tappy
Journeyman Douchebag
Host
Posts: 192
Preferred Game Systems: Apoc World, Monsterhearts, L5r, Wod
Favorite Species of Monkey: Space Monkey
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Post by tappy on Dec 18, 2011 19:59:03 GMT -8
For those of you who can hear me singing to myself in this episode, here is the song (I mention it later in the e-mail discussion). (NSFW)
though this one also came to mind (again NSFW, or anyone really)
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Post by Briarstomp on Dec 18, 2011 20:37:05 GMT -8
What was the name of the chat tool you were talking about using?
Briarstomp
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Post by Stu Venable on Dec 18, 2011 21:53:29 GMT -8
IMO is a multi system chat client.
That's what we use in my Traveller game.
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Post by heavymetaljess on Dec 19, 2011 14:10:15 GMT -8
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Post by Stu Venable on Dec 19, 2011 14:22:23 GMT -8
I've heard of all of those games. Almost bought Ticket to Ride.
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Post by muntjack on Dec 19, 2011 14:22:57 GMT -8
My favorite part of that Washington video is when he's kicking people apart. Classic.
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Post by whutaguy on Dec 19, 2011 17:53:44 GMT -8
Euro-style boardgames tend to use few dice, and are more resource allocation games. Most use cards with graphical depictions of the actions and few words (easier to cross borders). Rules are generally few, but rely on a mechanic. Wooden "fiddly bits" and scoring tracks are also typical. Games tend toward everyone is in until some game ending state occurs (the deck has been gone through twice, all of X resource are gone, Y number of turns have gone.
American game tend more towards "roll the dice, move your mice, build the trap." A die roll gives usually 1 to 3 options (I know, 1 options isn't an option) and where your land tells you what to do with, again 1 to 3 options. Plastic pieces, cash scoring, and eliminate opponents victory conditions are typical.
These are of course generalizations and not rules. Many of the Fantasy Flight and Mayfair games are euro style (yes, I know that many Mayfair games are imports, gorram nitpickers) and I'm sure that some euro companies put out American style games.
Euro games are gaining in popularity because of (more) predictable game length, (usually) everyone is in until the end meaning 3 schlubs aren't waiting for the 2 asshats to finish, and a (generally) more thorough brain workout. Also there is no argument phase.
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Post by fray on Dec 19, 2011 19:09:01 GMT -8
Ticket to Ride is awesome. I have the first and 2 sequels. Carcassonne is also fun though I have only played it a couple of times. (There's an iPad/iPhone app.) (Own the board game too.) The Euro games also tend to be shorter, less than 2 hours, than some of the classic board games. (Titan, Civilization, Samurai, Diplomacy)
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Post by shadrack on Dec 20, 2011 11:49:39 GMT -8
Hey Tappy - You should take a look at 'Kerberos Club' by Arc Dream. They have a FATE version where you make custom skills purely from trappings. For example, Beggar (conversation, guile, inspire, environment-urban); Lady of the night (conversation, convince, insight, environment-urban); and some less pedestrian ones => Archbishop of York (Influence, Inspire, Minions, wealth, initiative-social, initiative-mental,esteem, stress capacity-reputation, stress capacity-composure, willpower). You can also work in negatives to reduce the cost. This is also a super-hero type setting, so there are skills like => Jupiterian Body, Clockwork Wings, Protean Flesh, Grotesque Elongation. I won't detail the whole bit, but I am really digging this book. There is also some additional hijinks which involve swapping out a fudge die (or 4) with a d6, raising skills to a higher 'power tier'. If you and a foe are both mundane, standard FATE rules, role 4dF and add your skill. If you are one step higher, you swap a fudge die with a d6. If you are two higher, swap 2, all the way up to replacing all 4 fudge dice with d6's. based on difference in tiers of the individuals. I think it is an interesting way to handle the disparity between, let's say, vigilantes, street level supers, nationally known supers, and galactically powerful. There are 3 versions of the Kerberos club, FATE, Savage Worlds, and ORE (one roll engine aka Wild Talents). I've only read through the FATE one. By the way, take it easy on Missouri, we aren't Arkansas for cryin' out loud.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 20, 2011 13:24:54 GMT -8
Hey guys,
On the show, you were drinking Irish whiskey. What is the name of it? It sounds delicious.
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Post by Stu Venable on Dec 20, 2011 13:37:57 GMT -8
It's called "The Knot."
It's more of a whiskey liqueur than a whiskey. When I say it's sweet, I mean it.
Think of an Irish version of Southern Comfort.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 20, 2011 14:23:38 GMT -8
I must be in a bad mood, because all I could think of while listening to the PC secrets topic was the players I've known who've horribly abused it.
One was a guy who would ALWAYS play an underhanded character who'd secretly screw over the group in some way. It was always "Ah! Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal" with the guy. Nobody died by his schemes and they were often fun to roleplay, but it was so hard not to meta-game around him.
The other was a player who'd always take a dark secret flaw to get extra points during character creation, but she would usually play a character who couldn't care less when it was revealed. The first couple of times we used it as roleplay fodder, but soon we adopted her apathy since if she doesn't care... why should we?
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HyveMynd
Supporter
Dirty hippie, PbtA, Fate, & Cortex Prime <3er
Posts: 2,273
Preferred Game Systems: PbtA, Cortex Plus, Fate, Ubiquity
Currently Playing: Monsterhearts 2
Currently Running: The Sprawl
Favorite Species of Monkey: None
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Post by HyveMynd on Dec 21, 2011 17:36:01 GMT -8
The most popular of the European Games I've played are Ticket to Ride & Carcassonne and they are AWESOME. I've never played Ticket to Ride but man, I can not pimp Carcassonne enough. That game is fantastic! It's easy to learn, lasts for 30 to 45 minutes, has no in game text (meaning it's great for non-English or English as a second language players), has just the right mix of luck and skill, and can be played on a bunch of levels - all the way from "happy kiddie fun time" to "dude, I can't believe you just fucked me over like that". I highly, highly recommend people try this game out. whutaguy beat me to the Eurogame/Ameritrash definitions, but I'll expand upon them a bit more. My friend put it quite well, I think. He said "If you dumped the contents of an Ameritrash game out onto the table, people would immediately know what the game was about." In other words, the pieces and components all reflect the theme of the game. Games like Starcraft: The Boardgame, Twilight Imperium 3, Battlestar Galactica, Warrior Knights, several different Lord of the Rings games, and Chaos in the Old World, are all good examples of this. Chaos in the Old World for example, has a board that resembles a map painted on human skin and sculpted plastic pieces that look like the Warhammer universe daemons (Bloodletters, Daemonettes, Nurglings, and Screamers to name a few). Battlestar Galactica has plastic Cylon Raiders, Basestars, and Colonial Vipers. Starcraft has a board of interconnecting planetary systems and plastic pieces that resemble Marines, Zerglings, and Zealots. You get the idea. Contrast that with a Eurogame. If you dumped the contents of a Eurogame onto the table... you'd have a bunch on different colored wooden blocks and no idea what the game was about. When my group was introduced to Agricola, a game about farming (yes, farming) one of the players picked up a little white cube and asked "What's this?" He was told it was a sheep. "And this?" he said, pointing to a black cube. "Is this a sheep too?" Nope. That's a wild boar he was told, and the brown cubes were horses. You should have seen the look on his face. The theme of Eurogames simply aren't evident by the components. One could be about farming (Agricola), another about building power plants and selling electricity (Powergrid), and another about intergalactic colonization (Ad Astra), but they all have nearly identical little wooden cubes. Theme also carries over into the rules of the game. Ameritrash games have rules that are built into the theme; strip away the theme and the rules will cease to make sense. The rules are designed to create an experience that matches what the game is about. Hidden Loyalty Cards (that say if your a Cylon or not) dealt randomly at the beginning of the game immediately has everyone mistrusting all the other players in a game of Battlestar Galactica. That's what the game is about; paranoia. Strip away the theme of robotic killers disguised as humans and sent to sabotage the fleet, and hidden Loyalty Cards don't make much sense. Eurogames on the other hand almost have a disconnect between the rules and theme. Strip away the theme and flavor from a Eurogame and it's still playable. You could probably reskin a Eurogame from one thing to something completely different and no one would really notice. The other major difference is the amount on direct conflict between the players in the two types of games. Ameritrash games are almost always all about direct competition. Think Risk and you'll be on the right track. You pretty much have to attack the other players to play the game. Eurogames on the other hand, often have no direct conflict. You can still screw over the other players, but that usually happens indirectly by someone doing/taking/using something first and thereby denying it to the other players. Both have their drawbacks. Ameritrash games can get way too competitive and end with everyone pissed off at each other, while Eurogames can sometimes feel like you're playing a game of solitaire with four other people in the room. All right. I've rambled on long enough. Seriously though, try the games I'm mentioned in this post. Do it!
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Post by uselesstriviaman on Dec 21, 2011 21:47:16 GMT -8
We recently introduced some friends to Carcassonne, and a great time was had by all that night. But the next morning, I woke up to find my bride playing the game with our six-year-old! As it turned out, it only took a simple change to one rule (she merely left out the farmers) to make it totally accessible for him. He loved it.
I've only ever played Ticket To Ride once, but it was very enjoyable. I'd love to add it to our board game collection.
And I've played far more games of Settlers of Catan than I could count. I introduced my buddy to Catan one night, and he actually called me the next day to ask when we could play it again. It's just that good. We even figured out how to play for money, if you're in a betting mood! (You owe the winner ten bucks, minus your total points. It usually works out to only a coupla dollars each.)
I can also vouch for Puerto Rico as an excellent - though strategically complex - game.
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HyveMynd
Supporter
Dirty hippie, PbtA, Fate, & Cortex Prime <3er
Posts: 2,273
Preferred Game Systems: PbtA, Cortex Plus, Fate, Ubiquity
Currently Playing: Monsterhearts 2
Currently Running: The Sprawl
Favorite Species of Monkey: None
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Post by HyveMynd on Dec 21, 2011 23:16:47 GMT -8
But the next morning, I woke up to find my bride playing the game with our six-year-old! As it turned out, it only took a simple change to one rule (she merely left out the farmers) to make it totally accessible for him. He loved it. This is exactly how I play Carcassonne with my non-gamer girlfriend (and no, she's not 6 years old, thank you very much). Her grasp of English is decent enough to understand the Farmer rules (she is Japanese though, which means she looks like she's 6 years old) but removing that rules makes the game that much less "gamey". Settlers of Catan is good, but I find the randomness of the dice rolls a bit too luck based for my tastes. Several crappy rolls in a row can kill any chance you have of getting a decent score.
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