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Into the Unknoooooown
47 Plays14 days ago
In our inaugural episode, tabletop veterans Biggs and Truthiness introduce themselves and discuss what to expect from the podcast.
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Focus
00:00:31
Speaker
Welcome to Blissfully Ignoring Gaming's Unknown Podcast with your hosts Biggs and Truthiness. Hey, everyone. Welcome to our very first episode. This is going to be the blissfully ignorant gaming unknown podcast. We're going to be focusing on Wizkid's new Star Trek Into the Unknown. With me, I have Biggs. Biggs, you want to say hi?
00:00:52
Speaker
Hi, I'm Biggs, your emergency medical hologram for this and all future podcasts. So we're really excited about this game. We've been talking about doing this podcast for a while.
Hosts' Background and Blogging Journey
00:01:06
Speaker
But for those of you that haven't been part of Blissful Alienware Gaming since we started out in Armada. um We thought we'd give you a little bit of background on the two of us. So Biggs and I met in Star Wars, Armada's gaming community. um I'm in Maryland. He's up in Pennsylvania. We met at a few events. um And we kind of... Biggs, I'm trying to remember exactly how the merger of our blogs went down. Do you remember some of that?
00:01:35
Speaker
ah From what I remember, ah it was when all of us were doing pretty well with our blogs, ah but you, me and Schmitty, realized that we were copying a lot of what the other was doing.
00:01:56
Speaker
so If I'm remembering correctly, both you and Schmitty at the time said, oh, we don't really have enough time to do all of the all of the little stuff, like a deep dive on every single card. So we'll leave that to you, Biggs, who's not doing anything in recovering from an illness. And the two of you wrote the the fun, exciting articles, and I got to do all the drudgery.
00:02:29
Speaker
Oh, we didn't give you too much treasury. I mean, come on, you got to write the freaking dumpster fire or oh God, that midnight drug. Oh, that and I don't know what the hell I got ah the two of you on to onto my blog.
Transition to Podcast and Brand Evolution
00:02:47
Speaker
So I think it worked out the best for me and when all is said and done. But I mean, we've been collaborating ever since then. And that was back in early twenty seventeen.
00:03:00
Speaker
Yeah. And then so after that, we brought in, uh, we recreated the discord just kind of evolved into its own thing. And then we brought in the, can I get your sip out guys, uh, snip and geek. Um, and yeah, it's and the rest is history. So during that time you and schmitty did started a podcast, um, that never ever, ever got named.
00:03:25
Speaker
So hence it became the Star Wars Armada unnamed podcasts and naturally we had to we had to lean into that and it worked entirely too well to call this the unknown podcast and massive props to Brian because that was such an obvious title and so very odd brand that I think we had to we had to stick with it. The branding could not be better for us and I'm sure that's what the designers were thinking of when they came up with the name for this game. So anyway, I jumped on with you guys every once in a while. We brought Geek and Stippo onto the podcast. It was mostly you and Brian. This time around it's going to be you and me.
Hosts' Professions and Gaming Strategies
00:04:06
Speaker
um So that's the old podcast experience. um So real life, we are, you know, I'm an army officer, Biggs, you're a nurse.
00:04:17
Speaker
um It somewhat informs what I like to do in gaming. like I i kind of talk about it every once in a while with folks at work, that um and and also in some of these cons, like how the Army has kind of reprogrammed my brain a little bit in how I approach wargaming. It's it's probably rather funny to ah just kind of reflect on it every once in a while.
00:04:38
Speaker
because you know when I was when I was young I thought very defensively and actually something I see in most gamers is a lot of people think defensively like I don't want to lose my pieces and the army doctrine is offense is the decisive form of warfare and that is so drilled into my brain um And it's become such such a reputation for me, at least in the Star Wars Armada community. ah Fox recently recently called me ah the most rabid guy in the room um at the recent World Championships. So I have a reputation upkeep, I guess. I guess so. ah Yeah. um You have nothing to say to that.
00:05:19
Speaker
No, that's a pretty good description of you. ah As for me, like Truthiness said, I've been in emergency medicine for forever. ah I'm more a seat of my pants sort of um war gamer, where i'm i'm thinking I'm thinking a little bit in advance, and and i do and I do well when I think in advance, but ah a lot of my A lot of my strategy for gaming ah focuses around optimizing um optimizing efficiency,
00:06:02
Speaker
doing having the right stuff at the right time.
Anticipation for Star Trek Into the Unknown
00:06:08
Speaker
ah You can kind of see that design philosophy in the old ah dumpster fire that me and Schmitty put together. where well i think that One of the things that always stuck out with with with you to me is that you just love finding things that are just diamonds in the rough. like ah Our old kosher gold segment on the last podcast was you and Schmitty's just absolute brilliance.
00:06:30
Speaker
Yeah, the it's always been fun to look at things that might not seem optimal and see if there is some kind of use case for them. Because everything that we have is a potential tool that we can put into the toolbox.
00:06:50
Speaker
So yeah, will be can it's the it's about fun. And I mean, yeah, I i find a lot of pleasure in doing the same kind of thing is just find that thing that's supposedly bad and, you know, give it some new life. All right. So why into the unknown? What has you excited enough to do this podcast?
00:07:12
Speaker
ah Well, the obvious answer is, who made the game? Hell yeah. If you look at the names on the on the credits for Game Designers, who it's exactly the kind of people ah we have liked games for in the past, and I'll let you go over that.
00:07:37
Speaker
Oh, yeah. So if you aren't aware, Michael Gerns and Max Brooks are the two main designers on Star Trek or Into the Unknown. um And they have they they're from the old FFG days of Star Wars Armada, Legion, and X-Wing. They're the you know part of the crews that made these games. um And I've done testing with them in the past for Star Wars Armada. And what I really love about just those three sets of games, they learn from their design experience, but they don't make the same game over and over and over again.
Game Design and Mechanics Discussion
00:08:10
Speaker
Like X-Wing or Armada, they could they're they're very different from how they play. And then Legion is also a clear deriv a clear offshoot from the lessons learned, but they don't make the same game over and over again.
00:08:24
Speaker
it's It's really cool. um And it's really exciting to see these guys continue to work and continue to make games because, man, they made some bangers. And this one looks really, really exciting. Speaking of looking exciting, in just if you've had a chance to see the models, even from the preview kit, whoo.
00:08:47
Speaker
They've really outdone themselves in making some amazing pre-painted stuff. like These are things that collectors could take and um put on their shelf. Collect. Even more so than like then like the Armada ah ships, because even the bases for them just look nice.
00:09:13
Speaker
Well, you can see them leaning a little bit into that collector stuff, especially with the Trek crowd. Star Wars has had a big correct collector crowd, obviously, but Trek has a pretty good one too. um They're releasing that special edition Enterprise D. And man, have you seen any of the unboxing stuff from Krabok? The Enterprise looks great. I'm really excited about that Dominion battle cruiser. It just looks fantastic.
00:09:38
Speaker
Yeah, so we should probably go into what the game actually is. like maybe Maybe you can answer the question, what is Star Trek Into the Unknown? Is it just Armada 2.0? Yeah, like like we said with with like I said before,
00:09:58
Speaker
This is not Star Wars Armada all over again. Like, that's one of the things that actually excites me and and what really has impressed me with, you know, doing then a little bit of testing for this game as well. And Max and Mike clearly went at this from a completely fresh perspective. um if If you're expecting an Armada 2.0, you're not going to get it. This game is completely different.
00:10:25
Speaker
i I think is this is one where I've disagreed a bit with Kravok on and he talks about, you know, he thinks Armada players would like it. And I think he's the way he says it to me just. worries me these setting up expectations wrong, but it's just a minor professional disagreement there. um what the I have a quote here from Gerns, and apologies ahead of time, Mike, if I'm quoting you from a private conversation that we may have had. I can't remember where I got this quote, but I think it really encapsulates the design philosophy of this game, unlike anything else out there. so
00:10:59
Speaker
quote our goal was that you can always choose to fight but it may not always be the right answer always a conflict game but not always a battle game end quote what do you think of that i mean that's just really cool uh it One of the things that I liked about Armada in the past was the use of objectives and the creative use of objectives where you can be scoring points while not directly engaging with combat. Now with Armada, combat was still the primary focus and you could win just
00:11:40
Speaker
knocking your opponent's fleet off of the table. But within To the Unknown, it feels like a game where you the correct answer, the the optimal strategy might be to go through an entire game and not fire a single shot. And that is a, and that feels that feels very right, especially when you've got the Federation, you know, you can't make it out and out working with the Federation and and still feel like the Federation and Star Trek. like They're always looking for a diplomatic solution and you know a lot of their their objectives and their mentality is that defensive, ri you know don't fire unless fired upon kind of attitude. Whereas the Dominion has much more of a manipulative, like they're looking for
00:12:26
Speaker
advantage, but they are going to have absolutely no problem shooting you if you know they're not making their making the objectives work their way. And it's that that narrative feel I think is really kind of the the big time thing I love about this is they so clearly went for flavor in every way, shape, or form. um they I feel like Mike and Max went at this as if you can do it at in a Trek episode, they want you to be able to do it on the board. Does that come across to you too?
00:12:56
Speaker
Yeah, and it's not that you're not going to be rolling dice in opposition but ah to your opponent, but that dice that you're rolling is not necessarily involving attacking. It's not necessarily involving doing damage to your opponent's ship, but it's doing damage to your opponent's position. So there's still the there's still the conflict, but you're winning by by strengthening your position on the board, not necessarily by um destroying your opponent's position.
00:13:41
Speaker
And that's that's a really cool difference from a lot of tabletop games that you've seen in the past. Yeah, absolutely. like you know Usually when you're playing a manager's game, it's you know it's always a war game. um And don't get me wrong, I love being a good board game. like I'm loving the hell out of Drop Fleet Commander right now in their new edition. But um sometimes you know this feels kind of like that mixture of a board game and and ah and a war game, like it's it's that nice medium. um But because you can do yeah pretty much everything yeah you can think of in a Trek episode, um it's got a very steep initial learning curve. I think a lot of people have either seen the rules off the bat, there is almost like a language to itself with all the symbology that goes on. And and don't worry, you know you do get used to it. Just get a few games under your belt,
00:14:36
Speaker
give it a shot. Trust me when I say it really does start to make sense as you start kind of getting fluent in the language of the game. And it's really how i I think of it. ah It's just getting fluency and how the game runs, how the rules write. um Because once you get that fluency, everything starts to kind of make sense yeah the and chop together really well. is ah The language for it is a little tricky to pick up on initially. um In the demo games that I've been doing with people, they'll they'll often ask, hey, you know when do i how do I do this what does this? What does this role mean? How do I calculate this? But by the end of even just that first game, it's it's getting it's starting to click.
00:15:29
Speaker
um The other thing that you'll see is there is a lot of information on the ships, on the officers, that you're not necessarily going to be using in any particular game, but but it's there if you want to or need to use it. And I would assume that eventually in enough games you will. Yeah. And I think it took me to like the the third full game to really kind of start to see, like, like almost see the matrix of, you know, how the strategy of the game is intended to play out because, you know, you're just trying to get your feet under you, understand everything that's supposed to be going on, get the juggling.
00:16:20
Speaker
And it's like that that end of that third game, you kind of realized you started to see the nuances of it. And I think it's something that's going to really strike people is like the point value in the fleet building system is not at all what you're accustomed to in a you know in in a lot of games. Like the ships don't really cost points. and In fact, some cost negative points. And that's because you know it's a very it's an emphasis on officers.
Future Podcast Plans and Segments
00:16:46
Speaker
You're managing a crew.
00:16:48
Speaker
which are in turn running the ship, which I think also feeds into that, this feels like a Star Trek episode. You know, you're the captain or the admiral really in in the case of multiple ships and you're, you're just, uh, you're commanding the crew and you're you know putting them in different locations and having them do tasks. And you also have that command share ability that, you know, you can order another ship to do something which spoiler alert for when we get to the Federation.
00:17:14
Speaker
Picard is an amazing admiral. He is fantastic in that that captain's chair, everything you would expect from from that character. um But yeah, the emphasis is on officers and completing objectives. And as such, it can it kind of gets right at that thing that Gurns is talking about. It's always you're in conflict, but you may not always be fighting.
00:17:34
Speaker
All right, so why don't we talk about like now we've introduced the game and I think let's talk about our our podcast plan. So we've we've got an outline for a bunch of episodes going forward. We're going to try and do them semi-regularly, depending on Big's and his schedule.
00:17:50
Speaker
um The initial focus on these episodes are kind of helping lu new players learn the game. I want these episodes to be what's you know what's known as Evergreen. So anybody can pick this podcast up, but listen through the first few episodes to try and help understand the game um and just help you learn and understand the game better through our podcast.
00:18:12
Speaker
And you'll probably be learning along with me as we go. yeah I mean, um' I've got to relearn it. It's been a few months since i've since I did testing. So we're going to be learning together. I'm going to be refreshing my memory. I wrote these outlines, like I think, like four months ago when we thought the game was going to release. um And I'd love to get some recurring segments going as well. So we'll be almost certainly doing a segment based on the best Trek
00:19:02
Speaker
so and very excited for Lower Decks all right i think that's going to be it for this week get anything else Yeah, no kidding. We keep bugging gurns about when we get the Doritos in the game. like Guys, it's only wave two. Why are you asking about this already? Because it's the Doritos. It's going to be the new Gungans when. I think that's going to do it for us for this first episode. Nice, short, sweet, to the point. Yeah, yeah right, new Gungans when.
00:19:33
Speaker
All right, man. You got any final party worries for the crowd, Megs? Uh, just continue to fly casual. Let's, let's make this the, uh, the new, um, this let's make this the new best, um, the new best fans in gaming.
Conclusion and Community Invitation
00:19:55
Speaker
If you think I'm going to edit that to make it better, you are sorely mistaken. everything I wouldn't believe it any other way. All right. Have a good night, everybody. As we go.
00:20:13
Speaker
I promise, I will not continue to use that over and over again. Have a good day, everybody.
00:20:27
Speaker
Thank you for joining us. If you want more of that sweet, sweet, big content, head over to our website at blissfullyignoringgaming.com and follow the links to our Discord. Until next time, this has been The Big Unknown.