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They Can’t All Be Great: Dealing with game night failures. – Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast Ep 78

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 This is the 78th episode of the Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast, an edited version of our live show recorded on February 12th 2020. Join us as we stream live every week on Wednesdays at 9:00 PM Eastern on Twitch. If you like some video with your audio, you can also watch/listen to individual segments from this show on YouTube.

They Can’t All Be Great - Dealing with a game night failure. Also a review of the Legacy of Lo Pan expansion for Big Trouble In Little China the Game and a ton of games in our week in review including Orleans, Medium, Gorus Maxiumus, War Chest, Pulsar 2849, 8Bit Box, Raiders of the North Sea, Dungeon Crawl Classic and more. [ READ MORE ]

Miniature Games Without The Minis (Sorta) – Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast

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 This is the 77th episode of the Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast, an edited version of our live show recorded on February 5th 2020. Join us as we stream live every week on Wednesdays at 9:00 PM Eastern on Twitch. If you like some video with your audio, you can also watch/listen to individual segments from this show on YouTube.

Miniature Gaming Without the Minis (Sorta). Getting back into wargaming without the cost of buying, building and painting an army. Also, a preview of Gorinto, expansions for Horizons and Orleans and Sean’s got some Minecraft to talk about. [ READ MORE ]

Board Games that Scratch the Miniature Wargame Itch Without the Army Collecting. – Ask The Bellhop

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Today we've got a long time miniature wargamer who's really into tanks looking to get back to the table. The thing is they don't want the time, cost and commitment of buying and building a full army of miniatures. So they are looking for some board game replacements for large scale miniature wargames.

Rob Day writes,
"I have a co-worker who used to play mini wargames when he was a younger man. He's specifically into historical tanks and looking at getting back to the table. Are there any good strategic board games that might scratch that itch without requiring him to dive fully back into collecting a whole army of miniatures?" [ READ MORE ]

2020 Questions – January AMA – Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast

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 This is the 76th episode of the Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast, an edited version of our live show recorded on January 29th, 2020. Join us as we stream live every week on Wednesdays at 9:00 PM Eastern on Twitch. If you like some video with your audio, you can also watch/listen to individual segments from this show on YouTube.

2020 Questions. Our first AMA of 2020. Giving up, and sticking with games. Great games with terrible components and terrible games with great components, social interactions interfering with game night, RPG audio dramas, mystery themed games, game convention pros and cons, and more. Also, a review of Imhotep A New Dynasty. [ READ MORE ]

18 of the Best Word-Based Board Games – Ask The Bellhop

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Long time fan of the show Brian is wondering if there are any good word games out there. Brian is in luck because there are a sold number of very good word based boardgames.

Brian Kurtz asks,
"Are there any good word-based games out there besides Scrabble? In your opinion, is this even a category? Does it include word-guessing games like Taboo or Charades or word-defining games like Balderdash?" [ READ MORE ]

Missing in Action, What do you do when you are short a player? – Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast

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 This is the 74th episode of the Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast, an edited version of our live show recorded on January 15th, 2020 Join us as we stream live every week on Wednesdays at 9:00 PM Eastern on Twitch. If you like some video with your audio, you can also watch/listen to individual segments from this show on YouTube.

Missing In Action - What to do when you are short a player or players. Also, a review of the Escalation expansion for Eminent Domain, a first look at Gorinto and Sean gets Hogwarts Battle back to the table. [ READ MORE ]

What do you do when one or more players cancel on game night? – Ask The Bellhop

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A player cancelling for game night is inevitable. At some point, one of your players isn't going to show up. Sometimes it's the GM who can't make it for a roleplaying game, or the host of the event has to cancel the entire thing at the last minute. What do you do?

This topic is inspired by the fact that I started off 2020 with a nasty case of Strep Throat and have had to cancel a variety of different gaming events due to that illness. [ READ MORE ]

A Focus on Teaching – Board Game Teacher Tips – Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast

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 This is the 71st episode of the Tabletop Bellhop Gaming Podcast, an edited version of our live show recorded on December 11th, 2019. Join us as we stream live every week on Wednesdays at 9:00 PM Eastern on Twitch. If you like some video with your audio, you can also watch/listen to individual segments from this show on YouTube.

A Focus on Teaching - Board Game Teacher Tips. Dead Man’s Cabal review in The Game Room. Carpe Diem and Imhotep A New Dynasty first thoughts in The Bellhop’s Tabletop. [ READ MORE ]

Tips for Maintaining Focus while Teaching Board Games – Ask The Bellhop

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We return to the topic of teaching games with a question regarding how to maintain focus when acting as a board game teacher.

S Darkwell writes:
"A few months ago, I began a bi-weekly(ish) gaming night. My friends provide the location, and my girlfriend and I provide the games and teach them to play.
I've come to realize that I'm atrocious at describing how to play board games. I'm relatively new to these games myself, but if I were to simply sit down and play, I could do so without issue. The moment it comes time to teach others, however, my mind becomes scattered and I begin forgetting even fundamental rules. I regularly spend hours watching board game review/how-to-play videos, but they don’t seem to have improved my teaching skills in any meaningful way.
I suspect the issue is that in any given situation, my focus snaps to the social aspects of the environment. When I should be describing the board game, I'm instead noticing whenever anyone shifts their weight, glances elsewhere, or moves a component.
The irony is that in the past, I’ve been hired to give informative presentations on stage in front of hundreds of people and never had an issue. Something about the smaller more-personal environment makes teaching board games a far greater challenge.
Firstly, do you have any recommendations on how to better teach board games in general?
Secondly, do you have any suggestions on how to maintain focus on teaching the game instead of the people in the room? [ READ MORE ]