Speaker 1: Battle reports with Ben and Stay's It's been a long
Speaker 1: time to do you and here we are again. The
Speaker 1: people have been asking for it, they have, and they'll
Speaker 1: fucking get it.
Speaker 2: They missed us, they did, they missed this, this thing
Speaker 2: that you and I have, that we do. It's kind
Speaker 2: of what is what is this thing?
Speaker 1: You know? Past Present and future? The podcast? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: David runs with a Viscount's Runciman of fucking He's running
Speaker 1: her a lot, except he couldn't be more unlike you
Speaker 1: than any other person. So this is like basically past,
Speaker 1: Present and future, but a bit more serious and a
Speaker 1: bit cleverer.
Speaker 3: God when I when I said I wanted an English friend, yep,
Speaker 3: if only it.
Speaker 2: Could have been something like him. I mean you you imagine?
Speaker 1: Can you imagine being an invited rank for afternoon tea
Speaker 1: to Viscount Runsoman's fucking pile in the country.
Speaker 3: Do you think he lives in one of those like
Speaker 3: fifteenth or sixteenth century manor houses.
Speaker 1: He has one, he doesn't live in it. He has
Speaker 1: a very nicely apportioned apartment somewhere in the west of London,
Speaker 1: I'm sure.
Speaker 2: But he has the house.
Speaker 1: He has that, and he's got grounds right, undeniably, it
Speaker 1: has a park.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've always wanted grounds.
Speaker 1: I've got fucking grounds to punch you in the fucking.
Speaker 2: Nuts with, like hahas.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and like the fake ruins, yeah, capability brown in
Speaker 3: there some follies.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: They used to hire old men to just like live
Speaker 3: in the park as like a hermit, to add like ambiance.
Speaker 1: I could do that.
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, if I if I had one
Speaker 3: of these houses with the grounds, you fucking live out
Speaker 3: in the park, and like we'd have like a hut
Speaker 3: for you or a cottage or something, or a cottage.
Speaker 1: I'm hot. I'm not gonna live in a hovel. No, no,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna I'm gonna wear fucking potato sacks.
Speaker 2: No no, no, I mean you know i'd be made of
Speaker 2: brick or whatever.
Speaker 1: But do I get to walk around and know you
Speaker 1: fuckers a little fuckers over there, all the fucking foxes,
Speaker 1: you fuckers. I oh, my lord.
Speaker 2: Old Ben, don't pay any him.
Speaker 1: I give to fox in the fucking nuts this morning.
Speaker 1: My lord?
Speaker 2: How are you taking care of the sheep and the
Speaker 2: sheep cost I'm.
Speaker 1: Taking care of him, my lord, in more ways than one.
Speaker 1: I'm not fucking him. No, that's not what I mean.
Speaker 2: I didn't ask that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm fucking kicking him in the fucking bollocks.
Speaker 1: My lord Beard is looking great today. By the way,
Speaker 1: even the fucking females I kicks in the bollocks.
Speaker 2: I want you to grow it a few inches longer.
Speaker 2: All right, it does not look authentic.
Speaker 1: Enough, Okay, I told you right, Sorry, sorry.
Speaker 2: All right, let's go have a look at the hedgerow
Speaker 2: now or aren't you fuckers?
Speaker 1: I'll see you fucking later.
Speaker 2: We could make it happen. What do I have to do?
Speaker 1: You've got to start this company that you keep talking about.
Speaker 2: If only I had bought the right stocks at the
Speaker 2: right time, you know what I mean? Yeah, millions.
Speaker 3: Even even then, I was like, ah, you know, I
Speaker 3: don't have enough money to buy enough Amazon stock in
Speaker 3: two thousand and two.
Speaker 1: But we looked at we looked into one share, we
Speaker 1: looked into this. If I have bought what stock will
Speaker 1: be talking about.
Speaker 2: I mean practically any of them.
Speaker 1: Oh in video, Oh yeah, if you'd bought in video
Speaker 1: in like two thousand and four.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because you're you're saying about not having money and
Speaker 3: I pointed out, well, if you had only you had
Speaker 3: five thousand whatever is in two thousand and four, right,
Speaker 3: probably not, but one thousand, Yeah, you could have scraped
Speaker 3: together one random bought in video stuff.
Speaker 2: And if you'd only done that, you'd be a multimillionaire today.
Speaker 1: Because I definitely wouldn't have cashed it out. I mean,
Speaker 1: you just the next available fucking opportunity to buy and hold.
Speaker 1: You need discipline, right, you don't have discipline, you know,
Speaker 1: discipline is something that you practice and develop over time.
Speaker 1: But but you know, I am, I am really wedded
Speaker 1: to this stately home villagitia ideas retirement plan.
Speaker 2: I'm really into it. I think it's great, my lord.
Speaker 1: I fucking got the turnips out today. One of them
Speaker 1: was looking at me funny, so I could hit the.
Speaker 2: Bollocks very good, old Ben.
Speaker 1: Yes, So what are we playing? State?
Speaker 3: We are playing a game that you and I played
Speaker 3: several years ago. I think here, yeah, while I was
Speaker 3: here Reef Encounter.
Speaker 1: So do you with with the Reef Encounter of the
Speaker 1: of the Second Kind expansion?
Speaker 3: And I just want to say in the acknowledgment section right,
Speaker 3: This game was published originally October two thousand and four, Okay,
Speaker 3: so we're playing a real classic game here, twenty two
Speaker 3: years old. Thanks also to I don't know any of
Speaker 3: these people, Peter Armstrong, Rutiger Bayer, Tony Boydell, who's that fucker?
Speaker 3: And you know other people I don't know there, but
Speaker 3: Tony Boydell. Thanks to Tony Boydell.
Speaker 1: It wouldn't have happened with that Tony. I'm sure he
Speaker 1: sat there and went to fucking ows this fucking bullshit?
Speaker 1: The fucking ows this bullshit?
Speaker 3: I mean, actually, there is an aspect of this game
Speaker 3: that's a bit fiddley, like the way you select actions.
Speaker 3: It's like probably not the easiest thing to explain. And
Speaker 3: I'm like picturing what he was like, you know what
Speaker 3: he's like?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: Yeah, what is he not?
Speaker 2: Is he like seventies?
Speaker 1: I think I think he had a pony style by then?
Speaker 1: Like what was he like as a young man? He
Speaker 1: had a fucking properly pissed, He had a motibi, a
Speaker 1: pony style. He must have been intolerable, intolerable. So so
Speaker 1: him and Matt Green.
Speaker 2: I've got to flip over the fucking cool toils what.
Speaker 1: They just published, Jerusalem. Do you think that there has
Speaker 1: nothing to do with the Holy Land. Do you think
Speaker 1: we've got an acknowledgement to the rule book? I think
Speaker 1: it says thanks to Ben Steve we.
Speaker 2: Helped play test it. I mean I did. Have you
Speaker 2: played it? And I played it? Yeah? I played it
Speaker 2: a So you're going to be the rule book and yah,
Speaker 2: I should be nonsense, Tony, Tony, Matt. Can I get
Speaker 2: in the rule book? Can I? Can I be in
Speaker 2: the rule book? At Ben?
Speaker 1: So you can? You can, Actually, you can be in
Speaker 1: any rule book you want. I mean with a Byron I.
Speaker 3: I actually had to engage Tony quite a few times
Speaker 3: during the playing of that.
Speaker 4: Engaged to I had to engage him, engage him to
Speaker 4: do one on rules clarifications on Jerusalem, which I believe
Speaker 4: contributed to the development process.
Speaker 1: Is so you're saying you designed Jerusalem.
Speaker 3: I mean the game wouldn't be what it is today.
Speaker 3: And I think you know I'm not asking for a lot, right,
Speaker 3: They've already printed the rule books though, well I expect
Speaker 3: that I'm already you know, you know how when when
Speaker 3: there's like there's like a rata, he could publish an
Speaker 3: errata sheet add to acknowledgments.
Speaker 2: Stephen J. Cyrek Or maybe like a sticker.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it comes with every gang.
Speaker 2: Yeah, like when you buy them.
Speaker 1: He's already sold. He's already sold out.
Speaker 2: Right, but then you have to you have to send
Speaker 2: the sticker. So what he should do.
Speaker 1: What he should do is track down everybody, recall them,
Speaker 1: recall them, recall all, burn all the rule books, get
Speaker 1: them reprinted with my name in it and not yours.
Speaker 2: Your name.
Speaker 3: You didn't do anything, vibes, You didn't even like bother
Speaker 3: to try and play it.
Speaker 1: I'm like, best, you were there when I played it,
Speaker 1: you know, best from Happy Mondays. I think so Happy
Speaker 1: Mondays wouldn't have been Happy Mondays without Bess.
Speaker 2: What's your point?
Speaker 1: Well, I'm like, vibes and vibes for the You think
Speaker 1: you should.
Speaker 3: Get credit for vibes? Yeah, the fucker vibes worth fucking
Speaker 3: thanks Ben for.
Speaker 1: The vibe the vibes.
Speaker 3: Anyway, anyway, we're playing Reef Encounter with the Reef Encounter
Speaker 3: of the second kind.
Speaker 2: Very clever pun there, I get.
Speaker 1: But it's really interesting because so you've been beavering away
Speaker 1: busy like a bee. Yeah, because you suggested we play
Speaker 1: this yesterday. Yeah, But what I didn't realize is that
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago, in anticipation of this, you
Speaker 1: actually sat down with Richard Brees and if you wanted
Speaker 1: it to be a surprise, well, I mean I got
Speaker 1: an email from him. Yeah, so you went to my
Speaker 1: fucking interview coming up your fucking twat. That's that's abatim
Speaker 1: are you Are you not going to insert it into
Speaker 1: this episode? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Right now, Oh, let's do it. Let's throw it to
Speaker 2: the interview.
Speaker 3: So I am here with Richard Breese, one of the
Speaker 3: most storied game designers and in the entire hobby is
Speaker 3: certainly coming from the United Kingdom.
Speaker 1: Let's not be formal. Call me Breezy, Easy Breezy. That
Speaker 1: was a nickname at school. People call you easy Breezy,
Speaker 1: Easy Breezy.
Speaker 2: So so easy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, easy.
Speaker 2: We're playing a Reef encounter later.
Speaker 1: My name is Breezy. I'm really easy. I was on
Speaker 1: I was on the album.
Speaker 2: So I understand this, inn w A.
Speaker 3: I understand that this game was actually inspired by your
Speaker 3: by doctor Richard Attenborough and that's domentary.
Speaker 1: Well, I mean sort of tendent and chili.
Speaker 2: What do you mean. I assume that you watched him
Speaker 2: on the BBC and you said.
Speaker 1: Well, I used to watch Dickie. That's what I call it.
Speaker 1: I don't know him, like, I just call it Dicky, Okay,
Speaker 1: because I'm a naturally informal guy. Because I'm fucking breezy, easy, breezy,
Speaker 1: I'm rich easy. Right.
Speaker 3: So the the inspiration for the game literally came from
Speaker 3: you watching these documentaries on television, not from any other
Speaker 3: well nearly not from any other self.
Speaker 1: Right, So I used to watch Dickie. Yeah, I used
Speaker 1: to watch Dicky out and then you know, as you know, Steven, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a lover of the outdoors.
Speaker 3: Well, I mean I've read the rule book and it
Speaker 3: literally says that the only.
Speaker 2: The game was the nature documentaries.
Speaker 1: Of documentary, he's a national, he's an actual treasure, so
Speaker 1: I wanted to give him credit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so there's a direct link between those nature documentaries.
Speaker 2: And the game.
Speaker 1: Well it was a direct link, but there's a nodal
Speaker 1: point in between.
Speaker 2: Okay, tell us that.
Speaker 1: Well, as you know, Stephen, I am a lovely outdoors
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. And there's nothing I like more.
Speaker 1: I mean, look at the shoes, I mean, topally, have
Speaker 1: a look, yeah exactly, Yeah, you're wearing socks right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but imagine if I was wearing shoes. What kind of
Speaker 1: shoes would I be wearing?
Speaker 2: I really don't know.
Speaker 1: I mean, fucking I don't know you that well, Salomon's
Speaker 1: Salomon's that's right, I'll be wearing fucking Salomon's, mate. I
Speaker 1: don't fucking breezy. You don't fuck around, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean.
Speaker 2: You refer to yourself as the third person.
Speaker 1: Who does breezy. Yeah, he does.
Speaker 2: I didn't realize that you were known for your tremendous ego.
Speaker 1: Well it's not ego. Ego implies that there's no grinding
Speaker 1: for it. But I'm naturally I'm easy breezy, I'm lemon squeezy.
Speaker 2: Okay, so easy Breezy, get on your easy you You
Speaker 2: enjoy Hiking is what you're trying to do.
Speaker 1: I went out, was having a hike where way down
Speaker 1: south in England, South in England. Yeah, along dart More, Dartmoor, Dartmore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a nice place to go hiking in Lovely.
Speaker 1: You got ponies there, Okay, you can nature camp, you
Speaker 1: can wild camp on Dartmore, one of the few places
Speaker 1: in the UK where you can sometimes yeah, with the orses.
Speaker 2: So you were doing that back in two thousand and four,
Speaker 2: you must have been a young man.
Speaker 1: And three, it takes time to design a game, Labis.
Speaker 2: Now were you were you alone or were with you?
Speaker 3: Were you with one of your frequent collaborators and game
Speaker 3: designed Tony Boydell.
Speaker 1: No, I don't fucking take him. Why would I take in?
Speaker 1: He's in the old town running his fingers through his
Speaker 1: luxuriant ponytail on that.
Speaker 2: Well you you actually thank him in the rule book?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, because if I don't, I'll just get fucking
Speaker 1: endless text messages. Eh, breezy, easy breezy. Why am I
Speaker 1: not in ruble braezy?
Speaker 2: Sorry?
Speaker 1: Sorry, that's not how Tony speaks, bloody rubbook like cowpats.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna throw a cowpat at the bloody house.
Speaker 3: That's amazing how all British people can do like spot
Speaker 3: on imitations of all British accents.
Speaker 1: Well, that's right. Well, I mean we're talented, unlike the Americans.
Speaker 1: Two hundred and fifty years of fucking embarrassment.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and today happens to be the two hundred and
Speaker 3: fiftieth anniversary, that's right, the founding of my country, my first.
Speaker 1: Country, Your second country as well in Germany. Oh fucking fucking.
Speaker 2: More recently founded in its current form. Mistakes were made anyway, So.
Speaker 1: You were on the high I was undert More. I don't,
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't quite see how hiking in the UK can
Speaker 3: lead you to design a game about corel.
Speaker 1: You know that song? You know that song back rolling stones? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Wild horses, Yeah, couldn't drag me away?
Speaker 2: Sure?
Speaker 1: That was written about the wild horses on Dartmore was
Speaker 1: a famous wild horse off Fionnardo.
Speaker 2: What does this have to do with reef and count?
Speaker 1: Well, I was king, I'm fucking I was I kid right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you know Britain bit rainy. Yeah, and I got
Speaker 1: caught a downpole. Has that reputation caught a downpole? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And then I went in like a hollow and it
Speaker 1: filled up with water.
Speaker 3: Hollow, hollow. That's right, You're you're escaping the rain in
Speaker 3: a hollow. That doesn't immediately make a lot of sense.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm not going to go under tree? Was I?
Speaker 1: I only get struck by that? I have a branch
Speaker 1: fall on the end. So there was a thunderstorm, well,
Speaker 1: I mean might.
Speaker 3: Have been okay, the thunder I mean, there's always thunder
Speaker 3: with breezy around.
Speaker 1: I bring the thunder and lightning, and it's it's very
Speaker 1: frightening if you're a fucking American. Any road, Freddie Mercury's American, right,
Speaker 1: I don't think.
Speaker 2: So, any road.
Speaker 1: So I was in this hollow and it flooded, It
Speaker 1: got really deep in water, and I heard this voice
Speaker 1: in my head.
Speaker 5: It was his voice, and we see the Dartmore hors
Speaker 5: wading through water.
Speaker 3: So you you were so accustomed to watching these documentaries.
Speaker 1: I heard him like so frequently?
Speaker 2: Did you have recourse to the DBC?
Speaker 1: And so do you know what I was doing? Because
Speaker 1: I've fallen asleep? Do you know what I was doing?
Speaker 2: You fell asleep in the hollow?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: While I was filling with waters?
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, do you know what I fell asleep? Do
Speaker 1: you know what I was doing?
Speaker 2: Beggars belief? But all right, I was doing what I
Speaker 2: was dreaming about Dickie.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I thought, all right, Dickie, I'm dreaming of you.
Speaker 3: He's not why he did a lot of nature documentaries, Yeah,
Speaker 3: why a game about marine life?
Speaker 1: Well, because that's the case, I thought, I'm dreaming of you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so I had to make a game about the coral.
Speaker 2: Dream of me.
Speaker 1: I had to make a game about the coral. You
Speaker 1: ruined my coral job. We hadn't met yet, I was
Speaker 1: saying to Dickie, Yeah, dreaming of you. You. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I had to do a game about the coral.
Speaker 2: I don't get it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I know, you fucking know you've got a fucking
Speaker 1: culture anyway, Peace out, easy, breezy lemon squeezeers. I'm getting
Speaker 1: out of there because you're a lama.
Speaker 2: It was a very it was a.
Speaker 3: Very strange interview. I mean I didn't even get to
Speaker 3: ask him very many questions.
Speaker 1: Well, I just inserted I haven't listened back to it yet.
Speaker 2: I didn't. Yeah, I mean, you know, I do my best.
Speaker 2: I'm not you. I'm not the professional. That's true, you know,
Speaker 2: quote unquote main show interviewer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean I wouldn't let you on that
Speaker 1: because you'd ask them questions. You'd be like, oh, so
Speaker 1: what do you think about vibe coding?
Speaker 5: Oh? Do you think vibe coding is viable in today's world?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 5: I was vibe coding the other day and my pants
Speaker 5: fell off. Do you think do you think that's permissible?
Speaker 5: In today's world?
Speaker 2: Is that how I talk? So?
Speaker 1: I think?
Speaker 5: So I was vibe coding the other day and my
Speaker 5: toenails turned into monkeys?
Speaker 1: Do you think that's permissible into his world?
Speaker 2: I mean, for sure, the entire interview would be about AI.
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know how many hot takes are
Speaker 3: there in the board gaming world about AI?
Speaker 2: Is anyone? Is anyone going to say anything positive about it?
Speaker 2: How do you feel about AI? Oh? I hate it
Speaker 2: every single time.
Speaker 5: So I was fine coding the other day and my
Speaker 5: legs turned into snakes? Do you think that's viable into
Speaker 5: day's world?
Speaker 3: So, Ben, you played this before and you probably don't
Speaker 3: remember it.
Speaker 2: It's it's in my top one, it right, But you
Speaker 2: don't remember how I played it at all? So what
Speaker 2: what do you remember feeling about it that makes you
Speaker 2: put it in the top one?
Speaker 1: But it was super lean and mean and super attacky
Speaker 1: and Richard Easybreeze's designs always inevitably belie his calm English manner,
Speaker 1: and so.
Speaker 3: He is a very understated gentleman. But his game, by
Speaker 3: what you may evince from the interview.
Speaker 1: And his games are always really attacking, really nasty, loads
Speaker 1: of fun and beautifully designed. There's no there's no crinolation.
Speaker 1: It's all pure fucking diamond like.
Speaker 2: It's the word, isn't it.
Speaker 1: I love the wordlation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm hoping that adding.
Speaker 1: How many times you think Isaac's edited credelation out of
Speaker 1: my text for the book at least once per page?
Speaker 3: I mean definitely, I mean you should have a limit
Speaker 3: no more than three times.
Speaker 1: In three separate chapters I was doing to editing last week,
Speaker 1: and three separate chapters I write the sentence vats of
Speaker 1: Digital inc Have been spilled over.
Speaker 2: So Isaac's terrible, Isaac.
Speaker 3: What I would like to see is a word distribution
Speaker 3: for all of the texts that Ben has generated, and
Speaker 3: what like I want on the I guess I want
Speaker 3: like the word frequency against like number of syllables per word.
Speaker 2: Right, I'm assuming it's highly right words viewed like you.
Speaker 3: Anyway, What I'm hoping is that the edition of the
Speaker 3: expansion doesn't ruin it for you or me or anyone.
Speaker 2: Well, let's see four player game today.
Speaker 1: Let's see all right, Wow, we'll get to it.
Speaker 2: Who's going to win playing? It's the two of us.
Speaker 2: It's a mean and Samantha.
Speaker 1: Samantha Grenell, britt Zadam, and ponsibly Smithed. I've missed out
Speaker 1: twenty seven of her surnames.
Speaker 3: Exactly exactly, And I think it could be anybody's game
Speaker 3: because this game is so attacky, it's gonna be unpredictable.
Speaker 1: What do you think I'm gonna win?
Speaker 2: Let's find out.
Speaker 1: You can listen to the rest of this show and
Speaker 1: hundreds of hours of bonus content, including convention reports, in
Speaker 1: game bickering, and loads more at patreon dot com. Forward
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