"Now the trumpet summons us again—not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need; not as a call to battle, though embattled we are—but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle [...]"
- John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address
TWILIGHT STRUGGLE is a card-driven board game simulation of the Cold War. It has been called a game of
crisis management; dealing with them yourself, creating them for your opponent, and their proper timing. There is a extensive blog about the game,
Twilight Strategy.
This is that site's article on starting out play. This page could help you decide if it's for you. ("Do you enjoy games that are extremely tense and nerve-wracking?") Here's a YouTube video on how to play it.
And, although I suggest learning to play with a physical set, the online multiplayer wargaming client Warroom
has a Java Twilight Struggle client/server program available. There is also
a VASSAL module, but it currently doesn't work with VASSAL 3.2 or later. There's a lot more on the game after the break....
[more inside]
posted by JHarris
on Mar 24, 2013 -
48 comments
We are delighted to present Scrabble enthusiasts everywhere with The Scrabble Player's Handbook, a definitive and free ebook on how to play Scrabble, written by a dozen of the best tournament players in the world. All twelve authors have competed in past World Scrabble Championships and have spent over a year combining their knowledge into this one free Scrabble resource. Definitive. Accessible. Free. What more do you need to know? [Website links to a 6.6 Mb PDF.]
posted by not_on_display
on Jan 23, 2013 -
25 comments
In November 2007, a new board game called Yavalath was invented. The rules of Yavalath are simple: Players take turns adding a piece of their colour to a hexagonal board and win by making four-in-a-row of their colour – but lose by making three-in-a-row beforehand. Yavalath has proven reasonably popular as its simple rules allow interesting and surprising situations to develop due to its innovative win with four but lose with three winning condition. But Yavalath is really set apart from the many other board games invented in 2007 by one remarkable fact: Yavalath was designed by a computer programme. [more inside]
posted by rollick
on Jan 19, 2013 -
20 comments
Matthew Baldwin (MeFi's Own
* Defective Yeti
*): " ...That’s why I come armed to every social engagement with board games, to help facilitate that whole human interaction thing that people thought was important before smartphones gave us an excuse to avoid eye contact with others. It’s also why I give games as gifts—and why, for more than a decade, I have been helping others do likewise. And so,
my annual Good Gift Game guide, showcasing those board and card games from the last year or so that are easy to learn and teach, fun and engrossing to play, and that can be completed in 90 minutes or less." (
additional notes & more games for the 2012 guide)
[more inside]
posted by flex
on Dec 4, 2012 -
55 comments
Tabletop: Analog Game Design - A commons licenced book containing a series of essays about digital and non-digital games from some esteemed boardgame veterans:
"Much has been written about the videogame revolution, [...] In a scant thirty some-odd years,
we’ve grown from nothing to one of the world’s largest entertainment
forms, grossing tens of billions annually [...] Works that discuss the evolution of the game industry from an historical perspective generally talk about the connection between the pre-digital
arcade and the earliest digital games; I’ve even heard some claim
that “without the arcade, videogames would not exist.” This is, of course, bosh..." [more inside]
posted by Cogentesque
on Aug 24, 2011 -
36 comments
Minecraft mastermind Markus "Notch" Persson has
officially announced his company's next project:
a hybrid online board game/trading card system called
Scrolls. Spearheaded by Mojang co-founder Jakob Porser (
interview) and with backstory penned by Penny Arcade wordsmith Jerry "Tycho" Holkins, the game will consist of turn-based battles between collectible "scrolls,"
illustrated character cards strategically deployed on an abstract gaming grid. In an interesting inversion of the
Minecraft model, the game itself will be free, while updates in the form of additional scroll packs will cost a nominal fee -- a business model gaming analyst Sean Maelstrom decries as
"snake oil." Mojang, for their part, is unafraid and even eager to target an untested slice of the gaming market, and is angling to get their playable prototype of
Scrolls ready for a possible Alpha release this summer.
posted by Rhaomi
on Mar 2, 2011 -
128 comments
Shogi (将棋), or "Japanese chess," has been described here
before, but it's such a fascinating game that a little more exposure can't hurt. Specifically, shogi has spawned a lot of variants, many of them astonishingly large.
[more inside]
posted by GenjiandProust
on Jun 28, 2009 -
18 comments
Vegetable farming! Boar breeding! All the maniac thrills of 17th century agriculture --
on your tabletop! Since its
introduction two years ago,
Agricola has grown from being a German hit to a runaway success worldwide -- at least among the niche market of serious board game fans.
[more inside]
posted by Shepherd
on Jan 29, 2009 -
34 comments
Play board games during the holidays? Try an
updated version of an
old classic. You can indulge in as much sex, drugs, crime, and rock and roll as your health will handle, just don't roll a 1 on your first turn or you'll be aborted before you get started.
[more inside]
posted by mrmojoflying
on Dec 27, 2008 -
6 comments
Snowed in this weekend? Done with your Christmas shopping? Perhaps you're in no mood to shop anymore. Gather your friends together for a low-tech round of The Economist's
Credit Crunch Board Game.
posted by thread_makimaki
on Dec 19, 2008 -
8 comments
Play RISK using Google Maps. From the FAQ:
For some reason I decided a bit after the API for Google Maps came out that it would be awesome to be able to play Risk on it... I've always been a gamer and thought this was the perfect step.
posted by KevinSkomsvold
on Nov 8, 2005 -
37 comments
Etymology-wise, which hormone is an island? What word both denotes a prime and euphemizes Satan? What word denotes "the future" and abbreviates the unknown? Is urine pith? These are some of the questions from "
Moot: The World's Toughest Language Game," a homemade and little-known board game for lovers of words.
Some puzzles are available online; there are a few more available on a page detailing the
interesting story behind the game's creation. You can
sign up to have a new language puzzle e-mailed to you every week.
posted by painquale
on Dec 4, 2004 -
8 comments
