The Shelfside Podcast

EP14 | The Board Game Anomaly: Campaign Games

This is Episode 14, NOT 13 as we say in the recording!

Playing Campaign board games is quite a different experience from normal board gaming! We mean this in the sake of building a community, being able to play it frequently, and the sheer amount of depth many of these games. Frosthaven, Tainted Grail, Aeon's Trespass, and Scythe Rise of Fenris are mentioned. 

We also talk about a whole bunch of other stuff after our podcast hiatus, like TI4, civilization, our reviewing process, narrative vs. story vs. plot, and more.

Our List Of Things You Need For Board Game Influencers

Ashton talks with Crowdfunding Nerds about what your game should have before sending it out to reviewers! We talk about TTS teaching, what to ask for in a review, and the advantages of written reviews.

00:00:34 – Is Ashton Related To Daniel?
00:03:58 – Objective Reviews?
00:12:53 – Shelfside’s Minimum Plays
00:13:36 – #1 You Need A Professionally Crafted Rulebook
00:15:43 – #2 Communicate Your Game’s Playtime For NEW Players
00:16:25 – Media Kit?
00:18:03 – #3 Offer To Teach Your Game On Tabletop Simulator
00:19:17 – You Need At Least One Review Out Before Your Launch
00:22:04 – Entertainment As Marketing
00:26:45 – #4 Frame Your Game In An Exciting Way
00:28:53 – #5 List The Number Of Times Your Game Has Been Playtested
00:29:51 – #6 Include Links In Your Email For More Information
00:31:26 – #7 Mention The Specific Part Of Your Game You Want Reviewed (Solo, Campaign, etc.)
00:35:00 – #8 Leverage Your Game’s Re-playability
00:39:20 – Advantages Of Written Board Game Reviews

EP13 | Kickstarter Crap

Whether it be Kickstarter, Gamefound, or whatever crowdfunding way to buy your board game, there’s incentives on both ends: Buyer & Seller, for their to be crap included. How can this be avoided, and is it even possible? Should you buy later editions of kickstarters?

EP12 | What Makes a Board Game Scary?

A Halloween themed episode on horror/scary attributes of board games, and how that relates to video games and books! We discuss Tainted Grail, Eldritch Horror, Mansions of Madness, Dead of Winter, and more scary games! Also features a discussion of our most recently played games, Sidereal Confluence and Deal or Death.

EP11 | Video Games and Board Games should steal from each other

The video games and board games should steal from one another! Very fascinating comparing the more mature industry of video games to the recently developing industry of board games. Iconography, open world, content, and more discussed! Inspired by Civilization, Tainted Grail, Twilight Imperium, and more.

EP10 | The Problem with Root w/Mistuhbear

The brains behind a lot of our comedic sketches comes in to talk about Root, which is one of his favorite games, and a game that Ashton continues to have issues with.

EP9 | What’s Next for Shelfside?

With the launch of our new website (hey you’re on it now!), tons of games played recently, and even more videos on the dockets, we talk about what's coming up! Games like Galactic Era, Empyreal, and even Root Digital have impressed us, while we have pre-orders of stuff like the new Twilight Imperium roll and write!

EP8 | The Paradox of Complexity

After a go at Human Punishment: The Beginning, the guys really delve into complexity into board games, since it really seems to help with replay value at the very least, with a huge upfront cost of rules learning, and a longer run time. 

EP7 | Radlands

We delve deeper into Radlands! There's a whole lot to analyze further past our initial review, as we make more comparisons to trading card games, with our seasoned past.

EP6 | Shelfside’s Commonly Asked Questions

We've heard these questions asked frequently around the comment section of our YouTube channel, or through private messages, or these are just patreon asked questions! This can hopefully clear up ideas on our scoring, whether or not we're blood related, what games we like, etc. etc.

EP5 | How Mechanics Interact with Story

The patrons have voted, and here we're talking about all sorts of board game mechanics and how they help facilitate a great story. Or which mechanics (worker placement) don't do that job so hot. Discussions of asymmetry, cooperative games, and the good ol' randomness tie in really hot here.

EP4 | Interaction

Scythe, Civilization, and Rising Sun. These are all doing interaction in way different ways. How can Euros approach interaction differently? What is a good system for interaction? How can interaction even evolve over time in Yugioh?

EP3 | Our Reviewing Process

How do we review a game? How do we come up with these scores? How long does it take? How long must Ashton redo shots? Here it is!

EP2 | The Role of Campaign Games

Gloomhaven, Tainted Grail, even Descent 2nd edition, what is going on with these games with the new kickstarter landscape? Do games even need to be this long?