Death Thread 3rd Edition - All Games Are Bad

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Death Thread 3rd Edition - All Games Are Bad

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

I got scrappers today. Will be trying it out sometime in the next week, maybe tomorrow night. Like all campaign games, it has the same problem of snowballing. But, I'm not sure about the math and upgrade system yet so it might not be so prone to OHKOs as frostgrave was.

TKIY posted:

Death threads are for GW. They just are. This is an abomination.

Why did you close the other thread? Moola isn't even mod yet.

# ¿ May 12, 2017 05:14

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 14:02

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

Me and the ~~death~~ chat thread:

# ¿ May 12, 2017 05:16

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

Atlas Hugged posted:

What do you think the solution to snowballing is? Most games attempt some kind of yoyo effect where losing or weaker teams gain extra experience, but it doesn't really make fit better games. This was an issue in Gorkamorka that always kept my friend from wanting to do 2 player campaigns.

Scrappers gives +1 exp to each surviving member of an "underdog" (lower-upgraded) team at the end of a game. However, you need to pay xp equal to the cost of what it would take to upgrade each rating (stat in other games, WIL/CHA/STR/etc.) by something like 2/4/8/12. These ratings are added to an opposed d10 roll for combat. Each model also only gets +1xp every time they wound something, +1 for surviving, +1 for winning. You don't pool points - each model has their own xp. From the initial reaction it's very easy to snowball since you only get a flat +1xp with no consideration to difference in "reputation" (total cost of all upgrades). I'll read more tomorrow to see what a standard set of armor looks like.

The two I've been thinking of are both deckbuilding game mechanics. Specifically dominion and nightfall. Dominion of course has your engine slow down as your deck is filled with VPs. Nightfall has a rubber-banding mechanic where "wounds" dealt to you also can be used for a beneficial effect. Tash-Kalar actually has the same mechanic. Course, these are all in the context of a single game but I think they can easily be modified in some fashion for a campaign game. Maybe a set of "lucky boon" cards that allow you to change the result of critical rolls? The thing with these games is that since there's very few dice being rolled compared to others' dice fests, due to how easily characters can get ganked, I can see a couple dice with bonuses being some sort of counterbalance. Could even have more depending on % of "underdog-ness." A set of lucky boons would also mean that people who are ahead would hopefully be incentivized to not bring future teams with points totals much greater than the underdog. Given good math, it could mean being able to choose fewer, but more powerful, characters or having a team of specialists from which to create future teams. Either way, it would still make you want to win but not to bring overwhelming forces to later games.

# ¿ May 12, 2017 06:14

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

tallkidwithglasses posted:

No, but it's still ok to be weirdly mad about them for years on end with your internet buddies, if that's your thing.

Or to defend their honor against internet bullies if that's your thing instead. We're all friends here.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2017 17:08

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

Not a viking posted:

Is it ok to follow the drama and make fun of the game writers and community in the same way one would make fun of reality show participants?

The magic thread has lots of this and it's amazing. The big drama reveal that happened a year or so ago was when one of the pros who was known for weird deck building came out as a new nazi. :3:

# ¿ Jun 25, 2017 18:41

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

If it's TLOS, players can model for advantage which is the problem.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2017 19:18

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

That's what I always thought. Wargaming hills are typically just tiny mounds of dirt as modeled, not actually hills.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2017 21:10

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

Jeb Bush 2012 posted:

Is that a new thing? I haven't been a magic player in ages but it definitely used to seem like they had at least some permanent design people.

New-ish. We poo poo on them for their decisions and hilarious attempts at damage control in the main thread. "Standard is bad" is a permanent mantra now.

# ¿ Jun 25, 2017 23:05

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

lilljonas posted:

I stopped paying Magic in -98 or so and I have no loving idea what it's about now. You play with caster cards and travel around or what the hell?

"Phenomenon is a card type used for Planar Magic. It is on oversized cards in the Planar deck and represent one-time effects players may encounter during planeswalking. Phenomena first appeared in Planechase 2012.[1] "

Kids these age, too good for proper lightning bolts and counterspells.

WOTC made up a bunch of alternate games that use various oversized cards. Who knows, but I can see them adopting them into the main game the same way GW did with apocalypse.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2017 18:33

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

Macdeo Lurjtux posted:

Of course they are, they were both removed for being too powerful.

"Having your creature be countered is worse than 2/3s smashing butts at each other all day long" -WOTC

# ¿ Jun 27, 2017 18:34

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

TheChirurgeon posted:

I'm a fan of counters but there's definitely a nontrivial portion of the playerbase that gets irrationally angry when you counter their poo poo

they aren't going to incorporate planechase cards into regular Magic

They keep scrambling for answers with standard. I can see them trying out more gimmick formats. I mean did anyone ever see standard showdown being a thing? And then WOTC cutting back on what the attendance worthwhile and wondering why only 4 people show up now? 😂

# ¿ Jun 27, 2017 18:59

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

The one thing I'm glad about is that WOTC made standard so bad that a lot of people switched to legacy/modern and are treating the game more or less like an LCG now. I don't follow it as much anymore but has standard being bad impacted the mtgfinance crowd? That was always the most fun part of the MTG thread.

# ¿ Jun 27, 2017 19:41

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

goth smoking cloves posted:

Can someone find that quote from someone from Hasbro/WOTC saying they don't view Hearthstone as a competitor?

That quote owns. I know I saved a pic of it somewhere...

Radish posted:

I'd just like there to be room for more than one game since a few stores tried pushing other systems but even on dedicated nights for other stuff the magic players still took over and nothing ever sticks.

So in one of the stores I regularly visit, the new manager is more of a boardgames and wargames person so she's allotted more time to those and less to magic (though the store always has open play barring space). It's funny to see a classic case of the privileged kicking and screaming as their once dominant position has been opened to a more balanced set of games.

The magic players still come for events of course, but the store now has more board game and wargame sales and community. Imagine that.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2017 15:59

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

Atlas Hugged posted:

Apparently some friends of mine are playing Lord of the Rings again so I was flipping through my Return of the King rules and it uses true line of sight with the caveat of don't be stupid about it, it's just a model.

I enjoyed that rule set for skirmishes. I'm trying to get my friend into historicals that way, since he already has the old LOTR models and he's trying to become a history teacher anyway. At least his true scale 28mm figures will be useful for something other than a great, but dead, game.

# ¿ Jul 5, 2017 17:16

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

Radish posted:

I don't understand how that is possible for an entire gaming community to vanish because of one guy. That's nuts. I've known a few dudes that could definitely swing how people played and get some to switch systems or whatever but not to the extent that everyone just disappears.

I've seen it happen before if there are nearby competing LGSs. Magic "leader" gets tired of the owner's BS and just decides to take everyone there with him to another LGS. This process usually sucks because that means those people were fanatical enough to all agree to it, which means they are all grinders who will now infect another shop.

# ¿ Jul 5, 2017 18:18

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

LordAba posted:

I guess, despite it basically being AoS-a-like. Not a bad thing, it does fix a lot of stuff that AoS does wrong, but still. Also, terrain is pretty loving useless as written.

We will have to see when the codices come out if they are going to go in any crazy balance breaking direction.

I like what my friend calls the "peekaboo" mechanics, where you nudge just far enough to be able to shoot one at one guy around a corner, then kill the rest of the squad with wound overflow. :getin:

TheChirurgeon posted:

Enh... I don't really agree. All the core rules are free, save a few missions (the free rules include one scenario). Given that they include datasheets with models now, you *should* have everything you need to play just buying models, if they've been updated to contain the new rules (which they probably haven't at this point). That said, if all you had were the free core rules and one $25 index book, you'd be perfectly set. It's a big improvement over a $60 rulebook and a $60 codex, even with new codices eventually replacing most of the indices.

The announcement said the codices won't cover everything, so you'll need the rulebook, the index, and the codex for your army.

I'm just wondering why they didn't go the route of just making expensive indices in the first place. Just stuff them full of all the background stuff the codices had, make them hardcover, and make everyone pay for it.

# ¿ Jul 6, 2017 15:29

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

A lot of the reason why I keep seeing 40k take 4 hours to set up and play a game is that at least a solid hour of that is devoted to looking up rules. Looking back at it now, I can't believe i used to put up with that myself.

# ¿ Jul 10, 2017 19:44

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

TTerrible posted:

Wrong.

what the

# ¿ Oct 5, 2017 02:34

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

TTerrible posted:

Check the fax, grandad.

I mean you might as well have used a pie chart at this point

# ¿ Oct 5, 2017 02:45

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

Jeb Bush 2012 posted:

I dunno man, sometimes I am playing a game and I am like, huh, this experience is enjoyable, because the people who made it were both talented enough to make a good game and were willing to put in the effort required to do so. it's a good experience IMO

That's how I feel about gmt games and how designers like Carl Paradis (No Retreat) communicate with fans of the games on BGG to help improve the next version.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2017 03:24

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

NTRabbit posted:

What does that say about the vast player pool of Warmachine?

They did the same thing in x-wing and the playtesting done with the Jumpmaster. Turns out if you have players dedicated to certain factions or want them to succeed in some way, they have an incentive not to be forthcoming with playtesting data. :v:

# ¿ Oct 5, 2017 14:33

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

Tekopo posted:

There is no one that invested in Scum, I'm sorry. I've heard the above many times but I think it's a myth. I think the more likely story is that it just wasn't seen during playtesting.

I'm pretty invested in scum and that ship has lots of nice painting opportunities. Given the chance I'd have made boba Fett really OP too.

# ¿ Oct 5, 2017 15:24

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

I'm not saying I was on playtesting or knew people who were but

Geisladisk posted:

Plus the notion of people being invested in certain X-Wing factions doesn't really add up, since X-Wing's upgrade model forces you to buy one of everything to get the upgrades you need. It's not like Warhammer or whatever where you are heavily invested in one or maybe two factions, since owning all the stuff is a prerequisite to playing the game competitively anyway.

Scum has been solidly shown to be the big ship faction and for that I like them much more than the other two

# ¿ Oct 5, 2017 15:38

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

I learned in the :krad:

skellie thread that female marines were a thing way back but they stopped including them in the writing. :iiam:

# ¿ Oct 6, 2017 10:55

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

Cat Face Joe posted:

what if... becoming good is what kills gw?!?

I can't wait to see grognards burning their ~~team jerseys~~ army collections because of the disrespect GW has shown to the ~~flag~~ narrative

# ¿ Oct 6, 2017 14:37

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 14:02

Chill la Chill: Jul 2, 2007; Don't lose your gay

https://www.facebook.com/wotblitz/videos/1786639708032311/

Why must GW ruin everything I enjoy? :negative:

# ¿ Oct 11, 2017 20:52

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Death Thread 3rd Edition - All Games Are Bad