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Thirteen Orphans posted:What are the threads opinions on Alchemists? The premise sounds intriguing. I bought it because it sounded completely up my alley. Unfortunately there's a killer problem at the table in that you're both playing a worker placement game and doing a deductive puzzle, and you can often make a lot of progress at the puzzle by spending some working time on your new clues from the turn. But, if players 1 and 2 get a bunch of info from the worker placement game in turn X, and players 3 and 4 don't, then they get to sit there on their phones while 1/2 do all their puzzling. Next turn, players 3 and 4 might get a bunch of info while players 1 and 2 sit there and wait. Basically imagine when you get outplayed in Agricola's action selection, instead of losing some points and cursing and carrying on, you have to wait in the corner for two minutes We could push to reduce the amount of time spend puzzling but that feels like the whole point of the game so we didn't really want to. Just ended up not playing it again.
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Jun 11, 2021 05:18
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Two player Trismegistus was better than Alchemists and three wasn't too bad. Four was a slog.
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Jun 11, 2021 05:45
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Roluth posted:How many house rules did the BSG fourm game here have before interest died out? Something like an entire expansion reworked? SA forum BSG was barely recognisable as BSG I can't but feel Android or Twilight Imperium would have led to a more interesting theme
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Jun 11, 2021 06:33
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SA BSG was the best time I ever had on this forum and I miss it dearly. I played some much closer to stock BSG off-SA and it was grueling and generally unfun.
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Jun 11, 2021 07:09
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xiw posted:I bought it because it sounded completely up my alley. Unfortunately there's a killer problem at the table in that you're both playing a worker placement game and doing a deductive puzzle, and you can often make a lot of progress at the puzzle by spending some working time on your new clues from the turn. Indeed, all players need to be relatively quick puzzlers, so I spend a lot of time explaining the deduction aspect, definitely including the potion selling, sign correct color wrong deduction. One day I might be motivated to write an app to help deduction, but I feel it is half the game. Also, the rules really push for early publishing, regardless if correct or not, and I keep repeating that as well. I love Alchemists, but last time I played, I had a horror experience where an AP, not very experienced boardgame player made the game last 6 hours.
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Jun 11, 2021 07:11
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The Eyes Have It posted:Yeah that sounds amazing. I've only played 1830 -- which I really enjoy -- but my least favorite part of it is how it ends (or more accurately, how it usually kind of doesn't) There's an 1830 tournament in its second season on http://18xx.games, being run from http://18xx.tools. I'm learning that once you're playing with competent players, 50% of the time the game ends with someone going bankrupt. You'll never win in 1830 against experienced players if you're not playing on a knife's edge. You want to time the start your second company right as the 5Ts come available. Too early and you end up buying 4Ts... but once the 5Ts come out, anyone who doesn't get one will get a 6T as a sort of "well I need a permanent train, I don't want to be like that guy who's about to have his 3Ts rust and end up buying a DT out of pocket... better buy this." I love 1830 because these sort of exciting plays happen consistently throughout the entire game. You're winning if you're making more money, but you're always doing so with trains that will soon go obsolete. You're losing if you're not making that money, and if you're in that position then you better be parring another company to get some capital injection and get those newer trains out. No other 18xx game really gets this perfectly balanced. 1846 is a very common variant if you just want to build rail networks, and most players new to the genre are riding those rails. 1830 is the No Limit Texas Hold'em of 18xx.
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Jun 11, 2021 07:23
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Thirteen Orphans posted:What are the threads opinions on Alchemists? The premise sounds intriguing. I really like Alchemists but it's a very devisive game I would say. If everyone 'gets' the puzzle and likes it then it's pretty great and not too long. If someone gets stuck on how to work things out then you're in for a bad time.
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Jun 11, 2021 08:27
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Thirteen Orphans posted:What are the threads opinions on Alchemists? The premise sounds intriguing. I think it totally depends on how much you enjoy the kind of logic puzzle that is at the core of the gameplay. If you enjoy the deductive reasoning/solving-through-elimination puzzle of something like Mastermind or Cluedo then it's worth checking out, if not then I'd give it a miss because other than that it's a fairly average but nicely produced worker placement game. Because the deduction element is core to the gameplay, it also means that if you accidentally record something wrong at any point during the game, it can throw you out completely which happened in at least one of the games we played.
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Jun 11, 2021 08:35
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Kerro posted:Because the deduction element is core to the gameplay, it also means that if you accidentally record something wrong at any point during the game, it can throw you out completely which happened in at least one of the games we played. Oh hey that happened to me on my one play and I have negative interest in ever trying it again!
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Jun 11, 2021 12:22
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The one time I played Alchemists it ended with someone saying the app was wrong, and there's not really a lot you can do from there. Whether she hadn't grasped the (fairly convoluted) logic, had written down something wrong, or the app had mis-recognized some ingredients, I don't know, but at the end she was staring at the black box and calling bullshit.
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Jun 11, 2021 12:45
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Making deduction or recording mistakes in Alchemists is not killing: just publish. Especially with the master variant, proving somebody wrong is not easy, and you can just rake in the grants in the meantime, and blocking others from publishing correct elements /aspects.
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Jun 11, 2021 12:50
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Yeah recording the wrong result is bad but not catastrophic with master. Also its a massive player error. If you make a collosal player error in most games you'll lose.
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Jun 11, 2021 13:14
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Aramoro posted:Yeah recording the wrong result is bad but not catastrophic with master. Also its a massive player error. If you make a collosal player error in most games you'll lose. Trust me it feels a lot worse when the result is "okay the main draw of the game as described is completely worthless to me". And, there's a difference between a making a bad decision resulting in losing vs making a bookkeeping error that can't be caught by other players resulting in not being able to use a bunch of the game.
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Jun 11, 2021 13:36
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I'm not saying the game is bad, because I have no honest idea, but I am saying that it was a thoroughly unenjoyable experience for me and I do not plan on ever playing it again as a result.
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Jun 11, 2021 13:37
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honestly seeing someone publish something that contradicts your findings and going "Did I get something wrong, or did they?" and attempting to disprove and having it blow up in your face is a complete blast, so YMMV I guess.
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Jun 11, 2021 14:42
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When I moved away from Chicago in 2019 I left a couple really great friends behind, but we planned to meet every year at GenCon. That didn't happen in 2020 for obvious reasons, but I'm super excited to say that I got my flights + Con badge this morning!
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Jun 11, 2021 16:14
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Slimy Hog posted:When I moved away from Chicago in 2019 I left a couple really great friends behind, but we planned to meet every year at GenCon. That didn't happen in 2020 for obvious reasons, but I'm super excited to say that I got my flights + Con badge this morning! There's a GenCon thread, if ye be brave enough.
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Jun 11, 2021 16:16
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Max Peck posted:
Thank you for doing the needful. The new game looks interesting, but I'm really amused that everything we see in the initial preview is just a 100% copy from the original BSG. Looking forward to seeing what mechanics are updated - from reddit it looks like they pared down the piloting side of things, which is good.
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Jun 11, 2021 17:49
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Podima posted:Thank you for doing the needful. Hey, buddy.
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Jun 11, 2021 18:14
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Toshimo posted:Hey, buddy. Sup dude! Been a minute. 
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Jun 11, 2021 19:45
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Toshimo posted:There's a GenCon thread, if ye be brave enough. Nah, I'm mostly going to play games with friends I haven't seen in a while and get some dedicated time playing games. I don't need to know about the new hotness or anything.
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Jun 11, 2021 20:18
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I wanted to like Alchemists a lot more than I did, for all the reasons mentioned. How does Search for Planet X compare to it?
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Jun 12, 2021 00:27
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Dr. Video Games 0069 posted:I wanted to like Alchemists a lot more than I did, for all the reasons mentioned. How does Search for Planet X compare to it? Much much better. Especially because it has a (nearly?) fail safe app. (I don't know if it's fail safe but it's always worked for us. It should work for everyone).
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Jun 12, 2021 02:01
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Slimy Hog posted:Nah, I'm mostly going to play games with friends I haven't seen in a while and get some dedicated time playing games. I don't need to know about the new hotness or anything. This is exactly what the gencon thread is, not much obsession over new releases or anything. Quite the opposite actually, the biggest event for us is probably the auction and TOVA. But also not much need to hang out with goons if you'll have a dedicated group. I'd still recommend to hit up goons on our Wednesday night get-together at the Rathskeller beer garden, it's a pretty low key way to meet internet strangers with no commitment to a shared table/bar tab. At worst you'll have eaten some nice german food and beers, at best you'll have some friendly faces to put to forum handles and possibly say hi to around the con.
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Jun 12, 2021 02:07
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Just saw a Facebook listing of Food Chain Magnate with 3D printed restaurant pieces. I think that's spoiling the fun a bit.
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Jun 14, 2021 10:59
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Of a similar note I'm suprised nobody ITT has commented on the monstrosity that is Catan: 3D Edition, which is up for preorder for the low low price of $372AUD here in Australia.  
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Jun 14, 2021 13:34
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Ah yes, Tan and Orange, two colours that are very easy to distinguish at a distance
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Jun 14, 2021 15:07
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Jedit posted:Just saw a Facebook listing of Food Chain Magnate with 3D printed restaurant pieces. I think that's spoiling the fun a bit. It takes the same amount of time to read the rules for the game or create all the art assets
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Jun 14, 2021 17:11
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Nemesis sequel Lockdown is on Tabletop Simulator now from the devs, just one side of the board currently and some placeholders in the manual, and only semi-cooperative goals (aka work together in general but gently caress each other over while doing it). We tried a 4 player game Saturday after playing tons of the original game over the last year and it was a lot of fun. The series just works well for our group of people who like to alternate between full cooperative games and ejecting each other out the airlock or spawning the queen on someone about to take an escape pod. Spoiler tagging since some of the fun is discovery. Some terms may be off as I'm going from memory. There are 3 levels of a planetside complex and an elevator going between them, each have their own power setting. As the turns progress, the power goes out in more places unless you find the generator or backup generator which can delay that for a bit. You'll have a personal or corporate goal to decide between when the first alien shows up. There are 3 ways out - leaving the complex for a bunker, locking yourself in lockdown, and getting fired to safety with the cargo delivery system. Leaving the complex requires opening the front gate and either using the ATV (which can be called back) or an enviro-suit to walk out. Locking yourself in is like the cryo chamber in the original, and loading yourself in the cargo delivery system is risky because there are 3 and they only fire sporadically... if yours doesn't fire you are thrown back into the room with a serious wound. There are ways to see which order they will fire. Complicating everything is there is a contingency plan by the corporation that can kill everyone who doesn't follow a certain protocol. Like it might kill everyone who doesn't have an alien egg, or doesn't have enough knowledge, or everyone still inside the complex - meaning anyone in lockdown dies, but those in the bunker or who left via cargo survive. So you not only have to complete your objective, but also try to figure out the contingency and how to avoid it. Everyone gets one unused contingency so they know one thing it isn't. Then you can use certain rooms and cards to peek at the other ones to try to get enough info to know which is in effect. There's also a new knowledge (of the xenos) system. Study in the archives, find the nest, and research xeno stuff like corpses and eggs in the lab to gain knowledge. The xenobiologist character starts at 0 but uses it as a class mechanic and can gain knowledge by using up a room's item count, and the two patients start with more knowledge than the facility workers. The guard, the xenobiologist and the hacker started on the top level of the complex which was a lot smaller. My survivor started in the lower floor lockdown room since she was a patient instead of a facility worker. At the request of the others I turned on the backup power turning on the lights for the mid and lower levels, then the hacker immediately hosed me over by shifting the power for the lower levels to the elevators. I had to go to the upper level anyway to activate my character weapon so I took the elevator up just as the three of them made their way down to the mid level. We immediately spawned a ton of enemies as they found the archive, which is one of the main rooms to look for that helps everyone to use. Lots of combat and wounds taken. I joined them in time to finish off the stragglers. After using the archive I headed back to the bottom floor. I found the lab and the xenobiologist tried to follow me in with her alien corpses to research, but I accidentally triggered a door to slam shut behind me and she had to double back dodging aliens. The hacker joined me on the bottom floor and finished exploring the last unexplored tiles. He said he was going to restart the power for everyone but he lied and beat me to the lockdown room and locked himself in to safely exit the game. I was about to lock myself in, when the beleaguered xenobiologist used the computer in a security room to move an alien in with me and then kill us both with turrets. The death of me as a player opened the main door of the complex which let her take the ATV to safety in the outside bunker. We then sat back to watch the guard as his attempts to walk out the front gate in his power armor (which counts as an enviro-suit) or enter the cargo system resulted in alien after alien spawning on him, including the queen. He finally drew them away from the main gate and took a wound fleeing from them but was then able to exit to safety with 1 round to spare. He hadn't completed his goal which was to visit the Archive and gain 6 knowledge. The xenobiologist had completed her goal, I forget what it was, but hilariously the goal she didn't take was to kill me so she would have been set either way. The hacker completed his goal, and I completed mine which was to use the Archive and have all the room tiles of floors 1 and 3 explored. That done, we flipped the contingency tile - which killed everyone in the base, eliminating the hacker. So the xenobiologist won. The characters are a bit more interesting in this game. The xenobiologist had a robot arm which could take samples from living aliens and also do 9 damage attacks once she'd maxed out her knowledge. The hacker was doing crazy things with the computer system and was able to use systems without power and use broken systems with power. The guard was immune to slime, fire and darkness effects and could take people on forced tours of the facility where they drag someone to the next room and can avoid the randomized exploration effect (slime, noise, on fire, broken, etc). My survivor could use items as distractions and to heal, I bonked an alien on the head with a thermal charge to escape it, and later healed a serious wound using another thermal charge I'd picked up. The two we didn't play also looked fun. The janitor is basically McGyver, creating flame throwers from duct tape and using the elevators with or without power. And the blind lab rat is basically Daredevil, I didn't see much of what she could do besides dodging enemy attacks and sneaking by them in the dark. If you didn't like the old one you probably won't like this one as it adds a lot more bullshit to deal with. We really enjoyed it and will play it a few more times until the physical game shows up. Then it will probably join the old version as a staple of our board game get togethers.
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Jun 14, 2021 17:25
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Cross posting in a few places (TG Kickstarter and rock climbing threads). Sorry to spam: Some friends of mine have a kickstarter launching tomorrow for a rock climbing themed game. They're long time climbers and gamers, and active with the Philadelphia chapter of the American Alpine Club. I have no personal skin in this campaign but I'd love to see them succeed because they're all around great people and have a few years of iteration and design work in this game at this point. There's a How To Play video and downloadable rulebook linked on the website, and the game is available on Tabletop Simulator if you want to check it out. https://www.playfirstascent.com/ (launches tomorrow): https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/firstascentgame/first-ascent
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Jun 14, 2021 17:33
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Infinitum posted:Of a similar note I'm suprised nobody ITT has commented on the monstrosity that is Catan: 3D Edition, which is up for preorder for the low low price of $372AUD here in Australia. It's very ugly. But some people play Catan and only Catan so it'll sell well enough
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Jun 14, 2021 18:17
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Golden Bee posted:It takes the same amount of time to read the rules for the game or create all the art assets I don’t know if this is a joke about the weight of the game or the visual aesthetics.
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Jun 14, 2021 18:44
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Mojo Jojo posted:It's very ugly. But some people play Catan and only Catan so it'll sell well enough It's ugly but it's very readable. You've got your forests, mountains, pastures, vomit, and piss. Very simple.
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Jun 15, 2021 00:53
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Infinitum posted:Of a similar note I'm suprised nobody ITT has commented on the monstrosity that is Catan: 3D Edition, which is up for preorder for the low low price of $372AUD here in Australia. I can hardly even see the orange and tan pieces on the board, and I have no colour blindness or vision problems to speak of.
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Jun 15, 2021 06:53
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that almost looks as bad as the TfM big box 3d tiles
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Jun 15, 2021 07:04
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Ah yes Mars. The Yellow Planet.
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Jun 15, 2021 07:55
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bagrada posted:Nemesis sequel Lockdown This sounds an absolute riot! Although, it sounds very much the sort of game that I'd really like my friend to buy, so I only end up playing it a few times and it stays fresh. Like as an experience generator, that just sounds super awesome. The OG Nemesis is really fun, in much the same way, but I felt like the asymmetry of the classes you describe, plus the motivations for doing stuff beyond just your hidden card / the overall mission is much needed, to further muddy the waters as to what's going on. Man, that sounds so cool though, almost space station 13 levels of fuckery going down!
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Jun 15, 2021 10:25
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armorer posted:Cross posting in a few places (TG Kickstarter and rock climbing threads). Sorry to spam: This kickstarter is live now, and almost funded after just 2 hours. I swear I won't shill it anymore after this.
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Jun 15, 2021 16:25
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Bottom Liner posted:that almost looks as bad as the TfM big box 3d tiles These are pre-production stand-ins, right? Right??
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Jun 15, 2021 18:37
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FulsomFrank posted:These are pre-production stand-ins, right? What about Terraforming Mars led you to associate it with the words "production quality"?
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Jun 15, 2021 18:43
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