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They've put Ark Nova on BGA, we've already learnt we got one of the rules wrong. We are good at rules.
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Mar 24, 2023 09:41
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| # ? Jun 4, 2024 07:16 |
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I dunno, don't blame yourself. Maybe the rulebook is just bad; there are lots and lots of rulebooks that just completely suck. I hear that often enough that it's almost not notable anymore. It's funny that we just joked about board games that are purely rules as opposed to concern over components being extravagantly wasteful or terribad, because we don't often consider that a rulebook is a board game component. Sure, the game rules as a pure relation of ideas do not technically require the rulebook to exist, and those pure rules may be wonderful and perfect. However, if the rulebook does not convey those rules well, that should be considered a problem with your product. I think companies overlook this and game buyers forgive it because it is typically straightforward to work around. You watch internet videos until you have the rules down, or you just call it a house rule. It's not considered to make the product unusable, like an entire missing deck of cards. It's more like a misprinted reminder board or a single missing component that tracks something very basic in the game state such as a non-moving first player token. There is also probably a certain degree to which hobby game producers will assume a certain level of awarness and "existing grammar" on the part of the buyer, thereby offloading that responsibility. The tough thing is that your average board game recommender, be they a content creator or just some rando, will almost always recommend a game anyway despite bad rulebooks because it's a surmountable issue. So there is precious little incentive on the part of game companies to make them better.
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Mar 24, 2023 10:57
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My number one complaint about board game rules is having multiple concepts within the game with similar names so that every time it's referred to in the rulebook you have to check that you're actually applying the rule to the correct concept and you didn't mentally swap something around. The worse offender for this I've seen recently is when I was learning Hansa Teutonica, which handily has Merchants and Traders (two different resources with similar but slightly different rules) and Tradesmen (which refers to both Merchants and Traders at the same time). In this particular case I'd guess / hope that maybe this distinction is clearer in the original German.
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Mar 24, 2023 11:17
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GreenBuckanneer posted:Got my single episode of Final Girl Series 2 in today, got a bunch of extra stuff I have no idea what to do with, I think I should have bought a full series if anything for a full storage box The full storage boxes are really nice. This is the S1 box with its lid.  The VHS player at the top is the box for the playmats. Below that there's the Core Box - the S2 box has the Box of Props instead, which adds things like special dice that you can take in place of your Ultimate ability and the Desperation die that you can use once per game for an auto success but with a 1 in 6 chance of immediately losing - and then the five scenarios. Cast and Crew has the Final Girl miniatures and the S1 vignette plus its minis. The Bonus Features box holds booklets: the Gruesome Deaths books if you bought them, a Feature Film rulebook reproducing all the rules for villains and locations so you can chuck the small sheets in the scenario boxes, and a lore book. Jedit fucked around with this message at 11:35 on Mar 24, 2023 |
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Mar 24, 2023 11:28
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RabidWeasel posted:The worse offender for this I've seen recently is when I was learning Hansa Teutonica, which handily has Merchants and Traders (two different resources with similar but slightly different rules) and Tradesmen (which refers to both Merchants and Traders at the same time). In this particular case I'd guess / hope that maybe this distinction is clearer in the original German.
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Mar 24, 2023 11:47
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Doctor Spaceman posted:Stock and Supply is another shocking offender in HT. One of them is the pile of resources that can go into play directly. One of them is the pile of resources that can only go into play with an additional action or as a response to another player. Oh yeah, this one is also pretty bad (although I think in actual play, less annoying than the trader vs. tradesman distinction)
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Mar 24, 2023 11:51
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RabidWeasel posted:Oh yeah, this one is also pretty bad (although I think in actual play, less annoying than the trader vs. tradesman distinction) Yeah. When I teach HT I tend to use phrases like active / reserve and cubes/discs/pieces. It's not what the manual says but it's much clearer.
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Mar 24, 2023 11:53
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Btw I made some more analysis of the MHW board game weapons on the TG Kickstarter thread if anyone is interested. I'm pleasently surprised how varied the weapons can be and how they tried to hew close to the videogame weapons in terms of gameplay so far.
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Mar 24, 2023 12:12
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RabidWeasel posted:My number one complaint about board game rules is having multiple concepts within the game with similar names so that every time it's referred to in the rulebook you have to check that you're actually applying the rule to the correct concept and you didn't mentally swap something around. Dominance and Domination are two related-but-annoyingly-different concepts in Dominant Species.
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Mar 24, 2023 12:37
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Tekopo posted:Btw I made some more analysis of the MHW board game weapons on the TG Kickstarter thread if anyone is interested. I'm pleasently surprised how varied the weapons can be and how they tried to hew close to the videogame weapons in terms of gameplay so far. I want to know about the best weapon, the Hunting Horn. 
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Mar 24, 2023 12:40
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Sure, I'll post in the thread as well.
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Mar 24, 2023 12:44
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I'm not surprised to see TfM: Turmoil high up in the list of unliked expansions. It only seems to make the game drag on even longer.
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Mar 24, 2023 17:10
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GreenBuckanneer posted:I'm also still hemming and hawing this one Escape the Dark Sector is a favorite of my group, the host will pull it out in physical or on TTS if we need a short game. I'm kind of over it myself but its still usually a good time and everyone else seems to love it. You pick a character who has minimalistic art and a stat spread across the three stats as represented on their single crew die that you roll for tests and melee attacks. You want a balance of the stats across all the players so you can have someone with a good shot at any specific test. You get an implant which can be overpowered or useless. You can get loot at the start and as you go depending on your fights and choices. The loot can be like "heal 1 hp once" or a 4 piece battlesuit which fills up your entire inventory. Guns to me feel useless. You only get one round of shooting generally. If you roll a jam your turn is wasted and then you're out of ammo until the next fight. I'm really good at rolling two crits and a jam on the three shot guns. Many enemies are also resistant to the two types of ranged damage. When given the option to start with a shootout we generally send someone to the med bay, someone to flank, and let someone shoot and usually jam or miss. The expansion adds stuff like mutations which can help or hurt, and randomness to the med bay which can screw you over or heal you for more. It also let me play an android who had a huge unique die with a lot of the faces being a hit on 2-3 stats plus a shield to block the damage you would take. I forget the wording but my starter gear included a stun baton that cancelled enemy attacks when you hit and an implant where rolling a shield helped the entire team. It's possible we played it wrong (our resident rules lawyer owns the game and loves correcting us when we screw things up) but I rolled shield and stunned the enemy a lot of times and it saved our asses. We limped into the final fight with 1 hp remaining on a few of us and it was one of our best wins. The art is fun black and white zine quality and some of the scenarios are interesting. It's full of good ideas implemented badly or at least in a way that they are a huge risk. The aforementioned battle suit seems amazing but it only has one single use ranged attack and as you lose pieces you have to eject on your turn before getting blown up which hurts, and you are out any other gear you had until you can pick up some more. Feels good to get a huge plasma rifle, less good to jam every single encounter and damage yourself from the overheat. Legit feels good to get a cool melee weapon and a reroll implant. The non-combat events are written so that even if you gently caress up or roll badly several times in a row, you just take a few lumps and move on. We've had a few early wipes but we almost always make it to the final boss then get destroyed or win by the skin of our teeth. I like that we rotate narrators (the "You" on the event cards) making the choices, generally whoever has the most hp at the time as a lot can go wrong. We played Escape the Dark Castle once as well but I barely remember it. I think it was the original.
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Mar 24, 2023 18:15
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I got a few things from the funagain games liquidation, and they came in a box full of packing peanuts. I honestly haven't had anything shipped with packing peanuts in so long that my first thought was "Well, this is why you're closing."
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Mar 25, 2023 00:27
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GreenBuckanneer posted:https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/271754/spires-end Escape the Dark Sector is a lot of fun and is very quick to play. It's also heavily luck-based so don't buy it if you don't like losing to random bullshit that you could not possibly have seen coming. A friend of mine owns this and it's our number-one go to game for something quick to play at the start of a gaming night while we're waiting for others to arrive. Every player chooses a character that is (generally speaking) good at one thing, okay at another thing and poo poo at the third thing. Each turn you choose a player to draw a card which has some kind of event on it, usually either a fight or a skill check. If the player who drew it is poo poo at the skill that the card wants you to make well, they're gonna get hurt. Otherwise it's combat, which is slightly less random in that you have a bit of strategy about who is going to shoot/flank/hide/heal but it's very basic and after a single playthrough you'll probably have figured out the optimal decision for any given turn. But the art style is cool, the custom dice (especially in the expansions) look great and it makes a fun little story that you can set up, play and tear down in under half an hour. There's even a soundtrack available on vinyl if you're the sort of nerd that enjoys having thematic music while gaming. Which I absolutely am.
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Mar 25, 2023 01:50
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The Twilight Imperium expansion is great in my opinion. I love TI4 but I don't think I'd ever be interested in playing it without the expansion. Doesn't make the basegame a bad game, but it just opens up a lot more options and actually makes the game easier for newbies.
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Mar 25, 2023 05:10
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Got a burning hot question for all you boardgamers: what is the best ticket to ride map?
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Mar 25, 2023 05:53
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The original US map is the best for introducing people to board gaming. It's simple and no-frills while still offering a solid experience. The other maps generally have something to recommend them once the players have mastered the basics, but they all have extra complexity that just gets in the way of teaching the fundamentals.
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Mar 25, 2023 06:03
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Yeah the US one is pretty good as a starter map and as a less-thinky map for if you want a more relaxed game. I quite like Europe however, as well as Switzerland. TBH the TTR card game isn't bad either, for a quick travel game
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Mar 25, 2023 06:26
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Major Isoor posted:TBH the TTR card game isn't bad either, for a quick travel game every TTR game is a travel game
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Mar 25, 2023 06:37
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the new york map (which is mostly manhattan serving as synecdoche, as it tends to) is the best, because you get to do the things that make ticket to ride appealing as a casual game, but in a new york minute or fifteen
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Mar 25, 2023 06:37
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panko posted:the new york map (which is mostly manhattan serving as synecdoche, as it tends to) is the best, because you get to do the things that make ticket to ride appealing as a casual game, but in a new york minute or fifteen you can't fool me, synecdoche is upstate 
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Mar 25, 2023 06:56
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The first one I tried was India and then I got sad that none of the others have the biggest loop mechanic, because that was really fun to build
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Mar 25, 2023 06:57
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the holy poopacy posted:you can't fool me, synecdoche is upstate 
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Mar 25, 2023 07:08
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Aramoro posted:They've put Ark Nova on BGA, we've already learnt we got one of the rules wrong. We are good at rules. We played a game of this recently and forgot to do income every round. Game was real loving hard
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Mar 25, 2023 10:34
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If someone has an attachment to a specific area or city that can be a reason to choose one map over the rest.Metis of the Hallway posted:The first one I tried was India and then I got sad that none of the others have the biggest loop mechanic, because that was really fun to build India / Switzerland is a good map pack.
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Mar 25, 2023 11:07
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homullus posted:every TTR game is a travel game Hah, very good, you got me there! True enough 
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Mar 25, 2023 13:00
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I don't have any TTR opinions, but I know a guy who likes TTR enough that he has enough maps to fill one of those large plastic containers they sell at homegood stores, filled w/ all the boards and occasional extras the maps require. Japan is pretty fun, iirc.
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Mar 25, 2023 13:19
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Team Asia is best map. Fight me.
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Mar 25, 2023 13:20
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Really not a fan of New York TBH, but aside from that I'm easily pleased
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Mar 25, 2023 13:33
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Mr. Squishy posted:Online rules. It eliminates set up, shuffling, and having to keep track of the three currencies with no physical tokens (actions, buys, and coins) and you get a handy dandy vp tracker to enable those sweet 3 pile wins when you're 1 point ahead. It's fairly reasonably priced to have all of Dominion for a year, I think. I'm in the league in like, group F and find it very enjoyable. I still haven’t gotten over the fact that a perfect online version of Dominion existed (the text-based Isotropic one) and was taken away from us over a decade ago. I played the poo poo out of Isotropic and haven’t played a game of Dominion online since.
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Mar 25, 2023 13:34
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I believe the story with that is that Rio Grande said "I bet we can make money from Dominion Online", DXV asked Mr. Isotopic if he would like to make it his job, and Mr. Isotropic said he was good, thanks. Honestly, I've got few complaints about the current ShuffleIt client, but I never played on the old one.
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Mar 25, 2023 13:44
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Even though it looks and feels similar, the current online version is MILES ahead of the first couple iterations, programmed by idiots. It’s hard to compare to isotropic now, because i’m not sure how feasible all the newest mechanics would be, especially with a bunch of them at once, in text only form. Elysium fucked around with this message at 15:51 on Mar 25, 2023 |
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Mar 25, 2023 14:26
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rust in piss to goko, because what dominion needed was to look extremely ugly, and avatars 
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Mar 25, 2023 14:32
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Metis of the Hallway posted:Got a burning hot question for all you boardgamers: what is the best ticket to ride map? I would say that the best map is the one with the most familiar or appealing geography (e.g. base game for Americans). Not having to remember where Hyderabad is will likely make things easier than any minor rules differences.
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Mar 25, 2023 16:17
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Parker Lewis posted:I still haven’t gotten over the fact that a perfect online version of Dominion existed (the text-based Isotropic one) and was taken away from us over a decade ago. I hate all online board games except TTS, things happen too fast and I get lost.
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Mar 25, 2023 16:19
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PerniciousKnid posted:I would say that the best map is the one with the most familiar or appealing geography (e.g. base game for Americans). Not having to remember where Hyderabad is will likely make things easier than any minor rules differences. Bold of you to assume I know where Raleigh or Sault St Marie are.
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Mar 25, 2023 16:33
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Aramoro posted:They've put Ark Nova on BGA, we've already learnt we got one of the rules wrong. We are good at rules. I don't see it on there... Did they pull it? I checked the Beta games too. Edit: Oh, it's in Alpha, so normal folks can't play it yet.
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Mar 25, 2023 16:44
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Glagha posted:Bold of you to assume I know where Raleigh or Sault St Marie are. I'm afraid you're too ignorant to play TTR, sorry you had to find out this way. But seriously I think knowing 80% of the map is more helpful than not having to learn the tunnel rule or whatever. Edit: plus I think it makes the game more fun
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Mar 25, 2023 16:48
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| # ? Jun 4, 2024 07:16 |
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I cannot loving believe The Emerald Flame thinks these puzzles should be solved in about two to three hours. This poo poo is gonna take me all week just to complete the first set.
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Mar 25, 2023 19:26
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