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The Family Gamers Podcast

The Family Gamers Podcast

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Enjoy playing board games with your family at any age, skill level, or player count.This podcast copyright The Family Gamers. Music used by permission from You Bred Raptors? Ciencia Ficción Crianza y Familias Relaciones
Episodios
  • Episode 419 – Teaching Board Game Manners

    Episode 419 – Teaching Board Game Manners
    Apr 6 2026
    How do you teach kids to play games “nicely”? To respect the rules of the game? 0:00:00 Fact for 419 419 scams (AKA Nigerian prince scams) Sponsor Message Did you know there’s a U.S. Law that allows every American to check their credit reports with each of the three major credit bureaus each year, for free? You don’t have to sign up for a service or pay a monthly fee, just go to annualcreditreport.com. First Move has a blog post about how to read your credit reports. If you’re overwhelmed by debt hiring a financial advisor may not be right for you, but First Move is still happy to have a 15 minute phone call to get you going in the right direction and point you toward free resources. Go to firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers to set up a time to chat today. 0:04:10 What We’ve Been Playing Scurry Up! *Verdant Arizona (our review)Lands of Amazement (our review)AspensS’mores Galore Roast and WriteCabanga! (our review)Trio (our review)Flip 7 (our review)Person Do Thing (our review)Adventurous *Unmatched: Stars and Stripes *Jekyll vs. Hyde (our review)Got Five! * * = First time on the podcast 0:26:20 March Monthly Report Andrew: 10 plays of 8 games. H-index: 2 (Flip 7, Aspens) Anitra: 31 plays of 12 games. H-index: 3 (almost every game was played at least 3 times…) Most played: Aspens, Lands of Amazement Did you check out our March Madness extra reviews? 0:29:00 The Family Gamers Community We’re so glad you’re here! 0:29:50 #Backtalk You shared your escape room experiences on Facebook and the #backtalk channel of the Discord. FOR SCIENCE! “Tacos in Pasta Shells” recipe, contributed by Discord member Sms137355. 0:44:30 Board Game Manners How do you teach manners to kids as they’re playing board games? How do you teach them to properly “play games” at all? Young kids HAVE to be taught to take turns (which extends to a lot more than just board games!) All the games in our list for three year olds are great for teaching this skill. Young kids also have to be taught the general idea of “following the rules”. One we forget is a skill: recognizing pieces/cards as markers for information, AKA “proxy permanence”. This is the distinction between “playing pretend” or following rules. You need to leave pieces in place to show your progress or status! You can help by providing a different piece to fidget with. That leads into a concept of shared ownership. Everyone is responsible for the pieces on the board. And that leads to respecting the components of the game. “Respecting components” means teaching a certain amount of gentleness: Keep cards flat (don’t fold them).Don’t jam cards into gaps or bend them.Rolling dice without throwing them off the table. Use a dice tray, dice tower, or a cup for rolling if this is really challenging. Keeping cards (and other information) secret is a skill that is needed, but can be introduced more slowly. This is both a mental and physical skill. If they need help with the physical skill, that’s what card-holders are for! Being a gracious winner and loser is the most important skill when playing with your peers. Unfortunately, this might be the hardest to teach. But it also helps in other areas of life! Encourage empathy. (“How does that make you feel?” “How do you think it makes other people feel?”)Prepare mentally before playing. (“This might happen. If it does, what will we do?”)Model good behavior and talk it out.As the adult, watch out for signs of discontent and/or gloating. Shut it down (or at least redirect) before it gets out of hand! Remember, gaming should be fun. If no one is having fun, you don’t have to keep going. Stop and try again another day! This respects your time (and other people’s time) more than the game itself. You know your kids and friends. How you handle this is different if it’s one-on-one with a parent and kid or if it’s a whole group of kids. (If it’s a group of kids, lower your expectations!) The bigger the group of kids, and the younger the group of kids, the shorter the game needs to be, if anyone is struggling with good board game manners. Under 10 minutes for very young kids. Rules-lawyering is NOT good board game manners. Remember, games are supposed to be fun. Slight changes to the rules are okay, as long as people can agree! Young children tend to be very black-and-white: either sticklers for the rules, or struggling to understand why rules exist at all. If you have multiple kids and they have different attitudes to the rules, you’ll need to break it up and take turns with who gets to determine how the game is played. One last tip: stay away from bluffing games with kids under 6ish. They can be great fun with bigger kids, but are confusing for young kids who are still learning to communicate and what it means to tell the truth. If you start too young, it can also lead to poor sportsmanship. 1:04:15 New Backtalk Question How do you teach (or reinforce) these fundamental board...
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    1 h y 7 m
  • Episode 418 – Escape Rooms

    Episode 418 – Escape Rooms
    Mar 16 2026
    Escape rooms let your family cooperate in new and interesting ways. But do you prefer a physical, in-person escape room, a video game, or a board game experience? 0:00:00 Fact for 418 HTTP code 418: “I’m a teapot” Sponsor Message If you want help planning for your kid’s college education, set up a time for a free 15-minute call by going to firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers. 0:05:00 What We’ve Been Playing Embers (our review)Lands of AmazementAspensVerdant Arizona 0:12:50 The Family Gamers Community We’re so happy to welcome new members! You can join the community on Facebook too. 0:13:30 #Backtalk You shared your purging regrets on Facebook and the #backtalk channel of the Discord. 0:19:25 Escape Rooms Physical escape rooms – we’ve done a few. Very cool but can feel high pressure. They’re great to do in a group, letting everybody work on different things. Doing it as a family is expensive! Video games are a much cheaper way to capture this style really well: Portal, The Room, Escape Academy Board Game “Escape Rooms” These range in size and playtime. Some are more puzzley, some are more narrative-driven. But any of them can be a great family experience. And we have reviewed a bunch of them – we’ll talk about six series here: EXIT series – Fairly immersive, with a plot and setting that hangs together. Everything you need is in the box. Wide variety of puzzles to write on, manipulate, cut, etc. But comes with a downside – that wide variety means you almost always run into a puzzle in the game that is not figure-out-able (for us). They come in a huge range of difficulty, including several that are appropriate to do with younger kids who are just barely reading. Unlike the other games in this list, we think they’re best with more than 2 players. There are also EXIT Kids games now! (Check out the EXIT games we’ve reviewed.) Unlock series – These require an app. Other than the app, completely card-based and re-settable to pass on to a friend to try. These also have a juvenile line now – Unlock Kids. Our experience has been really uneven. Some really great (Wizard of Oz, Star Wars). Others are just really weird, with puzzles don’t make sense. We generally recommend these, but use caution. Holiday Hijinks – probably our favorite compact escape-room type game. Packs a ton of puzzles into 18 cards and a web app. Full of puns, trivia, and holiday cultural references. Still best for very small groups, since there’s such a small space to work in. Family friendly, although younger kids will probably be frustrated that they don’t have the trivia knowledge to contribute unless they’re very knowledgeable about the holiday. (Check out our reviews and interviews about Holiday Hijinks.) Deckscape – feels like a “choose your own adventure” narrative. Mostly a deck of cards, but with a few accessories that made it more immersive. Puzzles could not be attempted more than once, which made the choices feel high-stakes. Best with 2-3 players, because you’re only looking at a few cards at a time – unless you’re willing to take your time and pass them around the table. (We reviewed Deckscape: The Mystery of El Dorado.) Backstories – not really an escape room, more of a narrative adventure. Work through decisions one at a time as a group. But not only re-settable, it’s replayable, with branching paths and different endings depending on the decisions made! Not exactly family-friendly. Lots of violence and some death. (Check out our Backstories reviews.) Star Trek: Cryptic – as Trek fans we really loved this one. Work through three different “chapters” in a Starfleet officer’s life, with very thematic puzzles. Pretty much re-settable, but you’ll get great value out of this one even if you only play it once – it takes 3-4 hours to do the whole thing, split into several sessions. Coded Chronicles (we reviewed Scooby Doo & The Goonies games) – also very narrative driven. But spreads out the responsibility to progress the narrative to all the players! There are multiple books to read in different character “voices”, even though the team is making decisions together. Also re-settable. Very family-friendly, even for kids who are unfamiliar with Scooby Doo or The Goonies. 0:42:00 New Backtalk Question Have you ever done an in-person escape room? If so, what did you think of it? If not, why not – cost, family-friendliness, or something else? Tell us on the #backtalk channel on our Discord, or in our Facebook community. Find Us Online: Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/communityTwitter (X): @familygamersaaInstagram: @familygamersaaTikTok: @familygamersaaBluesky: @familygamersaaThreads: @familygamersaaYoutube: TheFamilyGamers or join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord! thefamilygamers.com/discord Or, for the most direct method, email us! andrew@thefamilygamers.com and anitra@thefamilygamers.com. PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the ...
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    45 m
  • Episode 417 – The Purge: How Do You Know You’re Done?

    Episode 417 – The Purge: How Do You Know You’re Done?
    Mar 2 2026
    How do you know when you’re done with a game? Your kids have aged out of it – are you sure? 0:00:00 Fact for 417 Solfeggio frequency 417 hz. Sponsor Message If you want to talk about more ways to teach your children to manage their personal finances, set up a time to talk by going to firstmovefinancial.com/familygamers. 0:05:00 What We’ve Been Playing Flip 7 (our review)Cabanga! (our review)Circus Flohcati (our review)Trio (our review)Floristry (our review)Slay the Spire (over 3 separate days)Draftosaurus (our review back in 2019)Embers solo game (review coming soon)Unmatched Adventures: TMNTIliad (review coming soon) 0:21:55 Monthly Report Andrew: 14 (15?) plays of 10 unique games. H-index: 2 (Trio, Iliad) Anitra: 22 plays of 12 unique games. H-index: 3 (Trio, Slay the Spire, Embers) 0:24:00 The Family Gamers Community Hello to all our new members! You can join the community on Facebook too. 0:24:45 #Backtalk You shared your super powers, your special abilities! With a slight digression to Winter Olympics sports. Andrew wonders what the difference is between different ice-skating jumps. You responded on Facebook and the #backtalk channel of the Discord. 0:34:55 How Do You Know When You’re Done? There’s no easy formula here, sorry! It depends what’s going on with your own life, and also your family and friends. It’s easy to “move on” from kids games when you have other kids in your life, younger than your own kids. Harder if your own kids are really nostalgic. You may regret moving on from some games! That’s normal and okay. Board games are a consumer product, and you can probably replace it if you look hard enough (eBay is amazing). Your family situation will change over time: whether that’s “aging out” of a game, or a change in interests & priorities. We grieve a little bit over losing who our children *used to be* while still enjoying the people they are *right now*. Nostalgia ALONE is not a reason to keep a game! You may be able to find it in another place, or just keep your fond memories. But if nostalgia regularly drives you back to *wanting* to play the game, maybe it makes sense to keep. Andrew suggests “dimensionally constraining” nostalgic / kids items (a box, shelf, or other limited space) to help you focus your collection. Examine your reasons to want to keep a game, if it’s not being played.Examine your reasons to want to get rid of a game.Determine if a game can be played at multiple age & skill levels (aka with B-mods, or games like Kingdomino)Pare down regularly – we recommend 1-2 times a year, and it will get easier with time!Know that it’s hard to sell or trade-in kids’ games. Plan to donate them to friends or schools. 0:56:00 New Backtalk Question Have you purged a game that you later regretted? Or one that you knew was the right choice, but you still feel sad about it? Tell us on the #backtalk channel on our Discord, or in our Facebook community. Find Us Online: Facebook: @familygamersaa and thefamilygamers.com/communityTwitter (X): @familygamersaaInstagram: @familygamersaaTikTok: @familygamersaaBluesky: @familygamersaaThreads: @familygamersaaYoutube: TheFamilyGamers or join the Family Tabletop Community on Discord! thefamilygamers.com/discord Or, for the most direct method, email us! andrew@thefamilygamers.com and anitra@thefamilygamers.com. PLEASE don’t forget to subscribe to the show, tell your friends about the show, and leave us a review at Apple Podcast or whatever your podcast subscription source is. We’re also on Amazon Music, TuneIn, and Spotify. You can also now find us on YouTube Music! So pull it up and give us a listen while you’re toiling away at work :) Music for The Family Gamers Podcast is provided with permission from You Bred Raptors? 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. The post Episode 417 – The Purge: How Do You Know You’re Done? appeared first on The Family Gamers.
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    59 m
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