Smash Up: Rich Sommer, Cara Santa Maria, and Jen Timms join Wil on TableTop

The only thing geeks love more than weird and awesome creatures is arguing about which creature is the most weird and the most awesome. Pop quiz, hotshot. Robots or ninjas? Wrong. Pirates, or wizards?

Seriously? Zombies, or aliens? I’m not saying it’s aliens. But it’s aliens. Today on “Tabletop,” Rich Sommer, Cara Santa Maria, and Jen Timms and I are playing a crazy fun card game that lets us combine these science fiction and fantasy creatures into teams for an epic battle that will settle, once and for all, which creatures are the most weird and the most awesome.

Can’t we all just get along? No.

This is “Smash Up.” “Smash Up” is a deck building game designed by Paul Peterson about a science fiction movie mash-up where different factions of creatures combine into teams and battle out for supremacy. Each deck represents a different faction, like pirates, aliens, zombies, and dinosaurs.

To build your team you just grab two decks and put them together. For example, my zombie dinosaurs are now ready to kick your ass. Once your team is built, you will play minions on these bases to make them break and score you points. Each base has a break point total. 16 for the tar pits, 20 for the mothership.

When that break point total is tied or exceeded the base breaks, and the player with the most minion power on that base scores this many points, the second-most player scores this many points, and so on. On your turn you can play a minion to help break a base, or you can play an action to help yourself.

At the end of your turn you will always draw two cards, no matter what. First player to 15 victory points wins. Who will that be?

Let’s find out. We are going to play “Smash Up.” CARA SANTA MARIA: My name’s Cara Santa Maria, and I am the host and producer of Talk Nerdy To Me, which is a video series on Huffington Post Science. JEN TIMMS: My name is Jen Timms. I am a videogame producer.

I work with United Front Games up in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. RICH SOMMER: My name is Sommer. I’m an actor. I’m currently on a show called “Mad Men.” WIL WHEATON: All right.

This is “Smash Up.” I am robot wizards.

I am robotic wizards. Cara, who are you? CARA SANTA MARIA: I am dinosaur tricksters.

Tricky. WIL WHEATON: Tricksy dinosaurs. All right. OK. Rich , who are you?

RICH SOMMER: I have the zombie ninjas. WIL WHEATON: That sounds– JEN TIMMS: Awesome. WIL WHEATON: That sounds– RICH SOMMER: Kind of the perfect– WIL WHEATON: Yeah. Well, it sounds like something that doesn’t smell good. RICH SOMMER: No.

No, no. WIL WHEATON: And Jen, who are you? JEN TIMMS: I am pirates and aliens.

WIL WHEATON: So, are you pirates from another planet? JEN TIMMS: Yes.

WIL WHEATON: Or– OK. JEN TIMMS: Swashbuckling, transporting kind of pirates. WIL WHEATON: That’s great. I love that. The player who got up earliest today gets to go first in “Smash Up.

” I got up at 6:45 this morning. Not of my own volition, but because my dog jumped up on the bed and kicked me, full in the face.

So did anyone else get up earlier than that? RICH SOMMER: No. CARA SANTA MARIA: I got up at, like, 12:15.

WIL WHEATON: All right. So I’ll go first. I’m going to begin by playing a minion. I’m going to play a zapbot on the ninja dojo for two points. And I get to play another minion of two points or less.

So I will play the enchantress, also on the ninja dojo. That gives me four points on the ninja dojo. And I get to draw a card. RICH SOMMER: So much you get to do. JEN TIMMS: Yeah.

Doesn’t end, does it? WIL WHEATON: Well, that’s– I’m a wizard, and that’s what wizards do. One of the great things wizards can do is to start stacking actions. It’s like wishing for wishes. I just keep cycling through my deck until I fill my hand with badass guys.

And it makes it much more likely that I am going to end up in front of the wall of victory. I shouldn’t have said that. No, it’s– it’s not– I’ve ruined it. I’ve jinxed it. I am actually not going to play an action this turn.

I’m going to draw two cards, and Rich, would you mind moving our little– RICH SOMMER: Oh, yes. I’d be happy to. WIL WHEATON: For those of you watching at home who may play “Smash Up,” we’re actually using special cards for this particular episode of “Tabletop.” And my turn is done.

It is your turn.

CARA SANTA MARIA: It’s my turn. And I think what I’m going to do is I’m going to F with Wil a little bit. WIL WHEATON: Oh. That’s a good idea. I’m a person you want to have as an enemy from the first turn of the game.

CARA SANTA MARIA: Because it’s fun, because it’s fun.

Yeah, yeah. I think that I picked the right factions for this. Because I have a science background, and I didn’t want to play with any magic. So I was a dinosaurs and tricksters.

I use power and wit. WIL WHEATON: OK. In a fight between dinosaurs and wizards, wizards always win. Because they’re magic, and dinosaurs aren’t even real.

CARA SANTA MARIA: I’m going to play, on the first base– I’m going to play pay the piper, which is an action.

WIL WHEATON: Super. Oh, wow. CARA SANTA MARIA: So, since you’re already invested– WIL WHEATON: Yeah, thanks. Appreciate that. CARA SANTA MARIA: And then I’m going to also play a minion there.

I think I’m going to go with my brownie, which is ongoing. After another player plays a card that affects this minion, that player discards two random cards.

RICH SOMMER: Oh, nightmare. CARA SANTA MARIA: So let’s all just go ahead and just squash me. WIL WHEATON: And the brownie, of course, is worth four points.

CARA SANTA MARIA: Yeah, so. WIL WHEATON: Which is great. CARA SANTA MARIA: Doing all right. RICH SOMMER: So that moves us up to 8. WIL WHEATON: Yeah.

8 of 18. So 10 points left to go there. CARA SANTA MARIA: Drawing. And now my turn’s over. RICH SOMMER: I have no interest in going to the ninja dojo at this point.

WIL WHEATON: Which is odd, because it seems like it would be your house. RICH SOMMER: Feels like it’s where I’d want to be. But nope. Although– although– CARA SANTA MARIA: Oh, crap. WIL WHEATON: Uh-oh.

Here we go. RICH SOMMER: Hold on a second. CARA SANTA MARIA: I don’t like having you to my left. RICH SOMMER: Maybe we will infiltrate our ninja dojo. Which I play on a base.

Destroy an action that’s been played here. And then I can ignore the base’s ability until the start of my next turn. I am going to destroy this pay the piper. CARA SANTA MARIA: Thanks for that. WIL WHEATON: No pipers will be paid today.

RICH SOMMER: Well, the zombies are pretty active. They’re out there a lot. They keep regenerating. But the ninjas are sneaky. So they come in at the times when everybody else wants them to be there the least.

I’ll bring out my zombie lord, who doesn’t– I don’t get to fully use his great power, which would allow me to play an extra minion from my discard.

But he’s five. So I’m gonna lock it down there. So that brings us to 8– no, 18– oh, god. I’m the wrong person to be doing this.

Wrong person to be doing this. CARA SANTA MARIA: What is that, 13? WIL WHEATON: It brings us closer to 13. RICH SOMMER: I am not what one would call good at math. WIL WHEATON: All right, Jen.

You’re up. JEN TIMMS: OK. I think that I’m going to take my little buccaneer dude and I’m going to jump over here. I’m not interested in anything you guys are doing over there. The cool thing about my cards is that a lot of them get to stay either on the board– my pirates get to stay, going from base to base, so I get to keep them in play, and my aliens often get to come back into my hand, so I don’t have to discard them.

Which is great. I’m not gonna play an action this turn. I’m gonna take my cards and I’m gonna let you have your turn. WIL WHEATON: All right. I will play the hoverbot on the mothership.

The hoverbot’s magic ability is that I get to reveal the top card of my deck, and if it is a minion I get to play it. Oh, it’s a minion.

How about that? It’s a zapbot, which is also going to go here. You may play an extra minion of power 2 or less.

RICH SOMMER: You just get to chain and chain and chain. WIL WHEATON: Yep, I do. I get to keep doing that. RICH SOMMER: Wil’s deck has the most sort of planning that seems to happen. Although my deck– my deck actually has a lot of room for planning, with getting as much into the discard pile as you can to bring it back in later.

WIL WHEATON: I’m going to play my microbot guard. So, 5. That’s going to push that up to 9. I draw two cards. My turn is done.

RICH SOMMER: I think it’s at 10, isn’t it? Am I wrong? 3, 3, 4. WIL WHEATON: 6– um, 10. Now which one of us is bad at math, Rich Sommer?

RICH SOMMER: Redeemed everything. WIL WHEATON: By the way, kids, you are gonna use math when you get out of school. CARA SANTA MARIA: Yeah, you really are. You really are. RICH SOMMER: Yep.

CARA SANTA MARIA: I have– WIL WHEATON: I feel obligated to tell you that if you make that base blow up with 5 points then Rich is going to get three points– CARA SANTA MARIA: Oh, and I’ll only get 2.

OK. I think what I’m going to do, then, is I’m going to play the armor stego, which is only 3 points. But it has plus 2 power during other people’s turns. RICH SOMMER: Ooh.

Interesting. WIL WHEATON: Oh, that’s great. CARA SANTA MARIA: I played the armored stego so that I didn’t have to score the base on my turn. Rich would score the base, but I would get the points.

RICH SOMMER: Interesting.

That’s gonna happen. Do I– I am going to– I’m so nervous. When I get that shinobi in my hand it is all about watching for the opportunity to play it. If the moment presents itself I am going to leap out of the cover of darkness and take a piece of whatever pies is being cut up at that moment. I am going to put this tenacious z here.

WIL WHEATON: Yes. I see what you’re doing. CARA SANTA MARIA: I don’t. What are you doing? WIL WHEATON: Tenacious z is awesome because it comes out of the graveyard as basically a free action on any thing.

CARA SANTA MARIA: Smart. That’s smart. WIL WHEATON: So he’s putting it there because the base is going to blow up, and then he’s going to have a tenacious z in his graveyard. Yeah. Good move.

Go ahead and draw two cards. And now we’re going to score this base. All right? Cara, you have the most on the base, so you’re going to get 2 points.

Congratulations.

CARA SANTA MARIA: Thank you. WIL WHEATON: Rich, you have the second most on the base, so you’re going to get 3 points. CARA SANTA MARIA: Which is weird. But OK. WIL WHEATON: Congratulations.

CARA SANTA MARIA: That’s how ninjas roll. WIL WHEATON: And all that work that I did there is rewarded with two lousy points, so that’s good as well. And now this base is going to go away. CARA SANTA MARIA: And what is the action on the base? WIL WHEATON: But before we do that you get to decide to destroy one of the minions on the base.

CARA SANTA MARIA: I’m going to have to destroy the buccaneer, because it’s– JEN TIMMS: My little buddy. CARA SANTA MARIA: Worth the most. WIL WHEATON: Don’t feel bad. It just moves to a different base. JEN TIMMS: Oh, does he– wait.

He moves? WIL WHEATON: Yeah. If a buccaneer would be destroyed, move it to another base instead. So do that. CARA SANTA MARIA: This is what happens when you have bad eyes.

WIL WHEATON: And here’s our new– our new base is the tar pits. And the tar pits– JEN TIMMS: It’s worth a good amount. WIL WHEATON: The tar pits score on 16. JEN TIMMS: So I’m just gonna move him straight over here. WIL WHEATON: Great.

Good move. JEN TIMMS: OK. I’m up. I am just going to play my saucy wench. My saucy wench.

She, uh– CARA SANTA MARIA: Oh my gosh. JEN TIMMS: She destroys a minion of power two or less on this base.

So if I want to bring her over here it means I can start attacking. WIL WHEATON: Yep. You can.

JEN TIMMS: He’s worth more. Yeah, I think that’ll do. I think that’ll do. So take him back. WIL WHEATON: He’s in my graveyard.

JEN TIMMS: Again, I’m not gonna play any action. WIL WHEATON: OK. JEN TIMMS: My turn is over. WIL WHEATON: All right. My turn.

I will start with an action. I am going to play the tech center. I choose a base, and I draw one card for each of my minions there. So I’m gonna draw two cards at the top of my turn for that base. The next thing I’m going to do is play my chronomage.

So I’m going to bring her down here. And now my extra action is to play an action that lets me play two extra actions. JEN TIMMS: Oh, god. WIL WHEATON: So I still have two actions coming to me.

JEN TIMMS: This is Wil on his turn.

So, action card. I’m gonna play an action. I’m gonna– oh, that means I can play another action. CARA SANTA MARIA: So first I’m gonna play this card, and then– oh, that lets me play this card. And then, hang on, oh, that lets me play another card– WIL WHEATON: So my next action will be to reveal the top five cards of my deck– CARA SANTA MARIA: Oh, god.

WIL WHEATON: And then place any minions into my hand.

OK, so if– CARA SANTA MARIA: I’ve got 40 more to go, you guys, so just take your time. WIL WHEATON: Well, maybe I’ll go ahead and do that. Sure. I’m gonna to do that.

I’m going to draw cards– no, I’m not gonna do that. RICH SOMMER: Oh my god. WIL WHEATON: Turn is done. CARA SANTA MARIA: OK. So.

I want to play on tortuga. RICH SOMMER: I’m gonna assassinate– WIL WHEATON: You son of a– RICH SOMMER: The chronomage. WIL WHEATON: What? You are– you are a terrible person. JEN TIMMS: Bam, bam, bam.

RICH SOMMER: And then that signals that my turn is over and I’ll draw my two cards. JEN TIMMS: All right. Well, I’m going to play my first mate minion. But now my action, I got a little dinghy for my little pirates. CARA SANTA MARIA: Your cards are so dirty.

JEN TIMMS: But wait, wait. These two got wind of the fact that the saucy wench was over on the mothership. So they got their dinghy out, and they’re going pew– because the dinghy lets me move two of them. CARA SANTA MARIA: Oh, cool.

JEN TIMMS: So they’re coming over here to party with the saucy wench.

WIL WHEATON: I don’t think Jen means for her pirates to be as dirty as they’ve ended up being. A lot of it just has to do with the way she talks. JEN TIMMS: So I’m loving pulling my [BLEEP] out, putting them in the [BLEEP] with the saucy wench, the first mate, the buccaneer. It’s a [BLEEP] party. WIL WHEATON: All right.

So you just pulled six over here, right? JEN TIMMS: Uh, yeah. I did. WIL WHEATON: So that puts us at 17. You have so many points there.

And Rich, you did such a terrible thing to me. CARA SANTA MARIA: Aw. He’s so defeated. It’s all right. His turn’s gonna go on for another half hour.

RICH SOMMER: That’s right, yeah. This is when I get to– JEN TIMMS: We have time for a break. RICH SOMMER: Take a drink of my water. WIL WHEATON: Oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh, [BLEEP].

I can’t do that.

RICH SOMMER: I think when I think about this game of “Smash Up,” I’m going to think about Wil doing what are clearly, like, “Beautiful Mind”-level calculations in his head as he tries to figure out how best to string all of his cards together. WIL WHEATON: So that makes that– CARA SANTA MARIA: Any vacations recently? JEN TIMMS: I went to Hawaii. CARA SANTA MARIA: Ooh.

JEN TIMMS: I did do some stand-up paddleboarding. And we had turtles– WIL WHEATON: Isn’t that fun? JEN TIMMS: Oh my god. WIL WHEATON: Anne loves that. JEN TIMMS: Amazing.

RICH SOMMER: Oh, yeah, paddleboarding is the best. [MUMBLE] CARA SANTA MARIA: Wil, hurry up and finish your turn. RICH SOMMER: Go over there– OK, I got it. WIL WHEATON: All right. Minion play.

Microbot fixer. If this is the first minion you played this turn, you may play an extra minion. Ongoing, each of your microbots gains an additional plus one power. Microbot alpha. Ongoing, plus one power for each of your other microbots.

RICH SOMMER: Ooh. WIL WHEATON: All of your minions are considered microbots. RICH SOMMER: Oh, good god. JEN TIMMS: Wow. WIL WHEATON: Now.

So that’s gonna score this base. So I’m going to get four. The saucy wench gets two. OK. And zombies, you only get one.

And now my special thing is awesome. The winner may return one of his or minions of power three or less from here to his or her hand. CARA SANTA MARIA: Oh, that’s cool. You have too many cards already in your hand. WIL WHEATON: I have exactly the right number of cards.

I’m gonna put all of my minions are considered microbots back into my hand. Now our new base is the Grey Opal. It’s a pirate ship, which should make one of us happy. CARA SANTA MARIA: All right. I think I’m gonna play war raptor here.

JEN TIMMS: They hunt in pairs. CARA SANTA MARIA: They do. WIL WHEATON: Did you know that in real life war raptor vision was based off of lasers? JEN TIMMS: Of course.

WIL WHEATON: Well, there’s a picture, right there.

You can see it right there. CARA SANTA MARIA: This is completely scientifically accurate. I should know. I’m a huge dinosaur nerd. That’s why I fought for the dinosaur faction.

I even have this tattoo of archaeopteryx lithograpgica. It’s the Berlin specimen. And it’s a transitional fossil, which is kind of half-dinosaur, half-bird. And I fought. I fought for this action.

WIL WHEATON: It’s true. It got ugly downstairs. JEN TIMMS: So far in the game I’m keeping it pretty low-key. I’ve had a few little lighthearted plays, but I’m holding some of my bigger cards back. So I’m hoping that I get a chance to play something a bit more exciting this time.

CARA SANTA MARIA: Jen, I’m watching you. I don’t completely trust you. OK. This is a little overkill, but that’s kind of what I do because I’m a dinosaur. RICH SOMMER: Is that next one Chicago?

CARA SANTA MARIA: I’m gonna play king rex because he’s kind of a badass. WIL WHEATON: Whoa. Good god! King rex is ready to party. CARA SANTA MARIA: So that’s gonna take us to– RICH SOMMER: Oh, wow, that’s 18, right?

CARA SANTA MARIA: I think I’m going to play rampage. Which is a bit overkill, but it’s working for me. So it reduces the breaking point by the power of one of my minions. So it brings it all the way down to 13. But either way I’m gonna score this base.

RICH SOMMER: Can I ask a question? Just out of curiosity. Let’s say, hypothetically– CARA SANTA MARIA: Oh, god, did I do something stupid? RICH SOMMER: No, no, no, you’re doing– you’re the best.

You– your fate has been sealed.

WIL WHEATON: That was the most “Mad Men” thing I’ve seen you do since you’ve been here, all day. JEN TIMMS: I was thinking that, and I didn’t want to say anything! WIL WHEATON: I was like, are we going for a two-martini lunch? Like, let’s do this? That was the most Mad Menny thing I’ve ever– that’s number two!

That was great. That was amazing! I feel like I’m in the show, now! RICH SOMMER: Very warm right now. Hypothetically, if two people were to tie– so first place is pretty well set.

Second place looks set. Let’s say, I don’t know– WIL WHEATON: Like shinobi might pop around? Is that what you’re wondering about? RICH SOMMER: I’m just saying, like, let’s say that I was there and I were to tie for third place. What would that mean?

What would that mean? Would we each get two? JEN TIMMS: Yeah, you’d each get two.

RICH SOMMER: Yeah. OK.

Shinobi! WIL WHEATON: So this base scores. Let’s go. JEN TIMMS: OK. I’m going to put my– let’s pop him over here.

Just to scout it out first. WIL WHEATON: Your scout is adorable. JEN TIMMS: And take two cards. And my turn is over. WIL WHEATON: I am going to play the hoverbot on the central brain.

I reveal the top card of my deck. If it’s a minion I can play it, otherwise I put it back in. Ooh, it’s a minion! Ooh, look at that, it’s the nukebot. Sweet.

After this minion is destroyed, destroy each other player’s minions on this base. CARA SANTA MARIA: So let’s all not destroy that minion. WIL WHEATON: I’m gonna play it there. RICH SOMMER: So that’s currently at 6, 10, 14. Because each minion has plus one power.

WIL WHEATON: Yep. JEN TIMMS: Oh. WIL WHEATON: So that’s there at 14. CARA SANTA MARIA: Are you gonna play an action, or? WIL WHEATON: I am not going to play an action.

My turn is done. I am so close. I can play literally any card in my hand and I will win the game. CARA SANTA MARIA: OK. So right now this is 6, 10, 14.

WIL WHEATON: That’s correct. CARA SANTA MARIA: Which means that it needs five to score. WIL WHEATON: Five to score, yeah. CARA SANTA MARIA: Oh yeah. And you’ve got the plus one.

RICH SOMMER: So you just need a four to score. CARA SANTA MARIA: But then he’ll win. RICH SOMMER: Truth. Look. He has enough points that it takes him even getting second place at that base to win the game.

I just am trying to keep him from tilting it entirely in his favor.

In fact, I’m just trying to kick him off the base. If I can get him off the base then I have a shot. CARA SANTA MARIA: Oh, this is really tough. OK.

RICH SOMMER: I say you destroy his nukebot. WIL WHEATON: I say we let him win! CARA SANTA MARIA: If I play– I just want to make sure my math is good. If I play something that’s three here, this will be tipping at 18. And then we can start to destroy you, possibly.

RICH SOMMER: I’ll do what I can. WIL WHEATON: I just feel this weird kind of cross-table collusion going on. Normally it would really suck to be ganged up on like that. But I was ganged up on by Rich and Cara, who were both within a point of me. So that– you know, I get it.

It’s a legitimate strategy. CARA SANTA MARIA: I’m playing a gnome, which is a power three, which takes us up to 18. That’s– I can’t do anything with him. He says I can destroy a minion with a power less than the number I have, but I only have one out.

So that takes us to 18.

Just because I have it, play the hideout, which says that– it’s ongoing. If another player’s action would affect my minions here, I can destroy this card instead. It’s like my pawn. OK, cool. So that’s it.

I’m going to draw two, and– rawr. RICH SOMMER: Oh, man. I can at least– I’m going to poison the nukebot. CARA SANTA MARIA: OK. What does that do?

RICH SOMMER: It would destroy any actions on it, but there aren’t any. And now that minion is minus four of its power. CARA SANTA MARIA: Oh, that’s good. RICH SOMMER: So it’s two instead of a– so the nukebot has been poisoned. WIL WHEATON: So that puts us back at 14.

RICH SOMMER: I think that’s all I really can do. CARA SANTA MARIA: Jen. JEN TIMMS: OK. Again, this is a math question, so I have to– CARA SANTA MARIA: We’re counting on you, Jen. JEN TIMMS: I’m gonna play my disintegrator.

This is my action. It places a minion of power three or less at the bottom of the owner’s deck. I just want to get you out of the danger zone here a little bit, so. WIL WHEATON: But it’s not power three or less. I don’t have a minion– oh, son of a bitch!

No, my– JEN TIMMS: Oh, he is now. WIL WHEATON: My nukebot. CARA SANTA MARIA: He’s only worth one now. RICH SOMMER: Oh, yeah. WIL WHEATON: My nukebot is only worth two.

RICH SOMMER: Can I get a high-five on that? Thank you. WIL WHEATON: So that actually takes two more points off of that deck. JEN TIMMS: So, two for me. And my time is done.

CARA SANTA MARIA: Oh, no. Wil, no. WIL WHEATON: OK. First thing I’m going to do is play zapbot down here. I’m going to play the neophyte, which lets me reveal the top card on my deck, and if it’s an action then I get to play it, otherwise it just goes right back to the top of my deck.

It’s not an action, it’s a minion, so that’s going to stay there. And then I don’t actually have an action. And now I will move this up. RICH SOMMER: That’s at 18, right? WIL WHEATON: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

JEN TIMMS: That’s really uncomfortably– CARA SANTA MARIA: And you have how many points out right now? 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10? WIL WHEATON: Yeah. CARA SANTA MARIA: And I have 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. I win!

RICH SOMMER: Whoa. What just happened? JEN TIMMS: What just happened? CARA SANTA MARIA: His face. Dinosaur.

WIL WHEATON: Hold on, hold on, hold on a second, we might have a tie situation. CARA SANTA MARIA: We might, you’re right. Because you’ve got two, and I got four.

RICH SOMMER: Shinobi, shinobi! WIL WHEATON: You can shinobi.

RICH SOMMER: [INAUDIBLE] ninja brings in this [INAUDIBLE]. WIL WHEATON: 11, 12, 13, 14– Cara Santa Mario, congratulations. CARA SANTA MARIA: Thank you. WIL WHEATON: You are the “Smash Up” victor. Hey, you’re in my spot.

RICH SOMMER: Oh. Sorry about that. WIL WHEATON: Yeah, that’s all right. RICH SOMMER: Here, I’ll just– wow, you sit there a lot, I guess. WIL WHEATON: I really, really do.

So, I am not gonna make this about how I was one point away from victory for two rounds. JEN TIMMS: No. WIL WHEATON: It’s not gonna be about how I have had a speech written since season one of “Tabletop” that I have never gotten to deliver, that I thought I was going to get to deliver tonight.

I want to make this about how grateful I am that you guys came and played on the show with me. And did you have fun?

RICH SOMMER: Absolutely. JEN TIMMS: Totally. That was awesome. WIL WHEATON: Yeah, it was great, right? Yeah.

It’s a really terrific game. RICH SOMMER: Great game. JEN TIMMS: So much fun. WIL WHEATON: And, uh, I’m going to go downstairs and talk to Cara. JEN TIMMS: The winner?

WIL WHEATON: The winner. JEN TIMMS: The winner. WIL WHEATON: I imagine it’s a great place to be. Just leave the sign there. Last year on “Tabletop,” everyone who played got to hold a trophy.

But we had to take it back, because it’s expensive, and beautiful, and we kind of blew our budget on it.

CARA SANTA MARIA: OK. WIL WHEATON: So this year I want all of our players to get to take something home with them that’s special. So you get this “Tabletop” certificate of awesome. CARA SANTA MARIA: What does that say?

WIL WHEATON: It says New Jersey Regional Champion Baby Juggler. CARA SANTA MARIA: OK. Mm-hm. WIL WHEATON: Don’t worry about it.

I’ll fix it.

All right. So if you’ll just give me your shoulders for a minute, I will just cross this out here, and that as well, and I’ll write Tabletop. All right. Awarded to Cara. Signed by Wil “The Loser” Wheaton.

Here you go. Oh, one last thing to make it all official. A seal of awesome. Congratulations. Please make a speech.

CARA SANTA MARIA: Um, this one goes out for all the geek girls out there, because we really are good at math. WIL WHEATON: That’s awesome. Thanks for watching. Until next time, play more games, and we’ll see you right back here on “Tabletop.” .