While writing up this week’s episode of TableTop, I was listening to the Doubleclick’s “TableTop Games,” over and over. I love the song, but more than that, it reminded me of the many different games that have been on TableTop over the years. There’s not only been a huge variety of mechanics and themes, but depth in games too.
Bo Radakovich, the show’s co-producer, was dedicated to build a balanced schedule for season three and Wil was strongly supportive. “We wanted to do a third of all games that were easily accessible to everyone, even those who had never played before. Another third of our games are for those familiar with games, and the final third are games for gamers. We don’t play hardcore games [on the show],” said Radakovich, “TableTop is for introducing new gamers [to the hobby].”
This week’s episode features Epic Spell Wars, a game squarely situated at the intro side of that spectrum. It’s a hilarious, over-the-top card game that pits players as wizards battling each other with crazy spells in an orgy of killing. It’s a riot. On the show with Wil are Jonah Ray, Emily Gordon, and Veronica Belmont and the episode is one of the funnier turns this season.
Wil is clearly a more serious, hardcore gamer, but it’s fun to watch him play games like Epic Spell Wars because it’s enjoyable to watch him have fun, which can get lost when you are so tied up in strategy and trying to calculate next moves in more serious games. That makes this episode a great one. Enjoy!
I am glad that they threw a warning up from that some of the humor would be more crude this time; It wasn’t horrible, but it was a little rougher than was appropriate for some of the usual audience in my house.