About The Boardgame Broadcaster

Staff

• Cedric Okonkwo

  Founding Editor

  Board game historian who can trace the lineage of any worker-placement mechanism back to its ur-source and will do so whether you want him to or not. Cedric spent a decade in museum curation before realizing that the most interesting artifacts were the ones people were still fighting over on Tuesday nights. His deep dives into design genealogy have made him the person publishers quietly consult when they're worried about accusations of 'borrowing' mechanics.

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  Board game historian who can trace the lineage of any worker-placement mechanism back to its ur-source and will do so whether you want him to or not. Cedric spent a decade in museum curation before realizing that the most interesting artifacts were the ones people were still fighting over on Tuesday nights. His deep dives into design genealogy have made him the person publishers quietly consult when they're worried about accusations of 'borrowing' mechanics.

• Dex Calloway

  Standards Correspondent

  A former improv comedian who treats every board game article like a tight five at a comedy club. Dex covers game night culture, party games, and the psychodrama of playing Diplomacy with people you have to see at work on Monday. He's the only journalist at The Boardgame Broadcaster who has been formally banned from a game café, a story he tells differently every time.

  Read full bio

  A former improv comedian who treats every board game article like a tight five at a comedy club. Dex covers game night culture, party games, and the psychodrama of playing Diplomacy with people you have to see at work on Monday. He's the only journalist at The Boardgame Broadcaster who has been formally banned from a game café, a story he tells differently every time.

• Duncan Meeple

  Civic Affairs Desk

  Board game reviewer who has logged over 4,000 plays and still cannot explain the rules of Agricola in under forty minutes.

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  Board game reviewer who has logged over 4,000 plays and still cannot explain the rules of Agricola in under forty minutes.

• Harriet Vanderwall

  Culture Columnist

  Former war correspondent who pivoted to board games after a particularly intense game of Twilight Imperium reminded her of actual UN negotiations she'd covered. Harriet treats every Eurogame release like a geopolitical event and every errata document like a leaked diplomatic cable. She covers heavy strategy games and the competitive scene with the gravity of someone who has seen real conflict and finds cardboard conflict refreshingly honest.

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  Former war correspondent who pivoted to board games after a particularly intense game of Twilight Imperium reminded her of actual UN negotiations she'd covered. Harriet treats every Eurogame release like a geopolitical event and every errata document like a leaked diplomatic cable. She covers heavy strategy games and the competitive scene with the gravity of someone who has seen real conflict and finds cardboard conflict refreshingly honest.

• Juniper Rao

  Field Reporter

  A game designer and solo-gaming evangelist who believes the highest form of the hobby is one person, one table, and a spreadsheet of campaign notes. Juniper designs print-and-play solo games in her spare time and reviews everything through the lens of 'but can I play this alone at midnight without waking my partner?' Her column 'Table for One' is required reading for the solo gaming community and a gentle provocation to everyone else.

  Read full bio

  A game designer and solo-gaming evangelist who believes the highest form of the hobby is one person, one table, and a spreadsheet of campaign notes. Juniper designs print-and-play solo games in her spare time and reviews everything through the lens of 'but can I play this alone at midnight without waking my partner?' Her column 'Table for One' is required reading for the solo gaming community and a gentle provocation to everyone else.

• Malcolm Trent

  Letters Editor

  A grizzled game store owner from Leeds who has been running organized play since the early '90s and has Opinions about what's gone wrong since. Malcolm has seen every trend cycle from collectible card games to legacy boxes and greets each new Kickstarter campaign with the weary skepticism of a man who's seen too many 'revolutionary' games end up in the clearance bin. He writes about the industry, retail, and the slow death of the friendly local game store.

  Read full bio

  A grizzled game store owner from Leeds who has been running organized play since the early '90s and has Opinions about what's gone wrong since. Malcolm has seen every trend cycle from collectible card games to legacy boxes and greets each new Kickstarter campaign with the weary skepticism of a man who's seen too many 'revolutionary' games end up in the clearance bin. He writes about the industry, retail, and the slow death of the friendly local game store.

• Nadia Voss

  Institutional Memory Desk

  A contrarian critic who made her name arguing that Catan is a better design than most games ranked above it on BGG and has been picking fights with consensus ever since. Nadia comes from the wine criticism world, where she learned that most people are rating vibes, not substance, and she applies the same forensic skepticism to the BGG Top 100. Publishers fear her; designers respect her; Reddit threads about her articles reliably hit 400 comments.

  Read full bio

  A contrarian critic who made her name arguing that Catan is a better design than most games ranked above it on BGG and has been picking fights with consensus ever since. Nadia comes from the wine criticism world, where she learned that most people are rating vibes, not substance, and she applies the same forensic skepticism to the BGG Top 100. Publishers fear her; designers respect her; Reddit threads about her articles reliably hit 400 comments.

• Priya Narayanan

  Weekend Editor

  A UX designer by day who reviews board games the way she reviews interfaces: ruthlessly, with empathy for the confused first-time user. Priya is the person who actually reads the entire rulebook before game night and then rewrites it better on her blog. She covers onboarding experience, component quality, and accessibility — the unsexy stuff that determines whether a game gets played twice or gathers Kallax dust.

  Read full bio

  A UX designer by day who reviews board games the way she reviews interfaces: ruthlessly, with empathy for the confused first-time user. Priya is the person who actually reads the entire rulebook before game night and then rewrites it better on her blog. She covers onboarding experience, component quality, and accessibility — the unsexy stuff that determines whether a game gets played twice or gathers Kallax dust.

• Shelby Mack

  Public Records Fellow

  Got into board games eighteen months ago when her roommate made her play Wingspan and now won't shut up about it. Shelby covers the hobby with the unfiltered enthusiasm and genuine confusion of someone still learning what 'action economy' means but smart enough to ask why a $120 box of cardboard doesn't include an insert. Her column 'Wait, Why?' has become a cult favorite for articulating the things veterans are too jaded to question anymore.

  Read full bio

  Got into board games eighteen months ago when her roommate made her play Wingspan and now won't shut up about it. Shelby covers the hobby with the unfiltered enthusiasm and genuine confusion of someone still learning what 'action economy' means but smart enough to ask why a $120 box of cardboard doesn't include an insert. Her column 'Wait, Why?' has become a cult favorite for articulating the things veterans are too jaded to question anymore.

• Tomás Quiroga

  Copy Chief

  A retired statistics professor from Buenos Aires who discovered that the most interesting datasets in the world live inside cardboard boxes. Tomás doesn't review games — he audits them, running hundreds of simulated turns before publishing probability breakdowns nobody asked for but everyone bookmarks. His column 'Expected Values' has turned more casual gamers into spreadsheet addicts than Excel ever did.

  Read full bio

  A retired statistics professor from Buenos Aires who discovered that the most interesting datasets in the world live inside cardboard boxes. Tomás doesn't review games — he audits them, running hundreds of simulated turns before publishing probability breakdowns nobody asked for but everyone bookmarks. His column 'Expected Values' has turned more casual gamers into spreadsheet addicts than Excel ever did.