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Shelf of Opportunity Review (part 2) · Pick Up and Deliver

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Welcome to pick up and deliver it the podcast where I pick up my audio
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recorder as I step out for a walk and deliver an episode to you while
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I stroll around. I'm Brendan Riley. Well, good morning, listeners.
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It's a lovely day here in suburban Chicago, and I'm continuing my episode from
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last time in which I review my shelf of opportunity. So let's just jump
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right into it. Bora Bora. This is another Stephen Feil game. I
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just realized that's three Stephen failed games in my collection, all at the same
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time, and they all look pretty good. Bora Bora is another classic.
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It is a point sell a game where you have a mix of different resources
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and different kinds of components and different tiles, and you are mixing them all
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together and trying to find out how to best gain points. By manipula the
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different systems. You're getting bonuses that help you do things better. You're trying
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to compete with other people to get certain things. I did learn to play
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at one time, and then I didn't actually get it played, so now
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it's lost to time. I'll have to go back and learn it again.
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But looks really interesting, I know, they did republish it with a new
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theme. I don't know what that theme is or which game that is that
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tracks to it. It either came out already or it's coming out soon,
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but I have the old one. Bora Bora. Nextcept North thirty eight Rome
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End Roll. This is a very complicated roll and right, what Ben Pinchback
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and Matt Riddle and Adam I'm sorry, I forget your last name. Adam
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over at MotorCity GameWorks would call a loaded rollin right in this game, you
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are building Rome and you're checking off lots of boxes. What you do?
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So I believe this is a David Turksey game. If I'm not entirely mistaken,
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I could be wrong, and I'm not going to click through for it
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right now. You can find that information on rattleboxgames dot com on this page
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show notes. But the game itself is really beefy and it looks similar to
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or related to Hadrian's Wall. So, having played Hadrian's Wall recently, it
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would be fun to play Roman Role and see how did these games overlap.
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What do I think of the comparison between the two? Nextcept Number thirty seven
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Alien Fate of the Nostromo. This is the game I would really like to
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play. I just haven't had the opportunity yet. It's a co op which
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I love co ops, but it's not going to get played at my house
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again sci fi and also horror. I'm the only one in the house who
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likes both of those genres, so it's probably going to be a game night
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thing. I just haven't bothered, like really pushing for it. I think
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if I did, I probably could get it played. But it looks pretty
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neat. Alien Fate of the Nostromo designed by Oh I'm having trouble remembering their
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name now, but I really like the way that they refer to miniatures in
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board games as dolls. I think that's a fun reminder of the toy nature
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of our hobby. Number thirty six sid Meyer's Civilization, the board game.
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This is the first edition I know. They've done Civilization a New Dawn,
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which is a kind of retread of the board game. I have the original
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and I'd love to try it sometime. I just haven't gotten it out.
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It looks pretty neat. It's a big, beefy civilization game. It's just
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a matter of having somebody else be like, yeah, let's try that and
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spending a little while figuring out how it works. Nextcept, we have Struggle
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of Empires. This one was given to me as a birthday gift two years
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ago. I think it's a really great, cool looking game. It's very
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well reviewed. Of course you are Colonial Powers, which you know that is
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a drag, but that aside really neat idea beautiful production. It's one of
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the Egle Griffin Deluxe games. It's a Martin Wallace game, and I'd love
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to play sometime. All the reviews say it's best with a large player count,
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so it's probably gonna be an event game. I'll have to set up
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see if people want to give it a try, but I'd really like to
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try Struggle of Empires Number thirty four. Penny Arcade the game Rumble in Realia.
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Now. This is a themed around the popular webcomic Penny Arcade, or
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used to be popular. I don't know if they are anymore. They're probably
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best known in current culture as the founders of Packs, which is Penny Arcade
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Expo. Penny Arcade the game. It is a deck building game, and
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I'm not sure what you're doing in the HP Lovecraft Land of Relie, but
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that's what it says on the cover. Number thirty three Clank Legacy Acquisitions Incorporated.
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I don't have a lot to say about this because I haven't played it,
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but we have it, and it is the campaign game that we're playing
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to start once my daughter leaves for college with my son and my wife.
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It's supposed to be pretty fun. Looking forward to trying it. That's Clank
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Legacy Acquisitions Incorporated. Number thirty two Orleans Stories. This is a campaign game.
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I don't think. It's a legacy game that did not gain a lot
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of traction when it came out, but looks really neat to me. I
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have no idea how I'm going to get this one played because my normal game
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group that plays legacy games with me is not interested in this. But perhaps
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if I set up a regular evening once a month at Toggled or something,
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I could get it played that way. Orlean's Stories Number thirty one is Witness.
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Witness is a game that I only know about because of a s shut
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Up and sit down review that made it sound amazing. It is a game
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you play with four people, always four. You sit in a circle.
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You each get a little book and it's a murder mystery game. So you
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turn to a certain page and you look at what's on the page, and
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then you lean to the person on your left or on your right, I
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don't remember which, and you whisper to them things about what you saw,
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and then the person on your other side leans over to you and whispers to
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you about things they saw. You whisper to each other a couple of times,
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passing the information around the table, and then as a group you try
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to solve the murder or you all have to write down the answer to the
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murder and see if you all solved it correctly. Looks really neat and really
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weird. I'm looking forward to trying it at some point. That's Witness number
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thirty. Fallen Angel. Fallen Angel is a game I picked up from a
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friend who was selling it used. They got it at a good price that
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had a cool looking cover, and the description sounded neat. Honestly, I
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don't remember much about it anymore, but it looks cool and I want to
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try it before I move it on. I can't imagine. I mean,
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it's possible. I'll play and it'll be like this is amazing. I got
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to keep it, but I suspect it will move on once I play it.
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That said, board game Geek rating seven point one, so it's not
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marked as bad. Pandoria Merchants Number twenty nine. This is a rolling right
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game that I got strictly on the fact that Roto talked about it being really
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great and really underappreciated. Now you could say, Brendan, you fell for
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Roto saying a game was really great and underappreciated. That's a classic mistake,
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and it might be. It looks really neat. The sort of graphic presentation
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of the game is not is not really attractive, but I'm looking forward to
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trying any may It looks pretty neat and it comes in a really nice sized
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box for a rolling right. So there's that number twenty eight. The Office,
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the Downsizing game. I got this as a novelty game. It is
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a part as a party game themed around the office. You're trying not to
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get fired. I don't really know much more in that, but it looks
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like a social game of some sort. It's not a social deduction game as
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far as I can tell, but it is also not a standard roll and
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move or anything dumb like that. So looks pretty neat. Looking forward to
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trying it. That is the Office Downsizing Game. Number twenty seven. Another
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game in my novel to category. This is Mystery Date. Mystery Date is
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a classic game about cishet girls looking for a boy to go on a date
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with. Yeah, I think that's the entire thing. I have a sort
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of classic reprint version, so it looks like the old game and to be
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fun to try it sometime at some point. That's Mystery Date Number twenty six.
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Adventure Games. The Dungeon I like the Adventure Games series is from Phil
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Walker Harding and I think Brett Gilbert was published by Cosmos, and it is
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sort of in the neighborhood of an exit type game, but it's more story
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focused. I've liked the other one that I played. There was one about
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a volcano that we played, and I feel like one more that we played
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that was pretty fun. Monochrome inc maybe, but it was neat and I
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look forward to trying it. That's adventure game, all right. That's Adventure
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Games the Dungeon, all right. Number twenty five is Kemmet. Kemet is
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another game that I got because I was getting another game. Did I had
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a game I wanted to get from somebody that was selling US games, and
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then I noticed they were selling Kemment for ten or fifteen bucks. I was
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like, yeah, I've heard that game is great. I'll give it a
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try. I purchased it. Of course, now Kemment Blood and Sand has
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been released, so there's like a new addition of Kemment. But new editions
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of games don't make old fun games not fun anymore. So I am keen
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to try this at some point. I just haven't gotten it out. Again.
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It's not in my usual wheelhouse in terms of what kinds of games I
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like to play, and so I haven't had a chance to bust it out.
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But Kemmitt, I'd like to try it at some point. Number twenty
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four Spirits of the Rice Patty Again, I got this one sort of yeah,
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I'm buying that. I'll buy this too. This is a game where
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it's an economic game where you're growing rice. I remember. The thing that
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seems really interesting is kind of like barrage. There's an element of managing water
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flow and you're trying to do something with a rice patty, and part of
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the element is that there are spirits that help govern your crops. And you
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have to kind of think about them or keep them happy. It looks pretty
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interesting and I wanted to give it a try. That's the Spirits of the
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Rice Patty. Number twenty three is Raised the Titanic. This is the novelty
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game. It's an old game from the eighties themed around the Clive Custler novel
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of the same title. It has a plastic Titanic on a little stick that
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sticks up in the middle of the board. Looks hilarious. It operates from
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the perspective or from the idea of the Titanic where the boilers blew up,
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which was until they found the wreck of the Titanic. One of two theories
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about how the Titanic sank, and the theory of the boilers blowing up,
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was that the ship didn't break in half, but the loud noise that witnesses
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reported hearing was in fact the boilers exploding when the cold water hit them.
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It turns out that's nonsense, but nonetheless it was the basis of the Clive
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Costler novel Raised the Titanic and the board game of the same name. Next
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up twenty two Circadians First Light. This is the game I think I got
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it in trade because it looked neat, and every review I've seen of it
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says it's pretty good. It is about humans and circadians and like two other
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alien species meeting and conducting trade talks in some central neutral ground. It looks
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really neat, and it's a game I've wanted to try for a while.
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I just haven't been able to get it out to the table, or haven't
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made the effort. Next up, we have Ponzi Scheme. I really am
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enamored of the story of Charles Ponzi. It's a really fascinating story of a
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person who started started out with a kind of earnest idea, even though he's
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a little shady, and it turned into a full on scam that was so
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prominent and popular and important that it became the name of the scam. We
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don't even call it. You know, we do have pyramid schemes, we
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know that idea. Now they used to be called a Peter and Paul scam,
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But Ponzi scheme is the is the one that we know best because Charles
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Ponzi was so effective. Of course, Ponzi scheme is the idea of building
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your own economic empire. That's designed around being a ponzee scheme and seeing if
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you can get out and win before your scheme collapses. Number twenty Aeroplanes Aviation
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Ascendant. There's a Martin Wallace game that I picked up because it's a Martin
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Wallace game and it was relatively inexpensive. I don't know very much about it,
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but it is a sort of route building economic game. It looks pretty
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good. It's not as well reviewed as his more prominent Automobiles, which is
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a game I would love to get a hold of at some point, but
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I haven't seen that available for used reasonable use prices. Next up, we
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have one more Thing. This is not strictly a board game. It's actually
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not actually I in board game Geek. It's in role playing Geek. But
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I have the game one more on my playlist so I can remember do it.
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One More Thing is a storytelling game in which two players work together to
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create the best episode of Colombo that they can, with one player being Colombo
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and the other player being the murder the director trying to set up scenes with
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the murderer keeping Columbo at bay long enough to make a good episode before he
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gets caught. I want to try this at some point. It's a two
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player game. It just takes a little bit of coordination. Next that we
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have the Cattleman. This is a game I just found it. Goodwill looks
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really stupid. It's rated worse than Public Assistance, but not as bad as
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political Political Incorrect, or whatever the politics one is. Nonetheless, it looks
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like it's a game about raising cattle in the West, and the photograph on
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the cover is hilariously seventies number seventeen. Clue the Office is what it sounds
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like. It is a game of clueing around the TV show The Office.
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I presume you're solving some sort of office based mystery, maybe who took a
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poop in Michael's office, and you're doing that as one of the office the
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members of the TV show The Office. Number sixteen. Android Infiltration This is
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an interesting game. I picked it up because it was It's from Donald X
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Vacarino, the designer of Dominion. It is set in the Dominion world,
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or it is set in the Android Netrunner universe, and the idea is that
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you are a crew breaking into a corporation to steal stuff. There is an
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interesting sort of push your luck element to it as well. As a little
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bit of exploration. It looks neat. I've learned it a couple of times,
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but never gotten into the table. It's definitely one I'd like to play.
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I wouldn't be surprised though, if having played it once, it would
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then go on the trade pile. Number fifteen Electronic Mold Madness. This is
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another game I have in my novelty category because it is a sort of classic
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of the genre simulation of gender politics or teen activities like Mystery Date. I
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do also have this one in part because you can use the pieces from it
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to play a special scenario for Last Night on Earth called I don't know,
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Last Mall on Earth or something in which you are survivors. It's at a
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mall. It's the Dawn of the Dead scenario, basically Space Freaks. Number
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fourteen is a game from Stronghold Games. It is a dueling game in which
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you have these sort of mutants that you put into a gladiatorial arena and combat
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each other. It looks fine, I just haven't gotten into the table.
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I won it in the contest. Number thirteen Infamy This is a game I
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picked up used. It is designed by one of the designers of hero heroes
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wanted, which is why I picked it up. I can't remember whether it's
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Travis Little or Travis Chance, but it's pretty neat. It's the sort of
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gangsters trying to be infamous. Number twelve Munga Invaders, mad scientists and atomical
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monsters attack the Earth. This is sort of like Martin Wallace does King of
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Tokyo, but with a eurogame design. It's got lots of neat meanings in
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it. The rules are really hard to understand, and so we haven't played
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it yet. I'd like to play it at some point. Number eleven Timid
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Earth Sphere. This is a airship pirate game which I haven't played yet,
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but I'm looking forward to playing at some point. Number ten five Points Gangs
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of New York. I won this game at a White Elephant party, and
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it's about being one of the Gangs of New York. Probably at some point
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I should watch Gangs of New York and then won't play five points. New
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Angelus is maybe the most exciting game in these last few. It is a
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large scale game where you're trying to interfere with each other. It's economic and
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political, with a bit of area control in it. The thing that's really
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neat about it is each person it's a secret competitor, and you win the
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game. You can have multiple winners of the game. You win if you
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finish the game ahead of the person who's your secret competitor, So you don't
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care about everybody, You just care about one of the opponents. I really
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like that. Number eight Liberty. This is a Martin Wallace game, sort
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of in the line of these packs games. You aren't actually part of one
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of the three factions of people in the French Revolution. Instead, you are
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trying to get around them so that you can help win the most influence.
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You don't really care who wins the revolution. Number seven Titanic the board game.
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This is a old school role and move game that looks really dumb.
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I have it strictly for the novelty purpose. I'd like to play it at
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some point just to have played it, but doesn't look good. Number six
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Panic Station. This is one of the games that, for the secret Kabala
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is sort of infamously bad. I don't think it looks bad. It is
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sort of modeled around the idea of the thing you play people investigating a space
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station where some sort of virus has broken out, and if you're ever alone
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in a room with somebody, you might get infected by them. And if
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you get infected by them, then you are infected. And the goal is
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to not get infected, or if you're infected, to try to infect everybody.
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I think it doesn't look as bad as everybody seems to think it is,
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but I haven't gotten back to it. It's a six point zero,
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so it's not nearly as bad as they make it out to me. Number
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five Moa. This is a Martin Wallace game in which you are playing New
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Zealand birds, trying to fend off the invasion of outside species while also winning
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control of the island from the other species of birds. You use some of
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the similar dynamics as the arrival to manage like incomers disrupting the experience. Number
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four Miskatonic School for Boys. This is a social deduction game in which some
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people are the monsters and you're trying to eliminate the people who aren't monsters.
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I think Number three Founders of bloom Haven. This is a heavy economic game
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about gloom Haven being started. I read the rules once I got all ready
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to play, and then I didn't play it for whatever reason, but I
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would like to play it at some point. It looks pretty neat Number two
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Steam. This is a classic Martin Wallace game. It's been much overshadowed by
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another game of the similar title, but this is the original and it looks
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neat, and again I got it eased, so I'd like to give it
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a try. Finally, my number one game on my list, meaning the
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game I've had on the list the longest, or that has the most votes,
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I guess, is Merchant of Venus. This is a classic game that's
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been around for a long time. I have the Fantasy Flight Edition, which
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is long out of print now, which you can either play with the Fantasy
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Flight rules or the older original rules. The Secret Gobal guys seem to think
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it's not worth playing it all anymore, but I still would like to give
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it a try. Eric Eric Summer from the Dice Tower podcast seems to think
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it's pretty great still. So that is Merchant of Venus, and that brings
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me to the end of myself of opportunity review. It was mostly just a
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list and a little bit about each game that I know from games I haven't
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played, so hopefully it was interesting to you enough to listen to two episodes,
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or perhaps skip two episodes, in which case you're not even herearing this
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apology. So if you have played any of the games or have thoughts about
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me playing them, I head over to board game Geek guild three two six
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nine you can share that You can share those thoughts with me, or you
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can send me a message. Wombat ninety nine is my username on board game
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Geek. You could also if you're interested in helping me decide which of these
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games I should play, you can go over to board game Geek and you
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can look for my shelf of Opportunity and you can vote for the games that
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you think I should play. If I have a game that has more thumbs
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than the other ones, I will put it on my list and try to
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get it played. Well. Thanks for joining me on my walk today,
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and I hope your next block is than his Mind. Bye bye. Brought
18:56
to you by rattle Box. Yeah Yeah,