Board Games!

[chamber]

I'd probably try and go with 4.

[zoraster]

like just a podcast where you chat or where you play?

[DeathNote]

Play.

Also, would you watch a podcast where people play the game and maybe cover the rules in like a pre-show?

[Sudo_Nym]

Isn't that basically what Watch It Played and the BoardGameGeek Cast already do?

[chamber]

I think you need to do a lot of heavy editing to make a watch and play work, much like tabletop does.

[PJ.]

I'm pretty sure that's death note's area of expertise, if I'm not mistaken.

[DeathNote]

Rooster teeth wants to do a board game podcast but what I'm pushing for is more of a hang out and play thing while they want it to have a gimmick or be more game show.

I'm just asking around to see what style of show people would prefer.

[PJ.]

I'm not sure what a "gimmick" or game show would look like, but I think a hang out and play, definitely has a market but it's over saturated with bad ones. Shut up sit down has a few, dice tower is okay(game plays are their worst videos imo), and everyone knows tabletop, but the market is basically cornered with those three. Everything else is pretty bad, not a fan of Watch It Played (I do like the how to play videos they do tho) and Rahdo seems like he mostly does rules talkthroughs. So yeah, it's real hard to get even a decently popular, "let's play board games" situation, simply because it's a lot of work and tabletop is so good with the guests and the production value and it's a very narrow audience pool.

[chamber]

I think you likely need some sort of gimmick. (such as tabletops C-list celebs) if you want to pull in even a slightly bigger audience.

[DeathNote]

Running off of Rooster Teeth talent will pull crowds. The big question is how to keep them?

One of the Gimmick's purposed is to have costumes dependent on the game but I find all the extra bells and whistles to be distracting and unnecessary. I just want a simple basement style setting and for them to play. If there was a gimmick at all, it would be the editors who insert little tidbits based off what was said or done such as blatant mistakes or call outs.

[chamber]

Editing, host personality/chemistry, and game selection determines if I would watch or not.

(I'm not sure this is true of everyone but I realized it's what you are actually here to hear from people).

[xRECKONERx]

I mean I think any way you can dress it up is good considering there are countless other shows out there that have probably already done the same board games you're going to do so like, it has to be kitschy or unique

maybe do it tournament or gauntlet style in seasons and have a rotating cast, keep points based on who wins, have some megabattle for the finale

[chamber]

I think a rotating cast would be a rather large detractor for me. (unless I hated the main cast, that would be a bigger detractor)

[Sudo_Nym]

If you did the show where the cast plays board games while suspended upside down in gravity boots, I'd watch at least one episode.

[PJ.]

If I'm being honest, unless someone tells me that's it's real good, I won't watch it unless a weird series of stipulations are met(I'm not looking for a review or a how to, it's a game that tabletop AND SU&SD, and i have 30+ minutes to kill and nothing better to kill it with).

[DeathNote]

I mean I think any way you can dress it up is good considering there are countless other shows out there that have probably already done the same board games you're going to do so like, it has to be kitschy or unique

maybe do it tournament or gauntlet style in seasons and have a rotating cast, keep points based on who wins, have some megabattle for the finale

We had a problem trying to create a video game style tournament show which had a stupid high budget. It was the first show I got to use my new moving lights on but the concept wasn't well received mostly because the community doesn't want to watch "Community" members play.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPm-RO85Mxo

I think a rotating cast would be a rather large detractor for me. (unless I hated the main cast, that would be a bigger detractor)

That's interesting... I wonder if it makes a difference at all that Rooster Teeth has a rather large talent pool?

[DeathNote]

If I'm being honest, unless someone tells me that's it's real good, I won't watch it unless a weird series of stipulations are met(I'm not looking for a review or a how to, it's a game that tabletop AND SU&SD, and i have 30+ minutes to kill and nothing better to kill it with).

The reason I like talking to you guys about this tho is because none of you are real RT fans meaning that you aren't looking at it from a perspective of "Are my favorite people up there? Then I don't care."

RT fans are freaking nuts and think RT can do no wrong.

[PJ.]

I'm completely unfamiliar with RT(aside from some red vs blue from like 15 years ago), I feel like watching some of the Shut Up Sit Down gameplays would be a good idea. The tone seems to fit with what rooster teeth does. Take queues from tabletop since you'll have some decent production situation. Also i can't stress game selection enough. Like non-rooster teeth fans are just going to type in "(game title) lets play" or some kind variation of that, and if tabletop is in the top 5 videos, they will probably click that 9 out of 10 times.

pedit: don't have this guy with the deep voice and sport coat on, he sucks. I apologize if this guy is your buddy.

[Sudo_Nym]

Being serious, I think your big problem is going to be that tabletop gaming is a niche hobby, and the people who find watching other people play a game they're not personally involved in is a subset of that niche. So you want a big viewership, you have to make the show appealing to as much of that base as possible- good production values are a start (watching people play in a dingy basement filmed with their handheld and trying to talk to the builtin microphone is miserable), but it's also got to be light (Tabletop and SU&SD both aggressively edit out a lot of the down time when people are thinking out their turns, to keep things moving). Choice of game is also going to matter a lot; from my experience, there's a lot of games that are very difficult to follow on youtube, because they have a ton of information, or the information isn't displayed very well, and it's hard to get and stay invested if you can't easily tell what's going on. So either play something that's very clear, or invest in making screen overlays that make the information visible to the audience.

[DeathNote]

I like what you mentioned about information not portraying well.


The idea for a boardgame podcast came from a show called Off Topic. --->https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwCQdLuLgtc

This show is just a group of idiots who talk about whatever the hell they want to talk about. It would be a failure of a show if not for the fact that all of them are well known lets players on youtube. This show can last a couple hours and one episode, they decided to pass the time by building a puzzle and for God knows why, the audience LOVED it. It was that feedback of people wanting the puzzle brought back that made me think that a BG podcast could work.

[DeathNote]

Tyler Coe gets very mixed receptions. He has been on more failed shows then anyone else.

[Sudo_Nym]

If that's the gimmick, I'm sure you can make it work- a bunch of people sitting around a table bullshitting while they play can be fun, especially if the audience is primarily fans of the people involved already. Just be aware that it will be frustrating if the audience can't tell what's going on, so make sure the room is well-lit and well-miked so it's clear, and be sure that the game itself is also visible to the audience so they can follow along. I'm big on clarity.

That said, the gravity boots thing would definitely be unique.

[PJ.]

Yeah, that's another issue with game selection. You want the game at it's core to be easy to understand and interesting. The heaviest games they have played on tabletop are all easier to understand conceptually then the mechanics would lead on. For example, Fury of Dracula is hide and seek, Eldritch Horror is a long story telling/horror game, and Dead of Winter is zombie survival /w maybe a traitor. Those are all games which have in-depth mechanics but the premise is easy to get behind. Also, the production value of the game itself is probably important.

What would you rather watch people play






also, one thing that I heard from UT's podcast, is if the game makes you do fun things, it'll probably be fun which probably means it'll be fun to watch. So dexterity games could work.

[xRECKONERx]

We had a problem trying to create a video game style tournament show which had a stupid high budget. It was the first show I got to use my new moving lights on but the concept wasn't well received mostly because the community doesn't want to watch "Community" members play.

i didnt mean community members

[shaft.ed]

So I kinda liked Pandemic on the first few playthroughs, but after a while it just feels like complicated Solitaire. Is it any better as a multiplayer game?

@DN, I've been watching a bunch of Table Top recently and one thing I would really like is to see what cards people are drawing. Maybe you can do the table cam like in televised poker games for when such a mechanic is relevant. Also I woiuld avoid roleplaying, it's just awkward and sad to watch.