User:Percy Snoodle/The Dice Tower

The Dice Tower is one of the most popular podcasts about board games with nearly 2500 downloads per episode. It is hosted by noted and prolific game reviewer Tom Vasel and co-hosted by Sam Healey,. It is distributed by Funagain Games and each episode appears on BoardGameGeek and boardgamenews.com.

History
The Dice Tower started in May 2005, with Vasel and Joe Steadman hosting. In the original format, Vasel represented players who prefer German-style "Eurogames", while Steadman advocated for those who prefer wargames. Healey joined the hosts after about 30 episodes, but didn't contribute as much as Vasel and Steadman until Steadman left the show in May 2006. The site contains many reviews and light hearted commentary on the hobby of board gaming.

Steadman left after the 50th episode. Vasel, hosting alone with occasional input from Healey for a few shows, rearranged the format to include recorded segments by guest reviewers and players. Gradually Healey began to take a larger role and was eventually promoted to co-host.

The show was released weekly until mid-2007, when it went to a bi-weekly format. The podcast is available in both standard and enhanced formats, and is hosted by Funagain Games, which also provides an archive of several past episodes. The podcast is also available for subscription through iTunes. A discussion forum is also available at The Dice Tower Guild on boardgamegeek.com.

Show Format
Each episode of the podcast includes several regular segments and several occasional segments. The core of every episode is the "Gaming Top Ten", where Vasel and Healy (and sometimes others) provided their top ten games in a particular category (i.e. Top Ten Trading Games, Top Ten Card Games, etc.) which provides the show with its title. Most shows start with Vasel and Healy discussing the games that they've recently played. News from the boardgaming world usually follows, which is in turn followed by a segment from German contributor Moritz Eggert. The podcast also features frequent contests, where listeners can enter to win one or more games from a sponsoring company.

On occasion, Vasel produces a special episode in which he interviews an important figure in the boardgaming community.

The Dice Tower web site features past top-ten lists and Vasel's in-depth reviews of boardgames. Vasel's reviews are also used by board game publishers for promotion of their games.

Contributors and Former Contributors
Frequent Dice Tower contributors include:
 * Moritz Eggert, a German citizen who presents a German perspective on the topic of board games
 * Geoffrey Engelstein, who provides technical insight into the mechanics of gaming with his GameTek segment
 * Paul Glenn, who provides a segment discussing war-themed games
 * Mike Hibbert, who provides the segment "Board Gaming from Blighty"
 * W. Eric Martin, editor of Boardgamenews.com who provides the news segment on the show
 * Greg Schloesser, a frequent reviewer at boardgamegeek.com, who provides commentary on newly released boardgames and occasionally provides a guest "top ten" list
 * Eric Summerer, who provides humorous voice work for the podcast and occasional "Seventy-Two Second Reviews" of boardgames

Former regular contributors include:
 * Doug Cooley ("Fun with Mr. Whiney" segment)
 * David Fair ("The Fair Game" segment)
 * Mike Fitzgerald (Voice- work)
 * Mary "Diceychic" Prasad, ("Tidbits with Diceychic")
 * Rick Thornquist (News segment)
 * Jason White (Wargaming segment)

Links

 * The Dice Tower
 * iTunes feed
 * Show listing at Podcast Alley