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Picked up The Light in the Mist a couple of weeks ago after seeing some chat in the thread and have been plugging away in dribs and drabs over the last couple of weeks. Finished up last night and really enjoyed it. (A few minor opinions on specific puzzles under the spoiler tags, for folks who have already played it) It's a tarot deck full of puzzles, where each puzzle uses one of the Major Arcana cards (the main ones; the ones that The Binding of Isaac fans will recognise; The Fool, The Magician, The Empress, etc.) and some related set of the Minor Arcana cards (the babies; Ace through King of Wands, Swords, Cups, Pentacles) and the basic loop is: 1. Pick a Major card and gather the related Minor cards. 2. Read a brief passage in the manual for some establishing context. 3. Use the shared elements across the cards to deduce some English word, and then check to see if that word gets you a matching entry in the manual to progress the story. All the answers are words, usually thematically or tonally relevant, and so I found it was usually very clear when I was on the right track, especially when contrasted with something like an Unlock or Exit (where I've found its easier to get stuck trying multiple variations on a fundamentally wrong idea). As a few folk have mentioned, the difficulty varies widely from puzzle to puzzle, which I think is the nature of the beast particularly with how varied the puzzles are in the set. Some purely visual, some requiring some math or logic, and a few relying more directly on the ability to work with words. Some had me stumped for quite some time (The Stars was my personal bugbear  ), whereas others were fairly obvious (the manual has some suggested starting puzzles which are ostensibly easier but that includes, well, The Stars  ). Some still were time-consuming, not necessarily in their difficulty but just in requiring working through multiple steps (or even the same step multiple times) to reach the solution. I did find the introductory passages for each puzzle in the manual to occasionally be a little bit on-the-nose in cluing the solution, so I might recommend skipping Step 2 above and just diving right in to solving the puzzle using what's on the cards, at least for a little bit, particularly if you've played a few puzzle games and may be familiar with some tricks up this game's sleeve (though full warning: I suspect there are a few cases where this approach can't work!).Some of the puzzles have multiple valid answers but I didn't that aspect hugely satisfying. Fairly few cases where the extra solutions were borne out of some further complication to the logic of the puzzle (The Hierophant being a standout), and more just opportunities to re-apply the same rules to a different set of inputs (The High Priestess was neat, but not hugely satisfying on the eighth go around). Overall though, gorgeous little game and I guess ultimately gave me the answer I was hoping for to the question, "Hey, The Emerald Flame seems neat but maybe a little pricey given I don't really know these designers but should I pick it up anyway?" Oh also it has some minor destructive elements but it comes with a refresh kit packed in so 
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Apr 4, 2023 21:54
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Is a much lighter puzzle-game report, we just did Puzzle Post: The Missed Flight. It is light. Very light. Way too light. We (me and my 14 year old) went through it in a half hour or so, and it would have been even quicker except we kept doubting our answers because they came so easily. We entered our first round of guesses expecting only a couple of them to be right (the ones where we'd actually "done" something), and instead they were all correct and the game was over. Very limited components (a coaster, an envelope, some scraps of paper, a napkin) and little significant "online content" either. Pretty poor. Unlock: Legendary Adventures was possibly the best of the new triple boxes we've tried - with my main criteria being "how many of the puzzles were dumb garbage?". The only terrible section here was another "unintelligible audio clue" (something Unlock has had multiple problems with over the years - someone needs to buy these people a microphone someday). It's also possibly we're just getting more used to their BS. These games have never wowed me, but they're getting OK...er.
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Apr 5, 2023 01:02
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Unlock feels like doing a procedure, not solving a puzzle.
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Apr 5, 2023 01:26
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With the power of AI, humanity can finally grok the rules of Magic Realm  (I used a system intended for legal docs & fed it the Magic Realm rules, which I can query in plain English and it even provides sources in the form of page and section numbers)  Significantly (and appropriately, for a reference AI) the model does not make things up when asked about something it can't figure out from the documents it has been fed. 
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Apr 5, 2023 05:44
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Are more people playing Dominion on the website or on steam? I got kind of annoyed when they slowed the website game down and after I lost due to a hidden chess timer on an undo request. My regular group tried two new games last night they were both pretty okay for what they were. Raids is a light viking game where you sail around competing for the best spots to stop and get points. It uses a catch-up turn order like patchwork. Whoever is most behind goes next but also all the spots between them and the next player get cleared out so they can't just slow roll and visit every one. 4/5 Arena of the Gods is an Ameritrash dice off combat game. You start by bidding life for equipment and you try to come up with a build that can do good stuff with each of the four things you might roll. Enjoyable for what I think is generally one of the worst kinds of game. The goal is to have the most life when the first player dies so it doesn't actually drag on that badly either. Has anyone tried That Time You Killed Me? My first glance it looks awesome but I was scared to peek at chapters inside Harold Fjord fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Apr 5, 2023 |
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Apr 5, 2023 16:41
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I tried it, but despite the theme being exactly my thing (everyone should read this is how you lose the time war, by the way), the game didn't grab me.
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Apr 5, 2023 19:01
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So, after not thinking about or playing BSG for probably 7 years, it's suddenly popped back into my brain. Are any of the other BSG community regulars still around here and would anyone be interested in seeing the BSG thread and games make a comeback?
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Apr 5, 2023 19:07
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Some Numbers posted:So, after not thinking about or playing BSG for probably 7 years, it's suddenly popped back into my brain. 
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Apr 5, 2023 19:20
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I'll be busy this weekend, but maybe Monday.
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Apr 5, 2023 19:25
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Harold Fjord posted:Has anyone tried That Time You Killed Me? I have it. The game is pretty cool and my 8 year old was able to pick it up fairly quickly. The chapters just add more elements to the game that make it more complicated in a good way. I have not played through all the chapters, but the second chapter involves planting seeds in the past that grow into trees, which can then be pushed over onto your opponent in the future. I wouldn't even say peaking at the other chapters really spoils anything. It really just slowly teaches you the mechanics of the game by starting with the basics and then incorporating more elements. Edit: Oh, I'll add one more thing. One of the cool things about the game is that you have multiple "copies" of yourself that you make as you travel to the past. An easy way to handicap a more experienced player is to simply give them fewer copies to work with to even the odds Astro7x fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Apr 5, 2023 |
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Apr 5, 2023 20:55
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Played the most overpriced game I've ever bought off kicksharter last night. Moonrakers (with all the flavours)  Man it's a heap of fun. I'm gonna do a bit of an overview and a game report for those who're interested, so you can play it vicariously and avoid spending stupid dollars on it. We finished in about 2hours including a teach for 3 of the 4 of us. All 3 expansions were used. Premise The game is a race to 10 points, where points are gained mainly by fulfilling contracts, completing personal objectives, or reaching 5 reputation with another player (by cooperating with them). The game boils down to two main parts - negotiation and then deck building. Negotiation In the negotiation phase, you select a contract which has a pool of rewards (money, 1-3 points, bonus reputation, and/or a gear or pilot card) and then you decide based on your hand of 5 cards whether you can complete it yourself or whether you'd like to share out some of the rewards to someone who'd like to come along and contribute towards completion. A basic contract will have 1 or 2 card requirements with a value, and a number of threat (1-4). For example - I might have a contract that offers 2 points, and 5 coins. The requirements are 3 shields, 5 reactors, and 2 hazard dice. I know from my hand that I can definitely fulfil the shields and 2 of the reactors, but I wont have enough reactors to fulfil the contract in it's entirety so I offer 3 of the 5 coin to whomever wants to accompany me. Bobby M'Nraker offers to fulfil the 3 reactors but wants more than the coins, so he offers to also take one of the hazard dice if I split the points with him instead. I accept the negotiation and we roll hazard dice (0, 0, 1, 1, 2, 2 damage d6s). I roll a 2 and he rolls a 0, so I have to block 2 damage or lose 1 point for every damage that goes unblocked even if the contract fails. That brings us to RAKING THE MOON Completing the contract From your starting deck, you draw up 5 cards of a possible 5 initial types - Thruster (draw two more cards), Reactor (Take two more actions), Shield (block one damage), damage (damage one damage), Miss (do none of those things). You then get to play ONE card. If you've played Food Chain Magnate - the business structure phase will be very familiar here. If your action is to play a reactor, you get two more actions, another reactor can go in one of those actions giving you 3 remaining, and so on and so on. It's important to note, that as soon as the hazard dice are rolled, the negotiations are locked and the mission is "under way" and at this point a player could even tank your mission by failing to uphold their side of the bargain. If that happens you both get nothing, but you both lose any damage that was dealt and not blocked. If you manage to get lucky and still complete the contract without their input, they still get their promised rewards (minus your trust in the future). Buying things! Once the contract is complete (fail or win), you can go spend your spoils in the shop -buying either new gear that gives you cards for your deck, and a unique ability, of which you can have 4 active at any time, or a pilot which goes straight into your deck and tends to be a very powerful version of one of the base cards. Trip Report In our game we had a pretty relaxed first half - lots of being helpful to each other. I managed to build a bunch of reputation and also player trust by coming along and helping on a bunch of contracts - helped also by a piece of equipment that gave mission leaders a bonus card for having me come along as an ally. We come to the last round, and there is a player who is 2 points from winning, and has enough rep to get one point, and just needs one person to come along and help them do a contract for the other point. They select a 2 point contract and there comes a bunch of haggling for everyone else vying for second position as we can all see that they are about to win. I manage to sweet talk them into bringing me along - given the piece of equipment I have that will help them ensure victory - anything I play is just a bonus. Then - dice a rolled, negotiation is locked in and I... decline to activate my gear granting them the reactor they need to even start their engine. I play a single shield to protect myself from the damage dice I had taken. They stare at me in shock "But you can't even win either!". Then I show them my hidden objective "Fail a contract as an ally, receive one point". The table erupts, everyone shouting that the game is back on, but the player gets pretty upset at the sudden turn of events. I relent, and grant them the reactor because I am weak and want everyone to have fun. They complete the objective solo with a fortunate draw and win, and I still come second. Oh well, next time, no mercy.
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Apr 5, 2023 21:47
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I was with you up until you said the table started playing for second 
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Apr 5, 2023 22:14
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panko posted:I was with you up until you said the table started playing for second Did I rally you with the "wanting to stay socially accepted so reversed my winning move"?
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Apr 5, 2023 22:30
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by refusing to betray another, you betrayed yourself
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Apr 5, 2023 22:37
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I played Moonrakers once. It was pretty fun at the early and middle stages, but the end became a slog of trying to find solo routes to victory because why would you ever negotiate to include someone who is obviously going to win by their inclusion otherwise why would they be trying to get included.
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Apr 5, 2023 23:15
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Does anyone have thoughts on Mindbug? My partner has been really enjoying Radlands and I thought I might pick up something else in a similar vein.
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Apr 6, 2023 00:39
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Elysium posted:I played Moonrakers once. It was pretty fun at the early and middle stages, but the end became a slog of trying to find solo routes to victory because why would you ever negotiate to include someone who is obviously going to win by their inclusion otherwise why would they be trying to get included. I know it's an unpopular opinion but - "The expansion fixes that". Moonrakers base is definitely an unfinished beast, and I would not recommend playing it without Binding Ties for exactly this reason. It allows you to benefit from cooperating early without tipping your hand. Also, I think it's easy to fall into the trap of only getting points from contracts, and not really using or getting objectives which you can aim to complete more strategically for that endgame where support starts to fall off.
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Apr 6, 2023 00:52
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big scary monsters posted:Does anyone have thoughts on Mindbug? My partner has been really enjoying Radlands and I thought I might pick up something else in a similar vein. Have you tried Air Land & Sea? It's the best small box 2p dueling card game IMO. Especially when combined with the expansion. The Critters version of both are better art and graphic design if you can find those.
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Apr 6, 2023 01:07
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Mindbug is fine. Very quick to play, but can also be way too random and few opening moves decide the whole match. I would recommend many 2p games before it. Like Omen: Reign of War, Jekyll vs Hyde, Battleline, Epic Card Game, Arboretum, Blue Moon Legends, Shards of Infinity and Air, Land & Sea (the Critters-version art sucks though, sorry) are all about the same complexity and small table presence, but way more interesting games IMO.
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Apr 6, 2023 07:44
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I'm going on a trip with some friends and I've got space and opportunity to bring a game that I already own. There will be lots of downtime so I would imagine it'll be played a few times and my opponents are fairly competent: we played a game of Brass:Lancashire and had only some minor wailing. I don't have many four-player games, but the three I've bought recently are in that category: Ultimate Railroads, Troyes and Concordia:Venus - and I already have Race for the Galaxy. My gut feeling is that Concordia or UR may be the best choice but I won't get a chance to play either of them 4p before the trial by fire. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on which? I don't think we'll have enough occasion to play with different expansions and optional rules - rather that I'm sure we can get a couple of games in if the first game is a bit rough. Southern Heel fucked around with this message at 07:51 on Apr 6, 2023 |
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Apr 6, 2023 07:45
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Concordia for sure. It's as good at 4 as 5, and if there's one person not sure of their ability you can suggest playing the team game.
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Apr 6, 2023 09:05
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big scary monsters posted:Does anyone have thoughts on Mindbug? My partner has been really enjoying Radlands and I thought I might pick up something else in a similar vein. I bought it after hearing about it on a podcast. Played it a few times on Tabletopia (it's free if you want to try) and enjoyed it so far, but haven't played it physically yet. It's also super duper cheap. I haven't played Radlands, but I am familiar with the rules, so I imagine it will probably have a somewhat similar feel, but Mindbug is much more streamlined. Bottom Liner posted:Have you tried Air Land & Sea? It's the best small box 2p dueling card game IMO. Especially when combined with the expansion. The Critters version of both are better art and graphic design if you can find those. Air Land and Sea is terrific. Mindbug is more M:tG like, but ALS is more Smash Up / Marvel Snap like. The main structural differences in ALS compared to Mindbug are a time limit and the most clever scoring / retreating mechanics I've ever seen. Southern Heel posted:I don't have many four-player games, but the three I've bought recently are in that category: Ultimate Railroads, Troyes and Concordia:Venus - and I already have Race for the Galaxy. My gut feeling is that Concordia or UR may be the best choice but I won't get a chance to play either of them 4p before the trial by fire. Does anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on which? I don't think we'll have enough occasion to play with different expansions and optional rules - rather that I'm sure we can get a couple of games in if the first game is a bit rough. I have not played UR or Troyes, but the answer is always Concordia. The only issue is the box shape might make it annoying to take on a trip, but that is it; it's absolutely fantastic.
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Apr 6, 2023 09:17
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Southern Heel posted:I'm going on a trip with some friends and I've got space and opportunity to bring a game that I already own. There will be lots of downtime so I would imagine it'll be played a few times and my opponents are fairly competent: we played a game of Brass:Lancashire and had only some minor wailing. Troyes is a much smaller box which might be a consideration if you're tight on space? Concordia is a pretty hefty one. Personally I prefer Troyes as it plays faster but Concordia is the more popular game in general I think, both are fantastic at 4p
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Apr 6, 2023 09:37
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Thank you for the Mindbug thoughts and other recs! As a recovering M:tG player Garfield's name on the box and the familiar-seeming play of Mindbug appealed to the me, but Air Land & Sea looks very interesting. The curse and joy of this thread is that whenever I read it I come away with another 5 games on my mental wishlist.
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Apr 6, 2023 12:02
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Troyes definitely is a smaller box, but I don’t think we’re going to be that constrained on space. I’ve played that game twice now and really enjoyed it. If I play Concordia at two players, is that enough of a feeling for how it would play with four? I get the impression scales very well and in a similar manner. I’m surprised, no votes for ultimate/Russian railroads!
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Apr 6, 2023 12:25
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Southern Heel posted:Troyes definitely is a smaller box, but I don’t think we’re going to be that constrained on space. I’ve played that game twice now and really enjoyed it. If I play Concordia at two players, is that enough of a feeling for how it would play with four? I get the impression scales very well and in a similar manner. The only major difference between how Concordia plays at 2 and at 4 is that the Diplomat becomes less important in the smaller game. The race for cities and cards remains the same as the map is sized for the player count.
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Apr 6, 2023 12:29
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Concordia is slightly less good at 2 but that's just because of the shared player map which tend to be more interesting with 3 or 4 players. It's also more common for the praefectus magnus card to stop moving around as there's less of an incentive to use it in 2p if you're the player with the weaker map position. One of the things to note about Troyes as it scales up in player count is that the rounds become shorter because there's the same number of dice shared between more players. You add more turns to the game to compensate, but this means that the game gets even tighter on action choices. If you already found the game a bit of a knife fight in a phone booth at 2p, you might find the 4p game uncomfortable. OTOH this makes the game move around pretty quickly at 4p
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Apr 6, 2023 12:46
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Finally got to play 1846 in person (only ever 2P games online) with 5P. I haven't played an incremental cap game since 1867 so this was a learning experience for everyone, which felt nice that we were all figuring out strategy together. We couldn't finish it due to time constraints (related to the initial auction taking far too long since we were all figuring out how it worked [bizarre draft unlike anything else in this sub-sub-genre]) but the routes were all mostly established and beyond some jockeying for the final two companies (Erie/C&O) I'd say we'd finished the tutorial mission. Game is very interesting, my big takeaways are: 1) seems like the par value of the company is one of the biggest decisions you can make initially as that affects how much capital your company can expect both in terms of you and others buying shares and how much stays in the company to receive dividend payouts. It was interesting to see how broke companies became as the costs for laying track/upgrading and buying trains and stations becomes expensive very very quickly 2) routes and tokens seem nastier than other games I've played in a while. It looks like it's quite easy to get screwed out of routes and forced to spend a lot of time building around if you don't token well. 3) train rush is decent not in the sense of "oh poo poo I'm going bankrupt" but more of an "oh poo poo I need to make money here" and the price really jumps from greens to browns but the phase out is gentle and because the payouts can be hilariously large, this can let you save up quickly for the train at the cost of an OR, assuming you cannot issue more shares to get around this. Overall, really enjoyed the experience and one of the players said it's his new favourite. The consensus with most was that it felt more realistic and thematically proper as opposed to the magical hit 50/60% and here's 10x now gently caress off style of 1830 variants. FulsomFrank fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Apr 6, 2023 |
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Apr 6, 2023 15:36
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I enjoyed Mindbug quite a bit in the couple of games I got to play of it. I think the idea of being able to steal your opponents' play is super neat and really cranks the mind games up a notch for such an otherwise simple game. It is a game I am looking to own however I am not sure how much longevity it presents. Honestly, with how simple a game it is, it doesn't need to present much to buy a spot in my collection. Now speaking of Garfield, if you want M:tG but good and not endless Rabbit Hole collectible (only As Much as You Want collectible), definitely check out Solforge: Fusion. It also sports his name on the box, and it's basically Magic if Magic were designed today, with all of the lessons of modern games and such. Creatures have tracked/persistent health, which prevents boardstate snowball effects. No mana system, you just get limited numbers of card plays per round, so no non-games. Decks are algorithmically generated a la Keyforge as half decks that you smash together a la Smash Up!, creating a just-right balance between collectability and playability/customization/variety. The tradeoff for all of this is that the game began as a digital title almost a decade ago and was recently reborn into paper, meaning there is quite a bit of fiddliness/tracking needed, but my god is it worth it. Honestly this discussion almost doesn't belong in the board game thread since 1v1 collectible card battlers tend to be a bit of a world of their own, but I can't help myself whenever M:tG or other self-contained card duelers come up.
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Apr 6, 2023 19:27
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I wish I had friends that were more interested in Keyforge. It isn’t a game I’d want to play seriously, but it’s a fun quick game and I like the push and pull that comes from the scoring mechanic.
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Apr 6, 2023 19:57
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Anonymous Robot posted:I wish I had friends that were more interested in Keyforge. It isn’t a game I’d want to play seriously, but it’s a fun quick game and I like the push and pull that comes from the scoring mechanic. Key forge is a good idea for a digital game.
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Apr 6, 2023 20:14
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FulsomFrank posted:Finally got to play 1846 in person (only ever 2P games online) with 5P. The nicer an 18xx game is on the stock side of things, the meaner it is on the track laying/stationing because players are much more tied to particular companies so it becomes a race to get to certain places.
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Apr 6, 2023 20:31
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Keyforge took a long hiatus because they locked themselves out of the algorithm that makes their cards*, and I think that's wonderful. *source: a goon's uninformed speculation
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Apr 6, 2023 20:42
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Mr. Squishy posted:Keyforge took a long hiatus because they locked themselves out of the algorithm that makes their cards*, and I think that's wonderful. From FFG themselves it was "broken": https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2021/9/10/down-but-not-out/ But yeah...
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Apr 6, 2023 20:45
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I heard speculation that they were the victims of Ransomware or that a disgruntled employee left and nuked the alg or something. I'm not sure if the real cause was ever revealed.
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Apr 6, 2023 20:46
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I liked Keyforge well enough but despite being kinda clunkier I honestly prefer SolForge. Mixing two half-decks to taste is better than just buying a ton of random decks until you find one you really gel with. But both games' core conceits kinda emulate the recess playground feeling of trying to do the best with what you have available, without netdecking and whaling for expensive rares.
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Apr 6, 2023 21:23
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Pvt. Parts posted:I enjoyed Mindbug quite a bit in the couple of games I got to play of it. I think the idea of being able to steal your opponents' play is super neat and really cranks the mind games up a notch for such an otherwise simple game. It is a game I am looking to own however I am not sure how much longevity it presents. Honestly, with how simple a game it is, it doesn't need to present much to buy a spot in my collection. Good to hear about Mindbug, I guess I'll probably end up getting a copy at some point. It's not exactly a huge investment even if we don't end up playing it a tonne. Solforge and Keyforge seem an interesting idea that I just can't quite imagine working in paper. I'm keen to stay on stuff that's pretty self-contained for now, I don't think my partner will have much interest in the collecting and deck building bit of TCGs/CCGs so it's likely we'd end up not playing much.
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Apr 6, 2023 21:41
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KeyForge had their algorithm issue as noted above, and then had the secondary issue of Fantasy Flight basically being tired of it, so Ghost Galaxy bought all the IP and is reviving it. (They did a gamefound to fund the printing of the first set in the Ghost Galaxy era, and I assume the plan is for everything to be able to go from there.) Ghost Galaxy is currently run by the founder of Fantasy Flight, so maybe he just kind of wants this to be his baby?
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Apr 6, 2023 22:20
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I can echo that Solforge Fusion is really fun and definitely very accessible. It tickles the TCG area of your brain but for a reasonable price point, and it has good TTS support with either random decks or easily importing your owned decks. The combination of the TTS mod and being able to buy a box or two of half decks and then be "done" so to speak has pulled in a bunch of friends who in adulthood have stuck more with board games and tried to otherwise steer clear of reengaging with full on TCGs.
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Apr 6, 2023 22:45
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big scary monsters posted:Good to hear about Mindbug, I guess I'll probably end up getting a copy at some point. It's not exactly a huge investment even if we don't end up playing it a tonne. Solforge and Keyforge seem an interesting idea that I just can't quite imagine working in paper. I'm keen to stay on stuff that's pretty self-contained for now, I don't think my partner will have much interest in the collecting and deck building bit of TCGs/CCGs so it's likely we'd end up not playing much. If you are interested in Mindbug and want to give it a go, there are currently two expansion sets on KS (and I would imagine you can get the base game there too): https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nerdlab-games/mindbug-beyond
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Apr 7, 2023 08:43
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