The Non-Stop Tabletop: Archive

Oct 17th

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Recently my cousin/life-long best friend Hugh visited for the weekend, and we managed to get in a couple of (increasingly rare) Warhammer Fantasy battles. I fielded my newest army, Chaos Daemons (of Khorne & Tzeentch), while he unleashed a shambling horde of undead led by fearsome Vampire Counts. In the first game (not seen here), a Lord of Change led my forces and fortune did not smile on me...

Sep 3rd

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The NonstopTabletop.com Review of Space Hulk. Second in a series exploring dungeon-crawl-themed board games, this review goes back to the future to look at the once and future Games Workshop classic. At a Glance: High quality components, rich atmosphere, easy to learn rules make Space Hulk (in any edition) a must-have for virtually any gamer’s collection. Reviewer’s Score: (On the...

Aug 19th

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The NonstopTabletop.com Review of HeroQuest. 20 years too late? Maybe. However, I’ll be reviewing a series of dungeon delving games — and no game made better sense to start with than this classic. At a Glance: Lavish components, archetypal characters and an easy-to-grasp rules set make this a perfect introduction to the dungeon crawl. Reviewer’s Score: (On the Boardgamegeek.com 1-10...

Jun 7th

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Sunday afternoon was game day for me and my crew, and we threw ourselves in headlong for an afternoon of SORRY! SLIDERS, ROBORALLY and PANDEMIC. After a fun time was had by all with the first two games, Shea Stanley (upper right), I (lower right), Billy Littlepage (lower left) and my wife, Becky (upper left) sat down for the main event, Pandemic. The roles were drawn and assigned: Shea = Scientist...

Mar 23rd

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RoboRally has certainly captured my imagination of late, as I’ve enjoyed the puzzle-solving aspects of the game, but my pure solo runs through the various boards were not very compelling, for all of their educational value. When I sat down to play a solo game Monday night, I decided I’d try to mix it up a bit, including three other “guard” robots on the board that would...

Mar 18th

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Mar 15th

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I finally got my hands on a copy of Avalon Hill’s Monsters Menace America board game, which I have coveted for some time in the interest of playing with my seven year old son, Harrison. This weekend, we played our first two games. In the first game (not pictured) he used MegaClaw while I fielded Toxicor and our core tactics began to define themselves. I went for stomping targets that added...

Mar 2nd

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“Sir Ragnar, one of the Emperor’s most powerful knights, has been captured. There is reason to believe that he is being held prisoner by Ulag, the Orc Warlord. You are to find Sir Ragnar and bring him back to the stairway. Prince Magnus will pay 240 gold coins to be divided among the heroes, if they rescue Sir Ragnar. No reward will be paid if Sir Ragnar is killed during the...

Feb 9th

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I had previously shared a time-lapse of a session of one of my family’s favorite “fun for all ages” games, Midnight Party (or, technically, in our case, the German version, Mitternachtsparty). However, as one of my early efforts, I had badly judged the frame capture intervals and the video ended up being a less-than-ideal example of game play. So, we recently decided to give it...

Feb 9th

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One of the three games I wanted most for Christmas, mainly for the fun in playing with my son, Harrison, was Pirates on the High Seas, published by Ravensburger. Needless to say, I was quite pleased that my wife was able to purchase it on Amazon at a reasonable price and have it under the tree on Christmas. The components for this game are absolutely amazing. The massive pirate ships are sturdy...

Dec 30th

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There were two games I was really hoping to get for Christmas this year: “Mr. Jack” and “Shadows over Camelot.” Happily, with gift cards from my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, I was able to purchase both. Shadows will have to wait a bit, but I’ve already gotten a couple of plays of Mr. Jack in with the wife, and I’m happy to report that it has lived up to expectations. It’s a very solid little...

Dec 29th

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While I was lucky enough to score several new games for Christmas, when it came time for my gaming group to get together Sunday, I could think of no better holiday gift to myself than playing my favorite game, Arkham Horror. This time, for the first time with this particular group, adding in an expansion: The Dunwich Horror. This was also the first time I had played with either of the big box...

Dec 28th

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Earlier in December, I scored some bargains on games during Fantasy Flight’s ridiculous Holiday sale. Amongst my fines was “Beowulf: The Movie Board Game” – a reimplementation of Reiner Knizia’s “Kingdoms.” The gist of the game is that players have an array of tokens of various scoring levels that they attempt to play on a grid along with tiles that either have positive or negative values. At the...

Dec 23rd

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On Sunday, I had intended to play a game of Arkham Horror with my friends, following up on our Lovecraftian excursion of one month ago, but due to some scheduling concerns, I decided at the last minute to substitute Runebound, thinking the game wouldn’t take as long. HA! That turned out to be a poor assumption. We decided to play with the Cult of the Rune adventure expansion for the first...

Dec 15th

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Early Sunday evening, I had convinced my seven year old son to play a game of Talisman with me using the speedier play rules from the back of the book. We had a rip-roaring good time with two of the more funny, supremely divergent story lines I have ever seen. His troll had raked in tons of beneficial encounters and breezed through combat while my priest was converted to evil by Mephistopheles,...

Dec 8th

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Dec 7th

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Dec 7th

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I’ve been wanting to do a video review of Flying Frog’s “A Touch of Evil: The Supernatural Game,” but wanted to get another play or two in before I pronounced a final verdict. Monday night, I found myself with a couple of hours to kill and a hankering to try out a solitaire game of ATOE. Now, there are no official solo-play rules in the manual, but as the game has a...

Nov 27th

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This session is a follow-up to the time-lapse game of Descent I posted two weeks ago, in which the team of adventurers had to retreat after being man-handled in second quest from the core game: The Brothers Durnog. You can catch the original video here. Once again, I was playing the game via online video chat, with my play partner setting up the dungeon 220 miles away while I prepared a perch in...

Nov 24th

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On Sunday, the gaming crew (with me on the left, Shea in the middle, and Billy on the right) sat down for a session of my personal favorite game, Arkham Horror. I drew Bob Jenkins, the Salesman, for my character — which, given my last name, was amusing. Shea ended up with Sister Mary, the Nun, and Billy played Joe Diamond, the Private Eye. The Great Old One, drawn by Shea, was to be Yig. I...

Nov 17th

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My family’s Sunday evening board gaming this week consisted of a couple of light, quick games: Rattlesnake and Incan Gold. I have previously posted a time-lapse video of an Incan Gold session, but hadn’t yet made a video featuring Rattlesnake. There are a couple of review videos out there, but as it is a dexterity game involving powerful magnets, I thought a time-lapse could make for...

Nov 10th

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This time-lapse video of a board game session of Fantasy Flight’s “Descent: Journeys In The Dark” is remarkable for one key reason — the players are more than 220 miles apart. The game was played between two players, each owning a copy of the board game and using a Macintosh computer equipped with an iSight camera for Video Chat. I logged on in Henderson, KY, while my cousin,...

Nov 9th

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In this, my gaming group’s second session of Flying Frog’s “A Touch of Evil: The Supernatural Game,” our heroes found themselves battling The Scarecrow in a competitive game using the advanced rules. (In the previously posted time lapse video of this game, we played a cooperative game using the basic rules … and apparently failed to account for a few of those). I...

Nov 3rd

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Just in time for Halloween — the nonstoptabletop.com review of “It’s Alive” the monster-building game. At A Glance: A light, fun “filler” set-collection / auction game with a cartoon-ish horror theme. Reviewer’s score on the BoardGameGeek.com 1-10 scale: 7.5 Publisher: Reiver Games Number of Players: 2-5 Play Time: Aprox. 15-30 Minutes Editor’s Note:...

Oct 31st

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Following an exciting game of Marvel Heroscape that had failed to result in the most compelling video a day earlier, my seven year old son Harrison and I decided we’d give it another go. This time, we changed location, changed the board, and — for a real kick — decided to play a Hellboy variant using custom cards from Doc Savage’s awesome blog http://docsavagetales.blogspot.com/ and...

Oct 27th

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In this Time-Lapse video, my son Harrison (7) and I play Hasbro’s Marvel Heroscape tabletop battle game, albeit with terrain pulle from two master sets and an expansion or two. The completely customizable terrain is one of the more compelling aspects of Heroscape. I started assembly of this board and then Harrison joined me about 10 minutes in and we finished together, making it up as we...

Oct 26th

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In this time-lapse session video my son Harrison (back to camera), my wife Becky (to the right) and I (facing camera) play a quick game of Incan Gold by Sunriver Games / Funagain Games. While I suppose Incan Gold could technically be classified as a card game because its only components are cards and treasure tokens, it plays more like a board game in many ways. There is a temple location on the...

Oct 22nd

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In this time lapse video, my wife Becky (off camera to the right), son, Harrison (center) and I (off camera to left) play Mayfair Games’ Journey to the Center of the Earth board game. As this was Becky’s first experience with the game, and Harrison is still learning it as well, we played with our cards showing so that I could help the others evaluate their options from turn to turn. ...

Oct 20th

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In this video Shea Stanley (center), Billy Littlepage (right) and I (left) play Touch of Evil for the first time. During setup, we determined we would play the cooperative version of the game at the “basic” level of complexity. Shea drew the villain, which turned out to be the werewolf. At this point, I should mention that the werewolf card was originally not included in my...

Oct 20th

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The nonstoptabletop.com review of “Unspeakable Words” a Cthulhu Mythos-themed word game. At A Glance: A quick, fun “filler” word game with a Lovecraftian twist. Discuss this game/review in the thread at boardgamegeek.com. Download a full-quality Quicktime version of this review here. Reviewer’s score on the BoardGameGeek.com 1-10 scale: 7.5 Publisher: Playroom...

Oct 15th

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In this video, my wife Becky, son Harrison and I play Midnight Party (technically the German version, Mitternachtsparty). The total video represents about 30 minutes of real time, capturing a full three-round game. The time lapse captured a frame every four seconds. The game represents an excellent family/party game in which the players control revelers at a grand ball in a haunted mansion. The...

Oct 15th

Features coming up ...

As we gut out a hectic week in real life, here’s a look at projects coming up for your game-loving consumption on The Non-Stop Tabletop: 1) A Video Review of Unspeakable Words, the mythos-themed word game. [By Oct. 14 Oct. 15] 2) Time Lapse Session Video (and report) of a “Family Game” with my seven year old son (and potentially also including my wife). Likely games include...

Oct 10th

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Approximately 12 hours and one night’s sleep after our first-ever game of “Fury of Dracula,” the crew got together to give it one more go. Despite our experience, this time-lapse video actually encompasses about five hours of real time as the vampire proved particularly elusive in this game. After being confronted by Mina Harker in Genoa, Vlad took to the sea, but suffered...

Oct 6th

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In this time-lapse video, encompassing a little over four hours of real time, Josh Jenkins, Shea Stanley and Billy Littlepage play Fantasy Flight Games’ “Fury of Dracula” for the first time. The game turned in the final “quarter” when Van Helsing discovered Vlad in Marseilles, achieving two “killed” results in combat (thanks to garlic and stakes, a...

Oct 6th

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CONTACT INFORMATION

E-MAIL Primary Contact: Josh at Nonstoptabletop.com REVIEW POLICY If you are a game company, publisher or retailer interested in having a game reviewed or covered in a session video, you are heartily encouraged to send it to us. We will evaluate the game and are likely (but not guaranteed) to cover the game in some fashion on nonstoptabletop.com. Should we prepare a video or article covering the...

Oct 1st

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What folks are saying about Non-Stop Tabletop...

“This video has got me interested in this game. Fine work!” — Boardgamegeek user Daniel Masters Time Lapse Video of Incan Gold Session http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/37759 “I love the Time lapse! That’s great!” — Boardgamegeek user Jason Hill Designer / Publisher Flying Frog Productions Time Lapse Video of A Touch of Evil Session...

Oct 1st

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About The Non-Stop Tabletop

I’m Josh Jenkins, and The Non-Stop Tabletop is my brainchild. I’m a life-long game enthusiast and this labor of love represents my effort to combine my passion for the tabletop gaming hobby with my experience in content production and web publishing. Here, viewers will find session reports, reviews and other content related to board games, role playing games and miniatures battle...

Oct 1st