Twitch Tuesdays

One of the things we want to commit to this year, the second year of our channel, is a regular live play-thru schedule on our twitch channel.  We started with some regular live twitch play-thrus last year, but then kinda just stopped and it is long past due for us to rectify this.  So now we are announcing...

TWITCH TUESDAYS!

Every other Tuesday we will be going live on our TWITCH CHANNEL, starting this coming Tuesday ( JAN 27th ).  The twitch will go live around 6:00 PM Atlantic Time.  We might play one game, we might play more, and we might have friends over for some games!  It will be live and unedited (we keep our language fairly clean, but sometimes someone might slip).

If you want to request a game for us to play, feel free to peruse our COLLECTION on the BGG and send us an e-mail ( sweetheartsorrivals@gmail.com ) with your request and we will try to make it happen.  We will have a screen open to the comment window so you can join us, say hi, tell us what we are doing wrong, or even give one of us advice on what to do next, so join us!

See you Tuesday!

- Charla & Justin

Follow and take part in our gaming adventures at:

http://youtube.com/SweetheartsOrRivals

http://twitch.tv/sweetheartsorrivals

http://sweetheartsorrivals.blogspot.ca

http://facebook.com/SweetHeartsOrRivals

http://twitter.com/sheartsorrivals

http://instagram.com/sweetheartsorrivals

http://pinterest.com/sheartsorrivals

http://vine.co/SweetheartsOrRivals

http://boardgamegeek.com/user/charlakillam

http://boardgamegeek.com/user/justinkillam

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!