Boardgames To Go 252A - Mark Madness 2026 (Introduction) with Adam Brocker

Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners. Play along and predict the winners at https://challonge.com/MarkMadness2026 Predictions must be submitted by March 13 to be in the contest Mark Johnson @MarkEJohnson Adam Brocker @abrocker The calendar says March so that means it's time for "Mark Madness" again, my podcast-hosted voting contest. Like its namesake sports tournament, Mark Madness is where 64 games are pitted against each other in successive rounds of single-elimination votes. As before, I took the winner of llast year's contest, Adam Brocker, and asked him to co-host this year's contest. Adam told me he's interested in the designers behind our games, specifically when famous designers partner with others or create other games on their own. Just thinking about boardgame designer partnerships makes me immediately think of Wolfgang Kramer & Michael Kiesling, though there many others. Kramer himself has done many games on his own, other famous ones with Kiesling, still more with Ulrich, and that's not all. Before long, we realized that we could have a 16-game subset "Division" of Kramer games, which happen to feature German designers. Alan R. Moon is another famous designer who's worked alone or with others. Sure enough, that American designer primarily (but not exclusively) has worked with other Americans on their collaborations. Same for Bruno Cathala with the French designers (or French-speakers from nearby Belgium). With those three divisions established, we just needed one more to fill out the contest. Turning to Italy, some of the hottest games and designers come from that country & community. A little bit unique from the divisions previously devised, the Italians appear to work together in small groups that overlap and change from game-to-game. That itself is fascinating. Play along! I hope we get a good number of folks who submit their own official predictions at challonge.com, which is free. Some have already done it. You've until March 13 to submit your guesses, so you need to move quickly. Then the voting rounds will start via Geeklist polling. As you can see from the chart above, the successive rounds of this voting will start happening every three days: On March 15 we'll have the results of the first round, when 64 teams are winnowed down to 32 survivors. Then it proceeds to the Sweet 16, Elite 8, Final 4, and Championship. Who will be the winner? We expect to do "micro-episode" podcasts throughout the month to talk about each round. They'll show up in your regular feed, and I will link them here, too. -Mark

Opener: 7 Wonders Dice Closer: Mark Madness 2026 (with Adam Brocker) preview - Register for free and make your predictions at https://challonge.com/MarkMadness2026! I've recently come back from a vacation in Germany. Once upon a time in this hobby, that really meant something significant. Germany was the worldwide headquarters and creative generator for boardgaming. Gamers in other countries hung on scraps of information, imported products, and had to learn a little of the German language to really be an active part of strategy boardgaming. In a way, that extra effort was also part of the fun, a level of commitment & dedication that went way beyond what it took to be a videogamer or cinephile. But, it's also true that it was a barrier to wider growth of the hobby.    I'm talking about 20-30 years ago. Now, in 2026, it's notably different. I don't think we even speak "Gamer German" any longer! 😀 Also, a boardgamer's trip to Germany doesn't have to include much about boardgames. That was the case with me. I can now acquire & play just about everything I'd want from the ease of my American home with internet access. At the same time...I've still got those 1990s roots in "German boardgaming," as we use to call our hobby, that I looked around and made some observations on this trip. That's what I share in this podcast. -Mark

Openers: The Hobbit: There and Back Again, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring – Trick-Taking Game Although it's true that episode #250 is a milestone, this podcast passed that some time ago. Between all of the extra episodes for BGGcons and Mark Madnesses, plus the occasional double-episodes in the old days, I don't know how many podcasts have actually been released. (My podcast host Libsyn says it's almost 400.) So this isn't an anniversary episode, just another "regular" one where I share some thoughts about games & the hobby overall. Although I missed EsCon in January (and Gulf Games last summer) due to illness, I still managed to play a bunch of games last month, including several at SoCal Games Day. I've described this event before. This was the 94th one of those, and I have a special fondness for them…maybe more than they even deserve! In the podcast I forgot to mention how they offer me the chance to play with my regular friends, and also other gamer friends that I don't see as often. Besides the games, part of the day was going out to lunch at an Italian deli and just talking. Can't believe I forgot to mention that! Closer: More comments & griping from me about how there aren't enough boardgames that are really about their subject matter. I think of this most of all when I'm visiting somewhere, and I wish there was a game I could play & learn/appreciate my vacation more. -Mark

Here we are at another season already. The podcast has now reached it's 22nd season, which is a small miracle. We just keep chugging along. If anything, I think it now has a solid core of listeners and participants that feel like they're going to stick with me. :-)   With BGStats, it's now even easier for me to see my final tallies for the games I played last year. Plus, I can separate out the digital ones from the in-person plays. Though as you'll hear in the podcast, a bunch of those digital plays are as real as anything, thanks to live play and voice/video connections. I expect that trend will continue to be an important part of my hobby. After talking about those statistics and some more meta thoughts at the end of the year, I jump into some questions & comments from listeners. I used to do this regularly. Now, perhaps the Discord server itself serves some of that function. But it's still nice to respond on the podcast to questions. I'll probably do that again sometime. -Mark

Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners.   @Gregarius I know I said this episode would be my Feedback (or "mail bag") focused epsiode. And some may remember that previously I'd used the December 1st episode for my grinch-like Curmudgeon Show. In the end, I decided to push the Feedback episode back one month, to start the year with it on January 1st, 2026. You've got some more time to submit any questions or topics for me. While I'm not bringing back the Curmudgeon Show (just enjoy the grumbling on our special Discord channel!), I did bring back another old-timer who always joins me this time of year to talk about BGGcon. Greg Pettit is an "every-timer" to this wonderful event, and I've always had him back on the podcast to talk about his experiences & games played there. I wasn't able to join this year, but that's because I went to a different game convention the same month: San Diego History Con, or SDHistCon. So...I decided to blend our experiences and discussions into a combined episode about both conventions. Greg & I both intended to be more concise in this episode...but that didn't really happen. :-) Even after trimming our lists of some games, only talking about an interesting subset of them, we managed to have as much to say as ever. It's another big episode that will keep you going the entire holiday season. Is it a gift buying guide? Not really! We don't approach things that way, a little curmudgeon-ness leaks through sometimes, but we do gush about a few games. So perhaps it inspires some gift-giving, who knows? When you listen to this episode, you may find it helpful to follow along with our geeklist. That way you can track what games we've talked about, which are coming next, and what are 5-star ratings are. I've also inserted the game boxes here in the order discussed, which will also appear in the shownotes.                                 We both had good experiences at our respective cons, and I look forward to next year when I expect we'll get to sit across the same game table together in Dallas. As much as I'd like to go to all the good conventions, I can't. As it is, I'm at a point in my life (empty nester, nearing retirement) when I can go to more than ever before. In a month I'll return to the regional EsCon event, and in the spring I think I'll be back in Las Vegas for Dice Tower West.   -Mark

Opener: Please send in your comments, questions, or suggestions for next month's Feedback-focused episode Closer: When do you opt out of game night? Every year I pay special attention to Fairplay magazine's booth at Essen. In recent years, they've been great about sharing their Scoutaktion results on social media, too. Fairplay is primarily a German language print magazine for our hobby, but every year at Essen they do an additional service for our global hobby: they collect ratings for the first impressions of these new titles, and share them for all to see. Here's what they reported last year. Notice anything? The top rated game in the expert category went on to win the Kennerspiel a year later, and the same thing happened with the top-rated family category game winning the Spiel des Jahres! The predictions for later success & staying power aren't always that accurate, but they're always pretty good. They are definitely worth watching. For this episode I go through the 10 top titles in each of this year's Expert and Family categories for Fairplay booth voting. They call these their Scoutaktion reports. I've been following these avidly for a quarter-century. Amazing!   -Mark

Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners. Opener: The games we played at the second BGTG Online Mini-Con Closer: Essen is almost here, and I'll still follow it (but not anticipate it) For a long time I've wanted to have a boardgamer's discussion about different sports...as games. I don't mean sports boardgames, or season/league play. Nor do I mean franchise management. I mean the physical game itself, on the field, with its rules. Sure, a sport is a physical activity. An enormous part of the resulting play comes from the athletic prowess and physical skill of the players. However, there's a lot of strategy in the best sports games. It's part of what makes them fun to watch, to discuss, to second-guess, and so on. Whether it's football, baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, or tennis, these games have rules, they have scoring systems, they have strategic texture. Right? If you don't see that, then it might explain why you don't care for sports. Maybe all sports have strategic texture. It's much harder for me to see in something like the dash races on the track or in a pool. Those seem to be much more measures of sheer physical athleticism. Though even in races, I've heard runners talk about the strategy for a race, especially with the energy management and psychological contest against other runners. However, I'm really focusing on sports that have more rules, more scoring. I think these provide greater opportunity for players and teams to differentiate from each other by their strategy. Sometimes it comes from the coach or manager, such as when managing the clock. Part of the reason this is a solo episode is that I've always had difficulty getting others to understand what I'm talking about. Or perhaps no one is interested! Whatever--I decided to record this episode by myself and find out what kind of response it generates. If you are a sports fan--and a boardgamer--does any of this make sense to you? Did I forget something? Especially with the sports I don't follow so much (soccer, basketball, hockey), I'm sure that I did. Boardgamers seem to gravitate toward baseball, a game that offers the opportunity for deep study and second-guessing. I'm anticipating some reaction there. -Mark

Please join us on the Boardgames To Go discord server where you can chat online with other podcast listeners. Reminder! Please join other podcast listeners for the next online BGTG Mini-Con, scheduled for September 6. I plan to be online from 9am-9pm Pacific time, including the Boardgames To Go discord server for voice & video. The games will mostly be played on BoardgameArena, but adventurous gamers can also use Yucata, Brettspielwelt, Boardgames.io, Steam, apps, or whatever. It's free, and no RSVP or signup is necessary. Openers: Mark: Vantage Greg: Rock Hard 1977   Closers: Greg: "I don't know" ❤️ Mark: Finding my city on a game map @Gregarius Over two decades I've enjoyed having a lot of people join me on the podcast, most of them my friends from local game groups. Greg Pettit has been there from the beginning, and quite a few times. Especially in some earlier years of the podcast, Greg was one who was willing to tackle some deep topics, meta-topics around the hobby. Instead of talking about a specific game, we'd talk about the possible longevity of our hobby, artistic merit of some designs, the different types of thematic resonance in games, or how to be contemplative with our boardgames. He initiated several of those topics. (To be fair, some of my other friends do that, too. That's why they're my friends...they like dissecting our hobby with me.) With more & more years behind us, Greg suggested we revisit some of those subjects, at least at a high level. The hobby has grown & grown. Distribution is much wider and boardgames now come up conversations at work or your neighborhood. Game mechanisms and styles of play have changed. And...we've all gotten older. Greg has questions relating to all of these, and it's fun to talk about. -Mark

Announcement! Please join other podcast listeners for the next online BGTG Mini-Con, scheduled for September 6. I plan to be online from 9am-9pm Pacific time, including Discord for voice & video. The games will mostly be played on BoardgameArena, but adventurous gamers can also use Yucata, Brettspielwelt, Boardgames.io, Steam, apps, or whatever. It's free, and no RSVP or signup is necessary. Opener: Qwinto Closer: The SdJ awards ceremony, which we watched/listened to live on the drive back from a convention Over the years you've heard me talk about a number of game conventions. Usually that's recounting the games I played, and my enthusiasm for them in a 5-star rating. This time, I'm taking more of a meta approach to the topic. Yes, I'm still talking about a convention I went to recently, and some games played there, but half of the episode is about the idea of game conventions in the first place. The different types, which ones I prefer, and so on. Then the second half was recorded at a recent convention, meant to highlight the sort of fun, deep, not-so-serious discussions about the hobby and our shared experience in it. That's a lot of what I enjoy about game conventions--getting to hang out for continuous time with others who are just as geeky as I am about boardgames. I'm among my people! In this particular case, DaveO, Jonathan, Jeff, and SteveV join me to talk about games of designer Rüdiger Dorn. We concentrated on those for an entire day. This prolific designer has titles from 1992 to the present day. He's won the Kennerspiel des Jahres and been nominated for the Spiel des Jahres multiple times. Some of his most famous titles include Istanbul, Goa, Jambo, Traders of Genoa, and Louis XIV...none of which we played! Instead we tabled Dragonheart, Las Vegas Royale, Emerald, Montana, Rune Stones, My Farm Shop, Karuba, Arkadia, Danger 13, Mercado, Karuba the Card Game, and Diamonds Club. That was primarily with two groups playing all day long on two tables. It was the Dornücopia! At the last minute I thought a funny hat would be a great addition to our little event. While I couldn't find a cornucopia hat on short notice, I did find a corn hat. That was great! The winner of a game was crowned with it, and soon enough we were calling that person The Great Dornholio. Now I think all of our future mini-events will benefit from a special hat!     -Mark

Opener: Skara Brae, and again I'm talking about vacation-linked boardgames   Closer: The Dornücopia we've got planned for EsCon in a couple weeks.    I'm always happy to talk about the Spiel des Jahres. The winners, the nominees, the recommended titles, the jury process, and the award's immense, positive impact on our hobby. That goes for the Kennerspiel and Kinderspiel, too...though I'm woefully ignorant about the children's category. This time it's just me talking about the games, severall of which I've played, but some I've missed. I don't think my predictions for what will win are particularly interesting or insightful--I just like talking about the games and sharing what I think of them. For the SdJ, this year the nominees are Bomb Busters, Flip 7, and Krakel Orakel. (Plus the recommended titles are Agent Avenue, Castle Combo, Cities, Foxy, Perfect Words, and The Animals of Baker Street.)    Then for the Kennerspiel (a category that's only gotten more interesting to me as it has drifted into my preferred game "weight") the nominees are Endeavor: Deep Sea, Faraway, and Looot. (The additional recommended titles are The Gang, Kauri, Medical Mysteries: NYC Emergency Room, and Zenith.)    -Mark