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Issue No. 110
Board Game Reviews

RDTN Episode 114 Covers Rum & Bones: Second Tide, They Who Were 8 and 7th Sea

Story by Tony McRee · 353 readers

Episode 114 weighs dice driven pirate battles, a deceptively tricky cube game, and the all-in-one 7th Sea RPG book.

RDTN Episode 114 Covers Rum & Bones: Second Tide, They Who Were 8 and 7th Sea

Episode 114 of Roll Dice Take Names ranges across board game design, tabletop roleplaying, and new releases. Its freshest addition is “Fuzzy Tales,” a segment created by Chaz Marler. The hosts plan to use it to debate questions about game mechanics, themes, and design. The idea sounds weightier in print than it may feel in conversation, but that gives the segment room to become a regular feature—and listeners can suggest what would make it work.

Two games with very different demands

The episode’s “5 Minute Initiative” format gives listeners a quick look at two board games. Rum & Bones: Second Tide, from CMON, follows the original game and brings in mechanics that weren’t present before. The hosts describe it as a dice chucker with tactical decisions around movement and scoring. Players still need to plan where to go and find an efficient route to the victory points they need. Once the fighting starts, though, dice decide how those plans fare.

That mix is the useful thing to know before sitting down: there’s room to think through positioning and objectives, but the outcome of a clash can turn on a roll. Players who enjoy planning their next move while accepting a measure of chance may find that balance appealing. Those who want battles to resolve through careful calculation alone may want to listen to the segment before choosing it. The episode doesn’t provide player counts or play times, so it leaves those practical details for listeners to check elsewhere.

They Who Were 8 makes a different first impression. What looks like a straightforward cube pusher develops into a game of reading opponents and adapting as the position changes. A player can feel ahead, only to find the situation has shifted and they’re scrambling to catch up. That swing makes the scoring rules especially important: the hosts advise reading final scoring more than once before play. Missing how the end is scored can sour a game whose decisions otherwise depend on anticipating what other players will do.

Put side by side, the two quick reviews point to different kinds of tension. In Rum & Bones: Second Tide, planning meets dice as the fighting unfolds. In They Who Were 8, the challenge lies in interpreting a changing board and predicting how other players’ choices will affect the finish. The episode’s brief format won’t answer every rules question, but it offers a clear sense of what each game asks from its table.

A closer look at 7th Sea

Travis, Marty’s son, joins the discussion of 7th Sea, which won the 2016 RPG category in BoardGameGeek’s Golden Geek Awards. He talks about the game’s system and setting, with particular attention to a practical selling point: the core material is collected in one book instead of being spread across several volumes. For groups weighing a new roleplaying game, that can make it easier to see what they need to begin and what the game offers before adding more books to the shelf.

The hosts frame 7th Sea as a pirate-themed roleplaying option. Listeners curious about the award can hear Travis explain what appealed to him, including how the rules and setting fit together. The episode doesn’t reproduce the rulebook; it gives a player’s account of the experience and points interested groups toward the Second Edition core rulebook.

A late addition and the full running order

After recording and editing, the hosts learned from Portal Games about a major 2018 release: Detective: A Modern Crime Boardgame. They added a closing segment using details gathered from Chevee Dodd, Portal Games’ North American representative. The timing makes this a useful snapshot of what caught the show’s attention as the episode came together. The provided details don’t include a price or release date beyond the stated 2018 window, so listeners should treat the segment as an introduction rather than a complete product briefing.

The rest of the running order moves between tabletop topics and lighter conversation. Early segments include “Majority Rules,” a vacation discussion, the 2016 Golden Geek Awards, and roleplaying options. The middle stretch touches on Rising Sun, War of the Ring, Imperial Settlers: Aztecs, 7th Sea, miniature transport, and a Star Wars: Destiny rant. Later, the show returns to They Who Were 8 and Rum & Bones: Second Tide before closing with Detective and listener input about future reviews.

Here’s the complete set of segment times. The mix gives returning listeners a quick way to find a particular discussion, while newcomers can jump straight to the game they’re weighing up.

Listeners can share which games they’d like the hosts to cover next through the show’s review suggestions page. For this episode, the strongest starting points are the tactical uncertainty of Rum & Bones: Second Tide, the shifting finish in They Who Were 8, and Travis’s account of why 7th Sea earned a closer listen.

Source: Tony McRee · rolldicetakenames.com

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