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Any opinions on Horus at all?OmegaGoo posted:Or Puzzle Strike. Nightfall is bad the way that Troll 2 is bad - you know it's awful the whole time but god drat if I don't always end up having a blast with it. I found two of the standalone expansions used for like seven bucks each, that was a red letter day.
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Dec 4, 2015 18:22
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Evil Mastermind posted:Unless they can figure out how to do a deckbuilder traitor game... I know the opinion of the system isn't high here, but a hidden role component is being added to one DBG this month... If you ever enjoy the light/random games of DC, it's a pretty interesting twist on the game.
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Dec 4, 2015 18:27
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I wonder if Codenames will inspire anyone else (including Vlaada) to try and capture some of the essence the game. Relative to the zeitgeist of designer games, it seems to be much more pared down in terms of complications and is much less focused on arithmetic/logistics/optimization exercises. But it has a much more robust design, in terms of competitive rules, than many games that focus on skills other than math and sequencing. In other words, it's like a traditional party game that doesn't have the non-normies (what do we call ourselves) rolling their eyes at the corny roll to move or other non-competitive framework mechanics. It would be cool if for example Uwe just put worker placement/supply chain stuff on cinder blocks for a bit and just made more games like Bohnanza, Mamma mia, Patchwork, etc (no Hengist though, I guess). There are enough complicated games that are really good, IMO. Enough to fill bookshelves with them and never possibly play all of them enough to have mined their depths. There are not enough simple games that are really good.
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Dec 4, 2015 18:29
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Big McHuge posted:Patchistory and Kanban just came in the mail, and now my brain is leaking out of my ears after reading the instructions.
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Dec 4, 2015 18:29
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Evil Mastermind posted:Because they're complex or because the instructions are poorly written? For Patchistory, it's both. There is a rules rewrite on BGG, though.
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Dec 4, 2015 18:31
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Codenames is really good but somehow it needs to fix the issue that during much of the game every player but 1 is doing basically nothing. And not in a "you can still pay attention and be involved in the ongoings of the game" kind of way, just literally nothing is happening and you might as well go to the bathroom or play on your phone. I suppose you can limit this with the timer but that cuts into the clever clues that make the game really interesting. Theoretically you can discuss with your team about missed clues and potential combinations, but you are mostly grasping as straws as half the words you are trying to connect likely aren't yours, and it also brings up a potential metagame issue of informing the spymaster. "Ok well these two words can't be ours because she would just say "grapes" if they were." Next clue "grapes." If I were to honestly explain the game to someone who hasn't played it before, it would go something like this "Ok this game is *really interesting* but it will only be interesting 5 minutes from now when I come up with a clue, and then it will be interesting for a minute before it completely ceases to be interesting for another 5 minutes or so, but then it will totally be interesting again when its your turn!" What you could do, is actually go completely the other way on the time/attention scale. Host a normal party, and have a giant codenames board up on the wall or something. Split the party into two teams. Go about your business. The spymasters are on no clock and all, and whenever they come up with a clue, they announce it to the party, and the teams come together for a minute to guess, and then everyone goes back to their business until the next clue. Elysium fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Dec 4, 2015 |
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Dec 4, 2015 18:51
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Clockwork Gadget posted:I've played the app version and enjoyed it. Would recommend that over putting it together yourself, if possible. If I had to estimate construction time, I'd say probably 30 minutes. Ok. I tried to click the android app link but it said something about the game being not available in my country (germany)... but it was just a quick glance. I will look into it later at home. How hard is it?
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Dec 4, 2015 18:56
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fozzy fosbourne posted:For Patchistory, it's both. There is a rules rewrite on BGG, though. And I say this as someone who's pretty much writing "Mage Knight For Dummies" so I can get the rules straight in my head. I've played the "walkthrough" game like four times and I keep making stupid mistakes because it feels like the rules are split between the two books.
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Dec 4, 2015 18:59
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Elysium posted:Codenames is really good but somehow it needs to fix the issue that during much of the game every player but 1 is doing basically nothing. And not in a "you can still pay attention and be involved in the ongoings of the game" kind of way, just literally nothing is happening and you might as well go to the bathroom or play on your phone. I suppose you can limit this with the timer but that cuts into the clever clues that make the game really interesting. I have experienced the "issue" you are bringing up, but across dozens of plays with a wide variety of people we have never found it to be an actual problem. If the Code Master is taking too long use the sand timer, if the sand timer takes too long act like a normal social human being and talk to another person about almost any topic at all to fill the long minutes. If you can't speak to people in social settings and have ADD to the point that 3-5 minutes is torture, board games might not be for you.
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Dec 4, 2015 19:10
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If you don't flip the sand timer and start humming the theme to Jeopardy while the opposing spymaster is trying to come up with clues then what do you do??
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Dec 4, 2015 19:15
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Ryoshi posted:If you don't flip the sand timer and start humming the theme to Jeopardy while the opposing spymaster is trying to come up with clues then what do you do?? Same, but your own spymaster. Bonus if you're said spymaster, of course.
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Dec 4, 2015 19:18
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silvergoose posted:Same, but your own spymaster. Bonus if you're said spymaster, of course. I've done that to myself.
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Dec 4, 2015 19:23
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My mind gets all hyperactive in Codenames and I just study the card flop during any downtime in the game. It felt a little awkward for us to all be sitting there while the spymaster is in the critical path of moving the game state forward, but I haven't felt super bored during those moments. Extroverts in the group do the same thing, but out loud. But that's just me. This is also a thing that happens with us in Mysterium. Sometimes the ghost just has such a hosed up hand of cards that they need to spend a good deal of time analyzing them. Again, my go to example of really bad downtime is when you are waiting to do your next turn in 4 player Dominion and all it's going to be is play all your currency and buy a card, and the players before you are doing some massive Village chain. There isn't a whole lot to chew on, mentally, in that scenario. Analyzing the kingdom is pretty frontloaded so once you are committed to a strategy there probably isn't much more ROI on studying the cards further. Anyways, probably depends on the group. fozzy fosbourne fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Dec 4, 2015 |
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Dec 4, 2015 19:25
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The only person who has ever used the sand timer in our group has used it on himself. This game brings out some of the best in people.
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Dec 4, 2015 19:28
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Indolent Bastard posted:I've done that to myself. One of my friends has started timer flipping on himself as a clue to his guessers that they're on the right track and now our group is having a friendly argument over if we need to ban self flipping or if what he's doing is in the spirit of the game. (I am firmly in the "this is cheating" camp.)
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Dec 4, 2015 19:30
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Big McHuge posted:Patchistory and Kanban just came in the mail, and now my brain is leaking out of my ears after reading the instructions. Kanban suggests you play a game by yourself to learn the rules and this is really the best way to do it. Each department's rules and options are really simple and streamlined - once you've used them a time or two. Then, make sure you understand meetings. (Also, you have to use a chair to activate the points in end of game scoring tiles!! Make sure you remember this!!) After that it is actually really easy to teach, like most of Vital's games.
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Dec 4, 2015 19:32
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So Flash Point is on sale for 20 bucks during this Amazon one day sale. Just how quarterbacky is it, for a co-op game? My girlfriend and I pretty much exclusively play co-ops together (Jaipur is like the one competitive game we'll play consistently) but I tend to get quarterbacky early on in co-ops where there's pretty clearly an optimal choice to make (I caught myself basically telling her which barracks cards to buy in Legendary Encounters earlier this week, for example).
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Dec 4, 2015 19:34
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Aerox posted:One of my friends has started timer flipping on himself as a clue to his guessers that they're on the right track and now our group is having a friendly argument over if we need to ban self flipping or if what he's doing is in the spirit of the game. (I am firmly in the "this is cheating" camp.) Did he tell them that's what he was doing? If not, how did they realize that? Metagaming anything to communicate in a game that blocks communication in the rules (i.e. Hanabi) is 100% cheating.
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Dec 4, 2015 19:35
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Impermanent posted:Kanban suggests you play a game by yourself to learn the rules and this is really the best way to do it. Each department's rules and options are really simple and streamlined - once you've used them a time or two. Then, make sure you understand meetings. (Also, you have to use a chair to activate the points in end of game scoring tiles!! Make sure you remember this!!) After that it is actually really easy to teach, like most of Vital's games. Kanban is surprisingly elegant for how busy the board looks. I'm usually anti-point salad too, but Vital definitely knocked it out with Kanban.
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Dec 4, 2015 19:36
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Hanabi, much like codenames, is bad because you can wiggle your eyebrows in morse code to give extra information
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Dec 4, 2015 19:36
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dropkickpikachu posted:So Flash Point is on sale for 20 bucks during this Amazon one day sale. Just how quarterbacky is it, for a co-op game? My girlfriend and I pretty much exclusively play co-ops together (Jaipur is like the one competitive game we'll play consistently) but I tend to get quarterbacky early on in co-ops where there's pretty clearly an optimal choice to make (I caught myself basically telling her which barracks cards to buy in Legendary Encounters earlier this week, for example). No hidden information at all, so it's got the potential to be very quarterbacky. It's still good, though.
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Dec 4, 2015 19:37
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Aerox posted:One of my friends has started timer flipping on himself as a clue to his guessers that they're on the right track and now our group is having a friendly argument over if we need to ban self flipping or if what he's doing is in the spirit of the game. (I am firmly in the "this is cheating" camp.) That's hosed up. Seems like the spymaster shouldn't be able to use the timer since that's pretty easy to use as an external clue. Also, I submit this to the "lock" argument for review 
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Dec 4, 2015 19:39
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Any reasonable interpretation of the rules would call this cheating and your friend is a dipshit for trying to get by with a bald-faced lie.
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Dec 4, 2015 19:42
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At the time I didn't even realize what he was doing (although maybe his team did) but he casually mentioned it when we were in the middle of a Pandemic Legacy game last night and that's how we found out.
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Dec 4, 2015 19:45
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Impermanent posted:Any reasonable interpretation of the rules would call this cheating and your friend is a dipshit for trying to get by with a bald-faced lie. Yeah, p much
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Dec 4, 2015 19:45
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Aerox posted:At the time I didn't even realize what he was doing (although maybe his team did) but he casually mentioned it when we were in the middle of a Pandemic Legacy game last night and that's how we found out. I recommend running a background check on him before your next game, who knows what this will turn up. Could go all the way to the top /lester freeman
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Dec 4, 2015 19:46
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Evil Mastermind posted:Because they're complex or because the instructions are poorly written? I think part of it is that I haven't tackled a heavy euro in a while. I think Kanban will make sense once I've run through each workstation a few times, but the Patchistory rules layout is a little off-putting and I can't quite put my finger on why. I'll check out BGG for the rewrite, as was suggested earlier.
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Dec 4, 2015 19:58
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Indolent Bastard posted:If the Code Master is taking too long use the sand timer, if the sand timer takes too long act like a normal social human being and talk to another person about almost any topic at all to fill the long minutes. I don't mind talking in the downtime, I just feel like it cultivates a disinterest in the ongoings of the game and a weird dichotomy of "hurry up and give a clue so I can play this sweet game!" and "oh there was a game going on, I forgot, we're fine over here talking anyway". That's why I like the idea of it just occurring as a "background game," almost like correspondence chess or something, turns happen whenever, and in the meantime you do other things.
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Dec 4, 2015 19:59
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Big McHuge posted:I think part of it is that I haven't tackled a heavy euro in a while. I think Kanban will make sense once I've run through each workstation a few times, but the Patchistory rules layout is a little off-putting and I can't quite put my finger on why. I'll check out BGG for the rewrite, as was suggested earlier. It's not just you. Patchistory, especially if you got the wrong version (I think Stuntkite is the good one) has spectacularly badly written rules. It's a decent enough game, but the rules are very poorly explained.
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Dec 4, 2015 20:01
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Holy jesus what is wrong with this guy's face and diction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geJsiJI-pB4
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Dec 4, 2015 20:19
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dropkickpikachu posted:Holy jesus what is wrong with this guy's face and diction Nothing?
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Dec 4, 2015 20:45
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He's a dang weirdo! Look at him!
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Dec 4, 2015 20:45
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quote:girlfriend and I pretty much exclusively play co-ops together (Jaipur is like the one competitive game we'll play consistently) but I tend to get quarterbacky early on in co-ops where there's pretty clearly an optimal choice to make The quarterbacking in Flashpoint shouldn't be very intrusive. You have to decide together who's doing what - "you go for that guy, I'll get that guy", but that should feel co-operative (or may not require discussion at all, honestly). You'd have to be really finicky/terrible to try to micromanage how that other fire fighter chooses to get where they're going. Every once in a while you might ask someone else for help in doing what you're doing (can you spray here with the truck?), but overall Flashpoint requires less "micro-level communication" that most similar games (eg. in Pandemic, exactly what city you stop in is often the difference between winning and losing). Also, I don't like Flashpoint much.
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Dec 4, 2015 20:55
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Flashpoint is a mediocre game by a very bad company that doesn't deserve your money.
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Dec 4, 2015 20:56
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dropkickpikachu posted:He's a dang weirdo! Look at him! He's no Tom Vasel, but seems pretty normal to me.
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Dec 4, 2015 21:00
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Toshimo posted:Nothing? For an android. dropkickpikachu, that man suffers from a tryhardismia. He'd seem normal if not for the lighting that makes him look like a rubber mask and stressed attempts to ensure he's audible and clear.
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Dec 4, 2015 21:01
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Elysium posted:I don't mind talking in the downtime, I just feel like it cultivates a disinterest in the ongoings of the game and a weird dichotomy of "hurry up and give a clue so I can play this sweet game!" and "oh there was a game going on, I forgot, we're fine over here talking anyway". That's why I like the idea of it just occurring as a "background game," almost like correspondence chess or something, turns happen whenever, and in the meantime you do other things. Sorry that the people you play with have the world's shortest attention span. Do they often forget to breathe in as they just spent "forever" breathing out and forgot the next step? (I'm not trying to poo poo on you, but your issue is weird). Play the game however you like, as a background game or whatever; your friends don't sound like they would ever survive most Worker Placement Euro-games.
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Dec 4, 2015 21:06
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dropkickpikachu posted:So Flash Point is on sale for 20 bucks during this Amazon one day sale. Just how quarterbacky is it, for a co-op game? My girlfriend and I pretty much exclusively play co-ops together (Jaipur is like the one competitive game we'll play consistently) but I tend to get quarterbacky early on in co-ops where there's pretty clearly an optimal choice to make (I caught myself basically telling her which barracks cards to buy in Legendary Encounters earlier this week, for example). Flash Point tends to be lots of small fires that need putting out in different locations rather than one big blaze*, so there's not always an optimal choice. I've found it to be less quarterbacky than Forbidden Desert, Robinson Crusoe, Ghost Stories and Pandemic. *both literally and metaphorically
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Dec 4, 2015 21:17
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Elysium posted:I don't mind talking in the downtime, I just feel like it cultivates a disinterest in the ongoings of the game and a weird dichotomy of "hurry up and give a clue so I can play this sweet game!" and "oh there was a game going on, I forgot, we're fine over here talking anyway". That's why I like the idea of it just occurring as a "background game," almost like correspondence chess or something, turns happen whenever, and in the meantime you do other things. This interests me, because I've been looking for good background games.
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Dec 4, 2015 21:17
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Here's the Patchistory rules rewrite: https://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/96778/capoeiristas-rules-rewrite Incidentally, there are a couple of "hot" guides for Kanban: https://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/110882/nice-sandras-quick-start-guide-kanban-automotive-r https://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/108130/kanban-teaching-guide-english When I'm learning a new game, I typically go to Files on BGG and then sort by "Hot." (board game rulebooks generally suck but people are too proud to admit it, and localized board game rules usually suck even harder). Sort of related to that, one thing I was thinking about recently is how many people I play with who can be taught the rules to a game and do perfectly fine, but if they try and learn a game cold from the rulebook they are helpless. It normally doesn't come up because either myself or another learn all the games (and sometimes it sucks), but I'm reminded from time to time when I gift someone a game and they are essentially blocked until I teach them how to play it (and then it might go on to be something that they play a bunch after). Or, when someone has wanted to play something that I own but I haven't learned the rules to yet, they learn the rules online in a bid to get it played, and they give up. I don't really have an answer, just an observation.
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Dec 4, 2015 21:19
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