Tabletop Submission Criteria

While I was at GenCon meeting with game publishers, I learned that a longtime friend who I completely trusted to be a liaison between me (and Tabletop) and game publishers was abusing and betraying that trust in the worst way. Among several profoundly upsetting revelations, I learned that  our submission criteria was not being clearly communicated to designers and publishers. This isn’t fair to anyone who has a game they think would work on the show, and is personally upsetting to me, because I probably missed more than a few potentially awesome games.

I have taken significant steps to ensure that the problems we experienced in season three as a result of that betrayal will never happen again. As we get ready to select games for next season, I want to ensure that everyone knows how we choose games to play, so nobody’s time, money, or resources are wasted.

So what follows is a copy of the email we are sending to all the publishers we met. It is also published on geekandsundry.com, where anyone can view it. It’s also here, because I want to make sure that everyone who needs or wants to see this can see it.

To the Publishers:

At GenCon this year, after meeting with dozens of game publishers, it became clear to us that our submissions process for TableTop was broken. The first step toward repairing this process is better direct communication between us at TableTop and the publishers we hope to work with. Rather than rely on a single person to communicate our submission criteria, we are publishing it online and in email, so everyone has access to the same information.

The following criteria will help you determine which of your games are most likely to be played on TableTop:

  1. Your game must be available at retail outlets when its episode of TableTop airs. We will not consider games that are in development, in stages of crowd funding, or otherwise not available for gamers to purchase and play.
  1. We have 4 players on each episode of TableTop, so your game should work best with 4 players. This does not mean that it can be played by only 4 players, but it should really shine with 4 players. A good example is Bang!, which technically works with 4 players, but is at its best with 7 or more. As much as we love Bang!, it just won’t work on Tabletop.
  1. Games can not require simultaneous play, or need to be played in real time. Games like Escape: The Curse of the Temple or Jungle Speed are super fun, but the simultaneous play makes them impossible to film and edit.
  1. Your game should have a strong, good balance of strategy and luck. We want everyone who plays to feel invested throughout the episode. Skewing too far in one direction or the other may leave some players out.
  1. Your game should look good and be produced on quality materials. TableTop is a visual show, after all, and we need the games we feature to look awesome.
  1. Games need to be playable in about 90 minutes to fit into our production schedule, and to allow us edit the final cut to about 35 minutes. Longer games are occasionally okay for two part episodes, but those are rare exceptions.
  1. For season 4, we’re very interested in seeing and playing games that are accessible to families. We’ve seen that a huge portion of the TableTop audience is made up of families who watch together, and we want to play some games this coming season that they’ll love to play together. This does not mean that we’re looking for children’s games. Rather, we are looking for games that can be played by a wide range of ages. For example, Catan Jr. is a game you can play with your kids that is not a kid’s game. Smash Up is probably a little complex for a 7 year-old, but a 10 year-old shouldn’t have any trouble with it. Both of those games can be fun for adults to play with or without their kids.

We want you to know that games fitting all these criteria are the most likely to end up on the show. We anticipate over 200 submissions this season, from which 18-20 will be selected for TableTop, so a game that fits all 6 of these criteria will probably edge out one that fits only 4. However, if your game doesn’t fit all of these rules, but fits most of them, we’d still love to see it. If your game breaks one of these rules in a spectacular and interesting way, we’d also love to see it. Please let us know in your submission if this is the case, which criteria you did not align with, and why you think we’ll love it. Please note, Rule 1 is non-negotiable.

Rather than send product, we’d like to save you time and money. Please submit information about your game to Ryan Copple & Claudia Sanchez at tabletopsubmissions [at] geekandsundry dot com. We’ll need to know the title and designer of your game, the core mechanics, playing time, target age, and when it will be available in stores. You may include marketing materials if you think they will be helpful for us.

We will compile a list from these e-mail submissions and reach out to those of you who have games we believe could be a good match for our show. At that time, we’ll ask you to send those games to the Geek & Sundry offices, directed to Ryan & Claudia’s attention. We are asking for a minimum of 2 copies of your game. One copy will go to Wil Wheaton, to play with his family and his game group. One copy will be played by the offices of Geek & Sundry. Going forward we do not require more than 2 copies of a game in order to consider that game for Tabletop. If you are able to send a 3rd copy it may help us ensure as many people as possible can play the games, but 2 will be enough for consideration.

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151 thoughts on “Tabletop Submission Criteria”

  1. More than fair, extremely clear, and – honestly – clarifies some of the information that I had been getting. All of this makes total sense.

      2. You gotta get Chris on again. No matter what you guys do together your chemistry is just fantastic to watch/listen to.

    1. If you mean an unpublished game, no. We can only work with games that are presently being published. If you mean a published game that is brought to our attention by the designer, we’re always willing to look at those games.

      1. I think he means something like a viewer saying, “Hey, I love Monopoly by Hasbro. Please reach out to them and see if they’d be interested in being on Tabletop!”
        Ok, probably not the best example for a game, but I think it gets the idea across. Would you ever have a “What games do you want to see played?” discussion where viewers make suggestions and you take them into consideration?

      2. Great! The one I have in mind is Firefly The Game by Gale Force Nine. It’s designed for four players in mind, takes individual turns, possible to play in 90 minutes (though I’d venture closer to two hours for a mild scenario), and is pretty family friendly. I suppose the main issue you would have (aside from anything you find about the game that doesn’t translate well onto Tabletop), is that it is based on an existing IP owned by another company (FOX, I assume) and got licensed to GF9. Such a great game though, and I hope it’s something that is able to be considered! http://www.fireflythegame.com/

  3. Well, that explains why Blood Bowl won’t be on Tabletop (since it’s two players only and you’re looking mostly for four player games), though I think you’d enjoy that game quite a bit. I could see you running lizards or the Skaven.

      1. Check out the Blood Bowl NAF website as the game is still played worldwide in both large Leagues and Tournaments. I have played in a perpetual 30 plus player League for 8 years now and it’s great. There is also a 4 player variant named Death Bowl which is completely nuts.

      2. It’s changed a LOT since then! I’ve played every edition (including the first one with the cardboard players…) and the current one is by far the simplest and most fun to play, they’ve really streamlined the gameplay and rules. I’d definitely recommend trying it out if you ever get the time and the opportunity!

      3. Wil, blood bowl still holds up and is tons of fun to play. You shouldn’t play it. The average player has a few moments of lousy dice that usually wreck a good run. Your dice rolls will break the game! 😉 Tripping over your own feet when trying to score a touchdown is the worst!

      4. It has a living rule book, but its best one on one.
        Maybe two one on one games and winner plays winner and loser plays loser?
        Don’t know if that format would work editing wise 🙂

      5. Besides the board game, the second video game (Blood Bowl 2) comes out next month and looks pretty great.

        I think John Bain (TotalBiscuit) is going to be running a league, if you think yourself a worthy challenger!

    3. Blood Bowl sounds like fun, but seems to break Rule #1 as well…. A quick search of Amazon and EBay leads to a handful of copies priced in the $100 range, unless you want the new card game.

  4. I love what you have done for the board game community. Not only making games a topic to discuss as episodes are released but by also making the show a tutorial of sorts. I love that I can watch an episode and get how the game is played and be excited for it. Thank you and your team so much for that. ^_^

  5. Will there be a crowd funding for this season? I am eager to throw my money at you(electronically speaking… I don’t want those pennies to hurt anyone.)

    1. We aren’t doing any more crowdfunding. Once was great, and I am intensely grateful for the support we got, but it’s time for other projects to get crowdfunded. We should be able to get support from Legendary, and maybe one or two sponsors (not game companies) to keep the lights on at Tabletop.

      1. Well just remember if somebody don’t want to support Tabletop again, let us have a say again. Don’t let the “Firefly” Tabletop.

        You can’t stop the signal, Mal.

      2. Is there a possibility for more TableTop / Titansgrave merchandise? I’d really like more stuff to adorn my gaming sessions; I’ve got the mugs that were offered before, and the dice from the crowdfunding, but based on the availability of stuff in the Geek and Sundry store, this doesn’t seem to be a huge focus.

        I get the idea that the fulfillment for the crowdfunding campaign was kind of a nightmare, but maybe Legendary can help you guys find a good partner to do more physical stuff? I’d love to buy moar stuff!

  6. Very sorry to hear about what went down. That sucks.

    On the plus side, we are really happy to hear there’s going to be more TableTop! We had been getting back into games anyway, but TableTop is what inspired us to start a weekly game night with our friends (and their friends, and our work friends, and anyone we can drag over, really 🙂

    1. Same here! We started a tabletop friday with friends and family. I even built a new table (inspired by the one on the show) 🙂

  7. It’s terrible that something you put so much love and time into was betrayed like that. When I started to hear about the problems, I was really hoping it wouldn’t derail chances of another season. Tabletop is a great and important show, and I hope it continues until you’re too old to hold a die, Wil. I’m looking forward to it! Best luck.

    1. Well, to be honest: the betrayal by such a trusted and beloved friend was and is very hard to process and deal with. I didn’t want to do any more Tabletop, because I felt like it was irredeemably tainted, but it ended up being really important to me that I do it without the involvement of a toxic liar, so it’s fun and awesome again.

      1. I could see your frustration when talking about TableTop even before such revelations came out. I am glad you are pushing forward with season 4 so you can feel better about what you are giving us fans and yourself. Regardless of what one person does your fans know you always strive to give the best and we react as such.
        As for no more crowd funding… YOU JUST BOUGHT ME ONE MORE GAME!!!

      2. It’s so great to hear you’ve found a way to keep it going. Hearing you talk about Tabletop has always been a joy for me, because I can tell how much you love it. You briefly spoke to my wife and I about Takenoko at Megacon once, and your excitement for games in general was infectious. That’s why I enjoy so much of what you’re up to these days — you’re doing the stuff that you want to do, on your terms, and your passion really shows. You’re living the dream, and I’m inspired by your example.

      3. I hope that doesn’t taint your opinion of everybody’s else work on season 3. I though it was very good, and hope season 3 will be avaliable on DVD like season 1 and 2 were. If nothing else figure out the cost and let us decided with our dollars. Crowdfund the DVD, and if enough people want it then there will be enough “preorders” to pay for costs.

      4. You’ve done a great job with the show. I’m glad you decided to go on with it. I only catch a few episodes here and there, but I still enjoy it. You’re definitely making the right decision to not let that person ruin it.

  8. Just a suggestion. If you’re going to make these requirements public, you may want to explain to your audience (who are generally not familiar with business practices) why you personally need a free copy of the game. To someone unfamiliar with this area, it may look like you are receiving (and requiring) payment (in the form of a free game) in order to show games on tabletop.

    1. Hrm. That’s an interesting observation. I hope that reasonable people understand the difference between payola (which this is not) and providing review copies of media (games, books, movies, etc.). I’ll keep it in mind in case that question comes up.

      1. If anyone sees “Hey, if you want me to use your game, I need to play it first to see if it will work, and I’m not paying to do that.” the same as “Hey, give me money and I’ll feature your games on Tabletop.”, well, they are a special kind of something.

        1. Also anyone thinking that providing a pair of board games worth, in total, somewhere from $20 to $200 could constitute ‘payola’ is completely unfamiliar with the way reviewing works in general. All sorts of reviewers – book reviewers, music reviewers, heck even whiskey reviewers – get the thing they are reviewing for free. Payola actually requires that someone be paid.

      2. Calling it a ‘review copy’ in the prose makes it more clear to those out of the loop (like me). like ‘2 review copies to G&S …. One review copy will go to WW and his game group and the other review copy will stay at G&S.”

      3. As a critic of some entertainment forms myself, I’ve found that most people do understand the difference. The concern started to grow out of the AAA video game company scandals where they were only giving games to people who would provide positive reviews.

        While there is a vocal group that will always look suspicious on stuff like this, you’re accurate in saying that the reasonable people get how the whole thing works.

    2. As a regular person , I saw the 2 game requirements as logical. If Wil and his game group can’t get comfortable with and excited about a game in private, how can he be expected to teach us and share his infectious passion for the game? I think it is very open to state why they need 2 copies it would be very reasonable just to state 2 copies for production purposes. I quite like knowing a little more about the process.

    3. Yeah, you’d hope that people realize that “hey, we get 500 submissions, we’re not purchasing $25 x 500 games just to evaluate each one”.

  9. Wil – I know that since it’s only 2-player, it’s ineligible, but I would happily sacrifice (someone’s) internal organs to see a bonus or extra episode of Tabletop wherein you and Felicia play Android: Netrunner.

  10. I don’t work for them (though I’d love to) but Sentinels of the Multiverse by Greater than Games is thee single greatest choice for Tabletop. Seeing my favorite game with my favorite show is “The Dream”.

    1. Absolutely. That’s one of the reasons we are publishing our guidelines publicly, so that everyone has access to the same information, and it’s as egalitarian a process as possible.

    2. I was wondering that as well. I have a small tiny game accessory company and it’s been really ‘fun’ trying to find distribution for my game tokens. (Since they aren’t a game, they wouldn’t be featured or used on Tabletop anyway.) I’ve was wondering if requirement no. 1 would shut out small game companies who might not have the same reach.

      I can totally see the need for requirement no 1 though. If he’s going to feature a game, it would be great if it was nationally available.

      1. I’d imagine that something as simple as being available on Amazon would count as a “retail outlet”. I think as long as it’s something people can order or ask their Friendly Local Game Shop to order, it’d meet criteria #1.

        1. I’m also a small vendor on Amazon. It takes about 20 minutes to signup, a bank account, a credit card. So, just about anyone could sell their game on Amazon. (I’m assuming there is some fine print, but it was about the same difficultly level as ebay.) (although amazon does require bar codes which can be easily purchased)

          In case someone is reading Mary’s comment and thinks it’s impossible to have a product listed on Amazon.

  12. Thank you so much for TableTop. This is the first time I’ve really seen the “behind-the-scenes” but it helps to know exactly what sort of games to expect to seen played. I grew up playing board games, but more along the lines of Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit. TableTop (and a few of my awesome friends) have opened my eyes to the greatness of other board games. Thanks to TableTop, my Amazon wishlist is now full of board games. My only requirement is that whoever gets me a game, they are required to play the game at least once with me.

    So…tl;dr…Thank you, Mr. Wheaton, for exposing the amazing world of board games beyond Monopoly. I’m eagerly looking forward to more episodes as well as the time when I get get some friends together and “Play More Games”

    ~Shiloh~

  13. MANSION OF MADNESS – if WIL WHEATON is so poor throwing dice, he should be a Keeper / GM 😉 because he was wonderful at ” Titans Grave” + we can compare

  14. Hay Will I know essentially its the same as X-Wing but you might look into Star Trek Attack Wing maybe see about getting as many Trek Alumni together for it as well

    another suggestion i have for you would be the Battlestar Galactica board game from Fantasy Flight its looks a lot of fun and would be interesting for the show

  15. Thank you so much for featuring family games this season. TableTop is something we watch together as a family and my daughter will be excited to learn that this season will feature more games we can play together. Would you ever consider an all kids episode (season) of Tabletop?

  16. Hiya, I would love to see some Discworld game in TableTop, but I am sure it would be very difficult to get the Ankh-Morpork fun though.
    Would it? 🙂

    1. Every Discworld based game that I have come across is a bit in lengthy in setup and understanding mechanics. As much as I love them, I fear that they would not necessarily make the best content.

  17. I really enjoyed playing it again on iOS. A great sense of nostalgia.

    It’s a shame Warhammer Quest is out of print or that’d be great.

  18. Thank you for your transparency. I think you’ve done this in blog/vlog form, but I also love your “doesn’t work for Tabletop but you really should try…” lists. In the library world where I work, we have something called readers advisory where we try to match books with readers. I’d love to see a blog/vlog of viewer questions and your recs that may or may not work for Tabletop. (One more thing, right?)

    Btw, my 8 year old is OBSESSED with the Mice and Mystics episodes. I’m not sure if she’s ready to sit through an entire campaign yet, but maybe we can break it up by room or chapter. Or I can let her play with the figs and read the manual before digging in. Either way, I think we will end up getting ANOTHER game thanks to your show.

    You are doing great work. Thank you.

  19. In my RSS feed, the list had every item numbered as “1,” so when I saw “Please note, Rule 1 is non-negotiable,” it made me laugh, and I needed a laugh, so thank you.

  21. I saw a picture of you at the Pinnacle booth. I’m pretty sure you picked up some Savage Worlds. So, while I am merely a fan, not the publisher, I would say, run a Savage Worlds game . . . please!
    Deadlands Reloaded, The Sixth Gun, even generic supers, sci-fi, or fantasy. It is a great universal RPG system.

    (Oh, and please invite me to play it, or run it, you know, whatever.)

  22. SO happy to hear that Tabletop is going to continue. I think we all felt a pang of despair when you started talking about the production issue from this past season. No one likes to hear about one person hurting and betraying another person.

    You mentioned that Tabletop will be funded through other sources, will the same funding be available for Titansgrave?

    2. Yes. I wanted to do another season of Titansgrave, Legendary wanted more Tabletop, so we agreed to do both.

  24. Slightly off topic, but I stumbled across TableTop when researching what to buy my brother-in-law for his birthday. Since then I’ve watched every episode (often with my baby boy in the wee small hours) and bought and played a number of the games featured with friends and family. I’ve come to realise the joy in board games and the opportunities to socialise and engage with others in a wonderful way. Essentially, thank you Wil and all at Geek and Sundry… quite simply, I think you’ve made my life a little bit better than it was. Cheers.

  27. Sorry to hear your trust was abused, especially by a friend. That said, I loved seeing you on Critical Role last night…and it looked like Laura brought you some Lemley luck. She’s not a miracle worker, but it seemed to help. You got a few good rolls in. Next time you’ll have to play together.

    Oh, and good to hear that Titansgrave is getting another season. You left the door open perfectly. Personally I’d like to see it a little more “messy”. The final edits are well polished and generally seemless…which few of my own rpgs have ever been. I’d like to see some more table talk, chomping on pizza, and so forth…of course, you’d have to extend the episode time, which I wouldn’t mind.

    Best of luck on your future endeavors. When I’m in Vegas next week, I’ll toast you at Frankie’s Tiki Bar.

  29. I’m sorry your trust was abused; that is a very upsetting and unfortunate experience to have to work through. But I’m glad you’ve decided to give TableTop another season. My husband and I bought so many awesome games because of your show. For a long time, we had only a couple games, and we could pretty much predict before we started which one of us would win (some games he always won, others I always won). This got frustrating to the point that we started looking for cooperative games and not considering any others. We saw the Pandemic episode of TableTop, bought the game, and loved it. We eventually started buying other fun-looking games after watching the episodes, including a lot of non-coop games. Your show allowed us to find games that we can play together and both enjoy. For us, TableTop has been a real gift. Thank you, Wil for opening up the world of games to us.

  30. Hey Wil, over the moon to hear Tabletop and Titans grave are coming back!
    Slightly sad that you’re not crowd sourcing it (I loved the feeling that it was my Tabletop this season, well, partly mine 🙂 ).
    Equally I’m stoked that you’ve got sponsorship! It is an awesome sign that the industry recognises a great thing.

    Would you consider more tabletop and Titans grave merchandise to either assist with funding, or just for us to show our support for a thing we love by drinking deeply from a Titans grave tankard.

    Perhaps more Mice and Mystics with the family?

    Keep doing awesome stuff dude!

  31. Great response! Transparency is a great, but difficult, way of dealing with issues. Hopefully your corporate overlords at Legendary will allow you to continue with it. 🙂
    Are you going to post the request for game suggestions on this forum or somewhere on Geek and Sundry? Also would the game need to fit the physical layout that is normally used on the show? The game “On Her Majesty’s Service” has a really cool mechanic that I think would film well, but it literally requires the players to be seated around the board. I suspect that would make it a no go.
    Anyway, keep up the good work!

  32. If the game is available for the general public to purchase online only does that count as a retail outlet?

    1. Jay: I don’t know if that one is on Wil’s radar yet, but it’s CERTAINLY one we’re considering sending along.

      And thank you! Glad you and your nephews had a good time.

  34. Just wanted to say “Thank You”. I’ve ended up buying several games I’ve seen you play and have been getting my friends and family to do regular game nights since I’ve started watching the show several months ago. Can’t wait for the next season!

  35. Just wanted to say how happy I am to hear about the second season of Titansgrave and fourth season of Tabletop. As a game-loving mom with two game-loving kids, I thoroughly enjoy Tabletop and we have added many featured games to our family’s collection after watching them in action. In fact, we have you to thank for introducing us to some of our current household favorites like Sheriff of Nottingham, Council of Verona, Pandemic, and Takenoko. I am thrilled to read that your season four submission guidelines will favor games that are accessible to families. Nothing compares to the laughter and camaraderie of family game nights, so thank you for giving us enthusiastic introductions to such a multitude of great games over the years! On a separate note, my whole family found Titansgrave fun and absorbing week after week. After the (wonderfully) torturous tenth chapter we were so happy to hear the adventure will continue into a second season. Can’t wait!

  36. will would you ever be interested in replaying games for the show- games like fiasco, house on haunted hill or dead of winter has a lot of replayability and would be interesting to see the different scenarios.

    1. It’s not my first choice, but I may consider it if there was a scenario that was really fantastic or some other massively compelling reason to do a replay, instead of playing a new game.

  37. I’m pretty new to your show but my wife and I have watched every episode out and we love it. You’ve caused us to buy Tsuro of The Seas, Takenoko, Coup, Love Letter, Sushi Go!, hunt down the 1st edition of Unspeakable Words and caused an undying relationship with Elder Sign. For all these I can only say thank you. You have our support until you decide to turn the lights off. And just to add my 2cents…… consider Mar Attacks! The Dice Game and Firefly:The Game but only with the Pirates & Bounty Hunters expansion. It adds much needed pvp. Thanks again for all your gaming.

    1. It depends. If a game is well-produced and there are lots of copies in stock, it would help, though I’d much prefer that a game is also available in retail locations.

  39. It’s interesting to see how things work behind the scenes!

    Is there ever a place where we viewers can suggest geek guests that might be a good fit and haven’t appeared yet?

    1. We don’t really need guest ideas, because we already have a huge list of people we’d love to invite, and people who have told us they’d like to play with us.

      1. Yeah I figured there’s no shortage of interest since you know so many people. I guess I just thought it would be fun to open it up like that since a couple of my favorites haven’t showed up and I don’t know if you know them. Keep up the great work. 🙂

  40. I know you’re probably sick of these comments, but we too have bought several of the games you’ve featured and my wife and I have spent a lot of time with our son playing games as a result. (We now own Pandemic, Stone Age, Libertalia, Forbidden Island, Forbidden Desert, Castle Panic, and we picked up Escape and 7 Wonders as well looking for games at our local hobby shop.) Thanks! And don’t let the dark side of the web get to you. Between your writing and Tabletop, you’ve brought a lot of joy into the world to spend time worrying about them.

  41. Wil, stumbling on your episode of Pandemic ignited our passion for tabletop games. Thank you for continuing to make Tabletop. If I could make a suggestion, there are 2 games from Roxley Games that would make a wonderful fit; Super Motherload and Steampunk Rally. Both games have amazing production quality and easy enough for families to learn yet complex enough to be fun and challenging. Can’t wait to see what Tabletop has in store for my gaming table in the future!

  43. I tells ya, Wil, watching TT this season has been a pleasure. Picked up Libertalia and EPic Spell Wars. Will likely grab Mice & Mystics as well, I think. I’m even inspired to make my own game, and have been steadily working on some ideas for one.

    In case you keep an eye on your comments, and if it’s possible, would you be able to let me know any resources or tips to help out an aspiring game designer?

    1. Blake: My best advice to aspiring game designers is PLAY MORE GAMES. The more games you play, the more things you see that work (and that really, really don’t). It’s just like telling a writer they have to be a reader first; seeing what other people are doing is the best way to jumpstart your own creativity.

      Know what kind of game you’re creating. If you’re creating a Zombie Dice-type quick dice game, you don’t want a lot of mechanics or weird rule exceptions…you want people to grab the cup and start rolling dice. Conversely, if you’re building a complex board game with multiple scenarios and lots of widgets and a traitor, folks will be a lot more tolerant of rules and exceptions and a longer learning curve.

      Playtest, playtest, playtest. If the game is fun 98% of the time, that means that 2% of the people who play it once will hate it immediately. And blog about it. And tell all their friends. For a major publisher, that’s not a big deal, but for a first-time designer, that can ruin any chance at a followup.

      Also, when you’re setting up your playtests, keep in mind a rule Mike Selinker has propounded before: “Don’t tell me what you think happened. Tell me what happened.” As soon as your playtesters start trying to analyze problems, they start bringing you solutions, and that can constrain your creativity. If they say “The game bogged down in turn 3 when no one could roll a 7 to save their lives,” that tells you there’s a weird corner case you may not have seen.

      Finally, recognize that it is HARD to bring a new game to market, even with crowdfunding and print-and-play and all the ways to generate buzz before you officially go to print. A game that’s only so-so is not likely to succeed. I don’t say that to be negative or to dissuade you from trying — in fact, just the opposite. As you go forward, try as hard as you can to make the very best game you can. Once you’ve done that, then you can worry about all the other stuff.

  44. I am happy to hear that there will be new seasons! I just finished Titansgrave yesterday and am looking forward to more (I am a boardgameplayer and was surprised I liked the RPG-show so much). I am a bit sad that there is no crowdfunding because it was nice to be able to support the show so you know how much I like it (and how many other people like it so much). But it must have been a lot of extra work for you so I understand that if you have a choice, you choose the easier method.

    I think Thebes (from Queen games) would be a great game for your show. Good game with plenty of room for storytelling. I do not know however if it is still on sale at your side of the big pond. And Mysterium would also be great. And I would also love to see a special 2 player episode, there are so many great two player games that would be interesting to watch (patchwork and agricola all creatures big and small for example).

  45. Hi, we watch your shows as a family and have bought quite a few games on seeing them being played.

    We are ever on the lookout to find games that are both fun for us adults, and yet boys of both 13 (grunt) and 5 (squee) can play… (the youngest can almost beat us with his dumpling fixation in Sushi Go 😀 , he’s been loving the squeaky mice this week which is why we’ve been debating if he’s old enough yet…).

    So, last weekend we played Terror in Meeple City (4 players), which was great fun, (you definitely need to rule on just how high you can drop your monster, and your table with the big wooden lip around would be useful in stopping lost Meeples…)
    …and I don’t think I’ve seen Saboteur yet on the show but that could be me misremembering (we hampered ourselves with only 3 players and being horribly paranoid at each other – Saboteur 2 apparently has more cards but I haven’t played that)

    1. You have to extend your hand straight from a sitting position, so that’s an obvious rule for dropping your monster.

      And I guess Anne would be a natural at that game 😉 Ahem,.

      1. Yup, I know that, but getting this into the mind of a small child was the part I was thinking of (our 5-y-o preempted our “hold it like this” on our first play of the game and didn’t let go [stomp]; he’s adorable but sometimes he gets a bit too excited…), so if you played it on the show with kids, just something to make sure of so they didn’t “do an Anne”…?

  46. Amazing to hear both tabletop and titansgrave are getting more seasons! Love the mice and Mystics episodes with your family! I’ve been playing a similar scenario-based game called Arcadia Quest which I’d love to see on tabletop!

    I’m sorry for you that things didn’t go the way you wanted them to, but I’m happy that you’ve managed to sort it out!

  47. I will send the submission info to the publishers of two of these games, you might like Trickerion and the Ghostbusters board game. There is another game that Funforge is putting out called Warehouse 51. I believe all three games come out in October. Not sure if this would be before pre-production starts.

    Also have you thought about going back to a previously played game with one of its expansions added to it ?

  48. Transparency is always the best default. Unless there is some specific reason to keep something private, being open is best. Of course it’s more work to actually publish everything, but the more you invest in that, you can reap benefits down the road.

    There is a danger in entrusting too much to a friend. Power corrupts. Just because you trust your friend that you put in charge of the cash register, it’s still the right thing to do to follow auditing/verification processes. It removes the temptation to abuse the position. What I’m saying is that it’s often the best policy to follow procedures that make it look like you don’t trust a person, especially when they’re a friend, because then you can stay friends longer.

    I would suggest that if you have other friends/people you trust doing jobs for you, that you discuss with them how & where to update procedures so as to make sure things are done properly/remove temptation. It can also be approached from the angle of “if we needed to put somebody else in your position, what would you change about it to make sure it’s done right?”

  49. Wow, what a douche canoe. I’m glad to see that you’re going to move forward on Tabletop without him though, rather than let him spoil it for you (and by default, all of us!).
    I also have to jump on the train, in terms of thanking you, and everyone involved at G&S. You’ve made it possible for me to expand on my love of classic games, and to include my family & friends in that growth. Although, it has to be mentioned, my wallet doesn’t love it that much – much pain has Tabletop brought!
    My two favourite moments on this journey so far would have to be the look on my 8 year olds face when her dad told her we wouldn’t be buying any more games until she learnt how to play RISK, and then beat him at it. (She REALLY wanted Takenoko) I was super happy that she had turned away from the Xbox for entertainment, and we were spending more time together as a family.
    My second moment – the look on her dad’s face when, after minimal instruction on how to play, she determinedly wiped the board with him at RISK in their very first game, and demanded to be taken down to the games store RIGHT NOW for Takenoko. (Which, for the record, didn’t happen – she has to part pay for games she wants out of her pocket money, and she didn’t have enough saved at the time. Chores done in record time for three weeks – WINNING).
    If you ever have doubts again – just think about how much you have changed the lives of families all over the world (we’re in Australia – come visit!) with one tiny little YouTube show. I know our family is grateful to you, as well as two or three others that we have introduced to games because of you.

  50. For a game that breaks rule #3, but would (IMO) be quite filmable and editable, take a look at Space Cadets. You have 30-second sets of simultaneous action, followed by non-timed, player by player evaluation of each person’s (usually dismal) results.

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