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Anonymous Robot posted:Just play it if you like it, the product range isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Yeah, even if they were to come out and announce that the Marvel Champions product line is over, it has still had a pretty solid run of hero, expansion, and scenario releases that should be enough to tide anyone over for a long time.
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Feb 26, 2023 19:28
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Jewmanji posted:I’m always too shy to ask in other spaces so can someone explain to a dolt like me what private equity firms do with companies like this? It sounds like they always strip it for spare parts but since FFG doesn’t own any valuable original IP and it’s all non-exclusive licenses, how is it a profitable enterprise for them? This question applies to private equity firms in general buying up American businesses. There's two different types of PE, in broad strokes. There's vulture capitalism, where a company gets bought, saddled with debt, and stripped for quick profits. The buyout company takes "consulting fees" in the millions. A fun perverse side effect of this was lots of companies took on unneeded debt to be seen as less attractive in PE buyouts. The other type is just kinda bog-standard capitalism. Some PE firm thinks industry X is undervalued, so they buyout a bunch of the players in the space, make a bunch of changes that maximize the short term profitability, and sell it at a giant markup in 3-5 years. They want it to look good on paper for the next PE firm who's gonna buy it.
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Feb 26, 2023 19:41
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GreenBuckanneer posted:https://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Anniversary-Collection-Premium-Legends/dp/B0B2S89HW6/ref=asc_df_B0B2S89HW6/ It should be noted that the FFTCG does have "Boss decks" which are co op battles for 2-3 people against a boss. There's two boss decks out right now, one for Chaos and one for Sephiroth. They're specifically meant to be their own thing, since I don't think any of the cards in the boss decks (or at least a good amount of them) are actually not usable in the regular TCG. I play the FFTCG and know a lot about it! I was kind of surprised there actually isn't a thread for it here like there is for Magic. I know Magic is vastly more popular, but I also know that at least at the store where I work, a bunch of ex-MtG players picked up the FFTCG and it's been growing in popularity for quite a bit.
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Feb 26, 2023 23:15
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Twelve by Pies posted:It should be noted that the FFTCG does have "Boss decks" which are co op battles for 2-3 people against a boss. There's two boss decks out right now, one for Chaos and one for Sephiroth. They're specifically meant to be their own thing, since I don't think any of the cards in the boss decks (or at least a good amount of them) are actually not usable in the regular TCG. What's the pitch? How fun is it if you're not into FF?
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Feb 26, 2023 23:26
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Twelve by Pies posted:It should be noted that the FFTCG does have "Boss decks" which are co op battles for 2-3 people against a boss. There's two boss decks out right now, one for Chaos and one for Sephiroth. They're specifically meant to be their own thing, since I don't think any of the cards in the boss decks (or at least a good amount of them) are actually not usable in the regular TCG. I saw a deck for ff15 and I want it if only for noctis. I don't know anyone else irl who plays
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Feb 26, 2023 23:32
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CitizenKeen posted:What's the pitch? How fun is it if you're not into FF? It's essentially just MtG but with Final Fantasy characters. There are some slight rules differences (you can only have five backups on the field instead of as many lands as you want like in Magic, you can pitch cards into your graveyard to pay for summoning costs, the attacker is the one that can form parties with multiple attackers rather than the defender), but other than that it is basically just Magic. Well, okay, actually, there is one big difference. Rather than 20 life in Magic, you have 7 life, and losing life means a card from your deck is removed from the game...but even that can be advantageous in a way, since certain cards have what's called EX Bursts, which are abilities that activate even if they are removed by taking damage. There are also cards that have special abilities that make them stronger if you have taken enough damage. There's also monsters which are weird and sort of their own thing, they can be Forwards (creatures) but aren't always. But ultimately yeah, it's for fans of Final Fantasy so the big draw is getting to make decks out of your favorite series/characters. I mean, like I said, it's essentially Magic and Magic is pretty fun, but I don't know if it's different enough from Magic for someone who's not into FF to get anything out of it. GreenBuckanneer posted:I saw a deck for ff15 and I want it if only for noctis. I don't know anyone else irl who plays FFXV decks are decently strong because they have special abilities that gets the boys out on the field faster and give them bonus abilities depending on how many are out at the same time. But yeah if you don't know anyone irl who plays, that's tough. I dunno if the popularity at my LGS is unique to our area or not, it very well could be. There's a site called OCTGN where you can play online like MtG Arena, but I haven't used it so I can't vouch for it.
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Feb 26, 2023 23:45
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Occasionally throughout the years my group would do some themed board game months, but we have been expanding them a bit and they have been a hit with our friends. The obvious one is spooky games in October, and we did food/harvesting games in November, but the biggest success so far was Your Favorite Game in December, where we made sure to play each person's favorite game at least once throughout the month. This month I planned to do Forget-Me-Not February, dedicated to the games that have been collecting dust on the shelf for a while that we want to get back to the table. Unfortunately we weren't able to schedule many games days this month so I'll probably bring this back in the future. I did get a personal dust collector off the shelf today and we played Forbidden Stars, a game I purchased when it was going out of print in 2016 or so, played half a game of once with 4 players, then never played again. We played a 2p game today and really enjoyed it. The stacking action selection mechanism is really clever. I know it was originally developed for the Starcraft board game but I wouldn't mind seeing it pop up in something else. It did take around 3 hours but I suspect that will drop down a bit with more plays.
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Feb 27, 2023 02:36
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I pulled the trigger and bought the Marvel Champions starter set and Captain America. My brother-in-law bought Nova, Quicksilver, and Cyclops.
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Feb 27, 2023 03:14
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Radioactive Toy posted:Occasionally throughout the years my group would do some themed board game months, but we have been expanding them a bit and they have been a hit with our friends. The obvious one is spooky games in October, and we did food/harvesting games in November, but the biggest success so far was Your Favorite Game in December, where we made sure to play each person's favorite game at least once throughout the month. This month I planned to do Forget-Me-Not February, dedicated to the games that have been collecting dust on the shelf for a while that we want to get back to the table. Unfortunately we weren't able to schedule many games days this month so I'll probably bring this back in the future. I love that stacking orders thing, though I only played it in Starcraft, never played FS. Lots of tempo and forcing moves kind of system.
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Feb 27, 2023 04:07
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Diabetic posted:I pulled the trigger and bought the Marvel Champions starter set and Captain America. My brother-in-law bought Nova, Quicksilver, and Cyclops. Yeah there's like 4-5 big expansions and 4-5 scenario packs, then all the characters. You won't be short on content
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Feb 27, 2023 04:08
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FulsomFrank posted:Like all Cole games but just a step behind John Company (IN MY OPINION) Oath is absolute nightmare to teach and your joke about Cones of Dunshire is spot on. Like you pointed out, my main issue with the game is that it just isn't good enough to warrant the headache of learning it initially, playing it enough to really understand it, and then inflicting it on new people. The game rewards repeated plays with a steady group and IN MY OPINION just isn't worth playing that much compared to other stuff. Also, someone always has a new game they want to play too so good luck doing just a simple, quick (~1.5hr) warm up play of it. Thanks for that. We're playing it again this weekend so I think I'll take it upon myself to run this session and be the explainer of rules of the game as concepts. I think this game disguises itself through the complexity as a crunchy game when it shouldn't be played like that at all - it's actually not fun to sit there and math out all the possibilites with this ruleset. Funnily enough I have a copy of Sideral Confluence that I'd like to get to the table which seems perfect here (crunchy + talky).
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Feb 27, 2023 11:47
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Radioactive Toy posted:I did get a personal dust collector off the shelf today and we played Forbidden Stars, a game I purchased when it was going out of print in 2016 or so, played half a game of once with 4 players, then never played again. We played a 2p game today and really enjoyed it. The stacking action selection mechanism is really clever. I know it was originally developed for the Starcraft board game but I wouldn't mind seeing it pop up in something else. It did take around 3 hours but I suspect that will drop down a bit with more plays. I played a three-player game of Forbidden Stars yesterday as it happens. Watching someone stack up orders on your borders then blocking them by putting an order on top that cancels their entire turn is great.
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Feb 27, 2023 12:05
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Did you all know Gaia Project is getting an expansion? I went searching for the automated map generator I like to use to set up a game and stumbled on a new post from 3 days ago on the BGG forum asking about why there was no expansion. The designers themselves replied saying the expansion is entirely finished and just in the pipeline for production. Should be out Spring 2024.
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Feb 27, 2023 15:44
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million dollar mack posted:Funnily enough I have a copy of Sideral Confluence that I'd like to get to the table which seems perfect here (crunchy + talky). SC is loads of fun but holy poo poo please have a giant table to play it on because it WILL consume every square inch of it. It is also kinda weird to teach but way easier to understand after a round or two. Once people really get into the wheeling and dealing it's wonderful. In other news, I just played 18Chesapeake: OFF THE RAILS... Loved it. Holy poo poo it was fun. I wish someone had told me this existed years ago because I would have been all over it. The train rush is ridiculous, this is the first time that people bought 2Ts and never saw them run. If the 2s and 3s rusting don't bankrupt someone, then the diesels are essentially hot potatoes that should result in someone going bust, in this case me. I played a couple things wrong but my God, it was fantastic stuff. The guy who won took it with ~$700. The routes are brutal and tokening is quite nasty. It seemed like making money on dividends was a distant second to financial shenanigans and timing of purchases. Wild stuff, really really great. It is destroying me that the expansion is OOP and unless I want to spend 55 euros on BGG to get an official copy, I'm stuck hacking it together with 1882 or proxying it together. If any kind soul in this thread knows where to track down an official copy of it that won't cost as much as an entire game I am all ears.
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Feb 27, 2023 16:00
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We got Horseless Carriage played the other day for the first time. We played at 3 players. Wasn't too bad, though I can get the complaints about fiddlyness with the board. This is my 3rd splotter (FCM - Bus - now this) and I gotta say this one at first reaction is a bit disappointing. There is very very little direct interaction like there was in FCM and Bus. The meat of the game being an entirely solo puzzle with only the sales portion being a "this is my car" claiming race felt a little less cutthroat than we were expecting. We plan to try again at 4p this weekend, and I am hopeful that with further plays as we start to unravel more strategy it'll get better but it hasn't immediately grabbed me like FCM did.
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Feb 27, 2023 19:50
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I finally got around to sleeving my copy of Battlestar Galactica today (which I have only used like three times; I'm almost always playing someone else's copy, but I've played with fire long enough). So, I'm going through the components and deciding what to leave out of the box. (I have a Broken Token organizer I bought a few years ago before I knew about the unspeakable behavior of the owner, which makes it impossible to fit every sleeved card in the box.) It hits me when I finally am done and looking at the stacks of cards and seeing what goes where. How could the same company that put out the Daybreak expansion (sheer genius, a 9.5/10 effort) poo poo out the Exodus expansion? Play for three hours only to find that you arbitrarily die at the end! Or have your ally execute you if she's in a bad mood (Hi, Admiral Cain!) I'd maybe understand if it were their first xpac but Pegasus came before it, and that was probably a 7/10. I mean, the only redeemable thing out of Exodus is the Cylon fleet board and its accoutrements. I mean, I already knew Exodus was bad but it was the first time I actually read through a lot of the ally cards. Oof, what a bunch of stinkers. It also got me thinking about a Star Trek reskin, no traitor, just have to complete X number of missions each in Y number of sectors (Klingon, Romulan, etc.). You'd finish off a sector by completing a "Super Crisis card" -- succeed, and go to the next sector; fail, and lose points from your dials plus maybe other consequences and try again with a different Super Crisis. There'd be skills organized into three sets, using TNG color scheme: Red (command, piloting), Blue (science, medical), Gold (engineering, security/ship ops). Dials would be shields, crew, structural integrity, and supply. The difficult part would be distinguishing the sectors. Maybe you'd only have 3-4 Super Crisis cards per sector.
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Feb 28, 2023 02:00
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Spiteski posted:We got Horseless Carriage played the other day for the first time. We played at 3 players. Wasn't too bad, though I can get the complaints about fiddlyness with the board. This is what I was afraid of. I’ll wait to hear more play reviews but when I looked at the rules description followed by the SUSD video, it seemed like a much less dynamic and interactive game than automobile.
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Feb 28, 2023 06:57
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To me SUSD's video made it look like Smartphone Inc. but twice the weight.
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Feb 28, 2023 07:02
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Admiralty Flag posted:How could the same company that put out the Daybreak expansion (sheer genius, a 9.5/10 effort) poo poo out the Exodus expansion? Play for three hours only to find that you arbitrarily die at the end! Or have your ally execute you if she's in a bad mood (Hi, Admiral Cain!) I'd maybe understand if it were their first xpac but Pegasus came before it, and that was probably a 7/10. I mean, the only redeemable thing out of Exodus is the Cylon fleet board and its accoutrements. Back when we actually had a BSG community, one of my catchphrases was "Burn Exodus"
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Feb 28, 2023 07:40
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I'm looking for cooperative Euro style games and maybe there are some out there I haven't found yet. I know of Pandemic style games but I'm not looking for that kind of game. Ameritrash style games or tower defense games are also not really my cup of tea. I'm a big fan of the Invasion expansion for Orléans and the way everyone uses the normal game mechanics to achieve their goals. I own CO²: Second Chance (and quite enjoy it) and a friend of mine has On Mars with it's coop expansion, but I haven't had a chance to play that one. I know there is The Great Wall, but from the videos I saw it didn't really grab me and on Kickstarter there is Alynthia. Are there any ones I'm missing?
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Feb 28, 2023 07:58
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We've been playing a bit of Viticulture World, and it's quite tricky Definitely play a few games of Viticulture first before jumping straight back into this one though...
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Feb 28, 2023 08:12
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Selecta84 posted:Are there any ones I'm missing? Obligatory The Crew or The Crew: Mission Deep Sea suggestion. I've heard of the cube-collecting mechanics of the Pandemic-alikes as 'firefighting" games. I don't know how many core games will have that feel of "normal game mechanics" but that will probably depend. So far as other less-ameritrash-y non-'firefighting' games are concerned, you can look into Burgle Bros or its sequel, Paleo, and to a certain extent/extreme Frostpunk. Among those I have only played BB1, which I enjoyed.
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Feb 28, 2023 08:55
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Have you tried Spirit Island for cooperative, or is that not euro enough?
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Feb 28, 2023 09:00
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xiw posted:We've been playing a bit of Viticulture World, and it's quite tricky Magnetic North posted:Obligatory The Crew or The Crew: Mission Deep Sea suggestion. I own the Crew, maybe should have mentioned that one :-D Gonna take a look at Burgle Bros, it was in the back of my mind. Paleo I have heard mixed things about, I will see if maybe a friend has a copy. Frostpunk could work, but I heard that it is quite hard. Not a problem, but I have to check out the mechanics. Thanks OperaMouse posted:Have you tried Spirit Island for cooperative, or is that not euro enough? I have, and it feels euro like, but also has the Pandemic feel, if not a lot more complex. Selecta84 fucked around with this message at 09:03 on Feb 28, 2023 |
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Feb 28, 2023 09:01
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edit: double post
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Feb 28, 2023 09:01
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Selecta84 posted:I'm looking for cooperative Euro style games and maybe there are some out there I haven't found yet. Gloomhaven is a secret euro puzzler disguised as a dungeon crawler.
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Feb 28, 2023 14:55
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interrodactyl posted:Gloomhaven is a secret euro puzzler disguised as a dungeon crawler. Got that one already.
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Feb 28, 2023 15:21
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Chill la Chill posted:This is what I was afraid of. I’ll wait to hear more play reviews but when I looked at the rules description followed by the SUSD video, it seemed like a much less dynamic and interactive game than automobile. Definitely give it a try before you buy. There's a couple ways to play online (TTS, or Onlineboardgamers until boardgamecore gets theirs up and running.
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Feb 28, 2023 20:07
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I backed the new Pocket Paragons KS because I'm a degenerate collectionist, and wasn't happy having full collections of EXCEED, BattleCON, Sakura Arms, Combo Fighter and Yomi. Although now I can do a progression of getting into the hobby by playing Pocket Paragons -> Combo Fighter -> EXCEED -> Sakura Armas -> Yomi -> BattleCON
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Mar 1, 2023 14:51
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Are there any thread recommendations for turn timers (either app based or physical?) I've given up 'politely encouraging' some members of my gaming groups and am just going to insist that for certain games and weeknights, the timer comes out.
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Mar 1, 2023 22:11
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million dollar mack posted:Are there any thread recommendations for turn timers (either app based or physical?) I've given up 'politely encouraging' some members of my gaming groups and am just going to insist that for certain games and weeknights, the timer comes out. I use the Android app "TurnsTimer" which is pretty decent. Takes about 1-2minutes to set up if your group is different each week, but otherwise "remembers" and supports things like adding time per turn, total banks of time, individual turn limits. etc. We used it a bit but found more luck with the "Hey, you're taking too long, it makes these games unfun for the rest of us" and telling those people they're going to invited less often for when we're playing heavier games. Totally appreciate that this is not applicable in all situations though.
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Mar 1, 2023 22:35
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I own a DGT time cube which is OOP but playing a game with a physical thing you pass around was actually a very interesting (and speedy) experience. An app doing a similar job sounds much more efficient. But I found that everyone got personally invested in passing a physical cube, so it was self-reminding. People seemed to treat the timer itself as a sort of game, seeking to minimize their own times. With the cube out, we banged out a game of Eclipse in, oh, I wanna say 90 minutes? poo poo was wild. People actively had their turns planned out ahead of time and hot-potatoed the thing. That's actually the only time I used it, because truthfully and thankfully with my group I just haven't needed it.
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Mar 1, 2023 23:16
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Will shoutout https://www.clepsydris.app/ for time tracking (talk about an unfortunate app name), does a bunch of other stuff but you can easily use it just for the rather flexible turn timer features.
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Mar 2, 2023 00:43
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The Eyes Have It posted:I own a DGT time cube which is OOP but playing a game with a physical thing you pass around was actually a very interesting (and speedy) experience. This is cool as hell even if it's OOP, I'll have to keep my eyes open for something similar - thanks!
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Mar 2, 2023 01:17
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Thanks for the replies - I saw the turn timer cube before and really liked the idea, sounds like it worked as well as expected then. Going to turn timers is more my socially-acceptable solution to the problem. The person in question has been pestered and reminded so many times to hurry up that we either uninvite them (not desired) or we just got for a physical intervention, which seems fairer and takes away the social nagging aspect, which is good for all involved. Although a game of Eclipse done in 90 minutes sounds like enough of a reason on its own to buy!
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Mar 2, 2023 01:40
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I got the tuner cube, tried to use it once or twice, but a real problem was defining what happens when your time runs out. In a 2 player game of chess you can just lose, but in a multiplayer euro game you can't just drop a player, they're explicitly not designed for that.
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Mar 2, 2023 01:43
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anyone who times out gets half their initial timer allotment back and has to pay a fine towards the group board game / food & drink fund. if they run out of time again in the same session they get hit again and a quarter of their original time back, etc. alternatively, you could sell me your cube and I promise to use it for every game
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Mar 2, 2023 01:58
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Poopy Palpy posted:I got the tuner cube, tried to use it once or twice, but a real problem was defining what happens when your time runs out. In a 2 player game of chess you can just lose, but in a multiplayer euro game you can't just drop a player, they're explicitly not designed for that. "The player to your left gets to decide what you do"
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Mar 2, 2023 01:58
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Poopy Palpy posted:I got the tuner cube, tried to use it once or twice, but a real problem was defining what happens when your time runs out. In a 2 player game of chess you can just lose, but in a multiplayer euro game you can't just drop a player, they're explicitly not designed for that. They could lose a pre-determined amount of points on the spot (or some other game-specific punishment), then reset their timer. Bleh.
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Mar 2, 2023 02:07
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Whatever position they would get at the end of the game, they get one lower. Stacks up if they blow it multiple times. Literally impossible for them to win unless everyone else also blows the timer, but they can still play for second place.
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Mar 2, 2023 02:24
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