This game, I’ll say, caught my eye because of the artwork and because I know one of the designers. With that said, as I look at what might not work and what might, I’ll try and be fair and balanced. I do want people to know, when reading this, that I have more of a connection to the game than sometimes. On the flip side, I’ve played it as part of OOMM Games playtesting, so I have experience with it. You can checkout the campaign here.

How To Play Stonesaga

Stonesaga is a legacy game where the decision you make about how to build up your society will affect the game. I will talk more about legacy aspects later. But the game play is pretty simple, you have a limited number of action points to take actions with each round and players can take their action(s) in any order.

The actions are things like gather resources, craft, hunt, fish, explore new areas and more. All of these things, or most, are done through there little game. For fishing, you are trying to complete fishing tracks to get fish as a reward and any other bonus, like more water. For hunting or foraging, you explore a tableau trying to avoid the monster and collet resources. And then you can craft using resources that you’ve found to invent or build new things.

Each of these actions is going to help you find and build towards different goals that you have. Each goal is going to lead to another though some of them are going to lead to another and to the end of that game session. And as you find stuff, your story will progress.

Why You Don’t Need This Game

Firstly, it is a legacy game. I did say that I was going to talk about that. I understand the risks of a legacy game. However, it is a legacy game that you can reset and play again, finding the story you missed maybe 2-4 times, depending on player count. But it will limit how many times you can play the game.

Also the price point of this game. It is not a cheap game, again for a legacy game as well. If you go all in, it’s a fair amount and is that worth it for a limited number of plays. To OOMM’s defense on this one I have Stars of Akarios and the products they put out are high quality. But for a game that isn’t minis filled, it is expensive, though the other content is what makes the price go up. Shipping, on the other hand, is very reasonable.

Finally, and this ties into the first one, it is a legacy game and the best legacy games for me have good story to them. I say that, but I also enjoyed Risk Legacy which is light on the story. But Pandemic Legacy seasons 1 & 2 had a lot of story and I liked them the best. Or they stuck with me the best. Charterstone was some mechanics with pasted on story. Where will Stonesaga land. And maybe it isn’t an issue for me, but I think about it.

Why You Need This Game

Let’s start out with that it is very mechanically sound and interesting. The minis games are a lot of fun as you start to dig into all of your options. Delving deeper and deeper and then needing to get back out is interesting. Fishing is a dice placement puzzle of trying to catch what you can but also not fail the check and have bad things happen. Foraging/hunting in the forest might cause you to come across a monster. But it also gives you a grid to layout to create your most optimal gathering.

Also, since I have played it, there is some solid story to it. Is it the most story, is it like Pandemic with story between missions that tells you how the world is changing, or a paragraph in Aeon’s End Legacy, no, it is less. But it is more than Charterstone. And the decision you make, how you build up your settlement, will make a difference in what you explore next as the story branches out. And I like that story but I also like how it does the branching as well.

Finally, this one is based off my experience with OOMM Games games not doing the playtesting or the company itself. But their games are a lot of fun. They offer a ton of different and unique things in them. Stars of Akarios is very ambitious but works really well with a hodgepodge of mechanics and provides a fun story. So based off of my gaming history with OOMM Games, I don’t know if this is a game you’ll want to miss.

Back or Brick – Stonesaga

This is a Back for me. And I backed it at the highest level. Now, I will say that if it wasn’t OOMM Games and I didn’t know the designer, I might have backed it at the lower level. The value seems just a bit stronger there for what you are getting. Though as the campaign goes on, that might change.

But this is a game that will have limited retail availability. OOMM does seem to get some extra stock but they don’t have wide retail releases. And things like expansions will be harder to get. Yes, that is leaning into the FOMO, but I’m doing so based off of playing it.

Now, there are reasons it won’t be for everyone. If you like to get two games a year and delve into them 50+ times each, legacy won’t work. But you already know that. I do think mechanically, with snappy quick actions it is accessible. I found that it is very collaborative as you play, and that players stay engaged because of the mechanics.

How about for you, is it a back or brick?

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Now, there is going to be overlap on what you might want to get in a room, so I’ll cover that, but there are other things that will be different. And I think knowing what you want is important because it can determine what you get.

For example, for me, I don’t do much painting, so I don’t need a dedicated space for that. The larger a gaming table I can get, and still get chairs around it, the better for me. But a painter might still want a gaming table. Or an RPG player might want a spot to build terrain, or store terrain.

Common Game Room Things

Storage

Let’s start out with what really is common across everything. You will need storage in your room. If it is just for board games, or painting, you need storage for the games you are painting or the game you own. For RPG’s, unless everything is theater of the mind, you need storage for the terrain and minis that you have.

Seating

Seating is also key. If you don’t have a spot to sit, then it’s more a game waiting area than a game room. So you want seating but not just seating, enough seating for your room. For example, my game room could handle 8 people at a table, even a six person table. Assuming the game isn’t too large. But I want flexible seating.

Lighting

Next up is lighting. This is one that might just come with the room or might be something you can supplement or control as you need. You want to be able to see well. But you don’t want a harsh light pointing down at the table causing glare. I know some people do up lighting or reflected lighting. I think that a fan lighting is solid as well, just as long as it’s not a bare bulb pointing down. Or that it isn’t too dark so you can’t read the cards easily.

Table

Finally, a table of some sort. Now, a gaming table sounds awesome and I am excited to order one. But it isn’t needed. A dining room table from Craiglist or Facebook Marketplace work just fine. There is no reason to be too fancy with it. Just a surface to play games on or painting on is important. If you are a painter we’ll talk about it a bit more.

Streamer

So what else do you need to think about if you are a streamer? I know that I have talked about the equipment that you need, but that is the main thing. However, I won’t go into detail too much on that. Camera(s) and computer are important.

But two things to touch on are lighting and sound. Lighting might seem like we already talked about it, but you want to have a nice lighting set-up. Firstly so viewers can watch you. Secondly so that you can see the game. Not only that, but something that adds in depth, so not just lights pointed at you, but a light filling in behind you as well.

Sound is also exceedingly important. I can deal with decent lighting if the sound is good to great. But if the sound is bad, that’ll get me to click off of a video or a stream faster than anything else. Now, I’m not talking about delivery, I’m talking about sound levels, clipping in and out, or background noise or echoes distorting it. Put up some soft things if need be to dampen the sounds.

Board Game

This will be the area that you need to add the least specific to a room. Storage, table, seating, and lighting basically are what you need. If you want go fancier, or say you use a dining room table, I recommend grabbing a few playmats. Something that’ll cover most of the top of the table. That just makes it much easier to pick cards or pieces off of the table.

I’d also recommend grabbing a few TV trays. Something you can put up or take down easily enough. That means that you don’t need to have food or drinks on the table (as much) and less likely that something spills. Now, maybe you just don’t allow food or drinks at all, but I like TV trays as an easy to pull out or put away option.

Paint or Craft

For this, you probably want a dedicated area where you can paint at in your room. Now, that might be a whole separate room from where you play. But a dedicated painting table that you can get messy would be key for me. Or at least that you don’t mind if it does get messy.

Along with that, lighting is way more important. You want to be able to see what you are painting. That means that you’ll want to either have great lighting all around, or the ability to add lighting in by the painting area. I know that some painters also want something that’ll magnify as well.

Finally, storage for your paints and brushes and whatever else you might use for crafting. I already mentioned storage, but for paints a particular holder that makes it easy to pull them out seems like the right thing to have. It’s kind of why I buy inserts for board games. Something to just make the game easier to play.

Role Playing Game

For an RPG, again not much to add. Just that storage is going to be about your most important thing. And I personally would want some spots to store stuff or hide it away. Now, everything is not always hidden away. So many RPGers make amazing set pieces that you can keep out. But for the more generic items or ones you have a lot of, storage to keep it out of sight is nice.

Also, there is likely overlap here with painting and crafting. Unless you buy all your terrain prefabricated and minis painted, there is that element of the gaming as well to consider. And I know that a lot of Dungeon Masters DIY a lot of things. That probably means you own more random elements, like cardboard and Styrofoam that a painter might not have.

Final Thoughts

There is no right way to create a game room. For some people that might just mean a room with a ton of games, maybe a spot to paint minis and they don’t play games in there. You just enter, grab a game, and leave. That is still a game room.

Others might want to have a room where they can play games, but it also will store a 3D printer, a spot to paint, and other elements for the crafting side of the hobby. Some people will want their games out in a Kallax and others will hide them into a closet. It is whatever works best for your space.

And it always depends on space. Not just what you use it for, but how much you have. You might not be able to fit a game table in. Or it might be a game room where you play your solo games because it isn’t that big. Or you might have two game tables in there and you can have big get togethers where lots of big games are played.

But it is fun to think about and dream about your ideal game space. And hopefully with this article it gives you a few extra things to think about. Tweet me pictures or leave over on Facebook pictures of your game room.

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Pros

• Theme
• Aesthetic
• Mechanics
• Game Difficulty
• Price and price options

Cons

• Theme

The Page

I love this page, they do a great job on it and honestly, I could just look at that artwork all day. Shawna JC Tenney’s artwork is just beautiful and it fits so well for the theme and the weight of the game. This is not a heavy Euro, you are not fighting for spots on the board in hopes that you’ll be able to do what you want to.

They also have a ton of previews for the game as well. And I know it says reviews in there, but assume that anything on a Kickstarter page is always going to be more of a preview. If it were a review and it was negative, they won’t put it up on the page. So maybe checkout Board Game Geek for reviews. But that’s about the only knock that I have on the page.

The Game

This is a company with pedigree for creating good and interesting kids games and family weight games. And this game looks like it falls in line with that. The mechanics are pretty standard Euro but with a bit of dice rolling to supplement what you are trying to do. I like the idea of crafting things and building up a tableau of things in front of you to score points.

What it also does, and I commented about it above is that it’s friendly in your worker placement spots. There are generally three types of worker placement games, ones that don’t limit where you can go, ones that allow you to bump someone from a spot – generally giving them a benefit, or ones where only a limited number of people can go. This one is the friendly type where anyone can go anywhere which really does help keep it in that family weight game.

Back or Brick

For me, this is going to be a brick. Now, that seems weird considering how much I’ve been positive about it. But I’m looking for a spot for it on my shelf. Will it replace those introductory family weight games that I already have, I’m not sure. Is it one that will get played much right now or even in the next few years as I have a 2 year old, not a kid who is ready to learn a game like this, I don’t think it will. I think this is probably a really good game that most people will enjoy, and I think if you back it you’ll like it, for me, this is just not the right time for me to back a game like this one.

How about for you, is this a back or a brick?

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Now, normally when I do these posts, I’m writing up information from a video so that you don’t have to watch an hour long video or a twelve minute video. In this case, I’m still going to hit some highlights, but reading his post is probably going to be as about as fast.

So let’s talk about this in my normal bullet point fashion.

• You start with 1-12 items that you can craft
• Crafting items for loot drops versus gold
• Buildings can be upgraded with crafting items
• Alchemist/Apothecary you can make potions
• But you won’t know what potion, use Pandemic Legacy style dossier
• Rare loot/crafting supplies
• Do you use them to upgrade buildings/buy awesome items
• Character unlocks can unlock new buildings or characters
• Unlock retirement quests in batches so never takes too long

There’s even more in there as well, but a lot of stuff that we’ve already known. We’re a week away from the launch of the Kickstarter which is crazy to thin and I’m really excited for it and for getting this game in my hands come 2021. So next week keep an eye out for that and my breakdown of the page.

So if you just wanted the highlights, there they are for you, but I’m going to continue talking about this a little bit longer, just nothing new.

What intrigues me about this post is that there is most certainly going to be more of legacy aspect to this game. Now, you’d be able to play scenarios again and go through the main story, but unless it comes base with a reusable sticker pack or as part of the kickstarter addons, you’re going to have a city that is too built up to start another play through of it just like it is. Now, I love legacy games, and if this is another 100 scenarios, it’s going to take me two years to get through, so it’s not a problem, but if you know you’re going to play this 6 hours a week every week, you’re going to get through it way faster.

But, I love that legacy aspect, and I love the idea that you are going to get something brewed and it might be poison or it might heal you, or it might be bog water that does nothing, you don’t know. And as you unlock more you’re probably going to get, minor health, power, and stamina potions or something like that unlocked, do you then push further in to see if you can get better potions faster, earlier in the game? And the fact that resources are used for both upgrading the town and making items gives you another point of decision.

I also like that the unlocked characters (buildings) are being released in batches. We started out in Gloomhaven with a Cragheart who retired after every other character because of the quest that they pulled to start and we just didn’t have the ability to do a quest that they needed completed. In this, it sounds like that problem is being taken care of, which is really nice. Granted, it wasn’t too bad, but to know that we’re not accidentally going to run into a situation like that, that’s cool.

Needless to say, I’m stoked for this game and ready to see what the Kickstarter page is going to look like. What do you think of the new news about Frosthaven, are you down for crafting?

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Why Might You Want to Cull?

This is a tough question, and for each person it’s going to be different. The common reason is that you’re running out of room. You have a collection of something, movies, board games, RPG books, manga, art supplies, etc that you have loved and collected for a long time, but now they are taking up too much room. You haven’t used them in a while or you have another nerdy hobby you’re more focused on now. That is a good time to clear out some things from that collection. It might also be that it’s just taking up space, you have the space to store it, but you never use it or look at it anymore. For that reason you might look to free up the space just so you have more space available. Or, maybe you have a collection that has some value, for example you collect Magic: The Gathering cards for a while but aren’t playing anymore, maybe you look to move them so that you can get some funds for your current collection. That’s a great reason to cull some of the nerd clutter out of your life.

How Do You Cull?

Another tough question, how can you be brutal enough to get rid of some things that have given you joy in the past? It’s tough, going through board games, I got rid of 16 different games and it’s tough to get rid of some of the games. For some of them, it was the fact that I haven’t gotten them to the table either at all or in a long time. I got rid of the game Power Grid, which is a fun game that I have good memories playing, but it hasn’t made it to the table in a long time, and looking forward, I don’t know that it ever will again. I have other games that I prefer to play now, and if I really want to play it again, I can probably find someone who has a copy or find it on a game shelf at a game shop. I will say, you have to be brutal at times when culling and sometimes you need to do a second pass. When you go through something you haven’t seen in a while, you open up a box or find something that you’ve forgotten about and the memories come flooding back. You remember the good times you had with something and all of a sudden, something you haven’t looked at in years seems to have value to you again. Ask yourself this when that happens, if you put it back into the box or onto the shelf, is it just going to sit there again for a year? If the answer is yes, you maybe should cull it. And if you can’t quite bring yourself to do it now, set it aside, and when you are done going through once, come back to the maybe pile and go through it again. Especially if this going through the maybe pile is a day or two later, you might find that you are now ready to let go of things since you have had your reminiscing and now you can now move on from it.

Where Can it Go?

This is something that can maybe help you get rid of more. Is there a spot that you can donate it to where people will enjoy it? Or a place where you can sell it and pass on what you’ve enjoyed to someone else. In my case with the board games, I’m going to see if one of the breweries that I like is interested in the games. They have a game shelf that I could help refill for them as games at breweries end up missing pieces or getting beer spilled on them. But maybe that isn’t your scene or you have comic books you want to donate. Is there a Children’s Hospital that you could give them to, or somewhere that can donate them to people who would want them. Or, you can sell yourself.

The piece of advice I have to give when selling them yourself is that the person the comic book or movie or board game is most valuable to is you. If a game cost you $100 and you’ve played it twice and enjoyed it but won’t play it anymore for whatever reason, $80 seems like a reasonable price plus shipping to someone who is out of town. It’s going to run them $100 after shipping (shipping board games is expensive). I’d love to say that you’ll be able to get that value, but you likely won’t and as much as it might hurt, you might need to sell your memory for less than it seems worth. Spend time on Amazon and eBay figuring out the actual cost of an item used and if you are just going to list it locally on Craigslist or Facebook group, go slightly cheaper, even if it seems too cheap to you. These are things you determined you don’t need anymore and getting something for them is better than nothing, especially if you’re selling something so you can get money for your next nerdy hobby. Finally, opposite of that, there can be things that have a certain value to you and anything less won’t do. It might be because they are rare and worth that much or it might be that anything less than a certain amount isn’t worth losing the memory. However, that is a special case, don’t do that all the time.

I’ve Tried to Cull, but I Just Can’t Do It

It is tough, sometimes when looking at something you haven’t touched in years, you still can’t get rid of it. I’m not an expert on hoarding or I’m not going to tell you that you’re a hoarder. If you are, hopefully you can find someone to help you with that. But if it’s just tough to get rid of your old action figures that are sitting in a box in the basement, recruit some help. Have someone go through it with you and ask you a second time if you really need it. Or someone who can listen to your story about the game one last time and help you be tougher about getting rid of things. This part I don’t have much advice about because it’s something that is tough and personal for a lot of people. I don’t want to belittle what you’ve gone through with your hobby and the memories you have with them. It might help to also remember that those memories are yours even if you don’t have the action figure or board game or movie anymore. While they might work as a trigger for the memory, the memory itself will always be yours no matter if you have the item or not. Finally, it might help to remember you don’t need to do all of this at once. If you have six boxes of comic books that you want to go through, go through one of them and start there. You don’t have to go through all of them at once, because that loss can seem like a lot, but doing a little at a time and moving forward on it that way can help a lot to slowly clear out the parts of the collection that don’t mean as much anymore.

Hopefully these are some helpful suggestions. It’s tough, and I’m a pragmatic person so for me, culling things is easier than a lot of people, and it’s still tough for me. That’s why, with the board games, I want to give them away somewhere that I know people will enjoy them. Instead of just giving them away randomly to a Savers, I want to put them somewhere that I know where they are going, but also with the hope that they’ll be able to get people into board gaming and be there for a lot of people.

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I’ve talked before about managing your time as a nerd, but I want to take a more in-depth look at a trick that helps me maximize my free time, set goals for the things I want to tackle next, and even get a better sense for which of my many hobbies I most value and want to devote more time to. While your mileage may vary with this tool, I’ve certainly found it useful enough to want to pitch it to other nerds who might find themselves having the same difficulty I do.

I call it…the Hobby Calendar!

Lackluster name aside, I’m of the opinion that it’s one of the better ideas I’ve had in a while. The concept is simple, but I’ve found it really helps me stay focused and keep from being paralyzed with indecision every time I have a moment’s free time. I find myself thinking, “I could do anything…anything at all! But what will I choose?” and then end up waffling endlessly over it and consequently wasting a sizable chunk of that precious free time, without making progress on anything whatsoever.

Last year, I decided I’d had enough, and that it was time to take charge. So I sat down, opened up a new spreadsheet, and made a list of my main hobbies in one column. In another, I listed the months of the year, and then proceeded to arrange the hobbies by month in a way that I felt made sense. Here’s what I ended up with:

As you can see, there aren’t many moving parts, and there’s nothing to regularly record (yet, anyway); it mainly serves as a reminder for what’s coming up next. Unsurprisingly, choosing what to put where was the hardest part. Some of the choices were arbitrary, but there was a method to my madness for others — for example, November is National Novel Writing Month, so naturally, that one had to be writing. And I know February is always the month that I end up feeling apathetic and really bogged down by winter, so I picked video games for that month since it’s low-key, doesn’t require much work, and allows me to hibernate.

You’ll also see that some months are doubled up — instead of breaking my hobbies down into twelve different activities, I chose to keep things more broad so that, while the calendar removes the “blank canvas” effect, I still have some freedom to decide what “crafting” or “writing” means to me on a given day. However, this is another spot where you can change things up to work for you. Maybe you work better when things are parsed out in more detail, or maybe you like the freedom that comes with broader categories — either method can be useful; it just depends your preference.

I’ve been using my calendar since June, so I won’t come full circle until May, but so far, this method has been really helpful — and even eye-opening — for me. One thing I’ve realized is that the thing I most often wish I were doing when I’m doing something else is crafting. This tells me that when push comes to shove, if I really had to narrow it down, making stuff would be my top priority. Knowing this, I can proceed with planning future months accordingly (whether that means setting aside more time for crafty activities, or keeping more variety on the list so that I’m more likely to branch out and learn new stuff).

As I more or less expected, some months have gone better than others — for example, reading month was easy, since I can pick up a book for just a few minutes and still make a little progress, which isn’t something I can do with, say, a story I’m working on or a show I want to watch. And sometimes months just end up being really full and I don’t end up with much free time at all (Artwork month just wrapped up, and, well…let’s just say there are a lot of ideas in my head that haven’t made it to paper yet).

But regardless of what I accomplish in a particular month, the sense of focus I get from the calendar means that I still get more done than I would have otherwise. And beyond getting rid of some decision fatigue, the calendar helps me put aside the guilt I’d normally have while working on something, wondering if my time would have been better spent in another way. Say in February I spend an afternoon playing Legend of Zelda, and the thought strikes me that maybe I should be getting more done on the craft languishing on my shelf instead. But when that thought comes, I can just remind myself that it’s video game month, and regardless of what else I could be doing, this is what I’ve chosen to do, and therefore, I have permission to not feel bad about it. In fact, I can enjoy it even more because of that!

So, what do you think, friends? Would you give the hobby calendar a try? What are some other tricks you’ve found helpful in your quest to do All The Things?

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In 2016, we:

• Made it to episode 50 on Dungeons & Flagons
• Started doing book and TV show reviews
• Started the “Have You Heard Of…” series
• Went to CONvergence together for the second year in a row and did our most epic cosplay to date
• Had our first AcadeCon experience
• Tried NaNoWriMo again (and didn’t win…maybe next time!)
• Tried out TONS of new board games

And even more! I’ll let Peder talk more about some of the things he started up this year, but as you can see, we’ve been a busy couple of nerds. And we have even more in the pipeline for this year! Beyond the new movies and games coming out this year that we’re already stoked to write about (Star Wars and Marvel and Netflix, oh my!), we’ve both started some new things recently that we’re looking forward to diving into even more in 2017.

And along with these new things comes a bunch of nerdy new years’ resolutions (the best kind, obvs, and probably the easiest to stick with). Here are a few of mine

• Hone my newly acquired amigurumi (crocheted plushie) skills
• Try my hand at selling my crafts and artwork at a convention, at a craft show, and/or online
• Make more stuff!
• Finally finish Skyward Sword and start playing Dragon Age
• Try out more low-key (Loki? Nah, not this time) cosplay this year
• Read through more of the books I’ve been meaning to get to for a long time
• Go to more movies
• Step outside my comfort zone and GM a Cold Steel Wardens session (even if it’s just a one-shot)
• Have a couple of movie and/or TV show marathons
• Play another legacy board game after we’re through with Pandemic (and more new board games in general!)
• Continue our biweekly game nights at Insight Brewery

So there you have it! Like I said, we’ve got a busy year ahead of us, but I can’t wait to get going. These are just a few of the things I hope to do in the new year (and now that they’re documented, I guess I’m going to have to stick to them!) — what are you hoping to accomplish in 2017? Do you have your own list of nerdy resolutions? We hope you’ll tell us about them in the comments!

And we especially hope you’ll stick around and join us for our nerdy shenanigans this year. Best wishes to you all for a fantastic and geeky 2017!

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