Non-video games

[Patters]

The B-Wing is my all time favorite star wars ship.

Same here

[elmuerte]

I've also got T2R... but I can't play it on my android, because it's a ADP1; so just Steam for me

[Sno]

 

The Moldy Crow! That's awesome.

[sclpls]

For any table-top wargamer types hanging around, this is pretty good:

 

http://imgur.com/gallery/V0gND

 

Yeah that's good. Out-gimmicking some gimmicky strategy is so good.

[tberton]

For those of you that remember Tammany Hall, which the Thumbs talked about on Episode 106: Imagine the Man, I wrote a post today about how gosh darn great it is.

[Gormongous]

I just finished a twelve-round game of Resistance: Avalon after an exhausting week of grading and insomnia. By the end, I didn't really have the energy to change my expression more than once per round, so I just kinda picked genial-with-an-undercurrent-of-suspicion to wear the entire round. It definitely reduced my effectiveness at negotiation and deception.

[tberton]

I like the idea of you just sitting there with a dead-eyed smile, staring into nothing anytime somebody asks you a question.

[Gormongous]

I like the idea of you just sitting there with a dead-eyed smile, staring into nothing anytime somebody asks you a question.

 

That was pretty much it. It made me totally inscrutable, but also totally boring, so I just got ignored for most of the game. It was not optimal.

 

The new Firefly game made it to the table last weekend. I had written this game off altogether because it looked like a flabby and unoriginal pick-up-and-deliver system that's been wallpapered in meaningless nods to the show. And that's exactly what it was, but maybe I like the show more than I think I do, because the experience was amazing. In between the somewhat bland mechanical interactions, there's a great story being generated. One of my friends was hated by all his crew, but then they got eaten by Reavers, so his captain was floating around alone in a half-dead spaceship, then hired a new crew, but they hated him too. It was the best two hours of gameplay since my first round of Galaxy Trucker this summer.

 

What other games have you all found with alchemy like this? It's the most exhilarating feeling!

[Piffinatour]

I always liked the 'party game' Cards Against Humanity. It's like 'Apples to Apples' but much, much, MUCH better (or worse, depending on how you look at it).

It's the kind of game that makes you realize how racist and insensitive you really are (which is a TERRIBLE thing to learn with a group of 3 black people you've never met before. Trust me, you feel terrible about yourself, but hey, I didn't have any other cards that worked with it! It'n not my fault I likened the 3/5ths Compromise to an excuse to justify cheating on your spouse! It was the game, I swear!).

 

*ahem* Anyway, it's fun. So is Munchkins. And the game 'Zombies!!!' by Twilight Creations Inc. And it's 12 expansions, too!

[osmosisch]

What other games have you all found with alchemy like this? It's the most exhilarating feeling!

My favourite not-very-good game to generate ridiculous stories is Talisman. Like the time one guy managed to teleport and finagle his way to the centre and started trying to drain the rest of us and failed...for 13 straight turns, while we painstakingly made our way to him, and were one space away from winning, when he rolled again..and failed! it was like a raid boss encounter all of a sudden instead of the weird cutthroat race it normally is.

Basically any games where barbarians can get turned into toads is going to tickle my fancy.

[Merus]

Battlestar Galactica works well for generating weird tension. It's a betrayal game - the team is trying to work together to jump to safety and preserve their dwindling supplies, but there may or may not be a traitor at the table who can sabotage their best efforts.

[Gormongous]

Yeah, but Battlestar Galactica is a functionally perfect design, while Firefly is at best a poor man's Merchants of Venus.

 

My favourite not-very-good game to generate ridiculous stories is Talisman. Like the time one guy managed to teleport and finagle his way to the centre and started trying to drain the rest of us and failed...for 13 straight turns, while we painstakingly made our way to him, and were one space away from winning, when he rolled again..and failed! it was like a raid boss encounter all of a sudden instead of the weird cutthroat race it normally is.

Basically any games where barbarians can get turned into toads is going to tickle my fancy.

 

God, I put so many hours into Talisman in high school, but you're right, it's not a very good game at all. It would never make it to my table now, not with its length, downtime, and endgame. But yeah, RISK-level randomness in an RPG makes for hilarious stuff.

[osmosisch]

The downtime at least isn't too terrible as I remember it, if you die just roll up a new guy; turns themselves are brief.

[feelthedarkness]

Man, i think i'm like the only person who strongly disliked Battlestar Galactica. 

 

My friends and I still play Talisman every few months. It's one of the few games that supports 6 or more players, and we load up all 3 expansions, and random draw characters. The turns don't require too much concentration so it's great for bullshitting.

 

While really daunting at first, Arkham Horror is a great narrative engine. In our last game, a recovering alcoholic priest had to jump off the wagon to use some bottle of booze that would give him enough courage/tries to drive his stolen pickup through a portal and detonate it, saving Arkham.  

[osmosisch]

I'm not a fan of any traitor games, including BSG.

[Erkki]

I played Firefly, but we didn't finish it (in 4 hours including rules intro!) because one person had to leave. It seem like a good game to me, although could have been I just enjoyed the company more than the game itself. I want to play a full game or two before making a final judgment.

 

I don't think I've played many similar games so don't have much to compare it to -- maybe Merchants & Marauders. M&M is certainly better, I think, and simpler with cleaner systems. This game might just try a bit too hard to tie things to the show without really getting to the kernel.

[Twig]

Betrayal is great, because it's so fast-paced and everyone goes in knowing it's just a dumb game.

[Gormongous]

I don't think I've played many similar games so don't have much to compare it to -- maybe Merchants & Marauders. M&M is certainly better, I think, and simpler with cleaner systems. This game might just try a bit too hard to tie things to the show without really getting to the kernel.

 

Oh, Merchants & Marauders is a better design, but for some reason it doesn't click the same for me. I think it's because A) direct combat between players, and more systems and more discrete systems make a more competitive game, which I really am not crazy about in pick-up-and-deliver games.

 

My friends and I still play Talisman every few months. It's one of the few games that supports 6 or more players, and we load up all 3 expansions, and random draw characters. The turns don't require too much concentration so it's great for bullshitting.

 

If I get six players to the table, I'm pushing for Rex: Final Days of Empire (née Dune) or Imperial 2030, although lighter fare like King of Tokyo or Resistance: Avalon always trumps those two.

[Merus]

You know, it's kind of great that we are starting to get licensed board games that draw on the strength of their material and make something utterly unique and far more enduring as a result.

[Gormongous]

You know, it's kind of great that we are starting to get licensed board games that draw on the strength of their material and make something utterly unique and far more enduring as a result.

 

Yeah! I think it might just be the reductive and subtractive nature of board games. You can only have a few things going on in a board game, unless you're making the next Arkham Horror, so a design team has to sit down and ask themselves, "What are the one or two things that this license is really about and how can we build a game around them?" That way, even the failures like Firefly (or War of the Ring, I'd argue) are interesting as hell. So very few licensed video games are designed like that, except maybe the Rocksteady Batman games, and I wish it were otherwise.

[tberton]

A Game of Thrones: The Board Game  is another good example of a licensed game that does its license justice.

[Salacious Snake]

My copy of Oger Designer's edition arrived today. It is truly gargantuan.

[feelthedarkness]

If I get six players to the table, I'm pushing for Rex: Final Days of Empire (née Dune) or Imperial 2030, although lighter fare like King of Tokyo or Resistance: Avalon always trumps those two.

 

Oh MAN, Dune. My main board game pal has an original copy, but we also printed the fan remake (all the assets are freely available) on the larger playing cards, and the map we mounted on foam core. Our last game took 13 straight hours, and ended on a final turn victory with me, as the Fremen summoned a worm, forced a conclave, convinced the Spacing Guild to ditch his Emperor Ally, and shuttle my people to a few key points. GREAT game.

 

I haven't played the others, but always heard great things about Resistance. 

 

I'll also agree that Game of Thrones is a great game that makes good use of the license. 

[sclpls]

Dune and Game of Thrones, both thematically excellent games about stabbing your friends in the back.

[Roderick]

Gune of Thrunes