tberton

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Posts posted by tberton

  1. Posted

    Dishonored doesn't have any steam-powered technology though. In fact, the entire premise of Dishonored seems to be "what if the industrial revolution was fueled by whale oil instead of steam" (while Blades in the Dark asks a similar question, replacing "whale oil" with "ghosts"). I've always thought of steampunk at least in part being about "what if steam-powered technology had gone further?"

  2. Posted

    That's a pretty good definition Gormongous and one that Dishonored and Blades in the Dark would probably fit into. I suppose I just prefer Industrial Fantasy as a term, because it's more descriptive and has less baggage.

  3. Posted

    That's a fair argument, although I dunno I'd probably put them in the same bucket. :P He also mentioned Perdito Street Station which is 100% steampunk... or so I'm told. I never read it!!!

     

    Rules for planning flashbacks is fucking awesome. I knew nothing about the system but now I'm even more excited haha.

     

    I've never read Perdido Street Station, but I know that Blades  doesn't advertise itself as steampunk anyway.

     

    The flashback system is really neat. Basically, if you're on a job and decide you want something in the past to have been true (like, "I bribed that guard earlier" or "I sabotaged their magic alarms"), you take a certain amount of Stress (the game's sort-of equivalent to HP) and then we just flashback to the scene of you doing that thing. The idea is to encourage Ocean's Eleven-style action, where it's revealed that the characters had planned for this all along, instead of spending hours as players bickering over the minutiae of a plan.

     

    Blades is very close to the top of my list of games I want to play.

  4. Posted

    Austin announced they're gonna do a steampunky style short adventure for 12 (iirc) or so episodes, so they have a shorter campaign to show off as an example of what the podcast is all about.

     

    I know the internet at large ain't a big fan of steampunk, but I like it when it's done well (Dishonored!), and I have all the faith in the world in Austin's GM'ing and all the players'... playing. It's gonna be goooood.

     

    I think the core setting of Blades in the Dark is more Industrial Fantasy, rather than steampunk (and I'd argue that Dishonored is as well), because it's not "Victorian, but with steam powered everything" but rather "Victorian, but with magic".

     

    In any case, I super excited for them to play Blades, because the system is super cool, from the little I've read of it. Highlights: a really flexible action system that gives players a lot of control over how they do what they do; rules for flashbacks, so that planning missions doesn't get in the way of doing missions; a "positioning" system, so that the results of your actions vary based on whether you've got a Controlled, Dangerous, or Risky position vis-a-vis the action; and a character sheet for the group as a whole, so that you get advancement outside of your individual character. I'm excited to see how they take to the game.

  6. Posted

    A test of a strategy game's depth might be whether mastering it improves your chess game. Go certainly can make you a better chess player. I don't know if I could say the same for the euros on my shelf, though it sounds like enduring a full schedule at Gencon can prepare you for a serious chess tournament.

     

    I've never seriusly engaged with Chess, but I know my Chess game felt a lot better after I had played a lot of Euros and other modern board games. It felt as though I was better at planning ahead and seeing the possibilities on the board.

     

    On the topic of Chess variants, the only one I've played is COIN Chess and it's flipping great. It adapts the COIN wargaming system for Chess, so that each colour is split into Nobles and Peasants, with limitations on which pieces they can move and how they score points. I highly recommend giving it a shot if you can find three other interested players.

  9. Posted

    When I asked Austin on Twitter, he said that Season 3 would return to the setting of Season 1 at least, so I presume that means they'll be playing Dungeon World, although maybe they'll switch to a different system.

  10. Posted

    Every bar I see is mostly full of 20-somethings in groups. I don't know why they don't save a shitload of money, be more comfortable, have control over music, not have to deal with potential assholes, etc. by not meeting at one of their homes.

     

    Reasons people might go to bars with friends:

     

    They have draft beer.

    They have better cocktails or food than you care to/are able to make for yourself.

    You don't want to clean your house for guests (which you mentioned).

    You don't want to clean your house after guests (which you didn't mention, but I think is a bigger reason).

    There's a bar near you that has a great atmosphere/employees.

    You want to watch a sports game and don't have cable.

    Your friend live far away and its easier to meet at a halfway point than go all the way to their place or have them come to yours.

    You're going dancing afterwards and the bar is near the club.

    You have neighbours that don't like people being noisy late at night.

    Your house or apartment isn't big enough to accomodate your friends.

    You live in an out of the way or dangerous neighbourhood that your friends don't want to go to.

    You and your friends want to meet people.

    You live with other people who don't want to be bothered by your friends.

    There's a bar near your workplace or school, so you go there with classmates or coworkers.

     

    I'm sure there are more.

  13. Posted

    I just started getting into Friends at the Table and it's so good. It's teaching me a lot too about how to be a good DM which is helpful.

     

    Are there any other podcasts about tabletop rpgs that are worth checking out?

     

    If you want to learn more about GMing specifically, Adam Koebel's Office Hours show is really good. Right now it's just a Twitch and YouTube thing, but he'll be releasing the first ten episodes as podcasts soon.

  14. Posted

    Also Volt Disruptors have cooldowns now, I'm pretty sure that is new.

     

    Double-post to say that I'm using a Volt Disruptor and it doesn't have a cooldown, so either you misunderstood something or they've changed this in the intervening months.

  15. Posted

    Finally bought this in the Humble Sale yesterday, along witht the DLC. It's as good as I expected it to be. Nearly done my first Experienced run (I skipped Beginner) and I've already had a lot of super tense close calls which have been awesome. The Rewinds are a life saver, although I would really love a generic "Undo" button. Sometimes I just misclick and want to erase that move, rather than rewinding all the way back to the previous turn. But I can understand that that might screw with the design.

  22. Posted

    Of course, after you derive a new Prime Directive from the original by breaking/bending the rules, it's Prime Directive Prime, then Prime Direction Double Prime, and so on.

     

    While it has been proven that there are infinite Prime Directives, the Twin Prime Directive conjecture, which supposes that there are infinite Twin Prime Directives, has yet to be proven (although it is believed to be true).

  23. Posted

    Hmm, maybe I'm not switching up strategy enough in the mid-game. The idea of founding right next to Aluminum so I can switch it up later is an interesting one. Recently, I've been founding next to iron as I like getting steel directly into my HQ without shipping, it makes early upgrades all that much faster.

     

    Edit: Also, I could swear that there was a "return plot of land" button when I was playing at the start, but I haven't been able to do it in some time. Is that a difficulty level thing, or maybe I'm not looking in the right place for it?

     

    Founding next to Iron is a good idea! A good Robotic/Expansive founding spot will usually have Iron and Aluminum closely bunched together. As general rule of thumb, any secondary buildings (that is, buildings that require inputs other than power) should be built next to your HQ (Scientific HQs can get around this, but even then, closer is better). There are two reasons for this: first off all, if a building requires an input resource and isn't next to your HQ, that input resource needs to first be sent to the building and then the output resource needs to be sent back to HQ. Not only does that cost a lot of Fuel (or Power if your a Robot), but more importantly, it costs time and time is your most precious resource. Any second resources are flying through the air is a second you could instead be making money. For the same reason, putting your secondary buildings away from your HQ also makes it tougher to transition them.

     

    If you're playing a lot as Robotic, remember that Power counts as an input resource, so that any building next to a Power producing building will receive an adjacency bonus. Building Solar Panels or Wind Turbines near your HQ (or even better, founding near a Geothermal Vent) is the best way to maximize the Robotic bonus.

     

    As for the Return Claim button, you can do that, as long as 1) a structure hasn't finished building on that claim yet and 2)  the tile hasn't yet been hit by a Black Market effect. It's basically there in case you misclick.

  24. Posted

    To be clear, I meant that I studied the AI build order in one game, and applied it to the next, only to be outmaneuvered in that game and have the price of steel tank.

     

    In general, I've found the price of Aluminum is never as high as water, sulfur, or carbon, so I rarely create an aluminum mine. The times that I do, the price seems to tank even further.

     

    Yes, I'm making use of adjacency bonuses, and playing Robotic so making use of their special bonuses for having a mine that creates a resource and a factory that needs a resource next to each other.

     

    In general, I feel like I'm disproportionately altering the economy. In other words, the price tanks on anything I produce in any quantity, and the price skyrockets on anything that I need to buy. Then when I try a different start, it flips the other way. 

     

    Ah, okay, I didn't catch that. And sorry, by the way, if my tone came of as condescending or anything. I didn't mean it to and I appreciate how confusing the game can be. 

     

    Robotic have the lowest Aluminum requirements, so they can get around it a bit, but in general, you really need an Aluminum mine at the beginning of the game or you're going to be paying for upgrades through the nose. You're right that the price tends to tank late game though, so if you can swing it, founding right next to a good source of Aluminum is always nice so that you can switch it into something more profitable later on.

     

    You're right too that you have a big effect on the market and so a big part of the strategy is in identifying when you're going to need to transition into a different one. By HQ Level 4 or 5, you should generally have 3-4 triangles of secondary resources that are making you good money. Once one of those starts to dip and doesn't seem like it's coming back anytime soon, you can switch into something that's making more money. If you feel that you're still chasing prices as they disappear on you, try to identify resources that your opponent is going to need and use the Black Market to deny it to them. For instance, if your opponent is an Expansive HQ, you know they're going to constantly be consuming Food. So freeze their Farms and build some yourself then sell down that Food as fast as you can. The upward pressure on the market from their life support cost will keep the price high enough for you and by the time their Farms are back online, they'll be making less money than you did.

     

    Also, Graddy, I got your invite!