Welcome to Pick Up and Deliver, the podcast where I pick up my audio recorder as I step

off the train and deliver an episode to you while I walk home.

I'm Brendan Riley.

Well, greetings, listener.

It's a lovely day here in suburban Chicago, and by lovely, I mean, kind of overcast and

a little chilly.

So maybe _lovely_ isn't the right word, but there it is.

It is, however, April 1st, which means it's April Fool's Day.

Now, I won't have this episode out for you today.

I don't have time to publish it when I get home, but I will have it for you first thing tomorrow

morning on April 2nd.

And that's because it's the beginning of the month, which means this time for Top of the

Stack. [silly airhorn noises]

For those of you new to the podcast, top of the stack is a episode format in which I

talk about the games that I played last month and make plans for the games I'm going to

play next month.

It's a lot of fun, and it's just a sort of summary episode.

There's a lot of stats.

And yeah, you get a chance to see what I've been playing and to talk about it a little

bit here and there.

So if you are also... if you also kind of keep track of what you play or you just want to

share what have you been playing lately, the top of the stack episode is often the one

where people will, who listen to the podcast, will go to our guild 3269 over on board game

geek and post in a thread where they talk about what have they been playing and how has

it been developing.

If you're thinking about doing that: do it.

It's fun to chat with you.

All right, so let's jump in.

First some general stats, game plays.

I played 60 different games this month and I logged 78 total plays.

So I had a little bit more.

Of course, it's not one to one.

I had some games I played multiple times.

It pushes me up for the year.

I'm at 121 plays of 227.

I'm sorry, 227 plays of 121 different games.

I keep track of my stats over on board game geek in a geek list that's linked from my profile.

It's also linked from the show notes for this episode.

So you can always go check that out over there.

First up is I always am trying to reduce my shelf of opportunity, which is a list of games

that I haven't played yet going into the month.

My shelf of opportunity is at 69.

It's a very productive month.

I am down to 63.

So really churning that engine.

Although it might be 65, you'll have to go check the stats on the website because I did

pick up two games at Goodwill that I don't know if I've added to that list yet or not.

So it might be 65.

My collection size has not shrunk.

It was at 620 last month and while I do have a bunch of games I'm planning to get rid of,

I haven't actually gotten rid of them yet.

So collection is the same size, maybe even a little bigger.

Each month I pick four games that I'm going to try to play in the month.

If I can play three of them, then I count it as a successful month.

The goal is to play a 36 selected games over the course of the year.

As far as I've played two in January and three in February, so I'm doing okay.

But how did I do in March?

The four games I picked were Resafa, the new Vladimir Suchy game.

Clue the office, Sherlock Holmes Baker Street Irregulars, and Carpe Diem.

And I'm pleased to mention that I got to play all four games.

That's right.

Four for four or four out of three.

Which means that I'm actually on track for my 36.

I was missing one and now I've gotten a bonus.

So by the end at the end of quarter one, I'm at nine games played out of nine needed for

success.

Hazah!

I did play a number of games for the first time this month.

Of course I talk about these in detail in board game espresso episodes, but I do like to share

which games I've played.

Those are Glyphics, Kemet, Hunted: Wode Ridge, Apothecary: Plague Doctors, Sherlock Holmes

and the Baker Street Irregulars, Clue the office, Resafa, Buildzi, Galactic Renaissance,

Minotaur, Lords, Android infiltration, and Rolemodels: the Battle for Vyk' Turnaal.

Which brings me up to...

I was at 19 new games for the year coming into the month.

I'm now at 31 new to be games played this year.

I tried one expansion this month.

This was the next ink and clues mystery ink and clues the organ harvester.

I also got to dust off a number of games this month.

I dusted off cryptid.

It was two years five months and ten days dusty.

Elder sign which was one year four months and seventeen days dusty.

Sidereal confluence which was two years zero months and twenty seven days dusty.

Patchwork which was one year seven months and twelve days dusty.

Thunderbirds which is five years six months and eight days dusty and chocolate factory

which was one year eight months and six days dusty.

That's twenty games dusted off this year.

In case you missed it, Thunderbirds is the oldest or the dustiest game at five years six months

and eight days.

So I played that one or two previous times both in like 2019 or 2020 and I haven't played

it since.

As you know I'm trying to play all of my top 50 games on the table in the next two years

so by the time then I go to make my next top 50 in some time early 2027 I want to have played

all 50 of my top 50 games.

Coming into the month I had played nine of them and I managed to play three more.

I played Carpe Diem which is number 42.

I played Sidereal confluence which is number 50 and I played London which is number 17.

So that is a delight to be making progress on that list.

Oh I also played Barenpark which is number 40.

So I've played now 13 of my top 50 games on the table so making good progress there.

I guess I need to play like two a month to keep up and at 13 I've played on average almost

more than four a month.

That's good because some of the ones on there are hard to get to the table so later on the

pace is going to slow down.

Speaking of keeping a good pace I've made a lot of progress on my 10 for 10 list so far

so I thought I would share those as well as a reminder a normal 10 for 10 list is a situation

where you pick 10 games and you try to play them each 10 times in a year.

What I've done instead is I pick 10 categories and I have to play 10 games that fit that category.

Some of the categories are particularly weird as well so I will share how I am participating

in those.

First up I have hold on.

Oh I have 32 new games I forgot to record that I played try bond.

Tri-bond is a trivia game that I got to try recently and I forgot to include that in

my new games list so that is there now.

The first category is RoyGBivBBW so the rainbow and then brown, black and white and

what this is is a game fits that category if the main color on the game box is that color.

If it is pretty clear it has one predominant color on there then it counts for that play.

I had two this month Tri-Bond which is a violet violet color and a hunted: Wode Ridge which

is mostly black so I have now done six of the 10 plays there.

In the five continents regime the idea is that most of the games I have take place in

North America or Europe or they aren't set in a geographic place on earth at all.

The idea of the five continents is to actively play games that take place in other parts of

the world and I am doing it by continent so actively playing games that take place in the

five other continents other than North America and Europe.

Along those lines I played one game that takes place in Africa this is Rassafa which takes

place in modern day Syria and I played The Gardens which takes place in Oceania specifically

Sydney so I have played two.

I will note Rasafa being played for the five continents cannot be used for any of the

other categories.

As I think I've mentioned before each play of a game allows you to put one mark off one

play in here so any play that I use for one thing I can't use for the other.

But said I do also allow myself to double up for one category which is two categories

for now so I think I'm under a minute.

I did not play any games that have magic theme this month.

Mystery theme I did have some progress though I played Inc and Clues the organ harvester I mentioned

that already and I played Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street regulars so those two games

are both mystery themed games and we are up to six plays in that genre.

Next up I have a category that's a meta category so I have I want to have five games that

reached five plays on the table and this is the one place where I am allowed to double

dip plays that count as part of these five could also have been used for other meeples

or other entries in the category but so if I've played five games in physical form that

does not count digital plays I can log it here and we've now got two.

We came in the month with zero but we've now we've played Frost Haven twice and Error

five times and Skyjo five times so that is two games that have met that requirement.

Coming into the month I had one game that I had played that had been on my shelf of opportunity

since before 2021 and I now have a second game and this is Android infiltration so that

puts us that too.

I also had two games played that had been on my shelf of opportunity since before 2024

and I'm now up to seven so I made a lot of progress there.

That would be Kemet, Hunted Wood Ridge, Sherlock Holmes Baker Street Irregulars, Clue the

office and Rolemodels: the Battle for Vyk' Turnahl.

So those five games bought me to seven in that category meaning I'm almost done as putting

effort into which games I'm going to get played from my shelf of opportunity.

I did not make any progress on the alphabet games this month.

Each month I tried a set a painting goal, no progress on the painting goal.

As I said I am at 63 unplayed games on my shelf of opportunity.

I did have a slight shift in the shelf of opportunity.

Up till now I've had listed as an unplayed game Core Worlds: Galactic Orders.

It turns out Core Worlds: Galactic Orders is an expansion.

I had bought it used.

It's an expansion but it's an expansion and the person who sold it to me the base game

was in there as well.

So I've reordered the collection a little bit and say I marked that I own Core Worlds now

which I did not before and then that I own the expansion Core Worlds: Galactic Orders.

I have not played either of them so.

Along those lines that means I marked three games that I've added this month which puts

me at 622 or 623 I can't tell from my display.

Well that brings me to the final question on any top of the stack update which is what

games am I going to play in April?

So for my stack I am going to name Hollywood 1947 as a game I definitely want to get played

in April.

This is a game I anticipate to enjoy but haven't actually played yet and we're going to be

playing it in my board game class in two weeks.

So I need to play it so that I know what it is and know how it works.

I need to pick two other games or three other games that I would like to play.

I think it would be interesting to try to play Ponzi Scheme this month since it's tax

a month and that's a money related game so maybe I will use that game or introduce that

game as something I could play.

So I'll put Ponzi scheme as our second goal.

Hollywood 1947 Ponzi scheme for my top 50 list.

I think the hunger would be fun to play.

I haven't played that in a few months.

And it is in my top 50 so getting it played.

Or else glory to Rome.

I think I'll say glory to Rome actually.

So I'll put glory to Rome in there as my top 50 choice and then let's say space freaks

as my final choice.

This is a game that I've often wanted to play but I think I could suggest that my son

and I give it a try when we have a few minutes and it would be one that he would enjoy

at least trying out.

So those are my four that I'm going to play.

Well, what have you been playing this month?

Head over to board game geek guild 3269 and share your plays over there.

I'd love to hear them.

In the meantime, I hope that if you get a chance to get out and take a walk around,

that your next walk.

is as pleasant as mine was.

Bye bye.

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