Shut Up & Sit Down

Review: Cockroach Poker Royal

hot ants, cool dogs, regal bats, and an average man

As our team continues playtesting and preparing for the first of the year’s Big Reviews, here’s a cheeky appetiser! While Quinns was on holiday this month he filmed a couple of lightweight reviews on his favourite travel games, starting with the ever-entertaining Cockroach Poker.

(Yes, we published an article about Cockroach Poker before, but in 2018 our written articles reach a fraction of the audience that our video reviews do. In other words, if a game’s absolutely awesome then us writing about it is basically the worst thing that could happen to it, so going forward you can expect us to occasionally re-visit a classic game in video format.)

(And no, you’re not wrong, Quinns mentions Galaxy Trucker in this video but forgot to film that bit of the script. His waterlogged English brain was probably struggling with all that sunshine.)

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SU&SD Play…. Dungeons & Dragons, Part 2

acquisition mode, the fabled swamptopus, man is literally the real monster

It’s time to rejoin the adventures of Badger Kennington, Mr. Balderk and Sean Dragonborn! Our group’s inevitable descent into “being the bad guys” continues apace.

If you missed part one, check it out right here. If you want to watch more from our sickeningly good guest dungeon master, Mark Hulmes’ own channel can be found here. Or were you looking for something a little… stronger? If so, all of SU&SD’s role-playing game coverage is here.

Tell you what, this “Dungeons & Dragons” thing is a lot of fun. Expect big things from this game. As cutting edge board game critics, we’d stake our reputation on it.

Review: Necromunda: Underhive

in memoriam lyv, an itchy brain, a timid lover, a beloved lasgun, a two-part head

[We once again welcome SU&SD miniatures correspondent Eric Tonjes for a report from some far-flung warzone. If you’ve not yet caught up on his work for us, do so on the double!]

Eric: A few years ago I had the chance to revisit the grade school I attended as a child. It was a jarring afternoon. The huge hallways were suddenly kind of small. I could see over the bookshelves in the library where I used to get lost. The teachers… several of them were younger than me. I walked in the door feeling nostalgic; I left a bit unsettled.

I found myself remembering that visit as I got ready to open Games Workshop’s new remake of Necromunda. A skirmish game set in the collapsing underbellies of hive cities in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, the original Necromunda one-upped the grim darkness of the 41^st millenia by adding gangs, drugs, slavery, abject poverty and child soldiers. To a 15-year-old me, it was a thing of glorious joy. Yet I wondered, would this turn out to be just another narrow-halled school with five-foot bookshelves?

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Games News! 22/01/18

this web site is pointless, sumsong, chris quilliams can you see this, you are so good

Quinns: Good morning everyone! I’m back from a holiday in India where I watched a lot of Kabaddi, ate a lot of dosas and explored a little bit of ancient Hampi.

Ack, I’ve only been back at my desk for a few minutes and I’m already playing havoc with the Games News brand. Not one of those links takes you to a rousing piece of honest-to-betsy board game news. Please, let me start your week with some links that do.

As always I like to give the top story to the game with the prettiest header image, and this week that means the glossy Kickstarter of “Ridley Scott’s Alien but Don’t Tell His Lawyers” board game Nemesis. As any Shut Up & Sit Down reader will know, you’ll struggle to find a bigger Kickstarter curmudgeon that ol’ Quintinius P. Smith, but Nemesis’ campaign is so assured, so dramatic and so generous that even I found my mouse finger twitching towards the “Back this Project” button.

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Dungeons and Dragons with Mark Hulmes

Snake Buds, Another Glass of Breakfast, Unexpected Debts

January 20, 2018 Let's Play

Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeons & Dragons (5th Edition), Role-Playing Games, Mark Hulmes

Last year we transported our bodies to Bristol for a day of filming with Mark Hulmes – a Dungeon Master extraordinaire who specializes in creating high-grade fun within the realms of Dungeons & Dragons. Be aware that whilst we’ve snipped out the swearing, the series does contain infrequent graphic descriptions of violence.

Joined by friend of the show Pip Warr, we delved into a world of monsters, fine wine, and terrifying levels of socioeconomic privilege. Quintin squeezes into the boots of a tired and possibly dangerous Dwarf, Pip is a Druid Dragonthing who doesn’t entirely understand humans, and Matt is just a terrible man who also unfortunately seems to have acquired a gun.

This is a three part series which will continue next Wednesday, and shortly after this one wraps up we’ll have a video of the same group playing The World Wide Wrestling RPG. Honestly, it is quite the thing.

Chomping at the bit for more? Please enjoy this video from last year’s SHUX in which the team and friends played through a D&D adventure as the cast of Rat Queens – with the author of the series acting as Dungeon Master! We had an absolute blast with that one, although do bear in mind that it is honestly very rude.

Dungeons and Dragons with Mark Hulmes

Snake Buds, Another Glass of Breakfast, Unexpected Debts

Podcast #71: The Dragonholt Assault on Fake Eggs

Matt and Paul regroup for a post-festive ramble through the wilderness of sentient cardboard. Paul shares some thoughts on Legacy of Dragonholt and Celestia – which Matt is comedically unable to recall too clearly. Meanwhile, Matt has been toying with the free co-op app for Imperial Assault – and compares his experiences with this to the recently-reviewed Gloomhaven, for your pleasure / horror. We then talk a little about the shocking phenomenon of fake board games, as covered by Paul in this week’s news, and finally cap off the first pod of the year by addressing the hard-hitting issue of S.N.A.C.K.S. Basically, Paul is mildly interrogated about cookies. Who – in truth – is the real cookie monster? Only the cold hands of time will decide. Thanks for listening!

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Games News! 15/01/18

50s scoffing, flaccid accusations, painful wretched metal body

Paul: Happy New Year, one and all! As I turn the lights back on at Shut Up & Sit Down, stoke the boilers and put the hamsters back on the treadmills, I watch our site slowly coming back to life. The gears turn, the pistons thrust and the Supercomputer blinks back into a state of self-awareness, giving for just one nanosecond a familiar scream that signals the eternal understanding that it will be forever trapped inside its painful, wretched metal body.

I hope your 2018 has started well! The news has been piling up in drifts, so I’ve scooped out some of my favourite bits. Feel free to leave any more stories you are particularly excited by in the comments below!

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…And that was it for 2017… and 2016!

it's not entirely clear how many eggs there were in plato's cave

Quinns: Hello everyone! Shut Up & Sit Down will return on January 15th. In the meantime, continuing on from our roundups of our favourite features from 2014 and 2015, here’s a hefty list of our very best work from 2016 and 2017. You know the phrase “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket”? Well, this article is basically a basket containing all of our eggs. Take that, Plato. You’re not the boss of us.

Paul: I don’t think that’s what Plato sai-

Quinns: Did we miss your favourite video or article? If so, leave a comment!

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Podcast #70: Trading Shady Trees

the paul cannon, the walnut sprout, squid gym membership

Who’s feeling cosy? In this final, festive podcast of 2017 Matt and Quinns tuck themselves beneath the Christmas tree before cutting it down for victory points. That was an oblique reference to the first game the pair discuss, the noble Photosynthesis. The boys then get far too excited about cubes and the possibilities thereof in the absurd game Sidereal Confluence: Trading and Negotiation in the Elysian Quadrant. They then discuss Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire, the new Games Workshop board game showcasing beefy people hitting one another with hammers. Finally, we read out a heartwarming love letter to the Play By Forum section of the SU&SD forum, and read out our last ever Folk Game of the Month, with a little discussion about depictions of mental health in fiction. Best wishes to everyone who has trouble at this time of year.

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