I honestly don't even think it's off topic. I worked in a board game store and judged MTG events there for the past year and change. It took a constant effort to make sure our space was safe and welcoming and I think we have done good work in building a strong safe community, though I'm not naive enough to think we didn't lose the trust of some people we failed to protect. But when it came down to it, just like with any other combating of more full on fascist movements, the best, most effective tool we had was deplatforming the jerks and bigots right out of the space.
The judge who took over for me was just starting to transition when she started there and we had to deal with a few people at first misgendering her but like as soon as she got her feet under her with the job she's been on fire and it really helped our community to have her in a visible position of authority
Wow, Agents of Mayhem is a thick fukkin game, y'all.
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Casual reminder that Parks is just a wonderful little game that's very approachable as a gateway, and still very enjoyable to people who have far more time with the hobby. Definitely one of the strongest releases I can think of in recent memory.
I think I'm actually going to figure out how and play 7th continent today with a former coworker at the LGS so that's neat. For some reason I've been overwhelmed by this box even if it's likely just "pick spot on location, spot tells you what card to grab" and I've just been overcomplicating it
I think I'm actually going to figure out how and play 7th continent today with a former coworker at the LGS so that's neat. For some reason I've been overwhelmed by this box even if it's likely just "pick spot on location, spot tells you what card to grab" and I've just been overcomplicating it
It's surprisingly simple.
I still haven't opened mine
My Gloomhaven game has stalled due to having a hard time getting even the three of us together regularly enough. So maybe 7th Continent is the trick! I also haven't opened my copy yet. But I'm eager to try it out.
I think I'm actually going to figure out how and play 7th continent today with a former coworker at the LGS so that's neat. For some reason I've been overwhelmed by this box even if it's likely just "pick spot on location, spot tells you what card to grab" and I've just been overcomplicating it
It's surprisingly simple.
I still haven't opened mine
It's mostly that, but the particular rules and wrinkles of each scenario and circumstance you might be in create some variety in what you need to be alert for and emphasize which is where the replayability comes in. We've tried 2 or 3 scenarios with varying success.
Oh geez, I'm usually the first "move on" guy, so I'll just drop this one post then never mention it again.
The only thing worse than a trolling xenophobic nationalist is a two-faced trolling xenophobic nationalist. Claiming "What? It's just a hat!" is the most disingenuous, passive aggressive motte & bailey bullshit ever. "What? It's just two intersecting black lines bent at right angles inside a white circle! Why are you so threatened?"
Made even more contemptible by their entire ideology revolving around culling the "weak" out of society, yet they turn into the thinnest skinned cry babies when challenged or called out. You are the exactly the kind of person that your garbage philosophy would cull if it could get away with it, you stupid, stupid tool.
As far as deprogramming goes, you don't hold the AA meeting at the bar. You escort the belligerent drunk outside first.
Almost got Madness at Midnight out during a meetup, but we aborted when we realized it would be a little complicated for a whole table of first time players.
Reading through the rules, it seems like Arkham Horror (moving around the town where locations do different things) meets Cthulhu Wars (competitive cults trying to bring their own ancient one into the world, receiving unique upgrades as the game goes on). One interesting hook is that if the neutral "monsters" (roaming investigators) succeed in sealing 3 gates, the game ends with a federal raid and the winner becomes the cult with the lowest score who's kept a low enough profile to avoid detection. Seems like it would be an interesting decision on when to make the call that it's the losing player's only option to try and blow the game up to reverse the victory condition.
Unsure of what to expect, I brought a couple of new-to-me fillerish games to an evening with some unfamiliar folks;
First game of the night was Chronicle. This is a trick-taking game from the designer of Love Letter.
It has some interesting things going on. There are three primary suits and a handful of wildcards/major arcana. Each suit (Love, Wisdom, and Power) consists of cards numbered one through ten. Each number has a specific bit of printed rules text and iconography; e.g. the 5s all end the trick immediately. The 1s are all "evil" cards which (usually) preclude you from scoring if you get stuck with them. And so on. Additionally, there is a twelve card "history" deck which is used to determine the scoring parameters for the round; these might indicate that the person strongest in a suite scores points for the round, or whatever. Some of the history cards indicate that you use multiple cards to determine scoring, and indeed the rulesheet suggests using multiple history cards to increase the complexity of the gamestate.
So, it is an elegant and interesting design. Reviews suggest that it takes about five full games to really start humming; as the first game of the evening, we made it through three hands of the first game.
It was okay. The game plays up to six and we were playing with five. With just one goal on the board and thirty-something cards divided five ways, it was easy to feel like you did not have enough meaningful decisions. If I were doing that again, I would use the optional rule to run multiple history cards as the norm.
Nobody seemed actively disinterested in playing more Chronicle, but neither was it really singing along; after the second and third hand I was asking, "more? something else?" and we moved on.
Chronicle is a compact and attractive package, teachable instantly. I'll hang on to it and try it out under different circumstances. My gut instinct suggests that bringing it out after a few games of Hearts would make lifelong converts. To start the evening with a group of boardgame sophisticates who are not particularly invested in trick taking games? Never again.
In stark counterpoint, the last game of the evening was Skull;
Everyone at the table was hooked immediately. Five minutes in and people were commenting on how they were actually shaking with the tension of the game. Twenty minutes and they were googling the art styles on display. An hour later and there were several people talking about buying it.
Skull is something special. I have never seen anyone react like this to a game without monetary stakes.
Sokpuppet on
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Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
There’s a running argument at my table as to whether you actually have any information with which to make your choices in skull
There’s a running argument at my table as to whether you actually have any information with which to make your choices in skull
I've been brainstorming betting structures and weighting schemes that might bring the core gameplay to the next level.
Weighted rock/paper/scissors is the core structure of so many games...
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
There’s a running argument at my table as to whether you actually have any information with which to make your choices in skull
Information as in "hard facts" or information as in judgements of your opponents and their habits? Because the former probably doesn't exist beyond knowing if someone only has roses (thus informing the numbers in bidding) and the latter is basically the entire game?
Yes the argument is whether you are fooling yourself to think is anything but random to do the second part
Or whether it becomes random after fifteen plays in a group, or something
I definitely don't think it's random. Like, people have habits and tells like with any other bluffing game, so there's certainly things you could make educated guesses on. None of it is hard-facts information beyond the tiles you yourself have placed, but it's definitely wrong to think the whole game is random otherwise, because people most decidedly are not.
(hiding this in spoilers because I did promise to stop taking up space with this here)
Basically it's a reverse Strawman and nobody thought to name it the much simpler "Ironman fallacy". Instead of distorting your opponent's argument into a superficially similar, but indefensible argument, you distort your own argument (when challenged) into something superficial similar, but 100% defensible. The defensible position is usually a worthless non-stance on its own, but has value in associating the original controversial statement with the unassailable one while the speaker continues to implicitly support the original controversial one.
Strawman:
"We should pull out of Iraq."
"Why do you hate America?"
Motte & Bailey:
"Why are you sitting at that tea party with the MAGA Hatter and March Hare?"
"Hey man, I just love America. Why don't you?"
Worst gift you ever received from someone who "heard you were into boardgames" ?
My friends and I played that at Gen Con a handful of years back! It's definitely not high art or anything, but it amused us for the hour or so we played it. Definitely not worth owning, though.
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Powerpuppiesdrinking coffee in themountain cabinRegistered Userregular
Yes the argument is whether you are fooling yourself to think is anything but random to do the second part
Or whether it becomes random after fifteen plays in a group, or something
I definitely don't think it's random. Like, people have habits and tells like with any other bluffing game, so there's certainly things you could make educated guesses on. None of it is hard-facts information beyond the tiles you yourself have placed, but it's definitely wrong to think the whole game is random otherwise, because people most decidedly are not.
Right but most of that could be said about RPS. It’s hard to think rigidly about where skull lies on the continuum between RPS and poker.
Sokpuppet immediately went to betting which would definitely give more meat to it
My general rule when placing Skull bets is that a bet of half the tabled cards is fairly safe most of the time. So if there's 8 cards down, a 4 bet is fairly easy. If its odd then round up 7->4.
This isnt based on maths, just my gut feeling. It rarely is wrong though. However, the game gets less predictable at the lower end eg someone places a bet when everyone only has one card in front of them. So 5 cards, 5 people, a bet of three is safeish but you're going to be making the decision based on player personalities and not numbers at that point (how many of your friends are the kind to put their skull down first?).
My friends tend to place skulls as soon as possible and place bets as soon as possible. It makes sense, you want to place your bets early so theres less to think about. But i prefer a longer round with more cards placed down. Because then it introduces the dilemma of "when do i put my skull down?" Too early and people might be able to take just your top cards and not pick up the skull. Too late and you wont even get to play it.
Wow, Agents of Mayhem is a thick fukkin game, y'all.
I saw it various write ups and an unboxing video. I am curious but I will wait and see what people say about it
There's a full playthrough up on Youtube from Academy games plus you can grab the rules from their website. When it first showed up I was going to sell it but then I read the rules and now I'm in semi-love
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
They aren't a space saving tool, but an organizational one. Most gametrayz inserts are there to save you time during setup and take-down, and occasionally particularly well designed ones save you a lot of time putting away other components during the end of the game (seriously, I can't stop overstating this game - check out Parks for maybe the best work Gametrayz has ever done). It's not something I want in every game, but there are absolutely games I am happy to have them in.
They aren't a space saving tool, but an organizational one. Most gametrayz inserts are there to save you time during setup and take-down, and occasionally particularly well designed ones save you a lot of time putting away other components during the end of the game (seriously, I can't stop overstating this game - check out Parks for maybe the best work Gametrayz has ever done). It's not something I want in every game, but there are absolutely games I am happy to have them in.
It's a trade-off or setup the game a few minutes faster or being able to move in my own house
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ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
Allow me to fire some shots here: These things are not a problem when people are happy with a small collection. :P
They aren't a space saving tool, but an organizational one. Most gametrayz inserts are there to save you time during setup and take-down, and occasionally particularly well designed ones save you a lot of time putting away other components during the end of the game (seriously, I can't stop overstating this game - check out Parks for maybe the best work Gametrayz has ever done). It's not something I want in every game, but there are absolutely games I am happy to have them in.
I am very happy with my 3 plano boxes and old Netrunner deckboxes of stuff for Gloomhaven that mean breakdown and set up is significantly reduced. I think I use plastic baggies for everything else, but Gloomhaven would be nightmarish to sort out without those plano boxes.
There's a subreddit for people who make their own foamcore inserts for board games and they often post their plans there as well. Significantly reduced cost, same end result.
ok i'm putting my foot down. no more fucking gametrayz inserts. these things are a huge waste.
Arena: 7 boxes! Throw away all the gametrayz: 2 boxes
Agents of Mayhem: 7 boxes! Throw away all the ding dang gametrayz WITH A SONG IN MY HEART: one farkkin' box!
STOP GIVING THESE PEOPLE MONEY
Surely in those big box o plastic games organisers are essential?
Nah. Breaks down to bags of minis, bags of cards, and the boards.
Sometimes tokens too, but usually it's ultimately easier that way unless you get bogged down setting up.
Maybe some games but really it's never really been an issue for us except for finding your specific player mini in Zombicide games. That's a pain in the ass.
And the only game I've ever had damage in due to it is Cthulhu Wars and that's because the cardboard is so soft and the monsters are so dang spikey.
Magic Pink on
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AuralynxDarkness is a perspectiveWatching the ego workRegistered Userregular
ok i'm putting my foot down. no more fucking gametrayz inserts. these things are a huge waste.
Arena: 7 boxes! Throw away all the gametrayz: 2 boxes
Agents of Mayhem: 7 boxes! Throw away all the ding dang gametrayz WITH A SONG IN MY HEART: one farkkin' box!
STOP GIVING THESE PEOPLE MONEY
Surely in those big box o plastic games organisers are essential?
Nah. Breaks down to bags of minis, bags of cards, and the boards.
Sometimes tokens too, but usually it's ultimately easier that way unless you get bogged down setting up.
Maybe some games but really it's never really been an issue for us except for finding your specific player mini in Zombicide games. That's a pain in the ass.
And the only game I've ever had damage in due to it is Cthulhu Wars and that's because the cardboard is so soft and the monsters are so dang spikey.
I'd expect Nemesis or other big-mini games to share the issue, yeah. As far as keeping trays I'm thinking more of Spirit Island or others where you need 3 Gnipnops there and 2 Whirlyburlies here but 1 Gnipnop over there, and so on. A decent base insert helps with that type of setup in my experience.
The wife and I played Odin’s Ravens last night. It was a simple, fast, fun racing game. Kind of like a strategic Candyland If that makes sense.
The wife got halfway around the course while I was only a quarter of the way, but I ended up winning with her one space away from the finish line. Awesome!
MNC Dover on
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Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
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The judge who took over for me was just starting to transition when she started there and we had to deal with a few people at first misgendering her but like as soon as she got her feet under her with the job she's been on fire and it really helped our community to have her in a visible position of authority
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
It's surprisingly simple.
I still haven't opened mine
It's mostly that, but the particular rules and wrinkles of each scenario and circumstance you might be in create some variety in what you need to be alert for and emphasize which is where the replayability comes in. We've tried 2 or 3 scenarios with varying success.
The only thing worse than a trolling xenophobic nationalist is a two-faced trolling xenophobic nationalist. Claiming "What? It's just a hat!" is the most disingenuous, passive aggressive motte & bailey bullshit ever. "What? It's just two intersecting black lines bent at right angles inside a white circle! Why are you so threatened?"
Made even more contemptible by their entire ideology revolving around culling the "weak" out of society, yet they turn into the thinnest skinned cry babies when challenged or called out. You are the exactly the kind of person that your garbage philosophy would cull if it could get away with it, you stupid, stupid tool.
As far as deprogramming goes, you don't hold the AA meeting at the bar. You escort the belligerent drunk outside first.
Reading through the rules, it seems like Arkham Horror (moving around the town where locations do different things) meets Cthulhu Wars (competitive cults trying to bring their own ancient one into the world, receiving unique upgrades as the game goes on). One interesting hook is that if the neutral "monsters" (roaming investigators) succeed in sealing 3 gates, the game ends with a federal raid and the winner becomes the cult with the lowest score who's kept a low enough profile to avoid detection. Seems like it would be an interesting decision on when to make the call that it's the losing player's only option to try and blow the game up to reverse the victory condition.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I saw it various write ups and an unboxing video. I am curious but I will wait and see what people say about it
First game of the night was Chronicle. This is a trick-taking game from the designer of Love Letter.
It has some interesting things going on. There are three primary suits and a handful of wildcards/major arcana. Each suit (Love, Wisdom, and Power) consists of cards numbered one through ten. Each number has a specific bit of printed rules text and iconography; e.g. the 5s all end the trick immediately. The 1s are all "evil" cards which (usually) preclude you from scoring if you get stuck with them. And so on. Additionally, there is a twelve card "history" deck which is used to determine the scoring parameters for the round; these might indicate that the person strongest in a suite scores points for the round, or whatever. Some of the history cards indicate that you use multiple cards to determine scoring, and indeed the rulesheet suggests using multiple history cards to increase the complexity of the gamestate.
So, it is an elegant and interesting design. Reviews suggest that it takes about five full games to really start humming; as the first game of the evening, we made it through three hands of the first game.
It was okay. The game plays up to six and we were playing with five. With just one goal on the board and thirty-something cards divided five ways, it was easy to feel like you did not have enough meaningful decisions. If I were doing that again, I would use the optional rule to run multiple history cards as the norm.
Nobody seemed actively disinterested in playing more Chronicle, but neither was it really singing along; after the second and third hand I was asking, "more? something else?" and we moved on.
Chronicle is a compact and attractive package, teachable instantly. I'll hang on to it and try it out under different circumstances. My gut instinct suggests that bringing it out after a few games of Hearts would make lifelong converts. To start the evening with a group of boardgame sophisticates who are not particularly invested in trick taking games? Never again.
In stark counterpoint, the last game of the evening was Skull;
Everyone at the table was hooked immediately. Five minutes in and people were commenting on how they were actually shaking with the tension of the game. Twenty minutes and they were googling the art styles on display. An hour later and there were several people talking about buying it.
Skull is something special. I have never seen anyone react like this to a game without monetary stakes.
I've been brainstorming betting structures and weighting schemes that might bring the core gameplay to the next level.
Weighted rock/paper/scissors is the core structure of so many games...
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Or whether it becomes random after fifteen plays in a group, or something
You can't insult me when I don't even understand the reference!
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
(unless you're joking and it flew over my head)
https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Motte_and_bailey
(hiding this in spoilers because I did promise to stop taking up space with this here)
Strawman:
"We should pull out of Iraq."
"Why do you hate America?"
Motte & Bailey:
"Why are you sitting at that tea party with the MAGA Hatter and March Hare?"
"Hey man, I just love America. Why don't you?"
My friends and I played that at Gen Con a handful of years back! It's definitely not high art or anything, but it amused us for the hour or so we played it. Definitely not worth owning, though.
Right but most of that could be said about RPS. It’s hard to think rigidly about where skull lies on the continuum between RPS and poker.
Sokpuppet immediately went to betting which would definitely give more meat to it
This isnt based on maths, just my gut feeling. It rarely is wrong though. However, the game gets less predictable at the lower end eg someone places a bet when everyone only has one card in front of them. So 5 cards, 5 people, a bet of three is safeish but you're going to be making the decision based on player personalities and not numbers at that point (how many of your friends are the kind to put their skull down first?).
My friends tend to place skulls as soon as possible and place bets as soon as possible. It makes sense, you want to place your bets early so theres less to think about. But i prefer a longer round with more cards placed down. Because then it introduces the dilemma of "when do i put my skull down?" Too early and people might be able to take just your top cards and not pick up the skull. Too late and you wont even get to play it.
Arena: 7 boxes! Throw away all the gametrayz: 2 boxes
Agents of Mayhem: 7 boxes! Throw away all the ding dang gametrayz WITH A SONG IN MY HEART: one farkkin' box!
STOP GIVING THESE PEOPLE MONEY
There's a full playthrough up on Youtube from Academy games plus you can grab the rules from their website. When it first showed up I was going to sell it but then I read the rules and now I'm in semi-love
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
It's a trade-off or setup the game a few minutes faster or being able to move in my own house
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Between Two Castles of MKL has nice Trayz too.
why you sunuva....
Surely in those big box o plastic games organisers are essential?
Choose Your Own Chat 1 Choose Your Own Chat 2 Choose Your Own Chat 3
Nah. Breaks down to bags of minis, bags of cards, and the boards.
Sometimes tokens too, but usually it's ultimately easier that way unless you get bogged down setting up.
Maybe some games but really it's never really been an issue for us except for finding your specific player mini in Zombicide games. That's a pain in the ass.
And the only game I've ever had damage in due to it is Cthulhu Wars and that's because the cardboard is so soft and the monsters are so dang spikey.
I'd expect Nemesis or other big-mini games to share the issue, yeah. As far as keeping trays I'm thinking more of Spirit Island or others where you need 3 Gnipnops there and 2 Whirlyburlies here but 1 Gnipnop over there, and so on. A decent base insert helps with that type of setup in my experience.
The wife got halfway around the course while I was only a quarter of the way, but I ended up winning with her one space away from the finish line. Awesome!
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