Why Boardgames?

Since starting this channel one of the things that happens to us a lot is this confused reaction of "Boardgames? What do you mean?" when we tell someone what our channel is about.

It is difficult to go into all the reasons why boardgames are so awesome, but people are genuinely interested to know why. So this summer Sweethearts or Rivals is going to put together a video to introduce people who are not into boardgames, to the reasons why we boardgamers love and play them. What better place to get some research done than at the BGG! 

So, what are we asking / looking for?

1. Why do you love playing boardgames?

2. What was the boardgame and/or boardgame moment that hooked you into being a boardgame addict?

3. Why should non-boardgamer's give today's boardgames a try and what boardgame would you suggest they try first?

We will read, respond, discuss your answers and suggestions, all to make the "Why Boardgames" video the best possible introduction to boardgames for non-boardgamers!

Weigh in at the BGG:

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/1198526/why-boardgames

New SHoR Series: Woes of Providence

Warhammer FRP: Woes of Providence

Sweethearts or Rivals is proud to announce our new series: Woes of Providence.  This will be an ongoing RPG campaign set in the Old World of the Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play game, but using a blend of the WHFR Race/Class/Career system and the Providence system of Apocrypha Studios.

Justin - GM

Charla - Nightshade: Elven Rogue [ Thief of Loec ]

Krystle - Beatrix Lubrecht: Human Ranger [ Gamekeeper ]

Colin - Garen Ashhammer: Dwarven Warrior [ Mercenary ]

Kolten - Halbjorn Algirsohn: Human warrior [ Outlaw ]

Julian - Bridgett Radische: Halfling Rogue [ Agitator ]

The Gods begin another game, playing all their pawns against each other, with the fate of the Old World set as the ultimate prize.  The characters have back-stories that will be revealed within the campaign as they uncover why they have been chosen by the Gods.

The series will be broadcast live on our Twitch Channel: twitch.tv/sweetheartsorrivals

and videos will be posted to our YouTube Channel: youtube.com/sweetheartsorrivals

Title art by Nooblar

The Providence System can be downloaded for free in the Seven Crows RPG

based on the Seven Crows novel by Justin Killam.

What Are We Backing? Tuscany!

With just over a day left of the Kickstarter (at the time of this post), Stonemaier Games' Tuscany Expansion Pack for Viticulture is knocking down stretch goals and providing an amazing value for an amazing game!

Tuscany: Expand the World of Viticulture

Why is this especially exciting for us?  Not only is Viticulture a great game, not only does the Tuscany expansion (over 12 in the Tuscany Expansion Pack) add so much variety and replay-ability to an already great game, and not only is this an excellent opportunity to grab both the base game and its expansion for a very good deal, but Justin had a hand in designing it!

The expanded board above has a Map of Tuscany in it's lower left corner.  This is the influence map, one of the expansions included in Tuscany.  Justin submitted the winning design last summer that led to this expansion.

Jamey Stegmaier posted an update to the kickstarter that included some insight into this:

The Expansion Contest

Back in July, we announced that we were going to host a design contest for a Viticulture expansion. We gave people some parameters to follow about about 3 months to fully develop and playtest an expansion, and then we judged the results.

Part of the winning entry made it into the final game in the form of the influence map. Justin Killam had a really creative, elegant idea that catered to something we were looking for in Tuscany: A different type of player interaction that would help players both early and late in the game.

Justin did some research about Tuscany and discovered that each region of Tuscany is known for different things, and he applied that to bonuses you get when you place an influence token on that region. In his version, these regions scored and were wiped clean every year, but in the final version, you score extra points if you have the most influence tokens of any player in a region at the end of the game.

I took a photo of Justin's original submission next to the final influence map so you can see how his design impacted Tuscany.

This has inspired us to consider working on some board game designs of our own.  Stay tuned to Sweethearts or Rivals for some playtesting opportunities!  And if you are looking for an amzing game to back on Kickstarter, look no further: go back Tuscany NOW!  ;)

SHoR: International Tabletop Day

Sweethearts or Rivals

Designer Board Game Reviews, Live Stream, & Play-Thrus

We are hosting a game day on International Tabletop Day, in our new gameroom.  We will be broadcasting live via our twitch channel, and will have a few cameras rolling to capture all the gaming awesomeness!  Join us if your in the area, watch us LIVE on Twitch [twitch.tv/sweetheartsorrivals], or watch the encore videos on our YouTube channel [youtube.com/user/SweetheartsOrRivals]

Break n Move

As you have noticed, our content production has slowed down and come to a halt. This is temporary. We have loved working on Sweethearts or Rivals and have had some amazing feedback. We are in the midst of buying our first house and moving. We will be setting up our new gaming room and broadcasting rig, and then getting right back into production.

We have been listening to our viewers and have a couple ideas to try out in the new gaming room. While your waiting for us to get back online, feel free to check out our current gaming collection and post a comment if you would like us to review / live play-thru a specific game.

Sweethearts or Rivals Game Collection

Thanks for watching, we will be back soon!

- Charla & Justin

SHoR: First Milestone

Over 1000 Views!

Two weeks ago we launched Sweethearts or Rivals: boardgame reviews and live play-thrus.  We started with a couple of videos, a YouTube channel, a Twitch channel, Blog, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Vine, and Instagram pages, no fans, and a lot of hope to have some fun!

A minor milestone to be sure, but still a milestone!  Over a 1000 views on our YouTube channel along with 23 subscribers and 15 videos, followers on Twitch, a super-fun live Valentine's Day special, and some vocal and muchly appreciated fans.

We are loving the whole thing and can't wait to game it up some more.  We hope you join us!

Valentine's Day Special

Valentine's Day...  Like a loving husband I asked my wife out to a fancy dinner at an amazing restaurant with the intention of treating her to a romantic night out. When she found out how much the dinner was going to cost she exclaimed, "What!  We could buy two really good games for that amount!  Nah...  Lets just stream a bunch of sweetheart fun games!"

And there you have it folks, Sweethearts or Rivals will be streaming a series of live games on our twitch channel ( twitch.tv/sweetheartsorrivals ) Valentine's Evening.  We will be playing some of our funnest/cutest games, games like; Takenoko, Tokaido, Bora Bora, Council of Verona, and Steam Park.  We may play more, we may play others, so tune in!  Game wins will be tallied and the winner will claim the coveted Valentine's Day Heart of Romantic Fantastic Awesomeness!

Hope to see you there, the chat will be live and we would love to answer questions and read your comments.  If you miss it, we will archive the games on our YouTube channel for you to enjoy later!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Welcome to the blog for Sweethearts or Rivals.

Introducing Charla and Justin, a husband and wife team that love to play board games together.

We have always gamed as a couple. Justin caught my eye in the early 90’s... ahem... when he invited me to his RPG group. Boy, when that guy was GMing, something sure made that little introvert spark. (We're both introverts BTW) Once we started dating we got swept up in that whole Magic craze. Life happened and the infatuation with MTG waned. We still occasionally RPGed, got into the occasional video game, and played many classic board games, but still hadn’t found that something to snag hold of our imagination and delight.

Finally, we found what we had been looking for, mostly due to a little show named Table Top, and are delighted to introduce you to our new obsession:

DESIGNER BOARD GAMES!!

It's a great hobby for a husband and wife, especially introverts who find making friends difficult. When my husband and I sit down to a great game, I am reminded that we can still be besties after 20+ years together. Our board game collection has grown by leaps and bounds, but our group of friends has also grown significantly because of the gaming.

Table Top, the many great boardgame reviewers, the BoardGameGeek community, and the play-thru videos have been so inspiring, that I wanted to put my 2 cents worth out into the interwebs. Reviewers sometimes mention their wives, but I am often curious why they never show up on camera to give a lady's point of view.

So I asked Justin, "Hey, you wanna?"

And he was all like, "Sure, let's give it a go."

So Sweethearts or Rivals is born!

Our goal is share our thoughts about the games we play from the perspective of a husband and wife. We will also be doing live streaming games which will be on twitch.tv.

Our point of view will be half serious, half silly, and we hope – all entertaining.

We hope you will join us on our journey through gaming.

Our videos (reviews, play-thrus, gaming silliness, live streams, and 7 second thoughts) can be viewed at:

youtube.com/sweetheartsorrivals

twitch.tv/sweetheartsorrivals

vine.co/sweetheartsorrivals

And you can follow our gaming adventures on:

facebook.com/sweetheartsorrivals

twitter.com/sheartsorrivals

pinterest.com/sheartsorrivals

instagram.com/sweetheartsorrivals

boardgamegeek.com/user/charlakillam

Thanks!