This Week On Shut Up & Sit Down…

Tom: Hello all! How’s things? I’ve had an eventful weekend of not doing much – though on Sunday I nipped to the beach and took part in the great British tradition of “having some cans”. I returned home to make pasta, and only when my housemate saw the “recipe” I’d hastily scrawled with a felt-tip pen did I realise that maybe I was just a touch too wobbly to be near any sharps. I settled on the other great British tradition of “crisps for dinner”. That’s all for this new edition of “Tom’s Mundane Weekend News”. Tune in next week for hair-raising tales of shower unblocking.

But enough about me, what about us? What are we making for you, hot off the backs of our summer donation drive? This week brings two spicy gems. Thursday bears a review of a modern classic – a game that hasn’t yet been given the review treatment but is near and dear to plenty of people; one that Matt is a new fan of and I’m a touch more sceptical about. How exciting!

Then, on Friday, we’ve got the delayed Undaunted: Stalingrad podcast. I promise we’ll talk about it this week after pushing it back a touch – it’s an enticing box.

That’s this week! What have you been up to, everybody?  

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Podcast #188 – How Do You Pitch a Game? (w/Tim Clare)

Ava: Well look at that! It’s an interview. Well something like that. I spent the evenings of the ‘United’ Kingdom’s Game Exposition chatting with my favourite podcaster-poet-editor-writer Tim Clare, then convinced him to get together to have a chat about a thing. We’re offering tips and thoughts on how to ‘pitch a game’, both at a convention, and in your very own home. Do we stay on topic? Occasionally! But hopefully it’s a fun listen.

Go find Tim on twitter or his very own website timclarepoet.co.uk. I genuinely think Death of a Thousand Cuts, and particularly the couch to 80k bootcamp/100 day writing challenge are the absolute best ways to get stuck into creative writing, and his first page critiques (the reason I thought he’d be a great person to speak to about this) are the absolute best writing advice you can get! Check him out, he’s lovely.

I’m hoping to put together a few more interviews and other ‘special’ podcasts over the coming months, so do let us know what you think. Opinions and suggestions welcome to [email protected] or on our website. If it doesn’t sound up your street, do feel free to skip it! It’ll probably be a normal pod with more familiar voices next time you visit!

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Air, Land, & Sea: Spies, Lies, & Supplies

Standalone — Just play with the 3 new theaters provided: Intelligence, Diplomacy, Economics Mix w/ Base Game — Play with any combination of 3 theaters from either box: ex. Intelligence, Air, Land Epic Mode — Play with any combination of 5 theaters from either box: ex. Intelligence, Diplomacy, Economics, Land, Sea

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The Guild of Merchant Explorers

In The Guild of Merchant Explorers, each player starts with one city on their personal map board. Shuffle the deck of terrain cards, then reveal most of these cards one by one. Based on the terrain revealed, each player places on their board cubes that are connected to their starting city or other cubes. You … Read more

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Imperial Steam

The Industrial Age is starting to boom. You are in need of more workers for your factories, and you also need more workers to build railroad tracks to expand your railway network. This, in turn, will enable you to deliver the goods from your factories to cities with high demand — but be sure to … Read more

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Village Rails

In the sleepy English countryside, life continues undisturbed as it has for centuries. It is up to you to travel to every corner of this land, bearing the promise of modernisation, accommodating the oddly specific demands of the locals, and ushering in the age of steam. In Village Rails, you will be criss-crossing the fields … Read more

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Space Station Phoenix

Space Station Phoenix is a worker-placement and resource management game set in one of Earth’s possible futures. The players are representatives of the Galactic Council, sent to Earth to build space stations to observe and perhaps interact with humanity. Players begin the game with nine ships and a station hub. These ships act as action … Read more

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Akropolis

The most talented architects in ancient Greece stand ready to achieve this goal. Build housing, temples, markets, gardens and barracks, so you can grow your city and ensure it triumphs over the others. Raise its prestige with harmonious planning that conforms to specific rules, and enhance it by building plazas. Stone is an essential resource, … Read more

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