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Crackbone posted:Bigney != Vasel, and if you can't parse why seek help. I can't even get my head around implying that Bigney is a "bad actor" for... not condoning violence against abhorrent views and/or being an avowed capitalist? (I imagine he said the latter at least a little tongue-in-cheek). The being cute about how Bigney is the certain podcaster who would call Eklund out for being a fascist is some really weak stuff also. One can rightly call out Eklund for being a fascist while also being of a mind that a predilection towards violence is a bit like joining the fascists rather than, erm, beating them. Comes off as internally consistent and calling someone a bad actor just because they don't agree with your choice of solutions isn't exactly good action in its own right.
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Nov 8, 2022 23:02
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Yep, context is pretty important for that one, Bigney said he's a pacifist and doesn't believe violence to enforce social norms is ever acceptable. I disagree with him and I think he's making too big a deal of it but I also - absolutely respect that belief? If everyone had it the world would be a better place? It seems truly weird to equate that kind of sentiment with all the other hell-stuff going on in the world. Even the 'capitalist' stuff posted above doesn't sound right - he's certainly critical of neoliberalism and market forces, I think his point was that he's living in a capitalist market economy like the rest of us? I mean (speaking as someone very much with socialist leanings) MOST people in Western economies are nominally capitalist, including probably 99% of all the other games reviewers and podcasters? Don't get me wrong, Mark Bigney's tone can be very grating but he strikes me as very much a progressive and a self-critical one too. He also hasn't been afraid to point out ways he's been wrong in the past and go to (IMO over the top) lengths apologising about them.
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Nov 8, 2022 23:22
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Want to thank mags for his service fighting the fascists in our hobby by calling out the pacifists Got John Company 2e to the table. It’s both very long and very unstable. If you don’t mind those things I’d highly recommend it. Thoughts after the first play at 4 players: - the game teacher should definitely grab the prime minister and chairman setup cards - stress that it’s a coop game until people start trying to gently caress the company. Then all bets are off. - encourage people to diversify, all in on one strategy makes you very vulnerable to extortion.
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Nov 9, 2022 00:03
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Gonna be away from the thread for a day or two (just a media blackout for the election for sanity purposes, not thread related), so before this derail goes further I'll just say that I'll try to remember to stop chucking that old chestnut in the thread.
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Nov 9, 2022 00:42
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Reasonable enough. On both counts.
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Nov 9, 2022 00:43
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Bought all of Dice Throne a few weeks ago and only just opened up the Ninja... and found the health dial missing. Tragic! Hopefully they'll send a replacement quickly. Last time I bought a game that had bits missing was Chronicles of Crime, which was missing two cards. Contacted support and let them know what was missing, and they sent me a whole bunch of cards... none of which were the ones that were missing. Got them eventually, at least. Waiting on Heroes of Barcadia to arrive. It doesn't look like a very good game, but I like the gimmick of your characters being cups that you have to drink out of when the character gets hurt.
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Nov 9, 2022 01:37
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CitizenKeen posted:Responding to you even though you're not the first person to make the joke: Haha, yes, capitalism is evil. My kid doesn't want to be evil, he wants to be "rascally" and "break the rules" and "be a big stompy creature and eat people". And to be clear, my kid doesn't actually want to eat people. Nor is he old enough to really engage with the idea that becoming an entrenched oppressor and violently maintaining the status quo is the true path to villainy. Maybe he’d like Scotland Yard if you aim the teach more lighthearted and explain the role of the runner as being a sneaky thief on the run. I’d have suggested Whitehall Mystery which I think a lot of people consider to be a refinement of the concept, but the runner being Jack the Ripper is probably a lot more firmly in the evil camp. Depending on how you play it I think Sheriff of Nottingham can be a good “play as the villains” game if everyone playing is willing to ham it up and roleplay as both the corrupt sheriff and the smugglers.
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Nov 9, 2022 03:24
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CitizenKeen posted:Responding to you even though you're not the first person to make the joke: Haha, yes, capitalism is evil. My kid doesn't want to be evil, he wants to be "rascally" and "break the rules" and "be a big stompy creature and eat people". And to be clear, my kid doesn't actually want to eat people. Nor is he old enough to really engage with the idea that becoming an entrenched oppressor and violently maintaining the status quo is the true path to villainy. So You've Been Eaten is a game where you can play as a person trying to survive being eaten by a massive creature or as the creature doing the eating, with options for 1v1 vs play, solo play vs a bot, and bot v bot play
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Nov 9, 2022 03:29
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FirstAidKite posted:So You've Been Eaten is a game where you can play as a person trying to survive being eaten by a massive creature or as the creature doing the eating, with options for 1v1 vs play, solo play vs a bot, and bot v bot play Is it any good? It's not expensive and the art direction looks good, but I haven't brought myself to be the first one out of the foxhole on this one.
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Nov 9, 2022 05:09
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A heroes of might and magic 3 board game? https://homm3boardgame.com/
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Nov 9, 2022 11:10
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CitizenKeen posted:Responding to you even though you're not the first person to make the joke: Haha, yes, capitalism is evil. My kid doesn't want to be evil, he wants to be "rascally" and "break the rules" and "be a big stompy creature and eat people". And to be clear, my kid doesn't actually want to eat people. Nor is he old enough to really engage with the idea that becoming an entrenched oppressor and violently maintaining the status quo is the true path to villainy. Sorry if anyone has mentioned any of these already, but, has anyone mentioned: Descent or Doom yet? You can play as the equivalent of the DM, where you control the bad-guys in both. Descent it's very much DM, but in DooM it really is like, 'one player plays as all the gribblies and tries to eat the other players'. If for whatever reason it hits a spot nothing else does (maybe your son is REALLY into Greek Mythology and sci-fi?) there's actually an expansion for Lords of Hellas (I think it's called The Kronos Rebellion? I know it's got Kronos in the name) where you play 1 vs all, with one person playing as Kronos. It's quite cool, but not as balanced as the regular game without Kronos. Despite the sheer size and number of minis and INSANELY BIG minis (...so just, figures, I guess?) it actually IS a good game! Actually thinking about it, it probably would make a good gift for a kid because it looks like just the best toy! Probably p. expensive though. I cannot go two posts in a row without talking about Dune by GF9, so I'm gonna also bring that up here. Basically, every faction is rascally and breaks the rules. Harkonnen are bad guys™ but you also get an "Evil!!!!" vibe from Emperor which is fun. You get to feel like you're cheating everyone else at the table playing as Guild and you get to feel like you're tricking everyone else at the table as Bene Gesserit. The Fremen are incredibly "rascally", to the point their main objective is just to harry everyone else constantly because they essentially repopulate for free where everyone else has to pay, they're faster than everyone else (scurrying around like right proper rascals!) and what's more they can ride around on giant sandworms, which I'll grant you aren't technically 'stompy' creatures, but they do certainly eat people! I'm guessing people mentioned the hidden movement games like that Dracula one that I don't know the name of and personally hate, but I don't think anyone mentioned yet the Pandemic expansion On The Brink. I actually like this a lot more than many of these type of games, for a few reasons. The first is that it means you're playing Pandemic, which is a cool and good game. But also, the Bio Terrorist can kinda just dick around and laugh about it like a right rascal, and it's still fun. Like, you don't HAVE to try and mess them up as best you can, you can kinda toy with them, and it's still fun and good. I dunno, it's hard to articulate without it sounding like I'm saying the game doesn't hold together, but, I guess it's like, the Bio Terrorist 'could' just do nothing and wait it out, and the other team playing Pandemic might just lose, because the game is hard, and wehay, they've won! So, because of that, it's not really 'about' them vs you. You're just another fly in the ointment, you're super annoying, but you're not their main priority. So it's much less tense. Which, yeah, I'll grant you could be seen as 'it all feels very tacked on'. Because, it is. But for me it just really clicks. I'll also give a shoutout to the Borg expansion for Star Trek: Ascendancy, which starts off AI controlled, but if it kills you, you also play as them. So, the potential for 'playing as the baddie'
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Nov 9, 2022 12:07
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Morpheus posted:The spirits have been too timid, it's time to start the Jaeger Earth program. This is in the new expansion they are crowdfunding at the moment. !Klams posted:Sorry if anyone has mentioned any of these already, but, has anyone mentioned: Imperial Assault is absolutely the best stab at this out if this is a direction you want to explore. Better IP too.
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Nov 9, 2022 12:31
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Descent 2e is also out of print, Imperial Assault is still around. In the new Descent there's no bad guy player because it's app-driven. Last Night On Earth has a zombie player against up to four humans. I think it's hated around here because of the roll to move for humans, but I love how much it feels like a low budget horror film. Also recommending Outer Rim, where you can be as bad or as good as you like. Or be morally grey!
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Nov 9, 2022 12:40
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Rebellion is even better if you want to be the Empire. Or War of the Ring / LOTR: the Confrontation / Middle Earth Quest all have Sauron taking over the world.
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Nov 9, 2022 12:44
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Cthulhu Dreams posted:This is in the new expansion they are crowdfunding at the moment. Oh, yeah, Imperial Assault is way better than Descent, truth. Forgot about that game despite playing it most weeks over lockdown! I think DooM is actually still the better solution given the spec though.
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Nov 9, 2022 13:24
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CitizenKeen posted:Responding to you even though you're not the first person to make the joke: Haha, yes, capitalism is evil. My kid doesn't want to be evil, he wants to be "rascally" and "break the rules" and "be a big stompy creature and eat people". And to be clear, my kid doesn't actually want to eat people. Nor is he old enough to really engage with the idea that becoming an entrenched oppressor and violently maintaining the status quo is the true path to villainy. Something like a hidden traitor game where someone at the table is being rascally and breaking the rules? Unfathomable is good, and there are others that toe the line between "just a social deduction game" and actual "board game".
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Nov 9, 2022 17:50
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tokenbrownguy posted:Want to thank mags for his service fighting the fascists in our hobby by calling out the pacifists Still waiting on my copy up in the freezing wastes of Canuckistan. Haven't even had a shipping notice. I don't know what it is but I swear that Cole's games are the loving worst at fulfillment and frequently way later than everyone else. Still remember a friend coming back from GenCon with a gift copy of Root for me and I had to gracefully decline because my Kickstarter copy was still on its way. The Eyes Have It posted:Boardgamebliss had JoCo 2e weeks ago for sale, sold out now. My KS copy is also still on the way, but hey at least it'll in the end be more expensive than if had I just bought it retail And this is why I haven't backed poo poo on Kickstarter in a long, long time. Ridiculous. FulsomFrank fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Nov 9, 2022 |
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Nov 9, 2022 19:59
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Boardgamebliss had JoCo 2e weeks ago for sale, sold out now. My KS copy is also still on the way, but hey at least it'll in the end be more expensive than if had I just bought it retail  
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Nov 9, 2022 20:18
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CitizenKeen posted:Responding to you even though you're not the first person to make the joke: Haha, yes, capitalism is evil. My kid doesn't want to be evil, he wants to be "rascally" and "break the rules" and "be a big stompy creature and eat people". And to be clear, my kid doesn't actually want to eat people. Nor is he old enough to really engage with the idea that becoming an entrenched oppressor and violently maintaining the status quo is the true path to villainy. I’m typically reticent to recommend anything put out by The Oatmeal but it sounds like Hand to Hand Wombat (sightless dexterity game with potential hidden traitor) might be right up your kid’s alley
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Nov 9, 2022 22:42
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It's early for a six year old but a hidden movement, one vs all game like fury of dracula or sniper elite sounds like it would extremely your son's poo poo. Eventually.
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Nov 10, 2022 00:37
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Street Horrrsing posted:It's early for a six year old but a hidden movement, one vs all game like fury of dracula or sniper elite sounds like it would extremely your son's poo poo. Eventually. Whitehall Chapel is probably the most distilled version of this, I can definitely recommend it when he’s just a little bit older and isn’t scared by numbers bigger than 30
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Nov 10, 2022 01:28
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Treasure Island you get to be a pirate and make a treasure map and deceive people and poo poo Though it’s more like DM simulator behind the screen
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Nov 10, 2022 01:37
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Triskelli posted:Whitehall Chapel is probably the most distilled version of this, I can definitely recommend it when he’s just a little bit older and isn’t scared by numbers bigger than 30 There's also Jaws, which has the added perk that someone gets to use the excellent shark meeple!
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Nov 10, 2022 02:20
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Quote-Unquote posted:A heroes of might and magic 3 board game? This looks even worse than Rome: Total War
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Nov 10, 2022 06:06
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Jimmeeee posted:There's also Jaws, which has the added perk that someone gets to use the excellent shark meeple! Some of us with copies of Survive have been playing with tremendous shark meeples for some time, thank you very much.
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Nov 10, 2022 17:33
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Anyone have thoughts on Crash Octopus, specifically thoughts on alternatives to the flimsy flags? Would popsicle sticks be too much? Slightly thicker wood dowels?
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Nov 10, 2022 17:51
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The flags aren't as flimsy as they look. They're not exactly a rugged chunk of solid wood, but they're tougher than they look. You hit a piece by spinning the flagpole between your fingers so the "flag" part hits a piece to move it. You don't swat with it, the flag isn't used like a hockey stick. That makes substitutes tricky. (No idea how you'd proxy with a popsicle stick & maintain the original technique, or what purpose a thicker dowel would serve)
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Nov 10, 2022 18:32
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FulsomFrank posted:Still waiting on my copy up in the freezing wastes of Canuckistan. Haven't even had a shipping notice. I don't know what it is but I swear that Cole's games are the loving worst at fulfillment and frequently way later than everyone else. Still remember a friend coming back from GenCon with a gift copy of Root for me and I had to gracefully decline because my Kickstarter copy was still on its way. Yeah... poo poo sucks. I guess they double shipped a bunch out and are slowly recovering / backfilling with retail?
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Nov 10, 2022 18:39
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FulsomFrank posted:Still waiting on my copy up in the freezing wastes of Canuckistan. Haven't even had a shipping notice. I don't know what it is but I swear that Cole's games are the loving worst at fulfillment and frequently way later than everyone else. Still remember a friend coming back from GenCon with a gift copy of Root for me and I had to gracefully decline because my Kickstarter copy was still on its way. What are you, me? In a strange twist, I backed the Duncan Rhodes Kickstarter and I got my paints first. All canadians did. Like when summer began. And now americans (where the company is located) are getting theirs now.
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Nov 10, 2022 21:44
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is it meeple/meeples or is it merson/meeple?
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Nov 11, 2022 10:30
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Broken Loose posted:is it meeple/meeples or is it merson/meeple? Holy poo poo And uh, the former.
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Nov 11, 2022 12:38
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Broken Loose posted:is it meeple/meeples or is it merson/meeple? A merson, lake and palmer.
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Nov 11, 2022 15:51
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in quebec they call meeples ‘mon petit mecs’ but it’s not common to hear the usage outside of french a merson
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Nov 11, 2022 16:06
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Broken Loose posted:is it meeple/meeples or is it merson/meeple? holy poo poo you're alive!
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Nov 11, 2022 16:51
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Broken Loose posted:is it meeple/meeples or is it merson/meeple? It's actually the first one, but I do the second one because it annoys my group.
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Nov 11, 2022 17:00
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Did you know that by switching to aluminum siding you can cut your heating bill by up to 50 percent or more? Hi, I'm Merson Meeples and I own and manage Merson Meeples' Discount Aluminium Siding.
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Nov 11, 2022 19:13
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Broken Loose posted:is it meeple/meeples or is it merson/meeple? Who cares? Nice to see you.
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Nov 11, 2022 20:04
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I haven't seen anyone else talk about it, so I'll give a non-spoilery review of my experience with ISS Vanguard so far. For the love of god do NOT spoil yourself on this game. The discovery and twists are great so far, and it would suck if you knew they were coming. As far as general feel and strategy, ISS Vanguard reminds me of those episodes of Star Trek where the Away team doesn't have access to the Transporter and has to use a shuttle. The people on the mission are experts and they have the knowledge and tools to get the job done. (most of the time) However, things are still risky since there's no plot armor here. There is a desire and need to push your luck. However, there is also the feeling that, if poo poo goes sideways, help may not be available if you get in too deep. The need to balance exploration and risk-taking while managing your resources is satisfying and I felt rewarded for making smart calls on when to proceed and when to cut our losses. I haven't lost any crew yet, however, there had been some tense situations where it was certainly possible. I felt rewarded for taking the time to do research and proper scans before planning out the away team and what materials to take along. The research and production certainly have that Xcom feel where you open up new toys, deepen research trees, and discover new places to explore. Dice checks as a system are interesting and making them work will inform almost everything you do in the game. Every crewmember has what they excel at and when a new problem comes along, it encourages everyone to work together to figure out how to get the right dice to the right place to maximize the chance at success. If you plan things right, you will have ample tools/rerolls/skills that help you accomplish the tasks. The system of global cooldowns, risky moves with danger dice, and knowing that death can occur if you are too reckless keeps things in an interesting balance. I felt loaded for bear, but never out of my depth nor overpowered. Well, at least until some curve balls were thrown my way. And like those Star Trek Episodes, often times while digging and poking around you will find something interesting, or deadly. The game doesn't force you into bad situations, but rather tempts you with the unknown. You will see locations that point you to a log entry and you have no idea if it will be something good or bad. If there is nothing overtly pressing or dangerous you can take your time before going in. The only limitations might be event cards or your supplies. Curiosity and the need to progress will coax you forward without holding your hand or punishing you. So far, I love alot of the choices they've made and look forward to the next mission. The downsides: Certainly the game has a lot of fiddly bits, but compared to Nemesis the rules are more clear. I highly recommend starting with the tutorial mission and getting the feel for it. You can and will make mistakes if you don't pull out the rulebook/log to the right spot and follow each step. It can be a bit time-consuming to set up the ship and board but it got easier as I went along. It is certainly faster with more people. I've been playing solo and setting up 4 decks each time is one of the things I wish I had other brains and eyeballs helping with. On the other hand, seeing that a choice that I made here pay off later on was satisfying. I didn't feel that the upkeep on the ship book was a wasted effort, it was nice seeing the things I had worked for and worked on slowly come out and be accessable. Setting up the board took time, but I felt up and ready to explore the unknown when it was all done. The App is a must, but sometimes it doesn't give you little bits of info about the outcome of a decision that you might figure out if you were reading the logbook. For example, the app might say do you want to pick A or B? The logbook will say, If you pick A go to a different log, if you pick B, check a box and go to a different log. You may or may not want that information before you choose. A few spoilery bits: A few tips for early game: Exploration is good more often than not, do not be afraid to use your supplies early, then exert later on. However, if you miss a lot of rolls don't go overboard, that's how you die. You want to focus heavily on keeping progress going, things will get harder later on and you need the experience and tools to deal with those challenges. Frankly, losing a crew member and getting a good haul would be better than saving everyone and coming back with almost nothing. You can get four High Morale owns, there is an option for spending energy to make a penal colony early on and it paid off. With those command points I had more trips to the barracks, which meant more people to assign to help out in other places. Do that 1st medical research pronto. Stimulants can refresh 12 dice. Did you know you can use Alertness charges on lander danger rolls? Other crew skills to look out for: Searcher, Storyteller, Trump Card, Selfless, Alpha, Advisor, Follower.) Protip: Level up ASAP, Just look at the rank 2 and 3 cards. So much better. I would usually take two rank 2-3's and two rank 1's on missions to ensure a good rate of leveling up without missing out on the extra dice and card access. Do you hate those Zero leads that refresh? Boy, it would be a shame if this level 2 science card shuffled them over to a Discovery deck I'm not going to use on this mission. The mission on Everstorm: Holy hell this mission was great. The twist was totally unexpected and it was hard to resist the urge to cut bait and get to safety once I lost my lander and supplies. The balance of the easier checks against having ZERO supplies was nerve-wracking. Not to mention the cool factor of having the planet open up like a Blooming Onion. The last step where you have to rappel up to the rescue lander was harrowing. You had to roll at least one red dice to get up to the evac spot, but rolling an Accident meant the crew member would die. And all four had to roll as a special action on their turn. I got lucky during a Live Specimen discovery and discarded it for 2 supplies, I had one left at this point. The security crew had an item I could discard to refresh the red dice on a dice check, so I had them use their red dice to assist the other crew to get them to safety. It saved the Science crew's life. Once the last dice landed I was elated, but then I played the log and found out I was going to lose a crew member to self-sacrifice. However, since I took the time to explore I found a unique discovery and was given the option to use it, which saved the crew member. The whole ordeal felt like a D&D session where the party barely lives and everyone had several close calls. It felt amazing. I'm sorry I just wanna talk about it aarrghh. Also, try this music playlist, I found it very good: https://melodice.org/playlist/iss-vanguard-2022/ I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.
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Nov 11, 2022 22:18
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Tenasscity posted:I haven't seen anyone else talk about it, so I'll give a non-spoilery review of my experience with ISS Vanguard so far. I'm in on it but opted for the second wave since Awaken Realms usually does some QoL in 2.0 and the second wave includes the last expansion. If it's anything like the production of Etherfields, it'll be a ride
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Nov 11, 2022 22:56
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Biannual reminder that I simply cannot stop playing spirit island. I've started actually gunning for the harder difficulties and while it does reveal that overall the spirit island team is still learning how to balance spirits in terms of raw power, they've become exceedingly good at making each spirit interesting and engaging to play even at very high difficulty levels. I was not expecting the slow burn support spirit Serpent Coiled Beneath The Earth to provide an engaging single player experience, for example.
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Nov 12, 2022 00:46
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