Breakup Gaming Society

Breakup Gaming Society
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Booze, board games and hip hop with America’s Least Responsible Board Game Podcast

  1. 2H AGO

    NINJA BORG RPG Actual Play + Stick This Up Your Language Model | Episode 111

    Sam Altman and Marc Andreessen can frolic in my pickle water. The world they’re imagining sucks. We’re going to hide from it in the best way possible: An RPG actual play session where two ninjas have to kill Cheap Trick during their famous Budokan set in 1978. Ingest this into your model.News• If you live in Chicagoland and like supporting indie game designers, the Indie Boardgame Showcase is stopping at Big Star in Wrigleyville on Sunday, March 8 from 4:30-8:00 p.m. More than 15 designers will be there, demoing what they made for you. Get 50% off your ticket with the code BREAKUP at Quirk Events’ website. • Also, I’m giving away a charming stack of indie games from The Seahorse and the Hummingbird, Grumpy Spider Games, Long Tail Games and Ada Press. Hear about these games and learn how to win them in the Games of the Week segment of Episode 110. Game of the Week (3:43)• You want a taste at how a Mars colony would have played out? Go to Texas, where your fixed-income auntie will be braised inside her apartment during unprecedented free-market desert heat as crypto mining operations brown out her AC and people in Granbury get crippling headaches from the hum of exotic currency being made across the street. I do not envy science fiction writers right now. This and other thoughts on AI in context of the fun slaughterhouse economy they’ve been iterating through several thrilling market crashes for decades now. • Where can we go that these hyperreal Carnegies and Rockefellers can’t ruin? Well, we can teleport to Japan in 1978 and kill one of my favorite bands. Hear the mission and character setup for some actual play of the NINJA BORG RPG by Walton Wood and Rugose Kohn.Track of the Week (34:42)Pardon the sound quality, but I found some deep old ‘93-’94 big-crew boom bap cuts on YouTube from Now Born Click, Troubleneck Brothers and Freakin Inglish. You need to hear selections from these You can always hit the show with a one-time donation to get a really dumb cocktail book and a really disarming frog sticker.

    40 min

  2. FEB 16

    Indie Game Giveaway + Tannhäuser, the Lost Skirmish Gem

    How the hell do you make a product called Tony’s Chocolonely and not do a special Valentine’s Day bar with a fentanyl center and a little space on the wrapper to write a suicide haiku. Games of the Week (3:14) • I’m giving away creations from The Seahorse and The Hummingbird, Grumpy Spider Games, Long Tail Games and Ada Press. Listen for how to win the whole pile. • The Fantasy Flight Games golden age retrospective continues with a look at Tannhäuser, an ambitious, glossy FFG rework of an existing alternate-universe squad skirmish game that went for it all. It won us over, at least. Track of the Week (23:29)An irresistible internally rhymed hip hop vocal sample leads us from 1997’s “Dirt” by Death in Vegas back to Hip Hop First Lady Roxanne Shanté in her late-career attempt to declare war with every female rapper. Don’t forget to listen for contest clues in both Games of the Week and Track of the Week in this episode.

    34 min

  3. JAN 30

    Ninja Borg RPG! Fantasy Flight Retro Bangers! Die, Boredom!

    This episode is dedicated to the plucky neighborhoods of Minneapolis, out there in the freezing cold and getting blackbagged, maced, shot, harassed, and defamed for their troubles.  Also want to shout out Minnesota native and wargame YouTuber Zilla Blitz, and current Minneapolis resident Liz Davidson of Beyond Solitaire. On successive days, they posted short videos on their channels about what’s happening to the place they love. I was heartened to see it and it encouraged me to start off this way. Games of the Week Ninja Borg TTRPG (3:38)We’re talking to Walton Wood and Rugose Kohn about a bunch of riffs that they processed into an all-you-can-kill buffet called Ninja Borg, a polished book full of freewheeling violence that lets you act out your own hysterical remix of the ridiculous ninja B-movies of the ‘80s and ‘90s. Fantasy Flight Games’ Golden Age (33:46)A special guest enriches my retrospective of Fantasy Flight Games that took over our house in the 2010s. Board game reviewer Matt Thrower about what that prodigious era of board game design looked like from his table. I’ll share an excerpt from that talk.Track of the Week (48:04)“We’re Gonna Get Ya,” by The Sonarphonics off The Bass That Ate Miami compilation. This entertaining cut is the first I’ve found in which a Miami bass crew (playfully) dared to call out New York at the peak of its grandeur. Then a selection from a NY Golden Era supergroup who, unlike their peers, went out of their way to show Miami and its souped-up electro beats some love. May I send you a cocktail book full of bad ideas and a charming frog sticker? Here’s how.

    55 min

  4. JAN 16

    SETI First Play + Arkham Horror Retrospective

    Use the code BREAKUP to get 50% off anything on the Quirk Events calendar, including the Indie Boardgame Showcase that’s touring Beantown, Chicago, D.C., New York, Denver, and Philly in ‘26. Games of the Week (3:40)• Launching my first probe in SETI was like seeing my soul break the gravitic well of holiday depression. Find out what happened on my first solo play. I also include tips for learning any heavy game on your own when you feel like a piece of shit all November and December. • The Fantasy Flight Games golden age retrospective continues with a look back at Arkham Horror 2nd Edition. This was the second game we ever bought from the catalog. It summoned a bunch of drunks.Track of the Week (22:07)Highlighting selections from The Herbaliser’s FabricLive.26 set at the legendary club of the same name. We’re zeroing in on a three-song blend that I listen to every night. May I send you a cocktail book full of bad ideas and a charming frog? Here’s how.

    27 min

  5. 12/30/2025

    Ryuutama RPG Overview, New Dwelling Session, Space Hulk: Death Angel Memories

    Use the code BREAKUP to get 50% off anything on the Quirk Events calendar, including the Indie Boardgame Showcase that’s touring Beantown, Chicago, D.C., New York, Denver, and Philly in ‘26. Want to demo your indie game design for attendees? You’ve got until Jan. 6 to apply. Games of the Week (3:41)• Ryuutama : Natural Fantasy Roleplay: An excerpt from my latest chat with Walt, who lightens the typical mood with a twee-in-the-best-way storytelling game about bards who get into charming entanglements while roaming the medieval Japanese countryside. • A selection from my latest work with Dwelling a solo RPG for ghosts. We’re at the halfway point of the book, where the narrator descends to the basement of a haunted house for a full-on cocaine flashback. The recall is not euphoric. • We’re finishing up with Space Hulk: Death Angel, a gripping and cinematic cooperative tactical game that kicked off a multi-year Fantasy Flight Games buying spree that, in retrospect, set the rhythm of our household’s Saturday nights for the next six years.Track of the Week (23:26)“Can I Get Open?” by Original Flavor. Follow along as I chase a sample back from this ’93 track and end up finding a well of solstice magic inside the many saxophones of jazz giant Rahsaan Roland Kirk. May I send you a cocktail book full of bad ideas and a charming frog? Here’s how.

    29 min

  6. 12/14/2025

    Josh Buergel Talks His Favorite Trick Takers and His Next Design

    I retract forever my claim that Arkham Horror 2nd Edition can be played on an aircraft. Game of the Week (2:30)I interview Fox in the Forest designer Josh Buergel about trick-taking games he admires and plays — and preview his next design in the genre. Discussed:• Friedrich• Maria• Bridge• Fox in the Forest • The Crew• Arcs• The Six of VIII• Torchlit• Scout• Bacon• Haggis• Sykes-Picot• Sail• Knockout Whist• I’m Out• Greasy Spoon• Inside Job• FishingTrack of the Week (29:56)Josh stays on for Track of the Week to show us his favorite slice of Q-Bert’s 1994 tour de force mix, Demolition Pumpkin Squeeze Musik. Editorial: Board Gaming’s Least Interesting Problem (36:48)So it looks like a perennial loser from the board game discourse shelf has once again landed on the table. The problem at hand? Buying too many games and not playing them.Subscription fatigue is real. I ask you to hit me off once and mail you cool stuff for doing so.

    41 min

  7. 11/30/2025

    Final Girl: Killer from Tomorrow vs. Madness in the Dark

    Getting cool stuff from real people in the mail is the new Bitcoin. See what might be in your Breakup Gaming Society swag envelope. Game of the Week (3:17)Final Girl: Madness in the Dark is back on the table. I showed it to a non-tabletop buddy and he got so excited, he got his own base game and the Killer from Tomorrow movie. Hear what happens as one dude in Wyoming struggles against a robot killer for the very first time and another dude in Colorado reacquaints himself with the joys of finding a hook-handled bone hammer in a utility closet just in time. Drink of the Week (45:16)I just spent Thanksgiving editing audio, putting up signs to sell my house, and trying to nurse myself back from a hideous and painful hematoma. Drinking was out of the question. Track of the Week (48:31)I’m going to show you one of the most delightful techno-hip hop crossovers of the early 2000s, which teamed up the quicksilver UK duo Mint Royale with Posdnous of De La Soul.

    52 min

  8. 11/15/2025

    Lichoma TTRPG Deep-Dive Interview + SETI Preview

    Was happy to learn that Fake Minotaur Buttholes, a game for the whole family, is now available at Target. Games of the Week (2:29)• SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is set up and previewed. It’s going to be a very Euro winter. • A deep-dive with Walt into the rancid alleys and bleak implications of Lichoma, an impressive indie meatpunk TTRPG. Drink of the Week (44:06)Some light work with my favorite winter combo: a stout and a nip of bourbon back. Plus ongoing efforts to get good at Resist!, a solo WW2-era insurgency card game set in Spain. Track of the Week (49:46)Checking out DJ Premier’s spare and pristine production on “Tha Realness” by Group Home. I Just Gave My Secret Wars #11 to a PalA possible minor jackpot for Bryan, who did the show a solid and picked Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #11 from a randomized set of three titles from my vintage ‘80s comic book box. Check out what other supporters chose.

    54 min
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About

Booze, board games and hip hop with America’s Least Responsible Board Game Podcast

Information

  • Creator
    Breakup Gaming Society
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2021 Libertine Creative Concern LLC
  • Show Website
    Breakup Gaming Society