Meet the Members (Membership Introduction & BIO)

[Matt Robertson]

Meet the Members

Welcome to the member introduction thread. We encourage our members to post an introduction so the community can get to know you better. A template of questions is posted below. Feel free to "quote" that post and fill in your own details. Add or remove questions as you see fit; it is really up to you. There are some amazing people in our community. This is just a means for everyone to get to know one another a little better.

Index of Links to Member BIO Posts
Carlos Rivera (Navem)
Dale Nagy
Matt Robertson
Mick Rissling (Mick)
Roger Leroux (leroy43)
Scott Nicholson
Tamara Harder (tlh878)

[Matt Robertson]

Member BIO
User ID
<type here>

Name
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Location (City / Prov)
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Occupation
<type here>

Hobbies (Other than Board Games)
<type here>

Favourite Travel Locations
<type here>

Favourite Beverages
<type here>

Favourite Sports Teams
<type here>

Favourite Quote(s)
<type here>

Message to the Community
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My Gaming Information
Favourite Board Games
<type here>

Games I Don't Have and Really Want to Try
<type here>

Games I Have and am Looking for Players
<type here>

Local Game Events I Attend
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Gaming Conventions I have Attended
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My Gaming Goals
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[Matt Robertson]

Member BIO
User ID
Matt Robertson

Name
Matt Robertson

Location (City / Prov)
Regina, Saskatchewan
Previously...
...Halifax, Nova Scotia
...Fredericton, New Brunswick
...Pincher Creek, Alberta

Occupation
Management Consultant (Project Management, Process Improvement, Strategic Planning)

Hobbies (Other than Board Games)
Disc Golf
Darts
Poker (Texas Hold'em)
Single Malt Scotch Whisky (Yes, that is a hobby)
Road Trips and Back Roads
Camping
Cornhole

Favourite Travel Locations
BC Interior (Hot Springs & Wineries Baby!)
Douglas Park, SK
Nova Scotia
Scotland

Favourite Beverages
Sherried Scotch (GlenDronach 18yo)
Stouts, Ales, Porters
Pile O' Bones, Rebellion Brewing, Malty National, Bushwakkers

Favourite Sports Teams
n/a - Although I do ocassionally cheer for the Maple Loafs

Favourite Quote(s)

• "Duc Sequere, Aut de Via Decede".
• "People rarely recall what you said to them, they remember how you made them feel".
• "The most important things in life are the connections you make with others."

Message to the Community
I am amazed at the community that has grown around the hobby of board games. Some of my dearest and closest friends have come to me through this hobby. Thank you.

My Gaming Information
Favourite Board Games
Merchant of Venus
Terraforming Mars
Indonesia
Dune Imperium
Dwellings of Eldervale
MEGA-Carcassonne

Games I Don't Have and Really Want to Try
n/a

Games I Have and am Looking for Players

• I have a bunch of two player abstract games that I would love to play. (Hive, GIPF, ZERTZ, YINSH, DVONN, TZAAR, LYNGK, TAMSK, etc)
• Conflict of Heroes (3rd Edition)
• Icehouse (A Looney Labs Pyramid Game)
• Subutteo

Local Game Events I Attend
ChewsDay Challenge mostly
PwYF - Micro-Fundraisers and the 24-Hour event
My wife & I host game nights once in awhile

Gaming Conventions I have Attended
BGG.CON (Dallas, TX)
NovaCON (Halifax, NS)
WolfCON (Wolfville, NS)
FallCON (Calgary, AB)
FragCON (Regina, SK)
BixCON (Regina, SK)
BixCON Away (Livingston, MT)

My Gaming Goals

• Reduce the size of my game collection. (Ha! Yea right!)
• Play all of my games at least 5 times.
• Host and play an 18 player Game of Mega-Empires.
• Play Wings of War twice annually.
• Play MEGA-Carcassonne twice annually.
• Meet more awesome people, play more awesome games!

[tlh878]

Member BIO
User ID
tlh878

Name
Tamara Harder

Location (City / Prov)
Regina, Sk

Occupation
Education

Hobbies (Other than Board Games)
Reading, tv, cooking, crafts (embroidery, cross stitch, button making), gardening....

Favourite Travel Locations
New Zealand to see my family
Anywhere with good food and adventures and good people

Favourite Beverages
coffee, craft beer, slushies

Favourite Sports Teams
none.  But I love watching world cup soccer.  And curling.

Favourite Quote(s)
"Oscar Wild said that if you know what you want to be then you inevitably become it - that is your punishment, but if you never know then you can be anything.  There is a truth to that.  We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing - an actor, a writer, I am a person who does things - I write, I act - and I never know what I'm going to do next. I think you can be imprisoned if you thin of yourself as a noun."
---Stephen Fry

Message to the Community
You are all amazing!

My Gaming Information
Favourite Board Games
Grand Austria Hotel
Crusaders: Thy Will be Done
Glass Road
... so many more, and they are always changing.

Games I Don't Have and Really Want to Try
I need to come back to this question.  There are too many being created each year and my want to try list is ever changing.

Games I Have and am Looking for Players


Local Game Events I Attend
Chewsday Challenge
PGX - if it ever comes back

Gaming Conventions I have Attended
Toon Con

My Gaming Goals
Attend one big con as a volunteer
Attend a board gaming cruise
Beat Deron at 7 Wonders Duel

[leroy43]

Member BIO
User ID
leroy43

Name
Roger Leroux

Location (City / Prov)
Vancouver, BC

Occupation
I work for the feds, ergo I'm a spy.

Hobbies (Other than Board Games)
Cooking, cocktails, role-playing games, music, being a good dad, being a good partner to my brilliant talented and fabulous wife, and handling life's curve balls with panache.

Favourite Travel Locations
Europe, Australia, Canada. There's a long list of places I've not been to yet that I'd like to go to.

Favourite Beverages
Coffee. Wine. Cocktails.

Favourite Sports Teams
World Cup Football.

Favourite Quote(s)
"I'm a dice goblin, I love collecting dice. I aspire to be a dice dragon."

Message to the Community
I like playing games with people that are fun to play games with. There's a line by Knizia 'When playing a game, the goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning', and that sums it up beautifully. I play to be social, I play to laugh, and winning will make me like a new game 20% better.

My Gaming Information
You can find me on BGG at leroy43

Favourite Board Games
My top 20 list from last fall: https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/1885/blogpost/165862/rogers-personal-top-20-games-2024-edition

Games I Don't Have and Really Want to Try
I would love to play Nemesis.

Games I Have and am Looking for Players
I'm not really keen on bringing proverbial coal to Newcastle when Matt has such a robust collection I can borrow from locally, but if there's something in my collection that nobody in Regina has, let me know and I'll see what I can do!

Local Game Events I Attend
Last weekend I was at Terminal City Tabletop Convention here in Vancouver. Read all about it here: https://boardgamegeek.com/blog/1885/blogpost/171976/terminal-city-tabletop-convention-2025

Gaming Conventions I have Attended
Cons I have attended
BGG Con: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019
BixCon: IX (2018), X (2019)
BixCon destination Regina: 2023, 2024
BottosCon: 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022, 2023, 2024
CascadeCon: 2018
SHUX: 2017, 2018, 2019, awSHUX 2020, awSHUX 2021, 2022
Terminal City Tabletop Convention: 2018, 2019, 2023, 2024, 2025

My Gaming Goals
Hobbies don't need goals, merely enthusiastic participation. 

[DaleNagy]

Member BIO
User ID
DaleNagy

Name
Dale Nagy

Location (City / Prov)
Regina, Sk

Occupation
Workplace Health and Safety Manager

Hobbies (Other than Board Games)
Reading, biking, beer tasting, baseball fan

Favourite Travel Locations
Grasslands National Park

Favourite Beverages
Beers, Gin cocktails, Chocolate Malts

Favourite Sports Teams
Toronto Blue Jays

Favourite Quote(s)
"If you can't explain something simply, you do not know enough about it"
"The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference"

Message to the Community
What time would you like me to come over to game?

My Gaming Information
Favourite Board Games
Praga Caput Regni
Everdell + Expansions
Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies

Games I Don't Have and Really Want to Try
On Mars
Dwellings of Eldervale
This War of Mine

Games I Have and am Looking for Players
Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies

Local Game Events I Attend
Chewsday Challenge

Gaming Conventions I have Attended


My Gaming Goals
Attend a Board Game Convention

[Mick]

Member BIO
User ID
Mick

Name
Mick Rissling

Location (City / Prov)
Regina SK born and bred

Occupation
senior science teacher

Hobbies (Other than Board Games)
video games, movies, poker, cycling, camping

Favourite Travel Locations
Cypress Hills

Favourite Beverages
coffee

Favourite Quote(s)
So many. The PWYF motto works for now: Have Fun - Do Good - Be Awesome

Message to the Community
You are part of a wonderful group of people!

My Gaming Information
Favourite Board Games
cooperative - Too Many Bones, Spirit Island
competitive - Mindclash games & Lacerda games
coopetition - Nemesis

Local Game Events I Attend
Chewsday Challenge, several regular small groups with friends

Gaming Conventions I have Attended
lots of Bixcon events

My Gaming Goals
play as many games as I can!

[Navem]

Member BIO
User ID
Navem

Name
Carlos Rivera

Location (City / Prov)
Regina SK by way of Mexico City -> Regina -> Winnipeg -> Regina -> Saskatoon -> Regina

Occupation
IT - currently database planner and architect at SaskTel

Hobbies (Other than Board Games)
Biking, Video games (especially RPGs), Birding, Hiking, Traveling, Roughriders

Favourite Travel Locations
Japan (need to go again!), San Francisco, Vancouver

Favourite Beverages
Beer (sours, IPAs, stouts are my favs), coffee, wine, some cocktails

Favourite Sports Teams
Roughriders

Favourite Quote(s)
"El riesgo siempre vive", roughly translated as "The risk always lives" - written on Vasquez armor in Aliens

From the Miami episode of Parts Unknown where Anthony Bourdain is taking with Iggy Pop:
BOURDAIN: Given that, what thrills you?
IGGY Pop: The nicest stuff right now, this is very embarrassing, but it's really -- being loved, and actually appreciating the people that are giving that to me.

Message to the Community
This amazing community has so many different people and games they love.  Embrace it and try new games with new people whenever you can!

My Gaming Information
Favourite Board Games
Tapestry, Voidfall, Sea Salt & Paper, Ra

Games I Don't Have and Really Want to Try
Vantage, Revenant

Local Game Events I Attend
PwYF 24 hour event, Chewsday, Frag game day, PGX, lots of local events

Gaming Conventions I have Attended
none yet but 100% on my bucket list! maybe in 2026?

My Gaming Goals
Enjoy as many games as possible with the amazing friends I've made through board gaming!

[Scott Nicholson]

Member BIO
User ID
ScottNicholson

Name
Scott Nicholson

Location (City / Prov)
Brantford, Ontario

Overview
I'm a Professor of Game Design at Wilfrid Laurier University and moved to Canada in 2014 from the US.  My research is on designing board and card games and escape rooms for educational settings, and am currently creating storytelling games for low-resource classrooms in Africa through an open-source game system I developed called EscapeIF.

I grew up in rural Oklahoma on a horse farm and farming is still strong in my blood.  I currently live on a few acres of land and grow fruits and vegetables.  I was a librarian in Texas and a professor at Syracuse University's library and information school from 2000-2014.  I moved to Canada because they let us get married in 2003; however, my husband is currently in long-term care with dementia.  Because of this, I still actively wear a mask in groups.

In the gaming world, I'm best know by greying board gamers from Board Games with Scott, which was the first YouTube series about board games (2005-2010).  I've had two published board games (Tulipmania 1637 and Going, Going, GONE!) but focus my design work now on making games for educational settings such as schools, museums, and training.  In 2014, I got involved with Escape Rooms as a researcher, and have designed them for many settings (including two rounds of the Red Bull Escape Room world championship, which led to Mark Rober coming to my game lab to film his episode on Escape Rooms).

I'm a serial hobbyist, so dive deep into one hobby that's usually expensive and requires a lot of stuff, then jump into another one.  Most recently, I had gotten back into pottery and joined a local potters guild, but have stopped this as a downsize and move. Over the years, I have played the saxophone, been a clown, been a face painter (which COVID stopped), engaged with watercolors and acrylic pour painting, performed on the stage and in the back alleys, and been a woodworker.

Play is an important element of my life, and now that I have an adult bank account, I enjoy letting my inner child out for adult playtime.  Inspired by Pan, I'm a playful person and enjoy theme parks, casinos, and cruise ships (which I see as summer camp for adults).  I enjoy structured play through games (board, card, video, LARP) and playful sports as well as simple playful things like splashing in the puddles.  I don't really like to be overly competitive, so prefer cooperative games to competitive games and I focus on playful exploration more than defeating other people. 



Hobbies (Other than Board Games)
PLAY of all types
Escape Rooms (designer and player)
Video Games (Adventure, Puzzle)
Cruising and Casinos
Morris Dancing
Historical-based Polytheism
Arts (Pottery, Face Painting, Watercolor, Acrylic Pour, Whatever the Art-of-the-month is)
Gardening


Favourite Travel Locations
Disneyworld (DVC member) and other theme parks
Wherever the cruise ship takes me
Eastern Canada (love the Bay of Fundy area)
Europe (favorites so far: Bavaria, Copenhagen, Amsterdam)
Away from PEOPLE, immersed in nature, hanging out with the Green Man

Favourite Beverages
Peaty Scotches
Ciders and Lambics
Interesting teas

Favourite Quote(s)
"I'm less competitive than you!"

Social Media
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/professor.scott.nicholson/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/scottnicholson.bsky.social
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ScottNicholson


My Gaming Information
Favourite Board Games
It depends upon who I am with and the experience we want to have together!  I'm as comfortable with the economic knife fights of the 18xx games (really like Railways of the Lost Atlas) and Indonesia as I am just having a laugh with Jackbox games and lighter card games (Fishing is quite clever).  I have a soft spot for games about Farming and Witchcraft.  In recent years, I've been much more drawn to games where everything you do makes sense (like Galactic Cruise and Distilled) than games that don't have a good connection between theme and mechanisms and are point-salad-style games of turning one cube into another cube to become points.

Games I Don't Have and Really Want to Try
(looks nervously at the many shelves of games around me)
I do like to try games I don't have, so I can decide if I want to buy them for myself.


Gaming Conventions I have Attended
I used to attend all the biggies - Gencon, Origins, Essen, Gathering of Friends, BGGcon.  Then COVID happened, and protecting my husband's health became more important than conventions, so I no longer attend big events.

My Gaming Goals
I'm more interested in the people than the games.  I do like use gaming events to identify games to buy, and more importantly, not buy, but it's about the people around the table and not the thing on the table.