283 – Matt Riddle – The Family Gamers Podcast

We are excited to welcome Matt Riddle to the show. Matt is the co-designer of over a dozen games, including Fleet: The Dice Game, Subastral, and Three Sisters.

283 fact! A new land speed record set in December 2021, with a purpose-built motorcycle going a sustained 283 mph.

What We’ve Been Playing

Tawantinsuyu (Board & Dice)
Skulls of Sedlec (Button Shy)
Cuphead: Fast Rolling Dice Game (The Op)
Bear Raid (BoardGameTables.com) by Ryan Courtney
Love Letter: Batman
Dice Throne
Royal Visit (IELLO) by Reiner Knizia
Block Ness
Rococo

(26:40) SNAP Review – Kids Chronicles: Quest for the Moon Stones

Anitra and Andrew are joined by 7 year old Elliot to review this app-driven board game for kids.

Watch the video and read the transcript here.

(33:10) Interview with Matt Riddle

Matt Riddle (along with his co-designer Ben Pinchback) is one of our favorite game designers. He has co-designed over 20 “notable” games (according to his bio on Board Game Geek).

Matt designs exclusively with Ben Pinchback, and they’ve been making games together for over a decade. Their first game design was Fleet.

Matt & Ben grew up together and went to the same college (Michigan Tech) and started working together (in their “day jobs”) in 2006.

We get an overview of a few of his notable games:
Eggs and Empires (a secret auction with crazy powers)
Back to the Future: An Adventure Through Time (“not a great game”)
The Goonies: Adventure Card Game (“as thematic as you can get with a card game”)
Cow, Tiger, Santa Claus (our review)
Wasteland Express Delivery Service
Ladder 29

And the game that stole Andrew’s heart – Fleet: The Dice Game. Matt says they tried to make it pop off bonus actions often, without feeling overwhelming.

How is Three Sisters different? The main difference (besides theme) was changing up the dice draft. (Three Sisters has a rondel, where you sort the dice after rolling them. The position of the die you choose determines the secondary action you take that round.

Motor City Gameworks is Matt, Ben, and Adam Hill, doing boutique publishing: “A game a year, our design, our control, we run the process, we do the art, we pick the manufacturer, we take care of the freight…” all funded through Kickstarter. The focus is loaded (strategic) roll-and-write games.

Their next loaded roll-and-write, Motor City, is coming to Kickstarter on March 8!

What’s in the works? Theme for the next roll-and-write will be the French Quarter “second line”.

We really enjoy Subastral (our review) – not an easy game, but simple to explain.

More card games and family filler games coming! Check out the little roll-and-write Tiny Farms on Board Game Arena.

Find Matt online:

Board Game Geek: @riddlen
Twitter: @mdriddlen
MotorCityGameworks.com

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Or, for the most direct method, email us! andrew@thefamilygamers.com and anitra@thefamilygamers.com.

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The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.

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