Review: Renature

Fuzzy Little Dominoes, The GameFeel, What Kinda Bird Says ‘Argh’, Spot the Double Badger

Crikey! It’s a review! At this hour? On a WEDNESDAY?

For this scintillating mixture of performance art and review, Tom got lost in the woods for an entire week reviewing Renature – only bringing a camera and some boardgame pieces into the ordeal. On the 7th day, he emerges from amidst the leaves, and bestows upon us his completed work. Oh no.

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GAMES NEWS! 09/11/20

Morally Ambiguous Storage Solutions, Wonky Press Hats, Aluminium Pringles

Tom: …and with a flourish of scarlet ‘twixt the layers of briny blue, a beautiful painting I shall perform into existence: With palette in hand, brush outstretched – and a open expanse of canvas still to tame, all that is left is for me to fetch…

Ava: No. Tom. Don’t do it.

Tom: … The Games… Hues?

Ava: There aren’t enough sighs in the world. There’s a short report on Digital Spiel, the un-physical version of what would normally be Europe’s biggest games convention/market/noisy-warehouse. The headline figures are Tabletopia doubling its user base, 148,000 people checking out the website, and 400 companies from 41 different countries showing off their bits.

Matt: ALTHOUGH I feel I’d be remiss not to mention that little old AwSHUX was just a week before Essen, and considering it was a tiny thing we’ve heard Behind The Scenes that it had a pretty remarkable impact across the board! Some of those Essen Kudos-Coins are ours, basically, Ava – and I’ll fight to the death for a handful of those beauties. Quick, say something positive about somebody else before I crush us all beneath the weight of my ego.

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Podcast #121: The Stingless Spectacular

rear admiral fiddle, mister dumpster, and daddy quimbles

It’s podcast time, and you’re all invited! Does our generosity know no bounds? In this ghoulishly 121st episode of the Shut Up and Sit Down podcast, Quinns, Ava and Tom once again settle into the lavishly upholstered podchairs to scream words about boardgames into a wall. NEW YORK ZOO (04:02)! MARIA (19:38)! LITTLE TOWN (40:06)! THE KING IS DEAD (55:41)! These are all words bellowed in an order that one would assume makes them titles for games – and we will run with that assumption to save everyone the embarrassment. We promise they are real and we didn’t just madlibs this podcast’s games into existence. We’re not on that level just yet. Have a lovely weekend, everybody. Thanks to our amazing community, podcast transcripts are available here, and are usually completed within a week of the podcast’s release.

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Review: The Search for Planet X & Stellar

SPACE. Where did it come from? What’s it doing? And why is it so MUCH?

We have no idea, but board game publisher Renegade Game Studios is here to help, offering two great games that will teach us all about outer space- The Search for Planet X and a cute card game called Stellar.

On the one hand, we’re not sure what space did to deserve such generous treatment. On the other hand, space seems awfully dangerous, so perhaps it’s wise for people to stay on it’s good side.

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GAMES NEWS! 02/11/20

Shai-Light Imperium, Aren’t We All Just Stressed Out Monkey Robots, Monster Munch Godz, Spooky Bribes

Tom: Once on a November dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, On a quaint and curious piece of tasty board game lore..

Ava: Tom, it’s well past morning, please just get up and do the games news, will you?

Tom: “’Tis the games news,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door… Only this and nothing more.”

Ava: Yes, so let’s bloody get on with it.

Tom: … nevermore!

Ava: Ooh, ooh. We’re going to bump a kickstarter to the top of the news purely because we really like Omari Akil and the work he’s doing to improve representation in the industry. So there.

Hoop Godz is Board Game Brothas’ follow up to Rap Godz, and is about basketball hoops, rather than hula hoops, surprising nobody.

A Distant Tom: What?!

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Playing Games With Elizabeth

a vengeance, a voyage, a meaning to what we have made

[Eric Tonjes is Shut Up & Sit Down’s miniatures gaming correspondent. This week, we’re publishing an article from Eric of a rather different nature. Content warning: This piece contains terminal disease and the loss of a loved one.]

Eric: As I write this, I’m looking at a copy of Pandemic Legacy: Season 0 sitting on my bookshelf. I am smiling. I am crying. It is a game I will always love, and I will never know how it ends.

Elizabeth and I got married almost a decade and a half ago. I was already firmly entrenched in my hobbies, painting miniatures and running a weekly D&D campaign. Initially it was “my thing,” and I never tried to make her love games. However, over our early years, she slowly eased into them. We played some Ticket to Ride, some Catan, and soon she was hooked. I remember the first time we finished playing Caverna, which became an enduring favorite. She told me she really liked it, probably in part because she won. I pointed out that she couldn’t say she wasn’t a board gamer anymore. She gave me her little half-smile and said she didn’t know what I was talking about.

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GAMES NEWS! 26/10/20

Honestly it’s a potato. So many ways to parse a pig, Undermining the fundamental nature of the games news

Tom: Welcome to the news, this just in: Ava is the best and Tom smells. Hey, That’s rude – get back in your own voice!

Ava: How’s that? Better?

Tom: YES. Now please never do that again. You’ll confuse the readers and unsettle my breakfast.

Ava: I promise. Only if it’s convenient for the purposes of a joke, or I don’t want to be held responsible for one of my opinions.

Tom: Fine. Wait, what?

Ava: I didn’t manage to spend much time at Spiel Digital, it taking place while I was still hungover from our very own online convention. But I’ll be spending the coming weeks poring through what I can to see if I can dig out any exciting announcements. Please drop by the comments if there’s anything you saw that you’re excited about that we haven’t yet newsed-up. The one thing I did catch was a little bit of a preview of the previously teased new Descent box, and it looks like we finally have enough details to give it a news item.

Descent: Legends in the Dark, aims to mark a break from its predecessor, with Fantasy Flight keen to state that this isn’t Descent: Journeys in the Dark: Third edition, but instead the start of a new line within the same universe. The new Descent will be a fully co-operative, app-addled experience of dungeon crawling adventure, boasting an utter boatload of fancy toys to play with. There’s a 16 episode campaign called Blood and Flame, and multilayered 3D terrain and even miniature furniture: clearly attempting (and succeeding, I think) to out-do Heroquest’s recently announced adventure-dollhouse.

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Podcast #120: James Bond’s Sexy Racist Kneecap…. LIVE!

Daniel Wideman’s Infinite Bondiverse, Queen of Mean Spiders, Mud Modelling, A Big Bin Full of Flamingo Steaks

In this politely 120th episode of the Shut Up & Sit Down Podcast Tom, Quinns and Ava grab themselves three microphones, one twitch chat, and a whole month of preparation to best beam podrays into your brain… LIVE!

Broadcast live and silly from AwSHUX 2020, this episode sees Ava and Tom delve into Mottainai and A Game of Thrones: The Board Game – the two very different boxes chosen for their respective application videos. Betwixt these two discussions we ramble about the infinite flowcharts of Combat Commander and Dominant Species, before settling on lighter fare with Legendary: A James Bond Deck Building Game – a box that asks the question: ‘what if bond(s)’? We then wrap up with brief, punchy chats about putting your friends into a bind in Oriflamme, and putting your kangaroos into buns in New York Zoo

Have a lovely weekend, everybody.

Tap below for full timestamps and more info!

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GAMES NEWS! 20/10/20

a lump of history, a reverse turing test, a lick of locality

Ava: Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom, Tom.

Tom: Aaaah. Stop poking me. I’m awake, I’m awake. I thought it was meant to be worm month??

Ava: Tom. It’s TUESDAY. We SLEPT THROUGH THE NEWS. And anyway, worm month was a lie sold to you by the greedy greeting card companies after they accidentally acquired thirty tonnes of sentimental worms after a spelling mistake on their annual words order.

Tom: I’m feel betrayed! But I sympathise. We’ve had similar issues with the Games Newts. Onwards!

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AwSHUX?! It’s Sunday’s Schedule!

Dawn of the final day, Quinns and Mercy Do Not Get Along, There Were Literally Hundreds of Horses

It’s the final day of AwSHUX, the world’s finest digital boardgame convention! Here’s Tom to give you an update on all the fun stuff that’s happening today! Take a look at the ‘read more’ section if you want a quick rundown of how to get in on this lovely little section of the internet…

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