Hidden Gems: A Board Game Podcast

One of my favorite podcasts for board games. There's thousands of new games each year, and this podcast highlights games that are older or less known.

This is a great show that presents an important voice on board games in contrast to the industry trends of bloat, kickstarter excess, complexity without depth, and over-saturation of new games. The games these guys play are not only games that have fallen under the radar, they are often tense, interactive, light on rules, and deep on strategy. The show is also not just a glorification of past trends, and the hosts will rightfully critique games that don’t offer enough player agency, or utilize design elements that have rightfully fallen by the wayside. The show also exhibits a number of qualities of good podcasts: likable hosts, good production values, the right balance of content to off-topic discussion to create a fuller picture of the hosts and guests as people, funny and insightful discourse, etc. If you are a board game fan (and especially if you are new to the hobby), I highly recommend you give this show a listen, as it may develop your perception of the important qualities of board games, help you discover games and designers you almost certainly weren't aware of, and possibly cause you to analyze your own tastes in a more substantive way.

These guys are a pleasure to listen to. Theirs great camaraderie and it’s just nice to hear about games that have been around but maybe haven’t gotten the spotlight for some time. It’s a personal goal to hit up a game with the crew.

While every board game podcast waxes on about the latest hotness blowing up Kickstarter or whatever, the Hidden Gems crew are determined to find great games that are lesser known, and I think it’s hard to overstate how valuable that is to the tabletop community at all levels. It’s a fantastic show and I look forward to their reviews.