Welcome to Meeple to Meeple uniting players around the
world. A 30 minute exploration of TJ
and Gareth's four-game experiences.
From. Across both sides of the
Atlantic, each episode they share their thoughts and
opinions on the World of War games, including their favorite
themes, games, hot topics, and much, much more.
Hey guys, and welcome to Episode 85, an Origins Game Fair
preview. As always, I'm PJ.
Today, as of this recording, is Father's Day, so Gareth's with
his family and after asking a few folks to join me in this
conversation, it's Father's Day. So you're going to learn.
Something about me, if you weren't already aware, is that I
don't have any children, therefore I'm not a father.
My father is no longer with us. He died a few years ago.
So I'm on my own today covering double duty for myself and
Gareth, but we want to wish all of our fathers in the board
gaming community a happy Father's Day as it's both
Father's Day here in the United States and the UK.
So they lined up calendrically and perfectly.
So anyway, this is this is great.
This I'm envisioning my audience today as most of you who will be
on the road driving to Columbus, OH for Origins game Fair, which
is what we're going to talk about today, which is our
intended topic for this episode none the less.
So some of the things that we're looking forward to, I will be
there this Friday, should be there about 8:00 AM, get my
badge and it'll just be my wife and I, it'll be her first
Origins. And we're just going to explore
the vendor hall. And we have an event scheduled,
I think at 2:00 in the afternoon.
The only actual event we've scheduled is that we're going to
learn to play Daba Walla by Queen Games.
And the exciting thing is it'll be available for sale.
So if we really enjoy the game and we like the way it plays,
then we can purchase it. And that's one of the things I
really like about board game convention events is they give
you an opportunity to play a game and then if you really
enjoy it, you could purchase it. One of the frustrating things is
when you are introduced to a game, you really like it it, you
know it hits thematically for you or really like the game
mechanics, or you can envision your game group back home
wanting to play it and then it's not available.
It'll, you know, it's only available for pre-order or
they're sold out or, you know, and these things happen and
that's fine. But yeah, so we're looking
forward to that. I am looking forward to seeing
all of those are going to be there.
I'll catch up with Danielle Reynolds, the designer of her
story and her newest game, Caution Signs.
That'll be released at Origins. It was pre released at the UK
Games Expo. We talked about that briefly.
A couple of other folks that I'm looking forward to running into
in the board gaming community is Adam, our good friend Adam
Tabletop vibes. He'll be there.
So that'll be fun. Jerry, Jerry, Mr. Tabletop
Worldwide himself, he'll be coming for his first Origins
game fair ever. Met him at Gen.
Con a few years ago and then we bunked together for Tennessee
Game Days and he and Adam were both featured guests on the
Tennessee Game Days episode. So make sure to go back and
listen to that one before you go to Origins, before you meet them
both if you haven't met them before.
Also, our friend Kristen Mott from Family Board Gaming, she's
going to be there. She's got a new game that'll be
coming out soon in Sectarium. Really looking forward to
getting an opportunity to play that with her.
That'll be fun. Catherine Dowell will be there.
Yeah. A lot of friends are going to be
there. Looking forward to seeing all of
you just found out that. Well, yeah.
So that'll be exciting. There's a lot of folks.
It's going to be good. It'll be great.
Gabe will be there from games with Gabe.
He'll be at Origins. He's got a special promotional.
He's doing so that'll be fine. And I think Gen.
Con will be his first Gen. Con this year.
One of the things I'd like to take this time to talk about is
preparing for a gaming convention and the experience as
a whole. Recent conversation with folks,
Gareth talking to them at UK Games Expo, folks here in
America who were asking about, hey, it's my first time going to
games and Expo, Origins, Gen. Con, take your pick, Geek way in
the West, in Saint Louis, it's first time going to a gaming
convention. How should I prepare?
What should I do? Well, the first thing I always
do, honestly, up front, I always refer everybody to episode one
of our show. If you remember, we talked about
Gareth and I introduced ourselves to the world, our
show, and we talked about preparations for conventions as
a whole. We covered everything, shoes and
water and whatnot, how much to walk, make sure you eat, make
sure you take a shower, use deodorant, all the things, all
the, you know, the whole litany of advice for a convention.
But something that I've been personally thinking about
recently is the experience as a whole.
I realize that no matter how I describe the convention to you,
while I can describe it as accurately as possible, and you
will get there and you'll be like, Oh yes, PJ and Gareth did
say to expect this and this and this.
Nothing can prepare you for the emotional shock.
Shock is not the right word. The initial overwhelming feeling
that one gets when they get to the when you walk into the
vendor hall for the first time. We all know what a vendor hall
looks like. We all know what a convention
hall looks like. We know what to expect, right?
But never fails, it's overwhelming.
You're for your first time. I think a lot of it, and this
gives me a little bit of a pause, a lot of it is that the
majority of the members of our community feel pressured by no
one in particular. They always feel pressured to
see everything and do everything right.
Kind of the nature of the content creation community is
mobilizing the, that feeling of FOMO, right?
The fear of missing out. And I think it's just in
general, I think we, we as a community have unintentionally
created an atmosphere that lends itself to feelings of I've got
to do it all. I've got to see it all.
And the reality is you don't. I typically tell folks, be
prepared to be overwhelmed and just allow it to wash over you.
You're going to have fun if you just roll with it, right?
So being flexible is very important and is really
important to be flexible with your emotions and with your time
so that you can enjoy it. I think everyone would agree.
We would rather you just enjoy your time and enjoy your
experience with whatever it is you're doing and get the most
out of that rather than focusing on what it is you're missing out
on. Because the reality is, is we
just, we can't do it all right. And some have tried, the present
company included on occasion. Make that mistake, you get worn
out. And then, of course, if you
remember last week's episode, Gareth did a what, a day and 1/2
at the UK Games Expo and tried to squeeze it all in.
It's just not good for your mental health and your, you
know, your, your fatigue will just set in, right?
It's not a good thing, but there it is anyway.
So yeah, you're going to see everybody and it's going to be
great. I'm going to see everyone else.
I can't wait. One of the things that I really
love about Origins Game Fair, one of the things I look forward
to the most is that it has everything that Gen.
Con has, that even essence to a degree.
But it's all condensed, right? So it's one big hall that's kind
of subdivided between Open Gaming slash board game library,
which is a model that if I had my way, all conventions would
follow Open Gaming and the board games library should be
together. I love that.
I really love it, right? So you can bring games and play
them yourself, or you can check a game out of the library and
play it from their collection and then return it when you're
done. I love that it's right there.
And then adjacent to that is the events area.
So you have to walk through the events area to get to the open
gaming. That's great too, because then
you can step away, go to an event that you scheduled and
then go back to the open gaming perfection.
And then there's the vendor hall.
And but it's all together. You don't have to walk from
building to building. You don't have to go across a
pedestrian bridge. You don't have to walk outside
in the 90° heat. It is the summertime now.
Gen. Con in August, Indianapolis,
man, not looking forward to that, but there it is.
But you don't have to do that. And that's the beauty of
Origins, and that's what I look forward to.
So I'll get to see the vendors. I'll get to see my friends.
I'll get to play some games. Yeah.
So we've got Dabba Walla from Queen Games, which is coming out
this summer. We're really looking forward to
playing that. And if it's really good, we're
going to buy it. There's no doubt.
Looking forward to playing in Sectarium with Kristen.
That should be a lot of fun. For those of you who who are
content creators, hopefully you've gotten Pat press pass
access on Thursday, Jerry from Tabletop Worldwide, we got a
chat group on Instagram and he was bringing this up too.
So I hope our content creators take full advantage of this.
Are you getting a little early on Thursday?
An hour earlier and so you get to meet with some of the the
vendors and the publishers ahead of time to help create your
content, which I think is lovely.
I really like that. I think Gareth talked about it
last week is that UK Games Expo that Thursday if you have a
press pass and it seems like they're really open about who
gets a press pass. I noticed that there's a little
bit more strict rules in some of the larger conventions here in
town, here in the United States. In town, right.
And there's so many conventions right here in central Illinois.
But yeah, so take advantage. Do it.
It's gonna be great. It's gonna be awesome.
So you can get that content in, get that out of the way early in
the morning. That way you can spend time with
your friends and play some games and take a few pictures for more
content later. Definitely want to manage that.
And all the while you're doing this, vendors, meeting people,
gaming, scheduling events, creating content, doing
interviews, whatever you're up to, make sure, please make sure
that you drink enough water. Got to stay hydrated.
That is so important. And apparently, as we learned
from our friend Craig, get into games, make sure you have a good
pair of shoes because he apparently wore through the
soles of his shoes at the Expo last two weeks ago.
He even posted some pictures of that.
Just the sole of his shoes were just worn out.
So make sure you've got good shoes, make sure you've got
water handy, staying hydrated and staying rested and you will
have a great time, no doubt about it.
So, yeah, so we're really looking forward to that.
I'm sorry that you had to listen to me.
Proud Alone Alone. Yeah.
Maple solo episode here, but Origins games game fair.
Columbus, OH. This Thursday is the first day
again. I will be there on Friday.
We're staying all day. We've got the one event we're
not staying overnight, so make sure to find us.
Make sure you look for me at Origins.
I've got me brand new Maple to Maple stickers that I'll be
giving away. Come find me.
Let's take a selfie together. I'm really bad at that.
I always forget to take pictures with folks.
I'm happy to see you. And then I spent all my time
visiting with you and playing games and I forget to take a
picture and then it's over. I'm like, man, I wish I had a
picture with so and so. So if you see me, make sure that
we take a picture together and come and get a meeple to meeple
sticker before we change our logo.
Yeah, so it's going to be really good.
We've got some big things coming up.
I'd like to say thank you to everyone on Instagram Recently
we hit, we just hit 1000 followers.
I know that's not a big deal, but you know, we humble little
show 1000 of you following us on Instagram is really incredible.
And Gareth and I are truly grateful to all of you.
So that that's a that's a big moment moment for us.
But like I said, this is episode 85.
So we've got 15 more episodes. We will hit episode 100 and I
think that's going to be our big celebratory moment.
And Gareth and I have discussed several things that we're going
to do. He and I both have some items
for giveaways. We're just trying to work that
out, right? Our life schedules have just
been really hectic lately, so be on the lookout sometimes at the
end of the year, giveaways a new logo and we've got some big
changes coming to the show. Hopefully that we can extend our
reach even further. So yeah, that'll be exciting.
I will also. Anyone can help me?
You don't want to do me a favor is we want to be on the lookout
for a game called Slide. Now, Gareth talked about it on
last week's episode and apparently I'm joking to say
everyone at the UK Games Expo played this game.
Apparently it's two to six players and everyone regretted
not buying a copy. So I'm like, who bought a
copyright? Because it's like everyone
played it but no one had a copy. Gareth said he wished he would
have bought a copy and Craig said he wished he would have
bought a copy. And everyone else said that, you
know that it's the one game they wish they regretted not buying.
So I'm looking for this game. So if you find a copy of Slide
at Oregon's Games Fair and you find me again, only be there on
the Friday, please let me know because that's the one game I'm
really looking to grab. I've got, I think I've got some
non gamers at a work conference and I think it's going to be a
perfect addition to the games that I'm going to bring to
introduce to people. So Slide don't know who is by.
I don't remember. Gareth probably said it in last
week's episode. I should have done a little bit
more research, but again, I woke up and it was like, I got a
message from Gary saying it's Father's Day, he's with his
family, can you record? And like I said, I reached out
to a few people to see if they'd be willing to chat and talk
about Origins. And it was like, you know, it's
Father's Day for everyone and they're doing family things.
So. So yeah, without that so slide
we're looking for, come get a sticker from me Friday, this
Friday at Origins, be there. It's going to be exciting.
There is construction around the North Market.
For those of you who don't know, not right across the street,
maybe a block or two off of the Convention Center in Columbus is
the North Market, which is fantastic place to grab a bite
to eat. Lots of different vendors, just
amazing N market. But apparently there's doing
some construction in the parking lot, so there's going to be
some. So you'll have to be directed
around back, so be aware of that.
For those of you who are going to be at Origins for four days,
our good friend Laura, obsessed with board games, She'll be
working the All Play booth along with As Kadelia.
So I'm looking forward to seeing Laura again.
We love her. She's a good friend of the show.
Met her at Gen. Con last year.
So be sure to go to All Play and say hi to Laura.
Also, as Kadelia, I'm looking forward to meeting her finally
again, tabletop, worldwide tabletop vibes.
They'll be there. I I believe that Brian from 9:00
to six games is going to be there.
There's a whole group of folks that are going to be there.
So find your friends, play some games, have fun, and don't worry
if you don't see everything. It's going to be great.
It's going to be awesome. It's going to be fantastic.
For those of you staying for the four days, I'm jealous.
Here's my FOMO because I'm only getting able to squeeze in one
day, but you know, you do. We do what we can.
So really looking forward to seeing all of you.
I want to extend my gratitude to all of our followers on
Instagram one more time. I'd also like to say that Gareth
and I are grateful to all of you for listening to the show, for
tuning in each week. I'm particularly grateful to you
all for having to listen to me, right.
I know Gareth's so busy and I have to go on my own or get
somebody to fill in, and I've been pretty grateful.
You've been pretty gracious and pretty pretty excited about
that. But we got big things coming
down the line. There's going to be some
interesting things happening this summer because our
schedules are getting busy. So we're trying to stay
consistent and dropping episodes so that you have something to
look forward to and to listen to.
So thanks again, everybody. I can't wait to get to Origins.
I can't wait to see you. It should be a lot of fun.
So hey, guys, don't forget to follow us on Instagram at Meeble
to meeple. You can also find me at the
under score Cajun under score Gamer and at board game Meeple
on Instagram for Gareth, right? Also want to quickly remind you
about going to Dragon Pawn Productions DDP Dragon Dawn
productions, ddpgames.com. Ren Multi Mackey interviewed him
last week was a bonus episode. There's a discount code Meeple
2, Meeple the number 2, all one word, 10% off anything you
purchase there. He sent us a couple of other
games. We played a really cool
cooperative 2 player game that was kind of exciting.
We do have a game that requires more than like three to six
players and we haven't had a chance to hit that to the table
yet, but that's that's coming out his game for done.
We'll be hitting Kickstarter in July, so look forward to that as
well. We do have a couple of designers
that we'll be interviewing here pretty soon over the summer, so
be on the lookout for that. Again, Origins.
Come see me take a picture. Let's get a sticker.
Let's make friendships, let's follow each other.
It's going to be awesome supporting one another at
Origins Game Fair. Bye guys, thanks everyone for
listening. Please subscribe and as always,
we'd love to hear your thoughts and ideas, so make sure to leave
those in the comments and don't forget you can also chat with us
both on Instagram at Meeple to Meeple.