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silvergoose posted:Wait why in this weird world where b&m stores are extinct would all publishing go extinct too? This weird world is all stores go out of business, not just B&M ones. Which is hyperbole probably. Basically, the reason is storage, as outlined in the post above by Gutter Owl who knows way more than me. Big publishers could probably stock stuff, but again, you need a distribution network, and sometimes it's just smarter to outsource that. Especially since we still have shipping costs and borders and crap.
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Jan 14, 2015 23:45
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Tekopo posted:Can't wait until Rutibex finds out about 18OE or Ogre, they'll be probably his favourite games ever according to his weight-based metric. I can see why it weighs so much; after cracking this thing open there is a absurd amount of pieces in this game. The box says it only goes up to 5 but there are enough colours to do a 7 player game!  From a few Youtube tutorials it seems simple enough: build stuff get VP but in the same way Agricola seems simple at first glance. It was a toss up between Terra Mystica and Eclipse. They both seem like similar games. I went with Terra Mystica because I want to get Twilight Imperium 3 at some point and it won't do having two space epics in the collection. Kai Tave posted:Everyone please pledge to my upcoming Kickstarter for Zombies versus Homestucks: the Cthulhuing, to be released in a box cast from solid lead. 
Rutibex fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Jan 14, 2015 |
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Jan 14, 2015 23:46
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BonHair posted:This weird world is all stores go out of business, not just B&M ones. Which is hyperbole probably. Basically, the reason is storage, as outlined in the post above by Gutter Owl who knows way more than me. Big publishers could probably stock stuff, but again, you need a distribution network, and sometimes it's just smarter to outsource that. Especially since we still have shipping costs and borders and crap. Amazon seems to do a very good job of just taking care of the whole supply chain thing. It's what Stonemaier does, everything just gets shipped by the pallet from the factory to an Amazon warehouse.
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Jan 14, 2015 23:49
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Gutter Owl posted:Now, we've seen that you can go the Kickstarter route and still have success in distro. Stonemaier, Level 99, and Tasty Minstrel are success stories here, partly because they made smart moves and didn't shoot themselves in the foot. Level 99, for example, never does Kickstarter Exclusives. (Exclusives might draw in backers by threatening them with "losing out," but exclusives devalue the later retail copies, which are "incomplete" and unappealing.) But you've gotta make sure you're not making GBS threads on the people who will keep you in business after the rush. I can't think of any game where it'd be the best option, but it'd be interesting to see someone make it work.
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Jan 14, 2015 23:50
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My local game shops charge a significant markup compared to Miniature Market(which is also local for me), have terrible loyalty programs, and are generally managed by unpleasant or unorganized people. I visit them for Netrunner events but that's about it. I understand their margins probably aren't great to begin with, but I'm not going to pay extra to support people I don't particularly care for. I would love a board game cafe with nice big tables where I wouldn't feel like a jerk for talking loudly and excitedly about why you definitely shouldn't send Carl on that quest.
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Jan 14, 2015 23:54
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Rutibex posted:I can see why it weighs so much; after cracking this thing open there is a absurd amount of pieces in this game. The box says it only goes up to 5 but there are enough colours to do a 7 player game!
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Jan 14, 2015 23:57
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silvergoose posted:Wait why in this weird world where b&m stores are extinct would all publishing go extinct too? You got me. I wasn't talking about retailers (b&m or online) going extinct. I'm talking about a world in which they decide that a given publisher's product isn't worth investing in, because the retailers/distributors were cut out of the big early sales.
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Jan 15, 2015 00:06
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In this world gone mad, you don't roll there dice, the dice ROLL YOU! Anyway, hypothetical worlds aside, Eagle Games just has kickstarters for new print runs of their popular games. They dont even update known problems, they just order another run, then use the profit to print their back catalog.
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Jan 15, 2015 00:06
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Gutter Owl posted:You got me. I wasn't talking about retailers (b&m or online) going extinct. I'm talking about a world in which they decide that a given publisher's product isn't worth investing in, because the retailers/distributors were cut out of the big early sales. Hey Gutter Owl, I just wanted to say, I found your posts really interesting and referenced them over in the Kickstarter thread where a Conan board game KS is doing exactly the stuff you warned about (too much KS Exclusive stuff, their retail package isn't a very good value, etc) Thanks for taking the time to type all that out.
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Jan 15, 2015 00:14
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My FLGS gave me a student discount even though technically I wasn't allowed (I had to be a member of the other university's gaming club, I wasn't even a member of my own uni's gaming club) and I still get it even though I finished uni in June. If I buy multiple packs of card sleeves I get one free, the owner always insists on hearing how my gaming's going, what I've played, what I don't like about certain games etc. I go in just for a browse and I spend like 20 minutes just talking about games. Shop's nice and open, well lit and clean. Sometimes I've ended up going in during Friday Night Magic and it always seems pleasant. The usual mix of stupid facial hair, fedora wearing adolescent MtG bronies and Pokemon playing man-children are there but I've never seen or heard about any fights, arguments or drama, any of that FLGS horror story stuff. Before I got my current job that's thankfully kept me in the area, I joked with the owner that because I was job searching I might be moving away from the area. He said he'd have to relocate the store to wherever I ended up 
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Jan 15, 2015 00:14
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Tim Fowers started asking for pre-orders for Paperback's second print run a year ago and I received it 2 weeks ago. That's for a 600 unit run. I'm fine with him deciding to fully self-publish but I think it would seriously hurt board gaming if everyone operated that way. I imagine this is how wargamers feel all the time with the P500 system. edit: That Cones of Dunshire kickstarter is a fantastic joke. Bubble-T fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Jan 15, 2015 |
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Jan 15, 2015 00:15
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deadly_pudding posted:I've got a guy who will sit there with his 3DS and play Smash Bros or whatever between his turns. It is marvelously infuriating. Yeah, I did that once but in complete fairness, the game was Munchkin, I had no cards that could interact with other players and wasn't likely to be called upon for help. It was also a huge loving game so turn cycles took like a full 20 minutes so when my turn ended I had just nothing to do for a huge chunk of time. basically gently caress Munchkin On a completely unrelated note I have played 2-player 7 Wonders now and I have to say...sorta don't like it. The fact the last card of the free city's draw pile never even gets turned face-up can have huge consequences for the entire game if by chance it turns out to be a crucial resource or a science card and there's not really a whole lot you can do to play around it either, you just have to hope you draw that card from the Free City draw pile when it's your go because if it's near the bottom of the pile and your opponent draws it then screw you, this is importantly different from every card being immediately in someone's hand because it means if you want to take a fast decisive attack on another player you usually have to give up a lot of other options to do it, this doesn't have that strategic nuance and makes it come down a lot more to luck. It's also not that well balanced because one player gets to control the Free City during Ages 1 and 3 and thus gets first draft pick for both while the other guy only controls it for Age 2, which puts the ability to decide who the free city trades at (them, and there is no rule that the free city has to make the most optimal trade) in one guy's hand for most of the game and he can leverage that quite a bit. Having first draft pick for both also makes it trivial to completely tank a science strategy if two science cards end up in the same hand since you can just wonder build it with both the free city and your own, this is fine in a 3-player game since both other players have to give up their own agendas to react to someone else's plan and are usually giving up better options by doing so but in this game you are only trying to beat one other guy so obviously boning that one guy super hard works to your complete advantage. what is interesting is how both me and the other player had the exact same idea for the free city though, we just piled resources onto it and built the corresponding trade posts and used it as an economic pack-mule which again is a strategy that works way better if you have control of it in Ages 1 and 3 because you can create a symbiotic cash flow this way by making it buy from you and then you buy from it, lather rinse repeat. Don't play 7 Wonders unless you can drag a third player in, is what I'm saying.
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Jan 15, 2015 00:17
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I don't even think I have a FLGS in my state and I have to say it sucks pretty bad 
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Jan 15, 2015 00:31
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Tekopo posted:Don't play 7 player, it just doesn't work, there isn't enough spaces or actions and it would drag on forever. Terra Mystica is a very carefully balanced game (in terms of gameplay mechanisms, not races), I can't see 7 players working at all. Plus not enough magic tokens. Anyway I got it for X-Mas and managed to get it to the table today. Played the preset three player game and god drat it's a good game even better than I had hoped. Each turn I felt as if I had just about enough resources to be effective, once or twice feeling like maybe if I had just one more worker or trying to decide if burning a magic or two to get more gold. One of the other players and played it once before and we were neck and neck pretty for pretty much half of the game, he was the Alchemists and therefore had pumped his terraforming, so he always had plenty of magic, and but he wasn't able to connect his two areas due to me playing the nomads and the witch player effectively bisecting the map. I love how at least in the preset game the races complement each other, the witches are able to grow multiple areas then later work of shipping to connect them, the Alchemists have there own massive incentive to pump their spades, and as the nomads the sand storm allowed me to expand while saving on workers and allowing me to use my priests to raise my cult score.
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Jan 15, 2015 01:12
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I was spoiled in Taipei. There's a few chains of boardgame shops, the main one being Caca City (It's Carcassonne, in Chinese, then back into English.) http://www.cacacity.tw/ Each store has a ton of games, and if one of them doesn't have one you want, they'll schlep it over from another store to your preferred store if you give them a heads up. Each store is a big open area with lots of tables, chairs, some separate rooms for a more private atmosphere, and lots of snacks and such. Each person is $1 an hour to play, and I think it caps at $6 for the day. I'm pretty sure if you're in their rewards programs, you can use the money you spent in one day towards a game you buy at the end as well. Their staff is supposed to know all the rules for all their games, so if you want to play one, they'll suggest a game and teach you how to play. It's amazing. There's also several clubs full of foreigners and locals that have regular meets multiple times a week across all the stores, so I was gaming two to three times a week, within walking distance of my apartment. They're common enough, and in high traveled areas that you get all kinds of 20-30-somethings in there. Even groups of college aged women coming in to play some games after classes. It's really a nice and friendly atmosphere. Now, back in America, the local shop has a Munchkin case, a Zombie/Cthulhu wall, and everything is full MSRP. No board games are opened, it's all Magic and Warhammer, and I don't think there's even any snacks for sale? Or maybe I missed it somewhere. I went in looking for a board gaming group, and the only one around says they play mostly "Munchkin, Cthulhu ____, Zombies!!!, Magic and Fluxx." I want out of this country.
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Jan 15, 2015 01:15
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Ravendas posted:I was spoiled in Taipei. There's a few chains of boardgame shops, the main one being Caca City (It's Carcassonne, in Chinese, then back into English.) http://www.cacacity.tw/ Toronto, Canada is pretty set for stores and cafes (Snakes and Lattes/Lagers, 401Games and Meeplemart). Come on up.
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Jan 15, 2015 01:25
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If anyone wanted to hear Their reasoning seems to be something like "Cosmic is bullshit but only for one turn!"  They also mention Kill Doctor Lucky afterwards. edit: Somehow I have the members of SUSD all backwards. Bubble-T fucked around with this message at 02:13 on Jan 15, 2015 |
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Jan 15, 2015 01:44
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Bubble-T posted:Paul + Brendan I can't tell if this is on purpose or not. In any case they seem to believe that Cosmic Encounter has legitimate mind games.
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Jan 15, 2015 01:47
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I'm personally in love with our local Tabletop Cafe here in Edmonton. It's nice and open, has half-decent food prices, and a really nice selection of games to sell and try out. I would say that its only problem is that it needs about twice the room, because if you don't get there by about 3:00 on Saturday, it's basically impossible to get a spot. Everything in there feels better than the FLGS, which is incredibly cramped and triggers off my claustrophobia every time I'm in there. I'll head to the FLGS anytime I want to buy an RPG, but otherwise I've basically stopped going there.
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Jan 15, 2015 02:03
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Gimnbo posted:I can't tell if this is on purpose or not. It's not I'm just not all there this morning.
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Jan 15, 2015 02:13
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The first time I went to my FLGS there were a million nerds playing Magic and the smell was so bad I thought I was going to puke so I went home and ordered the games I wanted off their webstore and they arrived in the post two days later. I've found the only reason to go to a B+M gaming store is if I need a game right the gently caress now and am too impatient to wait the few days it takes to arrive if I buy online otherwise all the stores around here are pretty terrible unless you're a Magic-playing turbonerd.
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Jan 15, 2015 03:44
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Somberbrero posted:My local game shops charge a significant markup compared to Miniature Market(which is also local for me), have terrible loyalty programs, and are generally managed by unpleasant or unorganized people. I visit them for Netrunner events but that's about it. I understand their margins probably aren't great to begin with, but I'm not going to pay extra to support people I don't particularly care for. I would love a board game cafe with nice big tables where I wouldn't feel like a jerk for talking loudly and excitedly about why you definitely shouldn't send Carl on that quest. Dang I hope you're not talking about Game Nite, I've only been there a couple nights for the St. Louis Board Game Meet-up, but they've always been nice-ish, I suppose.
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Jan 15, 2015 03:46
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My flgs is smart enough to have the games tables in a separate part of the store
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Jan 15, 2015 04:05
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Anyone have a copy of Dominion they are looking to sell? About to pick up Takenoko for 34$ (good price?) and wanting to see if I can find Dominion for cheaper than 30$.
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Jan 15, 2015 04:22
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Mister Sinewave posted:
I'm up to about 10 playthroughs now and I'm still discovering bizarre fringe cases while I play the game. I don't mind it, but it's pretty hilarious when a fan made FAQ had to be created that existed to quote multiple sources, both from the creator himself as well as the official rule set from the German version. Case in point, due to the translation, the German version allows for skills to be played ANY TIME because that's a strong translation, where as the other versions have any time be more like "well....most of the time." The game is still great fun as 99% of the game is very straightforward. It's just when bizarre situations where a character "sleeps outside the camp, so takes damage from being exposed, but also has to eat food which comes from the camp." I look forward to Mage Knight. From what I've seen, while complicated, there's never any doubt on what an accurate ruling is, right?
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Jan 15, 2015 04:54
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Triple-Kan posted:Dang I hope you're not talking about Game Nite, I've only been there a couple nights for the St. Louis Board Game Meet-up, but they've always been nice-ish, I suppose. Game Nite is okay if you're there with a group big enough to make the dudes there care, but basically if you ain't buying $50 worth of Magics or Heroclixs for a tournament then gently caress you. e: And they're probably the best place and town, which is the saddest thing.
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Jan 15, 2015 04:56
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Denver area has a couple nice game stores that I visit when I get to town. Good coffee and a wide variety of games at not terrible prices.
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Jan 15, 2015 04:56
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I guess Vlaada helped playtest Robinson Crusoe. And apparently he consulted on Nations development. I'm pretty interested in that one, it kind of sounds like it does to Through the Ages what Eclipse does to Twilight Imperium?
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Jan 15, 2015 04:57
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I may or may not have a copy of Roll for the Galaxy coming in from my FLGS. They said they'd do it, but I didn't have confirmation and they didn't take any info. So we'll see. If they don't have it ordered at least, I'll probably do Amazon and save 15 bucks.
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Jan 15, 2015 05:01
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Countblanc posted:Man you people who have FLGS where you actually test board games are incredibly lucky, all mine just have board games packed in tightly against a wall for sale, and all the tables are used for MTG and Warhammer. Gotta keep the whales happy — that's the unfortunately reality of staying in business for many FLGS. The knife-edge they have to balance on is how to give those players the room and action they need without it (or them) taking over the entire store.
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Jan 15, 2015 05:21
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Well, it isn't just literal table space, I've yet to be in an FLGS where the people working had more than a cursory knowledge of board games and only seem to hang out with and entertain collectables players. It always feels more like they just keep poo poo in stock because they have to.
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Jan 15, 2015 05:24
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We have two game stores in my city with at least one employee who knows what they're talking about and one that's clearly an MtG/Warhammer cash cow farm which stocks boardgames on the off chance one of their clients watched Tabletop. I don't know how they stay in business because they're not even the main MtG store and the local scene isn't that big.fozzy fosbourne posted:I guess Vlaada helped playtest Robinson Crusoe. Unfortunately Ignacy only partly listened to his main criticism ("the bad things deck has to do only bad things, keep your game under control") because whoops RC is still full of wildly varying effects that you can't predict at all. One of the main things I learned when playing through the scenarios was that drawing 'adventure' cards (from rolling dice because you only used 1 action instead of 2 to do something) is almost as likely to be good as it is bad. Since saving actions is super important you should do this quite a bit, at which point you're basically just letting the game decide whether you get horrendously hosed or have an unsatisfyingly easy ride to the finish. Compare it to Ghost Stories where all your actions are good with defined costs, all the ghosts are bad (it's just a matter of how/why they're bad) and rolling dice is the main source of "how much does the game hate me?" but even that's mitigated by the game mostly being balanced around using dice as a means to save tokens rather than a reliable way to kill ghosts by themselves. It still manages to have a cool and well presented theme despite being much better controlled and not flooded with flavour text or a million cards you won't see every game! Social Dissonance posted:I'm up to about 10 playthroughs now and I'm still discovering bizarre fringe cases while I play the game. I don't mind it, but it's pretty hilarious when a fan made FAQ had to be created that existed to quote multiple sources, both from the creator himself as well as the official rule set from the German version. Case in point, due to the translation, the German version allows for skills to be played ANY TIME because that's a strong translation, where as the other versions have any time be more like "well....most of the time." The game is still great fun as 99% of the game is very straightforward. It's just when bizarre situations where a character "sleeps outside the camp, so takes damage from being exposed, but also has to eat food which comes from the camp." Mage Knight isn't nearly as bad, the rules are written quite formally and there's few edge cases you need to worry about (though they do exist, especially with the expansion). It's just a bit of a pain to actually look up specific rules until you get used to where everything is in the rulebook. Bubble-T fucked around with this message at 05:38 on Jan 15, 2015 |
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Jan 15, 2015 05:28
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I've never played at my FLGS, but he solves the issue by having a set day for board games, and two set days for Magic.My city doesn't have a large scene in either of those communities, so he's able to do all of that inside a comic store.
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Jan 15, 2015 05:38
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Bubble-T posted:Tim Fowers started asking for pre-orders for Paperback's second print run a year ago and I received it 2 weeks ago. That's for a 600 unit run. How is paperback? It looks interesting
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Jan 15, 2015 05:45
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M:y friend bought Virgin Queen from our FLGS, and when he did the clerk said he was glad someone was buying it, because the store ordered 4, put them on the floor, then lost them, and ordered 4 more, then found the original stock location. So they have 8 copies of a game that is awesome but nobody will play.
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Jan 15, 2015 05:49
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FISHMANPET posted:M:y friend bought Virgin Queen from our FLGS, and when he did the clerk said he was glad someone was buying it, because the store ordered 4, put them on the floor, then lost them, and ordered 4 more, then found the original stock location. So they have 8 copies of a game that is awesome but nobody will play. Buy one for me 
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Jan 15, 2015 05:52
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Social Dissonance posted:I look forward to Mage Knight. From what I've seen, while complicated, there's never any doubt on what an accurate ruling is, right? For the most part. There are a few specific cards where the effect is not intuitive as written (Maximal Effect and similar cards that change other cards), but they've been addressed by the designer.
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Jan 15, 2015 05:55
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Then what city of The States has the best living enviroment for a gamer when all things are considered?
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Jan 15, 2015 05:56
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burger time posted:How is paperback? It looks interesting I've only played a couple of games but so far I'm enjoying it. It's a weird game to critique because it's obviously a dominion clone and yet the word-building thing makes it feel so different in how it plays that I don't have my head around it yet. A few things I've noticed: 1. There appears to be two main strategic paths - build big words to capture the common letters (requires 7, 8, 9 and 10 letter words) by buying cards with double letters or +handsize effects, or build high scoring words to buy the expensive fame cards in a kind of 'big money' approach, usually requiring the one-shot cards that double your word score to spike up to the most expensive ones for a turn. Finishing the game by making the 10 letter word seems quite difficult. 2. The card market is somewhere in between Ascension and Dominion - there's a random set of cards in the market at any time, but they're segregated by cost. I'm not yet convinced it's mechanically sound but it seems to work ok. Most piles have 2 cards available at any time thankfully. 3. Trashing effects are available but not as easy to get as in Dominion, I haven't seen anyone build a thin deck yet. It feels quite a bit like Text Twist - the card game overall and is a nice alternative to Boggle for when we want a quick word game. I wouldn't play it with 4 or 5 players until everyone is experienced and you can do the simultaneous-play variant because finding an optimal word can be difficult at times. It's not hugely innovative, but it feels different enough to Dominion to justify its existence for those that like word games. Jury's out on its mechanical soundness. I am finding it  fun though, so far, and less auto-pilot boring than Star Realms.Apparently Fowers has a guy working on an app which the game seems incredibly well suited to, would be a nice asynchronous turns mobile game. Not sure if/when that'll happen though.
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Jan 15, 2015 06:17
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Do we have a board game trading thread? I think I've seen it mentioned once or twice.
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