What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Saturday was a good day for gaming. It started with a game of Cosmic Encounter because there were five of us and nobody had a particular gripe with the game. That ended in a three-way tie when one player invited a couple of us in on his last attack to ensure we wouldn't defend it.

Next, three of us played Discworld Ankh-Morpork, which was eventually won by the Dragon King player getting the trouble markers on the board. Every time I play this I like it more. While we were playing, we noticed a new couple get roped into a game of Seasons by someone. The husband was a gamer, but the wife wanted to play games like Apples to Apples. We knew it wouldn't be a good fit for them, and one of us mentioned that a different game might be better, but they went into it. I think the couple wanted to stay included, but after that experience, who knows if they'd be back. I felt that the guy teaching the game just wanted a couple of bodies so he could play "his" game, and under-sold the complexity of it.

Oddville was requested again by someone, and I was happy to play it, so we got into that as a four player game. One of my friends didn't enjoy it (too much planning), and afterwards he went to play Tichu for the rest of the night. Two of us were going to play some Star Realms, but another new member was out of a game, so I looked for a game that would be reasonably inclusive. I offered up Wurfel Bohnanza and that seemed to go down well. We played three players, probably got a bunch of rules wrong, but it ended 13/12/12, and everyone was happy when they rolled the red bean. It's an interesting dice game, because your first roll is the riskiest (other players get to use your current roll to fulfill their orders), so the dice part is "pull your luck" not push. The luck-pushing comes in when you're deciding when to cash in your order card (you only start scoring thalers on the third order on the card and then you get one more per order after that- up to four for the full card).

I could have got a game of Kill Shakespeare in, as one person was interested and another would be okay with it, but after "feeling the room" I felt it would be too heavy and long. We were trying to keep to relatively short games so we could be more available to welcome new people as they showed up.

I think I may have said that I'd play Scrabble next week. You know, I'm OK with that.

No games for me at all this weekend. I don't know if I'm burned out or what.

One weekend without games wouldn't make me question my gaming commitment.

Gary Sax wrote: I'm not sure I understand. So is the idea to replace the dice with cards and then as the game goes on to go through all of them?

If I recall correctly you stop short of the end of the deck (five or so cards) when you reshuffle. There's also some text on them that announce events (it's called the Event Deck for that reason) that does something innocuous in the game. "Everyone gets one wheat" kind of thing. I own a deck, given to me by a buddy who got it free at Gen Con because they didn't sell very well. I've never used it because it feels wrong to even consider it.

The dice in Catan inspire a real conspiracy cult with some of the heavy-duty players. They're all sure the online version dice are fixed, and they aren't so sure about the wooden counterparts in the physical game. "Wooden dice are notoriously unbalanced" they'll say, and rolling 12 twice is considered proof for their suspicions. Even in the face of more "normal" rolls they see the game as inherently unfair. God help these people if they visit a craps table, because weird shit happens with fair dice.

But I think there's more to it than that. To some extent I think calling it out at a game event like that is as much about being on the inside, where complaining about random events qualifies you for the elite table at the game store. They're making it a point to emit a particular aroma in order to display their worthiness and attract the right crowd. I've seen people I know change their behavior at public venues in much the same way. They're putting on a bit of a persona as if they're at a singles bar.

I could call that disingenuous, but I do the same thing in reverse. I'll play stupid in order to avoid the people this other person is trying to attract, because as best I can tell the better game (i.e., more fun game with strangers) takes place at the kiddie table. Everyone is looser and more relaxed, and they don't mind rolling dice when they're playing Catan. It's been my experience that the kind of gamer I like to play with is more likely to lurk there.

S.

Sagrilarus wrote: Was that a Spad VII or a Spad XIII? The XIIIs can't turn a corner and are boring as hell to fly.

Now that I am awake enough to look up the proper spellings the roster was:
Fokker E.III x2
Halberstadt D.III
Albatros D.II

VS

Morane-Saulnier Type N
Airco DH.2
SPAD S.VII x2

Michael Barnes wrote: One of my friends said it best, really- "Intrigue is half the rules of this game and twice as good".

I was thinking of this game when I asked "Can you break your agreement?" After some rulebook shuffling we discovered that all agreements are binding (with the exception of stuff in future turns). The people that came in 1st and 2nd place went back and forth with the agreement - "I'll let your bag pass if you let my pass"...And they proceeded to load up contraband. I wasn't even engaged, nor cared, enough to try to stop.

Gary Sax wrote: One weekend without games wouldn't make me question my gaming commitment.

I seldom play on weekends anymore, too busy with family and house activities, errands, seeing friends, keeping my relationship going (14 years and counting), etc. I only get to see my kids and their mom in the morning and between work and bedtime during the week, I'm not going to ditch them first chance I get to play some games.

1-2 weekly game nights, after kids are in bed (or almost there), are plenty for me right now.

That Spad S.VII is a nice plane to play. A much better choice.

The Duel Pack with the XIII is nice to look at because the paint job is so damn sharp. But I think it doesn't represent the game well because that XIII more or less zooms, immelmanns, zooms, immelmanns . . . just takes you too long to bring the nose around.

S.

I want the "Thank You" the last three pages of this thread.

I had a really tough couple of weeks, and this thread is helping me get through some stuff. The traded off conversations about how this plane versus that plane in WINGS OF WAR works with the meta-conversation I started about the hobby is exactly why I keep coming back here.

ldsdbomber probably has the FATty post of the year with that grooming bit though, that was great. And Sag zeroed in on the disease whose symptoms include RNG whining.

MattLoter and I talked about this when he visited LA. I am the same online (and in public) as I really actually am and I make the assumption others are as well. This is probably a mistake, as for some, the real world is a masque as much as being online is.

Grudunza wrote:

Gary Sax wrote: Robinson Crusoe. Amazing game. Gets better the more you know it. Lots of subtleties that don't become clear till you play multiple times re: the decks.

Played this last night for the first time in several months, and I've resolved to bring it back out a lot more... It is so great, and I still have to work through the Darwin campaign expansion, which I've only barely touched. We played 4p with the Robinson Family scenario. That's supposed to be super hard, apparently, but we breezed to a win in the 7th round. I'm feeling like the scaling is not very good in the game; seems very hard with 1-2 and often easy with the full 4. I know it tries to scale by adding Friday and the Dog with fewer players and changing the cost of wood/fur for shelters, but it still seems like having more people and pawns to do stuff will always make it easier, especially on that scenario where you have to build a ton of stuff. I tried imagining doing that well (winning in round 7) as a solo or 2p game and couldn't remotely imagine that happening.

You're probably on to something re: balance not perfect. I've only played with 1-3 players, and it's plenty hard and fun.

To elaborate on one example, playing a lot more has driven home to me that it is not always best to build when you have a bunch of options. The first reaction when you look at the board is "I should always be building rather than gathering, maybe even exploring." That isn't true, but the only reason you would know that is if you had played a few times and found out how brutal the building event deck tends to be. Way worse than gathering deck, worse than the explore deck, both of which have a decent chance of even being positive. So instead you invest all your time in doing risky one pawn building shit and racking up these brutal events, which is a bad idea (at least with the number of players I've played with).

This game, at least for me, showed the way forward for the "flip a card" Talisman style adventure games we see so many of---basically making the flip a card events have lasting effect that reoccur and you can prepare for. It makes the game a lot more strategic. There'll always be a place for the simple "flip it and deal" games, but I think we're going to see RC informed ones start appearing from here on out.

I'll tell you what, playing in a neutral venue with strangers is a very different brand of gaming. I know you want to just be your normal self but you pretty much have to play more politely and be more reserved than usual just due to the social contract. Years ago I was playing Timber Tom with three guys I had never met, and one of them did what you do in Timber Tom -- he put a tree in front of my guy to block my movement. It's a pretty innocuous move to make, but it was straight at me. To break the ice I put on a funny voice and declared him my new sworn enemy in the forest. Not my best work, but I wanted to loosen up the mood with these guys so I went with light comedy to reach out to start a relationship.

Nothing happened. I don't mean like nobody cared, I mean nothing happened like the next guy didn't take his turn and nobody said anything. The table just froze and I realized that I was the only person there with a sense of humor. What would have been normal bullshit across a game board with my buddies had apparently been too brusque and the guy the comment was aimed at was looking like I had put a knife on the table beside me. I added, "at least for the next 20 minutes" and everyone decided that maybe I was kidding after all and we got back to playing.

I'd be curious to know if games at these new boardgame taverns where people have a beer or two in them work any better. It would seem to me it might soften the mood a bit. Given how little most hardcore gamers drink and throw in how cheap they are, it might not make much of a difference.

S.

I was banned from an 18XX group for similar reasons.

Of course, I can't say I was surprised.

Erik Twice wrote: I was banned from an 18XX group for similar reasons.

Of course, I can't say I was surprised.

Did you thank them for the favor?

charlest wrote: Did you thank them for the favor?

No, but I had quite a laugh afterwards.

I haven't been kicked out of anywhere yet, but we used to get dirty looks at MAGIC:THE GATHERING tourneys when 5-Color was a thing. That could get pretty raucous (as far as MtG goes), and we probably weren't helping things by having "BIG FAT COCK" written on cards, &c. We did perfect the art of using one's removal cards to flip up and literally remove the targeted things from the table. I saw someone do that at the world championships this weekend and had happy thoughts.

These trunk-full-of-love guys are packing just big games. I need something that sets up, plays, and cleans up in 1 hour. KING OF TOKYO will work. Any other ideas?

A Chudyk card game?