Episode 428 – Junior Games: Are They Worth It?
Aug 10, 2026
Lots of board games have a stripped down or re-themed version for kids. Are they worth it? Well… sometimes.
0:00:00 Fact for 428
4/28, April 28, is the birthday of Carl Laemmle Jr. who was the head of production at Universal Studios from 1928 to 1936 and personally greenlit the original Classic Monster films (Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy), effectively creating the monster universe. (And there’s a rock with this number carved into it at “Darkmoor”, Universal Epic Universe.)
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0:04:25 What We’ve Been Playing
Ham Helsing * Splendor Kids * The Four Doors (review coming soon!) Boop Shuffle * Carnuta Journey to Tir na nOg * Super Duo * (truly off the shelf of shame)
(*) first time mentioned on The Family Gamers Podcast
0:21:20 July Monthly Report
Andrew: 21 plays of 13 unique games. H-index: 3 (Little Alchemists, Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game, Palette)
Anitra: 35 plays of 22 unique games. H-index: 3 (Little Alchemists, Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game, Unmatched, Palette)
Most of our games were played at home, on the weekend, and/or with just 2 players.
These are games that start from an “adult” game that already exists and strip them down to something simpler so that younger kids can play it.
It’s obvious why they exist: to bring in kids and introduce them to not just gaming *concepts* but to worlds/themes already well-branded.
When they do it well, “My First” games follow our guidelines for very young children (see our Candy Land article), while keeping games tolerable for older kids & adults.
Keep physical tasks simple, like rolling a single die. Other simple skills that could be used are matching, stacking, or pulling.
Use durable equipment (dice, tokens, cardboard tiles rather than cards)
Keep it short! Turns should take less than 30 seconds, unless all players are engaged on every turn. The whole game should take less than 20 minutes.
Don’t combine challenging mental tasks into a single “action” (like color matching with counting).
Keep all players on equal footing. (Lots of luck will help even the playing field.)
This is the same thing that happens in the B-mods we’ve tried! Simplifying decisions and keeping players on equal footing.
But some “Junior” or “My First” games try to stay too close to the original, and the game suffers for it. Keeping more complicated mechanics bumps the minimum age back up (Ticket to Ride: First Journey is 6+, Catan Junior is 6-9), while removing elements that keep the “grown up” game interesting. Not exactly “My First” at that point, although these games can work well for slightly older kids who have never played a strategic game before.
So which “My First” games do it well?
The best “My First” games take board games that are already accessible to older kids and bring them down to a preschool level:
Splendor Kids (which we just tried) keeps the set collection and engine building but changes the GOAL and progression to something more concrete – now it’s a race up a track!
Animal Upon Animal Junior(stacking but with much larger sturdier pieces and a simpler game loop. Can combine with the “big kids” version.)
More “junior” stacking games: Rhino Hero Junior (short shelf life but approachable for a 2 year old) and Suspend Junior (just as much fun for adults as kids!)
Adds luck (will your dragon egg hatch?) that gives some balance to scoring
Points to probability instead of multiplication
0:53:00 A few more that take a much more complex and “adult” game down to a elementary school level:
Little Alchemists focuses on only the deduction aspect of Alchemists, and uses a built in advancement/progression to slowly add complexity
Kids Chronicles based on Chronicles of Crime takes same the basic idea “use the phone/tablet to look around, pick up items” and sets it in a friendly fantasy universe with very basic items and tasks – and a compelling story!
0:55:30 New Backtalk Question
Lots of people ask us how to get our kids into board games. Do you think “My First” games are a good way to do it?
Or, for the most direct method, email us! andrew@thefamilygamers.com and anitra@thefamilygamers.com.
PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.
You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)
If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com
You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.
Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.
Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?
The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.
Episode 427 – Room to Grow: Trick-Taking Games
Jul 27, 2026
Trick taking is an especially hard genre of games to teach. But it doesn’t have to be!
0:00:00 Fact for 427
The world record for a Rube Goldberg machine with the most steps is 427 steps. The record was set in China in 2021, and here’s the video of it in action:
If you’re interested in getting help planning through the financial ramifications of a change in your life, head over to firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers to schedule a free 15 minute call and see how First Move can help you.
0:05:30 What We’ve Been Playing
Dream Runners (our review) Enthrone Little Alchemists (our review) Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Trick-Taking Game Endangered Rescue: Galapagos Penguins * A Place for All My Books (our review) Dice Words * Suspend Quacks of Quedlinburg Unmatched: Stars and Stripes (with T-Rex!)
(*) first time mentioned on The Family Gamers Podcast
What is trick taking? A game mechanism used in many card games. A “trick” is formed by every player in turn playing one card from their hand to the center. Then the “trick” is won by one of the players and set aside. (Usually won by the highest value played in the led suit.)
Most trick taking games require players to “follow suit” and match the suit of the first played card, if they can. Many trick taking games have a “trump” suit that is considered higher than all others.
There are all kinds of variations with partnering, bidding, and how tricks are won.
Room to Grow
Our goal with Room to Grow is to bring your kids – or your family – through a series of games that grow in complexity. Normally, we take a beginner game, an intermediate game, and an advanced game (and some honorable mentions). They offer a plan for growth for players to get comfortable with that mechanic, and all are family-friendly.
Beginner: Hearts
Played with a standard 52-card deck. A “must-follow” game. No trump suit. No bidding (you don’t have to guess how many tricks you’ll win).
Heart cards and the Queen of Spades are bad, you don’t want to win them. But you can attempt to shoot the moon; if you can get all 13 cards AND the Queen of Spades, you take 0 (bad) points and all your opponents take 26 points.
We like Hearts because the rules are simple, the math is pretty easy, and it’s still enough to learn why you want to lose tricks sometimes and win tricks other times.
Intermediate: Add a little more with Wizard or Rebel Princess
Rebel Princess is very much like Hearts, but with a fun theme (princesses avoiding princes and frogs) and with some special powers. Read Nick’s review of Rebel Princess, and the expansion Happily Never After.
In the other direction, Wizard is a basic trick taking game with bidding. The first round is only one trick, the second round is two tricks, etc. After being dealt your card(s), you decide how many tricks you think you can win in the round. The closer you can get to your bid, the more points you get, and the round acts like a multiplier when you get your bid correct.
Advanced Twists with Two Players or Cooperative Trick-Taking
Jekyll vs Hyde is one of our favorite games, a trick taking game for just two players, with a much smaller deck and potion cards that can activate chaotic powers. One player wants to balance tricks won vs lost, the other player wants to maximize the difference.
An entirely different twist on the genre is cooperative trick taking games. And the best one to start with is The Crew: Quest for Planet Nine. It provides a series of missions, each with different goals and restrictions. Your communication is limited to a one-time-use token/card each round. Can you work together to get the right trick(s) to the right person?
There are lots of variations on trick taking. Some games, like Off With Their Heads! even do away with the “taking” part of trick-taking. Check out our list of trick taking games for more.
0:58:50 New Backtalk Question
What’s your best board game story? Were you playing against someone and able to “trick” them into believing one thing while you did something else?
Or, for the most direct method, email us! andrew@thefamilygamers.com and anitra@thefamilygamers.com.
PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.
You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)
If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com
You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.
Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.
Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?
The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.
0:22:40 Classic Literature to Introduce via Board Games
We’re going to focus on games that will whet the appetite: You don’t need to already know the stories to enjoy them, but there’s enough to make kids WANT to dig deeper.
2. Classic Grimm’s fairy tales: The Grimm Masquerade and 3 Chapters – both of these games make characters from different tales interact, but with specialized relationships unique to each one.
3. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: tons of games that riff on this character. But the best to introduce the setting and themes from Doyle’s stories include:
Sherlock 13 (deduction of a criminal, introduces many characters)
4. Shakespeare: be careful in how you approach this! Shakespeare is wonderful, but not great if you’re forced to read it. We recommend Unmatched: Slings & Arrows to introduce some of the fun of Shakespeare.
(Unmatched has Medusa in BoL1, Achilles & Patroclus in BoL2)
One more shout out for the Unmatched series. They pull from tons of classics: Alice in Wonderland, Beowulf, Robin Hood, Sinbad, and even modern “classics” like Jurassic Park, Marvel characters, The Witcher, Buffy, and TMNT.
(Other games based on classic literature that are great, but work much better if you already love the story: Ichor, Bottle Imp, Paint the Roses, Princess and the Goblin, The Grimm Forest)
0:46:10 New Backtalk Question
What’s your hidden gem?
What’s a lesser-known game that you just click with? Or a game that you think should be much better known because it’s awesome?
Or, for the most direct method, email us! andrew@thefamilygamers.com and anitra@thefamilygamers.com.
PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.
You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)
If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com
You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.
Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.
Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?
The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.
Episode 425 – Learning in Board Games: ELA Skills
Jun 29, 2026
Listener request today! We’re going to talk about ELA skills and board games to support them.
0:00:00 Fact for 425
The most expensive film produced is Avatar (USA, 2009), with an estimated production budget of $425 million. Avatar went on to achieve a worldwide box-office gross of $2.9 billion – the highest of all time.
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game * Stew Cat Rescue * Trio (our review) boop (app version * – we love boop, not sure this is the best way to play it)
(*) first time mentioned on The Family Gamers Podcast
There’s lots of subjects that we can talk about when talking about learning through board games. There’s the hard sciences, there’s math, and then there’s the more liberal arts side of education, which is important, but a lot more difficult to teach or work through with games.
You’re looking for chunks of prose text (not a rule book, not just a few words of flavor text) that will force some practice. This is for fluency, simply encountering more text in more ways.
Tales of the Arabian Nights – roll & move blended with adventure choices (read chunks of story)
Look for sequential text – that has a beginning, middle, and end. But doesn’t have to be long! Games like HerStory or Trekking through History have a few sentences on each card.
Above and Below or other similar games from Red Raven will have you read chunks in the rulebook that are short stories. Choose a path after reading some dialogue and description!
0:32:30 Writing
Writing is a hard skill to build on in games. Penmanship can be improved through simple practice. But the harder skill to build is “how to tell a story” (creative writing).
Tall Tales has players physically WRITE DOWN a scene based on a prompt and restrictions. Then all the story ideas are read out loud. One is chosen to be the “real” story and the next round must build off that.
Untold: Adventures Await is an RPG/storytelling game using Story Cubes. It provides a lot of scaffolding to assist. But you could do much of it with just the StoryCubes and a piece of paper.
Bear in Mind uses storytelling as an aid to memory!
Of course, all role-playing games can encourage improvement in creative story telling.
Dixit is a story-telling game. Normally the storyteller is trying to match with just 1-2 players, not everyone. But you can change the rules around this!
Talk about a tough skill to teach or practice! Most word games are pretty punishing for bad spelling. But there are a few that can be used for practice and improvement. (We did a Room to Grow on this topic a few years ago.)
Illiterati – which is a cooperative game: everyone can assist each other in making words or sharing letters. And the supervillain theme can give an extra little push for a kid on the fence about a word game.
Scattergories – mostly for vocabulary (but also penmanship!)
Tapple / Tapple 10– can pull in younger kids even if they’re not competitive. “What are other items in this category?”
0:43:00 Have you used games to help kids practice ELA skills?
What other games would you recommend?
0:45:00 New Backtalk Question
When thinking about games that you play with your family, how do you treat them? What happens if a card gets bent, for example?
Or, for the most direct method, email us! andrew@thefamilygamers.com and anitra@thefamilygamers.com.
PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.
You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)
If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com
You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.
Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.
Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?
The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.
Our daughter just graduated from highschool, and that has us thinking about graduation parties and gifts. Would you give board games to a new graduate?
0:00:00 Fact for 424
Dances with Wolves grossed 424 million at the box office in 1991.
Support The Family Gamers on Patreon! You can pledge “In Our Neighborhood”, “On the List”, “Extended Family”, or “Immediate Family”. There’s also a free tier, just to stay up to date. Thanks so much to the two listeners who have already put themselves “on the list”!
We have a new highschool graduate, going off to college in a few months. So we thought about what games might be a good choice to give to a new graduate heading off into the world.
Games that play well on video chat (Zoom or Facetime): Blank Slate, Wavelength – we love it but requires a little bit of extra work.
… and obviously, a game that fits their special interest. For our daughter, that’s probably Flamecraft. For a friend’s kid headed to flight school, First in Flight.
0:42:20 New Backtalk Question
What’s one board game related thing you’re looking forward to doing this summer? Hopefully with your family? Is it a game you really want to get to the table? A convention you want to go to?
Or, for the most direct method, email us! andrew@thefamilygamers.com and anitra@thefamilygamers.com.
PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.
You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)
If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com
You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.
Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.
Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?
The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.
It’s been a minute since we talked about short games! (Episode 194 or Episode 369) But life is crazy these days, we’ll get into the monthly report, so we started thinking about games that were fast. What are some great ones that take 10-15 minutes?
0:00:00 Fact for 423
423 is the easiest symmetrical 3 object siteswap besides the basic pattern in juggling. Go to YouTube and look up “423 juggling” and you’ll see a ton of them.
Animal Rescue Team Got Five! Unmatched: Stars and Stripes (John Henry vs George Washington, John Henry vs Wyatt Earp) Compile: Main 2 Tiny Ninjas (reviewed back in 2019) Mission to Planet Hexx
0:15:00 May Monthly Report?
Andrew: 9 games played 9 times. H-index: just 1.
Anitra: 12 games played 17 times. H-index: 2 (Unmatched, Compile: Main 2, S’mores Galore Roast & Write, Adventurous)
What do these games have in common? Simultaneous turns, or very simple turns (limited decision set). Strategic, but not complex. Need to pay attention to the information you get on other players’ turns. They don’t need to have a timer limiting how fast your turns go. (Exceptions: 5er Finden is a race, and Floristry has a timed auction every round.)
Solo games? Anitra is playing fewer short solos these days. But if she wanted a quick one: A Gentle Rain, A Nice Cuppa, Food Chain Island, Grove, or Adventurous all play in under 15 minutes without feeling rushed. Find more at TheFamilyGamers.com/tag/solo
0:49:00 New Backtalk Question
Does your family play any super-short games? What are they?
Or, for the most direct method, email us! andrew@thefamilygamers.com and anitra@thefamilygamers.com.
PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.
You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)
If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com
You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.
Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.
Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?
The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.
If you want to see an estimate of what your fee would be to work with First Move, visit firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers and scroll down, there’s a fee calculator there, as well as a way to set up a quick phone call to see if they’re a good fit.
0:04:00 What We’ve Been Playing
Fleet: The Dice Game Carnuta S’mores Galore: Roast and Write (our review) Adventurous Tag Team – we begin to unpack WHY we struggle with this game, and talk about whether we’d go for the new Arthurian legends box. Tidal Blades 2: Rise of the Unfolders
Are we going to come back to this game and play it more and more? Maybe. We really enjoy this game. It’s immersive, and when we start playing we don’t really want to stop. But we need to allow 3+ hours for a play session. And that’s really hard for us to do. And we don’t have the space to leave it set up. Maybe we can at least play it a few more times over the kids’ summer vacation?
We recommend this to families with a heavy caveat: this is a big game that requires a big commitment.
0:58:40 New Backtalk Question
Last week we talked about the game or game type you can’t help but buy. This week, let’s flip the question.
Is there a game you want, but you won’t let yourself get? Maybe it’s too expensive, maybe you just know it won’t get played in your house. Does this kind of game even exist for you?
Or, for the most direct method, email us! andrew@thefamilygamers.com and anitra@thefamilygamers.com.
PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.
You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)
If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com
You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.
Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.
Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?
The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.
Regardless of whether you’re trying to figure out how to start saving for your future, or trying to decide if you can afford to retire, First Move can help you. To set up either a 15 minute phone call or a 90 minute meeting go to firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers today.
0:04:55 What We’ve Been Playing
Aspens (w/ Majestic Marvels expansion) A Place for All My Books Mission to Planet Hexx! Got Five! Santorini Tag Team – we think it needs a “cookbook” with suggestions for complementary pairs Adventurous
0:23:00 April Monthly Report
Andrew: 9 games played 14 times. No H-index, only played Got Five! more than once.
Anitra: 16 games played 25 times. H-index: 3 (Got Five!, A Place for All My Books, Adventurous)
Gamification? You express mixed feelings on the #backtalk channel of the Discord.
And we found out Book-It is still around, and you can still get a Pizza Hut personal pan pizza!
0:33:00 What to look for in a game?
This is a topic that’s subjective and intensely personal. When you’re looking for your own family, looking for a gift, or simply browsing the shelves at a boardgame store, there are a few aspects you should consider. Keep in mind: who is going to play this game?
1. Duration
How long is this game supposed to last? How long is it going to take the first time you play? (Are you prepared to learn the game and teach it before presenting it to your family?)
We think that for gamer families, aim for 90 minutes or less. 60 minutes is probably better. (One shot games are an exception.)
For non-gamers, shorter is better! Aim for 45 minutes or less. Maybe an hour if no kids in the mix.
2. Theme
Heavily thematic games can be a great choice! They’re not the only thing to consider, but it’s still important.
3. Game Type / Mechanics
There are certain mechanics that are simpler for non-gamers to understand. Things like worker placement and action selection are generally more challenging, and can get very complicated when they’re done in innovative ways. (This is a big part of why we do the Room to Grow series!)
This also includes whether a game is co-operative or competitive. (Some can work both ways.)
4. Chance?!
A lot of people don’t like much luck in their games, and others hate games that have no luck.
We recommend going for luck-heavy games when you have a wide age range playing together. Having more chance evens out the gap in skills that usually exists between children and adults.
5. Player Count
Seems obvious. But it’s related to season of life, too. Our family of five used to play lots of games together with the whole group (see episode 120 and episode 220), but with multiple teenagers doing all kinds of activities, we rarely play with more than two players anymore.
Appendix: How Does This Game Fit?
Does this game fit in your collection? Does it fill a gap of something you don’t already have? Or maybe you have too many of this type of game already…
0:52:20 New Backtalk Question
We lean into the point made about considering the collection. What is the game type you are most tempted to buy?
Andrew – 2 player sub 45 minute game Anitra – small box solo-able game
Or, for the most direct method, email us! andrew@thefamilygamers.com and anitra@thefamilygamers.com.
PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.
You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)
If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com
You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.
Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.
Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?
The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.
What is gamification? Does it have any relationship to board gaming? We examine the concept this week.
0:00:00 Fact for 420
Where did the reference “420” come from to refer to smoking marijuana?
Sponsor Message
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If you’re curious what it would cost to get help from First Move you can visit firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers and scroll down, there’s a calculator there where you enter your income and net worth and it will tell you your estimated monthly fee.
0:05:10 What We’ve Been Playing
Dragonarium * Iliad (our review) A Place for All My Books * Tidal Blades 2: Rise of the Unfolders S’mores Galore: Roast and Write (review soon) Spring Wombat Poo *
You shared your strategies for teaching board game manners on the #backtalk channel of the Discord.
0:35:45 Gamification: The Good and The Not-So-Good
According to Merriam-Webster: “the process of adding games or gamelike elements to something (such as a task) so as to encourage participation.”
So, this is things that are not games with game-like elements added to them for motivation: like learning math, or working on fitness goals, or meeting work quotas.
Store loyalty programs. Everything from simple “collect 10 stamps, get a free coffee” to the more sophisticated programs with big national chains that give incentives or unlock special offers by getting to a different “level”. These can push you to buy just a little bit more or more often than you would otherwise. (Supermarkets, Kohl’s Cash, CVS Extrabucks, etc.)
Fitness apps often use multiple kinds of achievement-based gamification, to hook different kinds of people. Leaderboards, badges, and “personal best” tracking. They may include rewards or social collaboration as well. (We discuss Apple Fitness, Peloton. Company fitness challenges often are rewards-based.)
Duolingo also uses achievements (streak-tracking!), while having obvious progress-based elements as well.
Lose It! rewards you for “streaks” as well – including simply tracking your calories every day, even if you don’t meet your other goals!
We think good gamification gives you a framework to work on your goals as well as the incentives to improve.
What does this mean for our families & our kids?
We think of two meta-examples. The 5×5 challenge (picking 5 games to play at least 5 times). Also the balancing B-mods and “leveling up” from Board Games For All Ages.
Can we bring elements we like in board gaming to other behaviors we want to encourage?
Gamification can be GOOD when it helps shore up existing motivation. But it’s not good when it is (a) the only motivation or (b) encouraging unintended behavior.
Be wary of using gamification to substitute for real motivation!
We describe using “chore cards” as a type of gamification. Kids removed the cards when done, kind of like an achievement system in reverse (having an empty line was the goal) – and it “unlocked” their screen time for the day.
I feel like learning to read should naturally feel progress-based. As you improve, you get more opportunities to read what you want! Some schools make it too achievement-ish if they focus on “reading levels” rather than the fun of reading.
Don’t be tempted to gamify everything and turn it into too much pressure on your kids! We’ve seen this in sports, academic achievement (GPA/grades), and other competitions. It’s okay not to be the best at everything!
We share our experience with Marvel Puzzle Quest, which was a little too good at motivating us to play.
1:06:00 New Backtalk Question
Have you ever gamified anything at home that would otherwise just normally be a part of life? Maybe it’s to help you be motivated, or maybe it’s for your kids? Chores, fitness, something else entirely?
Or, for the most direct method, email us! andrew@thefamilygamers.com and anitra@thefamilygamers.com.
PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.
You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)
If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com
You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.
Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.
Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?
The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.
Did you know there’s a U.S. Law that allows every American to check their credit reports with each of the three major credit bureaus each year, for free? You don’t have to sign up for a service or pay a monthly fee, just go to annualcreditreport.com.
If you’re overwhelmed by debt hiring a financial advisor may not be right for you, but First Move is still happy to have a 15 minute phone call to get you going in the right direction and point you toward free resources. Go to firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers to set up a time to chat today.
0:04:10 What We’ve Been Playing
Scurry Up! * Verdant Arizona (our review) Lands of Amazement (our review) Aspens S’mores Galore Roast and Write Cabanga! (our review) Trio (our review) Flip 7 (our review) Person Do Thing (our review) Adventurous * Unmatched: Stars and Stripes * Jekyll vs. Hyde (our review) Got Five! *
* = First time on the podcast
0:26:20 March Monthly Report
Andrew: 10 plays of 8 games. H-index: 2 (Flip 7, Aspens)
Anitra: 31 plays of 12 games. H-index: 3 (almost every game was played at least 3 times…) Most played: Aspens, Lands of Amazement
“Tacos in Pasta Shells” recipe, contributed by Discord member Sms137355.
0:44:30 Board Game Manners
How do you teach manners to kids as they’re playing board games? How do you teach them to properly “play games” at all?
Young kids HAVE to be taught to take turns (which extends to a lot more than just board games!) All the games in our list for three year olds are great for teaching this skill.
Young kids also have to be taught the general idea of “following the rules”.
One we forget is a skill: recognizing pieces/cards as markers for information, AKA “proxy permanence”. This is the distinction between “playing pretend” or following rules. You need to leave pieces in place to show your progress or status! You can help by providing a different piece to fidget with.
That leads into a concept of shared ownership. Everyone is responsible for the pieces on the board. And that leads to respecting the components of the game.
“Respecting components” means teaching a certain amount of gentleness:
Keep cards flat (don’t fold them).
Don’t jam cards into gaps or bend them.
Rolling dice without throwing them off the table. Use a dice tray, dice tower, or a cup for rolling if this is really challenging.
Keeping cards (and other information) secret is a skill that is needed, but can be introduced more slowly. This is both a mental and physical skill. If they need help with the physical skill, that’s what card-holders are for!
Being a gracious winner and loser is the most important skill when playing with your peers. Unfortunately, this might be the hardest to teach. But it also helps in other areas of life!
Encourage empathy. (“How does that make you feel?” “How do you think it makes other people feel?”)
Prepare mentally before playing. (“This might happen. If it does, what will we do?”)
Model good behavior and talk it out.
As the adult, watch out for signs of discontent and/or gloating. Shut it down (or at least redirect) before it gets out of hand!
Remember, gaming should be fun. If no one is having fun, you don’t have to keep going. Stop and try again another day! This respects your time (and other people’s time) more than the game itself.
You know your kids and friends. How you handle this is different if it’s one-on-one with a parent and kid or if it’s a whole group of kids. (If it’s a group of kids, lower your expectations!)
The bigger the group of kids, and the younger the group of kids, the shorter the game needs to be, if anyone is struggling with good board game manners. Under 10 minutes for very young kids.
Rules-lawyering is NOT good board game manners. Remember, games are supposed to be fun. Slight changes to the rules are okay, as long as people can agree! Young children tend to be very black-and-white: either sticklers for the rules, or struggling to understand why rules exist at all. If you have multiple kids and they have different attitudes to the rules, you’ll need to break it up and take turns with who gets to determine how the game is played.
One last tip: stay away from bluffing games with kids under 6ish. They can be great fun with bigger kids, but are confusing for young kids who are still learning to communicate and what it means to tell the truth. If you start too young, it can also lead to poor sportsmanship.
1:04:15 New Backtalk Question
How do you teach (or reinforce) these fundamental board game manners with the people in your life? Any strategies you’d like to share?
We instituted a rule to help motivate our kids be gracious winners: the winner was responsible to clean up the game (with help from an adult).
Or, for the most direct method, email us! andrew@thefamilygamers.com and anitra@thefamilygamers.com.
PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify.
You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :)
If you’d like to support The Family Gamers, there’s three ways to do that. First, you can pick up some sweet sweet merch: T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, and stickers! Go to store.thefamilygamers.com
You can also support us on Patreon, if that’s more your speed. We have a few different support tiers from just a couple of dollars to show your appreciation – which we appreciate – up to five, ten, or even $20/month. There are all sorts of different rewards you can get, which we tried to make unique. You can see those at thefamilygamers.com/patreon.
Thirdly, you can start your Amazon shopping at TheFamilyGamers website, using our Amazon affiliate link.
Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors?
The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.
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