104 (VG) - 95 TON NOSTALGIA

It's the final episode of 2018, and video games are on the festive menu. Pawel spins a yarn about the high risk nature of future capitalism in Battletech, Dave tells a topical tale of the difficulties unifying a divided land in Reigns: Game of Thrones, and Chris happily delves back into the past, reliving his childhood in Road Redemption.

Battletech (05:18)

Christmas themed games chat (21:00)

Reigns: Game of Thrones (27:34)

Road Redemption (38:58)

This episode hosted by Chris Hanratty, Pawel Daruk, and Dave McCreary

Music by the hosts, with Jokin Etxeberria

This episode recorded and produced by Dave McCreary

103 (BG) - NON-REGULATION POGS

It's the final board games episode of 2018! The team have finally got their hands on Dinosaur Island, and give it a good in-depth review in which we ask: is it Dinosaury enough? We've also played a couple of older games, starting with K2, the mountain climbing game which has caused some grumbles in climbing circles, and Dixit, the party game with the weird and wonderful card art. Enjoy!

Dinosaur Island (01:45)

K2 (40:15)

Dixit (59:22)

This episode hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, and Dave McCreary

Music by the hosts, with Jokin Etxeberria

This episode recorded and produced by Chris Hanratty

102 (VG) - STAGECOACH DRIVEBY

It's more video games chat this week, as Chris, Pawel and Dave talk about what there is to actually do in Red Dead Redemption 2's online beta, Dave gives possibly the shortest (and most obscure) review we've ever done for Burly Men at Sea, Pawel takes in cyberpunk Metroidvania game Ghost 1.0, and Chris has found a roguelite with an RTS twist in Renowned Explorers: International Society. But which bands are these games most like? Enjoy!

Red Dead Redemption 2 Online (02:24)

Burly Men at Sea (21:18)

Ghost 1.0 (25:40)

Renowned Explorers: International Society (47:05)

This episode hosted by Chris Hanratty, Pawel Daruk, and Dave McCreary

Music by the hosts, with Jokin Etxeberria

This episode recorded and produced by Chris Hanratty

100 - FIFTY YEARS

It's 2065, and the team have decided to take a look back at fifty years in the gaming podcast business, sharing their favourite memories from the past. Warning: This episode contains extreme amounts of bullshit. And also a new theme tune. Enjoy!

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, Pawel Daruk, and Dave McCreary

Music by the hosts, with Jokin Etxeberria

This episode recorded and produced by Chris Hanratty

099 (BG) - THE BIG FLAKE

It's the final tabletop episode before the Episode 100 Special! This week, we give Pawel more reasons to never play RPGs with the rest of us, before letting him delve into his latest Kickstarter acquisition Deep Madness, a co-op sci-fi board game with a Lovecraftian twist. We then have some fun by revisiting a couple of older games, the robot-programming chaos of RoboRally, and the co-operative superhero card game Sentinels of the Multiverse. Enjoy! (Your loincloth has perished.)

Deep Madness (09:43)

RoboRally (35:33)

Sentinels of the Multiverse (51:56)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, Pawel Daruk, and Dave McCreary

Music by Euan Glasgow

This episode recorded and edited by Chris Hanratty and Dave McCreary

097 (VG) - ESPIONAGE SOAP

In this week's video game episode, Chris talks about Pathfinder: Kingmaker, the classic-style RPG which is set in the Pathfinder universe; Dave has been playing Metal Gear Solid V and wants to tell us all about how the MGS series of games were made for him; and Pawel has played Ruiner, a top-down cyberpunk twin-stick pole-bashing bullet hell! Enjoy!

Pathfinder: Kingmaker (04:18)

Metal Gear Solid V (26:00)

Ruiner (56:34)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Pawel Daruk, and Dave McCreary

Music by Euan Glasgow

This episode recorded and edited by Chris Hanratty

096 (BG) - CONSPIRACY THEORIST

Board games this week as we chuck ourselves into the co-operative modern crime-solving game Detective by Portal Games, take on Plan B Games' popular abstract strategy game Azul (said with a dramatic voice), and finally get round to talking about one of Chris's favourite games of all time, the original Colosseum by Days of Wonder! Enjoy!

Detective (02:48)

Azul (29:06)

Colosseum (48:00)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, and Dave McCreary

Music by Euan Glasgow

This episode recorded and edited by Chris Hanratty and Dave McCreary

095 (VG) - OBJECTION!

Video games this week with Chris, Pawel and Dave! Phoenix Wright-alike Aviary Attorney is Dave's game of the week, Chris returns to Salt and Sanctuary and the PS4 version of Shenmue, both Chris and Dave have cooperated nicely in the free puzzle game We Were Here, and Pawel has some unexpected feelings about Shadow of the Tomb Raider! Enjoy!

Aviary Attorney (02:30)

Salt and Sanctuary (21:20)

Shenmue (31:47)

We Were Here (35:00)

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (47:20)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Pawel Daruk, and Dave McCreary

Music by Euan Glasgow

This episode recorded and edited by Chris Hanratty

093 (BG) - TABLETOP SCOTLAND

Chris, Euan and Dave bring an episode with a bit of a difference, as they talk about their experience at Tabletop Scotland in Perth on 2nd September. Enjoy!

Games talked about in this episode:

Legends Untold by Inspiring Games (04:50): www.inspiringgames.com/legends-untold

Wibble++ and Yogi by Stuff By Bez (17:35): www.stuffbybez.com

Tilis: Exploration (Playtest Zone) (27:08)

Covert (39:20)

Links to other things we talked about:

Tabletop Scotland's Website: www.tabletopscotland.co.uk

The Giant Brain: www.giantbrain.co.uk

Unlucky Frog: www.unluckyfrog.com

Meeple Like Us: www.meeplelikeus.co.uk

More Games Please: www.moregamesplease.com

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, and Dave McCreary

Music by Euan Glasgow

This episode recorded and edited by Chris Hanratty

Email us: firstplayertoken@gmail.com

092 (VG) - ROGUEISH

Chris and Dave begin this episode with an explanation for Pawel and Euan's strange absence, then get into some video game goodness. Chris has been addictively playing roguelike card-based game Slay the Spire, Dave gets platformy with A Hat in Time, and the pair of them talk about their co-operative experience in ocean-exploring survival game Raft. Enjoy!

Slay the Spire (06:20)

A Hat in Time (32:55)

Raft (49:15)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty and Dave McCreary

Music by Euan Glasgow

This episode recorded and edited by Dave McCreary

091 (BG) - CITYBUILDING, BUNNIES, AND SANDPAPER

The first post-summer holiday board game episode starts with a long dissection of Isaac Childres's latest Kickstarter Founders of Gloomhaven, a game of city building and mass confusion. We then have some fun creating rabbit fiefdoms in the colourful card drafting and area selection game Bunny Kingdom, and we finally lick some sandpaper as we get stuck into the classic 1980s game of German politics, Die Macher. Enjoy!

Founders of Gloomhaven (01:30)

Bunny Kingdom (34:54)

Die Macher (52:27)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, and Dave McCreary

Music by Euan Glasgow T

his episode recorded and edited by Chris Hanratty

Email us: firstplayertoken@gmail.com

090 (VG) - CULINARY COMBAT

We're back from our summer holidays and we're talking video games this week, with mad co-op cooking sequel Overcooked 2, survival horror Prey, Dave chats about finally owning a PS4 and giving his life over to Fortnite, and we talk about how much has changed in No Man's Sky now that the Next update has been released. Enjoy!

Overcooked 2 (01:27)

Prey (15:46)

Fortnite (32:58)

No Man's Sky: Next (46:53)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, Pawel Daruk, and Dave McCreary

Music by Euan Glasgow

This episode recorded and edited by Chris Hanratty

075 (BG) - CITADELS OF MADNESS

Games talked about in this episode: Chris, Euan and Dave bring you a board episodes this week, talking about some games that have been sitting on the shelf for a while. Enjoy!

Games talked about in this episode:

Mansions of Madness (02:20)

Seafall (18:30)

Citadels (38:05)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, and Dave McCreary

Music by Euan Glasgow

Recorded and edited by Chris Hanratty and Dave McCreary

074 (VG) - SOUNDSTERS

More video games chat this week with Chris, Euan, Pawel and Dave! Also expect us to confuse Pawel with chat about the dance music of yesteryear. Enjoy!

Games talked about in this episode:

Total War: Warhammer (03:30)

Technobabylon (13:45)

Fortnite Battle Royale (23:08)

Monster Hunter: World (27:28)

Streets of Rogue (45:18)

Abzu (55:47)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, Pawel Daruk and Dave McCreary

Music by Euan Glasgow

Recorded and edited by Chris Hanratty

073 - (VG) CHAOTIC STUPID

The first video games episode of the year brings a rambling chat about Assassin's Creed: Origins, Bounty Train, Fallout Shelter and the very first of our Retro Games Book Club section, in which we talk at great length about NetHack! We also find ourselves swerving dangerously into the contentious topic of loot boxes, giving a bit of a kicking to several modern games as we do so. Oh well.

Assassin's Creed Origins (03:17)

Fallout Shelter/loot box chat (21:20)

Bounty Train (40:30)

Retro Games Book Club: NetHack (45:28)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, Pawel Daruk and Dave McCreary Music by Euan Glasgow & Chris Hanratty Recorded and edited by Chris Hanratty

072 - (BG) SCI-FI ZOO

Chris, Euan, Pawel and Dave are back after their winter break to bring you some New Year board games chat! We also have a bit of an announcement about changes to the podcast for the future, so listen up at the back! On top of that, Dave has fun with his first ever podcast recording duties by twiddling all the knobs while Chris is speaking. Enjoy! Games talked about in this episode:

Zooloretto (06:55)

Hegemonic (19:30)

Century Spice Road (51:50)

Hosted by Chris Hanratty, Euan Glasgow, Pawel Daruk and Dave McCreary Music by Euan Glasgow Recorded and edited by Dave McCreary

067 - HORNED RATS & ANNOYING ORCS

Euan takes over hosting duties for this video games episode as Chris is feeling a bit under the weather (not drunk), which starts with him verbally wandering on his continued journey through 90s gaming with Fallout, and a little bit about Command & Conquer. Pawel then talks us through Warhammer: Total War 2, the latest instalment in the planned trilogy. Also, Chris gives his dying throat a workout by taking us through the cosmetic changes to Fortnite's Battle Royale, before talking about the good and bad bits of Middle-earth: Shadow of War, and finishes up with a quick chat about ridiculously difficult platformer Cuphead. Enjoy!

Fallout: 02:01

Total War: Warhammer 2: 09:45

Fortnite Battle Royale: 29:28

Shadow of War: 38:26

Cuphead: 49:03

066 - PATHFINDER: THE CHRONICLES OF BOBBY TREETOPS

This week, in a departure from our usual format, we hand the episode over entirely to our Pathfinder roleplaying campaign, in which we talk about what Pathfinder is, the characters and stories in our campaign, and have a good old chat about the wonderful world of roleplaying in general, from the perspective of both new (Chris and Euan) and experienced players (Pawel, RPG maestro extraordinaire). This episode begins with a dramatic reading from the journal of Euan's character, Bobby Treetops, the elf sailor. He's some lad. Enjoy!

065 - MEAT'S BACK ON THE MENU

We have a belter of an episode this week as Pawel admits defeat and gets stuck right in to Divinity: Original Sin 2, Chris tries not to spoil the interactive video-based game Her Story, Euan goes back to the 90s and plays the original Fallout, and Chris gives a quick overview of his first couple of hours in Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Enjoy!

Divinity: Original Sin 2: 01:40

Her Story: 22:30

Fallout: 34:30

Middle-earth: Shadow of War: 50:50

064 - RAGING SPIRITS FORGING DICE

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We're back with another tabletop games episode, this time talking about two board games with gorgeous artwork: Dice Forge, in which the players are constantly changing the physical faces of their dice to suit their needs and strategy, and Spirit Island, a fully co-operative game of angry gods and spirits (the players) who are repelling foreign invaders from colonising their lands. Enjoy!

Dice Forge: 02:30

Spirit Island: 25:45