We will be at PAX East 2020!

Take Your #@$ Turn!
Saturday Feb 29th
11:30am
Bumblebee Theatre

We’ve all played the "30-60 minute" board game that seems to always take exactly four hours. Your definition of "a quick game" always seems to be far from what your friends think. But it doesn’t have to be this way! Join us for a lively discussion of what factors, from game design decisions to players’ interactions, cause games to take too long. We’ll then teach you, in detail, how to take your #@$ turn!

If you saw us at PAX South, video of The 41 Tabletop Games You Must Play is on youtube, as is the completely different original 40 Tabletop Games You Must Play from PAX West!

If you are looking for slides or links from our MAGFest 2020 panels, check out the slides from "The Real Harm of Games", as well as video of the same talk (sans the doctor) from PAX East!

We will be at PAX South 2020 with an all new panel!

The 41 Tabletop Games You Must Play
Friday Jan 17th
4:00pm
Bobcat Theatre

This is 41 completely different games from the original 40 Tabletop Games You Must Play from PAX West, which you can watch on youtube right now!

If you are looking for slides or links from our MAGFest 2020 panels, check out the slides from "The Real Harm of Games", as well as video of the same talk (sans the doctor) from PAX East.

We will be live at PAX Unplugged 2019 with two events! PAX Unplugged, if you aren't aware, is the tabletop-only PAX. This makes it, by default, the best PAX.

Learn & Play: Three Short-But-Essential Games
Friday 12/06 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Learn & Play Room

Why learn one game when you can learn three?! There are some games that aren’t always the "main event" at your table. They’re the warm-ups. They’re the games you play once the pizza arrives, or while you’re waiting in line for the Omegathon Finale. These kinds of games have to have certain characteristics. They have to be fast to teach, quick to play, and elegant in design. Too simple, and they’re not worth playing. Too complex, and they aren’t short anymore.

Join Rym & Scott, hosts of the GeekNights podcast, for Cockroach Poker, Ganz Schön Clever (That’s Very Clever), and Wizard! In this session, you’ll learn, and play, all three of these games!

Take Your #@*$ Turn!
Sunday 12/08 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Leviathan Theatre

We’ve all played the "30-60 minute" board game that seems to always take exactly four hours. Your definition of "a quick game" always seems to be far from what your friends think. But it doesn’t have to be this way! Join us for a lively discussion of what factors, from game design decisions to players’ interactions, cause games to take too long. We’ll then teach you, in detail, how to take your #@*$ turn!

Thank you PAX West for a great weekend of games and some amazing crowds!

You can see video of our panel - The 40 Games You Must Play - on youtube. And if you just need the list of games, the slides are right here.

If you're looking for The 40 Tabletop Games You Must Play, we haven't uploaded it yet, but you can see video of the (mostly) same panel from PAX East, and you can find the slides from PAX West here.

GeekNights will be on hiatus for two weeks after PAX while Rym is in London, but will return with your regularly scheduled podcast right after.

GeekNights will be presenting live at PAX West 2019! Come say hi!

The 40 Tabletop Games You Must Play

Friday, August 30th at 12:30pm
Hippogryph Theatre

These may not be the top 40 board games ever designed, nor is it the top 40 influential or otherwise important games. If you aspire to really understand tabletop, or if you have visions of designing your own games, these are the 40 games that, if you play them, will give you the widest possible perspective on what it means to make a good game (and what "good" even means). Join the GeekNights crew for an exploration of the boundaries of tabletop gaming. There are some gems in there.

The 40 Games You Must Play
Saturday, August 31st at 11:00am
Hippogryph Theatre

These may not be the top 40 games ever designed, nor are they the top 40 influential or otherwise important games. If you aspire to really understand games, or if you have visions of designing your own, these are 40 games that, if you play them, will give you the widest possible perspective on what it means to make a good game (and what "good" even means).

GeekNights will be live at PAX East 2019!

The Real Harm of Games
Friday Mar 29 @ 3:30pm
Cuttlefish Theatre

In the 80s, we were told Dungeons & Dragons would make us all satanists. In the 90s, first person shooters and Mortal Kombat were supposed to make us all murderers. Games have joined the long and storied history of books, music, movies, and television being primed to destroy us all. Thankfully, most of the fears around how games might harm us have proven false, misleading, or downright ridiculous. So what’s left? Lootboxes? What is the REAL harm of games? And what can we do about it?

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We will also be at Zenkaikon 2019 with three talks!

The Secret Guide to Running Panels
Saturday Mar 23 @ 1:00pm
Live 6 [Floor 3, Heritage B]

The 40 Tabletop Games You Must Play
Saturday Mar 23 @ 3:45pm
Live 1 [Floor 2, Commonwealth 3]

Play (Dirty) to Win!
Sunday Mar 24 @ 11:00am
Live 2 [Floor 2, Commonwealth 4]

Hope to see you at both! Back to back convention weekends for all!

We are in San Antonio and will be live at PAX South 2019! Both of our panels this year are on Friday!

Nostalgia vs Game Design
1:00pm @ Bobcat Theatre

Everyone has the game that consumed their childhood. You grew up playing Quake 2 mods, Civ II, or Everquest late into the night. You got obsessed with Aerobiz on the SNES or DotA (the original one). You want to recreate that experience that was so core to your gaming life. But… can you? What was it ABOUT those games that made them so perfect. Was it the game, the context, or possibly even just you? From remakes to reboots to spiritual successors, some game mechanics are best left to history.

Learn & Play: Carcassonne
3:00pm @ Learn & Play

Go deep on the strategy of Carcassonne with a lecture from Rym and Scott, hosts of the GeekNights podcast. Then stick around to face off against other attendees, putting those Carcassonne strategy tips to work.