[COOL PLACEHOLDER TITLE]! SU&SD Newsletter #45

Quinns: Last month I used the newsletter to talk about how our options for  playing board games online were “pretty good, actually??” Since then,  Tom and I have used Tabletop Simulator to play Container with the Los Angeles-based Board Game Barrage, and our whole crew has had fun rummaging around games that aren’t even out yet, like Forgotten Waters and The Defence of Procyon III.

But if you’re reading this and thinking that you miss just...  sitting around a table with your friends? Oh my goodness. You’re not  alone.

Matt: Arrrrgh I miss it so much.

Quinns: A swelling part of my psyche is starting  to fantasise about board game nights. I miss everything about them. I  miss pottering away from the game to get a drink, and hearing my  friends’ laughter from the other room. I miss that moment where a player  makes an aggressive move, and you get to share a moment of eye contact  that lets them know you saw them. I miss setting a game up before people  come over. I miss dealing cards. I even miss that pregnant moment after  a game finishes, and nobody wants to be the first to say that they  thought the game was real bad.

Getting through this crisis is going to involve staying positive,  but it’s also going to involve acknowledging what’s difficult. And while  “board game nights” might seem like a ridiculous thing to miss, they’ve  been part of my heart and soul since SU&SD was founded. I miss them  enormously.

Worse, I’m very scared for the smaller publishers in the industry.  It’s heartbreaking to end all of my correspondence with them by asking,  candidly, how optimistic they’re able to be about the future.

Matt: We’ve got plans in the pipeline to try and  help out where we can - with some stuff slated for later this year that  we hope will help the industry out - but even beyond industry woes it’s a  tough time right now for anyone with a conscience. Our heart breaks to  watch the endless videos coming out of America, and we offer our  solidarity with those who are fighting for a better world in the face of  outrageous state-sanctioned violence. Rather than looking across the  pond with a sense of distance, though, I’m hoping that many in our  country will join us in recognising the continuing damage of the  systematic racism that our nation was unequivocally built upon.

It’s easy to feel helpless in times like these - especially when medical  conditions combined with a pandemic make it far too dangerous for many  to protest. Over the next month any of the money we make from our Twitch streams will be donated to a mixture of charities that help Black  people both in the USA and the UK. It isn’t much, and we hope to be able  to do more in the future, but it feels like the absolute minimum we  should do. Anyone who plays games should know well enough that  establishing a valid sense of fairness is incredibly important - we send  love and solidarity to those working towards justice. I still hope for a  world where we can sit together once more and play games in a world  that is fairer than it was before - at which point I’ll then feel much  more comfortable about playing like a horrifically sneaky bastard.

Serious stuff aside, we’ll continue to do our best to entertain  throughout these difficult times - just know that we do so with a  healthy degree of anger and empathy just behind the curtain.

What are we watching? 📺

Tom: My sister loves This Country so much that she can quote most episodes verbatim, in real time, from memory. It’s absolutely bonkers.Quinns: I don’t know exactly how it happened, but this weekend I ended up watching the Sonic the Hedgedog movie. Outside of a bizarre first five minutes where the film killed off Sonic’s mum (who is an owl), it was kinda fun!If you’re reading this, Paramount Pictures, I am okay with you  using the following quote for your marketing: “Better than you expect! -  Shut Up & Sit Down”Matt: I was well up for watching that film when it  originally featured horror-teeth sonic, absolutely no interest now -  not even with that stellar box quote, sorry. TEETH TEETH TEETH TEETH!I’ve hit a bit of a lull with TV - nothing has grabbed my fancy this month. Although I’d highly recommend the BBC’s This Country - a comedy series I missed at the time that is absolutely fantastic.

What are we music!  🎵

Matt: I’ve been making my periodic visit to Of Montreal’s  catalogue - I check on it once every couple of years and there always  seem to be about four new albums, with their latest a wonderfully upbeat  pop record that’s perfect for running to. I’m RUNNING now, strange  times.

Tom: Increasingly finding things all a bit chaotic and hard to deal with recently, I’ve been listening to lots of Ana Roxanne’s ~~~,  an aquatic, soothing balm of a record that’s floated through my garden  as I sit outside and tap out notes on my laptop. Alongside that; I’ve  been obsessed with this one performance of ‘Toy’ by Young Fathers on KEXP from a few years back - there’s something so alive about the  whole thing, and as soon as I finish it I’ll stick it on replay to  relive it’s furious, kinetic highs.

One thing I’ve also been doing is poring through my records collection,  making a little (quite long) video that was hotly (coldly) requested  after my review of The Quiet Year! For those who wanted to see and to  share and to talk about music; here is that video!

Quinns: Awesome video. It’s actually just jogged my memory of something- I  don’t think we ever shared the playlist we made when Matt and I were  playing Blades in the Dark. For anyone else playing that RPG, or who  just wants to feel like the sun has abandoned our world to darkness, or  who just likes LPs which sound like they are haunted by a nervous ghost,  here it be, in all its unholy glory.

What are we video games!  🎮

Tom: I’ve been simultaneously loving and reeling at Total War: Warhammer II for most of this month - greatly enjoying the sense of having all of  Games Workshop in my grubby paws; but equally being disgruntled at  having to pay so much money for the cool bits. You’ve got to buy the  first game to play as Orcs, you’ve got to buy little leader packs to be  able to do all the diplomacy you want to - hell, it’s even an extra  £2.50 if you want to have blood and guts in the game! It’s infuriating!  But there’s something wonderfully aspirational about the whole thing; I  never had the cash to buy Warhammer stuff when I was a kid, instead  relying on second-hand stuff and painting other people’s minis for them  when they couldn’t be bothered. So to be able to romp around with the  hordes of Skaven I’d look at longingly through the shop window, or  batter some of the High Elves that I used to paint for other people -  it’s a nice little bit of wish fulfillment. Shame it’s still so  expensive though.

Quinns: I too am submerging myself in sprawling PC strategy games. For me, that’s taken the form of Age of Wonders: Planetfall. It’s as slick and silly as a summertime slip’n’slide, but it also fixes a problem that I’ve had with games like Civilization and Stellaris for  years- namely, that you spend the entire game either drastically  overpowered or underpowered compared to your neighbours, which makes me  feel lucky if I get one good war in twenty hours of play.

Conversely, the way Age of Wonders is designed means that  there’s always a tough fight for you to pick. Better yet, you never feel  forced into it by aggressive AI. It’s a game that knows that glittering  bells and whistles are where the fun is, but that this fun can feel a  little hollow without a strong opponent to test yourself against, and  leaves plenty of ‘em waiting in the wings for you, whenever you’re  ready.

Matt: I’ve become a parody of my former self, playing a ton of the Free To Play Shooty-Thing Warframe.  I decided a few years ago that I just didn’t have the TIME for such  pointless online frittery, but it turns out now I’ve got LOADS of time  and very little energy, making mindless games absolutely ideal.

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