Opinions May Vary

You're going to want to set yourself a reminder for March 2nd. I realize that doesn't make any sense at the moment, but bear with me because this week we're talking about a rad little card game called "Doomlings". To put it simply, Doomlings is described as "A delightful card game for the end of the world" and it's coming to Kickstarter soon on, you guessed it, March 2nd! We're especially psyched about this one because while Doomlings is cute and easy to learn, it's also surprisingly strategic and we had the absolute pleasure of talking with two of the developers, , all about the creation, development, and challenges that went into creating such a neat game about the world ending. Alex has already posted some videos over on our showing a quick run-down of the game and some mechanics. But if you wanted to learn more be sure to check out the , subscribe to their newsletter and keep your eyes peeled for the March 2nd Kickstarter launch! Enjoy! -Jr.

With the last episode being such a major departure from what we typically talk about here on OMV, it would probably be a good idea to get back to basics and start talking about comics, movies, and videogames again. But we didn't. We kinda did. But we mostly didn't. Have I completely lost you yet? I hope not because this week we got to talk with a super rad guest in musician and YouTuber Christina Pepper! Christina is a professional pianist who has been uploading pieces to YouTube for over a decade now. While that is a feat in and of itself, in 2018 she expanded the channel to include accompaniment tracks with the intent of helping other musicians practice when a pianist isn't readily available. With the pandemic obliterating everyone's plans for almost all of 2020 and now the beginning of 2021, I don't think anyone would fault Christina for taking it easy and putting her channel on hold for a bit. But she didn't. In fact, according to her video feed she has uploaded almost 20 videos in the last month alone. She has used the pandemic and all this newfound free time as an excuse to help people even more and it's great. If you haven't already, be sure to check out her and . And if you feel like supporting Christina even more, you can donate to her on and even commission a custom piano accompaniment/karaoke piece! Enjoy! -Jr.

So, yeah. This one is a bit of a departure from our normal song-and-dance. Rather than discuss the latest happenings in the comics world, the next neat thing coming to Kickstarter, or bothering one of our friends to come on and talk about Star Wars or something....we took a dive into the world of diamond hands and rocket ships. Hedge funds and short squeezes. Folks. We're talking about the stock market. One could make the argument that "hey, it's GameStop! Videogames! OMV talks about videogames all the time!" but it really has almost nothing to do with videogames. But, seeing as it's a massive, game changing moment in history that, to this day, is evolving and yet unresolved we thought we take a stab at talking about it. One thing to note that's probably pretty obvious but needs to be stated: Neither of us are financial professionals and nothing said in this episode should be taken as advice. With that said, we hope you enjoy our attempt at explaining this whole thing. At the very least, maybe some of the memes will make a little more sense now. Enjoy! -Jr.

Happy New Year, ya'll! We're kicking 2021 off with a bang as this week we had the absolute pleasure of chatting with the founder of - Bradly Halestorm! I case you're not familiar, Bradly and his team at LionWing specialize in localizing Eastern tabletop games for gamers in the West. In other words: they specialize in one of the most challenging and meticulous jobs in the industry. One might think it's as simple as asking the Google to translate some words into English and calling it a day. And one would be wrong. So very, very wrong. There's so much more to it than simply translating text verbatim and in this episode Bradly gave us the inside scoop on all the work that goes into localizing Japanese board games. LionWing Kickstarted three different games in 2020 alone and, despite the ongoing pandemic, they have no plans of slowing down. They're charging full-steam-ahead into 2021 with their first campaign of the year launching next month. Check out the landing page for to learn more! Huge thanks to Bradly for taking the time to join us and to his team for doing what they do. Be sure to follow them on the and keep your eyes peeled for future campaigns...you never know what game might be coming next! Enjoy! -Jr.

This pandemic sucks. I think we're all aware of it and we can all agree the last 10 months have just straight up sucked. I could write about 5,000 words just off the top of my head listing off all the sucky things about pandemics but I'm not going to do that. What I'm going to do is hype up our friend Babs because unlike me, she has spent her pandemic time being productive. Specifically, she has spent her pandemic time logging literally hundreds of hours as virtual Dungeon Master in multiple D&D games and is showing no signs of slowing down. In fact, in a way it almost feels like she's just getting started? (Listen to the episode, you'll get what I'm talking about once you hear how good she is at this stuff.) I have played the role of Dungeon Master one (1) time in my life in a one-shot that lasted maybe 4 hours and it was exhausting, stressful, confusing, ...and an absolute blast. So when I'm casually scrolling through my Twitter feed and I see countless tweets from Babs and what she's been doing with any number of the seven (7!!!) groups she's currently running I can't help but be blown away by not only her work ethic, but also her creativity and stamina. DM'ing can be tough, DM'ing for dozens of people multiple times a week? I'm exhausted just thinking about it. The ultimate irony? As I work on this episode I'm also preparing to take part in a game she's running later today. That's how fast she works. We recorded this episode on Monday and now today, Saturday, she's got a game set up for me and the usual gang. (I'm playing a paladin named Seraph, how rad is that?) For reference, I think it took me about a month of planning for the one-shot I ran a few years ago. Bonkers. So yeah. We talked with Babs about D&D this week and I'm psyched with how this episode came out. Be sure to give Babs a follow on the and do the usual like/share/subscribe if you dug the episode. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a brand new character I made at 11pm on Christmas Day that I have to familiarize myself with. Enjoy! -Jr.

That's right, folks. It's just us and this week we're getting festive. The holidays have always had a special place in my heart. Growing up, Christmas was always the best day of the year and my parents did everything they could to make sure that me and my two siblings enjoyed every moment of it. Now, many moons and 10 years of holiday retail later......you'd be surprised to learn that not much has changed. I still love the holidays and everything that comes with them and even though this year is going to be a little different, I'm still looking forward to "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year". With that said, we thought it would be fun to get festive and take a trip down memory lane as we talk about past holidays and the things that meant most to us. Also presents. Mostly presents. It's not that presents mean the most to us, but my initial pitch to Alex was I guess if we dive deep into my subconscious it was just an excuse to talk about toys. But overall, the episode ended up being about more than just presents. We also dove into the differences between families and how the holidays can mean the world to some people, but not as much to others. I could ramble endlessly about holiday stuff (hell we didn't even touch on movies) but I'm guessing I've already lost most of the audience already so I'll end it here. Check out the 'sode, like/share/subscribe, and drop a comment if you want to join in on the conversation. Enjoy! -Jr.

Reddit is the ultimate time waster. I can't begin to count the amount of hours I have spent scrolling on that damn site and for the most part it's full of things that make me smile, laugh, or want to happy cry. There is some garbage there, like any other site (and long time listeners know I've been critical of Reddit in the past) but it's mostly full of things I enjoy seeing. Now rewind to a little over two years ago. A young and innocent Jayare casually scrolling through his various subreddits suddenly comes across this beautiful barbarian dragonman and it's love at first sight: You see, for the last couple of years I have been playing my own dragonborn barbarian in an ongoing D&D quest and of all the fan art and commissions that I have seen, this is without a doubt the closest representation of what I've been picturing in my head when it comes to how my guy would look. As it turns out, this piece was a commission for someone and their character named "Krivgar Vuldrear" and it was brought to life by illustrator Peter Lim aka Polygraf. Now, two years later, through the power of the internet Peter was kind enough to come on our show and chat with us about his beginnings, his experiences in the D&D and fantasy worlds, and how he's been able to adapt and improve his artistic abilities every time he hits a dreaded plateau. As usual, be sure to check out Peter's on all his and if you've been looking for someone to bring your favorite original character to life, who knows? You might have just found your guy. Enjoy! -Jr.

Reddit is the ultimate time waster. I can't begin to count the amount of hours I have spent scrolling on that damn site and for the most part it's full of things that make me smile, laugh, or want to happy cry. There is some garbage there, like any other site (and long time listeners know I've been critical of Reddit in the past) but it's mostly full of things I enjoy seeing. Now rewind to a little over two years ago. A young and innocent Jayare casually scrolling through his various subreddits suddenly comes across this beautiful barbarian dragonman and it's love at first sight: You see, for the last couple of years I have been playing my own dragonborn barbarian in an ongoing D&D quest and of all the fan art and commissions that I have seen, this is without a doubt the closest representation of what I've been picturing in my head when it comes to how my guy would look. As it turns out, this piece was a commission for someone and their character named "Krivgar Vuldrear" and it was brought to life by illustrator Peter Lim aka Polygraf. Now, two years later, through the power of the internet Peter was kind enough to come on our show and chat with us about his beginnings, his experiences in the D&D and fantasy worlds, and how he's been able to adapt and improve his artistic abilities every time he hits a dreaded plateau. As usual, be sure to check out Peter's on all his and if you've been looking for someone to bring your favorite original character to life, who knows? You might have just found your guy. Enjoy! -Jr.

And we're back! Jumping right into things, I'm going to start off by just saying toys are rad. Yes, I'm in my mid 30s. Yes, I have little-to-no use for toys these days besides displaying them on a shelf. And yes, I'm stuck in the past when it comes to my bias towards certain brands. But toys are rad and talking about toys with someone who designs them for a living is even more rad. And that's where this week's guest comes in. Len Nicholas is a designer and concept artist who has worked for brands like Fisher Price, Hasbro, Spin Master, Honda, and Toyota to name a few. From GI Joe to Paw Patrol, presentation rendering to mechanical design, Len has seen and done just about everything in his 20+ years in the business. He's also a huge Pokemon and LEGO fan so needless to say he fits right in with the OMV aesthetic. Check out our chat with Len and browse his while you're at it (we reference it a bunch so it'll be a handy resource); it's jam-packed with robots, toys, LEGO creations, and Otters. What more could you ask for? Enjoy! -Jr.

Happy Halloween, everyone! We're closing out the spooky season in style by visiting one of our favorite topics to talk about every year: haunted houses. This one is extra special because we've gathered five (5!!) of our closest haunt friends to discuss the dream scenario: Create the perfect haunted house. Create a reasonable, realistic house. And create the ultimate, no-holds-barred, sky is the limit, dream house. The combined haunting experience between everyone who took part in this episode probably clocks in at around 75+ cumulative seasons. That's a whole lotta screaming, shocking, scaring, and spooking and all of that experience certainly makes for some amazing haunted house ideas. Enjoy! -Jr.