Chelsea Steenbock, Chair of Play with Your Food, joins me for a wide ranging conversation. We talk about how games have shaped our lives and how our passion for play enables us to build community and serve others far beyond the game table.

Then we dive into a Game Sommelier segment. Our challenge: select 3 games that connect with characters from The Bear TV series.
 

It’s 2050 and most of the citizens of San Lazaro have become techno-zombies, infected by a virus in their gadgets and implants. Stupid humans! Only your ragtag team of sentient cyber pets can save the day! Jane the cat, Clay the dog, Freya the raccoon and Roman the goose must search the city hoping to find their friend Howard the Scientist who vanished suddenly and mysteriously.

Over multiple chapters, your team will explore and investigate new locations, overcome enemies and solve puzzles. Your choices will advance the story and level up your abilities and equipment. Can your bionic brains band together to outwit these many dangers? Adventure is calling. How will your quest unfold?

Read on to learn why we love Cyber Pet Quest!

Lost for Words is a game about describing emotions. Structure for the game is provided by a deck of 350 cards each with an obscure word for an emotion and its definition and an icon. Select a card from your hand and read it aloud, then share with the group a memory or an experience or a story from your life or the life you might want. A simple scoring system is in place if you care about that sort of thing, but really lost for words is an invitation to explore how language shapes our feelings, and our ability to connect with and share them. Sometimes it takes just the right word for us to not feel so lost.

Read on to learn why we love Lost for Words!

Canadian Spielers Matt Robertson and Roger Leroux join us for a rousing chat across many topics, including the awe-inspiring story of Play with Your Food, a gaming charity in Regina, Saskatchewan. We also learn about one of Matt's favorite games and Roger gives us a delicious recipe and game pairing.  

Later, Erwin and Gubbins join the fun for a recap of the greatest spectacle in gaming... GenCon 2025.

Assembling fruit salad is a collective effort in Combo. Each turn you will offer a single face up fruit card, hoping it will be part of the strongest combination created by all player’s face up cards at the end of the round. Combos are ranked like Poker hands from Super Slushie (a straight flush) down to the Sweet Scraps (high card). High cards have a better chance of counting in the winning combo but score the least points. Low cards are worth the most points but harder to score. And beware of the dreaded tie! Truly tied cards in a winning combo have their score sliced in half. Add up all your winning fruit after a few short rounds, and the player with the highest score will savor the juicy taste of victory.

Read on to learn why we love Combo!

Degenerate gamblers can find just about anything to bet on - even minor league mascots. Four costumed kooks compete in an absurd footrace that could net you cold hard cash. Will it be Hurley the giant hot dog? Or Gobbler the turkey eating bear? Could Dangler the anglerfish flop its way to victory? Or maybe Mum, the world's most off brand monarch, will barrel her way to the finish line? 

Over the course of three contests you’ll have a chance to pick a winner and place prop bets, guided by some knowledge of how each mascot will bumble down the track. Or not. There’s a very good chance they’ll end up falling or crawling or sprinting off in the wrong direction. Bet safe or bet risky, then laugh and cheer and hope for a winning shuffle. In the end, you’ll count your winnings and see how your life turns out compared to the other bums. One Hot Streak could really turn things around….

Read on to learn why we love this absurdly awesome and hilarious game!

A con report, a solo game about coming out, and big news brewing in the Spielaverse.

Mike McMann gives us a day by day account of his adventures at Origins Game Fair.

Paco Garcia joins us for a Meal segment and we discuss the inspiration behind and meaningful discoveries possible through his deeply personal solo rpg Closet.

Last but not least, a new (and very exciting) chapter begins for The Spiel Foundation.

Listen in for some great gaming conversations!

During the Second World War, thousands of French citizens fled to the wilderness (the maquis) rather than be sent to work in Germany. Those who fled became the core of the French resistance, the Maquis. Working in small groups, they gathered intelligence and fought fascist forces when and how they could. They were constantly outnumbered and undersupplied.

Fortunately, they had support from abroad.

The British led Special Operations Executive built a network to conduct covert operations and unleash a campaign of sabotage behind enemy lines. The SOE are most well known for laying the groundwork for the invasion of Normandy and supporting the Maquis. 

In War Story: Occupied France, you and your fellow players form a team of SOE agents. During the waning months of 1943, your team will conduct three missions to prevent the destruction of Maquis forces in the small town of Morette. Guided by choose-your-own-adventure style booklets, can you gather the intel, equipment, and allies needed to stop the relentless Officer Heidenreich? Each mission will put the talents and tactics of your team to the test. Time is short. Each decision could be the difference betwen survival and utter ruin.

Read on to learn why we love War Story: Occupied France.

Onion pie, killer aliens, and a car sold to fund a game convention. 

Roger Leroux grabs a seat at the table for a Meal segment, offering up a delicious traditional onion pie recipe paired with a card game about crying onions.

We visit Gubbins in Co-Op Corner and he introduces us to The Captain is Dead. Can your starship crew work together to escape the clutches of killer aliens?

KC Ogbuagu joins us from Nibcard Game Cafe in Abuja, Nigeria to chat about his amazing career and life in games. His dedication runs so deep he sold his car to fund AB Con, now the largest and longest running game convention in sub-Saharan Africa.

The land many think of as the United States was taken by force from hundreds of indigenous tribes. The so-called Indian Wars were waged for over 300 years, spanning well into the 20th century and their result was genocide for millions. The majority of these once thriving civilizations have been utterly crippled, conquered, or simply destroyed.

Within this greater conflict, Burn the Fort focuses on a specific era - the western invasion of indigenous lands in the latter half of the 1800s. The construction of the transcontinental railroad accelerated expansion and colonization. Military fortresses were built to provide stability to the conquering army and encourage more settlers to move west and claim land.

Players in the game take on the role of historic indigenous warriors resisting colonial invasion. Use cards to enhance your tribe's ability to fight back. Gather and trade arrowhead tokens to unlock abilities. Manage alliances with other warriors, knowing colonial powers are actively working to erode them. Time is short. If the Golden Spike is laid and the railroad connecting the coasts is complete, mass colonization will be impossible to stop. You must attack relentless lines of wagons heading west to slow expansion, hoping to collect enough fire tokens to burn the colonizer’s fort to the ground.

Read on to learn why we love Burn the Fort.