Doug Doug Goose Caboose, by JR Honeycutt (me)

Normally I avoid posting about projects I'm involved in, but Doug Doug Goose Caboose is a design that I'm incredibly proud of, and that comes from a place of love for the gaming community.

I've spent 5 years hosting Nerd Night parties in Chicago, Dallas, Fort Worth, and at Gen Con, Metatopia, and BGG.Con. Something I've seen consistently is a tendency for folks to forget the names of the people around them, and in doing so, socially disengage a bit, as it's awkward to ask somebody for their name once you've already heard it. Even though ALL of us forget names, there's still a social stigma that says "you're a bad person if you forget somebody's name after you've been introduced."

To that point, we use nametags at our Nerd Night events, but that's not always possible at game nights, or in social groups, or at church or work or in a youth group. Doug Doug Goose Caboose is a game designed to reinforce the names of the people in your group in such a way that they'll stick with you much longer than a simple introduction might provide.

If this sounds interesting, please click the widget below and check out the campaign. If you're interested in the story of how DDGC came to exist, plus muppets explaining how to play, click for more!

JR Plays Episode 5 - Mechs vs. Minions, Charterstone, Kemet, and more

Last week I played Mechs vs. Minions, a campaign-style miniature game from Riot Games, the makers of League of Legends. Light spoilers, since everything is technically revealed during the campaign, so I cover the tutorial and the first scenario, which is much less than other reviewers have already revealed.

I also played through a bit of Charterstone, an upcoming Legacy eurogame from Jamey Stegmaier and Stonemaier Games (Scythe, Viticulture, Euphoria), and it was great! I can't talk much about it since it's still in development and nothing is final, but I do give a few thoughts about the general experience.

 

Listen on iTunes 
Listen on Google Play

JR Plays - A Podcast of Weekly Game Reviews

It's been increasingly difficult to make time for writing full-length game reviews while managing all my other commitments - Nerd Night events, full-time work as a game designer and developer, spending time with Amy, and doing all the other things that seem to take up my free time. I still play a TON of games (just scroll down and look at the right side of the screen to see the last 20 games I've played), and I still love talking about them - I just have less time to write than I would like.

With that in mind, I've started a new weekly podcast, aptly named 'JR Plays', in which I'll talk about all the games I've played each week. Sometimes I'll go into detail, and sometimes I'll skim over things that weren't particularly interesting, but I'll definitely have something to say about each of them.

Please click the link for whichever service you use to listen to podcasts and subscribe. I'd love to keep filling your mind with my thoughts about games, and of course, I really appreciate your taking the time to stop by and lend me your eyes, or ears, or I suppose your fingertips possibly?

Subscribe to "JR Plays":
on iTunes
on Google Play
on Soundcloud
on Stitcher

We'll still be publishing reviews at The Nerds' Table, so don't fret - tune in for more soon!

JR

Tesla vs. Edison: Powering Up! Developer's Diary, Part 1

Howdy - I'm JR Honeycutt, the developer for Tesla vs. Edison: Powering Up!, the expansion to Tesla vs. Edison: War of Currents by Artana. I'm writing this developer's diary to talk about some of the things introduced in TvE: Powering Up! and how I got involved. This is part 1 - parts 2 and 3 will come later in the campaign. 

The expansion is currently on Kickstarter, and I'd love it if you took a moment to click here and check it out! 

In November of last year I was at Rob's place in Massachusetts finishing up dev work on SeaFall. Dirk Knemeyer and Marcus Muller, the folks who run Artana, stopped by for a playtest of one of the early iterations of Chronicles: Stone Age, which I tagged along for since I was already in the room. 

It was a blast, and I noticed right away that I had good chemistry with Dirk and Marcus. They asked me to be involved in demoing the game at BGG.Con, which turned into a lunch conversation with Dirk about developing the Tesla vs. Edison expansion. 

I had never played Tesla vs. Edison when Dirk first offered to let me work on it, and it took me a few weeks to get it the table enough times to start doing real development. One of the criticisms of the base game was that the rulebook was hard to understand, and sure enough the first few times I played I got a fair number of things wrong. That was an early hiccup that Dirk and I worked through by playing together on Tabletop Simulator - an awesome resource for long-distance testing. Huge thanks to Andrew Christopher Enriquez for building the module for us and keeping it updated through the process. 

Fantasy Fantasy Baseball, by Daryl Andrews & JR Honeycutt

I don't normally post about my own games here, because it feels like shameless self-promotion. That said, Fantasy Fantasy Baseball is the product of a year's worth of work with one of my best friends, Daryl Andrews, and I want to share it with you.

Fantasy Fantasy Baseball is a game about managing a roster of ridiculous monsters with magic powers, and using those powers to win more games than your wizard manager opponents. We feel like we've nailed the middle ground between "fun for sports fans" and "fun for fantasy fans" and turned it into "fun for everyone". Also, we're really proud to be huge fans of both sports and fantasy - something that many people share with us! This game is about celebrating what we love in both genres, and bringing it together in one AMAZING package, thanks to CSE Games and art by Rob Lundy.

Watch the video below, and if you're interested in the game, please click this link to visit the Kickstarter page, which will be live until December 23rd.

Thanks for your support! Please comment or tweet if you have any questions!

Horrible Hex, by Jon Moffat

I had the good fortune to attend Unpub 5 in Baltimore last weekend, a collection of incredibly bright designers and a breeding ground for great game design. I met with Aaron from Stone Circle Games and got a demo of Horrible Hex, which I'd been looking forward to since my Back It! interview with designer Jon Moffat. I was also excited to play because of their hilarious Kickstarter video (link below).

Horrible Hex is a tile placement game for 1-3 players, in which players vie to create patters of red and black hexes by sliding, swapping, pushing, and jumping tiles on the board. It's a delightfully simple game, as the only real barrier to learning is understanding the two steps in the turn (movement, then placement) and the symbols on the hexes themselves.

If you're a fan of abstract strategy and tile placement games (I am), then I think this game could be right up your alley. More after the jump!

Railways of the World, Video from Edo's Guest Reviews

Hey Nerd Nighters, I was asked to give a few guest reviews of games I love for Edo's Game Reviews! Here's the first in what should be a series of them: Railways of the World by Glenn Drover and Martin Wallace.

Give it a watch, and let me know in the comments if you would ever put your head through a game board like I did :)

See more of Edo's Game Reviews here - they're great!