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The Lighten Up Initiative
United States
Приєднався 20 лип 2016
The Lighten Up Initiative is where you’ll find positive, humorous, and not-so-serious videos about board games.
I got tired of all the complaining, criticism, pettiness, and negativity I was seeing in the board game hobby, so I decided to do something about it. Since 2018 I’ve been delivering board game reviews, unboxing videos, sketch comedy, and how to play videos, all with a comedic approach. Sometimes I’ll show you an awesome game and sometimes I’ll poke fun at our hobby and its quirks.
If you like your board game content to be entertaining, or you just need breaks from the negativity running rampant online, subscribe to my channel right now!
I got tired of all the complaining, criticism, pettiness, and negativity I was seeing in the board game hobby, so I decided to do something about it. Since 2018 I’ve been delivering board game reviews, unboxing videos, sketch comedy, and how to play videos, all with a comedic approach. Sometimes I’ll show you an awesome game and sometimes I’ll poke fun at our hobby and its quirks.
If you like your board game content to be entertaining, or you just need breaks from the negativity running rampant online, subscribe to my channel right now!
Color Code Board Game Preview
Spencer previews the coloriffic party game, Color Code, from Chili Island!
KICKSTARTER Link: www.kickstarter.com/projects/mogli-distribution/color-code?ref=42kibt
This video is sponsored by Queen Games.
This video is made possible by Game Toppers - Learn more about upgrading your gaming experience: bit.ly/32DwvLf
Get your own Lighten Up MERCH: shop.spreadshirt.com/lighten-up/
Want to try the mystery-solving experience HUNT A KILLER? Sign up and use promo code "LIGHTEN" to get 20% off your order: www.huntakiller.com/
Join the Lighten Up Community on Facebook for all sorts of discussions about board games: groups/letsalllightenup/
SUBSCRIBE ----- ua-cam.com/users/TheLightenUpInitiative
Follow The Lighten Up Initiative on:
Facebook: heylightenup/
Twitter: hey_lightenup
Instagram: hey_lightenup
More info about Color Code: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/342211/color-code
KICKSTARTER Link: www.kickstarter.com/projects/mogli-distribution/color-code?ref=42kibt
This video is sponsored by Queen Games.
This video is made possible by Game Toppers - Learn more about upgrading your gaming experience: bit.ly/32DwvLf
Get your own Lighten Up MERCH: shop.spreadshirt.com/lighten-up/
Want to try the mystery-solving experience HUNT A KILLER? Sign up and use promo code "LIGHTEN" to get 20% off your order: www.huntakiller.com/
Join the Lighten Up Community on Facebook for all sorts of discussions about board games: groups/letsalllightenup/
SUBSCRIBE ----- ua-cam.com/users/TheLightenUpInitiative
Follow The Lighten Up Initiative on:
Facebook: heylightenup/
Twitter: hey_lightenup
Instagram: hey_lightenup
More info about Color Code: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/342211/color-code
Переглядів: 1 049
Відео
Pachamama Board Game Preview
Переглядів 9932 роки тому
Spencer previews the deduction and exploration game, Pachamama from Sit Down Games. Gamefound campaign link: gamefound.com/projects/sitdown/pachamama#/section/project-story This video is made possible by Game Toppers - Learn more about upgrading your gaming experience: bit.ly/32DwvLf Get your own Lighten Up MERCH: shop.spreadshirt.com/lighten-up/ Want to try the mystery-solving experience HUNT ...
Circadians: Chaos Order Preview
Переглядів 1,1 тис.2 роки тому
Spencer gives you a preview of the board game Circadians: Chaos Order! Link to Kickstarter page: www.kickstarter.com/projects/shem/circadians-chaos-order-first-light-2nd-edition Learn more about the game: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/329226/circadians-chaos-order This video is made possible by Game Toppers - Learn more about upgrading your gaming experience: bit.ly/32DwvLf Get your own Lighten U...
Game of Hunt Preview with Emma and Jane
Переглядів 1992 роки тому
Spencer, Emma, and Jane give you a preview of the family cooperative game called Game of Hunt! Learn more about the game and hear their thoughts. Kickstarter Link: www.kickstarter.com/projects/alexanderkhorunzhiy/game-of-hunt-family-magnetic-board-game/ This video is made possible by Game Toppers - Learn more about upgrading your gaming experience: bit.ly/32DwvLf Get your own Lighten Up MERCH: ...
Backyard Chickens Preview - Cluck Cluck!
Переглядів 2463 роки тому
Spencer previews the board game Backyard Chickens from August Games! Backyard Chickens is a deckbuilding game for 2 - 5 players. Kickstarter link: www.kickstarter.com/projects/augustgames/backyard-chickens This video is made possible by Game Toppers - Learn more about upgrading your gaming experience: bit.ly/32DwvLf Get your own Lighten Up MERCH: shop.spreadshirt.com/lighten-up/ Want to try the...
Tabletop Gaming Accessories from The Plastic Dragon - Quick Unboxing
Переглядів 1973 роки тому
The Plastic Dragon makes all sorts of gaming accessories for tabletop gaming. Check out this impromptu video I made of me unboxing what they sent me. Full video feature to come soon. You can get 10% off your order from The Plastic Dragon by using code "lightenup" at www.theplasticdragon.net/ This video is made possible by Game Toppers - Learn more about upgrading your gaming experience: bit.ly/...
The Night Cage Review - Watch Your Step!
Переглядів 2 тис.3 роки тому
Spencer reviews the creepy board game The Night Cage by candlelight! You know, to be thematic. Learn more about this cooperative game for 1-5 players from designers Christopher Ryan Chan, Chris McMahon, Rosswell Saunders, and publisher Smirk and Dagger Games. This video is made possible by Game Toppers - Learn more about upgrading your gaming experience: bit.ly/32DwvLf Get your own Lighten Up M...
Turf War Playthrough
Переглядів 8043 роки тому
Spencer and Lara playthrough a game of Turf War, designed by Dan Nichols and published by Gadabout Games. Kickstarter link: turfwar.info/kickstarter Preview video: ua-cam.com/video/-RLX_NOM7xU/v-deo.html This video is made possible by Game Toppers - Learn more about upgrading your gaming experience: bit.ly/32DwvLf Want to try the mystery-solving experience HUNT A KILLER? Sign up and use promo c...
Turf War Preview - Get Off My Lawn!
Переглядів 1133 роки тому
Spencer previews Turf War, a card game about building the best yard by Dan Nichols from Gadabout Games! This video is sponsored in part by Gadabout Games. Kickstarter link: turfwar.info/kickstarter Playthrough video: ua-cam.com/video/-RLX_NOM7xU/v-deo.html This video is made possible by Game Toppers - Learn more about upgrading your gaming experience: bit.ly/32DwvLf Want to try the mystery-solv...
Pirates Kickstarter Preview - A Swashbuckling Good Time
Переглядів 4833 роки тому
Spencer previews Stefan Dorra's Pirates, published by Queen Games. Pirates features art from the comic book Bonnies Lass, illustrated by Michael Mayne. This board game preview is sponsored in part by Queen Games. Kickstarter link: www.kickstarter.com/projects/queengames/pirates This video is made possible by Game Toppers - Learn more about upgrading your gaming experience: bit.ly/32DwvLf Get yo...
Taelmoor Kickstarter Preview - A QR Code Board Game
Переглядів 5483 роки тому
Spencer previews the dungeon-crawl board game that uses QR code technology, Taelmoor! Check out Taelmoor on Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/delvebros/taelmoor-the-scan-and-play-dungeon-crawler?ref=f526u9 This video is made possible by Game Toppers - Learn more about upgrading your gaming experience: bit.ly/32DwvLf Get your own Lighten Up MERCH: shop.spreadshirt.com/lighten-up/ SUBSCRI...
Now or Never Playthrough with Spencer and Lara
Переглядів 3,3 тис.3 роки тому
Spencer and Lara play through Now or Never from Red Raven Games! This video is made possible by Game Toppers - Learn more about upgrading your gaming experience: bit.ly/32DwvLf Get your own Lighten Up MERCH: shop.spreadshirt.com/lighten-up/ SUBSCRIBE ua-cam.com/users/TheLightenUpInitiative Producers: Jordan DeKleer Joe Comings Spencer and Lara Williams Zack Brasfield Brandon Scotland Adam Beard...
Top 10 Board Games of 2021 So Far
Переглядів 3,4 тис.3 роки тому
Spencer Williams lists his top 10 board games of 2021... so far! #10 - 00:36 #9 - 01:50 #8 - 02:48 #7 - 03:44 #6 - 04:27 #5 - 05:57 #4 - 06:41 #3 - 07:07 #2 - 07:55 #1 - 08:51 This video is made possible by Game Toppers - Learn more about upgrading your gaming experience: bit.ly/32DwvLf Get 10% off games and puzzles with code “lightenup” at bit.ly/3hJfPKq Get your own Lighten Up MERCH: www.ligh...
Methodologie: The Murder on the Links Preview
Переглядів 3753 роки тому
Spencer previews the social deduction board game Methodologie: The Murder on the Links. Learn more about this game based on Agatha Christie’s mystery novel. Methodologie: The Murder on the Links is published by Gray Wolf Games, now on Kickstarter: www.kickstarter.com/projects/graywolfgames/methodologie This video is made possible by Game Toppers - Learn more about upgrading your gaming experien...
Oath Board Game Review: History in the Making
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Spencer Williams shares his review of Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile. In this Oath review, Spencer focuses on helping you determine if you should buy the game or not. This video is made possible by Game Toppers - Learn more about upgrading your gaming experience: bit.ly/32DwvLf Buy Lighten Up MERCH: shop.spreadshirt.com/lighten-up/ WATCH: Top 10 Most Anticipated Games of 2021 - ua-cam.com...
Alien Petshop Playthrough with Spencer and Lara
Переглядів 4483 роки тому
Alien Petshop Playthrough with Spencer and Lara
Escape Room Jigsaw Puzzle Comparison
Переглядів 2,3 тис.3 роки тому
Escape Room Jigsaw Puzzle Comparison
10 Best Board Games for Large Groups
Переглядів 4,9 тис.3 роки тому
10 Best Board Games for Large Groups
Chronicles of Crime 1900 Playthrough with Spencer Williams
Переглядів 1,4 тис.3 роки тому
Chronicles of Crime 1900 Playthrough with Spencer Williams
On My Own - Board Game Les Miserables Parody
Переглядів 1,9 тис.3 роки тому
On My Own - Board Game Les Miserables Parody
very funny and good rules explanation - thanks!
no Spirit Island????
Betewie 😂
Siberia = the coldest part of the Asian continent in the far east Iberia = the peninsula in Europe where Spain and Portugal are located
I prefer the original with its expansions over the others, because I prefer general game mechanics with good variability over a one-time story and ripping up cards. Iberia is nice and all but not as good as other people seem to think. For me it feels less thematic for some reason. You can't even cure the diseases! And hospitals just stack the incoming patients. The railroad aspect is good, but more or less the same every game. I also have a special interest in Rising Tide, because I live in Europe somewhat near the Netherlands and been there for holidays and because the (historic) land gaining and flood protection in the Netherlands is fairly fascinating. Not a fan of the small Hot Zone versions. They're just too small and unsatisfying. And yeah, I heavily dislike destructive legacy games.
That was very entertaining! Karen Puzzles herself looked up the clues on Line for all the steps lol when she did her first one.
actually they are pretty dumb
I have Iberia and I love it! In plans of buying season 1
Hot Zone now has an Europe map. I like the Hot Zone series to play solo. I think Iberia is the best game, but I have not played it enough. So based on my family's prefernces, I would rank the top 4 like this: 4. Hot Zone 3. Iberia, 2. the original Pandemic and 1. Reign of Cthulhu.
1:40 Those dice are awful. How is anyone sitting around the table supposed to tell what side is up. I can't even tell from a close-up in the video. Who comes up with such garbage?
Yes that Little ball of fur was from big bang theory.
This was super helpful, I just got this game and I really appreciated this video for explaining everything so clearly!
great video, and so few available for this great game, so thanks for covering it!
I am to stupid for this game.
This game looks fun, some adults might not like it, but my family will
The Secret Lab just pissed me off. Some of the riddles made absolutely no sense, even with the clues.
Thanks for this! I've been going down a rabbit hole of You Tube videos about gaming and mental health. At my job, (assistant teacher) I have a group of second grade boys on the spectrum and we have an hour session a week called Games with Ms Kay, learning social skills by playing games. My goals are teaching them to take turns, lose gracefully and that the fun of games is playing with friends, NOT winning. So many benefits to gaming! Thank you for sharing your story. In a funny coincidence, I asked my son to get me Bottom of the 9th for Christmas!
Way too complicated I do not get it one bit
Do you know Odessa is a city in Ukraine?
I just picked up Pandemic Iberia recently it is beautiful and the mechanic of building a hospital for each disease and the closest cubes move toward the hospital a very cool mechanic
Suggestion: You guys should have made the list together before the video started. There is too much over lapping this way....and it is very confusing. Since you never match every puzzel need to be discussed twice. A waste of time You need to talk about one puzzel at a time not two.
Odessa is als a town in Ukrain:)
Hi. I know this is a few years ago. I love your videos. Do you play full games using the clubhouse expansion? I am trying to learn it now, after a long time owning it. One thing I do which makes things easier to follow is I use the white die for the batter. Great videos thank you.
Wow! Great video, Spencer! 🎉
A wild Br33zy appears!
This dice tower sucks. The bottom flap falls flat and your dice just drop down forcing you to remove the tower to view your dice.
Yep, noticed this flaw too. Ended up making me buy a different style.
So fun to watch! Also your editor intervention was great!
Just hear to say I miss you and your up beat attitude. Hope you and the family are doing well.
This comment means so much to me! Thank you for the kind words. I’m doing very well, actually. I’m bringing my upbeat attitude to my position as Marketing Manager for GameNerdz.com!! We just launched our UA-cam channel a few months ago and are about to increase our output. Make sure you subscribe @gamenerdzcom and you’ll see plenty of me over there. Thanks again for stopping by!
@@TheLightenUpInitiative that's awesome to hear!!! cannot wait to see what you have in store!
That was a very nice explanation of the rules, thank you!
I picked up the tower - loved it, but couldn't figure out why the extra square piece was for. Thanks to this video, I now know it just goes on the back for stand alone purposes...You would probably also use it to hold stuff to the tower, like initiative order
I have a dice roller similar but has all these flaps in tower part that get in way. I can’t figure out how those are supposed to fold
Id like to buy It, playing solo but with multiplayers rules, multi-handling 4 players and roll a d20 for alliences and ecc. Should be a big RPG in solo 😊.
Thanks for this. I've been watching tutorials and got most of the rules down, but seeing it played back and forth between players made things like understanding spell tokens and the order of rolling much more simple
The best interviewer I've seen, and the great interviewed mice in human skin. This a great interview
Hi there! I've been playing this game very hardcore recently, and while watching your gameplay I've noticed several mistakes, so I decided to clear them up for you and anybody that watches this video and wants to not get confused throughout the video in order to not miss on any rule when their time to play comes. - 11:23 You should have damaged Sirius Black since he's in the location Voldemort is attacking (You correct this concept later, so is not a big deal). - 12:02 You should remove the corruption right away after using the die. The only things that resolve at the end of the turn are recruiting Wizards and defeating Death Eaters. Everything else must be resolved inmediately, like Wizard abilities or Headquarters abilities. - 14:30 You forgot to activate Antonin's hability (which also happens at 18:16, 20:50 and 27:36). Big deal :P - 18:16 This time you remembered to damage your own Wizards, but forgot to put corruption, ups!. - 19:45 It's not true that after you defeat a Death Eater you get to remove a corruption from the location (oh, you corrected yourself at 21:24 ^^). - 22:30 Sybill and Dean allow you to reroll any of the "remaining" dice before the option of assigning them, so you could have done it (several times until chat told you eventually). - 24:37 Using the extra die is allowed anytime, but rolling it alone is not legal. After you roll your dice, if you decide to take an the extra die from a token, it should be used alongside the remaining ones in the next roll. - 25:52 You forgot to grab a spell token after damaging Peter (You grabbed it later though ^^) - 42:38 You can't use the token to heal Wizards that are not in your zone, at least that's how I interpret the Rulebook's section "TRAVEL TO A LOCATION" that says: "players can only interact with the 3 face-up-characters at this Place, the Place itself and the Wizards of their team, unless an ability says otherwise". Tokens (also Wizards that can remove damage from a Wizard, like "Ernie", Luna or Pomfrey) just say "Remove X Damage from X Wizard/s", and by not specifying anything, the only rule in the Rulebook that addresses how can we interact with stuff, should stand. 57:33 You should have damaged your 4 Wizards since they're in the location Voldemort is attacking. 1:01:10 You forgot to activate Nagini's hability (also happens at 1:13:30). 1:30:51 If you decide to move to Voldemort's location, you can only collect your dice pool for the turn based on your initial deployment, so you can't add dice from Wizard abilities (otherwise is almost cost-free, thus overpowered). It may seem impossible to defeat Lord Voldemort while following all these rules by the book (even after reducing Voldemort's damage level to 4), but believe me, it's possible. In fact, in my opinion the beauty of the game relies on that being so big of a challenge, which allows for a lot of replayability. But I understand some may find it oppressive, since in order to win you require not only a certain luck but also an exquisite use of the dice and the skill to choose the right targets constantly (I would have played this game very differently). So if you're not hardcore players, it's fine if a rule or two are less strictly enforced. In that case, I would allow using healing abilities from Wizards and tokens to heal other players on your turn despite them not being at your location. A few tips: - Don't hold extra dice tokens in the early game, recruiting wizards ASAP is key to get to the midgame with enough economy to create counterplay. - I like to put Wizards that give me a die in one side of the Headquarters, while putting the remaining (that are likely to have an ability) in the other side. - I also like to temporarily move down any Wizards whose abilities I've already used (specially when I have a lot of Wizards) to highlight the remaining ones. - I like to put all the tokens gained in the same pool available to all players to make it more clear for everybody. - Travelling to the current Voldemort's location makes it less likely that he will hit us, which sometimes can be a good strategy. - Bellatrix Lestrange and in many cases Lucius Malfoy are the 2 most dangerous Death Eaters that should be addressed ASAP. - When moving to Voldemort's location to attack him, it's still possible to use dice and abilities from tokens, since the Rulebook only forbids adding dice from Wizard abilities. Very fun gameplay nonetheless, and love the camara that allowed me to follow all the action. All the best!
Is it just me, or was watching them try and do this more enjoyable lol. See her face, somebody about to be sleeping on the couch!
I bought 4 of these games at the same time. I just gave up and threw them all away. The print is so, so tiny, it can’t be read. Things that are supposed to line up just don’t. All the materials are just junk. You two are clearly much, much more clever than I am. I am impressed.
The achievements seem great
omg you titled the chapter SIBERIA jesus christ americans with the lack of basic geography knowledge
I just saw the goonies too. It was interesting without nostalgia.
At 37:12 Spencer cheated by taking an extra turn. Filling the order was a anytime action, but using the specialist was an actual turn.
bought this game while watching the video. you sold me so hard
Well presented and edited.
Could you please share the dimensions of the gem cards? I'm considering picking up this expansion and I wonder if there's a sleeve that fits.
I played it for the first time. I really enjoyed it but I didn’t understand why they allowed me to keep track of so many coins when you don’t need that many. Or am I missing something?
idk, Hotzone is not better than the original, it’s not as fun
Thanks for the video Spencer!
So you can use more than one artifact on your turn?
About Rein of Cthulhu i have a criticism. Because the tarjet public of this game was the players of Arkhan Horror and Eldritch horror. 2 Games very hard to beat. So a guess this version of pandemic should be at least had the same level of dificult than the original first version of Pandemic.