G*m*s Magazine Podcast Channel

By Paco Garcia Jaen Time travel is one of those subjects that fascinate people throughout the Science Fiction and Fantasy spectrum and Timewatch wants to do something about it. There are tons of movies, novels and games that do their best with the subject, but with something like traveling the waves of time, it’s tough to come up with something truly convincing, specially if you have or want to interact with it. That is what Timewatch attempts to do. The role playing game by Kevin Kulp uses the Gumshoe system, which powers Trail of Cthulhu, Night’s Black Agents and other games published by Pelgrane Press. With a very successful campaign that saw the game funded in a matter of days and then unravelled stretch goal after stretch goal,  I wanted to find out why it had attracted so much attention, so I had Kevin Kulp around the interview room to have a chat and find out about him and his game. As someone who was very sceptical, I had quite a few questions to ask. And I got some really convincing answers

Star Wars has been at the heart of Science Fiction and geek culture since the first time it was screened in 1977 and the X-Wing has been one of the most iconic space crafts in the series. Thus it was no surprise that Fantasy Flight chose that very name for their Star Wars based miniatures game when they obtained the license from Lucas Arts. No doubt it was a big and pricey gamble for the company and they had to ensure they hit the nail on the head with this game. With the talent and passion of Jay Little behind the overall design of the miniature game as well as the Role Playing Game, the whole operation was set for a good start. However, no matter how good the designer behind the scenes is and how gorgeous the miniatures look, no game is fit for everyone and we had to check for ourselves if this was actually as good as people say. So we sat down and played the game so we could tell you all about our experience. Hope you enjoy the show!

Many people hear the words “historical games” and immediately get the unavoidable urge to yawn. Loudly. Yet, Academy Games has challenged that yawn reaction time and time again, and time and time again they’ve been successful. With an impressive collection of games of which their series Conflict of Heroes continues to succeed and draw new fans, Uwe (pronounced “oova”) Eickert and his team of merry humans take a no-nonsense approach to games that are carefully crafted to reflect history accurately and uncompromisingly. This includes tackling subjects as sensitive as the abolitionist movement and, in the near future, more modern wars and social movements. Kickstarter has also played a great role in helping the company grow and to say that Academy Games’ have enjoyed great results would be a disservice to how well they’ve done. With a project going on at the time of publishing this podcast called Fief that has already obtained more than ten times the initial amount they were aiming for, we had the plea

By Michael Chamberlain and Max Murray In this podcast episode Michael and Max took a look at Rasputin, a game by designer Bob West and published Blue Panther. The premise of the game is to infiltrate the Winter Palace and destroy the menace that is Rasputin. Which is a lot easier said than done, btw. Interesting about this game is that it has, probably, the most durable tokens ever. They’re not made of cardboard, they’re made of wood! A game that Michael considers to be one of the best balanced games we’re going to see this year! Hope you enjoy the show!

By Paco Garcia Jaen, Michael Chamberlain and Max Murray Firefly, a boardgame with the simple motto Find a Crew, Find a Job. Keep Flying. Can it do justice to the series that inspired it? Firefly is a very much loved Science Fiction series. It surprised everyone when it turned out to be very, very decent, and it has a legion of loyal followers – and rightly so! – who are claiming and longing to see more of the series. So it was kind of expected that, at some point, a board game would be released. I think by now we can start relaxing a bit when we see a licensed game. There are lots of very good games out there that have been licensed. Firefly happens to be one of them! Produced by Gale Force Nine, the game tries to re-create the flavour and atmosphere of the series with a well looked after and detailed art direction, plenty of photos and plenty of game. There are lots and lots of parts to this game indeed! But does it play well? We learned the rules, sat down and recorded our impressions after playin

I’ve been waiting for Hero Forge for years and years and years and years. A company that can produce customised and bespoke  minis, printed on demand and to a such a high standard that there is no difference between those minis and those produced by more established companies. At least that’s what they claim and that’s why I thought it’d be a good idea to invite the two instigators and chief thinkers of the company to find out what their plans are, what sort of miniatures, the artwork behind the minis, how are they going to avoid problems in the future and also what plans they have for the future! Joshua Bennet and Teagan Morrison joined me to discuss all sorts of things and face some unnerving questions they probably weren’t expecting! Hope you enjoy the show!

By Paco Garcia Jaen The Gamerati himself has been into creating, promoting and playing roleplaying games for a very, very long time and in that time he’s learned a great deal. A great deal that he’s more than happy to share that knowledge. From helping create Eden Studios to setting up the Gamerati Network, Ed Healy has been enthusiastically promoting not just games, but gamers; celebrating our idiosyncrasies and  showcasing how our differences only make us richer. But who’s Ed Healy really? Where does he come from and why is he so keen on games and gaming? And what drives him? As I suspected, an interview worth listening to. Ed is probably one of the nicest men our hobby has ever seen!

By Paco Garcia Jaen, Michael Chamberlain and Max Murray Steam Park comes from the company that entertained us with Dungeon Fighter released this lovely looking game at Spiel 2013. With cute looks and some delightful art work by the same artist that gave Dixit its idiosyncratic and recognisable feel, the assembly parts that come with this game do promise quite a lot. The charming theme, creating your own theme park to entertain and delight your visitors. Simple, right? Not so fast! You’ll have to keep your park clean and well looked after to earn money, and if you also complete your missions successfully, you’ll make even more money! And all this in a family game! We sat around and had a game to find out if Steam Park is as family friendly and as lovely as it seems. Hope you enjoy the show!

By Paco Garcia Jaen and Endzeitgeist Welcome friends to the first of hopefully many episodes of a new show, the RPG Review Room, in which we’ll bring the most prolific reviewer out there, Endzeitgeist to bring us reviews of the best and worst products he’s recently read. To make sure he’s not the carrying all the weight of the reviews, which would be very unfair on him, I will endeavour to also read and therefore review, as many games as  possible.  So in this occasion we start with Kobold Press, The Rise of the Drow Kickstarter and something to do with lycanthropes that Endzeitgeist has actually authored and not just reviewed. Yep! That’s all I’ll say… you’ll have to listen to the podcast to find out more! It’ll be worth it! We also talk about: Panataxia: One of the Four Dollar Dungeons, a series of standalone adventures designed to be logical, entertaining, challenging and balanced, and easily integrated into any campaign world. Each adventure has enough material to last two to three playing sessi

Apocalypses are something that all sorts of media have been attracted to and using all the time. For a long, long time books, movies, theatre, games… This game, Chaosmos, takes the apocalypse to a new level because it is the universe that’s about to end, not just a world that’s about to end, or a country or a civilisation… nop… it’s the universe! This is a game for two to four players in which they play an alien race looking for an item that will allow their race to survive the apocalypse and travel into the new universe to thrive again. With gorgeous artwork and some interesting bluffing and trick playing mechanics, this game is very promising and being funded in Kickstarter at the time of publishing this podcast. Hope you’ll take a look and that the interview sounds interesting!

Everyone knows that angels and demons are going to fight, like they do in Kingdom. That’s what they do because… because they’re angels and demons. And there are kingdoms to conquer and one can’t stand each other. Who needs any more reasons? Exactly. Black Locust Games decided to make a game based on the theme. This is a card game for two players full of absolutely gorgeous looking cards in which the players rage a battle to win control of the universe. The copy we received was a pre-production copy, so we can’t comment on how good or how much better the final product will be, but it is pretty good already and the cards felt very nice, so I can imagine the final version will be pretty stunning. Although the game wasn’t in Kickstarter when the podcast was recorded, it’s getting funded at the time of publishing this podcast and we sincerely hope you’ll take a look at it because it’s certainly well worth it. Michael Chamberlain and Max Murray have taken a look at the game and they liked it… that’s quit

Welcome back friends to the Boardgame Review Room. In this episode we take a look at 1911 Admunsen vs Scott, a game inspired by the epic race that took place in 1911 and saw the to legendary explorer’s teams compete to be the first human beings to reach the South Pole. This is an asymmetric game for two players in which both try to reach the South Pole using two different routes. Michael Chamberlain and Max Murray sat down and had a go at this game to find out what it is like to play it for the first time. It seems it’s quite good! Hope you enjoy the show!

Level 99 has been a company I’ve been very keen on since I learned about Brad Talton some three years ago. I backed their Kickstarter project for Mystic Empyrean and since they’ve had a whole load of projects that have been successful, which is pretty good! They are the minds behind BattleCon, one of the best fighting games out there. Also, of course, its expansion. Pixel Tactics also features as a fantastic game, by the way! Now they are again in Kickstarter with a game called Argent: The Consortium, a game the promises to mix Euro and Ameritrash experiences so everyone has a way to play that suits their tastes. And it sounds jolly good too, with some really cool victory conditions. But don’t let me give you any spoilers before the podcast. Enjoy the show!