Staying In

00:00 - Leaving the pub with invincibility. 08:20 - Dire Wolf Digital’s Dune: Imperium is a highly thematic worker placement game that successfully captures the political intrigue the franchise is known for. Better yet, it avoids a lot of the pitfalls of similar games, by always offering you something truly beneficial to do, so you never feel like a turn is “wasted”. 15:23 - Magic darts. 17:20 - A reimplementation of Biblios, For the King (and Me) is from Coiledspring Games and Iello and features art that screams personality as the backdrop to a deeply satisfying auction game of continual push and pull. 27:44 - Marvel’s latest superhero movie is Eternals and we have not one, not three, but two claims to fame about its cast. The film itself is divisive, but what we can all agree on is that its core question is this: “is humanity actually worth saving?” 50:04 - Want to learn how to create and publish RPG content to the Miskatonic Repository, in just one month? Then you should definitely check out the Wri

00:00 - Buying an apartment is boring. And very very expensive. 08:28 - The Call of Cthulhu Starter Set is one of the neatest pieces of introductory design; a great way to get into Chaosium’s legendary roleplaying game, which gets across the writings of Lovecraft really well, in an all-round excellent package. 29:32 - Dungeons & Dragons: Dungeon Scrawlers: Heroes of Undermountain is another great introduction to RPGs, but in this instance, to the world of Dungeons & Dragons itself, rather than the rules of D&D. A light, lovely experience. 42:20 - You can trust in Disco Elysium. ZA/UM’s hard-edged CRPG is challenging and dangerous in all the right ways, with fascinating choices, brilliant writing, and a wonderfully grim playground to explore. 55:36 - Hospitals and bananas. All that, and a £3 meal deal, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Peter (@XeroXeroXero), and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Like nice music curated into lovely curated lists? Give our Spotify Playlist set a listen. Links to where you can fin

00:00 - What to do with an extra hour. 07:27 - We went to watch Dune at the IMAX and realised that, for a film with the budget of a Hollywood blockbuster, it’s a surprisingly cerebral and mature adaptation of the novels, where the little things are what stand out most. This generation’s Lord of the Rings? Quite possibly... 29:17 - No Time to Die is the 25th Bond movie, and an appropriate send off for Daniel Craig’s take on James. A good movie, then, but who is the best Bond, and why is it Pierce Brosnan? 50:31 - Little Factory from Iello is a lighter touch resource management game perfect for families. Why? It’s easy to explain to a new player and, importantly, easy to understand the logic of the mechanics. It’s also very nice to look at... in some ways, it’s the board game equivalent of Everdale. All that, and a Krisalis, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Kris (@DigitalStrider), and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Still not sure what to do with your spare hour? Give our Spotify Playlist set a listen. Links to where you

00:00 - Willington Day, our favourite seasons, and the number five. 03:46 - "You couldn't read it". 07:04 - Super Arcade Football is from OutOfTheBit - of Super Arcade Racing (as heard on Ep77) fame - and it’s a delightful “jumpers for goal posts” game that feels like a spin on Sensible Soccer, but given a modern fit and finish. 28:57 - WizKids’s latest is Greece Lightning, which is somewhat of a racing board game simulation of Wacky Races in that it requires deviousness, cunning, and a little bit of luck. 40:43 - We’ve been chomping through Midnight Mass, which has a Jamesian “pleasing terror” to it, and is, in many ways, more unsettling than Midsommar. Perfect for a bit of Hallowe’en spookin’. All that, and some unacknowledged hiccups, with Kris (@DigitalStrider), Peter (@XeroXeroXero), and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Oh and hey! Give our Spotify Playlist set a go if you’re after something else to listen to after this episode. Lots of good stuff in there. Links to where you can find us - StayingInPodcast.c

00:00 - Butter spreading dangers. 02:07 - We hop on the Deathloop bandwagon and talk about why this cyclical murder sim from the folks at Arkane Studios is inspired by old school roleplaying games. 23:55 - Sam’s wild claims of popularising Pogs at his school, plus talk of Squid Game, which is a deadly version of Taskmaster directed by Lady Gaga. 36:51 - After aggressively competitive games with names like Boom Beach and Clash of Clans, Supercell’s latest is called Everdale, which is the nicest ever logistics simulator. 44:49 - Absolutely obscene tea drinking. 48:13 - How the Where’s Wally? trend is propelling the board game industry forward, as evidenced by whiteboard-based detective ‘em up Last Message from Coiledspring and Iello. All that, and the other zeitgeists, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Kris (@DigitalStrider), Peter (@XeroXeroXero), and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Links to where you can find us - StayingInPodcast.com Note: sometimes we'll have been sent a review copy of the thing we're talking about o

00:00 - Lightbulb moments. 03:20 - Dining out at the cinema and why Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is a fantastic kung fu movie, with a more-grounded physicality in a universe where everyone has laser beams shooting out their eyes. 21:49 - What’s bigger than Kris's lunchbox? Being a VIP. 25:42 - We’ve been spending lunch breaks playing Mazescape Labyrinthos from Devir. The premise is very simple - just find your way through a maze - but that’s only the beginning, and the game builds and builds upon this idea to result in a satisfying solo experience. 33:44 - Imagine a crossword puzzle crossed with Scrabble; that’s Wordscapes from Peoplefun Games. It’s simple, light fun, testing and improving your vocabulary skills in a free-to-play mobile game where the hand of the monetiser is rarely felt (if you turn off the ads). 44:36 - A huge thank you to Mark (@lithiumproject) for sending us a question for this episode, which is: what are the best two player board/card games? All that, and taking a cu

00:00 - Play it slow or play it fast, SUPERHOT VR might just be the best way to experience the stylish first person shooter where times only moves when you do. 05:44 - A spice challenge at Seitan’s Corner. 09:13 - Anno 1800 is from Martin Wallace, via Kosmos Games and Ubisoft. It’s got a heck of a large footprint on the table and at first glance appears off-puttingly dense, but this board game adaptation of a classic video game series is actually highly thematic, and really quite approachable. 29:24 - We’ve talked about his recent mobile games before here on the podcast, but the Bart Bonte Collection is a compilation of 28 games, originally made in Flash, available now on Steam. This tapas-like selection of excellent little experiences is a great example of both video game preservation and, in a way, a kind of gaming archaeology. 41:00 - Look, we all know that Suicide Squad was awful. But The Suicide Squad? That’s a whole different kettle of sharks. 53:04 - Reviewing incinerators. All that, and hoofin

00:00 - Using Lara Croft-esque flares for romantic photography. 03:30 - No matadors whatsoever. 05:04 - We had a fantastic time at the UK Games Expo this year, and the organisers did a brilliant job of making it feel as welcoming and safe as possible. Last year’s digital version - which we did a… unique?… video for was all well and dandy, but it’s wonderful to meet up in person and get hyped again for board games. Plus, we spill the tea on the attendees of The Festival of Quilts. 09:34 - Kris’s booty. 16:56 - We popped over to a booth run by Kingdom Gaming of Northampton at UKGE, as they were running Flesh and Blood, a TCG from Legend Story Studios that’s really starting to pick up a lot of plaudits, for one key reason: it’s real good. There’s a satisfying tension between playing cards and keeping them, a great back-and-forth between attack and defence, and a huge reduction in the amount of frustrating luck seen in similar games. 26:51 - Another great find at UKGE was Stop the Train! from Escape Plan B

00:00 - The Calippo Shots generation. 04:38 - A bit of a saga. 07:21 - Black Widow is an action thriller in the MCU that explores some pretty dark and deep themes surrounding the character. It’s a good movie, with extremely visceral action scenes, but it doesn’t feel like a “phase 4” film. 19:40 - The solitaire Call of Cthulhu adventure Alone Against the Tide sits somewhere between Alone Against the Flames and Alone Against the Dark; it’s a solid challenge, but very approachable, with lots of cosy (?) psychological horror. 32:45 - Our pal Damien Faulkner asks the hardest question we’ve had to answer: just what are the must have Switch games? 45:43 - Genesis Noir is like an interactive art installation; a monochrome, film noir point and click theme, inspired by the works of Italo Calvino. It’s from Feral Cat Den and Fellow Traveller Games, and it’s wonderful. 55:07 - Getting Busy with the Knizy, and his latest games! Lost Cities: Roll & Write is from Kosmos, and it's a game that gives the Lost Citi

00:00 - Sleeping with Stephen Fry. 05:56 - It’s coming home. We’re going out. 09:00 - Marvel’s latest TV series - Loki - has aesthetics that are very reminiscent of A Clockwork Orange but, secretly, it’s the best Doctor Who series yet. 24:43 - The Willington Variants. 26:52 - We get into meditation with Mondo’s A Gentle Rain, an unbearably simple-sounding game, from Kevin Wilson, a person who we thought didn’t make simple games, but who has created a purposefully meditative game that really is an exemplary piece of design. 40:52 - Imperium Classics and Imperium Legends from Osprey Games are part of a set of superb and very generous deck builders that really get across the feeling of building a civilization. Plus giggling about murder, and people we look like from history. All that, and a lovely spot of ASMR, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Kris (@DigitalStrider), Peter (@XeroXeroXero), and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Links to where you can find us - StayingInPodcast.com Note: sometimes we'll have been sent a revi

00:00 - UEFA Euro 2020 (actually taking place in 2021), plus: it all kicks off. 03:37 - We attempt to get away with murder with the keeping-your-story-straight simulator Overboard!, which appears to have come out of nowhere from inkle - the team behind Sorcery! and Heaven’s Vault. It’s glorious, with superb writing and a unique approach to “open world” game design. 18:00 - Surprise: we’ve joined a cult! But don’t worry, we’re actually only playing John Harper’s Blades in the Dark. Published by Evil Hat Productions, it’s inspired by things like Dishonored, Thief, and Peaky Blinders, with a mechanical focus on cutting to the chase, and a heavy emphasis on telling stories about risks, heists, and murder. 36:45 - A very lazy use for a Fitbit. 43:15 - The brilliant EXIT series from Kosmos has evolved over time in some fascinating directions, and for EXIT: The Sacred Temple it’s grown to include some mysterious new jigsaw puzzles that are incredibly engineered and have pushed the play length out longer and al

00:00 - A couple of rounds of toast before bed. 04:51 - Kris’s Special Place, aka Board Beans Cafe. 12:07 - Helvetiq and Coiledspring Games’s GoTown reminds us of Silk and Fluxx, but it has a sense of internal logic that calms the crazy and makes it all make sense in the end. Another “throw it in the bag” game, if ever we saw one. 19:31 - First there was Scrabble, then there was Bananagrams, and now there’s Inkling, an astonishingly good, super accessible word game from Osprey Games that’s an exercise in word chaos. 28:23 - The Expanse and its expansion Doors and Corners from WizKids feels, in some ways, like Geoff Engelstein’s take on Twilight Struggle. It’s got politics, it’s got intrigue, and it’s got some of the same mechanics, but it’s also got science fiction and a more compelling, streamlined experience, and if those things sound good to you, it’s well worth a look. 45:44 - Call of the Sea comes from Out of the Blue and Raw Fury. It’s a brighter, more beautiful take on the Mythos, with touchpoin

00:00 - An alternative to exercise? 04:23 - A trip to Yorkshire and an unusual use of steam trains. 09:37 - Master Word is a cross between legacy game, word game, and deduction game, from Scorpion Masque and Coiledspring Games. You’re going to absolutely love it, just like we did. 14:42 - Muffin Time is by the people behind the popular web series asdfmovie and Big Potato Games. We talk about why the Trap Cards are so smart, how it keeps you on your toes at all times, and why you shouldn’t sleep on using the all-powerful blank cards. 26:31 - Hazelight Studios once again proves they’re the leaders in co-op video games experiences, with It Takes Two for PC and consoles. It’s a game for couples, in more ways than one, and when it’s not dropping new mechanics, it’s making you laugh uncomfortably with its dark sense of humour. 42:45 - At an hour long, Wide Ocean Big Jacket demonstrates a rare economy of storytelling in gaming. A well-scoped story, delicately told, with natural dialogue and eminently relatabl

00:00 - Golf on a farm and penny pushers. 08:08 - Our first round of Kepler Games’ Forks in the Timeline. 16:44 - When you don’t quite see eye-to-eye with the rest of the family. Plus the excellent The Mitchells vs The Machines, which comes from the same team behind The Lego Movie and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. 31:31 - Forks in the Timeline 2: Giraffe Neck Foodaloo! 34:27 - Unmatched: Battle of Legends is a super fun miniatures game featuring the likes of King Arthur, Alice, Medusa, and more that gives us similar vibes to Magic: The Gathering but with a much more approachable feel. It’s from Rob Daviau, Justin D. Jacobson, and Oliver Barrett via Coiledspring Games and Restoration Games. Plus: the campaign to create a Miss Havisham vs Winnie-the-Pooh set starts here. 48:55 - Forks in the Timeline 3: What’s Under The Christmas Tree? All that, and Mattel Presents: Russian Roulette, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Kris (@DigitalStrider), Peter (@XeroXeroXero), and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Links to where you

00:00 - How you might know if you’re Unbreakable. 04:38 - Burgle Bros 2: The Casino Capers from Tim Fowers, is the sequel to a board game we first talked about on Episode 1 way back in 2016. Playing as a team of criminals on a caper, sneaking about and trying not to cause a commotion, this impressive follow up to the first game has been well worth the wait. 15:42 - Games you'll put in a bag (working title). 18:36 - The puzzle-like, reverse labyrinth board game Bandido from Helvetiq and Coiledspring Games has a small footprint, but what it lacks in size it more than makes up for in quality. 23:05 - The understudy for bread. 29:47 - What the f*** is OUTRIDERS, eh? We find out more about Square Enix’s always online combination of Gears of War and Borderlands, how it relates to Cowboy Bebop, and if it’s really a cover-based shooter if it doesn’t want you to stay in cover? 42:59 - Solo tabletop roleplaying in Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu, with Alone Against the Dark, a 7+ hour long openworld-ish gamebook of

00:00 - The great fountain pen hack of the 1990s. 03:02 - MicroMacro: Crime City from Pegasus Spiele is a curious mix of Agatha Christie, Where’s Wally?, and the EXiT series, that just keeps on giving. 15:25 - Joining the PlayStation 5 club, the most exclusive club of them all right now, surely? Also: how (and why) the PS5 tries its best to keep you playing. 34:39 - Control: Ultimate Edition is creatively risky and every bit is expertly crafted, making it a strong contender for the best AAA game of the last ten years. 45:27 - The Red Cathedral is from Llama Dice, and it’s all about Saint Basil's Cathedral (the one with the “ice gems”). It’s beautiful, and it’s super thematic. 58:11 - How 2 rite propa All that, and a niche joke about the Freemasons, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Kris (@DigitalStrider), Peter (@XeroXeroXero), and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Links to where you can find us - StayingInPodcast.com Quick note: sometimes we'll have been sent a review copy of the thing we're talking about on the podcast

00:00 - Deus ex macbina. 06:54 - The complicated backstory of Bananaman. 10:46 - A bit more on Polis, which we talked about back on Ep122. 15:00 - Seastead’s “altruistic competition”, flexibility in ruleset, and focus on inclusivity is a wonderful special event for two players, from WizKids. 33:28 - Holidaying in virtual worlds, and going for a relaxing wander with Eastshade, where the side quests just might be the main quests. 49:18 - tobyfox's Undertale, and why an annoying dog is representative of so much that’s truly amazing about this gem of an RPG. All that, and apex predator trash cans, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Kris (@DigitalStrider), Sam (@MrSamTurner), and Pete (@PeteySteele). Thanks again to Pete Steele for joining us. You can (and should!) listen to the excellent show he does with Andrew Miller called Two Can Play That Game - a brilliant board game podcast that focuses on playing and reviewing two player games. Go get it from Apple, Spotify or any of the other places great podcasts are fo

00:00 - The magpie. 08:18 - A birthday and a dirge. 20:54 - Relaxed yet competitive, chilled yet tense, Celtic is a set collection game for the family from The Plastic Soldier Company and Pegasus Spiele that, on paper, shouldn’t work, but it really does. And why there’s a lot of value in going back to old board game mechanics. 35:03 - Most manga is rubbish. Finding good manga for grown ups is difficult. But Space Brothers from Kodansha? It’s consistently excellent, slice of life sci-fi. Plus: more manga recommendations. 46:15 - Michaela Kienle and Michael Menzel’s Legends of Andor, published by Kosmos, is absolutely incredible: it’s sprawling and epic, completely approachable, perfect for the whole family, and something to savour. All that, and a shower, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Kris (@DigitalStrider), Peter (@XeroXeroXero) and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Links to where you can find us - StayingInPodcast.com Quick note: sometimes we'll have been sent a review copy of the thing we're talking about on the pod

00:00 - Dan’s birthday, Rudy’s Pizza, and Many More. 06:49 - Kris's "Consumption to Creation Ratio". Freaking ourselves out with Chris Bissette’s The Wretched, making memories with Thousand Year Old Vampire from Tim Hutchings, and writing poetry with Allison Arth’s Gentleman Bandit. 26:26 - Kosmos Games throw down the gauntlet with Polis, from Fran Diaz and Enrique Corominas - the art for which you can see on our Instagram. It’s a big, heady, heavy experience, where every decision you make has its consequence, and we love it. 43:30 - Exploring the superb resource that is Taming Gaming from Andy Robertson, which highlights video games that examine various themes through a number of lenses, including how suitable for the whole family they are. All that, and a smart skipping rope, with Dan (@ThisDanFrost), Kris (@DigitalStrider), Peter (@XeroXeroXero) and Sam (@MrSamTurner). Links to where you can find us - StayingInPodcast.com Quick note: sometimes we'll have been sent a review copy of the thing we're t

00:00 - We like to eat eat eat Apples and Bananas. We lake to ate, ate, ate ay-ples and ba-nay-nays. 07:14 - Daylife in Japan is a cheap and very cheerful jigsaw puzzle game we’ve played on Switch, by Minimol Games and QUByte Interactive. Want a meditative game to play while listening to audiobooks? This might just be it. 20:43 - Wolfgang Kramer and Michael Kiesling’s Renature is a wonderfully relaxing experience with just enough salt in the pancake (by which we mean “competitiveness”) to lift it to great heights. Also: a big hello to our podcasting pals at Two Can Play That Game. 33:06 - What’s YOUR favourite castle? And have you ever seen Dan and King Ludwig II in the same room together...? 38:30 - A love letter to Bezier Games, Stonemaier Games’ Between Two Castles Of Mad King Ludwig is also super relaxing, and might just be better than the originals they’re taking inspiration from. You can see what it looks like on our Instagram, along with Kris’s completed jigsaw of the Moon. 46:53 - We’ve had two