Derek Bruff
@firstplayertoken
Host of First Player Token, a short podcast for folks who enjoy playing board games with family and friends,
Teaching the nephew Dune: Imperium. Hoping to clobber him but haven’t sealed the deal yet.
New episode! Sit with me in front of my board game shelves as I walk down memory lane and revisit my most played games of 2016. Which games are still hitting the table? Which ones should I dust off and bring to game night again? www.buzzsprout.com/2292265/epis...
Four-player Wingspan Pocket with two players who haven’t played much Wingspan and tend to wander off when it’s not their turn, after a two-hour family bike ride… lots of fun, but not a short game. But, yeah, shorter than Wingspan.
The 4yo figured out how to add this week! His preschool teachers have been showing the class finger addition, and it clicked for him. So we broke out Sleeping Queens last night, where knowing 3+5=8 is part of the game. I’m really proud of him.
Four-hand SETI last night, first time with the Space Agencies expansion. The organizations we played were great fun, and only having four rounds was plenty of time to get stuff done. We landed on almost all the moons. And we had a tie for the win at 213 points!
The 15yo got the well deserved win playing as Long John Silver! He played a very bold bluff early in the game that sent us all on a wild goose chase. He’s a pirate, that one.
Treasure Island again tonight with the kids. Such a fun and very different game.
Hey, it's my 75th episode! This month on the podcast, the 12-year-old media correspondent and I review Fit to Print, a delightfully stressful real-time game about putting together newspapers in a charming woodland town. firstplayertoken.buzzsprout.com/2292265/epis...
Walked into an ice cream shop in a small town south of Birmingham and saw a shelf of games—with Carcassone: The Castle! That was unexpected. The other games are Apples to Apples and Monopoly and the like.
It was a two-games-in-the-mail day yesterday! My copy of the second printing of Burn the Fort came in, a game I ordered two years ago when I just missed buying a copy at GenCon. And I picked up a secondhand copy of Dune: Imperium. The nephew (a huge Clank! fan) is going to love that one.
Very fun game of Raiders of the North Sea last night! Five players with the Hall of Heroes expansion, which I’ll never play without now. Just two points separated first place from third place! So tight.
All the Wingspan cards! Base set plus all expansions (with fan art versions where available) plus the fan-designed packs. So many birds
I wasn’t expecting this, but I’ll take it! cc @2muchenthusiasm.bsky.social
Gaming with cousins wrapped up with three great games: Fort, since the nephew asked for a deck builder he hadn’t played; Fit to Print, which handles six players beautifully; and Raider of the North Sea, which sings with the Hall of Heroes expansion. Excellent games all around!
With the nieces in town, I’m also experiencing Paper Source for maybe the first time. The stationary I expected, the cozy games by familiar designers I did not!
The niblings are in town, so the games are on! Props to the 15yo for a tiebreaker win in Clank in Space and a decisive victory in Catan. The niece took the win in Sheriff of Nottingham, and we all lost (rather dramatically) in Dead of Winter. Oh, and a couple of games of Trio with the 4yo!
It’s been a slow month for board games, but last night I got to play for the first time Wonderland’s War. I had heard that this game can be a ton of fun, and I’m happy to report that it was!
I found this in my “on this day” photo folder. I guess I played a game of Settlers 12 years ago today!
Thanks to our gaming weekend, April was a very good month for games! Trio and Heat were new-to-us family games, and they both lived up to the hype. For quick reviews of the heavier games we played at our cabin in the woods, check out the latest podcast episode: www.buzzsprout.com/2292265/epis....
Here’s another shot of the Fate of the Fellowship game. This arrangement—Frodo and Sam and Gollum surrounded by Nazgûl—was pretty typical the whole game! Also props to autocorrect for getting Nazgûl right.
Our penultimate game of the weekend was an epic play of The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship. I spent the whole game thinking we were doomed, but thanks to Gollum’s guiding, we escaped Sauron’s eye long enough to destroy the One Ring! With just 1 hope remaining.
And game #5 is Quantum! I’ve played this space combat game so many times on Board Games Arena. This was my first time playing a physical copy. And with the community-made alternative rules and cards, which are very well balanced. I pulled off a win, but just barely.
Game #4: Arcs! This was a brain burner, but I was very glad to tackle it again. I had only played once before, two years ago. It is so alien from other games. It took a few chapters to get the flow of it, but I managed to break my second-place streak and pull off a win!
Third game of the weekend: Space Bees! I mean Apiary. Maybe my most played game of this weight. I got to teach it to two friends last night. I like how you’ve got to figure out your own path to points. Also, I’m 3 for 3 for coming in second place this weekend.
Second game of the weekend was Dune Imperium. Only my second play ever! I love how well the deck building and worker placement and combat system all work together. I don’t want to wait 2.5 years before playing this again. Also, like with SETI, I came in second.
First game of our weekend of games at a cabin in the woods: SETI! Such a great game. It took like 4 hours but so satisfying. Might even play it again this weekend.
Okay, so maybe I found a racing game I like. The 15yo got Heat: Pedal to the Metal for his birthday and we played our first game tonight. The racing mechanics actually made sense to me, and I think we all had fun. Looking forward to trying other tracks and upgrades and such.