Latest / Pick Up and Deliver / Have Games, Will Travel, 2
Transcript
- Untitled - July 28, 2025 00:00:00 Speaker: Welcome to Pickup and Deliver, the podcast where I pick up my audio recorder as I step out for a walk and deliver an episode to you while I stroll around. I'm Brendan Riley. Well, I've sort of inadvertently set myself up to do a lookback episode because I am recording the last of the episodes I'm going to record before I go on vacation. My wife and I are taking a trip to Colorado to do some birding and visit my cousin and her husband, and we're looking forward to doing that. I have pre recorded enough episodes that we shouldn't you shouldn't experience a lapse in programming. I think I've mentioned this before in other episodes that will have appeared by the time this airs. And in fact the way I'm scheduling now, this one is going to air after I have taken my trip. So weirdly, it will be past perfect. Past future tense. I am going to be taking my trip tomorrow, but it will have happened already when this episode comes out. So I thought I would talk a little bit about some games, because I'm going to bring some games with me, as I always do, but of course I'm prioritizing for air, air travel and a little bit of mobility. So I looked at my. You may have noticed the name of this episode is Have Games Will travel, which of course is inspired by the I think it's originally an Old West novel called have Gun-will travel. Then there's the Heinlein novel, Have Spacesuit, Will travel, and of course, the first edition of this episode was Have Games Will travel. Now I'm calling this one Have games Will travel two thinking about this phrase, which is starting to sound like nonsense now that I'm saying it a bunch, reminds me that there's a podcast I've been meaning to try just because its title is so interesting, I haven't. I can't endorse it. I haven't listened to it yet, it yet, but I'm going to put it on my feed to try it out. There's a board game podcast that just started called Whose Game Is That Jacket and Whose games? That jacket. That's how you pronounce it. Not whose game is that jacket? Whose games? That jacket. Which, when I encountered, I'm like, what is that? Apparently this comes from an aspect of Welsh. Something about the way that Welsh construct Welsh folks construct their language. When I asked about it, somebody pointed me to a Jimmy Carr sketch or a piece of a Jimmy Carr performance where he was talking about this and he was saying how Welsh people will ask questions that lap over overlap on themselves. And apparently the most common stereotype of that is whose coats? That jacket, whose coats? That jacket, I guess, is a thing that they would say instead of who? Who does that jacket belong to? They'd say, whose coat is that jacket? Whose coats? That jacket. So whose games? That jacket is the name which I was reminded of because I said, have games will travel. So anyway, all the way back in episode 120 something, I was taking a trip with my wife to Iceland, which is an amazing place to go if you can manage to get there. And we brought some games with me, and I made an episode about what games I was going to bring, so I thought I would revisit that question. Now that I'm planning to take another trip with my wife to talk about what games we're bringing with us now. So have games will travel two to start with. Here are the games I brought with me or I said I was bringing with me when I went to Iceland. I said I was bringing Welcome to London on a grim Friday. Fugitive Quick's Pulp detective, Eight Minute Empire, Crypt and Tides of Madness. So I thought I would first go through those games and say which of them I'm not bringing, which is most of them I'm not bringing, not for. Oh, I'll go through and say why, and then I'll talk about what games I am bringing. If I'm if there's another game I'm sort of bringing instead, I will talk about that and we can go from there. So to start with, there are a couple games I'm not bringing because they're just a little too big and, uh, they take up a lot of space. So this is Welcome to London. An eight minute empire are all games that I'm not bringing because they take up a lot of space in the bag, though London actually could be crunched down considerably because you don't really need the board. So then it's just a couple decks of cards. So you actually could London actually would transport pretty well, but most of the other games they're just, they're, they're bigger than they need that I need to be I'm going to bring as a very small amount hopefully physical space. Generally I try to fit everything I'm bringing into one, uh, if I can fit it all into one gallon size Ziploc, that's kind of my packing limit for games. Maybe not 100%, but pretty close. Um, so those games are out. I have owner Rim and Friday and Pulp Detective in here as solo games, games, games for playing on the plane or sometimes I will wake up before my wife. So I have a little extra time games that I might play on my own in the package that I'm bringing this time in that place, I'm taking Noctilien, Mr. Cabbage Head and Sprawl. As games I can play solo. I'm also bringing 1 or 2 unlock minis, which are these sort of very small unlock games that play well solo. So those would be the things that I might play by myself. I will say sprawl, Opolis and Mr. Cabbage Head both have a mr. Cabbage Heads garden is the full name of that game. They both have a multiplayer mode that works pretty well. Mr. Cabbage Head becomes a competitive game obviously at that point sprawl Opolis stays a cooperative game, with the goal being as a group to get the best score you can, I think. But so um, those I'm mostly just switching for variety. I feel like I've played a nirim and I've played Friday a lot. I played Friday on the last time. Last trip I took Pulp Detective. I almost grabbed that one again. There are some expansions. Ooh, I might reconsider because there is an expansion to Pulp Detective that I have not tried yet, which if I were to bring the whole thing, then I could knock an expansion off my expansion list. Hmm. I may switch Mr. Cabbage head for pulp, detective. We'll see. I'll let you know after the trip. Or I might take both if I have room in the bag. But Mr. Cabbage, head in pulp, detective. Both take up a lot of space, so we'll see. Next up, we have Crypt and Tides of Madness. Those are games that are competitive games which, um. I could bring any one of those. I think crypt just isn't. It's not as big a hit for us, and I think it works better at larger player count at two players. I don't like it as much. Tides of madness is a great two player game and that one could make the cut, certainly, but I feel like I have brought it a number of times, and fugitive works pretty well as a two player game, but I think my wife doesn't like it as much as some other people that I've played with. So instead, for two player competitive, I have lost cities and Takhta Takhta is a new game that I got, um, as part of the OP giveaway. It is a two player tactical game. I haven't tried it, but I have. I have lost cities as our main competitive game there. I guess I might grab one more good two player competitive game. I'm not sure what that would be because I don't want to bring anything that's got a bunch of tiles or a board or anything bigger. Patchwork would be a good fit if I wanted to bring something bigger, but I don't. Uh, there's also Glasgow, which I got recently, which would be fun to try out, but again, I would have to. There's a lot of stuff in that box that I would have to take with, so I don't think that one's gonna fit. I think Lost Cities is probably it. And then Takhta as well. Um, for cooperative game, I have kin fire delve, which is a really interesting, uh, card game. And I think if I take all the cards out of the box and just take it as cards, it will squish down nicely. There are some tokens and stuff. It's probably the most elaborate of the games, but it is still pretty narrow, focused, and I think would be a fun one to play with my wife. I think she would enjoy it. I don't think I've talked about that game yet here on the pod, so apologies. Uh, and then finally quicks. I'll always bring quicks. It's small form factor, easy to play, eminently fun and replayable, and I have a lot of really good memories with it. This is one we definitely did bring with us in Iceland. We played it a number of times, including at the time. I've told this story a number of times on the pod when we found the board game club in downtown Iceland and played games there. So that was a that that is a strong memory for me. And I really like to bring quicks with me when I can. So right now those eight noctilien, Mr. Cabbage Head or maybe Pulp detective quicks unlock mini lost Cities, sprawl, Opolis Tecta and Kin Fire Dove are the eight that I am planning to bring with me on the trip. There might be 1 or 2 more that I'll toss in the bag if they occur to me, and I have room, but right now, those are the choices. I'd love to hear what you think of those options. Are there any other very small form factor games you would grab if you were packing for a trip, especially if you want to be able to play a little bit in a hotel a little bit. Oh, do I have any here that would work in more than two players? Because we are visiting my cousin and her husband, and so having 1 or 2 games that play good at four as well would certainly not be a bad idea. Ooh, I got to think about games that are fun. It too, would play well at four and have a small form factor. These are going to be card games for sure. I mean, flip seven is an option, but I feel like we've just played that a fair amount. Mhm. So what what games would you buy and where would you get. What would you bring in your bag if you had these limitations. Head over to BoardGameGeek. Yield 3269 and share your thoughts in the comments. I'd love to hear them. In the meantime, thanks for joining me on my walk today. I hope your next walk is as pleasant as mine was. Buh bye. Brought to you by Rattlebox Games.