Shut Up & Sit Down

Announcing our 2016 donation drive! It’s Golden Week

it's all lies we're just saving up to buy a yacht, a yacht full of haribo

Quinns: Hi everybody. This week we’re asking for new Shut Up & Sit Down donations for 2016. I’ll keep this brief in case you have an important job, like mending street lights or selling ice cream. If you’d like more details, you’ll find them all after the cut.

Shut Up & Sit Down is kept alive through donations

Have you noticed that SU&SD has no adverts? There’s more – unlike many commercial board game review sites, Shut Up & Sit Down doesn’t accept money from publishers or designers in exchange for content (though we still get emailed about it every week). Instead, this site is kept running by our Gold Club members, the fans of SU&SD who pay for it to keep running.

This week, we’re asking you to sign up!

“Why now?” A better question is why it’s been so long! Our last donation drive was actually in 2014(!), but we wanted to make good on our promises before we asked for money again. Now Quinns has fallen in a canal and we’ve launched the new site, we’re ready to plan the next leg of our trip up Mt. Nonsense.

Fabulous rewards on offer for donors!

98% of your money is going right back into this site, BUT ALSO anyone who donates or signs up for a subscription in a given month will receive our new, monthly behind-the-scenes newsletter, explaining what we’re working on, what games we’re planning on recommending and mystery extra bits.

The first edition of this newsletter will be sent out on May 31st.

More info on donating awaits, after the jump!

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Announcing 2016’s Live Podcasts!

not for children under 25, participants in the first few rows may get wet

Quinns: At long last, we’d like to announce some live podcasts we’ll be recording in 2016! For a glimpse of how mad we get when we’re in front of hundreds of people, check out last year’s Gen Con recording. We hope to see lots of you guys there!

If you’re attending the UK Games Expo in two weeks on 3rd-5th June, we’re recording one live podcast at 5pm on the Friday, and another at 5pm on the Saturday. Yes! Two of ’em. The UK Games Expo has been swelling like a big, friendly zepplin for the last few years, and in 2016 it’s going to explode out of the Hilton NEC and into the nearby convention hall. It should be a really fun con. These podcasts will each host 200 people but they won’t be ticketed, so maybe get there a little early to be guaranteed a seat?

We’re hosting two more podcasts at Gen Con as well! We’ll have an intimate, late-nite podcast at 9pm on Friday 5th August with 250 tickets (because they couldn’t find another time slot for us), and a GIGANTO-CAST at noon on Saturday 6th of August in the “Grand Ballroom” with 400 tickets (oh god that’s too many people). Tickets are on sale now, here and here!

The timing of the Friday podcast is going to get in the way of our traditional Friday party at Tomlinson’s Tap Room, though it is happening again this year! We’ll just be cabbing over there after the podcast is over like the world’s most inappropriately dressed rockstars. It’s always full of a wonderful collection of folks, though, so do head over there early and make some friends!

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Welcome! Welcome to our new website!

oh god is it working, don't touch anything, can you smell smoke in here

Paul: Please, come in, come in. Feel free to walk about the place and make yourself at home, though we warn you that the heady odour of fresh paint and barely-dried varnish may cause some mild light-headedness. We felt we were long overdue for a serious overhaul and so, after listening to all your helpful feedback, we’ve rebuilt ourselves from the ground up.

Quinns: So get stuck in! Why not check out our swanky new search function? Zoom through years of Shut Up & Sit Down in seconds – hundreds of videos, articles, podcasts, and THINGS. Our new system combs the whole site in mere moments, runs completely silently, produces no waste, and has no moving parts. You can search as many times as you like and it’ll never wear out!

Paul: We also have a faster, better organised and (dare we say it?) sexier archive of every board game we’ve ever featured. Are you looking for a game for two, something with miniatures, or perhaps something conflict-free? At the click of a button, subsort those entries. I know, right?! If you feel dizzy, please just pause and take a seat on one of the many new plush sofas we’ve had installed. If you’re looking around and can’t seem to find one yet, a man should deliver it straight to your house at some point after 3pm. We do hope the colour matches your curtains. In retrospect, we probably should have asked.

Matt: And oh gosh, look at our brand new podcast archive! Our SU&SD Recommends category, with every game we really love all neatly stacked up in one fine place! And there’s more!

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Games News! 16/05/16

espionage is great, dentists are bad, ants are great, trademarks are bad

Quinns: Good morning board-babies! Pour yourself a mug of something hot and let me pop the very finest board gaming announcements off of the internet for you, like tokens from high-quality punchboard. It’s the Games News.

For want of anything else with a nice header image, our top story is the reveal of Pandemic: Iberia. Hot on the heels of the Pandemic: Reign of Cthulu announcement, Z-Man Games has sent word of yet another spin-off.

Pandemic: Iberia will transport the co-operative disease-battling game to 1848, with a host of changes to the game itself, including the chance distribute fresh water and build railways during your battle malaria and yellow fever. Because of course, you no longer have the option of chartering flights!

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Review: Isle of Skye

up to four geese, sniffed by a dog, stupid whisky obsession

May 14, 2016 Reviews Isle of Skye, SU&SD Recommends Paul has been making the most of the sunny days of spring, including all those ever-growing evenings, with Isle of Skye, which he says is the most twee thing he’s played in a while. He went outside, too. Was this wise? Has it affected his mind? … Read more

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Review: Knit Wit

dying hair dryers, murder knives, serious quinns, hilary clinton

Quinns: In (almost!) five years of running Shut Up & Sit Down we’ve always put the game first. We’ve fretted about player counts and waxed lyrical about themes. We’ve snapped apart mechanics like so many Lego bricks. So today, I hope you guys will indulge me in putting something else first.

Look. At. This. Flipping. Box.

I mean that literally. Knit Wit, the new game from Pandemic creator Matt Leacock, is opened with a flip-top magnetic catch at one end. But we’re just getting started.

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How to Play The Resistance: Avalon!

merlin the special man, quintin's box is full of love, percival the party dude

May 9, 2016 Learn to Play The Resistance: Avalon Would you like to play the thoroughly excellent Resistance: Avalon? Sit back, relax and let Quinns teach you how to play! After all, you’ll soon be sat forward, distinctly un-relaxed and disbelieving everything said by anyone. But wait! There’s more! A few years ago we filmed … Read more

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Review: Doctor Panic

bloody oscar and his castle, a friendship, a pulse, a laugh, a fart, a flatline

May 6, 2016 Reviews Doctor Panic It’s here. Doctor Panic, the first co-op game to ever feature a whoopie cushion, or a hairnet, or a needle and thread, is now available in shops. Best of all, it’s every bit as dumb as advertised! There’s never been a game that demanded SU&SD’s attention more. Time for … Read more

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Games News! 02/05/16

pokéballs, grappling hooks, rebirthing containers, deluxe guests, surprise elvis

Quinns: What’s the world coming to? It’s Expansionanuary in May!

This week we’ve got news that all sorts of SU&SD favourites are getting improved and expanded, starting with Widow’s Walk, an expansion for bizarro horror movie simulator Betrayal at the House on the Hill. The spooktacular new box will add 50 new haunts, 20 new rooms and lots more.

And that’s not even the best bit. Let me walk you through why this announcement totally blindsided me.

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Review and a Recipe: Celestia and a Fluffy Frittata

boxed ovaries, phallic veggies, wonky willy's, do you want to be captain

April 29, 2016 Reviews, The Opener Celestia, New to Games?, Quick Games It’s time once again for you to place your evening in our large, spindly hands. Following on from Arboretum and Pasta With Trees, why not invite your friends over for a game of Celestia and a fluffy frittata? Lovely push-your-luck mechanics? Check! Little cardboard … Read more

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