Sleeping Gods, Tomb of Horrors and The History of Narrative Choice Games

[@NoPunIncluded]

This video is sponsored by Skillshare. The first 1000 people to use the link will get a free trial of Skillshare Premium Membership: skl.sh/nopunincluded05211

[@OjoRojo40]

"Skilshare has nothing to do with the content of this video, they just make this video possible".... I don't know if you can notice the dissonance of your statement. Just assume they have an impact on your content, that's fine. We all have to eat in this goddamed system. Thanks for the video, cheers!

[@josephdutcher2917]

I’m really enjoying these larger scope videos. They really enrich the hobby space. Thank you for taking the time to draw the history and context of games into such a compelling narrative.

[@thejfreak93]

I genuinely believe this is the niche that NPI can fill unlike anyone else. There are so many short video reviews with humor online, they are doing something unique with these.

[@danielmahdavi9419]

As my board game collection has grown, I've drifted away from watching board game reviews in order to avoid testing my willpower, and the unfortunate consequence of that is missing out on your great content. Coming back to your channel and finding these deep dives into board game culture and history has been really awesome, and I'm really glad it's infused with both the same thought and same wit as your reviews. My wife and I were lucky enough to sit at a table with you in Bristol to play a mega game a few years ago, and the people you were when relaxing and enjoying the game was very much the people I've seen speak so thoughtfully and eloquently in these videos. I was glad you were as nice in person as your online "personas" and I'm also glad you're as vocal about the horrible parts of our culture without dismissing or discarding the experiences those things have given. Thanks for speaking up about these subjects, and I hope you keep making stuff like this!

[@terrencesoltz8943]

As someone who did play AD&D in the 80’s as a teen, I remember my reaction to Tomb of Horrors. I was generally the DM for my group, and was hugely disappointed after all of the hype. I thought it was a somewhat humorous read, but decided almost immediately that I would never subject my group to such arbitrary punishment…and I was twelve or thirteen.

[@gospelofrye6881]

But... but it's a Deluxe Set! It has over 24 illustrations! Not 23, not 24, OVER 24!

[@billmiller5722]

The early D&D players were originally miniature wargaming enthusiasts doing something different with it, and it really shows at times. As alluded to briefly in the video, "tournament D&D" was actually a thing with groups competing to complete a given dungeon the fastest, and gaming groups could sometimes be very adversarial. Tomb of Horrors is not good for typical play. It is good for being needlessly punishing for jaded players looking for something that is technically beatable but also as arbitrarily difficult as possible. It can also be a fun jokey one-shot for people wondering what such a thing would look like as a brief break from their real game (this is how I played it). The tragedy is that anyone, including the publishers reprinting it, ever thought it was good for anything else.

[@themagus517]

It's a funhouse dungeon without the fun.

[@mirth23]

Along similar lines but WAY more fun from the time were the Grimtooth's Traps books, which described various elaborate, bizarre, and funny traps that one could add to a dungeon. My favorite was: "The Whipped-Cream Pit functions like a normal pit trap - but instead of containing spikes or acid to finish the clods off, it's full of whipped cream. Whipped cream is too airy to float on, too thick to paddle in, and too slippery to allow anyone caught within to grab a rope easily." It also wasn't the sort of thing that I'd subject a real group to since they were absurd and deadly, but it was at least a great read.

[@jimvalentine8952]

Talking of progression through failure- anyone else love Disco Elysium?

[@szymon_archon3514]

No, I dropped the game after 20 minutes because I died twice in that time. Once because a kid made fun of me and I "gave up", and another time after looking at a lightbulb and then getting bumped when I went downstairs. Horrible design in my honest opinion.

[@MinosDaedalus]

@@szymon_archon3514The game sucks at pointing out the repercussions of your character build and let you do whatever you want without any hints. You can build your character with a mental health pool of literally one (or two), meaning that the slightest nuisance will "kill" you (same goes for physical health). However, if you have a little bit of a bigger pool (you'll get plenty of chances to recover lost HP, mentally and physically) you're not constantly on the death's door. I've had a similiar experience, restarted, and only died twice or thrice over the course of the whole game just with that little change. Was much more fun. I'd recommend to give it a one more try if you're generally into complex cRPGs.

[@szymon_archon3514]

@@MinosDaedalus Maybe I'll give it a go if I have more time. I don't understand why one of the recommended presets gives you these stats though, seems like a pretty big oversight.

[@zachm638]

Your long-form content is hands-down the best boardgame content on the Internet

[@abesapien9930]

It was abysmally long.

[@carpemkarzi]

Great video. I’m old I started playing D&D when I was 13-14 . My first group was run my a university aged male DM who felt the game was Them vs Me. We dumped him after the first game. The second DM..female aged 20 ran the group from then on. We have 6 people 4 male 2 female +DM. Tomb of horrors was a crap dungeon designed for people like our first DM.p but in the hands of our new DM it became something better , DM means dice modifier and GM means Game Modifier and our DM altered and made the whole module better. The gender switch gate became a class switch, the naked game was a separation game, we lost all weapons and material and appeared in mini dungeons in ‘street’ clothes with the ability to randomly talk to other group members while attempting to solve logic puzzles. I started DMing when I was 17ish and did so until a few years ago, so about 40 years and in that time I relied on the memory of that experience that as a DM it was not to beat the shit out of the group (except for rules lawyers, fuck rules lawyers) and let them tell a story and discover what I have laid into the campaign. I feel for those who bought into those bullshit tropes. Also that same group played many other board games ( I was a SSI nerd) so yeah a good group is just a group that likes to play..all genders welcome..except for rules lawyers..see above.

[@gomerspile5091]

That's it. Ultimately, it was about the group's imagination and not limited at all to the hang-ups of the creators.

[@psterud]

"DM" does not mean "dice modifier." It means "Dungeon Master." But I think I know what you mean, that a DM can alter the story through dice rolling and its affects.

[@tinstargames]

One clarification: the pool that changes your gender (for laffs) that appears in Arabian Nights comes directly from Arabian Night stories, not from Gygax.

[@JonTripp115]

Years ago, I used to read a fanzine that had feature-length record reviews that sometimes took as long to read as it took to listen to the entire album. But they were always incredibly well-written, thoughtful, and led me to some of my all-time favorite bands. This hour-long review of Sleeping Gods reminded me of that, and now I have to play this game.

[@Paracelsusbot]

When I was in college I wrote a paper with far too much background information and the professor told me "You needed to know all of this to write the paper, I did not need to know all of this to read it." About 5 minutes in to this review I thought that was going to be my take away here. But I was wrong, the lead-in to the review was both very interesting and built the themes and concepts that paid off in the Sleeping Gods section. One of my favorite reviews and I honestly got slightly emotional when you talked about how much you liked the game.

[@killergmsarchive6710]

I have to say I disagree with a lot of your assessment of Tomb of Horrors. I do not think it is at all indicative of Gary Gygax's "regular design", I mean look at his work on "Village of Homlett", "Steading of the Hill Giant Chiefs" or "Keep on the Borderlands" for designs much more typical or his ethos. These adventures are very open in the ways you can conquer and overcome them. Tomb of Horrors is in no way "Peak Gygax" it was deliberately designed as something of a joking middle finger to his own group at the time, not to mention that the print edition was originally intended to be a tournament module. That is to say a module run for a large group in front of an audience for the amusement of all involved, which I think in many ways removes the sting of arbitrary death. The deliberate cruelty you rail against is mostly just a joke for the entertainment of all involved. I understand that given the nature of D&D material that the dungeon could be used in a cruel way, but it was not the intention. Also the notion that this is a "thinking man's module" does hold some water when you consider the way old school D&D was intended to be played. Players did not simply say that they walked into a room or down a hallway, looked around and then moved on just as quickly to the next. they were intended to explore at rather cautious pace, utilizing all those trappings and tools in the equipment section of the rulebook to search for traps and other hazards. Having read the tomb of horrors I would say that many of its (less sadistic) perils can be avoided by the clever and careful use of equipment. Although I do acknowledge that some of it is straight up arbitrary or obvious idiot bait, such as the famous demon head with the sphere of annihilation in its mouth. So no I do not think that beating this comes down solely to "luck" if you are playing the game the way it was played by many groups at the time it was written.

[@reytheist]

As someone who started to play D&D in the 80s, I can say with certainty that the Gygaxian approach was not universal, and that we've always known that Tomb of Horrors was created as an eff you to his players. We only ever tried it as a one-shot out of morbid curiosity.

[@gregoryheeren]

Wonderful to have a video that strings together multiple games. This is exactly what I’m missing so often in other channels. Please do more of these!

[@Terabiel]

I'm an old schooler. I was born in 76 and played D&D as early as age 5. I'm bi and trans and a childhood rape survivor. I'm also a member of multiple minorities. Never once has being naked in character been a traumatic experience to me, nor to the best of my knowledge, has any of the hundreds of people I've gamed with, many of them also not male, not straight, not white, or some combination of the above. The Tomb is terrible, yes, but making a character, male or female, played by male or female characters, naked is no more sleazy than the group makes it. And if the group is going to make it sleazy, I guarantee they don't need the nudity to do so. That said, the biggest issue I have with this is your disdain for genderswapping magical items. As a child, this was my very first exposure to the concept, and while it wasn't revelatory in and of itself, it did allow me, a young AMAB who had always felt uncomfortable in my own skin, the freedom to have my male characters become female for a time and experience that. Now, I know you're thinking "Why not play a female character to start with?" I'm sorry, but it wasn't until I was 11 years old that I actually felt comfortable playing a female character except when they were NPCs (I started running my own games at age 8 because, well, someone had to). You sound like you find it sexist or genderist to cast genderswapping in a humorous light, but I have to tell you that Ranma 1/2, which did exactly that, saved my life. It came out my freshman year of highschool and allowed me to finally put into words the unhappiness I'd been feeling for a decade at that point. If you're straight, it's okay to be horrified at swapping genders. And it's okay to have that kind of content in a game that seeks to some degree to replicate life. If you're queer, bi, or trans... maybe having it happen to you will be liberating in some way you wouldn't find out about until much later. I'm not the only player from the old days that experienced a kind of moment of satori from things that happened to my characters, and while (by and large) I've been very lucky to find players who are not jerks, and been lucky to play with so many players outside of my own demographic, I think the modern disdain for having experiences that speak to the fears of many if not most people in the real world is... at best, dismissive and at worst actively harmful. Fantasy worlds can be whatever we want them to be... but if we make them utopias, what is there to fight for?

[@pclynes7]

Completely agree with what you said. Creepy GM's make scenarios creepy, not the details themselves. High level characters losing all their powerful gear makes for interesting role playing. Similarly gender swapping can lead to great roleplaying. If your character was say a misogynistic male, how would he react suddenly being a female. Or if you're a heroic warrior, going off to save the damsel in distress, wouldn't your perspective change by being viewed as that damsel? It allows for character growth and interesting interactions. These ideas are not inherently wrong or bad. It depends on the GM and the gaming group.

[@JohnHoliver]

Thanks for sharing

[@SomeMrMindism]

I think Efka's criticism of the gender-swapping elements was not in the gender swapping itself (I too thought that it could introduce/normalize transexuality), but that gender-swapping was treated as a joke, it was played for laughs. As if: it's ridiculous to play as a female

[@kossowankenobi]

I witnessed one bad case of gender-swapping magic items (there was much ridicule being made of the effects in a public forum), and the trans person standing behind me in the audience got visibly upset and had to leave the room. I was mortified, even as a spectator. It's incredibly hard to navigate these waters, but perspectives like yours can help with the dialogue. Thanks for sharing this.

[@iruns1246]

Nobody you've played with experienced it as traumatic "to the best of your knowledge". Do you think it's wise generalize based on your own (one person's) experience and others that you simply make assumptions of? Also, the worst scenarios can be a great experience if you do it with great people. Maybe a lot of other people aren't as lucky as you to have played them with great people.

[@c.w.2000]

If Sleeping Gods is Red Raven’s magnum opus, it is fitting that it is paired with NPI’s magnum opus.

[@rjkral]

Ha! I described it similarly having not read your comment yet! Undeniably true!!

[@elfboy745]

I can't help but notice at the end, Efka's dressed like he's about to go out on a Hawaiian fishing trawler, while Elaine's dressed up like she's heading out to the North Sea. And so the crew of the Manticore has their first dilemma...

[@lucasmccarthy9905]

This may be the best game review that I have ever watched. So interesting and spot on. Thank you for your thoughtful analysis.

[@choppertown]

I was going to say this, but you already did so. Thumbs up this comment.

[@Gabefalconb]

Great job on the video. I came for a Sleeping Gods review and I discovered why 7th Continent never “clicked” for me

[@choppertown]

Me too. Set the whole thing up, started playing and decided I hated every playable character, put it away and sold it.

[@EmilyF0915]

Thanks for this incredible video, NPI. I had been interested in playing Sleeping Gods for awhile and my boyfriend and I decided to watch your review over breakfast one morning to see if it was worth tracking down a copy. We didn't look at the run time, and were riveted, shocked to find nearly an hour had passed. Your incredibly thoughtful exploration of these games and their histories is something we still talk about regularly nearly six months later and we both recommend this video to all our gamer friends. Keep up the fantastic work, and thanks for all you do!

[@NoPunIncluded]

ah, thank you so much!

[@MartinHinsch]

Excellent video. While I started playing RPGs in the 80s I was lucky in that I had a group and a GM who were more interested in cool stories, upgrading the characters and silly humour than in competition (amongst the players and with the GM). Even if we had played D&D (we played MERP, WRPG and Midgard) something like Tomb of Horrors would have completely tanked in our group (or been modified into oblivion). That said, in the early 00s I played for a while in a D&D group GM'd by someone I would consider close to a genius, in any case by far the best GM I've ever played with. He repeatedly managed to describe scenes so vividly and emotionally that we players were literally rendered speechless. Interestingly this GM while being a fantastic story teller was also the only one I knew who openly subscribed to the 'me vs. the group' ethos of early D&D, or at least claimed to do so. He was also one of the few who would occasionally let player characters die. When it happened, however, then always either as an avoidable consequence of (stupid) player actions or - very rarely - to give the story depth. And he was so good at it that the player deaths always (with one exception IIRC where he killed off a persistently annoying player) felt as if they belonged to and in fact enhanced the character's story and left the player with a feeling of closure. So, I think even in a heavily story-centred game permadeath can play a valuable role (if done correctly). The other context where punishing difficulty and/or permadeath make sense in my opinion is when it gives a sort of campy horror feel to the game/story. Sort of like in an over the top creature feature where you *know* that most of the cast will be eaten but you are cheering for the monster anyway so that's totally fine.

[@tylerken000]

Thanks for making these long videos, they are clearly made with a lot of love. Keep up the great work!

[@kovray]

Youre simply incredible. The amount of time these must take , I cant even imagine but so insightful, so much great perspective and thought provoking conversation to be had. Super thankful youre in this space.

[@NoPunIncluded]

Thank you Ilya and or Tylor. Please make sure Beasley and Maggie get extra pets today - it's v. important.

[@Bluebeetle2008]

Took me a moment to realize how a dude from Tulsa teamed up with a dude from the UK in the early 80's, but then got to the point where that Steve Jackson was not the Other Steve Jackson.

[@blakehorsfield3379]

Steve Jackson UK > Steve Jackson US :-p

[@DullDishwater]

Wow, probably the best thing you've ever done on this channel. Amazing work. Love the long form contextualization.

[@kikiah9586]

I’m really loving this new format. Please keep it up. One thing I would I just challenge is the point on 7th continent not being able to reset. Some things I’d say is: - It isn’t a coop game. It really is a solo game pretending to be coop and your criticisms are incredibly valid. No one wants to “cheat” with other players around. - While obviously not what intended, I think 7th continent is a joy to play if you really don’t take it’s mechanisms too seriously and focus on the exploration. There are times where I’ve just decided “close enough” and given myself the success. - I’d also argue that map-making while encouraged but not mandatory for 7th continent really does help make the game special. When I look back at my tabbed book of maps and see the scribbled totems and danger signs it really does make me feel like I am discovering and learning. The game almost demands this type of side project or you are right it is very difficult to reset without restarting. All that said, Does the fact i am consciously and often subverting the rules mean it had major design flaws? Yes. Does the need for labour intensive side project (map-making) to make things easier mean that they probably should have provided something themselves? Yes Does it desperately need failing forward mechanics and I pray 7th Citadel will? Yes Does everything you said about HP lovercraft ring true. YESSSS. Designers really need to stop putting real people in games. To conclude, I can’t say 7th Continent is a good game but a great experience and I really do think if one is able to look past it’s flaws what it provides is honestly awe-inspiring.

[@EricKaun]

This video is one of so many reasons I'm a patron. You are elevating the form, and the industry (to the extent it will let you). Well done in both form and content. It's always a pleasure and a learning opportunity hearing from you.

[@johnmarcgreen]

This short doc made me so happy. I collect branching narrative books and games, and now your video will be part of my collection of media about branching narrative media. This film also just made me wistful, a bit sad, and hopeful too. Very thought provoking and so well crafted.

[@Invisig0th604]

Small bit of info that I think is relevant: Gygax was a big name in the tabletop war gaming community for several decades before D&D came along. Hardcore war simulations were exclusively a male hobby at the time. And unfortunately, that is still the case today, 50 years later. So asking him to tailor his new fantasy game to be more inclusive to women in that setting -- particularly when D&D transitioned from hobby to commercial enterprise -- is a little naive, I think. As is the case for 'serious' wargame simulations today, his community and players were almost entirely male. That is simply the reality of the market, and it wasn't Gygax's doing. I am definitely not a Gygax groupie, but I can't realistically paint his as quite so sexist as you did here after reading about the setting and community where all these things happened. At worst, he was a typical nerdy middle-aged man of the late 1960's. If you would like a good overview of the history of war gaming and how D&D was born out of the war simulation hobby community of the 1960's and 1970's, I can highly recommend Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures, from Chess to Role-Playing Games by Jon Peterson.

[@c.w.2000]

I am almost 50 years-old, and I know how attitudes have changed (myself included) over the years. I don’t know much about Gary Gygax and D&D, but I really try to evaluate people’s actions and behaviours in the context of their time and their personal situation. I think younger people sometimes can’t appreciate that. Also, when I was a girl, the world of D&D never appealed to me, however I really liked the Choose Your Own Adventure books. Sleeping Gods seems more like like, and the artwork is great, so I am interested in it. Is this preference because I am female and was raised female? I don’t know, but I do think certain people gravitate to certain types of games, and the changes over the years means people who didn’t find what they wanted now can.

[@c.w.2000]

I had a long discussion with my spouse about this topic, and I've changed my view somewhat from my first comment. Although I try to understand people's actions and statement in the context of their time, I also think that if they don't acknowledge their errors in present day, that does reflect negatively on them. It is particularly important for a public figure (who presumably enjoys receiving accolades) that they accept the flip side of that position, which is the responsibility to be a good role model. Gary Gygax died in 2008, so he can't make any statements now. I do wonder about other living prominent figures in the areas of D&D and war gaming. We can say many people were sexist in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, but today no one has any excuse.

[@Syranur]

This channel become more and more interesting then it was already. This is not just a board game review channel, but also a documentary about board game history with a presentation of a very interesting point of view of it. I love, make more :P

[@astrophe-cat]

Gary Gygax developed D&D out of war games. I wonder if he simply failed to see that there is a big difference between the two: Storytelling. While women MIGHT be less intrigued to "play general" and order troops around, the storytelling aspect of RPGs is much more appealing (see also Randy Pausch's video on how his female students were equally excited about programming computer simulations but for slightly different reason). In the end, Gygax & Co. likely created a self-fullfilling prophecy by assuming female players are not interested, so writing content that focused on appealing one gender more than others.

[@Hippydippy935]

I have been thoroughly enjoying your reviews, unique and leave me thinking about the content for hours later. The last few have been masterpieces. Keep up the great work you two!

[@lucypatton42]

Ya know, while watching this I was thinking how your recent in depth videos have reminded me of hbomberguy video essays. Then you mentioned him!!

[@NoPunIncluded]

Have you missed out on our Catan video? You should check it out if you have.

[@howardgreenwich490]

Bravo! Another brilliant review. I was one of those teens that played D&D with a group of friends in the 80s (in a rural town, a lot like Stanger Things). What you said about those adventure books in the UK (which I had never heard of) rings true for our D&D games, even with the Gygax written modules - whenever something went bad, we just replayed it. It was always about the laughing and re-telling of our hijinks later - I can't imagine having fun if we had really played by the rules. I think that for many, many people who played tabletop D&D the subversion of the Gygaxian storytelling was just making up our own rules as we went along. The DM rolls a d20 and you all die... except a mysterious thing happens and you dont really die and go on to defeat the goblins! Overzealous DMs just got fired. For us geeky, unpopular boys, it was about overcoming the odds and feeling sense of collective adventure and success. However, the core game, as you say, is sexist, racist, homophobic and ableist. In some ways, we embraced the very hyper-masculine norms that made us feel like shit in the real world. For that, we were all responsible, not just Gygax. Anyways, thanks for the thought provoking work you do!

[@Trystaticus]

As a fan of Ryan Laukat's who has not played Sleeping Gods, you had me in total suspense leading up to 35:00. Great to see you had a rewarding time with it; I really think Ryan's one of the most interesting minds in games right now. Love the video as always, and thanks for all the hard work.

[@argaille]

Man, i coud see your reviews for days. The way you speak and "explain things" is addictive.

[@Daoshifu]

I just discovered NPI and I am going through your content. This is hands down the best boardgame review. Scratch that. The best review, period, I have ever watched. Long comprehensive. Told me a bit how the game works, told me a rich background for the game design ethos. Also and perhaps most importantly, it was very, very eloquent and well written. As a fellow Soviet Block resident I am happy people "like me" make such an intelligent content about boardgames. Ačiū Efka, thank you Elaine. Keep up the good work and don't you EVER rush trough a video. Reviews like these are why I turn on KZbin every night.

[@eriksjogren800]

This is so great! Love the run through of historical build up. And agree about the game, so beautiful!

[@richardcterry]

This is a great piece of work. Love to see this longer form material that gets to really tease out topics. Such a great idea to pair these think pieces with a new game, like you did with Fort. Looking forward to more of this kind of thing.

[@drdanielbirch]

So incredibly well done!! Very much enjoying NPIs new take on these docu-like board game reviews. Thank you for spending the countless hours on producing this great material.

[@haloslippin6894]

Your videos are so great, man. Just had to share that. You are obviously super passionate about the games you talk about and it comes through so well.

[@guochunlee]

This is my 1st ever comment on any youtube video, because this is brilliant! Didn't expect to find such an enlightening experience as I casually browsed for recommendations for a novice board gamer to play as social interaction in Hong Kong continues to be collared by COVID control measures. Not buying Sleeping Gods though but will back Distant Skies. Great stuff, will be cheering you on 🤜🤛

[@jackdempsy7104]

Your first 16 mins are brilliant. Eloquently put. I haven’t watched the rest, yet, but wanted to let you know in case I forget to say it by the time I finished watching the rest.

[@Kaizenoku]

Came for a review, stayed for the history.

[@jimvalentine8952]

Ha, much as I love the idea of Dark Souls being a key example of sudden death and repetition leading to learning in a fantasy setting... my empty wallet as a kid says Dragon’s Lair got there first ;)

[@ThePebblor]

Just discovered your channel and thoroughly enjoy these in-depth reviews. I find i learn as well as i figure out if the game reviewed might be for me, which is awesome. Inspiring words and reflectins, thanks for such great material! 👍👍

[@moregamespleaseUK]

Well, I guess I have to go buy Sleeping Gods now then. Darn it.

[@NoPunIncluded]

You're welcome :D

[@luigiscazzari4724]

Same :)

[@richieboylush]

Just received a board game voucher - was debating twilight imperium or Eclipse - now I think I’m getting this 🤣

[@writerian]

This was brilliant! It was intelligent, enthralling, entertaining and just plain enjoyable. The best board game review I've ever seen. You've got yourself a new subscriber. Thanks so much for this! Cheers!

Raising the bar for board game reviewers everywhere. ❤

[@jasong1610]

Great job! What ever happened to Arkham Horror LCG review part 2? Has it been a year now? This topic reminded me we are still waiting for that. Perhaps it is the extreme randomness of the game that's off-putting and you don't want to anger your fans? This video was very good though. The writing was excellent and the path you took to weave the story was not only unique but engaging.

[@theoneandonlyjs19]

My guess is A: it's very very difficult to get hold of every single mythos pack to make sure the review is absolutely complete And B: playing that much is exhausting and time consuming and they need to keep releasing regular videos about current stuff.in the meantime I'm sure they're working on it bit by bit chill

[@jasong1610]

@@theoneandonlyjs19 did you watch the first video? They already have everything. It's in the video.

[@theoneandonlyjs19]

@@jasong1610 then it's B then

[@JM32JM32]

Legacy of Dragonholt was ***so good*** and now I need to play it again

[@adamanderson1979]

Sadly replaying it myself, not as strong as the first game. That said, let’s all keep vigil that a sequel will come.

[@raffaelsteinmann7296]

What's so good about it? Should I give it a go?

[@pierreguenette6359]

i watch every video you make and they are great. your writting, the way you’re explaning and reviewing is of the chart. but in this video you’ve outdone yourself. this is the best video review i’ve watch and i watch gaming video everyday from different people. keep on the good work and can’t wait for the next one :)

[@NonnyOrJonny]

this was lovely to watch! thank you so much for the thorough and thoughtful analysis :)

[@pc124122]

loving these longer/documentary style reviews!

[@goodlookingcorpse]

0:41 Missed opportunity to say "We acquired them in...[narrows eyes and steeples hands] other ways."

[@freedomtweezle8697]

Your reviews, narrative, jokes, and insights are BRILLIANT. Keep it up!! These are board game reviews leveled up.

[@KeithAndersch]

Another well thought out piece. I really appreciate y'all work in this space.

[@yobasux]

I was concerned at the length of this review at first but I watched every minute and liked the history showing your issues with the genre. I look forward to seeing you play this on twitch. I have enjoyed every play you have done on there and I have been missing your guys . Saying that, I enjoyed your hades playthrough too.

[@jartree]

I knew I recognized that voice. Nice job John. Love it when two parts of my world collide.

[@EmrysTernal]

Yeah! I thought that voice sounded familiar, and then I saw the end credits.

[@alfyb4512]

The way many of these games handles death/failure is a perennial issue. From 7th Continent to Tainted Grail to all their predecessors, this is something I’m really hoping designers will give more attention in the future. Good to see Sleeping God is showing the way.

[@ShaunMcMillan]

I havn't finished the video yet, but I just have to say, as a narrative board game designer who literally designed a T.I.M.E. Stories scenario before I had ever played a Tabletop RPG (just showing how extreme my lack of nostalgia for Gaigak related experiences are) I must stop to say--I have been waiting for a video like this to come out for a very long time. Thank you thank you thank you for doing all of this extensive research.

[@ShaunMcMillan]

Ok I've been playing the game by myself throughout the week, and I am enjoying the game, but I really wonder if the story will end up having any depth. Does it ever get any deeper than Legend of Zelda meet-a-guy-do-him-a-favor-small-payoff?

[@psterud]

*Gygax

[@mkaiww]

Previously I've only heard the scenario with 3000 copper pieces presented not of a joke "you have all this money but can't use it hahaha" but as a puzzle "you have all this money how are you going to make it so you can use it?"

[@thomasgits7433]

Loved every second of this video! Thanks for investing so much time and energy into the history of "CYOA and role-play games". I'm a big fan of the genre and never found a video on this subject that had so much attention for modern life topics. I'm subscribing to your channel! And i'll be looking forward to similar videos of you :)

[@leet9558]

A masterclass on how to get across how much you love something by inviting the viewer to feel the reasons why you love it so much rather than just saying it. Really well delivered and researched. Great work as always guys.

[@tahunuva4254]

... Why the hell would Lovecraft be exploring the 7th continent :P Dude couldn't even go out of his door without having a panic attack

[@calamariaxo]

Because, surprise.... It's a board game.. It's fantasy. Actual Lovecraft is still feeding the worms. Most people are eminently able to love Lovecraft for his stories, while simultaneously acknowledging he was a loony racist. They're similarly capable of playing a character with his likeness without caring a whiff about actual real Lovecraft, just the things he represents to them.

[@tahunuva4254]

@@calamariaxo Oh no, sure, but like.. It's *so* divorced from his character, it might as well be a doppelganger/skin stealer. It's like Steve Rogers starting a career in põřn, or Luke Skywalker murdering his nephew for thinking dark thoughts :P

[@calamariaxo]

@@tahunuva4254 I don't disagree per se. He isn't exactly the first thing that comes to mind when you want a heroic adventurer :P I'm just trying to say that some people find it cool. And sometimes that's just fine. Plenty of things we enjoy are completely out of whack with any kind of reality. Just because we don't all share the same joy of a certain fantasy doesn't mean it's any less valid. I find Bridgerton utterly idiotic, but I don't mind a whiff that a lot of people enjoy it, or that it's made.

[@koltasxx]

Oh yeah Baldur's Gate in Lithuania - brings back memories

[@jonreed6548]

7th Continent is an excellent example of the type of game that is much more enjoyable when not viewed through a reviewer's lens.

[@fuzzlemacfuzz]

we had a "comeliness" value for female characters, fighting men and pretty much universal pictures of men or women in skimpy outfits. it was made for teenage boys, to titliate them. However, universally, my groups have always had women in them. My current group is all women except for me. so despite Gary's best efforts to the contrary, women have always been part of the story of DnD

[@ianpatrickclarksr4074]

i feel pretty good after spending this time viewing your 3 part Sleeping Gods love letter🙂 Im gonna get a copy ASAP. Thank you.

[@katstar1982]

This video was so smart, so insightful, so beautifully articulated. And I enjoy Tomb of Horrors! But seriously, thank you for this. When you directly addressed me (and all women who love games), in response to Gygax's "determinism" comment, I got a bit choked up.

[@channingjones]

I really like games likes this one that progresses the art of making games. Also thanks for providing all the background and history of the genre, too, very interesting! I feel videos like these are a more mature form of critique, like we see in other art forms.

[@MartinBraonain]

Thanks for the video. A few things jarred with me. Reading Lovecraft through the lens of his racism (although he did marry a Jewish women - work that one out) is partial and naive. We can read against the grain and dialectically. I like the few stories I have read because of their fear of the other, I understand what he was about but I can still read through that to something that sits beside it. His existential fear of life. That is also part of DnD - when you walk into that dungeon if you don't feel that or face it in the game, then there is a chunk of change you are missing. The possibility of a sudden and early death is a great mechanic and keeps us alert. It is also fun and dark - you get a glimpse of your own mortality. Also, we need a few of those old masuline skills and virtues beside us in the journey whoever has them cis or queer - bravery and aggression aren't the provence just of men. At some level we are greedy adventurers . What is celebratory about DnD and why the religious right now hate it, is that it offers kids a space to play out different roles, including gener and racial roles, in a hostile world! Our groups are diverse but the world remains violent and unpreditctable. Bit like real life perhaps. No wonder the outcasts and loners love these games. Literature and texts draw from their culture and it is obvious that early texts convey those values. So what? I like them dark and dirty and pathological like the dungeons and the dragons:)

[@wallyvdb87]

Maybe it's because I can totally relate with everything you say about 7th continent, maybe it's because you give sooo much depth, history and awareness in a sooo compelling way, or maybe it's because I also Love Sleeping Gods for it's mechanisms And storytelling... But this must be the BEST review I EVER watched! (And made me become a patreon without a doubt!) Keep up this phenomenal work! 👊

[@adriennecheriericker8286]

My partner and I are almost done with our marathon of a first campaign in Sleeping Gods. Five hours in, I said "it's everything I wanted XYZ to be." After watching your video essay, I now understand why. I must warn the random traveler that there is at least one moment in our game that embraced the "punish the character as a joke" mechanism. It made me so frustrated, it almost ended our play session. Really put into perspective how the rest of the game play has been so positive. Thanks for your essay!

[@thewobblyninja]

thumbs up for all the extra history on "choose your own adventure" history

[@kurtweihs4665]

Some observations (not critiques, your video was fantastic and your background about your own experiences with role playing growing up were great to hear about). The choose-your-own-adventure connection to RPG’s preceded the books by the same name by a few years. As early as 1977 I was playing an RPG called Tunnels and Trolls produced by Flying Buffalo Games. By then there were several comb-bound books available. The artwork was typical of fantasy gaming fare although at some point Liz Danforth did some wonderful illustration work on a few of them. Later, Chaosium published solo adventures to go with their Runequest game and Metagaming produced Death Test in 1978 for their pocket game Melee. It was just after that that I saw my first CYOA book in the bookstore. Your observations about gender and diversity were pretty much as you reported though there were some ethnic representations in the artwork and both Flying Buffalo and Chaosium had female characters in more than the otherwise omnipresent chainmail bikini. Also, in our area Tomb of Horrors didn’t really become the “big thing” it is today. The published G and D modules (Giant and Drow series) were much more playable and were being used by a lot more DM’s I knew. We kind of viewed ToH as a ridiculous curiosity. The illustrations were cool because I hadn’t had any commercially produced adventure that showed items and locations so specifically. We tried playing the module, though, and my players quickly wrote off the module as ridiculously broken and not worth their time. It wasn’t until several years later that I had someone bring up the title again. By then we were knee-deep in 2nd edition. FWIW Gary Gygax’s arrogant prologue didn’t fall on deaf ears. It sounded just as arrogant and dismissive as it does today.

[@RadishTheFool]

This is such an amazing video. Efka, you're elevating not just what IS being said about board games, but what CAN be said about them. And in such a unique way that only you could do it like this. You have found your voice. Amazing.

[@RyanHipp]

The Love that went into this video from the start to the middle to the finish is so compelling.

[@matthewkirkhart2401]

Fair enough, Tomb of Horrors is not everyone's cup of tea. And I completely agree with the sexist and heavy-handed nature of the adventure overall. However, here are some further thoughts. I have played through it, and also ran it, and I would not say that it is even in the top 50 of my favorite adventures to play or run as a DM. But I do think the context within which the adventure was created is a very important element of it, whether one agrees with the line of thought or not. There are IMHO three crucial aspects to this adventure's creation that are not necessarily an element of other adventures that were created even by the same author during the same time period. First, it is a tournament module. As a tournament module, when you have at times 1000s of players going through it, there has to be a way to identify "winners" and "losers." The deadliness, the luck of the die roll, and other things that make for a poor campaign adventure often make for a good tournament module. One of his fan-favorite modules, The Keep on the Borderlands, makes for a terrible tournament module for this very reason. It's a great sandbox, but trying to rank or grade the play of players in a tournament to decide who wins and who loses is just not very easy with a module like Borderlands. With a module like Tomb of Horrors? It's much easier. Second, Gygax got quite sick and tired of his players crying that the adventures were not difficult enough, that their characters were invincible, etc. Another important element in the creation of this adventure was to show them that this was not true, and the quickest way to do this is to make all their stats, hit points, magic items, memorized spells, etc. less meaningful for the game. This is actually what I think Gygax means by saying this is a "thinking" dungeon, and also what he means by things like bring the DM joy or whatever. Gygax has always favored "player knowledge" of "character knowledge" in his games, and with Tomb of Horrors he created a module that in order to be successful playing, that one cannot find the answer to success on the scribbles on one's character sheet. Again, does this make for a good campaign module for your home game? I think not. Is it a good module for narrative focused play? Absolutely not! But these things were not what Gygax was trying to do when he wrote Tomb of Horrors (contrast this with, say, the Giants series of adventures which are great for one's home campaign and can be much more narrative in the outcomes produced by playing them). Third, and this is where I actually think the adventure shines, Gygax is true to the antagonist in this fantasy world. The "big boss" in this adventure is an incredibly powerful lich, as is known from the first page of the adventure and the first phrase the players are given about the context of this adventure. A lich is going to make a tomb full of death traps, full of ways to separate the PCs not just from their lives, but also from their treasure and magical items ... you bring your shiny magical items into my tomb, I'm going to take all of them from you and add them to my treasure trove. The lich is a horribly evil, vindictive, heartless creature who, because it is so powerful, is more likely to produce an outcome of failure for the PCs than success. It cares nothing about the PCs except to kill them and take their stuff. It cannot be reasoned with. It cannot be bargained with. It cares not for the PCs' goals, aspirations, dreams, etc. It is a lich. I'm not going to lie, one of the things that I was disappointed with in the 5E reboot of Ravenloft (having played the original back in the day) was not the campaign setting, not the cool little "mini-sandbox" that is this adventure series in 5E, I loved all those things ... but ... it's just not very challenging or deadly. I wanted to feel the fear and danger of challenging the most powerful vampire in the land ... and it just didn't feel that way to me. So even though Tomb of Horrors is very heavy-handed, I have to give some props to Gygax for writing a module about an extremely powerful lich and making me very, very afraid as I went through the adventure the first time ... much like those fellows in the drawing you started the video with. My 18/00 Strength and +5 Holy Avenger are meaningless within the walls of this tomb which is truly horrifying because I have relied on both those things to succeed for 10 character levels ... and all that is taken away from me. This is sort of the point of the adventure, whether we like this or don't like this as a player. This is another reason why this adventure stands out so much from almost all other adventures, even those written by Gygax. I actually think Gary gets way too much credit for D&D and Dave does not get enough. But Gary did capture something different with this module. Playing it or running it is really very different than Borderlands, or the Giants series, or frankly any of the other modules Gygax wrote. And to me this uniqueness has more to do with the context within which it was written than Gygax himself. The Tomb of Horrors adventure I have found only to be enjoyable when it is played as a one shot with pregen characters. This module is just not suited to modern narrative play because let's face it, 90% (easily) of all players who take a PC into this adventure are at best going to lose everything they own, and at worst be destroyed outright. I honestly think it is a cruel DM who brings this adventure to their gaming group as part of an ongoing campaign where the players have been able to get their characters up to 10th-15th level, only to die ... because if run as written, the PCs are very likely to die in the Tomb of Horrors. And as I said, I'm with you, I don't love this adventure either. But I have to admit; as I have gotten older and tried to remember the context within which Gygax was writing this module, I have more of an appreciation of it than I did as a youngster in that it does EXACTLY what Gygax wanted it to do. I, like I am guessing most of us, just don't play these games for those outcomes, I don't play these games where the first choice I make has a 66% chance of failure and there is no information I can really acquire that will help me to overcome these odds, etc. So I will pass on the Tomb of Horrors whenever I see someone is going to run it.

[@CreakyTableGames]

I don't generally tune in for the longer videos, but I did and found it enjoyable. Good job!

[@garybridge2450]

I like NPI content and respect their opinions on board games. They're thoughtful and insightful. However...when Efka does these long form videos, they just blow me away. So good. Made me fall in love with the Channel. This is the content that sets NPI apart from everything else.

[@Skol999]

Just re-watched this on the back of your more recent plugs. It's a great video. I played ToH about when it came out, and loved it - because there were so few modules then available - but hated it, for all the reasons you mention. I think it was a TPK, but it worked, in context, because it was the culmination of a campaign from level 1. The party was ready for a wipe. I played tWoFM too, and I love Sleeping Gods, so there is a lot here to like. Thanks. Enjoyed it, as I usually do with your excellent content.

[@ToasterDude1]

Wow. This was a very enjoyable journey trough gaming history. Thank you.

[@rossjaax]

I don’t stay tuned for board game reviews of over 20 minutes, unless it is a NPI review. Excellent!

[@stevekingswell9143]

You guys are going from strength to strength, I imagine you worked hard to find a new space of your own in the games review world. You have found it! Deep, interesting, socially responsible, brave, outstanding. I didn’t know that about Gary Gygax, I played that dungeon. I just bought Vindication, in order to play a game where I can enjoy a narrative, even if it’s supplied by the players through touch points with the characters, cards and events. Sleeping Gods looks great fun.

[@TheFlood2009]

Thank you for the video. It was absolutely amazing!! Going to watch everything else on the channel now.

[@Tharukan]

The review is a masterpiece, might be you guys best work yet! Congrats! The game looks really interesting, heard a lot of good things about it. Also, it's a bit pricey at the moment at 75 € unfortunally. Also, not released in my language yet. So I'll wait and if a german version gets to the 50ish € area, I'll grab it. Sure, minis or something wouldn't really make the game better, but still, for 75 € I'd like to see minis or some serious bling justifying the price tag.. Or ideally I'd like it as is but for like 60 € MSRP.

[@steffen3382]

That was a pretty awesome review and history lesson combined. Slightly tarnished by assuming genders and preferences of the entire ships crew, and presenting some points of view as fact and opposing views as false without empirical foundation. Still gotta love the amount of knowledge and passion in this presentation.

[@jacobsteele7138]

Still waiting for my copy of Sleeping Gods. Very excited by the reviews.

[@simontaverner3121]

What a fantastic video. A cut above the cut above a typical review, I love the fact this discussed some of the wider themes that affect the culture of boardgaming. More like this please!

[@bengreen1181]

Whether intentional or not, that Patrick Stewart "I've seen everything" quote was perfect

[@DogFogB]

That was definitely intentional!

[@johnsteidl293]

This is a delightful piece; thank you! I did play D&D a bit in the 70s and 80s and I think you would have enjoyed my groups if you had been there. The first group was 1973, pre-publication. It was a summer camp for science nerds and there was a student from Texas A&M who brought a copy of the (very sparse) rules. The only thing I can figure was that his group at A&M must have had some connection with Dave Arneson, who would have been a few years older than them. I need to see if I can find my copy of those rules in the basement. It was a total sandbox at that point, with no guidance (or content) for the DM. I think what appealed initially was the thing that still drives digital ARPGs: the addictive cycle of kill monsters > get loot + experience > equip better gear + skills > kill badder monsters. Is that cycle more likely to be addictive if you have a Y chromosome, or is the nature of the world and story simply driving away potential addicts with 2 X chromosomes? :-) Either way, that was the hook for most of us XYs, although at some point along the way we discovered the power of story. The best DMs always figured out that the most fun could be had in presenting players with interesting challenges that involved nail-biter stories, where you would nearly die but escape through some clever strategem(s). It takes at least as much work for the DM to think those up as it does for the party to "solve" them. I really wanted to like 7th Continent but had the same reaction you did. There is a culture in gaming these days, at least for solo and co-op, that is very focused on beating the game. I mean, that's virtually the definition of "game", right? Something you play (whatever that means) that you either win or lose. If you aren't playing against other players, you're playing "against" the game. And the harder it is to beat the game, the more serious = worthy the game is. That type of game is always a grind and doesn't do anything for me, so I'm really looking forward to trying Sleeping Gods when it's back in print. Cheers

[@danieltownley7436]

Totally agree about 7th Continent. We really wanted to like it and at times we really did, but the game definitely gets in its own way. The exploration and survival aspects of the game are frequently in opposition to one another and we found ourselves simply saying 'let's just pretend we didn't do that' because we didn't want to repeat 3 hours of gameplay... but doing that means it's no longer a game with consequences, which pretty much ruins the experience. I'm very excited to hear that Sleeping Gods may well be the game that I hoped 7th Continent would be.

[@twothirdsanexplosive]

Really enjoyed the dive into the history and your clear thoughts on it the trajectory as a way to frame Sleeping Gods. Hope to see more videos like this from you!

[@tomlikeabomb6706]

I do agree with you that failing forward in Sleeping Gods is better but I still really like 7th Continent and I’m excited to play through Tainted Grail too. 7th Continent also has little clues on the map and puzzles which are awesome. While I appreciate the convenience of the map book in Sleeping Gods I think it’s more fun to flip a new exploration card and build out the map every turn in 7th Continent.

[@aonline_abridged]

+1 on 7th Continent being a great exploration experience, I love building the map, discovering the little clues, learning the lay of the land.

[@aggressivasius]

@@aonline_abridged I have played both and 7th is much deeper and your actions really matter. In addition there are so many extra or hidden components and choices and in comparison Sleeping gods feels light and non-committal. A solid game, but nowhere close to 7th

[@ShaunMcMillan]

I'm surprised there has been no mention of T.I.M.E. Stories which also has narratives and puzzles. And the terrible stereotypical tropes would have further supported his theme of disappointment.

[@CheveeDodd]

I don't watch a lot of board content because, for the most part, tabletop time is more about socializing for me and less about finding the next game to fill my shelves. So happy I found this video though. This is the kind of personal, in-depth content I love to see across many YT genres. More please! Oh, and Sleeping Gods is frigging amazing. We played through 2 campaigns in about a month (2 player) and it has been some of the most amazing time at the table I've experienced in the past decade.

[@patrickperl8741]

Your analyses are top notch! I don't always agree but I find your reviews and videos absolutely fantastic. I'm a huge fan!

[@adraogames826]

Very interesting that you take the history and process of game development all the way back! I read most Fighting Fantasy gamebooks when I was a kid, and was a DM for many years. The Warlock of Firetop Mountain is a classic, and always deserves a mention as it kick-started the gamebook genre. However, Interactive Fiction in general has greatly improved in the last 10 years or so, overcoming many of the pitfalls of earlier games (as all games genres do). There are many such examples Choice of Games, or their sister label Hosted Games.

[@onemikeonegame]

I have been thoroughly impressed with your last few videos (not that I didn't like your previous videos, but wow!) and this one has only set the bar higher. You are definitely taking board game videos in a great direction.

[@tigerpjm]

Efka, you're a bloody gem! This was so, so relevant to me. As a white hetro cisgender male this really hit me in the feels, in a wholesome, non-creepy way. It is pretty much the story of my gaming life! Y'see, I was first exposed to D&D in the early 80's when my uncle ran a campaign for my mum, dad and his wife. I was outstandingly intrigued. I was also lucky enough to have my first exposure to gaming not only be D&D, but D&D run by a compassionate, progressive and extremely intelligent man running a game for two women and his crankier, more reactionary brother - my dad. As a 7 year old I sat by the the and couldn't help but be involved, and he kindly rolled up a character and Tobiakin, an orphan boy that sought shelter in a cave cave-that-was-really-a-dungeon after his parents were killed by the bandits who lived in the cave-that-was-really-a-dungeon joined the party. I hope you can understand how validating this was. By weaving a place in the world that didn't belittle me for being a child, he'd validated my place in the real world, even though I was a child. And I was immediately hooked. Thing was, I was a pretty shy kid. So, in a weird way, my new found interest for D&D was utterly alien to everyone I knew or was to meet for many years. And so the many characters I drew up , the dungeons I drew on grid paper were never to be shared with anyone, and the validation I'd felt by the inclusion in his campaign was slowly overtaken by a feeling if isolation. I was weird for being into a game nobody else was interested in, and it made me feel lonely. But I kept rolling characters and drawing new dungeons on new pieces if grid paper plotted on new continents in the back of school books. I was an introverted kid with few friends. I drew further into myself, and the further I drew into myself, the more ridicule I attracted. When everyone was playing at lunch I sought refuge in the library. And there I was - the Warlock of Firetop Mountain. It was revelatory! A game of D&D I could play, and I didn't need anyone to help me. I could enjoy it all to myself. And as I borrowed them the librarian bought more and more. And then I discovered that the local library had even more in addition to other series like Joe Dever's Lonewolf, Fire*Wolf (I guess wolves were a thing), Falcon (I guess animals were a thing) and the Cretan Chronicles (bulls too...). And I did stuck my finger in the page on each and every decision, so I could take my decision back. The narrative took precedence over the mechanical because.... who wants to trudge through the story again over a die over which I had no agency, or a decision over which my agency was limited by giving me choices that I wouldn't have otherwise made in the circumstances? And then my mum realised that I was spending a lot of time alone, reading books. And they weren't proper books. They were games. And so I was banned from reading these books-that-weren't-really-books-but-were-really-games. And I kind of abandoned reading them and, frankly, reading altogether, because who wants to read when reading is causing you hassle. Especially now you're entering your late teens, have a job and could afford a computer game called "Baldurs Gate". And so began another round of being immersed in a game, and eventually being banned from the game because it wasn't a legitimate pass time like the rest of the post-pubescent kids were engaging in lime drinking and having children with girls they'd not long known and didn't really like. And I guess it just got, metaphorically, beaten out of me. And so I dropped gaming altogether. Until late last year when I saw a review of Tainted Grail, and I don't want to disparage a person who has caused me no Hassle, but his review was glowing. So I bought it. And it was utter rubbish. It was like the game books. Except with a layer of "gameplay" that served only to act as a barricade to the story. And the story was grim, sexist, and utterly charmless. I hated it, and I still hate it every time I look at it on my shelf. But I leave it there as a reminder. A reminder of how bad board games can be, and how good board games can be. It's like a metaphorical board game lodestone. It is a marker of all of the good things about the hobby by incorporating more boardgaming bad things than any game... other than Monopoly. You see, over the years, the exclusion I'd felt for wanting to play games that nobody seems was interested in gave me an affinity for others that had, for admittedly quite different reasons, themselves been excluded or ostracised. The gay kids, the Asian kids, the kids with disabilities, the nerdy kids... the kids that were just too different to be the same as everyone else. And I found that many of them played board games. So whilst my uncle might have inadvertently caused me to feel excluded the night he made me feel so included by including me in his board game, I'm glad he did. Because whilst being an introverted gamer can, at times, feel pretty lonely, it has also introduced me to my own community of people. By including me in his adventure, he not only introduced me to adventure, but adventure where men were not only not the focus, but were actually a minority. That was the world of adventure I'd stepped into. Where there was no distinction between my dad the male fighter, mum, the female cleric, my aunt, the female magic user, or me, the boy thief who learned to steal to feed himself but whose decision s and, therefore his future, were his own to make and consequences his to face. I was consequential. But, more than that, I believe it has made me a more compassionate and inclusive person. Because I want be as inclusive as I can be. Because including others makes *me* feel included. And that seems like a feedback loop worth spinning up as often as possible. Which was why I *ADORED* Sleeping Gods. It is everything I thought gaming could be, but that I'd never experienced before playing it. And it showed my wife why I love board games, and that they aren't a weird, lonely pass-time that I share with nobody, but on in which she can share in too. So thanks Sleeping Gods. But, most of all, thanks uncle Max. Oooof! Long post. Blabber concluded.

[@diegocasanova8735]

Wonderful video, I'm so glad that you two are part of our community, such a positive influence!