Welcome to the Just Play podcast

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Just Play, your board gaming podcast. I'm JP, your host, and player two guiding you through the hobby, whether it's the latest hotness, it's the golden oldies, or the joys of tabletop itself. So grab a chair, sit down, relax, and just play. So, welcome to the Just Play Podcast. This is a brand new podcast. It's literally launched today. Um, and yeah, we're really excited to kind of have you here and and come along and listen to all things tabletop. So I know what you're thinking. What you need in your life is another board gaming podcast, and here it is, it's right here. Um I'm passionate about board gaming and and podcasting. So uh for those that don't know, I've been podcasting for over four years now and in the the board gaming and tabletop space. Uh I used to run a podcast called The Whose Turn Is It Anyway. So some of you may have heard of that, or some of you may have kind of jumped across from that onto this new podcast. Um, and basically welcome if you have. Um, but if you haven't, then well, this is the episode for you. This is the primer to introduce you all about what this podcast is and what it's about and whether it's right for you. So I'm kind of going to do two intros. I'm gonna do an introduction to the new listeners, um, and then I'm gonna do an introduction to returning listeners from the Who's Turn podcast? So

Welcome new listeners

SPEAKER_00 1:29

let's start with the new listeners. So, welcome, my name's JP. Uh, I've been in the hobby space uh for I would say 10 years properly. Um, back in the kind of late 80s and early 90s, you know, I used to play Blood Bowl and Hero Quest and you know the old staples and classics like that. But in about 2015, I uh got into board gaming in a in a big way and and kind of gone through the usual curve of acquiring a few titles, realizing oh my god, this is the hobby is is amazing, and and you know, this is like the the best thing that I've done in a long while, and really helped uh to kind of socialise with people around the table, you know, in a digital age, it's uh something I'm very, very proud of doing. Um so yeah, starting small, amassing uh the collection, you know, uh slowly and surely. I remember having a uh one by four Calax shelf kind of stacked vertically, and I remember even just getting four board games going, Whoa, chill out, JP. This is uh far too much. You need to calm down. And then I don't know what happens with with board gamers, you you end up trying to collect every board game known to man and woman, and and yeah, it just gets a bit out of control. And there's there's a definite curve as you go over the top and go, I just cannot buy everything and own everything. And you tend to then curate your own collection to actually what you get played, which is kind of where I'm at now. So so yeah, 10 years of gaming, um, and obviously being on the podcast, as I mentioned before, has given me access to the industry and different contacts and and and you know, games and things like that, and it's just been a real privilege to be a part of that, and you know, I wanted it to continue, and here I am. So, a little bit about me as well as a person. Um, I mean, I was born in the 80s, I absolutely love 80s culture. As you can see by my studio here, um, I mean, guess the the movie posters behind me, these are some of my favourite films that you can kind of see some of them, and obviously we've got we've got a little gizmo here uh from Gremlins just chilling out. Um, and yeah, so this room is pretty much my my kind of nerd shrine to everything kind of 80s and and all things pretty cool. Um, music-wise, I am into all sorts of eclectic different uh genres of music from you know uh pop, rock, um, all sorts of different things. But even um recently, I'd say fairly recently, in the past few years, I'm actually into synthwave, which is the 80s connection, right? Uh synthwave music is it's kind of like uh 80 synth styles and and and themes, but all done kind of with a bit of a modern uh vibe and twist. So yeah, bands like Gunship and The Midnight are probably two of my favourite synthwave bands. I just absolutely adore listening to those. Um and no doubt you've noticed for my intro music, Synthways is a bit of a uh yeah, bit of a uh influence as as it says. So so yeah, um quickly, favourite game of all time. My favourite game of all time uh is Too Many Bones uh from Chip Theory Games. It's a fantastic game. I'll talk more about that in the future. I can't stop talking about that game. Um, and those on the Who's Turn podcast are already rolling their eyes because I always talk about that game. Um, but games I'm enjoying right now, um basically uh Unstoppable, I would say. Unstoppable is a cardcrafting game by John D. Clare, uh published by Renegade Studios, and they've just done a Dungeon Crawler Carl version of it, which I haven't played, and that's an IP I'm I don't really know much about. Um haven't really got into the the books, but I will do it's on my list to do at some point in the future. Um but no, I'm enjoying the the system of kind of getting cards and and improving those cards as we go. Um, but yeah, I'm enjoying that one a lot. Uh Eternal Decks is another one that I'm absolutely loving. Um, this is a rare, rare game. It's a Japanese game that gets imported into the UK once in a bloody blue moon. And um yeah, managed to get a copy of it and enjoying that one. It's a lovely kind of uh cooperative puzzle card game. Um but yeah, I'm not gonna dive too deep into these right now because hey, that's what the podcast is for. We're gonna come back and and give these games uh justice, as it were. Um so yeah, so basically that's a little intro to me. Um and I like all sorts of games, whether they're light to heavy. I tend to favour heavy kind of weight games more. I think I like to have the brain leaking out the ears and playing it, you know. I like to have um my brain running white hot and and just yeah, really give it a good old mental workout, as it were. So so yeah, so that's kind of a little intro to me. Um and and hopefully that's uh kind of a line to what you're you're interested in as well. Um

Welcome back Whose Turners

SPEAKER_00 6:23

so yeah, let's go on to the next side, which is uh basically an introduction to people returning from the Who's Turn Is It Anyway podcast. So I think the main question is, JP, why are you doing a a podcast by yourself? Um and it's a great question, and it's one I I really want to answer because I think it needs uh a real good answer. Um, and you know, a lot of our followers from from four years, you know, right from the beginning, I've I've been with us for a long time and and then suddenly saw the the podcast just be put on the pause and it probably came out of nowhere. And you know what, it it kind of did come out of nowhere for for a lot of us. And the the reality of of running a podcast is you know that that one had eight of us in it, which is a lot of people. Um, and managing a a podcast with eight players or eight people was yes tricky. It's tricky, you know. Doing a podcast in general is a lot of work, you know, you're recording, you're editing, you're promoting, um, you're doing all those things, but it's a lot of fun, it's a hell of a lot of fun. I I'm really proud and privileged to sort of created Whose Turn and kind of ran that ship for for as long as we have. And we've had such a blast recording, attending conventions and and doing all of those um yeah, episodes, you know, of which we did, I don't know, around 140 uh in the end. And yeah, we had such a blast. And the main reason I think, you know, for me to to kind of move on and do something different is I'm a project manager, right, by day. Uh so it means that nine to five, Monday to Friday, I'm constantly managing people, I'm managing deadlines, I'm managing things to get to a delivery. Um so after all that, I was coming home and basically being a project manager, which is not kind of what I want to do in my spare time. Um, and as fun as it was having, you know, seven other people on the podcast, it's it's a lot of work for me. And to be honest, you know, doing the lion's share of the work, which I never minded, and this isn't a uh a dig at any of the team. I love those guys. We're still very much good friends, we haven't fallen out or anything like that. Um, you know, they're still part of the gaming group, and and yeah, I I I've just got to that place where I think something has to change because I think when you're doing um a lot of work around something that's supposed to be fun and it ends up turning it into not as much fun, you don't really want to be doing it. And I think you need to to give a good service to to the listeners and and make sure that continues to be fresh and exciting and and all those kind of things. So yeah, I mean that's the the general premise of why I fancied uh fancied a change. And and hey, and now I'm here on my own, which is kind of scary. I'm not gonna lie, it's kind of it's kind of different. And not only am I alone, I'm doing this visually, right? You guys can see me, which is kind of freaking me out a little bit, because this is not my normal comfort zone. My normal comfort zone is to sit in a room with the mic on and not worry about the audio and have to worry about you know all these different uh aspects. So these are gonna this is all new. Um, and please bear with me as I kind of get used to this format and and used to be more visual and it adds a lot of positives, I think, uh doing podcasts visually. Number one, I most of the listeners want to consume it visually. Um, a lot of people will listen through Spotify and Amazon and um you know Google, etc., and all those kind of things. Um, but a lot of people watch podcasts on YouTube and and I think whose turn is it anyway was missing out. And again, this is another reason why I wanted to do this as a solo project, because to do things visually uh is easier on your own. I can set up a studio like this and and basically sit and chat to you about games till the cows come home. This is kind of uh what I like to do. Um so that that is one of the reasons why I wanted to do this in a different way. And having eight people fully on a uh conference uh call style uh situation is it's chaotic and it's really difficult to kind of manage and get everyone's point across and and making sure we don't cut across each other and all those kind of things. So so yeah, this is kind of hopefully uh a more tailored and better experience. So hopefully that gives you a bit of a uh a sense of of what's going on and and why I'm doing what I'm doing. Um but also I just kind of want to do this podcast for me, you know. I kind of want to just see how how this goes and um yeah, just kind of see how it see how it goes. And let's see. And thank you for for jumping in and and listening and and joining us on this very uh yeah, very start of the the journey that we're all about to to go on. So

Breaking down the podcast structure

SPEAKER_00 11:17

let me break down then the premise and structure. So let me cover off how the Just Play podcast is gonna work. I mean the whole premise of the podcast is it's not gonna be too dissimilar to Whose Turn Is It Anyway, in the respect that I always like to feel that this podcast, like myself, you know, you could be part of our gaming group or you can kind of jump in. Um, you know, uh if you don't have a gaming group or or friends or or lots of people to kind of play games with, you're always welcome to kind of come and listen and learn more about the hobby in this way. So that doesn't change, but I kind of liken myself to be your player too, all right? So your player two that's gonna help you um understand the hobby more, just have a partner in crime to talk about those heavy Euros that um you know make make everything just sweat and just you know kind of uh yeah, your brain hurt and all those kind of things. Um and yeah, just really just a chance to to chat cardboard and all things board gaming. So yeah, I always welcome to do that. Um but the structure itself, I'm just gonna look over to the side because my notes are there, but the structure and how it's gonna be different to the Whose Turn Is It uh anyway podcast is um I'm gonna basically break down into various segments, which is nothing new. Um, but the first segment is gonna be called Pull Up a Chair, and it's basically our introductory segment to kick off the episode. Um, you kind of liken it to when all of you come for a a gaming uh event or game night, and you're in the kitchen, you're grabbing your cup of tea, and you're kind of just you know, shooting the the the shit, as it were, to yeah, chatting amongst yourselves and learning about kind of what's going on and and all those kind of things. And I really want to build the community engagement more uh with this podcast, and and this is the segment to kind of get listeners' questions in early and uh anything like that we can kind of throw into the the opening of the show. So that's uh pull up a chair. The next segment will be uh called Just Played. Um so this is gonna be very similar to Let's Talk About Hex, but it's it's basically a deep dive into maybe one, two, maybe three uh games uh per episode where I'll just talk about my play experiences, what I've been playing with the gaming group, uh what I've enjoyed, what I've not enjoyed, uh all of those kind of things. And I want that to continue because games are the heart of what this podcast is going to be about. You're gonna want to listen to um you know what we think about different things there. So so yeah, that's uh just played. The main segment will be called uh centre of the table. So centre of the table will be the core topic, um, which could be right from uh you know talking about mechanics and board games, the board games specifically, uh the hobby, the culture, anything and everything that I want to basically chat about. And this is where the pressure comes on me, right? Where I'm used to having an ensemble cast of players who would contribute towards the content, I'm gonna have to come up with that myself. And again, I want to engage with the community to help me with that. Um, let me talk about the topics you want to listen to and please let me know what they are and get in touch because that's really important to me. The next segment will be called What's Hot, What's Not. So, this is where I can kind of enhance the visual aspect of this podcast because you're looking at me right now. I can share my screen. We can kind of go through um the different things on board game geek. I can show games off in in a better light, I can share, you know, what the board looks like, what the player boards look like, all of that kind of stuff, which I think is going to be really, really uh engaging for you as a listener/slash watcher on on YouTube. Um, but the what's hot, what's not is gonna be looking at the board game geek's hotness. And so every time every episode comes along, we'll have a look at what the top five uh hotness looks like and what my thoughts are, whether I've heard of them, whether I uh am excited about it, whether I've played them, and some of my thoughts like quick fire, rapid thoughts around that. So, yeah, so that'll be a nice variable segment. Um, so let's see how that goes. Uh, and then we kind of get to the all the the end of the episode where we'll look at just about to play, the segment is called just about to play. And again, things I'm excited for, things that are coming up um in my calendar, my gaming calendar. So whether that's conventions, whether that's um some game nights that I'm looking forward to. So giving you some sneak previews up for future episodes where I may talk about those games, and and then we get to the last play, which is basically our outro and sign-off. Um, so that's pretty much the the structure, and it may change because as we go through, I'll get feedback and we'll get uh you know, just some things work, some things don't. We will morph and evolve this podcast as we go, just like we've done all other podcasts. Um

Just Play...with others

SPEAKER_00 16:04

so will this podcast just be me? Well, the answer is no, hopefully. Um I'd like to be getting guests on. Um, one of the advantages of doing the Who's Turns Anyway podcast for the last four years is I've amassed a good uh number of network connections within the industry. So whether that's publishers, board game designers, content creators, I've got some uh yeah, contacts, and I'm gonna be hitting those contacts hard. Um, because I really enjoy the guests episodes that we've done on uh the Who's Turn, and I want to continue to do them and bring them on the show and have uh basically a uh yeah good dialogue of bringing to life what's coming you know new down the track or or whatever. And I'd like to collaborate more with content creators, especially in the Southwest UK, uh, which is where I'm from. And yeah, so knowing some knowing uh a fair amount of content creators, I want to yeah, get them on the show, let's have a chat, let's do some collaborations on different things, maybe it's topics we we chat about or or talk about. Um so those um episodes will be called Just Play With Others, and they're gonna contain guests and convention coverage and and things like that. And yeah, that's pretty much pretty much what I've got to say. Um I don't want to kind of make this primer too long, I just want to to kind of talk a little bit about what to expect. So you can kind of listen in and go, you know what? Um I'm gonna give episode one a go. So please, please do go and move on to to episode one. Listen to a full structured episode, see what you think. If this is your jam, um stay with us, uh, and all of that kind of stuff. So yeah, so I think that about wraps it up. Um so yeah, I I just want to thank you for for kind of jumping in and listening uh to this brand new podcast, just play. And um, yeah, we're gonna be on all the socials, um basically Facebook, Instagram, and obviously on YouTube. And you know, any subscribe, follow, like, uh comment is always appreciated. Um, I'll be manning those socials uh myself, uh just like I did before. And uh yeah, so please please do get in contact and I really want to build that community engagement with the show as well. So so yeah, that about wraps it up, guys. Uh I'll leave it there. Please jump into the episode one where I talk about um the top ten games that have basically made me fall in love with a hobby, and basically you'll get a good trail of of how I've got into the hobby space. So hopefully that's uh interesting and some fun for you to listen to. But I'll always leave you with one sentiment, which is you only grow old when you stop playing. Take care.