A blog for the latest in tabletop gaming with a side of mental health goodness!
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As it happens, I live and teach in John Steinbeck's hometown. From my lecture hall at the college I can see the roof of the home he grew up in. And he is buried less than the length of three football fields from my home. And there are no book stores or board game stores here. The nearest game store with anything but Pokemon or Magic: The Gathering is an hour away. So when I am travelling out of…
Spirits of Christmas - Game Review A Holiday Themed Game With Ten Variations That You Can Play All Year “If I had my will, every idiot who goes about making Christmas games would be boiled in his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart!” - Ebenezer Scroggie, the Scottish man whose tombstone inspired Charles Dickens to create Ebenezer Scrooge…probably. But even old Scrooge -…
Are you addicted to purchasing board games in general? A quick note about this blog… Remember: Dr. Matt is not a clinician. Nothing in this post is intended to diagnose or treat and disorder or illness. If you think you need help with your mental health and wellness, or are experiencing an emergency, seek qualified care immediately. Anyone who has ever played an RPG knows that choices have…
Wargames and the Veteran Conspiring to destroy the Roman Empire on my lunch break (Game: Rome Must Fall - a solitaire, roll & write PnP by Martin Melbardis) To begin with, I am not a "combat veteran." This often leads to awkward conversations when people see, old on-legged me, stumping around in a US Navy Ball cap or t-shirt. No. I wasn't blown up or shot. And the only shots I "fired in anger"…
This post is about the now classic Stonemaier Game, Wingspan. Others have long ago provided excellent reviews and "how-to-play" resources, so I will not be "Wingsplaining" those to you. This blog is primarily concered with the mental health benefits of board gaming. But before I explain that, I need to provide some background. When I entered the world, my parents were recently re-married. All of…
For the first time in decades I am playing through a long campaign role-playing game. And because I wanted to support the developers of this particular game, I threw a lot of money into add-ons. In this case, that meant purchasing a branded journal for the game. At first, I merely made notes about bits of lore and the various artifacts and NPCs I found or encountered. But, then I began to add more…
In 25 years of trauma, grief, and recovery work, I have learned a lot about what hurts us. And, boy howdy, do we tend to get hurt. A lot. And life starts swinging early. When I first started studying Adverse Childhood Experiences two decades ago, we knew that childhood trauma was bad. The research into ACEs has since grown immensely, and the impact of childhood trauma has now been proven to reach…
One of my warm pre-teen memories was hanging out with three of my friends in an attic bedroom, sitting on avocado-green shag carpet and playing Dungeons and Dragons. Our party was often serious, frequently silly, and not nearly as smart as we thought we were - which led to our poor dungeonmaster's frustration on many occasions. Sadly, those days were short, and our party was split up by high…
Greetings! I am Dr. Matt, a cognitve scientist and teacher/professor who loves board gaming. With this blog, I hope to share what's new and exciting in the tabletop gaming community while also offering up insights into the cognitive and emotional benefits of this great hobby. My research over the years has focused on trauma and resilience, and how they impact the ways we think and manage our…
