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Episode 6 - We Have Returned from Space!
95 Plays2 years ago
The Dads have returned from their long dormancy (thanks Pandemic) and have managed to get their act together enough to actually see the light and start playing games enough to have something to talk about. We have come back from our time away with lots of new ideas for show content and are excited to revamp things and send it all your way!
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Transcript
Introduction to Dice Dads
00:00:22
Speaker
Hello, it's March 16, 2022, and you're listening to Dice Dads, the tabletop gaming podcast that focuses on the parent gamer and the challenges that we all face juggling the hobby we love with the responsibilities of work and family.
Impact of the Pandemic
00:00:35
Speaker
My name is Josh Fry, and today I am here in the studio all by my lonesome. Well, it's been a while now since we last recorded a podcast episode.
00:00:44
Speaker
And in truth, we had to kind of step away from it for a little while while we figured out what our next steps were. The pandemic was really hard on us as it was on many others. And unfortunately, our podcast ended up kind of being at the bottom of the pile along with a lot of other things that needed our attention.
00:01:00
Speaker
Certainly the hobby has been affected greatly by the pandemic and all the things surrounding it and our situation was unfortunately affected like many others were.
Challenges in Content Creation
00:01:09
Speaker
As both Chad and I have day jobs we found ourselves getting pulled in a lot of different directions as the requirements of those responsibilities changed on us. We also both fell victim to the reality that there for a while we had kids trying to do remote learning from home and that certainly changed the nature of our normal day-to-day.
00:01:29
Speaker
The combination of us not being able to get together very easily, plus the combination of always having children underfoot, made it a lot harder for us to try to schedule times where we could get together and record a podcast.
Revitalizing Family Gaming
00:01:41
Speaker
The other issue we ran into is that with so many different things going on and getting pulled in a lot of different directions, we unfortunately got a lot fewer games to the table, which translates into having a lot less to talk about on a podcast that's dedicated to tabletop gaming in general.
00:01:57
Speaker
One of the things I've been meaning to do for some time now is to get us both back on track and start playing some games together so that we could review those games, be able to talk about what our thoughts were, particularly as they applied to playing them with our own families.
00:02:11
Speaker
I've been really fortunate that my second son Matthew has really gotten into board games and has become a willing participant whenever it is I want to try to get a game to a table. So we've been fortunate that we've started to try to do that more frequently. I've been picking up games along the way that are better suited to two and three players, specifically with the idea of being able to get them to the table and play them with
Balancing Work and Family
00:02:33
Speaker
Matthew. And we've been really fortunate lately here that we've gotten to play several new games that have been sitting on the shelf for far too long.
00:02:40
Speaker
So what have we been doing lately? Well, Chad's been busy trying to adjust to the new reality of his job working from home. And he's also been challenged by having his own son doing remote learning every day at home, which as any parent who has attempted to do that will tell you is makes for quite a challenge and certainly changes the nature of how you get things done through the day.
00:03:03
Speaker
He's also been focusing on helping his wife expand her business, which has taken a lot of focus and effort. But I'm proud to say that things seem to be moving very well in that direction, and I've been very impressed with what they've been able to do, particularly in such a challenging time.
00:03:18
Speaker
with the way the pandemic has negatively impacted retail stores in general.
Dealing with Depression and Support
00:03:23
Speaker
As for myself, I too have gone mostly remote with my job and I'm trying to learn what the new normal is for that. It does help that being home more means that I can cover the visits to the doctor's office and sick days as the kids need them, which is good. But it also poses somewhat of a challenge trying to negotiate a normal day out of all the different things that you have to do.
00:03:44
Speaker
I often find myself spending more time in the evenings working on work than I probably should be. One of the things that I've been trying to do lately is to get back on track with the idea of having a game night set aside at least one night a week to try to get something to the table even if it's just with Matthew and myself and be able to start getting some regular table time back in.
00:04:07
Speaker
And I really think that's helped in general, not only in terms of trying to set aside family time, which is important, but it also gives you something to look forward through during the week. And I think that's an important thing all of us need to keep in mind as we try to work through what the impact of the pandemic in general has done to everyone.
Return and Future Plans
00:04:26
Speaker
I myself, like so many people in the last couple of years, have developed some issues with depression that has centered around being stuck in the house so much and not getting to get out and see new things and interact with people the way that I had previously before everything got locked down. Even now, as so many of those restrictions are being lifted, it's still hard for a lot of us to get out of that mindset and find those opportunities to get out there and get face to face with people, go to places and
00:04:54
Speaker
be able to see something different than the four walls that you see from day to day. I know for many people like myself, it can be a real challenge after so many months of not having that as an option in front of you. It's really made it hard to get out of that mindset and pick yourself up and force yourself to go and do those things.
00:05:13
Speaker
I know for me it's helpful sometimes when I get support in that way from friends and family members. Encouraging me to go ahead and get out and do something or plan for an outing that just gets me out and away from the same old same old of everyday life.
00:05:28
Speaker
I would encourage you that if you have people around you that still seem like they're really shut in, that you reach out to them and try to get them to do something with you. You never know, that may be the small change they're looking for that gets them to actually put on pants and go out into the world, which can feel like an insurmountable challenge after months and months of allowing yourself to live behind the wall of staying inside that so many of us had to deal with.
00:05:54
Speaker
You may find in reaching out to those people that you open them up and change their whole mindset and get them excited about doing things again. And I can tell you that's very meaningful for somebody who might be having feelings of depression or being stuck inside the limitations of their own restrictive reality that has been placed on them over the last few years.
Game Development: Hot Diggity Dog
00:06:13
Speaker
So enough about that, I'm excited to announce that with the release of this episode, we're back to doing the podcast and we hope to be putting out a new episode every couple of weeks to keep you abreast of news in the tabletop world, what we've been working on and what we've been playing too.
00:06:28
Speaker
We also encourage you to reach out to us either by email or social media or even post in our guild on BoardGameGeek with questions or topics that you might want to have discussed as we would very much like to get you involved in the discussions that we're going to have and get new and different points of view on the topics that we talk about.
00:06:58
Speaker
So what have we been doing on the publishing end of things? Well, for those of you that may not know, we have our own indie publishing imprint called Salamander Games. Salamander Games has been around a while and has kind of been a passion project of ours. And we've published two games previously, Summon Area and All Hands on Deck. I'm very excited to announce that the last couple of years has seen quite a bit of movement on our current development project. And we're getting very, very close on being able to take our third game designed at Kickstarter and get it out into the world.
00:07:28
Speaker
So what is that game? Well, it's a design that we've been working on for some time now called Hot Diggity Dog. And it's a game for two to five players that puts you in the role of a stalwart hot dog vendor in a brand new baseball stadium. You've been charged by your boss to get out there and turn dogs into dollars and sell, sell, sell. Each player must carefully load out their trusty supply box, filling it with selections from five different types of hot dogs that they can carry and try to sell out in the grandstands.
00:07:56
Speaker
Some of the hot dog types command a larger price for their more gourmet nature, but also have a more selective audience and therefore may not be asked for quite as often as their more common brothers.
00:08:07
Speaker
The game is played over seven innings, as everyone takes to the grandstands and tries to make the most of the selling opportunities they have available. There's also an interesting rondelle mechanic that's used to create an ebb and flow to the orders that exist out in the grandstands, so that from one player's turn to the next, the demands for different hot dogs change, and one must move quickly to make the most of the selling opportunities that they have available.
00:08:30
Speaker
Each player attempts to outsell the other before the time runs out, capturing sales incentives as they become available and trying to make themselves recognized as top dog in the hot dog selling game.
Expanding Podcast Content
00:08:42
Speaker
We've been working on this design for a while and we're very excited about it. We've taken it to several conventions and had a lot of opportunities to play test it with many different people and we're very excited about the feedback that we've gotten for it.
00:08:55
Speaker
We've gotten most of the artwork completed for the game, and we're working with an incredibly talented graphic designer to pull it all together into a presentation that's fun and easy to understand, to create a gaming experience that you can quickly learn and pick up and play with your friends and family.
00:09:21
Speaker
So one of the other things I wanted to make mention of today was that we're going to be changing things around a little bit and playing with the format of the podcast, making it a little bit different from the way that it was in our first round of episodes. One of the things I would like to improve on is getting more guests on the show to be able to talk about the topics that we have lined up and bring various points of view to bear on some of the things that we'd like to discuss.
00:09:44
Speaker
We've also changed our intro, outro, and bumper music with some fresh new selections, and we'll be looking at creating some new segments on the show, including discussions about games that we've played with our own families, breaking down the pros and cons of the experience to help you make selections that you might want to bring to your own family game table. We're also going to talk more about things that are going on in the world, gaming-related and non-gaming-related alike, particularly those topics that affect parents who are also fans of the board gaming hobby in general.
00:10:14
Speaker
Lastly, we're going to make mention of Kickstarter and game found projects that we run across that look like they might be great selections for the family game table and discuss them and whether or not we think they might be a good fit as one of the many game types that we like to play on our own game tables.
Engaging with the Community
00:10:30
Speaker
So with that, I don't really want to run this We're Still Alive episode too much longer. I just wanted to reach out and let you know that we still have a pulse, and that we plan on bringing you lots of new and exciting content on this The Distads podcast. I'll have my co-host Chad here with me next time, and we'll have several new games to talk about that we've played recently, and we hope you'll find that as exciting as I do.
00:10:53
Speaker
Well, and I think that's going to wrap up this episode of Dice Dads. We thank you for listening to our podcast and we apologize for having been off the air for so long. And we hope you'll give us another chance and check out the new content that we have coming your way in a couple of weeks. You can connect with us by emailing us at dicedads at salamandergames.com. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook at dicedads. And you can find us on the interwebs at www.dicedads.com.
00:11:21
Speaker
Our Board Game Geek Guild is number 3395 and we'd love to have you join us there and start some discussions about topics you want to hear about or just questions that you have about the tabletop industry that will give us something to chat about as we put together new material for the podcast. You can also find out more information about Salamander Games and our new game Hot Diggity Dog at www.salamandergames.com. Thanks for listening and we hope to see you next time. Bye now!