Tom Vasel
About Me
Hi, my name is Tom Vasel, host of The Dice Tower. I've played board games most of my life, having learned classics such as Uno!, Monopoly, Sorry!, and Careers as a child. I quickly started looking through thrift stores to find more and more games, and was captivated by games that had variety and strategy, such as Cosmic Encounter and Scotland Yard.
In college, I played quite a few collectible card games, and dabbled with wargames and miniatures. Over the past five years, however, I've become aware of a great amount of other board games. Many of these games are known as "Eurogames", due to the prolific nature of the German and French game designers. I've found them to be exciting and interesting, and a far cry from the "roll-and-move" games of my youth. Of course, American games, such as those from Eagle Games and Fantasy Flight, also fascinate me.
Several years ago, I began to write reviews of board games, so that others could find out about these wonderful games. I've also authored an "Interviews by an Optimist" series, a series of interviews with notables in the gaming world, and started a series of deeper board game discussions - Musings On...,which is now gone - but you never know if we might start it up again!
In May 2005, I started the podcast The Dice Tower with Joe Steadman - a podcast all about board games, and one that has gradually changed over its many episodes. Joe has since left the show, but with a host of other contributors, the Dice Tower is still being produced biweekly, and is one of my favorite things to do. In 2008, I started a video podcast with my daughters, which is amazingly fun!
Most importantly, I am married to the lovely Laura Vasel, and together we have six beautiful girls - Melody, Amy, Holly, Clara, Violet, and Ruby, and a son, Jimmy. We also have a son, Jack, who was called to Heaven in early 2011. Together we served as missionaries in South Korea, where I pastored Uijongbu Baptist Church. I'm now in Homestead, Florida, where I run the Dice Tower full time, as well as serve at the First Baptist Church of Cutler Ridge.
You can find more about me at my personal webpage, www.tomvasel.com.
In this episode, we discuss feedback for the show, and announce the winners for o
In this show, Tom and Sam talk about upcoming Days of Wonder expansions and discu
In this episode, originally aired September 16, 2005, we review Battlestations, B
In this episode, Moritz gives his annual news, and Giles hunts down Tom and Sam.
In this show, Sam and Tom talk about quite a few upcoming games, including Yetisb
In this episode, originally posted September 7, 2005, we discuss the results of t
In this episode, Tom and Sam talk about Pandemic, while Mary reviews Perry Rhodan
In this episode, they announce the winners for their Z-Man games contest, discuss
In this episode, Tom and Sam discuss Surf's Up, Dude, Tannhauser, Shogun, and oth
In this episode, originally posted August 24th, we review Breakout Normandy and S
In this episode, Paul talks about politics in war games, and Geoff talks about th
In this episode, originally posted August 17, 2005, Tom and Sam review games and
In this episode, the Dice Tower crew review the year 2007, talking about the bigg
In this show, Joe and Tom discuss several games and talk about what games would m
In this episode, Geoff talks about the process to bring Agricola to English-speak
Originally posted August 4, 2005 - Joe and Tom spend a lot of time answering list
In this episode, Tom previews a few new games, and reviews Antler Island and Plat
In this episode, we discuss some recently played games, as well as continue our C