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Mister Bung posted:Uh, no? Have I missed something? I've got a fairly narrow range of knowledge when it comes to tabletop games. I'm guessing by the snark that something I've said is obvious/stupid, so my bad for wanting to talk about a cool game I played? Yes. Get your rear end into the Game Room, there are always a few games running and a newbie-friendly game will start every so often. Ask in the Mafia Discussion Thread. I also recommend kibitzing a few of the running games before you start, as playing the game online is a lot different to playing it face-to-face. Just don't post in any thread if you're not playing the game and still alive.
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Mar 30, 2013 15:14
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If you find yourself with a less than optimal number of players (werewolf needs at least 8) resistance: avalon is a game that is strong with 5.
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Mar 30, 2013 15:18
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Spincut posted:The infuriating thing is that he's still so drat popular. There are quite a few people on BGG who also make videos. They deign to put a modicum of effort into those videos and it makes them worlds better than Vasel, but he still gets tons more views. In the realm of podcasts/content, especially in the realm of games podcasts/content, the most popular are the ones who have been round the longest, not the best. It is hard to chip your way in when someone like Vasel has been doing it for nearly a decade, and at the ridiculously high quantity that he has. It is possible, and one would hope that the cream rises to the top, but it is a difficult road.
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Mar 30, 2013 15:22
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Mister Bung posted:Uh, no? Have I missed something? I've got a fairly narrow range of knowledge when it comes to tabletop games. I'm guessing by the snark that something I've said is obvious/stupid, so my bad for wanting to talk about a cool game I played? Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to be dismissive, you just blew my mind. The game is called Mafia in most places, and it's extremely popular all over the internet (since it's one of the few party games that probably actually works better in a forums context.) HERE is a simple, good newbie primer. Check out the mafia folks in the Game Room, they're good people and always welcome newbies in their games. The Mafia Discussion Thread is the place to discuss the game.
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Mar 30, 2013 15:39
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I've now played about 10 games of the Castles of Burgundy, and I'm a bit bored with it. It's a solid game, but it feels so similar each time, even with the different boards. There are not a great number of strategies to explore, and victory doesn't feel very rewarding. On the other hand, my GF and her friend both love it. Puerto Rico and Agricola I keep finding entertaining, even after dozens of games, and there are always some other strategies to explore. And Ticket to Ride also keeps being interesting for some reason, despite its simplicity. How do others feel after multiple games of CoB?
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Mar 30, 2013 15:42
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Ashenai posted:Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to be dismissive, you just blew my mind. The game is called Mafia in most places, and it's extremely popular all over the internet (since it's one of the few party games that probably actually works better in a forums context.) HERE is a simple, good newbie primer. Check out the mafia folks in the Game Room, they're good people and always welcome newbies in their games. The Mafia Discussion Thread is the place to discuss the game. As an aside, anybody else as annoyed as I am that Max Temkin's newest "game design" on Kickstarter is a set of cards for Werewolf?
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Mar 30, 2013 15:50
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OperaMouse posted:I've now played about 10 games of the Castles of Burgundy, and I'm a bit bored with it. It's a solid game, but it feels so similar each time, even with the different boards. There are not a great number of strategies to explore, and victory doesn't feel very rewarding. I've found the variability of yellow/knowledge tiles to keep the game pretty challenging, as those can tip the scale significantly for a particular strategy. This is similar with Agricola and the occupation/improvement cards. If anything Puerto Rico suffers from lack of variable play (aside from using the hacienda). This doesn't mean it isn't still a great game, however...
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Mar 30, 2013 16:09
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Ashenai posted:Ahaha. Is this a joke? I saw the game. It's real life Mafia. I saw it being played on Sat night at Pax east. 80% of the players were in varying states of inhibition and it looked awesome. I saw the end and one villager had the two werewolves PINNED, but they kept deflecting attention to others amazingly. The accuser got killed and the next night when there the werewolves lifted their heads to assign the next person to die, the accuser had the biggest poo poo eating grin and two of the biggest middle fingers being flown silently at both.
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Mar 30, 2013 16:32
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Were you guys planning on doing something on a Saturday? Well, instead of that, why not sit around and wait for the Amazon Lightning Deal for Galaxy Trucker at 5PM PST. It's not the Anniversary Edition I don't think, but it's still Galaxy Trucker.
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Mar 30, 2013 16:40
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NPCChris posted:I think the video is slick, I like how it is presented. I must say that it is strange to have a live-play "tutorial" type of video with house rules, and I am not just saying that simply because I believe those particular house rules are unnecessary. I can see why some people might prefer to play it that way. The Resistance is great, but it can reduce down to a logic puzzle sometimes, and spies become immediately obvious when they downvote teams that would either guarantee a resistance win or guarantee that the spies expose themselves. Hidden team voting makes the game a lot more random, but it helps to prevent situations where one side is effectively mathed into a loss. Still kind of lovely that they'd use that house rule in a video meant to show off the game, though.
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Mar 30, 2013 16:41
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EVIR Gibson posted:I saw the game. It's real life Mafia. Yeah, I'm aware of the real-life version of the game, I played it a bunch at parties. It's very fun, although quite different from forums games. I was just flabbergasted that someone in this thread hadn't heard of Mafia. It's such a basic part of my gaming vocabulary at this point, like I'd describe BSG's mechanics as "mafia-like."
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Mar 30, 2013 16:54
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OperaMouse posted:I've now played about 10 games of the Castles of Burgundy, and I'm a bit bored with it. It's a solid game, but it feels so similar each time, even with the different boards. There are not a great number of strategies to explore, and victory doesn't feel very rewarding.
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Mar 30, 2013 17:05
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GrandpaPants posted:Were you guys planning on doing something on a Saturday? Well, instead of that, why not sit around and wait for the Amazon Lightning Deal for Galaxy Trucker at 5PM PST. It's not the Anniversary Edition I don't think, but it's still Galaxy Trucker. How cheap are these, usually? I was about to do a CSI order including Galaxy Trucker and if I were to leave it out I wouldn't get the $100 free shipping. Not sure if the math works out to where I'm better off getting it from Amazon.
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Mar 30, 2013 17:51
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goferchan posted:How cheap are these, usually? I was about to do a CSI order including Galaxy Trucker and if I were to leave it out I wouldn't get the $100 free shipping. Not sure if the math works out to where I'm better off getting it from Amazon. It's currently $50 on Amazon and $49 on CSI, so it'll definitely be cheaper. I want to say usually between $10-20 cheaper, but don't quote me on that. Feel free to replace it with one of the expansions, unless you bought the expansions in the same order.
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Mar 30, 2013 18:21
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Ashenai's on the money. It's, like, the original traitor game, so I use it as a barometer to describe other traitor games.Mister Bung posted:Uh, no? Have I missed something? I've got a fairly narrow range of knowledge when it comes to tabletop games. I'm guessing by the snark that something I've said is obvious/stupid, so my bad for wanting to talk about a cool game I played? Good news! Werewolf isn't a bad game, just like in your example Half Life isn't a bad game! Even better news: Just like your Half Life example, there are games that took the initial concept and streamlined it, ran with it, made it better, took out all the bullshit, and you'd loving love the poo poo out of them. Two games come to mind. They are Battlestar Galactica and Resistance: Avalon. I describe BSG in the OP of this thread and also link to its thread there, too. It's basically a team-based adventure game but the traitors are trying to make everybody lose the main game without getting outed. Avalon is a sequel to The Resistance but with Werewolf roles familiar to you and also missing a specific set of fiddly add-ons. Werewolf/Mafia can take an hour or more to play in real life, and it can get pretty degenerate. If you get killed, it can be really tense (Oh poo poo! He knew who I was!) or it can just be really boring and lovely while you watch everybody else have fun after you get offed in night 1. The game is also open to trolling and cliquey bullshit (a lot like Apples to Apples does)-- I've played more games of Werewolf that involved people just murdering out of spite and "comedy" than games were people actually attempted deduction or teamwork. Avalon solves these problems. Avalon takes about 15 minutes, has no player elimination, and improves upon the team-based mechanics of its predecessors. The game is separated into 5 "quests" that require a plural number of players to be democratically selected to demonstrate their loyalty. Voting is public and allows finger-pointing and deduction all its own. Once a quest team is selected, the players sent on the quest are anonymously asked which team they are attempting for which to score a point, with the traitor/Mafia/Werewolf/Spies/Evil team having the option to pop a false positive. If NO Evil players were on the team, the Good team scores a point. If ANY Evil players sabotage the mission, the Evil team scores a point. First team to 3 points wins. Also, there are roles within the game: Merlin, a Good player who knows who the Evil players are; The Assassin, an Evil player who can make Good lose after the game if he can identify who Merlin was; Mordred, an Evil player who Merlin doesn't know is Evil; Percival, a Good player who knows who Merlin is; Morgana, an Evil player who Percival also identifies as Merlin much to his chagrin; Oberon, an Evil player who does not know who any of her teammates are nor does Evil know who she is; and Lancelot, a pair of Evil and Good players who switch sides randomly throughout the game (a promo role, though, so he doesn't come in the base set). Do yourself a favor and get it. And you might consider reading up a bit more, here, because you never know what you might find that would delight you. Also, play more games.
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Mar 30, 2013 18:24
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Broken Loose posted:Avalon takes about 15 minutes, has no player elimination, and improves upon the team-based mechanics of its predecessors. Although I agree with BL that Avalon is the best of the traitor games for no other reason than being the most streamlined, it usually takes 30-60 minutes in my experience, depending on how argumentative people are. The sci-fi The Resistance has event cards that exacerbate this and thus makes it infinitely worse for me, especially since most of those cards are pretty eh. You can substitute the Lady of the Lake in Avalon to simulate the most useful of those event cards, and has the benefit of it being a known constant in your games rather than a random bullshit event that just happens to throw a wrench into the game. Seriously, for like $20, if you have a group of 6+ friends who can string together a sentence, you cannot go wrong with Avalon.
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Mar 30, 2013 18:28
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Broken Loose posted:I describe BSG in the OP of this thread and also link to its thread there, too. It's basically a team-based adventure game but the traitors are trying to make everybody lose the main game without getting outed. One thing worth adding is that BSG is interesting because being outed isn't the end of the game, and can even be a good strategic decision. I know some people find that slightly less stressful than being absolutely forced to remain hidden and lie for an entire game.
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Mar 30, 2013 18:35
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GrandpaPants posted:Seriously, for like $20, if you have a group of 6+ friends who can string together a sentence, you cannot go wrong with Avalon. 13 bucks, actually!
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Mar 30, 2013 18:40
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Countblanc posted:-- and then slaps that clip of the dice man falling off a tower on it and hits upload. I loving hate that animation and especially the weak unintelligible warcry it squeaks before falling down. The show has also the worst kind of stock background music ever possible.
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Mar 30, 2013 19:09
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The problem I have with BSG, over Avalon/Resistance, is that while BSG offers a more traditional boardgame experience, no matter how many times I explain it someone will go "So what does it mean if I'm a cylon?" 2 hours into a 3 hour game. I've been looking at my collection and narrowing it down to themes/mechanics that are solid and streamlined; the one perplexity I have is Talisman. I enjoy playing Talisman with my wife and other people that aren't hobbyists, even though I know at its core it lacks anything resembling a game with actual decisions and whatnot. Does anyone recommend something that is similar to Talisman in theme but has an actual game behind it? Zombie #246 fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Mar 30, 2013 |
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Mar 30, 2013 19:13
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I've found that with games like this where the traitor doesn't automatically lose when revealed (like Shadows Over Camelot) sometimes it's best to play optimally, even helping out to the best of your ability because the players are naturally suspicious and will start doubting other players who aren't playing efficiently.Zombie #246 posted:The problem I have with BSG, over Avalon/Resistance, is that while BSG offers a more traditional boardgame experience, no matter how many times I explain it someone will go "So what does it mean if I'm a cylon?" 2 hours into a 3 hour game. What kind of theme? Being an adventurer who grows in power as they travel around the land? Runebound is like the advanced, unrestricted Talisman but it suffers from all the same length/pacing problems. I prefer Mage Knight but it's a game I find best with 2 people and they must be hobbyist to truly enjoy it.
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Mar 30, 2013 19:55
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Avalon is really solid with 5 people (Merlin, Assassin). Most I've played with so far is 6 (Merlin, Assassin, Percival, Morgana). After playing a few sessions you'll figure out the dynamics of your group and form your own personal strategies for each position. Our good/bad split for wins is usually 50/50 with those roles. Some of the best strategies rely entirely upon your friends' personalities. The following are purely anecdotes that may not apply to your group. As an assassin don't forget to stay vocal. Sometimes a wall of sound can rewrite history! (I outed myself as evil after the first mission I failed because I slipped on some stupid, stupid words. As people started to figure it out my brother just flooded the table with other accusations and comments. I joined in and it was erased with Merlin fuming. Thanks to that I shanked him at the end) As the missions go by you have to be studying everyone for tells and signals. Scanning eyes can mean someone is unsure. Merlin will stare daggers at evils or shift there eyes to evils to signal the good guys. Hell, throw out your own signals and see what happens. Doing that to Merlin is the funniest things because they can't say anything. One tactic I use is for the normal evil guy to purposely burn the assassin (marking him as evil) to take suspicion away from himself. This can achieve up to 3 things; the evil guy now has credibility and will go on more missions. Even better if the burned assassin still votes against the dirty teams to sell it. Also Merlin will look angered/confused/humored by it and will give a tell. And lastly now the assassin can use this time to start really observing the other players. As a normal good guy your job is to be receptive to Merlin's hints while also keeping the assassin off of Merlin's trail. The worst thing you can possibly do for your team is be openly puzzled about who is who. You have to maintain an air of confidence. Maintaining a balance between calculation, amount of talking, and zero information makes this the hardest position in my opinion. For me, when I'm Merlin and a weaker player is a spy, as soon as we open our eyes I scan the table then put one of them on the spot immediately with "Hey [person], you're a spy aren't you? I don't trust that look". Keep it light. This helps nail down at least one person for the rest of your team to see. Then if you have a good percival or normal good guy they'll take the heat off of you if you're herding your team towards the targets too obviously later on. Also a funny way to throw off the evil team in a close game is to say "Merlin better speak the gently caress up so we know what we're doing" and then start a serious deduction conversation about past missions so your teammates wise the gently caress up. The personal tells are why this game is so funny to me. If I straight up ask my girlfriend if she is evil (or merlin if I'm an outed evil) I'll know if she is lying immediately. My brother's upper lip curls a little bit when he is spouting lies. My boss instinctively repeats what you say back to you when he is guilty of something (either evil or merlin). Also I have a friend that, because of misguided stubbornness and weed abuse, will vote for every mission he is included in and against every one he is not on. This is irritating beyond belief but really it is just another obstacle to play around. If you really get into this game it will entertain your brain for the few days following your session because the possibilities and different tactics are hilarious/fun/clever. Nothing is funnier than trying to convince everyone that the unrevealed merlin player is evil while you watch him squirm.
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Mar 30, 2013 19:58
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Zombie #246 posted:The problem I have with BSG, over Avalon/Resistance, is that while BSG offers a more traditional boardgame experience, no matter how many times I explain it someone will go "So what does it mean if I'm a cylon?" 2 hours into a 3 hour game. Start off by explaining that if someone is a Cylon, they are the bad guy and can only win if the humans lose. They want to slow down the human's escape, or outright kill them off if possible. The only way for a Cylon to win is if the Humans end up with 0 of a resource, have Galactica destroyed or the robots reach the end of the track. If they still ask what it means 2 hours in, kick them out of your game for being imbeciles.
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Mar 30, 2013 19:59
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I've got a question about Space Alert. I played with some friends from high school and we had a real blast, winning and losing in pretty much equal measure. I took the game to college, and my friends here are just mopping the floor with the game (loving it too). It makes me think I've forgotten a rule of some sort. We always play a little fuzzily as far as card placement mistakes go too, to keep things moving. I guess my question is, to up the difficulty, should I become a rules Nazi, or should we move on to the difficult cards?
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Mar 30, 2013 20:34
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If you make a mistake, you can correct it but you trip, hence shifting all your cards down one. I don't really see why people would cheat in a co-op game, so I would recommend that you play strictly by the rules next time. If you lose due to a mistake, who cares? You'll learn to get it right next time and Space Alert has enormous appeal about learning and getting better at it.
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Mar 30, 2013 20:38
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If you aren't playing by the rules, then you aren't, one might argue, actually mopping the floor with the game.
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Mar 30, 2013 20:40
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Yeah, I tried to be the cool friend by not being a stickler about things, but I think I like losing better than winning. I just wanted to confirm with people who've played it more than I have that playing by the rules doesn't take away from the fun. I've got a couple questions though, because I taught myself this game and have most certainly missed things. 1) Tripping: You can correct, but only sby witching the orientation of the card you put down, right? And no one else can delay their actions to be back in sync with you, right? 2) Internal threats: How do they interact with people in the ship? We've all had good laughs about things like soldiers and infiltrators chilling out in the same room as players while we wait for the battlebots to come wreck them, but do they hinder players with their presence if it's not specifically mentioned on the card? Do the ones that shoot back at battlebots interact with non battlebot players at all?
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Mar 30, 2013 20:49
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MoreLikeTen posted:Yeah, I tried to be the cool friend by not being a stickler about things, but I think I like losing better than winning. I just wanted to confirm with people who've played it more than I have that playing by the rules doesn't take away from the fun. I've got a couple questions though, because I taught myself this game and have most certainly missed things. 1) You can trip any honest mistake, but it really does have to be an honest mistake. Tripping because you put the card down the wrong way, or played the wrong card, or confused left and right AGAIN, GAWD SEAN is fine. Tripping because you need to move right and don't have a move right card is loving cheating, and should be punished with as humiliating a punishment as your gaming group can think of. 2) Internal threats only interact with cadets if they say they do.
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Mar 30, 2013 20:56
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MoreLikeTen posted:
Nope! Internal threats only do exactly what they say on the card. Infiltrators don't care about the crew, but they have a stealth suit. So they'll just idly watch as you keep mashing that A button, screaming into your intercom, before pulling out the sabotage kit and cutting a couple important-looking wires.
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Mar 30, 2013 21:00
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gnome7 posted:Nope! Internal threats only do exactly what they say on the card. Infiltrators don't care about the crew, but they have a stealth suit. So they'll just idly watch as you keep mashing that A button, screaming into your intercom, before pulling out the sabotage kit and cutting a couple important-looking wires. Most humiliating loss so far is to desynchronization due to slime slipperiness related slapstick humor
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Mar 30, 2013 21:59
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GrandpaPants posted:Were you guys planning on doing something on a Saturday? Well, instead of that, why not sit around and wait for the Amazon Lightning Deal for Galaxy Trucker at 5PM PST. It's not the Anniversary Edition I don't think, but it's still Galaxy Trucker. It's a great deal, 52% off making it $35.99 prime. Basic game but at that price I couldn't complain, jump on it!
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Mar 31, 2013 01:04
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Zombie #246 posted:The problem I have with BSG, over Avalon/Resistance, is that while BSG offers a more traditional boardgame experience, no matter how many times I explain it someone will go "So what does it mean if I'm a cylon?" 2 hours into a 3 hour game. Runebound's similar with more going on behind the hood, but I personally dislike it because of the movement system and the fact that there are a finite number of encounters on the board that can be eliminated. The first expansion & second printing alleviate the latter somewhat with certain events causing respawns, but it doesn't really address the core issue that players can simply be out of luck in terms of having (viable) encounters because someone else got there first. Personally, the game that replaced Talisman for me is Arkham Horror. It's apparently not well regarded in this thread, but for me it scratches the same itches with more variety, substantially more decision-making (it's still got a lot of random elements, but there are ways to manage the randomness in your favor), and a greater level of mechanical complexity. You could also investigate Relic (just came out - basically Warhammer 40K Talisman, but there are some systemic changes that might make it more rewarding), Prophecy (which I hear is Vlaada Chvatil's take on Talisman, but I've never played it and it's apparently currently out of print), or Mage Knight - the boardgame, that is (which doesn't really feel like it's trying for the same goals but is an amazing bit of design).
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Mar 31, 2013 01:10
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Tabletop Day was pretty fun. Unlike my  post earlier we actually played some cool games.Game #1 was Carcassonne. My wife absolutely loves playing this game, and we played base game plus river, while another group was playing Arkham Horror, which isn't my thing. The game is a lot of fun, especially since she knows the tiles and placement to screw over other players. Game #2 was Forbidden Island. Lots of fun. We won the first game by the skin of our teeth, and lost the second barely, when the flood meter ran up too fast (at least twice, two Waters Rise! cards got drawn in succession, we need a better shuffling crew). We would have won the game the next turn though. One suggestion: don't play forbidden island with six people RAW -- the treasure cards run out too fast. Finally game #3 was Room 25 with six people. I immediately pegged my wife as a guard (correct) and another player as the second guard, while we were in the exit room at the end of the game, so I pushed him into the mortal chamber.. and he was a prisoner. Then the other actual guard who played like a prisoner all game, and was in the exit room with me, shoved me and the players lost. I didn't get to break out Claustrophobia and Netrunner (the netrunner guy was playing Arkham Horror) but we had a blast. I really want in on that sweet sweet Galaxy Trucker action but I'm going to have to hold off.
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Mar 31, 2013 01:26
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Campbell posted:It's a great deal, 52% off making it $35.99 prime. Basic game but at that price I couldn't complain, jump on it! I am so damned bummed I missed this. 
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Mar 31, 2013 02:00
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so, who has the rules for this? http://games.yahoo.com/photos/the-world-s-oldest-toys-1364590047-slideshow/world-s-oldest-toys-photo--1211118283.html
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Mar 31, 2013 02:03
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will_colorado posted:so, who has the rules for this? Nobody has official rules because they were lost, but there are two separate back-compiled sets of rules. You can find them on BoardGameGeek.
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Mar 31, 2013 02:10
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will_colorado posted:so, who has the rules for this? http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/1950/senet-pdf
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Mar 31, 2013 02:11
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Finally pulled the trigger and bought a copy of Space Alert. I'd been thinking about it for a while, but this thread combined with seeing it out of stock in a lot of places pushed me over the edge. Also, I just discovered the Headless Hollow summary for Arkham Horror. We've only played twice so far, each time getting more rules right. But, I'm amazed that a summary like that isn't included with the game; the included rulebook is a huge pain the arse to look anything up in. That said, we still really enjoy the game.
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Mar 31, 2013 04:14
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nimby posted:Start off by explaining that if someone is a Cylon, they are the bad guy and can only win if the humans lose. They want to slow down the human's escape, or outright kill them off if possible. The only way for a Cylon to win is if the Humans end up with 0 of a resource, have Galactica destroyed or the robots reach the end of the track. If they still ask what it means 2 hours in, kick them out of your game for being imbeciles. I also like to add the fact that even though they aren't, at first, a cyclon they need to consider that they might change into a cyclon later on in the game. So as a human, you want to put the ship into "average" status. Not doing too well, but not doing too poorly. Unless all cyclons have been identified, then there is a chance they might be one.
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Mar 31, 2013 04:26
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Played Rex: Final Days of an Empire last night for the first time. Love the mix of races, traitors, etc. I can't see how one can lose with the Sol, but maybe I just got lucky / opponents didn't play right. Link: http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/104363/rex-final-days-of-an-empire
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Mar 31, 2013 05:03
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