Review of 1960: The Making of the President

Review of Warrior Knights

Review of Virgin Queen

After action report of Twilight Imperium 3rd Edition

Last year Quinns gave a 40 minute talk at UK video game festival GameCity, designed to teach people about what’s happening in board games and why gamers the world over MUST get involved. Hear Quinns’ caramel baritone as he provides evidence of why board game sales are rocketing up, three deadly arguments for why video gamers need to be playing board games, and even some jokes. Yes, JOKES.

Shut Up & Sit Down is two years old this July and that means we've had two years of incredible support from our viewers. To thank you all, here's something you've been asking us for all this time... our outtakes. But they're not just outtakes, they're also deleted scenes and alternate takes. And disasters. And everything that shows just how shonky this whole arrangement really is. They're uncensored, with liberal swears and quite a lot of putting faces in hands. This collection covers our first series, which ran back in 2011. That means we have even more outtakes to come. Oh no.

The tender boys of SU&SD review the 3rd edition of Tales of Arabian Nights, an incredible board game from Z-Man games.

Shut Up & Sit Down reviewers! ASSEMBLE! The dastardly Dr. Board Game has hatched a devious plot to part the board gamers of the world from their money. Only our boys can stop them.

After two years and 1.3 million plays, SU&SD is now accepting donations.

The family-friendly boys of SU&SD take a look at Augustus, Germany's hottest new family game.

The illicit boys of Shut Up & Sit Down review a board game they say feels like it came from a "black market." A game of dark artwork, a strange theme and... child labour?

Team SU&SD review Hisashi Hayashi's board game "Trains!" Which is 800% more interesting than it sounds!

Matt's back with what might be the world's best party game, and the world's best party food. Warning: Wholewheat tortillas will betray you.

The ever-so-delicate boys of Shut Up & Sit Down take a look at some of the creepier board games going.

Something has gone terribly wrong for the Shut Up & Sit Down team. Can Seasons, a game of great wizardy, set things right, or is there only worse to come?

Look what we found! The unaired SU&SD pilot from 1974! And reviewing such contemporary board games! Crazy. Features reviews of Legends of Andor, Darkest Night and Moonbase Alpha.

The smiling boys of SU&SD take a look at no less than THREE of the best dexterity games on the market right now. Probably you should almost definitely buy one.

Once again, purely for your amusement, we suffer yet more pain and indignity in deep space. This time, Pip, Matt, Brendan, Quinns and Paul are all playing Space Cadets!

It's Friday once again! This week, Paul takes us on a historical tangent and, in a video a little more serious than some of our others, investigates Freedom: The Underground Railroad. All by himself. Aww. It's a game about freeing slaves, about subverting and ultimately abolishing the slave trade, and it's a co-operative challenge that you can also try solo. It's also monstrously difficult. Too difficult?

Quinns takes a look at Cutthroat Caverns and drinks some bad tea in this, another thrilling episode of Shut Up & Sit Down.

In this year's hex fest we review three moreish hex-based titles, and in doing so unearth our Game of the Year.

After approximately ONE HUNDRED videos, reviews and podcasts, it’s time for us to say goodbye to 2013 the only way we know how. With EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENTS! Enclicken yonder video to learn how we’ve decided to grow next year, what your stretch goal episodes will be and to hear what will be in season 1’s Gold Club bags! Have a happy New Year, everybody.

The boys of SU&SD are crawling into their cardboard pods to hibernate for the rest of the year, but have a little bit of news before they do!

The bold boys of Shut Up & Sit Down take a look at an ABSTRACT game. That means they're going to hate it.

The delightfully soft boys of SU&SD review New Amsterdam, a board game about flaying fashionable furry things.

The boys of SU&SD review two games of shouting, each shoutier than the next.

The SU&SD staff thanks its donors and previews the Autumn Gold Box assembly.

Quinns takes a look at the unpronouncable evils of Eldritch Horror! And has a bit of an internal monologue.

Last year we posted a video of us playing co-op board game Space Cadets, and it was an amazing disaster. But what happens when team SU&SD pretend to go into space... for real?

The boggin' boys of SU&SD take a look at some farms, caves and babies. But wait! There's more!

Netrunner is the great game of our time. Here, Quinns walks Matt through his very first game.

What's better than lying to your friends? Lying to your friends, and consuming complex fats. For more board game coverage, do check out shutupandsitdown.com/

The star-slick boys of SU&SD take a look at Quantum, the latest hot strategy game. For more abstracted board game coverage, check out shutupandsitdown.com

The SU&SD staff give a dramatic reenactment of its non-videoed members, and ask you to subscribe to the Gold Club.

Oh no. Who decided it would be a good idea to have a Wiz War all up ins? This can't end well. For more wizzes and lots more wars, check out shutupandsitdown.com/

Quinns takes a look at the ice-cold Arctic Scavengers, an astonishing deck building game. For more pretend guns, check out shutupandsitdown.com/

The bold Quinns is keen to help you with the only boring bit of your board game night. Is he... still drunk? For more board game coverage, drink on down to shutupandsitdown.com

The mighty Matt wants to know if your friends could save the world! Or if they'll just get drunk on rubbing alcohol. For more rubbing alcohol, check out shutupandsitdown.com/

The intrepid space-reviewers of SU&SD do battle with Theseus! And have a lover's tiff. For more board game coverage, in space and out, visit shutupandsitdown.com

The mousey kids of SU&SD review Top Cat, and find the time for a mini-review of Mice and Mystics! For more Top Antics, check out shutupandsitdown.com/

The frontiersmen of Shut Up & Sit Down take a look at the much-hyped Lewis & Clark, and get some use out of that weird raccoon-skin hat of theirs. For more board game coverage, check out shutupandsitdown.com

REQUIRED VIEWING. SU&SD take part in their first ever Megagame. This has to be seen to be believed. For more insane game nonsense, check out shutupandsitdown.com/

The Opener becomes the NOpener in this landmark pun and also review. For more puns and also reviews, check out shutupandsitdown.com/

Quinns flips the lid of Warhammer Diskwars, a game of lids and flipping. For more gaming coverage, check out shutupandsitdown.com/ That's an ORDER, SOLDIER.

The industrious boys of SU&SD take on Blueprints! A game of building... well, mostly at random. For more krrrraazy randomness, check out shutupandsitdown.com/

HELLO! You all probably know how the Gold Club works by now. If you like SU&SD you can support us with a donation, and we can have fun mailing you a little packet of joy.

Have you been enjoying SU&SD? Would you like to support the work we do and get sent rad stuff? You can do so right here! shutupandsitdown.com/donate/

The SU&SD boys take a quick trip to Mars, to defend it from evil board game genius Reiner Knizia! In other words, it's just another Saturday night.

The airborne boys of SU&SD mostly make laser sound effects in this one. For more laser sound effects, head to shutupandsitdown.com/

The topsy-turvy boys of SU&SD take Gravwell out for a spin. Also beans. For more turvs, check out shutupandsitdown.com/

Battle Lore! Battle or...? Battle Lore! This week, Paul seems to have found exactly the sort of game that would appeal to his twelve-year-old self, a game of magic and monsters, of hexes and strategy. Battle Lore is Fantasy Flight's attempt at an easily-digestible miniatures wargame, the kind of thing where you slaughter an army in an afternoon and still have time for biscuits. But is that going to be your sort of thing? The game, we mean, not the biscuits. After all, Battle Lore may have a bigger, bolder relative whose company you might well prefer.

It's been a weird week. Heck, it's been a weird few years. So let's stop for a second and take a breath. Comments for this video can, as always, be found on shutupandsitdown.com/videos/

The wild boys of SU&SD pack their things and go to Vegas! This is their booze-soaked story. For more booze-soeaked stories, check out shutupandsitdown.com

Quinns wants to take your Sherlock into the bath with you. It sounds dangerous and irresponsible, frankly. For more invitations into baths, check out shutupandsitdown.com/

In August 2014 we traveled to the magical realm of Indianapolis, for the lake Geneva Gen Con Convention of games. Sporadically, between the games, beef dinners and amazing people we’d remember to turn our camera on. PRESENTING: The Very Professonal Gen Con Special! Watch us try our luck in a True Dungeon! Hear what Risk Legacy creator Rob Daviau has to say for himself in a hungover interview! See the hottest games sweat under our studio lighting! And make sure your nan’s not around for the Hot Cosplay segment. Enjoy, everybody.

Paul and Quinns buy a musty old lamp that may or may not be magical. Also there's a review at some point? For more reviews (maybe?) check out shutupandsitdown.com/

Paul and Quinns take a look at popular FPS Shooter Destiny. What a game! Great job, Bangie. For more selling out, check out shutupandsitdown.com

Rumours that we decide on our specials using a random word generator are STRICTLY UNTRUE. For more randomly-generated stuff, though, check out shutupandsitdown.com/

Matt takes a look at a cheerful simulation of airport customs. It's better than it sounds! Honest! For more things that are better than they sound, check out shutupandsitdown.com/

We review real-life 15 minute board game Zombie 15' in 15 real-life minutes! For more terrible ideas, check out shutupandsitdown.com/

Oh my goodness, you’re looking sharp! Yes you, the one reading this! I don’t suppose you came here looking to buy some kind of board game, did you? Well it just so happens we’ve got one for you. It’s called Chinatown, an absolute classic that just got reprinted. A classic, I tell you. A game all about the art of the deal set in 1960s New York. But you probably knew that already, didn’t you? A savvy shopper like you. You’ll take two? Fantastic, fantastic. You’ve made the right choice. Who’s next?

This week’s review must be one of the most colourful games we’ve tried this year. It certainly has more purple wizards than anything else we’ve ever played. The vibrant Lords of Xidit is a game of fantasy questing, of bard songs, of wizard towers and of programming your way in front of everyone else. Does that sound like a rather strange mix of ideas? Just wait until you see what Quinns and Paul come up with when they try to put their spin on things. This review is presented with profound apologies to David Bowie.

This week, Paul looks at the notorious Tammany Hall, a game all about the not-entirely-pleasant, not-completely-wholesome New York political machine that was cranking its way through the second half of the 19th Century. Is it a cynical game for cynical times? Perhaps, but the reprint was certainly a terrific Kickstarter success. The much more important question is… just how good is Tammany Hall? Here’s your answer!

At last, we give the video treatment to one of Shut Up & Sit Down’s favourite games, Love Letter! On this Opener, Matt explains why this petite, elegant and excellent game is both an essential and a great way to introduce new people to the hobby. It’s not just an excuse to dress up, not at all, and Matt actually has a very interesting story related to that. It is an excuse to show you how to make gingerbread pears, perfect for any holiday season.

We sent Paul off to Firaxicon and then to BGG Con, to conduct insightful interviews with games designers and to test the water in these foreign lands. He was fine. He’s fine. It’s okay. He came back with lots of info about the upcoming XCOM board game, Kanban: Automotive Revolution and Geek Chic’s fine tables. Admittedly we haven’t seen him since he uploaded this video. We’re also analysing this video frame-by-frame to figure out who that slender figure is we keep seeing in the background. But we’re positive that he’s fine, and also if you’ve seen his body then please let us know!

We sent Paul off to Firaxicon and then to BGG Con, to conduct insightful interviews with games designers and to test the water in these foreign lands. He was fine. He’s fine. It’s okay. He came back with lots of info about the upcoming XCOM board game, Kanban: Automotive Revolution and Geek Chic’s fine tables. Admittedly we haven’t seen him since he uploaded this video. We’re also analysing this video frame-by-frame to figure out who that slender figure is we keep seeing in the background. But we’re positive that he’s fine, and also if you’ve seen his body then please let us know!

It’s big, it’s as colourful as a bag of sweets and it wants YOU to become a space-faring superstar. Xia: Legends of a Drift System was one of the Kickstarter success stories of 2013, and a retail version is finally upon us, complete with pre-painted ships and metal space-coins. Quinns has buckled himself into the driver’s seat of this board-behemoth to deliver the official SU&SD verdict.

First off, be warned that there is an unexpected disco interlude starting at 06:46. Brendan spilled some raw beats on our editing PC and the resulting funk has gotten into the motherboard, but we’re uploading a fix (with slightly better overall audio) now. It should be up by midnight GMT. Second off, allow us to present the crown jewel in our Expansionanuary festivities! A ginormous Let’s Play of us finishing a full-size game of Cosmic Encounter, proving once and for all in a controlled, scientific environment just how much fun this game can be. Enjoy, everybody!

This week, Matt and Quinns peek into the paperwork of Last Will, a game that challenges you to declare bankruptcy faster than your friends. A game of champagne, boat cruises, fabulous mansions, horses and you in the middle, trying to get rid of all of it. But wait! There’s more! We’ve also played the expansion Last Will: Getting Sacked, which sees you having to do away with that beastly job of yours that insists on paying you every turn. A fabulously expensive marriage might be just the thing.

It’s here! XCOM: The Board Game is now in shops the world over, with its computerised component, its little plastic snipers and its starched lil’ navy blue box. Oooh. You want it. OR DO YOU? Let Quinns and Paul cut a path for you through the jungle of hype around this game, all the way to the UFO crash site of truth. “Welcome to Earth,” indeed.

With spring’s sunshine is still weeks away, Paul decides to review the classic card game San Juan, packing sugar and indigo off to make money. Sent abroad to set up SU&SD’s (North) American office, with a rather unclear remit he also laments the limited nature of board game printings and distribution.

Following on from XCOM, it’s time for our second big review of the year. Doomtown: Reloaded is a portable game with some big ideas. It’s a generous box with a golden future. It is, in fact, the first real competitor to the awesome Android: Netrunner. Is this town big enough for the both of ’em? You can read Quinns’ extended impressions on Doomtown’s combat system here, and get your own fancy Netrunner tokens right here.

First, there was nothing. For our evenings were without form, and void. Then there was Cyclades, which let us fill them with a really lovely, accessible war game. Then came the expansion of Cyclades: Hades, and there was a great sadness because we thought it was rubbish, and said as much. And then there was a great rejoicing, as Cyclades: Titans graced the shelves of our shops, and brought joy to our hearts. Finally came this Cyclades: Titans review, so the people could sit, and listen, and see if it was shit or not. So it is written, and so it shall forever be.

Remember when we told you that Skull was the game that’ll make you and your friends shout the loudest? Monikers (Amazon link here) might be the funniest game we’ve ever reviewed. Weirder still, it might be more than 100 years old. We’ve always suspected that old things were the best, but now we know. Time to cancel those forthcoming reviews of Armada and Dragon’s Gold. Next week, we’ll be reviewing whist, football and tuberculosis.

Last year, we were invited by the UK Society of Megagame Makers to save the world from aliens in a colossal 60 person game titled “Watch the Skies”. You can see our floundering, corruption and “charm offensives” as the nation of Japan in this video. This year the Society invited us back for the sequel. With over three hundred players, this would be the most mega megagame ever staged. A game so big that the Pope was not only a player, he had his own team. Could we save the world from aliens for a second time? Get yourself a hot drink, a comfy chair and find out. Enjoy, everybody! And when you’re done, go and watch part 2 right here.

OH MY GOD, it’s the thrilling conclusion to our Let’s Play of the largest game anyone’s ever played, ever. Confused? Find part one here, and find our video of the original Watch the Skies here. Palpitations of excitement? Find sedatives here. And find the actual URL of the music we used here, as we misspelled it in the edit. If these videos look like they were a whole load of work from a whole lot of people, they were. And we did it for you, personally. Enjoy. NOTE: If you’re worried about spoilers, probably don’t read the comments first.

So it turns out that Paul has actually always had something of a fascination for big ships. It also turns out that Panamax mixes big ships with big business and (very) big bucks. After all these years, could this be the way that Paul finally makes his millions? Of course not. It’s a board game. Still, it could be good, right? Let’s see what Shut Up & Sit Down’s North American Correspondent thinks in a video made in the style of some of our very first reviews.

Imperial Settlers is a civilization-building game with the best art we’ve ever seen in almost five years of running Shut Up & Sit Down. Nations, on the other hand, looks like a Soviet spreadsheet. Don’t make your purchase just yet, though. Let Quinns take you by the hand and lead you through one or two shocking twists, down to a stream of cleansing consumer wisdom. You need to know the truth about both of these boxes.

We’ve got a HUGE game for you this week! Witness might look like a pre-schooler up-ended their homework over your table, but it’s actually an inventive, sexy game of solving mysteries from the publishers of Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective. But while Sherlock is a game of wild theories and sweet sherries, Witness is no less than a game of swearing, sweating and whispering. Come take a look. You won’t regret it.

Does anyone remember our written review of the fabulous Star Wars: Armada? No? Of course not. You lot are visual creatures. You need to watch us nudging these tiny Star Destroyers and tinier X-Wings around the table before you’ll believe a word of it. Today, we proudly present a full, 300 point game of Armada between Quinns and his friend Lovely Tim, bolstered with the first wave of expansions, including such vessels as the Star Potato and the Long Fellow(?). Special Thanks to Youtube channel Mini War Gaming, whose handicam style we totally nicked.

Who doesn’t enjoy a little bit of empire-building now and then? Paul certainly does, which is why he was excited to look at Deus this week, something he did entirely of his own choosing and under no sort of godly compulsion. With a modular board, lots of little wooden pieces to arrange and a huge deck of cards representing everything from legions to laboratories, could this be a new favourite game of centurions and conquest? (Our huge apologies for this missing Friday after a mind-bursting five attempts, it uploaded! Have a lovely weekend!)

Oh snap! Welcome to the Dungeon is the best Japanese game since Love Letter, the best bluffing game since Skull, Iello’s new edition is gorgeous and it’s on shop shelves right now! Nobody’s saying you have to buy this. We wouldn’t dream of it. Just don’t come tweetin’ to us when it’s sold out in a month’s time.

What’s this, sneaking into Friday’s schedule? Why, it’s a review of Plaid Hat’s hotly anticipated Specter Ops, a hidden movement game from one of the industry’s most renowned publishers. Paul takes a long, hard look at the game and… well, has anyone taken a long hard look for Paul recently? Actually, it’s probably best not to. He appears to have both gone missing and gone a little… mournfully malfunctional. This is the first time that’s happened since last time. Do let us know if you spot him, or even any part of him. Probably don’t approach him, mind. Best not dwell on that. Have a lovely weekend!

The English language version of Spyfall is finally available! …And stock has immediately drained out shops the world over like a vodka martini through a sieve. Don’t worry, friends! Operating in a dangerous web of international intrigue, and with a little help from Starlit Citadel, Team SU&SD has secured a review copy. At last, we’re here to tell you if this party game live up to the hype.

Buckle up, boardkids! It’s time for Team SU&SD to tackle the Official 38th Best Board Game of All Time: Trajan. A game of thrashing as many victory points as you can out of Ancient Rome. Don’t believe what you’ve heard. Shut Up & Sit Down can still handle heavy eurogames. …or can they?

After failing to steal a miniature AT-ST in last year’s Gen Con special, Matt, Paul and Quinns have come together to deliver the definitive, official verdict on Star Wars: Imperial Assault. Is it better than its predecessor, Descent 2nd Edition? Why is Paul grunting at the camera? And why does Quinns look so sad? You’ll have your answers to all this, AND MORE. WARNING: We’re currently having our copyright for this video reviewed! This is not a joke. If the link goes down, we’ll repair it ASAP. Parody is fair use!

SU&SD is host to a grand old game today! Fief is a negotiation-heavy wargame that’s been around since 1981, and a fancy new edition titled Fief: France 1429 has just arrived. What will the boys make of it? This review features a special segment on WHEN BOARD GAMES GO BAD. It’s a tear-jerker.

While the rest of team SU&SD is away at GenCon, engaging in all sorts of cardboard debauchery, Paul takes the opportunity to sneakily make a video about an old classic and personal favourite, explaining why he thinks Carcassonne deserves the video treatment. He also cooks himself. We have nothing but apologies to offer for this video being a little late. That cooking (a pretty serious one), combined with some audio gremlins, was a bit of a setback. Don’t worry, Paul is now regularly lathering himself in various balms.

Last year team SU&SD hustled 300 people into a dingy Gen Con annex to record a live podcast. It was incredible. So this year we did it again! After a shaky start where Matt, Quinns and Pip realise their audience is only there to hear about their hotel, the board game chat begins in earnest. We discuss the croquet mallets of T.I.M.E. Stories, the wandering chicken nuggets of Evolution and waste disposal in The Bloody Inn. Then it’s time for QUESTION STACK ‘N FALL! Which is different from Question Jenga by about £8.

(This video is also available as a podcast.) Last year team SU&SD hustled 300 people into a dingy Gen Con annex to record a live podcast. It was incredible. So this year we did it again! After a shaky start where Matt, Quinns and Pip realise their audience is only there to hear about their hotel, the board game chat begins in earnest. We discuss the croquet mallets of T.I.M.E. Stories, the wandering chicken nuggets of Evolution and waste disposal in The Bloody Inn. Then it’s time for QUESTION STACK ‘N FALL! Which is different from Question Jenga by about £8.

What do board games, miniatures games, dexterity games, dinosaurs, dancing, Spider-Man, hot cosplay, leather kilts, hugs, remorse, death-defying climbs, arguments, soapy baths, vampires, fragile cities, farkles, conferences, boffing, children and blindfolds all have in common? Why, they’re all featured in our GEN CON SPECIAL EPISODE, of course!

What do board games, miniatures games, dexterity games, dinosaurs, dancing, Spider-Man, hot cosplay, leather kilts, hugs, remorse, death-defying climbs, arguments, soapy baths, vampires, fragile cities, farkles, conferences, boffing, children and blindfolds all have in common? Why, they’re all featured in our GEN CON SPECIAL EPISODE, of course! Exposure to this special may create a burning desire for more Gen Con Specials. If this occurs, go and watch last year’s Gen Con Special again.

Following our review of the beautiful Samurai on Wednesday, Quinns is reviewing classic game Shogun! Which means it’s retroactively Japan week and you should all act accordingly. It’s worth watching this review just for the fabulous [REDACTED]. How does it work? Where did it come from? We just don’t know! Ha! Please stop asking such silly questions.

Oh no. Just as our Let’s Play of Resistance: Avalon forever branded Matt as a sneaky bastard, so this Let’s Play of Two Rooms and a Boom is going to designate Quinns as a ruthless brute. If we keep this up no member of SU&SD will be respectable. If you’re not sure how to play Two Rooms and a Boom, definitely go check out the publisher’s fantastic, tiny teaching video right here. Or just jump straight in like some kind of mad video-ferret! It’s up to you. Huge thanks to Two Rooms designer Alan Gerding for running this game for us, to Two Rooms designer Sean McCoy for helping to film, and to all you lovely SU&SD party attendees for playing!

Recently we tweeted asking which “problem players” you struggle with on a game night, and we’ve never seen a response like it. Our grumpometer actually shattered and we had to send Matt out for a new one. Clearly you guys could do with a helping hand, so to go along with our Tips for Rules Explanations and An Intro to Board Gaming For Your Friends, we now have this! With a little help from us you’ll be cool as a cucumber.

This week, Paul takes a trip to the clinic, as a result of looking at another new title from Plaid Hat Games. To everyone’s surprise, he finds himself deckbuilding with Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn. Deckbuilding! Whatever will happen next? Seriously, what will happen next? Paul’s been unable to get hold of Quinns since setting up the North American office and now he’s acting a little out of character.

Team Covenant catches up with Quinns and Paul and discusses the challenges facing the tabletop gaming community.

“The Resistance” are sacred words around these parts, as in “Werewolf”. These games of lying and double-dealing have defined Shut Up & Sit Down. The thought of a brand new new hidden role game entering the genre is almost unthinkable! Until today. Mafia de Cuba doesn’t just look good. It feels good. It sounds good. It smells tolerable. Of course we had to check it out.

Long and spicy like a hot dog, the 43rd EVER SU&SD podcast is HERE! Quickly, consume the whole thing before it starts disintegrating and leaking board game mustard into your lap. In this cast Matt, Paul, Pip and Quinns met up with 300 fans in a sweaty room at the UK Games Expo to discuss what they’d been playing. That meant The Ravens of Thri Sahashri, Ice Cool, Treasure Hunter, the Horses & Stagecoach expansion for Colt Express, Codenames: Pictures, Czech Games’ new game Adrenaline and more besides! Finally, we end with an electrifying game of Question Wood Toy Folds High. Can Matt fix his losing streak?

Hot diggity and a lack of dignity! It’s the second podcast we recorded live at the 2016 UK Games Expo. This time we offer definitive feels on Spiel des Jahres-nominted games Karuba and Imhotep, as well as chatting about Beyond Baker Street, Yeti, Coup: Rebellion G54 and a game jam winner called Lantern. We also ask an important question: Have you started building your mausoleum?

Matt gets Quinns a present, and wow, Quinns also gets Matt a Christmas present. Nice. Also, they ask viewers to donate to SU&SD. It's Christmas.

Matt & Quinns introduce a a Kickstarter for The Shut Up & Sit Down Nonsense Box! PUT IT IN YOUR POCKET.

Hi everybody! Remember Quinns’ old talk on the current “golden age of board games”? Here’s a new performance of it! It’s a lot like the old talk, but snappier, more informed and down from a whopping 45 minutes to just 15 minutes. Perfect for sharing with your friends or perennially-bemused relatives. This talk was just one of several snappy and informative talks given during a contemporary board game study day at London’s prestigious Museum of Childhood.

Continuing our collection of talks filmed during the V&A’s Board Game Study Day, here’s 15 minutes from journalist and historian Holly Nielsen on the hilarious, horrifying history of British board games.

The third talk from our V&A collection is a sneak preview of a new talk that Quinns is working on. OooOOOooh! A Feast of Friends is Quintin’s overlong, years-late answer to the question everyone asked when he left the video games press for board games, which was “Isn’t that a step down?” No, no it isn’t. Board games are beautiful, important and have a glittering future, and this is why.

Quinns, Matt & Top Scientist Paul introduce the first ever Shut Up & Sit Down board game convention in Vancouver, or SHUX for short.

Quinns gives a more sincere, straightforward request for viewers to join the SU&SD Gold Club.

Here at Shut Up & Sit Down we’ve been huge fans of Twilight Imperium since we reviewed the 3rd edition all those years ago. It’s the grandest, silliest game that we know; an epic brawl featuring everything from capitalist cats to a race of sentient vegetables. So back in 2014 we got to talking with owner of Fantasy Flight and original designer of TI Christian Peterson, one thing led to another, and we agreed to document the process of making TI 4th edition.

Six years ago SU&SD published a review of the grand, weird game of Twilight Imperium 3rd edition. Today, we present a first for the board game industry. Please enjoy our amateur attempt at a documentary on the history of the game – which is really the history of Fantasy Flight Games – and the development of the new, shiny, 4th edition. Huge thanks to our donors, without whom this project (which we started work on back in 2015!) would never, ever have been possible. As you buckle your seatbelt for this ride through time and outer space, please bear in mind that the doc doesn’t cover the nitty-gritty of game mechanics that have changed from 3rd to 4th edition. We’ll be covering that in our forthcoming review of Twilight Imperium 4th ed, which Quinns will be creating since he had almost no involvement in the doc. Instead, we tried to make the documentary of broader interest, so please consider sharing it with board game-curious friends. Or just tell your mum it’s Netflix? That might work.

Quinns, Matt & Paul in snappy suits ask you for a raise for Christmas and show you the process of putting together a review video.

Matt shares a fancy blooper reel of SU&SD outtakes and deleted scenes for 2017 Winter Pledge Drive donors.

Paul, Matt, Quinns, and Cynthia devote a Q&A panel at SHUX 2017.

Paul, Matt, and Quinns introduce a new year of SHUX.

Recently I was invited by SU&SD fan Annie Langley to give a presentation to her school kids aged 10-11 about being a YouTuber, since it’s the job that most kids dream about. With a lot of help from my wife (who I can’t thank enough for telling me to remove all the bar charts from my talk), I put together this 20 minute rundown of what my work is actually like. I know that a lot of SU&SD fans are parents, so I thought I’d chuck the talk online in case it’s of interest. Honestly, I worry that very few YouTubers or Streamers talk about the technical or psychological stresses of this job, and I feel like the world would be a healthier place if there was a bit more of a conversation around it.

Paul, Quinns & Matt sit down for five minutes to ask you to donate.

SU&SD introduce SHUX 2018's guests and special events.

Hi everybody! It’s that time again. If you’ve enjoyed the work we’ve done this year, or if we’ve just helped to point you towards some great games, please consider donating to Shut Up & Sit Down.

In an extended Christmas stream, Matt and Quinns play Keyforge, play Through the Desert, complete a puzzle, and eat food from a cardboard box.

Are you interested in coming to the third Shut Up & Sit Down convention this October? Because tickets are now on sale on the official event page! If you’re one of our amazing attendees from previous years, you’ll know what to expect- a world-class buffet of published and experimental games, plenty of goofy stage shows, and all sorts of opportunities to make new friends. It’s a huge privilege for us to be able to throw this party for the best community in board gaming. If you want to see what all the SHUX is about, we’d love to see you there!

For those unaware, Monikers is the slick, boxed implementation of the folk party game more commonly known as fishbowl, celebrity, or the hat game. We reviewed it back in 2015, and eagle-brained readers will recall that in 2017 we created a small-box expansion titled "The Nonsense Box" (and since then, we've been careful not to mention Monikers in our editorial without caveating our involvement with the designers). Back then, we had a lot of fun being deeply silly with our first foray into party game design, but this time we’ve really stepped up our game: taking onboard critical feedback, thinking carefully about the flow of the game, and squeezing in a higher density of solid jokes without getting in the way of what makes Monikers great. If you’ll allow us a moment of heart on sleeve-ism, we honestly didn’t anticipate that so many people would have such a good time with the original Nonsense Box. Feedback we’ve had over the past two years both humbled us, and stuck a rocket to our bottom when designing the new box - it felt vital to us to reflect that love back, and ensure that this triple-sized Kickstarter sequel was the absolute *best* that it could possibly be. We love it, and we hope you do too.

Twice a year, our team here at Shut Up & Sit Down requests donations for all of the heartfelt stuff that we’ve made over the last six months. We don’t like to bother our audience about it, but the fact is, Shut Up & Sit Down runs almost entirely on donations. It sounds improbable, but it does work. If you’ve not gotten involved yet, and you can afford it, perhaps this could be the Summer that you make a pledge? If you’ve supported us at some point over the last eight years(!), I can’t tell you what a difference it’s made to us. This is the best job that any of us have ever made, and we hope that we’ve shown our dedication to paying it forward.

The 2019 SU&SD Convention is just around the corner, but did you know that last year, fabulous board game review show No Pun Included came to SHUX and filmed a whole lot of it? Today, we’re thrilled to present their behind the scenes look at our con. That also means that this is a No Pun Included video that we’re hosting on our channel. I know! We’re crossing the streams! Will anything be the same again?! It probably will, yes.

Because the big show is just six weeks away, and our team is up to our elbows in SHUX prep, stuffing it full of games, shows and special features. Matt’s packed our very best announcements into this 2 minute video. My anticipation for SHUX ’19 is reaching boiling point. How much more excited can a man get? I intend to find out.

Those of you with functional memories may recall that at the very first SHUX in 2017, myself and Alan Gerding sat down in cosy room and had a chat about psychology. It was pegged as a talk about the psychology of games, but being both exhausted and faintly ill-prepared, we decided instead to enjoy a rambling introduction to some of the magic behind this unfairly-maligned strain of science. And the people in the room at the time loved it! The people online afterwards? Not so much. A chunk of those who watched it were understandably annoyed that we didn’t tackle the topic as intended, and were more than woolly with our citations. And wow! Look what you made us do. This year myself and Alan returned with an actual powerpoint presentation on the fascinating topic of manipulation, with a lens particularly focused on how you might use this information during games with elements of persuasion. It’s meaty, it’s interesting, it’s surprisingly fun.

And with that donation video, Shut Up & Sit Down is closing its doors for the winter break. We’d like to offer a gigantic, Christmassy “Thank you!” to everyone who watched, supported and shared our content in 2019. But since we can’t do that, we’re going to settle down with our families to eat 9999 brussel sprouts.

Are you interested in coming to the fourth Shut Up & Sit Down convention this October? Because tickets are now on sale on the official event page! If you’re one of our amazing attendees from previous years, you’ll know what to expect- a world-class buffet of published and experimental games, plenty of goofy stage shows, and all sorts of opportunities to make new friends.

Hello all! It probably goes without saying, but we just wanted to let you know that the work we do might be a little disrupted or different in the coming months. Thanks for your patience, and we hope you enjoy!

For this week’s Wednesday video, we wanted to offer something a little different. At SHUX last year Quinns gave a talk on the history of board games. A quick’n’dirty tour of the games of ancient prehistory, all the way through to the invention of cardboard in the 19th century. We present it today as a reminder that while today’s tabletop scene is overwhelming white, this is a blip in the 8000 year history of the hobby. The earliest known board games are found in Africa. Dice were invented in the Middle East. The first games that tell stories are found in Egypt. Playing cards were conceived in China. Chess came from India, by way of an Islamic Caliphate. This hobby owes a debt to people of colour that it could never possibly repay. At the very least, we can make sure we don’t forget it.

This might come as a surprise due to the time-warping effects of Covid-19, but it’s that time of year again! Today, we’d like to give you a quick behind-the-scenes message from Shut Up & Sit Down. If you’re new to this community, you might not yet know that Shut Up & Sit Down is kept alive by donations from people who love what we do. So if you think you can afford it, please consider giving us a dollar or two this summer. That’s all! We promise to only bother you about this in another six months. Have a great weekend, everybody.

This week we’ve got an exciting announcement! It’s Worm Month! We’ll see you all on October 16th to the 18th for AwSHUX. Be good!

It’s that time of year again, folks! This year has obviously been a shocker for so many, but we’re continually thankful and incredibly privileged to be given the support to do what we do. Here’s a bit of silly fluff with a sprinkling of details about what we’ve got planned for 2021. If you can comfortably afford to support our team we really, really appreciate it!

Today, we’re pleased to be announcing AwSHUX Spring: a digital event that squeezes a few aspects of a physical convention into a special DIGITAL world that’s 100% free for attendees! https://awshux.show will go live on Friday April 23 at 8am PDT | 4pm GMT | 11am EDT.

More details over on the SHUX page!

This summer the site turned TEN YEARS OLD! If it was a child it would have no legal rights to speak of, but it would be, erm, tall? It might be tall. Today we’re launching our ten year anniversary donation drive and teasing a brand-new feature that we’re hoping to launch. What do you say, everybody? How does another ten years sound?

The Kickstarter for our MonsDRAWsity expansion is LIVE, featuring monsters directly from the minds of our team of highly-trained idiots. Take a look!

As the team grows and we grow alongside them, we couldn’t be more excited about 2022 – but rather than a video explaining what we’ve got planned for the year ahead, we wanted to offer up a tiny confession: we still haven’t made good on our promise from the summer! We’ve yet to nail down the specific plans and details, but we’re hoping to spend a good chunk of time this Friday streaming with some of the team on Twitch – if you fancy joining for some low-key festive silliness, we’ll see you then!???? If you can comfortably afford to support our team we massively appreciate it – it makes a huge difference. When the skeleton fruits finally fall from the tree? Be warmed by the knowledge that you helped to grow it.

Join us for SHUX’22! https://shux.show September 30 – October 2, 2022

Gosh, what a normal week we’re having! Another normal week in this wholly normal year. And what could be more normal than our bi-annual reminder that we are actually just humans with gas and electric bills! We do hope you enjoy this silly bit of video, regardless of whether or not you’re currently cushioned enough to allow you to chuck us a couple of quid. We love doing this, we love making you smile each week, and we hope that we can continue to do both for the foreseeable future. Thank you for watching, from the whole team!

Tom: “SHUX! HUH?! What does it stand for?!” We don’t really know. But we do know that it’s Canada’s biggest (and best!) board game convention. It’s happening in less than a month, and you should absolutely come along! As Matt (who is in your garden, right now) attests in the video above, SHUX is our annual board game get-together in the beautiful city of Vancouver. This year we’ve got GAMES, GUESTS, AND RIGOROUS COVID PRECAUTIONS! That last one is less exciting, but it’s certainly important – for your whole bod! We take pride in SHUX being a safe space – and not just in a covid-cautious sense – we truly do want everyone to feel as welcome as possible to sit themselves down at any table they like, and start playing some molten hot board games. We’ve got a great set of special guests running all kinds of shows, a fabulously stocked library of games, and the whole team running around trying to say hello to literally everyone. I can’t wait. Tickets are available right here, as well as ev

Tom: Happy Holidays, Humans! It’s that time of year again, where we thank you for your donations, let you know where the site is at, and rally a little more support to keep us going in the new year. This is the first time I’ve done one of these, and I wanted to speak earnestly about what I want the site to be, and what the site has been for me. I feel so much about this odd cardboard endeavor, and want to keep it in good shape in the years to come. I know we’ve had a slippery year, but I’m convinced that we can find new ways to get people into the hobby in 2023, and I’m excited. Not just for that, but to also push new features and videos that’ll complete our transition out of the ‘cursed years’ so we’re back on fighting form. It’ll be quite something, I’m sure. We need your support. And if you already support the channel – thank you so, so much. I have this job because of you, and it’s vitally important to me that I make a bountiful return on that investment of not just finances, but

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK3ROyjJdUQ

We went to VEGAS! Check out this little video, where myself and Matt report LIVE FROM THE SCENE at The World Series of Boardgames 2023 - a convention that was not at all what we expected!

We've got another trial-run at a new format here - that Matt has tentatively titled 'BINNY DIPPING'! This is the first appearance of Pip on the show in quite a while, and she's showing us all the bad games that she found on eBay. This is a very rough early cut of what we think could be a sharper, pointier slice of video that'll have some more meat on the bone. We're sort of styling out this particular format in real time, but we're excited to make more if you folks want to see where it goes! Thanks for watching!

Welcome to our first ever Shut Up & Sit Down Donor Podcast! We weren't sure where exactly to go with this - discussion of the latest and greatest boardgames on a separate show might infringe on the remit of the regular podcast, and cause some folks to feel like they're missing out. So, instead, we've opted for doing a selection of podcast mini-series(es) where we tackle one broader topic in smaller slices. This first mini-series will be on CONVENTIONS - 'Bonus Baggage!'... Well, maybe there's a better name - swing me an email and I'll make it happen. This first episode has myself and Matt chatting about Essen Spiel - but also about kebabs (a lot). Expect these episodes to be a bit looser, a bit chattier, a bit less focused than normal - we're feeling out exactly what we want all this stuff to be!

From the bottom of all of our hearts, thank you.

It's a good game!

Connections Tom and Emily

NOT an AllPlay Small Box Tier List Video

Thank you SO MUCH for your support!!! Enjoy Tom's heist from Quinns.

Tom takes us through his early impressions of Leder Games' upcoming "Arcs".

LP Barenpark

We’ve been really really busy over these last few months – in some cases you’ll be able to see why (ARCSSSSSS) – and in some cases you’ll see why in The Near Future! Loads of exciting stuff we’ve been working on is planned for the coming months, but in the meantime we’ve allowed Tom to run off into the wilds for a little rest. To everyone who supports all that we do: THANK YOU. Even though obviously nobody should be supporting that painting.

SURPRISE! We helped make a board game! Wilmot’s Warehouse is a fabulous co-operative memory game from CMYK (Monikers, Wavelength, Daybreak), David King, and Hollow Ponds (Wilmot’s Warehouse, I Am Dead, Flock) with a whole bunch of additional flavour and love by us! DISCLOSURE: This is not a review. Shut Up & Sit Down contributed to the creation of this board game and benefit from every sale of the game. If you or your friend is a purchaser, thank you so much for your support! In Wilmot’s Warehouse, your team will work cooperatively to organize the warehouse, using memory, imagination, and silly stories you make up. DRAW product tiles off the stack, DISCUSS what they look like, and PLACE them somewhere youʼll remember! After you place each tile, you flip it over and canʼt look at it again until the end of the game. So your team has to remember where youʼve placed previous tiles as you decide where to place new ones. At the end of the game, in a 5-minute rush, your team will have to

Tom's here with some leftover bits and bobs that didn't quite make it into the two massive Arcs videos. Oh boy.

DISCLOSURE: Shut Up & Sit Down contributed to the creation of this board game and benefit from every sale of the game. If you or a friend is a purchaser, thank you so much for your support! 0:00 Welcome to the Warehouse! 0:35 Setting up the Warehouse 1:36 Filling up the Warehouse 2:22 Tile Placement Rules 2:55 Make Stories! 3:41 A Day at the Warehouse 4:14 Starting the Next Day 4:56 End of Game Customer Rush 6:15 Final Scoring 6:53 Adjusting Difficulty In Wilmot’s Warehouse, your team will work cooperatively to organize the warehouse, using memory, imagination, and silly stories you make up. DRAW product tiles off the stack, DISCUSS what they look like, and PLACE them somewhere youʼll remember! After you place each tile, you flip it over and canʼt look at it again until the end of the game. So your team has to remember where youʼve placed previous tiles as you decide where to place new ones. At the end of the game, in a 5-minute rush, your team will have to match all 35 face down

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Tom and Matt play

Matt and Tom

Tom, Kylie, and Rob

A simple and silly one for you folks this time! As part of our team’s work on Wilmot’s Warehouse, we handled all of the VIDEO BITS, on account of that being a thing that we can DO. We originally just filmed this playthrough as a means of having snippets we could then use to illustrate the game being played, but the session was so fun that Matt decided to jazz it up and post the whole thing as a playthrough. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Matt: Hello! And welcome to the Shut Up and Sit Down 2024 gift guide video. If you’re looking for something delightful to get for someone that you deeply love. Tom: Or maybe you’re in trouble with the law and need to appeal to the specialist interests of the judge to get yourself out of hot legal water. Matt: Or maybe you have a co-worker who’s a huge nerd. And if you get her just the right gift, maybe she’ll stop photoshopping you into all of those pictures. Because I know it’s you, Sandra. I can’t prove it, but I do know. Please, Sandra, I used to have a family. Tom: Or maybe it’s just that time of year where you like to pretend that you’re buying gifts for someone else. But really, you’re just clicking on this video to find something that actually you might quite want. Matt: And that’s fine! Tom: We realise that it’s really annoying when we recommend things that people can’t actually buy. So if you want some evergreen recommendations, then you can check out a previous gift guid

Following on from last week’s gift guide – a video designed for small gifts and simpler games – this week it’s time to get CHUNKY! Matt and Tom combine forces to take you on a whirlwind tour of the very best games that they’ve played this year. Enjoy! This is also available as a PODCAST – so just choose your poison and dive in!

Thank you so much, everyone, for your continuing support over the years! We deeply appreciate being allowed to do this silly little job, and it’s everyone’s generosity and enthusiasm that keeps the lights on. 2024 has been a crazy year for us, with a whole bunch of change both behind the camera and in front of it! The stability afforded by our wonderful donors has made that weird year feel far more normal than it might otherwise. Thanks everyone! See ya soon!

We covered lots of games! Some of them, we did not.