Love Letter - Shut Up & Sit Down

GAMES NEWS! 15/04/19

Quinns: Good morning. Our top story this week? Shut Up & Sit Down has a new staff writer! Everybody, please give the warmest of welcomes to Ava Foxfort. Ava, will you please step in front of the class and introduce yourself?

Ava Foxfort (they/them): Hi everybody! You may have seen me in the comments or the forums, and I have to say I’m utterly thrilled to be here. Shut Up & Sit Down has been one of my favourite imaginary places for a very long time, and I’m delighted to be part of it.

Quinns: Ava, please kneel. I dub thee… a News Knight of the Realm.

Ava: I guess I’d better go slay some news.

Quinns: Matt left for a skiing holiday this weekend, while I stayed in and didn’t just play Scrabble, I lost at Scrabble.

The less said about this horrid state of affairs, the better. I hope Matt skiis down a well. Let’s get on with the news.

Paul: Hot summer strawberries! It’s the middle of August, the sun is (sometimes) in the sky (here it’s mostly just windy) and this is the season that you finally get into board games. It’s an intimidating prospect: you’ve eyed those enormous boxes on the shelves with price tags that would make a banker blush, but this really doesn’t have to be a hobby that destroys your wallet.

Wait! What’s that noise? An approaching siren? An… ice cream van?! It’s me pedalling furiously toward you in the Shut Up & Sit Down Budget Bus, adding a host of surprising prices in this sequel to our indispensable article, How To Build an Amazing Board Game Collection for $10. GET ON BOARD.

[Following on from our expedition into Quinns’ board game collection and the polite visit to Paul’s, it’s now Matt’s turn. Enjoy, everybody!]

Matt: Contrary to popular belief, I am not a man of infinite luxury. Paul has an entire cupboard just for games – Quintin has a cavernous loft to explore. Many have climbed that ladder and never been seen alive again, fading away to become a new addition to the dark and dusty collage of cardboard and bones. Basically those boys have space to play with. I however, have a shelf.

But it’s a big shelf! Oh my. There’s plenty of room in the rest of my flat, but my wife is a bit of a cheery dictator when it comes to interior design – so the sins of the husband must be tidied away. It’s occasionally annoying, but it does mean I get to live in a genuinely beautiful, tidy place? Swings and roundabouts, life is compromise.

Quinns: Ladies and gentlemen, roll up! It’s time for a new series where we take a look a team SU&SD’s board game collections. Come and see! Be amazed. Be aghast. Be envious. Comment with thought-provoking assertions like “why do you have that game it is bad”.

You guys will have seen my collection in the background of loads of SU&SD videos, but I don’t think you’ve seen the work that goes into it. Come with me today as I perform… a CULL.

But before that, let me show you my collection as it stands. It’s both completely ridiculous and not as ridiculous as you might think.

Read more

SU&SD’s Top 50 Games Ever, 2015! #30 to #21

Quinns: Alright, we’re proceeding into the twenties. Keep your arms and legs inside the article at all times. If you feel sick stop reading immediately, make a cup of tea and add the Forgetful Mixture we taught you how to make in your induction.

[Begin SU&SD black box transcript for “Games News Dialogue: 11th May 2015.” Recovered by crews at 9:17am.]

[Recording begins, some sound of birdsong and footsteps.]

Quinns: PAUL. PAUL. WAKE UP.

Paul: OH GOD WHAT IS THE HOUSE ON FIRE.

Quinns: Paul I know what-

Paul: DON’T COME IN HERE. Just tell me from behind the door.

Quinns: Paul, I know what you like most of all!

Paul: And what is that?

Quinns: Wrestling!

Quinns: Like the M People or a fart, today we’re Moving on Up with our team’s Top 25 games ever.

Have you guys started guessing at the top 10 yet? You must at least have had a guess at number 1. Go on. It’s just a bit of fun. No shame in it.

The Opener: Love Letter & Gingerbread Pears

At last, we give the video treatment to one of Shut Up & Sit Down’s favourite games, Love Letter! On this Opener, Matt explains why this petite, elegant and excellent game is both an essential and a great way to introduce new people to the hobby.

It’s not just an excuse to dress up, not at all, and Matt actually has a very interesting story related to that.

It is an excuse to show you how to make gingerbread pears, perfect for any holiday season.

Paul: Like a snowman at the door, having a wank through your letterbox, Christmas is coming fast. Everyone and their dog is going to be asking for board games and hoping to unwrap something special but, but not everything that you ask for is going to be suited to families.

Does your brother want to play Twilight Imperium for eight hours? Does your dad understand how the Ambush card works in Memoir ‘44? Will your mum flip the table again if she loses another game of Space Hulk?

Here, then, are Shut Up & Sit Down’s recommendations for games your family can play at Christmas. These are all games with rules you can learn in just a few minutes, and won’t keep you returning to the manual. Some are simple, some are smart, some are physical and some are outright dangerous. But they’re all terribly, terribly good fun.

GAMES NEWS! 15/04/19

GAMES NEWS! 04/03/19

Our Shopping Guide to the Best Cheap Board Games!

Feature: A Day in the Life of Matt’s Game Collection!

Feature: A Day in the Life of Quinns’ Game Collection!

SU&SD’s Top 50 Games Ever, 2015! #30 to #21

Games News! 11/05/15

SU&SD’s Top 25 Games Ever! #15 to #11

The Opener: Love Letter & Gingerbread Pears

SU&SD’s Best Games For Your Family

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