• Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
• Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
• Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
• And, occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames

Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.

Thank you for listening!

SCIENCE!

It's certainly closer to our areas of expertise than sports. In fact, Mike (a science teacher) says a lot of impressive-sounding science words when discussing various games, which some of you may understand. In addition:

• Smog plumes!
• Didja ever notice that most "evolution" boardgames are actually "intelligent design" boardgames?
• The most terrifying game board - oh, I'm sorry, "math map" - ever.
• Frank says, "It's a decent game for people who like that crap."
• Best score track ever?

Thanks as always for listening! If you have a few extra minutes and are willing to help us with our scientific research, we're trying to study the effects of an iTunes review on our number of listeners. Please leave one if you can!

We'd also love to have you visit our website and let us know what kinds of games we should discuss next. You're also more than welcome to comment on the episode page, or our Facebook page, or tag @ascentofgames on Twitter (for as long as Twitter still exists). Whatever way you prefer to share your opinions with us, we'd love to hear them.  As always, we appreciate your listening - stay safe out there!

• Website: https://www.ascentofboardgames.com
• Email: ascentofboardgames@gmail.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ascentboardgames/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ascentofgames
• Discord: http://discord.ascentofboardgames.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ascentofboardgames/
• And, occasionally, Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ascentofboardgames

Intro and outro music is "Evening Melodrama" by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), licensed under a Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

The Ascent of Board Games is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Some rights reserved.

Thank you for listening!