If you haven’t checked out the new Geek and Sundry Youtube channel (created by the producers of The Guild), then let me be the first to tell you that you are definitely missing out! Felicia Day, Wil Wheaton and crew have yet again struck geek gold with their new lineup of programming, and I’m here today to bring you my review of their new show, Table Top.
The show takes a fairly simple premise – the playing and reviewing of a table top game – and turns it into something way more entertaining than I had originally envisioned. I’ve seen reviews and play-throughs of board games and the like on Youtube before, and they never seem to hit the right balance of both entertaining and informative. So, when I watched the first episode of Table Top, I was pleasantly surprised to see that they’ve actually put together a really great show!
Episode One begins with a basic description of gameplay and some general rules. They’ve started with Small World – a game that combines the military action of Risk with a really awesome fantasy world complete with a diverse selection of races and classes that you can change between throughout the game. The episode itself is broken up with fun description slides, light music and the actual gameplay – complete with fun and geeky comments from both Wheaton (the host) and the players – Grant Imahara (Mythbusters), Sean Plott (Day9TV) and Jenna Busch (geek blogger, writer and host). The flow and tone of the actual gameplay reminds me a bit of the Penny Arcade/Dungeons and Dragons Podcast (which Wheaton was also a part of, and is fantastic, btw).
As for the conversation and interaction between the players – it’s very honest and a lot like your average group of geeks getting together to play a table-top game. I feel this aspect of the show is especially refreshing and important because as a geek-girl gamer I can both relate to and enjoy what’s going on during the episode. Also, I happen to find it pretty important that a show doesn’t just market the hell out of something to me, and this show does a great job of not just trying to “sell us” on the game. The episode ends with the “Loser’s Couch” which is a fun take on the post-game conversation many of us have after getting completely owned.
Most importantly – it’s fun to watch! I’m really looking forward to the next episode (April 20th: Settlers of Katan – which such an awesome game!)
Watch Episode One now and let us know what you think below!
Oh, and a quick note to the producers of Geek and Sundry – if you’re looking for some Big Shiny Robots to participate, Swankmotron would be an excellent addition to an episode of your show (have you seen how much geeky stuff he’s involved in on the interwebs?), and I live in Los Angeles and work for a nearby video game developer…sooo…. give us a call!