This week we cover five different Escape Room Games. Listen for our commentary, but the summary is:

• EXIT the Game - Three current titles, three more announced. Fantastic games with the best puzzles, contents destroyed during play. In game Hints give solutions if you desire.
• Unlock! - Three current titles, three more announced. These are the hosts' favorite with their humor and fun. Extremely easy to reset for play by another group. Free App required.
• Escape the Room - Nathan and Brent played Mystery at the Stargazer's Manor and found it clever and fun, but much more simple than the previous two. Reset instructions online.
• Escape Room the Game - Core set comes with four different games, but the electronic device that is needed to solve and advance the game did not work properly for the hosts. Not recommended. Reset with a printer and less than 30 minutes.
• Escape Room in a Box: The Werewolf Experience - Huge fun that is pretty pricey and probably hard to find. Can be reset with a printer and a half hour of time, or so.

Don't forget to pick up Ryan Decaria's book, Devil in the Microscope, available from Amazon, and check out Brent's Meeple Sing Shirts, also available through Amazon. 

Matt and Barb are recently back from GenCon 50 and have details of the games they purchased and played. They are joined by Ryan, Brent and Nathan and they all discuss additional news out of GenCon and the larger board game world.

We thank Tasty Minstrel games for supporting our podcast. Please support them by buying their great games and listening to the TMG Podcast.

We now have four Meeple Nation shirts on Amazon. Search Meeple Nation there and see our new minimalistic design.

Brent has created 20 board game related shirts with more coming soon. Search Meeple Sing Shirts on Amazon.com

Ryan's book is now published and available on Amazon Kindle and in print. It is called Devil in the Microscope.

This week join Ryan as he talks with enthusiasm about word games! Nathan and Brent are also present.

We discuss a few different categories of word games.

Spelling Games: Scrabble, Boggle, Pick Two, Paperback, Hardback, Word Domination, Boggle Bowl

Guess the Word: Code Names, Word Slam, Werewords, Insider, Codenames, The Chamelon, Mad Gab, Taboo

Matching Words: Apples to Apples, Cards Against Humanity

For years, games made from IPs meant roll and move, trivia, or a reskin of another popular mass market game. Now things are changing as we see more effort and better overall design married to the movies and books we love.

This week we discuss the world of IPs and what we hope to see in future.

Join our guild on Boardgamegeek at https://www.boardgamegeek.com/guild/1943 or our Facebook Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/MeepleNationOffAir/

This week Nathan, Ryan and Brent discuss what attracts them to games, and what instantly repels them. They start out with introductions and move into talking about deckbuilders, engine builders, and direct attacks.

Don't forget to pick up Ryan Decaria's book, Devil in the Microscope for Kindle. Print and audio versions will be released later this year.

Nathan, Brent and Ryan sit down to talk about games we are excited about that will be released on the next few months, including more Fable games from Friedemann Friese, a game about Einstein, gaining Sentience, news on a couple of Brandon Sanderson games, and much more.

Don't forget to join us at Meeple Nation Off Air on Facebook!

This week we start off the podcast with a nice little rant about how T.I.M.E Stories is going astray. At least that is what Brent and Ryan think.

We have news from the industry including more Target exclusives and we talk about a slew of Kickstarters that have caught our eye.

Next week we will cover GenCon games.

Are you like Nathan, and you haven't ever met an expansion you didn't like? Do you consider expansions unnecessary, or particular expansions essential?

This week we discuss the sordid world of board game expansions.

Are you interested in asking us an audio question or giving us feedback? Please send mp3 emails to brent@meeplenation.com or call our US phone number, 801-784-0743, any time of the day or night and leave a message.

Ryan Decaria's book is coming out August 15th, 2017. Search for Devil in the Microscope on Goodreads or Amazon!

Nathan has returned and he talks travels with Brent. Ryan is out this week but should return for episode 174.

We talk about Raxxon, a game being shared through viral marketing, Monopoly Gamer and how that suddenly reversed many people's view of the core game, feedback, upcoming questions, Our Boardgamegeek.com guild (number 1943), and the SdJ 2017 winners.

Nathan is out and about in the islands of Hawaii so Ryan and Brent face off across the microphone to talk about the integration of theme. Ryan recreates one of his presentations from FryeCon with Brent as a live and sometimes disruptive audience. What do you think about theme? Continue the conversation on Facebook in the Meeple Nation Off Air group or on Boardgamegeek.com in our guild.