Episode 589 – Roll for Initiative…With Strangers! This week, Chris is joined by our good friend Chris Rodriguez from Board Games for the Better to tackle something almost every gamer has experienced at some point: the anxiety of sitting down at a table with people you don’t know. Whether you’re walking into a local game night for the first time, looking for a seat at a convention, or trying to find a new gaming group, playing with strangers can be intimidating. Chris and Chris talk about the challenges of putting yourself out there, finding a group where you feel comfortable, recognizing a welcoming table, and getting past that initial awkwardness so you can actually enjoy the reason you showed up in the first place—the games! And there are plenty of games to talk about this week. Roll for Preview Chris previews Everdell Journeys, a new standalone adventure in the world of Everdell that takes the familiar woodland setting in a new direction, and Drillers, a deck-building and resource-management game about piloting mechs deeper and deeper into an abandoned mine in search of valuable minerals—while making sure you can still get back out. Chris Rodriguez checks out Legendary: A DC Deck-Building Game, which brings DC's superheroes, villains, Masterminds, and Schemes to Upper Deck's Legendary system, including new elements such as Sidekicks and the Hope and Fear Tracker. Roll for Review Chris takes a seat at the infernal poker table with Hell of a Deal, a cooperative, Texas Hold'em-inspired game where players take on cheating bosses from Hell, use some questionable tricks of their own, and ultimately hope to beat the Devil himself. Chris Rodriguez covers three games: Mountain Goats Legacy, which expands the dice-rolling mountain-climbing game into an evolving, fully resettable legacy experience with new powers, hazards, and challenges; Fairy, a tiny push-your-luck prediction game about guessing whether the next card will be higher, lower, the same suit, or a fairy; and Panda Panda, a quick set-collection card game where you're manipulating your hand, watching your opponents, and trying to be the first to yell “Panda Panda!” with the right combination of cards. Then, Roll for Initiative…With Strangers! How do you get past the anxiety of joining a table full of people you've never met? How do you find the right group for you? And, for those of us already sitting comfortably at the table, what can we do to make it easier for the next person looking for a friendly seat? If you haven’t yet, check out the recently updated BGA website at www.boardgamersanonymous.com. Be sure to connect with us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/boardgamersanonymous, on Bluesky at bsky.app/profile/bganonymous.bsky.social, and at www.boardgamersanonymous.com. And if you enjoy the show, support Board Gamers Anonymous on Patreon at www.patreon.com/c/bga. Support: https://boardgamesforthebetter.org/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
