207 – Marc Specter / Endgangered Expansion – The Family Gamers Podcast

We are talking to Marc Specter from Grand Gamers Guild this week, primarily about the expansion to their game Endangered.

We learn about a major league pitcher with 207 wins – but he’s famous (or infamous?) for something very different. Look up Carl Mays and find out the gruesome details.

Thanks again to First Move Financial for sponsoring this episode!

We’re really pleased that the Kickstarter for Endangered: New Species is already doing so well. But first…

What We’ve Been Playing

Cupcake Academy (Blue Orange) – as Anitra suspected last week, it plays smoothly at two players.

Dragomino (Blue Orange) – Lives up to its “My First Kingdomino” subtitle.

Patchwork (Mayfair / Lookout Games)

Monza (HABA) – always fun to pull out and play quickly.

Narwhal Free-for-All – why is a water game indoors more attractive than lots of water outside? We don’t know. But this is still a super cute game. (our review)

Baby Dragon Bedtime (Tin Star Games) – a speedy deck-building game that’s also a memory game, with dragons?!? Count us in.

Sumeria (Reiver Games) – anyone heard of this? Open information worker placement/area majority game. Out of print, but it does seem to be available on Amazon.

Harry Potter House Cup Competition (The OP)

Endeavor: Age of Expansion (Grand Gamers Guild) – “the euro-iest, engine-builder-iest game you’ll ever have the opportunity to play.”

In a Flash Firefighters (HABA) – pattern recognition, speed puzzle game. T from HABA told us about this two weeks ago. Quote from six-year-old: “Really fun, but really frustrating.”

5er Finden (HABA) – our new favorite roll-and-write. Like Boggle but with symbols instead of letters. [Correction: the grid is 10×10.]

SNAP Review

Wait a minute! Marc hijacked our SNAP review and put in an ad for Endangered instead! See the Kickstarter.

Endangered: New Species

The original Endangered comes with two species (tigers and sea otters) but there are many things that will change up each game (roles, ambassadors, etc). We talked about this back in episode 141 with Joe Hopkins.

The New Species expansion will add at least 5 more animal scenarios, another role, and more.

Endangered is a cooperative game where the players work together to save an endangered species. Each role has special powers and a semi-unique deck of player cards. Try to stave off destruction, while pushing animals together to make mating pairs. But you must also convince 4 out of 6 ambassadors to vote for your cause to win!

Each animal behaves differently (just like the real world):

Tigers don’t stay together forever (represented by having them split up after having a baby).

Sea otters are threatened by spreading oil slicks.

Polar bears deal with melting of their iceberg habitat.

Elephants’ story revolves around captivity.

Sea turtles need to make it to the shore to breed and then back out to the ocean.

Jaguars and tapirs have a predator/prey relationship, but both are threatened.

You will learn when playing this game

Endangered is truly an educational game. You will learn about the animals/habitat while playing. Perfect jumping off point for “gameschooling”.

Marc shares some praise he’s gotten from a field biologist in South America, and a teacher in Alaska.

Find Marc and Grand Gamers Guild Online:

grandgamersguild.com

Facebook: @GrandGamersGuild

Twitter: @GrndGmrsGld

Instagram: @GrandGamersGuild

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Buzz Off for Kids with Cancer

Don’t forget to take a look at our fundraiser for One Mission – for kids with cancer.

http://familygamers.com/buzzoff/ or text familygamersaa to 4432.

Sponsor

The Family Gamers is sponsored by First Move Financial. Go to FirstMoveFinancial.com/familygamers to learn how the team at First Move Financial can help you pile up the victory points.

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