Big Ol' Channel Update Video!

Here's a video with a bunch of channel and personal updates –

my game table pimped out by Rollin Mats,

affiliates and, not one, but TWO COUPON CODES(!?),

new, unexpected gaming addictions...for life,

KIC collaboration appreciation,

studio footage from recording new KIC podcast music

random tales from my travels to Europe,

...and a lil' show-and-tell of the games I brought along on my adventures...

whether I played them or not.

Ortus Regni Playthrough Video

My friend Jordan launched his own YouTube channel earlier this year and invited me over to learn and play Ortus Regni – a super unique, medieval-themed card game, with a "game before the game", where you have fun building your own deck (mind games and trickery!) before playing with it. I bought it while ago and had been wanting to try forever. We had a blast playing back-to-back games together. Be sure to check out our playthrough video on PLAY IT AGAIN. so you can see why I can't wait to play more Ortus Regni.

Our Forever Shelf: 6 Games We'll Never Get Rid Of

Before leaving LA, I had an opportunity to hang with my friend Ben and record a well-overdue Table Scraps video together. This one's all about games that are never leaving our collections, no matter what anyone says or does. They all have a special place in our hearts and give us the warm tingles.

Life Beyond Boydell

I love being a part of Stella's Life Beyond Board Games podcast. We all can't make it on every episode, but we always share so many funny moments. ...and now, with special guests rotating through, it's awesome to bring game designers into our silly shenanigans **looking at E**. Here's a recent episode with Tony Boydell (designer of Snowdonia).

​Link​

MON: Emblems of Sengoku

I've mostly been playing smaller travel games lately since we've been living out of suitcases the past month and a half. Mon is one of the small-box games I found/find myself busting out often (16 plays logged). I played for the first time in Étourvy at Bruno Faidutti's gaming gathering and my friend Cedric Littardi (Don't Panic Games) was kind enough to send me "home" with his pre-production copy so I could bank 15 more plays.

Mon is a simple card game for 2-6 players inspired by 16th century Japan during the warring period of Sengoku Jidai. Your goal is to have the most points at the end of the game by claiming cards. There's a deck of 54 beautiful, gold-foiled cards, with 3 suits of cards numbered 1-18. Each card is worth 1-3 points based on the pips on the card, with lower numbers being worth the least amount of points. Players are dealt a hand of cards based on player count, and there are always a number of cards remaining in the deck. Each suit has a row on the table where you'll play cards in ascending order. Each time you play a card, you'll place one of your scoring tokens on it. At the end of the game, you score points from all of the cards with your scoring tokens.

On your turn, you can add a new high card to a row (advance), or you can "take over" a card someone else played by playing a card in between the high card and the previous high card, forcing them to retreat. In that case, you'll politely (but with a sinister smirk) flick hand them back their token, splay your card on top making it the new high card, and place your token on it...and you'll hopefully score both cards – the one you added and the one your opponent previously played. This can happen multiple times as more cards are played, but if/when someone plays a new high card in that row, the previous high cards are "safe/locked". If you can't or don't want to play a card on your turn, you can discard cards and draw back one less than the amount of cards you discarded. Then when everyone runs out of cards, you score up. As simple as it is, I've seen many, including myself, have aha! moments when it clicks after a play or two. It has a nice a mix of luck, deduction, and depending on who you play with, bluffing and mind games as well. It's risky, but fun baiting people by creating a large gap, when you have the perfect number to close the gap and lock it in. Let's say the pink suit high card is a "6" and you have the pink "7" and a pink "11" in hand. You can play the pink "11", hoping an opponent makes you retreat (thinking their clever) by playing let's say the "9". Then when it comes back to you, assuming no one played a pink card higher than the "9", you play the "7" on top, and lock in three cards worth of points that can't be stolen since there's no card between "6" and "7". Mon let's you pull off some fun trickster stuff like that...or at least makes people question whether that's your plan or not. I really dig it. Having played all of the player counts besides four, three players is a sweet spot for me. It can be a bit more chaotic with five and six, but still pretty fun. There's a new 2026 French/English edition dropping at Gen Con this year, so check it out if you like card games like this.5

​BGG Link​