Shut Up & Sit Down

The Best Board Gaming Books! (According to us)

chapter candy, the alien gurgey, quinns where did you get those bookmarks

Quinns: Books! They’re like very long board game manuals without a game.

Now I’ve got a good 23 years’ distance from the bullies at my school, I’m freely able to say that I think books are nice, and today on the site I want to recommend the board gaming books that I’ve had the most fun with. There’s fiction and non-fiction, controversy and aliens, a Go master at the end of his life and a 21st century designer at the peak of his powers.

But best of all, each one has helped me to understand this ancient hobby a little better.

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SU&SD Play…. Dungeons & Dragons: The Hangover

Who's clothes am I wearing?, It's been a long day and I've got a mustache

Paul: Are you already missing the madcap misadventures of SU&SDD&D? Then grieve not, because today we’re also sharing our very special (and slightly different) live SHUX roleplaying session. Prepare yourselves for The Hangover!

This rather different D&D module is based around the hugely successful comic Rat Queens and was authored by its creator, the ineffable Kurtis Wiebe, so who better to ask to run this remarkable roleplaying event than the man himself? Yes, that’s right, Kurtis took the helm while Pip, Cynthia, Quinns and Matt went wild with his characters. Don’t worry, no canon interpretations were harmed during the making of this video.

Our huge thanks again to Kurtis for flying in to make this happen, for doing a Q&A after and for being such a terrific convention guest. This is also a personal point of pride for me, as I assembled and organised most of this session, and it was a pleasure to bring some live roleplaying to SHUX. One short word of warning: this is definitely a little more NSFW than many of our other videos. As they say in some parts of the world, viewer discretion is advised.

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Games News! 12/02/18

resin beans, my card wife, the brands

Quinns: We’ve got a whole mess(e) of news for you this week! That’s my very clever way of saying that most of this week’s stories come from BoardGameGeek News’ coverage of Spielwarenmesse, the world’s largest international toy fair. Through that link you can join those guys at the coal face, or you can stick with Shut Up & Sit Down as we collect the shiniest announcements.

And speaking of shiny, Coimbra is a 2018 release that I’m really excited about. That’s not just because this site has yet to try any games from notable Italian designers Flaminia Brasini and Virginio Gigli (perhaps best known for Lorenzo il Magnifico and Grand Austria Hotel). It’s because this is a German-style resource management game that actually looks nice, with striking art by the inimitable Chris Quilliams.

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Podcast #72: Climbing Mount London

IS THIS THE END FOR OUR HEROES?! Matt, Paul and Quinns were last seen launching an expedition to get to the top of the Shut Up & Sit Down review stack. They talked about wanting to scale games like Mountaineers, A Tale of Pirates, The Climbers, the second edition of London and the Munchkin Collectible Card Game (which actually sounded… quite good?). They were also talking about getting to the bottom of a thought-provoking reader mail. It’s rumoured that it questioned whether pirating board games became an ethical grey area in some countries. Today we found this recording. It’s the only evidence we could find that they’re still alive. Come home safe, boys. New feeds (if you’re missing episodes 71 and 72 try these): iTunes Google Play RSS for your favourite player

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Review: A Tale of Pirates

billy's bad cannoning, some criminal lemons, a pedalo in space

Quinns: You’re looking at A Tale of Pirates. More specifically, you’re looking at a 3D pirate ship, a load of sand timers and an accompanying app. And before we get to how all of this fits together, let me add that you’re looking at a great little game.

Last year a lot of people got excited about Kitchen Rush, a real time game where players place sand timers to run a chaotic restaurant together. If Kitchen Rush was any more up our street it’d be banging on our front door, but actually, we found the video game Overcooked to be more entertaining and cheaper.

A Tale of Pirates is similar to Kitchen Rush, but instead of 2-4 players popping their sand timers down to go shopping or cook a bouillabaisse, 2-4 players are placing sand timers to load a cannon or climb the crow’s nest of their very own ship. But more importantly, they’re working together to unlock the next level in a very playful campaign.

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Games News! 05/02/18

handcuffs, I'll die in time, and my opponents will die as well, a pound of saliva

Paul: I shake the champagne bottle, pop the cork and what comes bursting forth? February! February everywhere, gushing and bubbling in all directions. I don’t know about you, but I have a distinctly good feeling about February as a games month.

Quinns: Is there anything finer than sharing a frosted glass of February with some good friends? And what a Games News it’s brought us! With everything from Aztecs to political intrigue to some strange new version of Monopoly that I might actually play.

Paul: You’re kidding.

Quinns: Drink up!

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Review: Hive Pocket

catnip for poindexters, wait until you see the outtakes from this one, monopoly comes for us all

Surprise, it’s a re-review of Hive! Fortunately the last review barely talked about the game and wasn’t filmed in a totally ancient ruin. In more ways than one, it’s wonderful to think how far we’ve come.

Gosh, we’ve had a lot of fun recently returning to older games. They’re all so good! What are some of the games in your collection that you feel have stood the test of time, readers?

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SU&SD Play…. Dungeons & Dragons, Part 3

an actual magic sword, a locked door puzzle, the classics are genuinely the best

What follows Part 1 and Part 2? We’ve got some news for you: It’s the third part of our D&D adventure!

In this episode our team of a tory, a crank and a lizard descend into their very first dungeon, the very engine room of D&D. What monsters will they fight? What puzzles will they overcome? And what treasure will they find?

It’s easy to poke fun at D&D. It’s a lot harder to argue with the thrill of beating up a boss and taking his gold. Get ’em, Badger!

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Review: Gaia Project

a bloated boxer, a wibbly purple, a wonky illustration, interstellar nutella

Quinns: Everybody, stand up from your chairs! Pull up your pants. Spit out that gum. An esteemed classic has returned.

We reviewed fantasy town-building game Terra Mystica back in 2013 and found ourselves submerged in strategic nirvana. Today 28,000 people have rated it on BoardGameGeek, awarding it in an average of 8.3 out of 10. That’s shockingly high considering just how complicated and odd Terra Mystica is, with its challenging puzzle squished in between ugly mermaids and magic bowls. But there you have it! It’s just that enjoyable.

This week we’re looking at the sequel, Gaia Project, which is a big deal in more ways than one. As well as swapping Terra Mystica’s musty fantasy for a sci-fi backdrop, it’s more expensive, more complicated and demands significantly more table space. All set up, you’re looking at an asteroid belt of iconography.

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Games News! 29/01/18

dates, do dates have wasps in, no that's just figs, phew, sea bears

Quinns: Good morning, my sweet creatures of the table. There’s only one story that could possibly kick us off this week: How a Random New Zealand Man Became a Character in Rising Sun.

To summarise, CMON’s ludicrously successful Kickstarter game, Rising Sun, was this month shipped to some 32,000 backers only for a few people to begin asking about this “Kotahi” stretch goal miniature. The backers couldn’t find any Japanese folklore by that name, but they did find a fake Wikipedia entry where someone put their friend, Kotahi-Manawa Bradford, in Wikipedia’s list of Japanese mythical creatures as a joke. In other words, research for Rising Sun was being done via Wikipedia and as a result a random Maori guy was immortalised in CMON’s biggest release of the year.

CMON have since stated that they were indeed “tricked”, and have sent a couple of copies of the game to Kotahi and his friend in a coy bit of PR, but I’m not sure they come out of this looking good.

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