The Cardboard Herald

You’re stranded on an abandoned island with only you, five board games, four friends and one million dollars from a disheveled content creator. What five games do you bring? 0:00 - Introductions and What Games Have We Played This Week! 10:00 - Topic: Games We Would Bring to a Desert Island 17:07 - Parameters of What Games We’re Bringing 21:25 - Eric and Jack Game #1 25:35

What games make gamers? Jack and Eric chat about what games are best to introduce people to the hobby and some common pitfalls games might have that would preclude them from this discussion. 0:00 - Introductions and What Games Have We Played This Week! 15:04 - Topic: Gateway Games 01:02:14 - Listener Comments 01:10:27 - Our Recommendations for a Universal Gateway Game 01:18:36

Eric and Jack chat about what solo gaming is like in 2025 and give recommendations on the best games to start out on your own. 0:00 - Introductions and What Games Have We Played This Week! 17:55 - Topic: Solo Gaming in 2025 51:50 - Our Recommendations for Gateway Solo Games 01:04:05 - Outro!

On this week’s episode, Eric and Jack share their advice and experiences in building a game group! Spoiler alert: Eric recommends solo games. 0:00 - Introductions and What Games Have We Played This Week! 19:00 - Topic: How To Build A Gaming Group 58:40 - Listener Question #1 - How To Handle A Gaming Group With an Awkward Number of Players? 01:06:42 - Outro!

We got too many games and we’re not gonna take it anymore! In this week’s episode, Eric and Jack talk about why somewhat might cull their board game collection, what factors to determine which games to keep, and best practices for removing games from your collection. 0:00 - Introductions! 01:26 - What Games Have We Played This Week! 21:45- Topic: Purging a Board Game Colle

John has designed numerous hit #boardgames most prominently for #AEG and #brotherwisegames. This was a great chat we had after getting a chance to hang out for the weekend at Platypus Con 2025 in Juneau, AK. 00:00 - Intro 01:19 - Breaking in and beyond card crafting 05:51 - The origin story 12:43 - Transition to game design full-time 18:15 - Honing your craft 24:25 - Pitching, sh

But like what do we even mean when we say something's our favorite game? Jack and Eric discuss that and more in this week’s episode 0:00 - Introductions! 01:21 - What Games Have We Played This Week! 20:49 - Topic: The Concept of “Favorite Games” 51:56 - Listener Contribution #1 01:02:18 - Outro!

Had this great chat with Nick at PAX U and afterwards got to play SWARM with him, which is NOT an official greenlit Leder project (yet), just something Nick has been working on that the studio may produce. 00:00 - Showing Ahoy materials 03:31 - Swarm 05:07 - Your focus at conventions? 07:49 - What's inspiring you these days?

Jack and Eric talk the inaugural BGG Hall of Fame inductees 0:00 - Introductions! 03:34 - What Games Have We Played! 16:49 - Board Game Geek Hall of Fame Class of 2025 43:05 - Discussion on the omission of Puerto Rico 01:01:48 - Listener Question #1: Thoughts on Upgrading Games versus Buying New Games? 01:07:00 - Listener Question #2: Do we like games more when we win? How ab

Jack, Eric, and special guest John give their hot takes on whether people are overreacting to board game etiquette quandaries 0:00 - Introductions! 01:44 - What games have we played 13:22 - Podcast topic, AITA 16:42 - AITA for not wanting to learn and teach every game? 21:35 - AITA for trying to win the board game? 28:25 - AITA for making a casual game competitive? 34