The games MeFites play - it's your weekly free thread
January 22, 2024 2:36 AM Subscribe
Dungeons and Dragons? Scrabble? Wordle? Animal Crossing? Tabletop Role Playing Games? Board games? Chess? Go? Some other game of any kind? Or a game you've made, on your own or in a team, for work, fun or personal satisfaction? Or talk about anything and everything in your life and your world as this is your free thread.
Recent free threads where you can still comment:
* January 15th: who are the people who matter to you?
* January 8th: how do you “Winter”?
* January 1st: what do you want from 2024?
* December 25th: what are you doing this Christmas day, or what were you doing over Christmas 1999?
Recent free threads where you can still comment:
* January 15th: who are the people who matter to you?
* January 8th: how do you “Winter”?
* January 1st: what do you want from 2024?
* December 25th: what are you doing this Christmas day, or what were you doing over Christmas 1999?
FM24 IS DESTROYING MY LIFE
posted by prismatic7 at 3:16 AM on January 22 [3 favorites]
posted by prismatic7 at 3:16 AM on January 22 [3 favorites]
Jigsaw Explorer is devouring my de-stress time. I really love single-player games where you play against the game design and not other people, and I have come up with extra rules like I have to go clockwise and do penalties if I move a single piece more than once etc against the clock so it's more challenging. Very satisfying because I can pick a low count and finish it in 5 minutes or enjoy an entire hour slowly doing a high count while I listen to a book. Right now I am juggling multiple crises and the only reason I have not imploded is jigsaws.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 3:23 AM on January 22 [11 favorites]
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 3:23 AM on January 22 [11 favorites]
I'm suddenly obsessed by Pandemic (the boardgame) I usually play the app version on my phone, which is excellent and a great way to learn how to play the boardgame version as well.
Sometimes I set up the boardgame and play it all by myself, controlling all the characters because no one I know will play with me 😔
And when I'm stressed I soothe myself by explaining the rules to an imaginary, very patient, person. Figuring out how to convey the rules clearly and concisely is So. Calming.
(if that resonates with you, you might be on the suspectrum😉)
In other news, to my surprise and delight, the Wizards vs Lesbians podcast did an episode about my book The Babylon Eye and they were really positive about it! This is the biggest recognition I've ever had for my writing and I am so, so happy. Man! It's the best feeling.
posted by Zumbador at 3:41 AM on January 22 [36 favorites]
Sometimes I set up the boardgame and play it all by myself, controlling all the characters because no one I know will play with me 😔
And when I'm stressed I soothe myself by explaining the rules to an imaginary, very patient, person. Figuring out how to convey the rules clearly and concisely is So. Calming.
(if that resonates with you, you might be on the suspectrum😉)
In other news, to my surprise and delight, the Wizards vs Lesbians podcast did an episode about my book The Babylon Eye and they were really positive about it! This is the biggest recognition I've ever had for my writing and I am so, so happy. Man! It's the best feeling.
posted by Zumbador at 3:41 AM on January 22 [36 favorites]
I met my best friend through some kind of now defunct online 'find a group' listing website. It was a barely functional website to begin with and he sent me a 'did this even work, do you want to learn Shadowrun (attenuated)' message.
Yes, I did, and then we did Cortex+ and made our own game world up while painting a room before unleashing it on new folks, acting as alternate GMs. That group petered out as people moved away but then he found Arkham Horror and that's our current obsession but it requires hours of dedication the way we play.
In the meantime there's a 20+ person group chat to play Dune : Imperium whenever we can get quorum - once, twelve people and three copies running in parallel in the backroom of a local brewery. His kids are now old enough to play Innis and Dune and Brass competitively with us so it's wild.
And over the last ten years - family travel, and holiday traditions, and my husband and him were the people I chose to bring me to my brain tumor surgery two years ago, and all of this came from an 'is this on' message and was I willing to learn a hacked up version of Shadowrun in a slightly damp basement in a dodgy part of town.
posted by cobaltnine at 3:55 AM on January 22 [9 favorites]
Yes, I did, and then we did Cortex+ and made our own game world up while painting a room before unleashing it on new folks, acting as alternate GMs. That group petered out as people moved away but then he found Arkham Horror and that's our current obsession but it requires hours of dedication the way we play.
In the meantime there's a 20+ person group chat to play Dune : Imperium whenever we can get quorum - once, twelve people and three copies running in parallel in the backroom of a local brewery. His kids are now old enough to play Innis and Dune and Brass competitively with us so it's wild.
And over the last ten years - family travel, and holiday traditions, and my husband and him were the people I chose to bring me to my brain tumor surgery two years ago, and all of this came from an 'is this on' message and was I willing to learn a hacked up version of Shadowrun in a slightly damp basement in a dodgy part of town.
posted by cobaltnine at 3:55 AM on January 22 [9 favorites]
FM24 IS DESTROYING MY LIFE
I wish FM 24 Mobile was destroying my life. Unfortunately this year you can't play FM Mobile without a Netflix subscription, and for me, they don't get to do that.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 4:17 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I wish FM 24 Mobile was destroying my life. Unfortunately this year you can't play FM Mobile without a Netflix subscription, and for me, they don't get to do that.
posted by Cardinal Fang at 4:17 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Cobaltnine, have you tried the six player version of Uprising yet? I’ve played it twice and had a blast. A big time investment but a wild ride, especially with the right people.
posted by meinvt at 4:22 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
posted by meinvt at 4:22 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
I've always been a numbers guy. I prefer sudoku over crossword and recently have been playing a sudoku variant called Killer Sudoku. For anyone who's not familiar it's basically a sudoku + kakuro. Some other notable games I've been playing recently are Mathler, Nerdle and the now defunct NYT game Digits.
posted by andrewmc at 4:34 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
posted by andrewmc at 4:34 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I seem to have become a games historian by accident--you write two books on a subject and people think you're some kind of expert. I was on the radio twice in the run-up to Christmas with recommendations for good new family games, but was completely unable to persuade my family to play anything over the festive season. To be honest I've stopped asking them. There's a very good weekly games group nearby, and neighbours who play too.
I scored a first edition (1949 black box) of Cluedo on eBay this weekend, in a bundle of other games, for £12 plus postage. Pleased with that. It's not a super-valuable game--even in near-mint condition it's only worth £150 and this copy is not that--but it's a lovely thing to have in the collection.
posted by Hogshead at 4:35 AM on January 22 [10 favorites]
I scored a first edition (1949 black box) of Cluedo on eBay this weekend, in a bundle of other games, for £12 plus postage. Pleased with that. It's not a super-valuable game--even in near-mint condition it's only worth £150 and this copy is not that--but it's a lovely thing to have in the collection.
posted by Hogshead at 4:35 AM on January 22 [10 favorites]
meinvt: There's several copies and expansions floating around the group, like Ix, but I don't think a 6p group has been floated yet. I'm actually not one of the Dune owners and I play this more for the company than the rest. I'd much rather have the ridiculous theater of our Arkham sessions or rpg-ing but life means a board is faster and requires less from increasingly busy folk.
posted by cobaltnine at 4:46 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
posted by cobaltnine at 4:46 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Mystery in a box recommendation: the noir murder mystery "Post Mortem LA: Lucha Muerte", which I think they now call "Death Match". My spouse and I liked all 3 of the Post Mortem LA games. I believe we liked "Death in La-La Land" least and "Lights... Camera... Murder!" reasonably well, but we did like all of them, and we liked "Lucha Muerte" best for the writing, the puzzles, and the surprises. I think it took us maybe 4-5 hours of play. Such a lot of fun to piece things together, open up the physical evidence bags, follow clues using the maps and phone directory and newspaper and so on, and get the feel of the setting.
I like games where the players work together to make up a story or figure things out, like Once Upon a Time -- even though the players are competing, we still end up making up a story together. A friend recently posted some scifi-flavored cards for people to use to play Once Upon A Time with space opera tropes instead of fantasy tropes and I hope to play it sometime. In general I enjoy games with very little in the way of arithmetic and points-scoring or points-tracking, and am glad there are many of them!
I've been thinking a lot about board/card games, puzzles, etc. recently.
I grew up understanding "golf" as "a game rich people play while doing low-key industry networking." Indeed I know at least one executive woman who learned how to play golf tolerably well in order to acquit herself well when invited to play by colleagues, clients, etc. I now recognize that golf is also a hobby many people of many classes enjoy outside of work socializing!
A few years ago I noted: here in New York City, it feels like game nights/board game afternoons are the golf of the programming class, in that it's kind of assumed that you can play socially, and there are gaming circles that also end up serving as industry networking. (I think most nerds who play board games socially, and are open to doing so with strangers or light acquaintances, do not think of it as networking.) And you can invite a coworker to a game night and they'll understand that it's social, and not a date, and it's ok if they play really badly as long as they show good sportsmanship. But people do also sometimes believe that being good at the games correlates to being good at the job stuff.
I feel like MeFi culture is likely to assume that I mean to be castigating golf culture and board games culture. I do not. The latter has sometimes been uncomfortable for me but that doesn't mean it's bad!
posted by brainwane at 4:47 AM on January 22 [8 favorites]
I like games where the players work together to make up a story or figure things out, like Once Upon a Time -- even though the players are competing, we still end up making up a story together. A friend recently posted some scifi-flavored cards for people to use to play Once Upon A Time with space opera tropes instead of fantasy tropes and I hope to play it sometime. In general I enjoy games with very little in the way of arithmetic and points-scoring or points-tracking, and am glad there are many of them!
I've been thinking a lot about board/card games, puzzles, etc. recently.
I grew up understanding "golf" as "a game rich people play while doing low-key industry networking." Indeed I know at least one executive woman who learned how to play golf tolerably well in order to acquit herself well when invited to play by colleagues, clients, etc. I now recognize that golf is also a hobby many people of many classes enjoy outside of work socializing!
A few years ago I noted: here in New York City, it feels like game nights/board game afternoons are the golf of the programming class, in that it's kind of assumed that you can play socially, and there are gaming circles that also end up serving as industry networking. (I think most nerds who play board games socially, and are open to doing so with strangers or light acquaintances, do not think of it as networking.) And you can invite a coworker to a game night and they'll understand that it's social, and not a date, and it's ok if they play really badly as long as they show good sportsmanship. But people do also sometimes believe that being good at the games correlates to being good at the job stuff.
I feel like MeFi culture is likely to assume that I mean to be castigating golf culture and board games culture. I do not. The latter has sometimes been uncomfortable for me but that doesn't mean it's bad!
posted by brainwane at 4:47 AM on January 22 [8 favorites]
I got incredibly into Chess during the first few months of the pandemic.
Then I had a lull (had a kid) before getting back into it again. I’m not great at it (topped out around 900 ELO before the lull, but I find the game and its tactics absolutely fascinating.
posted by d_hill at 4:49 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Then I had a lull (had a kid) before getting back into it again. I’m not great at it (topped out around 900 ELO before the lull, but I find the game and its tactics absolutely fascinating.
posted by d_hill at 4:49 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
I always dream of having a good gaming group but it never quite works out. My kids are finally old enough that we play Pokemon with theme decks and it mostly works, which is nice. One other guy and I have been trying to start a Traveler group at work but in two different attempts the other people end up petering out. Maybe the third time will be the charm.
I actually enjoy reading about games just about as much as playing them, and even when I was a kid I would read various dungeons and dragons books without ever having the expectation of playing. I'm happy enough to just kind of imagine playing in my head if that makes sense. Plus, my imaginary games are never ruined by jerks, big win!
posted by Literaryhero at 4:49 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I actually enjoy reading about games just about as much as playing them, and even when I was a kid I would read various dungeons and dragons books without ever having the expectation of playing. I'm happy enough to just kind of imagine playing in my head if that makes sense. Plus, my imaginary games are never ruined by jerks, big win!
posted by Literaryhero at 4:49 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
BTW I hope people in this thread who wish they had more gaming companions consider posting proposed events to IRL. And check out whether games you like are available on Board Game Arena to remotely play with friends and/or strangers! They have Concept, which I've been enjoying recently -- like Taboo or 20 Questions, but with token and icons to visually represent the word/phrase you're trying to get across.
posted by brainwane at 4:53 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
posted by brainwane at 4:53 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
I've been sick the last week, and games were a little bit too much mental effort, but playing Darkest Dungeon a bit over the holidays. While under the weather, I did spend time thinking about how much I've played games over the years: TTRPGs, boardgames, CRPGS, video games, gamebooks, and more. I don't think of them as "the" mainstay of my life or creative interests, but there's another timeline where I thought more seriously about games in my late teens and early 20s and decided to get into game design...
I want to give a shoutout to the mods. Taz and Brandon Blatcher helped me navigate a display problem I've had forever and a day when viewing MetaFilter on my phone, and the fix was simply--just a change of themes, and now I can view tags and have a better set of buttons. Should have tried it years ago. Thanks, y'all.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:54 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
I want to give a shoutout to the mods. Taz and Brandon Blatcher helped me navigate a display problem I've had forever and a day when viewing MetaFilter on my phone, and the fix was simply--just a change of themes, and now I can view tags and have a better set of buttons. Should have tried it years ago. Thanks, y'all.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:54 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
My wife and I have a game of Empire Builder going in the dining room. That’s the one where you use crayons to draw a rail system connecting North American cities and then deliver goods between them, for fake money. We play a couple of turns a day, usually, unless we forget. It’s been going a couple of weeks and it feels like I’m losing.
posted by notyou at 4:58 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
posted by notyou at 4:58 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
Brainwane: Thank you for shouting out Once Upon a Time. I co-designed it, and the fact it's been in print for more than thirty years and people are still discovering it and designing their own card-sets for it is a constant source of amazement, pleasure and pride.
posted by Hogshead at 4:59 AM on January 22 [34 favorites]
posted by Hogshead at 4:59 AM on January 22 [34 favorites]
Everyday, I do (or attempt to do) the NYT Crossword, Spelling Bee, and their new Connections game. Connections makes me a little crazy because some days, I can figure it out in a few minutes, and some days, I have absolutely no idea. On those days, I just close my eyes and pick words (they are never right).
The moderators have been nice enough to let me post this before: I wrote a game modeled on Spelling Bee that I described in the projects section. It’s called Spellbound and runs in any browser, free, no ads, no data shared with anyone.
A number of fellow Mefites have played and have left some nice comments.
Enjoy.
posted by AMyNameIs at 5:03 AM on January 22 [11 favorites]
The moderators have been nice enough to let me post this before: I wrote a game modeled on Spelling Bee that I described in the projects section. It’s called Spellbound and runs in any browser, free, no ads, no data shared with anyone.
A number of fellow Mefites have played and have left some nice comments.
Enjoy.
posted by AMyNameIs at 5:03 AM on January 22 [11 favorites]
My wife and I started a game of rummy about 5 years ago and are aiming to take it to 1,000,000. We are about 25,000 into it. The winner gets planet Earth.
posted by kabong the wiser at 5:20 AM on January 22 [23 favorites]
posted by kabong the wiser at 5:20 AM on January 22 [23 favorites]
Over the summer, a friend reached out and asked if I’d be interested in joining a weekly online DnD meetup. One guy had to leave, and they needed a fourth player.
It’s been years since I played, and I gave it some thought. I wanted to do some full on character role play instead of the dumb min/max half elf ranger I always played as a kid. We’re playing 2E (uh, not my choice, but also, it’s the last edition I actually know), but the dm doesn’t have unearthed arcana, so my idea of a cavalier went out the window, and I went with a paladin, a super goofy good two shoes who’s out for glory of his god and to do good in the world.
I wish I could say I was enjoying it as much as I’d hoped, but the dm is very, very into his world building, and has a very set path he wants us on. Everything is very much on rails, and as much as it would be great to just have a silly get together for a bunch of forty year old guys to blow off some steam once a week, good lord, the guy gets really snippy if we get off topic, and it just feels like we’re there to listen to him tell a (pretty derivative) story, rather than take part in it ourselves.
It’s a shame, because I was pretty excited about the whole thing, but it’s more of a stress than an actual outlet like I thought it would be. I respect the work the guy has put in, and I remember how rough being a dm (especially first time, as I think this guy is), but damn, I don’t really know how much longer I want to keep playing. I think I look forward to the idea of playing, but then every session just feels like a slog.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:22 AM on January 22 [9 favorites]
It’s been years since I played, and I gave it some thought. I wanted to do some full on character role play instead of the dumb min/max half elf ranger I always played as a kid. We’re playing 2E (uh, not my choice, but also, it’s the last edition I actually know), but the dm doesn’t have unearthed arcana, so my idea of a cavalier went out the window, and I went with a paladin, a super goofy good two shoes who’s out for glory of his god and to do good in the world.
I wish I could say I was enjoying it as much as I’d hoped, but the dm is very, very into his world building, and has a very set path he wants us on. Everything is very much on rails, and as much as it would be great to just have a silly get together for a bunch of forty year old guys to blow off some steam once a week, good lord, the guy gets really snippy if we get off topic, and it just feels like we’re there to listen to him tell a (pretty derivative) story, rather than take part in it ourselves.
It’s a shame, because I was pretty excited about the whole thing, but it’s more of a stress than an actual outlet like I thought it would be. I respect the work the guy has put in, and I remember how rough being a dm (especially first time, as I think this guy is), but damn, I don’t really know how much longer I want to keep playing. I think I look forward to the idea of playing, but then every session just feels like a slog.
posted by Ghidorah at 5:22 AM on January 22 [9 favorites]
I took all games off my phone at the beginning of 2023 and haven't looked back. Any games I play are on my iPad, which is a house or travel only device, so it's more of a treat than Something I Do When I Am Bored. My best friend likes to tease me that I play "grandma cottagecore" games on my iPad: Hearts, Cribbage with Grandpas, and now, Wingspan. My weird outlier of a game is Ascension: Chronicles of the Godslayer, which I learned to play with IRL version over a decade ago and have been hooked on the digital version since it was released. (I have no idea why I like it so much, but here we are.)
I will continue to lament my kingdom for a Dominion game app with all the extensions. I miss playing Dominion. We have the IRL game with many many extensions, but for two people, it can feel like a lot to break it out.
posted by Kitteh at 5:23 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
I will continue to lament my kingdom for a Dominion game app with all the extensions. I miss playing Dominion. We have the IRL game with many many extensions, but for two people, it can feel like a lot to break it out.
posted by Kitteh at 5:23 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
At home, I rotate between XCOM 2: Long War of the Chosen—my gunner Fluffy died to a glitch last night and I'm pissed about it—Civ VI, a knockoff of it called Humankind, Stellaris (Civ in spaaace) and have just weaned myself off Crusader Kings III because it's fun but way too easy. I'm a Mac person, so my choices are limited, and while I have the cash to buy a good gaming PC, I don't really have the time to feel secure about making that kind of investment.
We've got a biweekly 40something role-playing campaign: we moved from D&D 5e to Pathfinder 2e, a similar but much better game, about a year ago. I'm the DM: the players are the scout team for a group of people building a road across the wilderness. Sometimes I DM for my teen daughter and her friends, but they've recently branched out and made their own game so they can be sillier.
I don't know how to tag Ghidorah in this interface, but there's basically no railroading at all when I DM: it's a sandbox.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 5:34 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
We've got a biweekly 40something role-playing campaign: we moved from D&D 5e to Pathfinder 2e, a similar but much better game, about a year ago. I'm the DM: the players are the scout team for a group of people building a road across the wilderness. Sometimes I DM for my teen daughter and her friends, but they've recently branched out and made their own game so they can be sillier.
I don't know how to tag Ghidorah in this interface, but there's basically no railroading at all when I DM: it's a sandbox.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 5:34 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
I just started playing Strat O Matic baseball and it's a blast. I have the Hall of Fame edition from about 10 years ago. Babe Ruth is unstoppable.
posted by NoMich at 5:40 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
posted by NoMich at 5:40 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
I've been trying to play Pillars of Eternity but the point-click interface is such an abstrusion, super annoying. I feel like the thing is 90% clicking around to move from point to point and 10% game.
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:50 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 5:50 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I have a weekly D&D game with some friends online that gives me life. I'm DM'ing the Icewindale one right now, and we'll swap DMs when we get to the next campaign. My favourite moment in this campaign was when the party met a mammoth who was mourning the loss of it's frost giant master. Played by the book, the mammoth would have either stomped the party or fought to it's own death. Instead, our barbarian spent the whole time braiding the mammoth's fur and convincing it to go live it's life to the fullest. The session ended with the mammoth lumbering off into the sunset ready to find joy. It was amazing.
My sister and I play a bunch of Wordle clones - Quordle, Canuckle, Waffle, etc. and text our results to each other. We also co-op Stardew Valley weekly.
Right now I'm playing Cozy Grove on my iPad. It's decent, if a little grindy.
Games are pretty central to my free time.
posted by eekernohan at 5:50 AM on January 22 [12 favorites]
My sister and I play a bunch of Wordle clones - Quordle, Canuckle, Waffle, etc. and text our results to each other. We also co-op Stardew Valley weekly.
Right now I'm playing Cozy Grove on my iPad. It's decent, if a little grindy.
Games are pretty central to my free time.
posted by eekernohan at 5:50 AM on January 22 [12 favorites]
A 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle: random flowers and cacti, surrealisticly dense, rendered with no real pattern. Two card tables are needed. Not recommended if you have a cat.
posted by mule98J at 6:04 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
posted by mule98J at 6:04 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
Crossword and Wordle. Used to be Scrabble, but my partner and I got into a rut where we always get very close to the same scores and can't figure out a way to freshen it up.
I am fond of Pokemon Go-- PVP as a chill-out game. It sort of gets me into a state of flow, and it's self-limiting in terms of time. After five rounds you can't even pay to play more. My stable of fighting Pokemon is getting dated though. I don't have time to get or develop new ones, and I'm not really skilled enough to make the most of a mediocre lineup so I'm going downhill. But the great thing is, you lose, your ELO goes down, you start matching with people at that rank and winning again.
posted by BibiRose at 6:15 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I am fond of Pokemon Go-- PVP as a chill-out game. It sort of gets me into a state of flow, and it's self-limiting in terms of time. After five rounds you can't even pay to play more. My stable of fighting Pokemon is getting dated though. I don't have time to get or develop new ones, and I'm not really skilled enough to make the most of a mediocre lineup so I'm going downhill. But the great thing is, you lose, your ELO goes down, you start matching with people at that rank and winning again.
posted by BibiRose at 6:15 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I was in a Scion game for years, but then a player died a bit over a year ago, and another player quit, so that's fallen by the wayside. Now I'm playing Tales of the Iron League (A D&D like game. The author does session in east Texas cons.)
Online, I play WarFrame, where I'm MR3*, and trying to get Gauss Prime and his gear (and failing). I also play Star Rail and BG3.
posted by Spike Glee at 6:16 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Online, I play WarFrame, where I'm MR3*, and trying to get Gauss Prime and his gear (and failing). I also play Star Rail and BG3.
posted by Spike Glee at 6:16 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
My wife and I play a fair number of board games when we're together (we're currently living in different cities due to work); some of our favourites are Calico, Azule, Carcassonne, Patchwork and Tokaido. She plays a lot of games on our Switch and her phone, but I basically never play video games anymore aside from an occasional online head-to-head matchup of Carcassonne with her. I'm not sure why video games largely lost their appeal for me, but roughly ten years ago I realized there were other ways I preferred to spend my leisure time. The last game I really got into was Pac-Man 99, back when that was a thing, and even with that one once I finished first in a match I basically lost interest in it.
Speaking of another type of game, I stopped watching the NFL going on ten years ago for a variety of reasons but I've made an exception this playoff season because my dad was a huge Detroit Lions fan and they've gone on a bit of a run this year (he passed away on Dec. 15th; they lost the last game he ever watched to a lousy Chicago team, natch), so my family and I have gotten emotionally invested in their success. I don't see them winning the Super Bowl, but there are only four teams left and the Lions are one of them, so you never know.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:18 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
Speaking of another type of game, I stopped watching the NFL going on ten years ago for a variety of reasons but I've made an exception this playoff season because my dad was a huge Detroit Lions fan and they've gone on a bit of a run this year (he passed away on Dec. 15th; they lost the last game he ever watched to a lousy Chicago team, natch), so my family and I have gotten emotionally invested in their success. I don't see them winning the Super Bowl, but there are only four teams left and the Lions are one of them, so you never know.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:18 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
I'm a PC gamer but I've got a little one at home so I'd don't have the time or attention span to give to Baldur's Gate 3 or Alan Wate II despite having both installed and ready to go.
I needed something that I could hop in and out of easily and ended up diving into Destiny 2 after it was offered with lots of expansions as a free game on Epic last month. I had bounced off of Destiny hard when it first launched, but after a decade of QoL upgrades I'm enjoying it.
I also was playing too much Stellaris and OOTP Baseball but realized those are games where I'm not even thinking anymore - they had become time sucks not something to interact with so I've scaled back heavily.
posted by thecjm at 6:18 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I needed something that I could hop in and out of easily and ended up diving into Destiny 2 after it was offered with lots of expansions as a free game on Epic last month. I had bounced off of Destiny hard when it first launched, but after a decade of QoL upgrades I'm enjoying it.
I also was playing too much Stellaris and OOTP Baseball but realized those are games where I'm not even thinking anymore - they had become time sucks not something to interact with so I've scaled back heavily.
posted by thecjm at 6:18 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Ghidorah - do the other players feel the same as you ?
Talk to the ones you trust , and if they do then Talk to your DM because they might not even know that what they are doing is not enjoyable for the group.
RPG's are supposed toe be a group activity not a 'group of people trapped in someone else's Play pretend Story'.
posted by Faintdreams at 6:21 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
Talk to the ones you trust , and if they do then Talk to your DM because they might not even know that what they are doing is not enjoyable for the group.
RPG's are supposed toe be a group activity not a 'group of people trapped in someone else's Play pretend Story'.
posted by Faintdreams at 6:21 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
Yesterday I lost a game of chess and won a game of Magic the Gathering. Also, I've been playing Elder Scrolls Online, which has been my art therapy and water cooler for over 7 years. Most days I play a day on my farm in Stardew Valley too.
Ever since the ancient Intellivision and early PC days, gaming has been an oasis of consolation for me, freedom from the chaos imposed by unstable adults and the weirdness of their schedules. I can be a winner, somewhere, sometimes, thanks to gaming.
posted by dragonplayer at 6:26 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Ever since the ancient Intellivision and early PC days, gaming has been an oasis of consolation for me, freedom from the chaos imposed by unstable adults and the weirdness of their schedules. I can be a winner, somewhere, sometimes, thanks to gaming.
posted by dragonplayer at 6:26 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Euchre for life.
I don't get to play often because I like the standard four-player version, and I only have one friend locally who's also into it. We did find a couple on Bumble BFF who were into doing bar trivia and playing Euchre with us, but we're pretty sure they're in witness protection because nothing about them seems real... my Euchre friend first posited that theory and then I had an ENTIRELY SEPARATE FRIEND who I invited to trivia with us and he ALSO made the same observation so. (Not that that in itself is a dealbreaker, but they were just super odd and almost like socializing with robots. They were great at trivia and Euchre though! And the last time we played before letting them drift away, I took every single trick so at least I went out on top.)
Euchre is such a midwestern thing that I've had multiple people ask me where in the Midwest I'm from if I bring it up, though I'm twice-removed; Euchre friend (from PA) taught me (from NYC) and someone from the Midwest taught him.
My family likes to play Hearts, so we do that every time we get together. There are only three of us who like to play, else I'd teach them Euchre. I've looked around for local meetup groups but there seems to be nothing for Euchre or even Pinochle. Maybe I should take up bridge. If nothing else it'd make me popular when I get to the retirement home, right?
posted by rabbitrabbit at 6:30 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
I don't get to play often because I like the standard four-player version, and I only have one friend locally who's also into it. We did find a couple on Bumble BFF who were into doing bar trivia and playing Euchre with us, but we're pretty sure they're in witness protection because nothing about them seems real... my Euchre friend first posited that theory and then I had an ENTIRELY SEPARATE FRIEND who I invited to trivia with us and he ALSO made the same observation so. (Not that that in itself is a dealbreaker, but they were just super odd and almost like socializing with robots. They were great at trivia and Euchre though! And the last time we played before letting them drift away, I took every single trick so at least I went out on top.)
Euchre is such a midwestern thing that I've had multiple people ask me where in the Midwest I'm from if I bring it up, though I'm twice-removed; Euchre friend (from PA) taught me (from NYC) and someone from the Midwest taught him.
My family likes to play Hearts, so we do that every time we get together. There are only three of us who like to play, else I'd teach them Euchre. I've looked around for local meetup groups but there seems to be nothing for Euchre or even Pinochle. Maybe I should take up bridge. If nothing else it'd make me popular when I get to the retirement home, right?
posted by rabbitrabbit at 6:30 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
I'm having some severe philosophical differences with my most recent game obsession. The game is Against The Storm, and I recommend it wholeheartedly. I have hundreds of hours into it. I absolutely adore it.
And it's horrible.
I didn't read a lot of reviews of the game before I started, so when I began I found myself in this happy little city builder roguelike with harpies and beavers and foxes and I wanted to make a happy little forest home for them where they could live productive and fulfilling little lives and make porridge. And that's what I did. Until I hit Veteran difficulty, and found out that a cornerstone mechanic in the game is that villagers die. They get unhappy, they leave, they starve and die, and then I found out there's an altar and you can sacrifice your citizens there, and I quit the game for a while.
But I couldn't stop thinking about it; the game is brilliant and uniquely fun, and so I just wiped out all my progress and started over. I've done that three times now, getting to where I pretty much have to sacrifice people in order to keep going, and then I quit. It's frustrating knowing that there's a whole other part of the game that I'm missing, that there are objectives out there that I'll never get to, but I just don't like the way I feel when I play the upper levels. I don't like what I have to sacrifice in order to succeed.
This also sums up my relationship with capitalism.
posted by MrVisible at 6:30 AM on January 22 [12 favorites]
And it's horrible.
I didn't read a lot of reviews of the game before I started, so when I began I found myself in this happy little city builder roguelike with harpies and beavers and foxes and I wanted to make a happy little forest home for them where they could live productive and fulfilling little lives and make porridge. And that's what I did. Until I hit Veteran difficulty, and found out that a cornerstone mechanic in the game is that villagers die. They get unhappy, they leave, they starve and die, and then I found out there's an altar and you can sacrifice your citizens there, and I quit the game for a while.
But I couldn't stop thinking about it; the game is brilliant and uniquely fun, and so I just wiped out all my progress and started over. I've done that three times now, getting to where I pretty much have to sacrifice people in order to keep going, and then I quit. It's frustrating knowing that there's a whole other part of the game that I'm missing, that there are objectives out there that I'll never get to, but I just don't like the way I feel when I play the upper levels. I don't like what I have to sacrifice in order to succeed.
This also sums up my relationship with capitalism.
posted by MrVisible at 6:30 AM on January 22 [12 favorites]
Our close friends introduced us to Pandemic Legacy in February 2020 (lol) and we eventually played through all the Legacy games. I love the cooperative, deeply involved nature of it. No other game we've played since has scratched that same itch, though I love playing any games with them. Recommendations are welcome!
posted by obfuscation at 6:34 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
posted by obfuscation at 6:34 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
I don't call myself a "gamer" anymore, but... I have played video games since the Pong console sold by Sears in 1975. We had an Atari 2600 before we even had a color TV. My dad was a arcade manager for several years while I was growing up, and that meant playing a lot of arcade games for free. I got a job in game development -- working remotely in the 90s, how futuristic -- which lasted almost two decades. Played some D&D and Vampire: The Masquerade with work friends.
I'm kind of into racing games, especially rally. I'm only average at them but that doesn't ruin my enjoyment. I don't have the new EA one yet because... EA, and because it's reportedly pretty buggy and has performance issues which I hope will eventually get sorted out. I reinstalled Dirt Rally 2.0 instead.
Current gaming obsession is Soulstone Survivors. I have the alternate costume unlocked for 3 characters so far, systematically going through the rest, and meanwhile finding a bunch of reasonably optimal builds for Overlord runs.
Also playing some Guild Wars 2 again. I am annoyed that unlocking the skyscale outside of the new expansion area is such a stupid collection grind with time-gated limits and I don't want to bother. But now I have Weaponmaster Training and can do my usual "start a character, level it to 80 over a few days, quit" thing but with the unlocked weapons. (There's a bug currently where you have to enter the PvP lobby to equip them if you're < 80, but that works. First time I ever entered that lobby, I dislike PvP in general.)
posted by Foosnark at 6:40 AM on January 22 [3 favorites]
I'm kind of into racing games, especially rally. I'm only average at them but that doesn't ruin my enjoyment. I don't have the new EA one yet because... EA, and because it's reportedly pretty buggy and has performance issues which I hope will eventually get sorted out. I reinstalled Dirt Rally 2.0 instead.
Current gaming obsession is Soulstone Survivors. I have the alternate costume unlocked for 3 characters so far, systematically going through the rest, and meanwhile finding a bunch of reasonably optimal builds for Overlord runs.
Also playing some Guild Wars 2 again. I am annoyed that unlocking the skyscale outside of the new expansion area is such a stupid collection grind with time-gated limits and I don't want to bother. But now I have Weaponmaster Training and can do my usual "start a character, level it to 80 over a few days, quit" thing but with the unlocked weapons. (There's a bug currently where you have to enter the PvP lobby to equip them if you're < 80, but that works. First time I ever entered that lobby, I dislike PvP in general.)
posted by Foosnark at 6:40 AM on January 22 [3 favorites]
Oh gods EUCHRE. In 1989-91, I was a Peace Corps volunteer in semirural West Africa. There were about a dozen other volunteers within a 10-mile bike ride, so pretty much every night we'd all be at one guy's house, dancing to Madonna and the B-52's and playing fucking Euchre. If you've never played, it's basically Bridge for Dummies, a profoundly easy game to play even when blitzed. So since all of us were Zen masters of it by this point, it turned into this long-running contest over who could cheat the most without getting caught. Winning a game gave you a bucket bong hit; losing meant you had to take a shot of 140-proof local moonshine. I'm still friends with all but one or two of these people, and we often wonder how we survived. Good times.
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 6:41 AM on January 22 [10 favorites]
posted by outgrown_hobnail at 6:41 AM on January 22 [10 favorites]
Games: I've never been a gamer: we had Nintendos and such in the home growing up but my brother was the gamer of the family. I played Tetris passably well, and for a while my wife and I would play the Namco classics disk with Galaga on it, but I don't feel the need to play games. Uninstall all of them whenever I get a new phone or computer.
I think my issue with videogames in particular is that it feels like I'm just practicing how to do something, like trying and failing, sooner at first but getting further before failing each time I try again, which is the least fun part of learning how to do something.
My wife, however, has been a collector of board games for forever, our basement walls are covered with shelves full of them: we used to play them more often, but we have less free time and fewer children to thrust games like Komissar and HiLo on (disclaimer: my wife wrote that HiLo article), so she has started selling a bunch of her games at the antique mall. As part of making sure all the parts are there, we're actually playing the games she's putting up for sale, grabbing a pile and spending two or three hours on a Sunday afternoon competing -- and as part of the event, we're choosing a vinyl LP from the same era (and genre if applicable) as the game to put on the turntable. The cameraderie is the fun part; the games, not so much (there was a Voltron game which looks awesome but we're pretty sure it's nigh impossible to win).
Film school update:
Had a rehearsal on Saturday for my Billy Sunday prohibition speech for the experimental film I'm going to be in; a big part of my anxiety/neurotic brain is still saying, very loudly, "what the fuck are you doing, why are you still acting in things", but I've spent decades ignoring that voice so I'm continuing on. I have my monologue pretty well memorized, part of the rehearsal was to work on blocking/choreography since this in going to be a single shot from a stationary camera, so it's up to me to make it worth watching. We film it next week at the local historical society's "museum village" which has an old prairie church in it. The director filmed the rehearsal and is going to get me the video soon so I can review and pull out the good parts to practice the rest of the week.
Thursday is another audition -- this one I have to go to because the director explicitly asked me to audition, and the producer is the same guy who cast me in the previous film, and the cinematographer is the son of the woman who (jokingly) called me an asshole at a previous audition, so I'm going to disappoint people who know who I am if I don't go. There was one audition I skipped in December because they wanted a monologue and I didn't have anything stored in my databanks at that time. This audition also wants a monologue but THIS time I have a fire and brimstone prohibition speech for them. The film is about a haunted television; there's a Dad character, and a Talkshow Host character who appears on the haunted TV. I'm actually thinking the Talkshow Host might be the one for me, we'll see, I think they'll let me read for both.
What's with all this acting stuff, aren't a trying to be a filmmaker? OK, classes: the 16mm film class has a test today on loading the Bolex cameras -- we can't check them out from the equipment room unless we pass. I'm not worried; although I've never used a 16mm camera before, I've been loading projectors since the 1980s, and the last class was a practice-loading day and I both taught a student who missed the previous week, and helped another group with their camera, so I'm sure I'll be fine.
My intro to film class last semester was a mix of film and animation students; my intro to animation class this semester is mostly animation students with a few film majors, and I am amused by this divison: I'm finding the animation students generally are delightfully wierd kids with piercings, tattoos, stickers on everything, mismatching clothes, blurt out when excited about things; and the film students tend to dress nicer, have styled hair, fewer stickers on their laptops, quiet but more thoughtful. It's almost a jocks-vs-nerds sort of dichotomy, which I find delightful. I don't see any conflict or animosity between the two though, the feeling I get is "we're artists working together".
To circle back to games: on the first day of animation class, we had to go around the room, introduce ourselves and list an 'inspiration' in animation -- and a lot of the animation students cite videogames as their desire for getting into animation. It wasn't so much as a surprise as a realization, that videogames are essentially animation art that you can control, so the industry isn't so much about just making cartoons but has a variety of other ways to use animation.
posted by AzraelBrown at 6:45 AM on January 22 [9 favorites]
I think my issue with videogames in particular is that it feels like I'm just practicing how to do something, like trying and failing, sooner at first but getting further before failing each time I try again, which is the least fun part of learning how to do something.
My wife, however, has been a collector of board games for forever, our basement walls are covered with shelves full of them: we used to play them more often, but we have less free time and fewer children to thrust games like Komissar and HiLo on (disclaimer: my wife wrote that HiLo article), so she has started selling a bunch of her games at the antique mall. As part of making sure all the parts are there, we're actually playing the games she's putting up for sale, grabbing a pile and spending two or three hours on a Sunday afternoon competing -- and as part of the event, we're choosing a vinyl LP from the same era (and genre if applicable) as the game to put on the turntable. The cameraderie is the fun part; the games, not so much (there was a Voltron game which looks awesome but we're pretty sure it's nigh impossible to win).
Film school update:
Had a rehearsal on Saturday for my Billy Sunday prohibition speech for the experimental film I'm going to be in; a big part of my anxiety/neurotic brain is still saying, very loudly, "what the fuck are you doing, why are you still acting in things", but I've spent decades ignoring that voice so I'm continuing on. I have my monologue pretty well memorized, part of the rehearsal was to work on blocking/choreography since this in going to be a single shot from a stationary camera, so it's up to me to make it worth watching. We film it next week at the local historical society's "museum village" which has an old prairie church in it. The director filmed the rehearsal and is going to get me the video soon so I can review and pull out the good parts to practice the rest of the week.
Thursday is another audition -- this one I have to go to because the director explicitly asked me to audition, and the producer is the same guy who cast me in the previous film, and the cinematographer is the son of the woman who (jokingly) called me an asshole at a previous audition, so I'm going to disappoint people who know who I am if I don't go. There was one audition I skipped in December because they wanted a monologue and I didn't have anything stored in my databanks at that time. This audition also wants a monologue but THIS time I have a fire and brimstone prohibition speech for them. The film is about a haunted television; there's a Dad character, and a Talkshow Host character who appears on the haunted TV. I'm actually thinking the Talkshow Host might be the one for me, we'll see, I think they'll let me read for both.
What's with all this acting stuff, aren't a trying to be a filmmaker? OK, classes: the 16mm film class has a test today on loading the Bolex cameras -- we can't check them out from the equipment room unless we pass. I'm not worried; although I've never used a 16mm camera before, I've been loading projectors since the 1980s, and the last class was a practice-loading day and I both taught a student who missed the previous week, and helped another group with their camera, so I'm sure I'll be fine.
My intro to film class last semester was a mix of film and animation students; my intro to animation class this semester is mostly animation students with a few film majors, and I am amused by this divison: I'm finding the animation students generally are delightfully wierd kids with piercings, tattoos, stickers on everything, mismatching clothes, blurt out when excited about things; and the film students tend to dress nicer, have styled hair, fewer stickers on their laptops, quiet but more thoughtful. It's almost a jocks-vs-nerds sort of dichotomy, which I find delightful. I don't see any conflict or animosity between the two though, the feeling I get is "we're artists working together".
To circle back to games: on the first day of animation class, we had to go around the room, introduce ourselves and list an 'inspiration' in animation -- and a lot of the animation students cite videogames as their desire for getting into animation. It wasn't so much as a surprise as a realization, that videogames are essentially animation art that you can control, so the industry isn't so much about just making cartoons but has a variety of other ways to use animation.
posted by AzraelBrown at 6:45 AM on January 22 [9 favorites]
Despite doing everything peripheral to TTRPG for ~35 years, I had not actually played a proper session until this year. A friend started up a DCC group and it's been tons of fun! Also it's giving me the experience to run mini-games for the kiddo, which is cool.
Because I'm a weirdo game snob when it comes to video games, I have been doing consoles in historical order with the kid (6.5yo), starting on 2600, then to NES. I intended to jump to Gamecube for a holiday gift this season, but I discovered my old faithful Cube's laser has mostly given up. So now we are playing GC on Wii, though I will repair the Cube eventually, bc that has the add-on to let it play GBA games! (such a bummer that functionality still requires a disk, to tell it to look at the module I guess)
So, lots of games going on around here, just wish I had the time to play like I did before the kid!
Pandemic Legacy was awesome, fortunately we did in '15 or so, I don't think I could stomach it now. We still have the dice-centric variant called Pandemic! The Cure, which is also really fun. That's another cool spin-off genre, e.g. Race for the Galaxy also has a dice-forward spin off called Roll For the Galaxy. That one is super cool bc it's a race (ie. not cooperative but not head-to-head fights either), and you can *play your turns simultaneously*! So there's virtually no downtime of waiting for your turn.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:49 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
Because I'm a weirdo game snob when it comes to video games, I have been doing consoles in historical order with the kid (6.5yo), starting on 2600, then to NES. I intended to jump to Gamecube for a holiday gift this season, but I discovered my old faithful Cube's laser has mostly given up. So now we are playing GC on Wii, though I will repair the Cube eventually, bc that has the add-on to let it play GBA games! (such a bummer that functionality still requires a disk, to tell it to look at the module I guess)
So, lots of games going on around here, just wish I had the time to play like I did before the kid!
Pandemic Legacy was awesome, fortunately we did in '15 or so, I don't think I could stomach it now. We still have the dice-centric variant called Pandemic! The Cure, which is also really fun. That's another cool spin-off genre, e.g. Race for the Galaxy also has a dice-forward spin off called Roll For the Galaxy. That one is super cool bc it's a race (ie. not cooperative but not head-to-head fights either), and you can *play your turns simultaneously*! So there's virtually no downtime of waiting for your turn.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:49 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
Euchre for life.
This. We will play euchre anytime, anywhere. At our home. At your home. Online. It's just such a perfect sit-around-the-table-with-friends-and-do-something-while-chatting game. Our only proviso is that we do not play as partners. It's a "preserve the marriage" rule. So far, so good.
Also: screw the dealer.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:49 AM on January 22 [8 favorites]
This. We will play euchre anytime, anywhere. At our home. At your home. Online. It's just such a perfect sit-around-the-table-with-friends-and-do-something-while-chatting game. Our only proviso is that we do not play as partners. It's a "preserve the marriage" rule. So far, so good.
Also: screw the dealer.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:49 AM on January 22 [8 favorites]
NetHack for three decades. Almost daily since retirement. I ssh into the Hardfought server and its large collection of variants. I'm particularly fond of the xNetHack flavor.
"The RNG giveth and the RNG taketh away"
posted by jim in austin at 6:54 AM on January 22 [8 favorites]
"The RNG giveth and the RNG taketh away"
posted by jim in austin at 6:54 AM on January 22 [8 favorites]
Also: ICY AF here this morning. About 5mm ice encasing my car, similar on some roads. All the area schools are staying home except ours, but we just called off anyway, super thankful for the privilege to do that.
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:54 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
posted by SaltySalticid at 6:54 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
AMyNameIs: I wrote a game modeled on Spelling Bee that I described in the projects section. It’s called Spellbound and runs in any browser, free, no ads, no data shared with anyone.
I loooooove this game and play it often.
I will confess that for a while I thought the letters had you touch and could only be used once. My scores never made it very high, until I read the damn rules and discovered that I could jump around and reuse letters. So freeing!
(I wish I could add words to the dictionary, but that's a very minor quibble for a nice project.)
posted by wenestvedt at 7:03 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
I loooooove this game and play it often.
I will confess that for a while I thought the letters had you touch and could only be used once. My scores never made it very high, until I read the damn rules and discovered that I could jump around and reuse letters. So freeing!
(I wish I could add words to the dictionary, but that's a very minor quibble for a nice project.)
posted by wenestvedt at 7:03 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
Just before Christmas I lost patience with the latest Zelda, powered down my Nintendo, and stuck it in the back of a cupboard. The immersive environment I was promised wasn’t very immersive, the freedom to make anything with ultrahand was severely limited, and the upgrade mechanisms were just make-work. My partner, on the other hand, is enjoying playing sneaky Sasquatch, and I’m enjoying cheering them on - but I think I’ve lost the drive to play computer games any more.
posted by The River Ivel at 7:04 AM on January 22 [3 favorites]
posted by The River Ivel at 7:04 AM on January 22 [3 favorites]
I was recently at my sister's house. She still plays World of Warcraft and The Sims. She told me there are now a couple servers of Classic WoW "Hardcore" where if you die, you die and have to start over - though there is an option to move your character to one of a few realms and continue playing. This sounds like a terrible idea. Why would you want to do this, I asked? Can you at least buy a horse (to get around more quickly)? No, no option for a horse until level 40. She has not just tried this once, she is on character #8 or something because she is determined to get to 40.
Well, I got home from the visit, fired up Wow, paid the 2-month minimum, and started a character on this terrible server. Why would I do that?! I don't know. I got to level 11 and was cheated by the stupidly fast respawn of a named quest mob I had just killed. I may log back in to some old characters on a regular server. Or I may not, since the people I knew there are long gone. Have so far successfully avoided new Diablo and Baldur's Gate, both of which I am sure I would like and lose some number of months to.
I recently found Project Highrise (2016) - similar to Sim Tower, except you don't have to worry about elevators. You just need one regular and one hotel service elevator for the whole place.
Euchre or Pinochle would be fun. (Never heard of Euchre til I moved to Illinois.) I recently moved to a new community and may see if there are any card or board game groups at some point. Or even try to start one. Probably not tho.
Ghidorah, you don't have to keep playing that! It sounds terrible.
posted by Glinn at 7:04 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Well, I got home from the visit, fired up Wow, paid the 2-month minimum, and started a character on this terrible server. Why would I do that?! I don't know. I got to level 11 and was cheated by the stupidly fast respawn of a named quest mob I had just killed. I may log back in to some old characters on a regular server. Or I may not, since the people I knew there are long gone. Have so far successfully avoided new Diablo and Baldur's Gate, both of which I am sure I would like and lose some number of months to.
I recently found Project Highrise (2016) - similar to Sim Tower, except you don't have to worry about elevators. You just need one regular and one hotel service elevator for the whole place.
Euchre or Pinochle would be fun. (Never heard of Euchre til I moved to Illinois.) I recently moved to a new community and may see if there are any card or board game groups at some point. Or even try to start one. Probably not tho.
Ghidorah, you don't have to keep playing that! It sounds terrible.
posted by Glinn at 7:04 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I recently went through a pretty radical downsizing of my book, comic, and game collections. The old floppies that I still hadn't didn't add up to much in the way of cash value, so I ended up with about $200 store credit at the local comics 'n games shop...even though the point of the whole exercise was to free up shelf space.
I ended up buying a copy of "Cosmic Encounter", which has been around forever, has quite the reputation, and which I've never played. If anyone's in the Omaha area and wants to give a go, message me!
posted by Ipsifendus at 7:07 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I ended up buying a copy of "Cosmic Encounter", which has been around forever, has quite the reputation, and which I've never played. If anyone's in the Omaha area and wants to give a go, message me!
posted by Ipsifendus at 7:07 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
We play Bananagrams at my house, and it's so great.
As my kids have grown up, their vocabularies have grown and now they beat me most of the time. One of them also converted his girlfriend to be a Banangrams devotee, and she's super fierce! Over Christmas break we bought a second set, marked the new tiles with a small dot, and combined them so we could experiment playing with seven people and all 288 tiles. It was awesome.
(I also like to play Q-Less when there's no one around. Regrettably, it looks sold out again.)
posted by wenestvedt at 7:07 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
As my kids have grown up, their vocabularies have grown and now they beat me most of the time. One of them also converted his girlfriend to be a Banangrams devotee, and she's super fierce! Over Christmas break we bought a second set, marked the new tiles with a small dot, and combined them so we could experiment playing with seven people and all 288 tiles. It was awesome.
(I also like to play Q-Less when there's no one around. Regrettably, it looks sold out again.)
posted by wenestvedt at 7:07 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
My brother has been trying to use board games with his two kids (one teenager, one a tween) as a small attempt to stave off TOO much TV/screentime. So far chess was the biggest thing with my niece, and the nephew they were still figuring out "their" thing. I tracked down a copy of the Klutz Press Book of Classic Board Games (they're out of print) for him for Christmas; I have a copy myself, and me and an old boyfriend were seriously into it, and continued to play one game from it in particular when we were in the "broke up but stayed friends" stage. I understand that he started flipping through it as soon as he opened it, and even tried out a couple games with the kids within the hour.
That book and another puzzle game I got as a tween myself were longtime go-to's when I was heading to a friend gathering; the puzzle game is this weirdly fascinating multiple-puzzles-in-one set. I'm going to describe it - the whole thing comes in a plastic case, and the cover of the case has a grid of pegs on it, each peg being one of four different shapes. Inside the case are about 50 or so plastic pieces, each with either two or three holes that each also match up with one of those four shapes. And printed inside the case is a list of the puzzles - you only use half the pieces at a time, and the puzzles tell you which pieces to use for each. It's weirdly engrossing, and can be either a solo or a group thing.
I fell HARD for Exploding Kittens when I encountered it. It's a nearly perfect parlor game - it's easy to teach people the concept and rules, the games are fairly short, and it's even fun for the people who've lost out to watch the remaining gameplay.
I also found an app that makes for a great group parlor game. NYC has this new-games festival now and then, with game developers showing off their games - anything from video games to active games to board games to card games. I've been a couple times (one game had me running around a three-block swath of DUMBO pretending I was a Pinkerton Spy). One year there was a dude showing off his new app Out Of The Loop. It's like a combination of a guessing game and Mafia, and the app itself is the referee. You only need the app to be on one device to play with a group; you type in the names of each person playing, and then the app takes over. It picks a "secret word" and has you pass the device around to each person playing; each person is secretly shown the word, except for one person who is told they are "out of the loop". Then the game starts - everyone has to figure out which person is "out of the loop", and the person who is out of the loop has to figure out what the secret word is. The app leads you through a question-and-answer session where each of the players ask another person questions about that word; the person out of the loop has to fake it, of course, and everyone's paying attention to how everyone's answering the questions. The game even adds in a few minutes for you all to discuss a bit after the questioning, talking about who you think might be the out of the loop person. Then you vote on who you think is "out of the loop", and the other players get points if they guess that right. The person who was out of the loop then gets points if they correctly guess what the word is.
It just SOUNDS complicated - the app walks you through everything, so there's no rules to remember or teach newcomers. I fell hard for this one too when I ran into it, and actually bought the app. (It even has a freeware version.) What's also brilliant is that you only need it on one device - so I don't even need to get people to download it themselves if I want to play, I just need to whip out my own phone and say "Okay, let's do this."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:08 AM on January 22 [6 favorites]
That book and another puzzle game I got as a tween myself were longtime go-to's when I was heading to a friend gathering; the puzzle game is this weirdly fascinating multiple-puzzles-in-one set. I'm going to describe it - the whole thing comes in a plastic case, and the cover of the case has a grid of pegs on it, each peg being one of four different shapes. Inside the case are about 50 or so plastic pieces, each with either two or three holes that each also match up with one of those four shapes. And printed inside the case is a list of the puzzles - you only use half the pieces at a time, and the puzzles tell you which pieces to use for each. It's weirdly engrossing, and can be either a solo or a group thing.
I fell HARD for Exploding Kittens when I encountered it. It's a nearly perfect parlor game - it's easy to teach people the concept and rules, the games are fairly short, and it's even fun for the people who've lost out to watch the remaining gameplay.
I also found an app that makes for a great group parlor game. NYC has this new-games festival now and then, with game developers showing off their games - anything from video games to active games to board games to card games. I've been a couple times (one game had me running around a three-block swath of DUMBO pretending I was a Pinkerton Spy). One year there was a dude showing off his new app Out Of The Loop. It's like a combination of a guessing game and Mafia, and the app itself is the referee. You only need the app to be on one device to play with a group; you type in the names of each person playing, and then the app takes over. It picks a "secret word" and has you pass the device around to each person playing; each person is secretly shown the word, except for one person who is told they are "out of the loop". Then the game starts - everyone has to figure out which person is "out of the loop", and the person who is out of the loop has to figure out what the secret word is. The app leads you through a question-and-answer session where each of the players ask another person questions about that word; the person out of the loop has to fake it, of course, and everyone's paying attention to how everyone's answering the questions. The game even adds in a few minutes for you all to discuss a bit after the questioning, talking about who you think might be the out of the loop person. Then you vote on who you think is "out of the loop", and the other players get points if they guess that right. The person who was out of the loop then gets points if they correctly guess what the word is.
It just SOUNDS complicated - the app walks you through everything, so there's no rules to remember or teach newcomers. I fell hard for this one too when I ran into it, and actually bought the app. (It even has a freeware version.) What's also brilliant is that you only need it on one device - so I don't even need to get people to download it themselves if I want to play, I just need to whip out my own phone and say "Okay, let's do this."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:08 AM on January 22 [6 favorites]
I started playing RPGs seriously in the late aughts, at the age of 43, which is relatively late for someone to get into it, but for some reason I never fell in with a group of people in college that were both RPG players and tolerant of newbies. I dabbled a little bit in the eighties--one session of a superhero RPG and also DC's Watchmen game at a local comics shop--but the superhero RPG wasn't much fun because the person who brought me into the game did not, and I will never really understand this, prepare me for how complicated the game was and specifically how much math was involved.
About twenty years later, someone at work introduced me to his RPG group, and I started playing, mostly Palladium at first with some D&D mixed in. It wasn't until much later that I realized how generally dysfunctional the group was; the guy who GMed most of the games was maybe the worst GM I've ever played under--mixing and matching rules from a number of different Palladium books, some of which only he owned (and Palladium isn't really that great of a game system IMO), railroaded shamelessly, would simply stop a particular adventure after a couple of sessions because he had an idea for another one, and in general was kind of a bully and unpleasant to be around. But I persevered. I no longer play with anyone from that group, for fairly complicated reasons that tie into me sobering up and reassessing my relationships, but I did learn about RPG culture in general and what were things that I had to work on and what were things that I just shouldn't put up with. I play with a Pathfinder/Starfinder group nearby that does organized play, and they're a pretty good core group of people.
My favorite game franchises tend to be space operas and superhero things; Star Trek Online, Marathon (back in the day), Mass Effect, and the revived City of Heroes. I had the hard disk in my PC die and spent a lot of fruitless time trying to revive it or at least retrieve the files before I recently gave up and decided to just put in a new disk and reinstall everything, which I'm in the process of; I'm also giving serious thought to buying Baldur's Gate 3, even though it's still at full price on Steam.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:16 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
About twenty years later, someone at work introduced me to his RPG group, and I started playing, mostly Palladium at first with some D&D mixed in. It wasn't until much later that I realized how generally dysfunctional the group was; the guy who GMed most of the games was maybe the worst GM I've ever played under--mixing and matching rules from a number of different Palladium books, some of which only he owned (and Palladium isn't really that great of a game system IMO), railroaded shamelessly, would simply stop a particular adventure after a couple of sessions because he had an idea for another one, and in general was kind of a bully and unpleasant to be around. But I persevered. I no longer play with anyone from that group, for fairly complicated reasons that tie into me sobering up and reassessing my relationships, but I did learn about RPG culture in general and what were things that I had to work on and what were things that I just shouldn't put up with. I play with a Pathfinder/Starfinder group nearby that does organized play, and they're a pretty good core group of people.
My favorite game franchises tend to be space operas and superhero things; Star Trek Online, Marathon (back in the day), Mass Effect, and the revived City of Heroes. I had the hard disk in my PC die and spent a lot of fruitless time trying to revive it or at least retrieve the files before I recently gave up and decided to just put in a new disk and reinstall everything, which I'm in the process of; I'm also giving serious thought to buying Baldur's Gate 3, even though it's still at full price on Steam.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:16 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I’ve been spending a lot of time on “Carved from Brindlewood” TTRPGs. The first one, Brindlewood Bay is fully available, and can be described as “Murder, She Wrote, but with a secret cult in the background.” The mechanics are simple but interact in interesting ways, and the centerpiece is mysteries where you find clues, which are evocative but not definitive, and at some point the players have to look at those clues and assemble a theory to answer the central question of a mystery. There’s no canonical answer, just what you clean from the clues. Then there’s a roll to see if you are exactly right, partially right, or wrong, and the game goes from there to a resolution. BB has a fun theme of camp, cozy murder, and growing horror that’s very appealing.
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:19 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 7:19 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
I love boardgames (proof) but haven't had anyone to play with since covid shut everything down. Recently I played some casual Magic the Gathering with a preconstructed Doctor Who villains commander deck which was super fun.
But tonight I am going to my first in-person game meetup for 4 years and I couldn't be more excited.
posted by AndrewStephens at 7:19 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
But tonight I am going to my first in-person game meetup for 4 years and I couldn't be more excited.
posted by AndrewStephens at 7:19 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
We grew up playing cards. You can accommodate seven people with a game of 7-Up 7-Down (aka Screw Your Neighbour, Blackout). Dirty Hearts is a favourite.
Someone introduced Liar's Dice to the household and that was pretty great.
Age 12 or 13, two friends and my sister got into D&D, it was 1984 or '85. The friend who GMed introduced a few games, he was the type of GM who liked to feign impartiality with a veneer of benevolence but deep down he really loved seeing us squirm. When he introduced us to Paranoia it felt like he finally managed to corrupt us all into being amoral backstabbing psychotic assholes. If you've never roleplayed a type of Republican that might be the closest you'll get. Let me tell you, there's nothing quite so satisfying as blasting your First Church of Christ the Computer Programmer teammate from behind then successfully framing a Romantic. Death Leopard Forever!
posted by elkevelvet at 7:25 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Someone introduced Liar's Dice to the household and that was pretty great.
Age 12 or 13, two friends and my sister got into D&D, it was 1984 or '85. The friend who GMed introduced a few games, he was the type of GM who liked to feign impartiality with a veneer of benevolence but deep down he really loved seeing us squirm. When he introduced us to Paranoia it felt like he finally managed to corrupt us all into being amoral backstabbing psychotic assholes. If you've never roleplayed a type of Republican that might be the closest you'll get. Let me tell you, there's nothing quite so satisfying as blasting your First Church of Christ the Computer Programmer teammate from behind then successfully framing a Romantic. Death Leopard Forever!
posted by elkevelvet at 7:25 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
(1/2) One of the inspirations for this weeks topic was, over the last six months, gradually and belatedly discovering that more than a few friends, acquaintances, former and current colleagues, friends of friends, people I see regularly in some other context, two ex-partners, and probably my closest friend, are D&D players (and a few are DMs). In retrospect this isn't so much of a surprise; I've just somehow been blindly ignorant to it. And I've gone from never in my life hearing about Count Strahd von Zarovich to knowing a lot. So much.
This is personally interesting in several ways. One is with my academic game researcher hat on, and hearing how and why people play D&D, especially with a level of time commitment that sometimes stretches into years. Another, intensely of interest, is how people use D&D to develop their own characters, and (especially) narratives, and use this mechanism as a way to express and explore their real-world selves (I haven't summarised that well at all, but hopefully some players will get it). And also how unique, and perhaps unexpected, in-game narratives are formed; the previous example by eekernohan is just beautiful.
posted by Wordshore at 7:27 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
This is personally interesting in several ways. One is with my academic game researcher hat on, and hearing how and why people play D&D, especially with a level of time commitment that sometimes stretches into years. Another, intensely of interest, is how people use D&D to develop their own characters, and (especially) narratives, and use this mechanism as a way to express and explore their real-world selves (I haven't summarised that well at all, but hopefully some players will get it). And also how unique, and perhaps unexpected, in-game narratives are formed; the previous example by eekernohan is just beautiful.
posted by Wordshore at 7:27 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Empire Builder reminds me of a time after college, where a group of us were know as "4 guys and a rail game." We played Eurorails, North American Rails, and a fantasy version, Iron Dragon. Now we mainly play board games when my GM has all of his friends over to play board games on the 4th of July weekend. (I typically play Carcassonne, which I lose, and something else. I've played the werewolves within game, Exploding Kittens, and random other games as well.)
For a long time, we played Naval War, where everybody played rationally, until someone pissed someone else off, and it became war of the grudges among 5-6 people. Unfortunately, it's long out of print, so we rarely play it these days.
posted by Spike Glee at 7:36 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
For a long time, we played Naval War, where everybody played rationally, until someone pissed someone else off, and it became war of the grudges among 5-6 people. Unfortunately, it's long out of print, so we rarely play it these days.
posted by Spike Glee at 7:36 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
You would think the last few years would have provided me a lot of time to immerse myself in video games. I've been playing video games since Atari 2600 days, and I've gotten obsessed with more than my share over the past decades. But something happened to my brain during the pandemic, and I can't really get into the usual Elder Scrolls/Fallout type games that had been my default for the past 15 years. I really miss the immersion and exploration, and would probably benefit from absenting myself from the "real world" for a few hours a few days a week, but something about these games just isn't working for me any more. I hope this changes.
Until then, there's the suite of New York Times word games. I've also started playing their sudoku, but have yet to break into to any of the advanced strategies. Video game-wise I can at least still play Angband, a mostly Tolkien based ASCII rogue-like, which I've been playing on and off for at least 25 years.
I completely obsessed over AD&D 1st edition in the early 1980s. I would like to find a casual, once or twice a month D&D/Pathfinder group to scratch that particular itch, either in person or online, but that would require some motivation on my part that I'm apparently lacking.
posted by mollweide at 7:45 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Until then, there's the suite of New York Times word games. I've also started playing their sudoku, but have yet to break into to any of the advanced strategies. Video game-wise I can at least still play Angband, a mostly Tolkien based ASCII rogue-like, which I've been playing on and off for at least 25 years.
I completely obsessed over AD&D 1st edition in the early 1980s. I would like to find a casual, once or twice a month D&D/Pathfinder group to scratch that particular itch, either in person or online, but that would require some motivation on my part that I'm apparently lacking.
posted by mollweide at 7:45 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Yesssss, as a fan of both Jessica Fletcher and the Cthulhu mythos, one of my gaming goals for the year is to GM a Brindlewood Bay mystery. I haven't really GM'd before so I'm pretty nervous, but at some point I just have to go for it.
I'm lucky to have a group of friends I play board games with about once a month. Yesterday, we played Abduckion ("A Weirdly Strategic Game of Duck Kidnapping") for the first time, which gave my not-very-spatial brain a bit of a workout.
If you like solo RPGs, a bunch of the journaling variety are currently available in an itch.io bundle: Solo But Not Alone, which benefits a mental health nonprofit. I wrote one of the games in the bundle, a film noir-themed solo journaling game, Labyrinth of Night; playing and creating solo games has been a major creative outlet for me over the past six-ish months.
posted by icebergs at 7:48 AM on January 22 [6 favorites]
I'm lucky to have a group of friends I play board games with about once a month. Yesterday, we played Abduckion ("A Weirdly Strategic Game of Duck Kidnapping") for the first time, which gave my not-very-spatial brain a bit of a workout.
If you like solo RPGs, a bunch of the journaling variety are currently available in an itch.io bundle: Solo But Not Alone, which benefits a mental health nonprofit. I wrote one of the games in the bundle, a film noir-themed solo journaling game, Labyrinth of Night; playing and creating solo games has been a major creative outlet for me over the past six-ish months.
posted by icebergs at 7:48 AM on January 22 [6 favorites]
When I was in college I was part of a D&D campaign that was about a year long. Over one particular summer we'd get together 3-4 times a week, for like 8-10 hours each session. Out DM was amazing. He had a campaign he'd written, but he was also flexible so when we'd chase some random encounter monster into the woods he could quickly run us through some extended side quest. The downside of it for me was that one time my dwarf was in some arena battle and misinterpreted some signals from my "enemy" and I died. I was seriously bereft for weeks. One of my non-D&D friends who got tired of my moping was like "I fucking knew this would happen!".
posted by Gorgik at 7:49 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
posted by Gorgik at 7:49 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I wish I liked D&D more than I do. Or Pathfinder. Anything that makes me think too hard about combat mechanics is not for me. I like other TTRPGs! I like Apocalypse World and variants, I like Fiasco... but it often feels like D&D and Pathfinder are the only games in town.
I've been in a great online Monsterhearts campaign for a while, but it's on pause due to personal circumstances - and I do enjoy playing in games where we're all physically in the same space.
posted by Jeanne at 8:13 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I've been in a great online Monsterhearts campaign for a while, but it's on pause due to personal circumstances - and I do enjoy playing in games where we're all physically in the same space.
posted by Jeanne at 8:13 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
butts.
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 8:15 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 8:15 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Sometimes I set up the boardgame and play it all by myself, controlling all the characters because no one I know will play with me
I did this with Monopoly as a kid.
then I found out there's an altar and you can sacrifice your citizens there, and I quit the game for a while.
WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUCK?!?!?!
I'm not much of a gamer. I'm an only child so playing board games with others didn't happen much, I zone out when it's not my turn, and my attention span is not long-term focused enough for computer games, especially the super intense complicated ones (i.e. not Tetris/Angry Birds/Cat Condo, the sorts of stuff I do). I have friends who are in a Dead by Daylight gaming group online and while I'd love to hang out with the friends, I can in no way actually play this damn game.
I enjoy puzzles, albeit I usually do them at someone else's house cooperatively. I got several puzzles for Christmas this year and I want to put them together, EXCEPT I have no table space indoors big enough for any. My biggest table is outside and that's where I do things that require the table space, if the weather doesn't suck. So I need something that holds the puzzle and can be moved in and out. Either a puzzle mat or a fancy portfolio puzzle board. A friend of mine says the puzzle mat i got her tends to curve the puzzle pieces when rolled up and recommended the board/portfolio, but those are fairly pricey. So, not sure what to do there.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:21 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
I did this with Monopoly as a kid.
then I found out there's an altar and you can sacrifice your citizens there, and I quit the game for a while.
WHAT THE FUUUUUUUUUCK?!?!?!
I'm not much of a gamer. I'm an only child so playing board games with others didn't happen much, I zone out when it's not my turn, and my attention span is not long-term focused enough for computer games, especially the super intense complicated ones (i.e. not Tetris/Angry Birds/Cat Condo, the sorts of stuff I do). I have friends who are in a Dead by Daylight gaming group online and while I'd love to hang out with the friends, I can in no way actually play this damn game.
I enjoy puzzles, albeit I usually do them at someone else's house cooperatively. I got several puzzles for Christmas this year and I want to put them together, EXCEPT I have no table space indoors big enough for any. My biggest table is outside and that's where I do things that require the table space, if the weather doesn't suck. So I need something that holds the puzzle and can be moved in and out. Either a puzzle mat or a fancy portfolio puzzle board. A friend of mine says the puzzle mat i got her tends to curve the puzzle pieces when rolled up and recommended the board/portfolio, but those are fairly pricey. So, not sure what to do there.
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:21 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
Haven't really played games for the sake of it for a long time, but have to play some with my son. Really struggling to have the energy for Throw Throw Burrito. It's a kind of card game but you don't take turns, just scrabble for cards to get the right combinations, and occasionally run round the room throwing soft plastic burritos at each other.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 8:23 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
posted by TheophileEscargot at 8:23 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Also Bananagrams. It's Scrabble for introverts, and thus we love it. With two players, both with absurd vocabularies and mixed UK/US/CA spelling, we aim to draw every time. And we almost always draw.
I'm now on my third decade of playing Dope Wars on mobile. It's on Android, but every few years I drag out my PalmPilot and play it the way it was meant to be played.
posted by scruss at 8:28 AM on January 22 [6 favorites]
I'm now on my third decade of playing Dope Wars on mobile. It's on Android, but every few years I drag out my PalmPilot and play it the way it was meant to be played.
posted by scruss at 8:28 AM on January 22 [6 favorites]
Waves to meinvt at the top of the thread. I have played games with you I think at the Oasis of Fun way back in the day!
Yeah, boardgames. I've got thousands. Haven't had a group in many years, once all of my kids moved out. Been playing a lot online with Vassal though. And Combat Mission on my computer. And I had a Civ V thing going for a bit last year. And I do miss my WoW Troll Mage, but they ruined his running animations, and screwed up my build so, haven't been back in a long time.
posted by Windopaene at 8:32 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Yeah, boardgames. I've got thousands. Haven't had a group in many years, once all of my kids moved out. Been playing a lot online with Vassal though. And Combat Mission on my computer. And I had a Civ V thing going for a bit last year. And I do miss my WoW Troll Mage, but they ruined his running animations, and screwed up my build so, haven't been back in a long time.
posted by Windopaene at 8:32 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Wordle. I guessed the solution in 1 last week (ROUTE) and am breaking in my new starter word.
Honkai Star Rail. Just finished my daily check-in. Got some gold bits to level up some relics. Dr. Ratio looks interesting, but I'm focused right now on Argenti and Ruan Mei.
Borderlands 2. Heaven help me, I'm playing game mods now. Current mod: AzureLands.
posted by SPrintF at 8:35 AM on January 22 [3 favorites]
Honkai Star Rail. Just finished my daily check-in. Got some gold bits to level up some relics. Dr. Ratio looks interesting, but I'm focused right now on Argenti and Ruan Mei.
Borderlands 2. Heaven help me, I'm playing game mods now. Current mod: AzureLands.
posted by SPrintF at 8:35 AM on January 22 [3 favorites]
I've commented here a bunch of times on the history of parlor games and posted to Projects about translating them more than once. I don't think I've explained why though, and I think there's just a ton of interesting reasons to look into them:
posted by Wobbuffet at 8:47 AM on January 22 [19 favorites]
- Several had classical mythology and/or fairy tale elements that, even without a complete fantasy 'world,' still connect them meaningfully with histories and ethnographies of fantasy gaming that I've enjoyed reading but that just never mention parlor games
- The fairy tale games and their antecedents had storytelling elements that connect them meaningfully with literary criticism, linguistics, narratology, etc., which are also topics I've cared about in the past
- Several had roleplaying elements or wargame LARP elements that connect them meaningfully with RPGs and their histories
- I've always liked modern equivalents of parlor games, and it's been amazing to find modern, independently-invented 'party games' had such close parallels in the past:
- I bought Once Upon a Time when it came out, enjoyed it, and was very surprised to find earlier games like "The Impromptu Tale" from 1812 with variants going back to 1642.
- I bought Apples to Apples when it came out too, enjoyed it too, and was very surprised to find earlier games like "The Game of Thoughts" from 1701 and the wildly popular variant "What Is My Thought Like?" played from 1750-1922.
- I've never actually played Cards Against Humanity, but its variation on Apples to Apples--throwing questions into the mix--puts it more in the ballpark of "Cross Purposes" (mentioned in the 17th C. in The Anatomy of Melancholy) or "Cross Questions and Crooked Answers."
- And the history of the Surrealist game "Exquisite Corpse" is a whole other thing that I think no one has traced at that level of detail before? Like, people usually say it's based on "Consequences" and leave it there, but even if it were just "Consequences," people who actually played "Consequences" had poignant things to say about it and turned it into a novel at least once too.
- More obviously, there's still a lot to say about things like Balderdash and Mad Libs, trivia games, and even relatively well-studied things like crosswords
- I'm also surprised probably once a month when I find some well-known name attached to these games. Like, who played these storytelling games? Louis XIV as a teenager. Who played wargaming LARPs? Prince Albert as a tween. Who didn't like kissing forfeits and instead redeemed forfeits with poems? Goethe. What's Karl Marx's favorite parlor game? A silent form of Crambo. Etc., etc.
posted by Wobbuffet at 8:47 AM on January 22 [19 favorites]
I have the good fortune to for the first time in decades be playing in more games than I run.
Tuesday nights I'm playing in a Werewolf: The Apocalypse Fifth Edition game. I'd spent some time prior to the game's release wondering how they would address the ways the world has changed in the past thirty years that make playing a group that self-segregates along ethnic lines and that has an obsession with blood purity untenable to play, and to my delight and the consternation of a lot of the old-school community for the game they have gotten rid of all of that nonsense.
On alternating Thursdays I'm running Vampire: The Masquerade Fifth Edition for a couple of friends and I am having a blast with it. Mechanically and thematically, it is the edition of the game that best fits my vision for a setting that I have played fairly regularly for the past thirty years.
Every other Thursday I am playing in a Nobilis Second Edition game that has be really wonderful. We started the game creating a backstory for our setting with a couple sessions of The Ground Itself and it has made our world feel really established.
One weekend a month I LARP with Twin Mask and they've just dropped their newest rules update so I'm interested in seeing how that all works out on the ground once the game returns in February.
Also, because I am a fool who cannot ever be satisfied with running a single game I am in the planning stages for a once a month Pathfinder Second Edition campaign. All of the other tabletop games I'm in are played online (with IRL friends, but we're geographically diverse at this point) and I've been missing sitting around a table with people so this one will be in person.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:59 AM on January 22 [3 favorites]
Tuesday nights I'm playing in a Werewolf: The Apocalypse Fifth Edition game. I'd spent some time prior to the game's release wondering how they would address the ways the world has changed in the past thirty years that make playing a group that self-segregates along ethnic lines and that has an obsession with blood purity untenable to play, and to my delight and the consternation of a lot of the old-school community for the game they have gotten rid of all of that nonsense.
On alternating Thursdays I'm running Vampire: The Masquerade Fifth Edition for a couple of friends and I am having a blast with it. Mechanically and thematically, it is the edition of the game that best fits my vision for a setting that I have played fairly regularly for the past thirty years.
Every other Thursday I am playing in a Nobilis Second Edition game that has be really wonderful. We started the game creating a backstory for our setting with a couple sessions of The Ground Itself and it has made our world feel really established.
One weekend a month I LARP with Twin Mask and they've just dropped their newest rules update so I'm interested in seeing how that all works out on the ground once the game returns in February.
Also, because I am a fool who cannot ever be satisfied with running a single game I am in the planning stages for a once a month Pathfinder Second Edition campaign. All of the other tabletop games I'm in are played online (with IRL friends, but we're geographically diverse at this point) and I've been missing sitting around a table with people so this one will be in person.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:59 AM on January 22 [3 favorites]
Hogshead, thank you for co-designing Once Upon A Time. It's a game I've enjoyed for a long time.
I have a very fond memory of a night nearly 20 years ago -- dinner with a few friends and a friend-of-a-friend, playing four games of Once Upon A Time, each time with a different person starting the story with "An alarm rang out in the night."
I also remember, a few years after that, playing Once Upon A Time with a family I didn't know well, and realizing the pre-teen girl took as long as possible with her turn, dawdling with the story, embellishing without using her cards. I think she was doing this basically so she could have some time talking and having others pay attention to her, probably because she felt like she wasn't getting that in the rest of her life. We introduced some sort of house rule for that game saying that one couldn't go THAT long on a turn without playing a card, but I wish I could go back to that moment with the wisdom I have now and handle it with more love and creativity, to help her get the attention she needed.
And to this day my spouse and I frequently say "This animal can talk" -- referring to the OUaT card -- when a fictional animal turns out to be sentient, including in little stories we make up on the spur of the moment.
posted by brainwane at 9:04 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
I have a very fond memory of a night nearly 20 years ago -- dinner with a few friends and a friend-of-a-friend, playing four games of Once Upon A Time, each time with a different person starting the story with "An alarm rang out in the night."
I also remember, a few years after that, playing Once Upon A Time with a family I didn't know well, and realizing the pre-teen girl took as long as possible with her turn, dawdling with the story, embellishing without using her cards. I think she was doing this basically so she could have some time talking and having others pay attention to her, probably because she felt like she wasn't getting that in the rest of her life. We introduced some sort of house rule for that game saying that one couldn't go THAT long on a turn without playing a card, but I wish I could go back to that moment with the wisdom I have now and handle it with more love and creativity, to help her get the attention she needed.
And to this day my spouse and I frequently say "This animal can talk" -- referring to the OUaT card -- when a fictional animal turns out to be sentient, including in little stories we make up on the spur of the moment.
posted by brainwane at 9:04 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
Parasite Unseen: I published Nobilis Second Edition, and am so profoundly glad that people are still playing it. Jenna Moran is an extraordinary writer and designer, and when I saw the first edition I knew that this was exactly the sort of game I'd set up my company to publish. Luckily she was amenable to bringing it over to us. I recommend her other games and her fiction too.
Brainwane: Thanks for the stories. I'm lucky enough to have designed a game where people remember both the game and the tales they tell with it, and I've seen it draw people out of their shells--it gives players permission to speak when they wouldn't normally be allowed that space, and lets people interrupt who are shy, or have been told that it's impolite, or would be shouted down in normal circumstances.
posted by Hogshead at 9:12 AM on January 22 [8 favorites]
Brainwane: Thanks for the stories. I'm lucky enough to have designed a game where people remember both the game and the tales they tell with it, and I've seen it draw people out of their shells--it gives players permission to speak when they wouldn't normally be allowed that space, and lets people interrupt who are shy, or have been told that it's impolite, or would be shouted down in normal circumstances.
posted by Hogshead at 9:12 AM on January 22 [8 favorites]
I dropped a good 150 hours of Battletech in like, 2 months >.> with the Battletech Advanced 3062 mod it becomes an almost roguelite just vaguely close enough to tabletop battletech that I can squint my eyes and pretend I'm moving figures on a paper hexmap again.
the game being one big bucket of dice rolling sim helps. the sheer randomness evens out and leads to lots of 'how can I minimize my risk' gamble, and then most of your loot is you keep what you kill, and the slot machine hopefully pours out sweet sweet gear for you.
though now I'm more poking about Noita and Synthetik because I'm about 5 years slow on gaming. and I hate myself with games that are too hard for me but I just want to suffer =D
posted by AngelWuff at 9:12 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
the game being one big bucket of dice rolling sim helps. the sheer randomness evens out and leads to lots of 'how can I minimize my risk' gamble, and then most of your loot is you keep what you kill, and the slot machine hopefully pours out sweet sweet gear for you.
though now I'm more poking about Noita and Synthetik because I'm about 5 years slow on gaming. and I hate myself with games that are too hard for me but I just want to suffer =D
posted by AngelWuff at 9:12 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Will read thread later. :)
Scrabble is hard for me to play now. The late Mr. Nerd and I used to play all the time. One of our favorite things to do was re-watch a Sopranos while playing Scrabble.
Yahtzee is another one of ours, but I started playing on my phone almost a year ago and it's helped me enjoy that game again.
Spent the weekend with my Mom at the rental house she has because her kitchen has been torn apart since July and the insurance is FINALLY finishing it up. (Dad stayed home because he needs to keep an eye on the workers, who came in on a Saturday. Plus he's just happier at home.) Why yes, the edibles helped. ;) I'm glad to spend time with her, as we've spent about 8 years working on a better relationship after sooo many "it's complicated" years.
posted by luckynerd at 9:14 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
Scrabble is hard for me to play now. The late Mr. Nerd and I used to play all the time. One of our favorite things to do was re-watch a Sopranos while playing Scrabble.
Yahtzee is another one of ours, but I started playing on my phone almost a year ago and it's helped me enjoy that game again.
Spent the weekend with my Mom at the rental house she has because her kitchen has been torn apart since July and the insurance is FINALLY finishing it up. (Dad stayed home because he needs to keep an eye on the workers, who came in on a Saturday. Plus he's just happier at home.) Why yes, the edibles helped. ;) I'm glad to spend time with her, as we've spent about 8 years working on a better relationship after sooo many "it's complicated" years.
posted by luckynerd at 9:14 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
1. Thank you brainwane for suggesting Once Upon a Time and to Hogshead for creating it. I have been looking for more storytelling games that aren't quite full blown ttrpgs. My friends love For the Queen, for instance.
2. I have also DMed Brindlewood Bay recently. The DM guide is incredible. I have tried out a few new ttrps recently and none have left me as prepared for a session.
3. My friends and I have been playing a co-op game of Baldur's Gate and it's been a blast. I'm already looking for other multiplayer games that would give us the same experience. I don't want to shoot things or do anything that requires hand-eye coordination. I also want something richer than a party game. I've already played Portal, It Takes Two, and all of the other likely suspects. I'm currently leaning towards World of Warcraft, but I'll have to talk my friends into it.
posted by tofu_crouton at 9:17 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
2. I have also DMed Brindlewood Bay recently. The DM guide is incredible. I have tried out a few new ttrps recently and none have left me as prepared for a session.
3. My friends and I have been playing a co-op game of Baldur's Gate and it's been a blast. I'm already looking for other multiplayer games that would give us the same experience. I don't want to shoot things or do anything that requires hand-eye coordination. I also want something richer than a party game. I've already played Portal, It Takes Two, and all of the other likely suspects. I'm currently leaning towards World of Warcraft, but I'll have to talk my friends into it.
posted by tofu_crouton at 9:17 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
I grew up understanding "golf" as "a game rich people play while doing low-key industry networking." Indeed I know at least one executive woman who learned how to play golf tolerably well in order to acquit herself well when invited to play by colleagues, clients, etc. I now recognize that golf is also a hobby many people of many classes enjoy outside of work socializing!
A few years ago I noted: here in New York City, it feels like game nights/board game afternoons are the golf of the programming class, in that it's kind of assumed that you can play socially, and there are gaming circles that also end up serving as industry networking.
My boss at Job-4 legit suggested once going to a local boardgame night solely because one of the regulars was a DevOps engineer he worked with at his previous job, and it would be a good opportunity for us to pitch them on our projects. And I was all, "dude, don't make it weird. Don't make it golf."
Since then there have been two times where he's gotten in touch to "catch up and hear what's new" and it's always ended with him trying to sell me on a job.
As to the thread, my main gaming habits:
- my wife and I do NYT Crossword, Spelling Bee and Wordle as our breakfast ritual. Not competitive. We do parallel solves on Crossword and Spelling Bee and might compare notes on the Crossword if it's a Friday or Saturday, or we get slow on a Sunday, and we'll trade words on the Bee after we individually get to Genius and try to get to Queen Bee together. For Wordle, we take turns.
- solo - I'm a pretty solid strategy and RPG player. Current obsessions are Old World and a playthrough of the Divinity series* while killing time until all of the DLC come out of for Baldur's Gate 3. Most hours logged is probably the entire Civ franchise, Stellaris and Skyrim. Dorfromantik is my go-to if I'm too tired to read or plot out strategy movies.
- group - I've been part of the same biweekly D&D group for 21 years. Players have had to skip a session to attend a birth and also support that same child's high school graduation party. Players have dated, broken up, kept playing. It is very much a cornerstone of life. Also has overlapped with my regular hiking/camping group, so it's also kind of fun to pack away the maps, minis and dice after a session, then spread out terrain maps and a different set of notebooks to plan out a different set of adventures.
posted by bl1nk at 9:23 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
I do not do games of any type; board games, computer games or whatever type there are because it is not kind to my psyche. I seem to not have a competitive drive and also don't understand the rules very well (they're like multiple guess tests to me.)
I see the value in games but would rather read a great book that takes me into another world.
posted by mightshould at 9:27 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
I see the value in games but would rather read a great book that takes me into another world.
posted by mightshould at 9:27 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
I GM two PF2e games, and play in a DND5e game. These are all relatively casual and none of us are very GOOD at playing (no one remembers the rules, ever) but we have fun, which I figure is more the point. Both of my PF2e games are in a homebrew world with a magical nuclear blastzone taking up a large part of the main continent that the parties are exploring and I have so much fun with the world-building. And the players seem to be having fun, so that's all to the good!
The 5e game is Lost Mines of Phandelver except that our party is approaching every encounter/dungeon as a workplace that we can unionize. So far we have unionized three workplaces, have patches and coats we can hand out, and have subsidized healthcare through an orc clan that we've contracted with. Thank god we have a permissive DM who rolls with our shenanigans.
In computer games, I have been playing FFXIV for... egads, 10 years now. It's my comfort game, and I always come back to it. I help run a very small FC, and love my little tiny community. If you also play and want to party with a casual mid-30s butch playing a catboy, shoot me a DM. Always love to connect with other folks that play.
posted by bridgebury at 9:28 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
The 5e game is Lost Mines of Phandelver except that our party is approaching every encounter/dungeon as a workplace that we can unionize. So far we have unionized three workplaces, have patches and coats we can hand out, and have subsidized healthcare through an orc clan that we've contracted with. Thank god we have a permissive DM who rolls with our shenanigans.
In computer games, I have been playing FFXIV for... egads, 10 years now. It's my comfort game, and I always come back to it. I help run a very small FC, and love my little tiny community. If you also play and want to party with a casual mid-30s butch playing a catboy, shoot me a DM. Always love to connect with other folks that play.
posted by bridgebury at 9:28 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
MetaFilter: don't make it golf.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:29 AM on January 22 [11 favorites]
posted by wenestvedt at 9:29 AM on January 22 [11 favorites]
Hogshead: You published a book that I spent two decades thinking was one of the most beautiful coffee table books I'd ever seen but I lamented I'd probably never get the opportunity to play with a group. It took twenty years but I'm finally in a game and it has been a really gratifying experience. You have my thanks!
posted by Parasite Unseen at 9:41 AM on January 22 [6 favorites]
posted by Parasite Unseen at 9:41 AM on January 22 [6 favorites]
wenestvedt, thank you so much for your post about my game, Spellbound. You made my day.
As to adding to the dictionary, figuring out what a words belong and which don't isn't always easy. It's not supposed to be as complete as Scrabble, and I try for common words - but common for me isn't common for everyone else. Plus, where do you stop with suffixes and prefixes? And with foods? and plants?
When I create word lists, I invariably come up with a list of not-sure words. I have an email list of 20 friends and I send out a poll. Not surprisingly, the same word can get marked as of course and ridiculous.
It's made me very sympathetic to all the game creators out there (many who seem to be on this thread). You can never please everyone.
posted by AMyNameIs at 9:44 AM on January 22 [6 favorites]
As to adding to the dictionary, figuring out what a words belong and which don't isn't always easy. It's not supposed to be as complete as Scrabble, and I try for common words - but common for me isn't common for everyone else. Plus, where do you stop with suffixes and prefixes? And with foods? and plants?
When I create word lists, I invariably come up with a list of not-sure words. I have an email list of 20 friends and I send out a poll. Not surprisingly, the same word can get marked as of course and ridiculous.
It's made me very sympathetic to all the game creators out there (many who seem to be on this thread). You can never please everyone.
posted by AMyNameIs at 9:44 AM on January 22 [6 favorites]
Parasite Unseen: I am overjoyed to hear it. We wanted to create a beautiful book but above all we wanted it to be a game that people would play and enjoy, and that part of it all did seem to get a bit lost.
Hogshead (the company) did some cool things, we smashed a few rules and pushed a few envelopes (first RPG that broke away from the Gygax/Arneson paradigm, first epistolatory RPG, and of course VIOLENCE), but it's Nobilis I'm proudest of.
posted by Hogshead at 9:51 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
Hogshead (the company) did some cool things, we smashed a few rules and pushed a few envelopes (first RPG that broke away from the Gygax/Arneson paradigm, first epistolatory RPG, and of course VIOLENCE), but it's Nobilis I'm proudest of.
posted by Hogshead at 9:51 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
These are all relatively casual and none of us are very GOOD at playing (no one remembers the rules, ever) but we have fun, which I figure is more the point.
My crew never remembers the rules either. When we're not sure we all spend some time looking it up online, or we just make it up. I was watching the new Acquisitions Incorporated game and at one point Jeremy Crawford (who writes the rules for D&D!) messed up on a rule and just went with it. It was great, and really drove home for me that the primary rule is to have fun and the other rules are just there to provide some structure as needed.
The 5e game is Lost Mines of Phandelver except that our party is approaching every encounter/dungeon as a workplace that we can unionize. So far we have unionized three workplaces, have patches and coats we can hand out, and have subsidized healthcare through an orc clan that we've contracted with.
I. Love. This. So. Much.
posted by eekernohan at 9:56 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
My crew never remembers the rules either. When we're not sure we all spend some time looking it up online, or we just make it up. I was watching the new Acquisitions Incorporated game and at one point Jeremy Crawford (who writes the rules for D&D!) messed up on a rule and just went with it. It was great, and really drove home for me that the primary rule is to have fun and the other rules are just there to provide some structure as needed.
The 5e game is Lost Mines of Phandelver except that our party is approaching every encounter/dungeon as a workplace that we can unionize. So far we have unionized three workplaces, have patches and coats we can hand out, and have subsidized healthcare through an orc clan that we've contracted with.
I. Love. This. So. Much.
posted by eekernohan at 9:56 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
Sick day, so please bear with me if I don't make sense.
I have a daily routine of playing thrice, which is generic trivia game that gives you three times to figure out the answer for five questions, found via Now I Know which is a nice daily read of... something random.
I also take a minute to play rotaboxes which reminds me why I still keep Boing Boing in my feed reader as it's super easy to skip past all the shopping stuff they are selling but every once in a while there is still an awesome post like this.
Lastly, Puzzmo, which nobody got me a line skip for because of this FPP. It's a whole great group of games even for the ones I am not good at or not really interested in. The ones I do consistently are Really Bad Chess and the Cross|Word. Oh, also, I should have a gift membership available. Whoever wants to me-mail me first, it's yours.
I finish it off with a quick refresh of Replay Poker for free chips for the rare time I have a couple of hours to burn playing hold 'em.
I'm almost completely remote now, so doing these things when I "punch out" for the day does really help enforce the break from work to home, much like my commute used to do.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 10:04 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I have a daily routine of playing thrice, which is generic trivia game that gives you three times to figure out the answer for five questions, found via Now I Know which is a nice daily read of... something random.
I also take a minute to play rotaboxes which reminds me why I still keep Boing Boing in my feed reader as it's super easy to skip past all the shopping stuff they are selling but every once in a while there is still an awesome post like this.
Lastly, Puzzmo, which nobody got me a line skip for because of this FPP. It's a whole great group of games even for the ones I am not good at or not really interested in. The ones I do consistently are Really Bad Chess and the Cross|Word. Oh, also, I should have a gift membership available. Whoever wants to me-mail me first, it's yours.
I finish it off with a quick refresh of Replay Poker for free chips for the rare time I have a couple of hours to burn playing hold 'em.
I'm almost completely remote now, so doing these things when I "punch out" for the day does really help enforce the break from work to home, much like my commute used to do.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 10:04 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
My current game lineup is Slay the Spire (I stink, can't get past Ascension 9 but I keep trying) and Disney Dreamlight Valley, which I play a few hours a weekend. And the NYT crossword puzzles, Wordle, and Connections. I'd love to get deep into a PC game, but after sitting at my desk for work, the last thing I want to do is spend hours after work in the same chair. I guess I've become a cozy gamer now but there are only so many times one can plant crops, unlock friends, and decorate rooms before it gets tiring.
I should find a fun game for our PS5, but the sheer number of buttons and triggers on the controllers have been intimidating me for years. Any suggestions for a PS5 game that is NOT Red Dead Redemption 2? (misterussell has played it for years, I know how it ends)
posted by kimberussell at 10:06 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I should find a fun game for our PS5, but the sheer number of buttons and triggers on the controllers have been intimidating me for years. Any suggestions for a PS5 game that is NOT Red Dead Redemption 2? (misterussell has played it for years, I know how it ends)
posted by kimberussell at 10:06 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I play board games on Board Game Arena every week with my real life group who has wound up scattered across the country.
Most days I at least get on Guild Wars 2 and do my dailies. I also do the daily challenges on Bloons TD 6.
I used to play a lot of offline computer games, and I should do more of that rather how I usually spend my free time. (Viz., reading the Internet and fretting.) Playing solitaire at least didn't make unhappy while I was doing it.
Somebody got me Baldur's Gate, which was very nice of them. After freeing up almost a quarter-terabyte of disk space to install it, I hated it. This is going to sound stupid, but I just couldn't get past its embedded reactionary worldview.
Lately I've been playing Against the Storm which so far hasn't made me hate myself. It's got enough stakes to keep the game moving, but is chill enough to be relaxing.
I also picked up Melvor Idle which has been a welcome distraction. Although sometimes it's not as idle as I'd like.
posted by ob1quixote at 10:10 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Most days I at least get on Guild Wars 2 and do my dailies. I also do the daily challenges on Bloons TD 6.
I used to play a lot of offline computer games, and I should do more of that rather how I usually spend my free time. (Viz., reading the Internet and fretting.) Playing solitaire at least didn't make unhappy while I was doing it.
Somebody got me Baldur's Gate, which was very nice of them. After freeing up almost a quarter-terabyte of disk space to install it, I hated it. This is going to sound stupid, but I just couldn't get past its embedded reactionary worldview.
Lately I've been playing Against the Storm which so far hasn't made me hate myself. It's got enough stakes to keep the game moving, but is chill enough to be relaxing.
I also picked up Melvor Idle which has been a welcome distraction. Although sometimes it's not as idle as I'd like.
posted by ob1quixote at 10:10 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Any suggestions for a PS5 game that is NOT Red Dead Redemption 2?
Horizon Zero Dawn (originally PS4) and its sequel, Horizon Forbidden West. Beautiful, atmospheric story-telling, wonderful voice-acting. The combat can be difficult at times, but I think it's worth it.
posted by hanov3r at 10:22 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Horizon Zero Dawn (originally PS4) and its sequel, Horizon Forbidden West. Beautiful, atmospheric story-telling, wonderful voice-acting. The combat can be difficult at times, but I think it's worth it.
posted by hanov3r at 10:22 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
In my teens, I loved games as a way to imagine living other lives (Neverwinter Nights on AOL, daydreaming with AD&D and V:TM rulebooks because I was too scared to ask anyone to play, so much Civ).
In my twenties, I had friends, so I played games with them, but I also played a lot of strategy games that felt like they were sharpening my mind. (Halo, MarioKart, so much Civ).
Here at the end of my thirties, games have become a way to stay connected to those friends (BoardGameArena is a godsend), but also as an antidote to a life that mostly rewards my ability to slog through tedium, rather than the cleverness and reasoning that seemed like they would be so useful back then. (Civ feels too depressing to me these days.)
I've had a similar trajectory with novels - possibility, honing, disappointment, escape.
posted by McBearclaw at 10:29 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
In my twenties, I had friends, so I played games with them, but I also played a lot of strategy games that felt like they were sharpening my mind. (Halo, MarioKart, so much Civ).
Here at the end of my thirties, games have become a way to stay connected to those friends (BoardGameArena is a godsend), but also as an antidote to a life that mostly rewards my ability to slog through tedium, rather than the cleverness and reasoning that seemed like they would be so useful back then. (Civ feels too depressing to me these days.)
I've had a similar trajectory with novels - possibility, honing, disappointment, escape.
posted by McBearclaw at 10:29 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I'm still recovering from last weekend's big ice storm here in the US NW. Last Monday I fell, slid down a hill, and smacked my hamstring into a signpost. It's badly bruised and the swelling has extended into my calf. Still pretty painful a week later; hard to use stairs or even to sit. Tried to keep it elevated all weekend, which enabled me to watch all four playoff games.
On the second day of the storm my relative's assisted living lost power. We live across town and up on a steep hill. We had 2 inches of ice on everything. So it took us several hours* to clear my truck, get the chains on, and drive over there to pick her up. My wife and her spent one night in a hotel then a second night with our daughter. So there was another trip across town in chains. Good times.
*The truck was parked on a slope, which increased the difficulty tenfold. I have crampons but I couldn't set anything down or it would slide and wind up a quarter mile away. Tied my keys to my jacket with nylon cord. I used rubbing alcohol diluted to 1/3 with warm water. Poured that on edges of driver's door to partially melt, then reamed the door edge with my plastic scraper. Got the truck started and let it run with the heat on for 30 minutes before starting on the windshield.
posted by neuron at 10:34 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
On the second day of the storm my relative's assisted living lost power. We live across town and up on a steep hill. We had 2 inches of ice on everything. So it took us several hours* to clear my truck, get the chains on, and drive over there to pick her up. My wife and her spent one night in a hotel then a second night with our daughter. So there was another trip across town in chains. Good times.
*The truck was parked on a slope, which increased the difficulty tenfold. I have crampons but I couldn't set anything down or it would slide and wind up a quarter mile away. Tied my keys to my jacket with nylon cord. I used rubbing alcohol diluted to 1/3 with warm water. Poured that on edges of driver's door to partially melt, then reamed the door edge with my plastic scraper. Got the truck started and let it run with the heat on for 30 minutes before starting on the windshield.
posted by neuron at 10:34 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
For whatever reason, the only video game I have ever stuck with is Civ V, on easy setting with the "domination" victory option turned off.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:40 AM on January 22 [3 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 10:40 AM on January 22 [3 favorites]
I got Wingspan as a Christmas gift and husband and I are both obsessed. It's a little much to break the physical game out for just the two of us, so we have transitioned into the electronic game and play most days. It's been a great way for us to connect after a long day at work. The music is super soothing, and it's great to play something that is sort of competitive but also sort of not.
posted by honeybee413 at 10:44 AM on January 22 [3 favorites]
posted by honeybee413 at 10:44 AM on January 22 [3 favorites]
I finally got to play Caverna a few days ago for the first time. I picked up A Feast For Odin a couple of days ago, but I won't even speculate on how long it'll be before I get to play that. Our D&D group, which were who I played board games with, has moved online and has shown no solid signs of returning to in-person, making board games difficult.
In video and computer games, I've played a lot of Cozy Grove despite some serious issues with its design. I've been sampling a lot of puzzle games lately gearing up for a series for our gaming blog Set Side B (plug!). Stephen's Sausage Roll is brilliant but incredibly difficult. Hyperbolica is not so much a puzzle as an experiential simulator: it controls like a FPS, but it's not a shooter, and it doesn't take place in a Euclidian universe but a hyperbolic one, so the game engine simulates and displays a world in which pentagons have 90 degree angles, parallel lines bend away from each other, and other geometric oddities. And then there's Baba Is You, of course, which I'm replaying and trying to remember how I did the puzzles the first time.
posted by JHarris at 10:46 AM on January 22 [3 favorites]
In video and computer games, I've played a lot of Cozy Grove despite some serious issues with its design. I've been sampling a lot of puzzle games lately gearing up for a series for our gaming blog Set Side B (plug!). Stephen's Sausage Roll is brilliant but incredibly difficult. Hyperbolica is not so much a puzzle as an experiential simulator: it controls like a FPS, but it's not a shooter, and it doesn't take place in a Euclidian universe but a hyperbolic one, so the game engine simulates and displays a world in which pentagons have 90 degree angles, parallel lines bend away from each other, and other geometric oddities. And then there's Baba Is You, of course, which I'm replaying and trying to remember how I did the puzzles the first time.
posted by JHarris at 10:46 AM on January 22 [3 favorites]
Stardew Valley. I picked it up during the pandemic on my Switch - it's such a good little game. I love the music in it. Apparently others do too - I bought one of the last tickets to attend Festival of Seasons at the Paramount Theater in Austin this coming June.
posted by PuppyCat at 10:53 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
posted by PuppyCat at 10:53 AM on January 22 [7 favorites]
I've been making my way through Phantasy Star II and Portal: Revolution. I also stumbled across Wizordum, a delightful little boomer shooter; I drift back into Catacomb 3-D and Blake Stone sometimes, and Wizordum looked like it would scratch that itch but with controller support. And it does! Also just starting the first NG+ in Starfield, though I'm not sure how far I'm going to get with that right now.
Current low-effort, mind numbing games are Dorfromantic, Dead Cells, and Vampire Survivors.
I plan to replay Paradise Killer once the collector's edition arrives, having been ordered on a late-night impulse months ago. Someday I'm sure I'll pick up Baldur's Gate 3, but I don't think I'm ready for that level of commitment just yet. And I do need to start Ultima IV for the Sega Master System at some point; I had wanted to finish Miracle Warriors first, but the final act of the game is just too much grinding, even for me (and I like a bit of grinding).
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 10:56 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Current low-effort, mind numbing games are Dorfromantic, Dead Cells, and Vampire Survivors.
I plan to replay Paradise Killer once the collector's edition arrives, having been ordered on a late-night impulse months ago. Someday I'm sure I'll pick up Baldur's Gate 3, but I don't think I'm ready for that level of commitment just yet. And I do need to start Ultima IV for the Sega Master System at some point; I had wanted to finish Miracle Warriors first, but the final act of the game is just too much grinding, even for me (and I like a bit of grinding).
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 10:56 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I fell in love with Restoration Games' Unmatched after playing demos at PAX Unplugged.
T-Rex vs. Nikola Tesla? You can play it.
Harry Houdini vs. Spider-Man? You can play it.
King Arthur vs. Sun Wukong vs. Ghost Rider vs. Bigfoot? You can play it.
I spent an embarrassing amount on game sets at last year's PAX Unplugged then told my family that I won them in a tournament -- a half-truth at best, because I played two matches there but never made it out of the prelims.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 10:59 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
T-Rex vs. Nikola Tesla? You can play it.
Harry Houdini vs. Spider-Man? You can play it.
King Arthur vs. Sun Wukong vs. Ghost Rider vs. Bigfoot? You can play it.
I spent an embarrassing amount on game sets at last year's PAX Unplugged then told my family that I won them in a tournament -- a half-truth at best, because I played two matches there but never made it out of the prelims.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 10:59 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
I'm a Mario gamer mostly. I just got the two most recent ones (Wonder and the remake of Mario RPG) so that's been consuming my time. I play other games too but I'm always gonna get the newest Mario game (of the main Mario games. Not Mario Golf or any of those.)
Last week was kinda crazy for me. I had been reconnecting with my ex over the past few months and last week she came here to visit. And it went well! I still don't know if this is a good idea but it seemed positive and we're talking about when we can get together again. The only reason we broke up before was because I moved for school and long distance didn't work. We're still long distance for now but at least we have cell phones and free nationwide calling/texting so we've been talking a lot more and she's talking about moving here. I know people say never get back with an ex but fuck it I'm at least gonna give it a shot.
posted by downtohisturtles at 11:02 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
Last week was kinda crazy for me. I had been reconnecting with my ex over the past few months and last week she came here to visit. And it went well! I still don't know if this is a good idea but it seemed positive and we're talking about when we can get together again. The only reason we broke up before was because I moved for school and long distance didn't work. We're still long distance for now but at least we have cell phones and free nationwide calling/texting so we've been talking a lot more and she's talking about moving here. I know people say never get back with an ex but fuck it I'm at least gonna give it a shot.
posted by downtohisturtles at 11:02 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
My distraction when I'm writing is a few rounds of Ding Dong XL (and before you ask, that's not a euphemism).
It's a one-button game for iOS/Switch/Android/etc., and it's HARD. By that I mean: In the Infinite mode, a score of 10 is good.
posted by yellowcandy at 11:03 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
It's a one-button game for iOS/Switch/Android/etc., and it's HARD. By that I mean: In the Infinite mode, a score of 10 is good.
posted by yellowcandy at 11:03 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Another one hooked on Against the Storm here. It's the best new take on a strategy-heavy roguelike I've played in forever, I'd put it up up there with FTL and Slay the Spire at the very top of the genre.
What's fantastic is it presents itself as a town-building production optimisation challenge, but it's actually about finding a way of keeping all the plates spinning just long enough for you to build up to the right cascade of mini progression conditions which (should) all fall into place in the nick of time. And each play the rules and constraints to getting to that point get shuffled up and obscured from you in various ways. I can see how it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea as it does get rapidly less and less chilled as it gets harder, but honestly anyone into rougelikes / strategy should at least try the demo and experience how great its game design is.
(I haven't had the same moral qualms as MrVisible, but then I've found myself mentally dealing with the various worker-creatures a bit like generic annoying colleague types. Like the harpies would definitely reply to "what did you do at the weekend?" with a list of ailments and failed homeopathic remedies. Lizards are the eptitome of a UK town center on a Friday night i.e. kebabs and fighting. And beavers can just f-off, they're far too competent at too many things and boy don't they love letting you know just how much recognition they deserve for that. So no, if they already have their fill of biscuits, pickles and "education" I am not going to go out of my way to make them new coats too. Herumph.)
posted by protorp at 11:09 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
What's fantastic is it presents itself as a town-building production optimisation challenge, but it's actually about finding a way of keeping all the plates spinning just long enough for you to build up to the right cascade of mini progression conditions which (should) all fall into place in the nick of time. And each play the rules and constraints to getting to that point get shuffled up and obscured from you in various ways. I can see how it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea as it does get rapidly less and less chilled as it gets harder, but honestly anyone into rougelikes / strategy should at least try the demo and experience how great its game design is.
(I haven't had the same moral qualms as MrVisible, but then I've found myself mentally dealing with the various worker-creatures a bit like generic annoying colleague types. Like the harpies would definitely reply to "what did you do at the weekend?" with a list of ailments and failed homeopathic remedies. Lizards are the eptitome of a UK town center on a Friday night i.e. kebabs and fighting. And beavers can just f-off, they're far too competent at too many things and boy don't they love letting you know just how much recognition they deserve for that. So no, if they already have their fill of biscuits, pickles and "education" I am not going to go out of my way to make them new coats too. Herumph.)
posted by protorp at 11:09 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
I'm a Mario gamer mostly. I just got the two most recent ones (Wonder and the remake of Mario RPG) so that's been consuming my time. I play other games too but I'm always gonna get the newest Mario game (of the main Mario games. Not Mario Golf or any of those.)
Ooooh, that reminds me that I was sorta thinking about making a front-page post about the release of Grand Poo World 3, a kaizo romhack of Super Mario World that was years in the making from a well-known romhack maker, but I hesitated because I'm not sure if the hack is available to the public anyway.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 11:15 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Ooooh, that reminds me that I was sorta thinking about making a front-page post about the release of Grand Poo World 3, a kaizo romhack of Super Mario World that was years in the making from a well-known romhack maker, but I hesitated because I'm not sure if the hack is available to the public anyway.
posted by The Pluto Gangsta at 11:15 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
We’ve been playing a ton of tabletop room-escape games, especially the Exit the Game series by Kosmos. So much fun with a tight group of friends. It’s cool how everyone brings their own little ways of looking at problems, and how different people are good at puzzles that stump others. You definitely need a solidly mixed group in these games.
posted by Thorzdad at 11:19 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
posted by Thorzdad at 11:19 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Cards is it? Not for the first, nor last, time I'll put in a plug for piquet - a cross between whist, rummy and medieval french played with a short 32-card deck and two people. Doublet & hose, poiniard and periwig, all optional. I only know Euchre from my father using the expression "Now we're euchered" when he was up shit creek without a paddle. I'm now minded to give the card game a go.
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:20 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:20 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
Warhammer and M:TG are always the geek drugs I refused to do, but whoops, I bought a vanguard box and have spent many happy hours gluing and painting since then. Maybe someday I'll actually play.
I'm the forever DM for my D&D group, and I've finally succeeded in getting them to branch out, with Scum & Villainy. Campaign is a hoot so far.
posted by HeroZero at 11:27 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
I'm the forever DM for my D&D group, and I've finally succeeded in getting them to branch out, with Scum & Villainy. Campaign is a hoot so far.
posted by HeroZero at 11:27 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
I downloaded a bunch of those "money making" bingo games to my phone. They're all time pressure contests, with quick fingers getting the highest scores, and lots of nice numbers called on your card for happy endorphin rushes.
I'm not putting ANY money into these at all, and play them in a round, one game each on the half-dozen games I have, so I'm not getting obsessed. Obsession is my downfall when it comes to video games.
Mostly it's an interesting way to get my panic attacks to calm down, because the intensity of how rapidly the numbers are called and how short the games are turns out to be a way to pull myself back into myself. I did "enrichment lab" back in elementary school, which involved a lot of timed tests and speed reading machines and stuff, so this taps into some deep kind of childhood thing somehow.
So my plan is that I'm playing these for fun, but also strategizing a bit to see if I can, in fact, extract any money out of any of these. I am not planning on making any money, and playing for free is fun for me.
posted by hippybear at 11:35 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
I'm not putting ANY money into these at all, and play them in a round, one game each on the half-dozen games I have, so I'm not getting obsessed. Obsession is my downfall when it comes to video games.
Mostly it's an interesting way to get my panic attacks to calm down, because the intensity of how rapidly the numbers are called and how short the games are turns out to be a way to pull myself back into myself. I did "enrichment lab" back in elementary school, which involved a lot of timed tests and speed reading machines and stuff, so this taps into some deep kind of childhood thing somehow.
So my plan is that I'm playing these for fun, but also strategizing a bit to see if I can, in fact, extract any money out of any of these. I am not planning on making any money, and playing for free is fun for me.
posted by hippybear at 11:35 AM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Nearly every day I try and win "crypt" - I've been trying since the late '80s.
"crypt" is a Roguelike game written by Greg Janusz on the University of Illinois PLATO system in 1985.
Today you can try your hand at winning "crypt" by getting a login at Cyber1, a system hosting a software-emulated PLATO system.
posted by art.bikes at 11:38 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
"crypt" is a Roguelike game written by Greg Janusz on the University of Illinois PLATO system in 1985.
Today you can try your hand at winning "crypt" by getting a login at Cyber1, a system hosting a software-emulated PLATO system.
posted by art.bikes at 11:38 AM on January 22 [4 favorites]
One of my local game shops revamped their board game rental program, making it much easier to keep games out for longer to give them a good test run. My spouse and I recently checked out Arham Horror, Mariposas, and Kintsugi. Definitely liked AH the best out of all of them, although were a little baffled by the scant number of scenarios (I'm sure this is expansion fodder), and I must admit, we modified the number of tokens drawn out of the mythos cup for a few games while we got a grip on the mechanics. I wanted to like Mariposas, but it seemed like it missed a few steps in the rules editing and game play testing.
After many years of just playing with Mx. ikahime, we finally were able to co-opt some friends for board game night, and I successfully taught them Scythe. I'm always shocked by how little patience people have to learn a game slightly more complex than Catan, but these pals were good for it and I think i might have them hooked now. The Eastern European playlist I had on may have helped set the mood.
I nabbed The Last Autumn expansion for Frostpunk on my PC during the last sale, which is somehow both relaxing and infuriating at the same time. And my buddy gifted me Dave the Diver, which is scratching a lot of itches that I didn't know I had (like how is it that I have been missing play like the 80's arcade game Root Beer Tapper? Or charming pixel graphics that make me think fondly of Knytt for some reason?).
We also got ourselves a ZwiftHub for Xmas, and my spouse (who is definitely NOT a video game person), was instantly addicted and cried, "I've finally found my video game!"
posted by ikahime at 11:43 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
After many years of just playing with Mx. ikahime, we finally were able to co-opt some friends for board game night, and I successfully taught them Scythe. I'm always shocked by how little patience people have to learn a game slightly more complex than Catan, but these pals were good for it and I think i might have them hooked now. The Eastern European playlist I had on may have helped set the mood.
I nabbed The Last Autumn expansion for Frostpunk on my PC during the last sale, which is somehow both relaxing and infuriating at the same time. And my buddy gifted me Dave the Diver, which is scratching a lot of itches that I didn't know I had (like how is it that I have been missing play like the 80's arcade game Root Beer Tapper? Or charming pixel graphics that make me think fondly of Knytt for some reason?).
We also got ourselves a ZwiftHub for Xmas, and my spouse (who is definitely NOT a video game person), was instantly addicted and cried, "I've finally found my video game!"
posted by ikahime at 11:43 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
MrVisible: “[Against the Storm] is brilliant and uniquely fun, and so I just wiped out all my progress and started over. I've done that three times now, getting to where I pretty much have to sacrifice people in order to keep going, and then I quit.”Ah, nuts.
I should have mentioned my card game of choice is Pinochle. I keep a pinochle deck around, but if I want to play, it'll probably have to be on BGA.
posted by ob1quixote at 11:53 AM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I've been playing Vintage Story again lately, as the recent update supports Macs really well (recently moved cross country with just a macbook pro, having ecycled the big heavy PC).
Vintage Story is like the Dark Souls of Minecraft. Recently, I was chasing a boar (for food), only to see that it had led me to a pack of wolves. So, I turned around to run away, only to see a brush fire back near my homestead. So, I ran back there, only to realize that it was my pit kiln (was making some clay molds and a crucible for smelting later) that had caused it. While I was trying to put it out, I caught on fire, and accidentally spread the fire to the fence around my farm. So, this ended up burning all of my crops and I had to start over and am hoping I'll have enough food to survive the coming winter.
Basically, it's how i unwind
posted by destructive cactus at 11:58 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
Vintage Story is like the Dark Souls of Minecraft. Recently, I was chasing a boar (for food), only to see that it had led me to a pack of wolves. So, I turned around to run away, only to see a brush fire back near my homestead. So, I ran back there, only to realize that it was my pit kiln (was making some clay molds and a crucible for smelting later) that had caused it. While I was trying to put it out, I caught on fire, and accidentally spread the fire to the fence around my farm. So, this ended up burning all of my crops and I had to start over and am hoping I'll have enough food to survive the coming winter.
Basically, it's how i unwind
posted by destructive cactus at 11:58 AM on January 22 [5 favorites]
I just looked up Unmatched. Reimplements Star Wars: Epic Duels? Is probably great. I still have a bunch of Epic Duels copies. Was a very fun game. And Rob Daviau, who did Heroscape and many other, (some not so great), great games.
Only played Caverna once JHarris, thought it was OK. Agricola with all the nasty shaved off. A Feast just looks like too much. Thrifted and then traded Le Havre for similar reasons. Have a hard time these days grinding through these Euros...
Most of my life has been games. Dad taught me chess and Gin, and Cribbage early on. My maternal grandparents taught me Bridge. I used to pour through the Catalogues we got in the mail, to find the games section. Then I found wargames with lots of rules, oh my. And then I found all the OG Euro-games. My oh my!
And, now I have way too many, don't do kickstarter, and am pretty burnt out on "new board games". But I still hit the goodwill several times a day. Sigh...
And I am not really sure why I was so attracted to games in all my memory. But, games got me.
I have never played on BGA, though I have played on yucata.de . Is BGA real-time only? I think TTS borders on stealing in many cases, so won't do that. I only Vassal games I own, so that works for me. If I weren't a gamer, I would never have met meinvt 20 years or so ago, time flies, or my Combat Mission friend in Finland!, which gives interesting perspectives on world events, or my current vassal partner, who lives in Minnesota, (where I lived for years), or all of those great Atlanta gamers I have been able to convention with, who have always treated me like family, which is weird because I live in Seattle. And drive to Atlanta for their convention. So it's already weird that I am there, but they are pretty much okay with it all. Good folks.
Well, I could type for hours about games, but I will stop. Have to take my turn in Hands in the Sea
posted by Windopaene at 12:03 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
Only played Caverna once JHarris, thought it was OK. Agricola with all the nasty shaved off. A Feast just looks like too much. Thrifted and then traded Le Havre for similar reasons. Have a hard time these days grinding through these Euros...
Most of my life has been games. Dad taught me chess and Gin, and Cribbage early on. My maternal grandparents taught me Bridge. I used to pour through the Catalogues we got in the mail, to find the games section. Then I found wargames with lots of rules, oh my. And then I found all the OG Euro-games. My oh my!
And, now I have way too many, don't do kickstarter, and am pretty burnt out on "new board games". But I still hit the goodwill several times a day. Sigh...
And I am not really sure why I was so attracted to games in all my memory. But, games got me.
I have never played on BGA, though I have played on yucata.de . Is BGA real-time only? I think TTS borders on stealing in many cases, so won't do that. I only Vassal games I own, so that works for me. If I weren't a gamer, I would never have met meinvt 20 years or so ago, time flies, or my Combat Mission friend in Finland!, which gives interesting perspectives on world events, or my current vassal partner, who lives in Minnesota, (where I lived for years), or all of those great Atlanta gamers I have been able to convention with, who have always treated me like family, which is weird because I live in Seattle. And drive to Atlanta for their convention. So it's already weird that I am there, but they are pretty much okay with it all. Good folks.
Well, I could type for hours about games, but I will stop. Have to take my turn in Hands in the Sea
posted by Windopaene at 12:03 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
I'd like to play boardgames with my family. Unfortunately my son is not the sort of person that can happen with.
So I game on my computer, and for the past couple of months that's been 100% Dyson Sphere Program. Best thing to come out of China since noodles!
posted by sotonohito at 12:12 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
So I game on my computer, and for the past couple of months that's been 100% Dyson Sphere Program. Best thing to come out of China since noodles!
posted by sotonohito at 12:12 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
I'd like to play boardgames with my family. Unfortunately my son is not the sort of person that can happen with.
HeroZero jr. recently aged into being able to play board games (i.e. only has a meltdown about losing if he's very, very tired). Labyrinth has been the game of choice in recent weeks. It has enough spatial reasoning to keep the grownups engaged and enough randomness to make kid wins possible. HeroZero jr. and I painted the little player pawn minis together, which was fun.
posted by HeroZero at 12:23 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
HeroZero jr. recently aged into being able to play board games (i.e. only has a meltdown about losing if he's very, very tired). Labyrinth has been the game of choice in recent weeks. It has enough spatial reasoning to keep the grownups engaged and enough randomness to make kid wins possible. HeroZero jr. and I painted the little player pawn minis together, which was fun.
posted by HeroZero at 12:23 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I'm playing so much Ark Nova right now, though in the last week it's only been against the ARNO bot.
Also, I had some Couchsurfers last week, and they needed lighter fare. So I introduced them to stuff like Splendor before I ramped them up to Seasons on their last night. (The actual rules of Seasons aren't that hard, but it's one of those "These cards all do different things" games that my wife dislikes.)
Is BGA real-time only?
No, they have real-time games and asynchronous games that are basically glorified play-by-email where you go whenever it's your turn. I think the game will close if nobody makes a move in like a month or so, but that's reasonable.
posted by parliboy at 12:25 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Also, I had some Couchsurfers last week, and they needed lighter fare. So I introduced them to stuff like Splendor before I ramped them up to Seasons on their last night. (The actual rules of Seasons aren't that hard, but it's one of those "These cards all do different things" games that my wife dislikes.)
Is BGA real-time only?
No, they have real-time games and asynchronous games that are basically glorified play-by-email where you go whenever it's your turn. I think the game will close if nobody makes a move in like a month or so, but that's reasonable.
posted by parliboy at 12:25 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
BGA allows real-time and turn-based, and only one person in your group needs Premium in order for the whole group to play the Premium-tier games.
posted by McBearclaw at 12:26 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
posted by McBearclaw at 12:26 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
I've developed a robust addiction to board games over the past few years, and have amassed a decent collection; I've always liked video games, but there's something appealing and soothing about the physical presence of a board game, the tactile quality. And modern games can have some beautiful and impressive components.
Unfortunately, I'm only able to get a group together to game, maybe once or twice a year? My girlfriend will play some two player with me, but even that isn't often enough to satisfy me. Board Game Arena is a nice option, but again, that loses the appeal of the physical presence.
So I've really gotten into solo gaming, and have a rule that I can't buy a new game unless it has a solid solo mode (either in the box, or a well reviewed fan-made variant. Lot's can be found on boardgamegeek). Luckily solo gaming seems to be on the rise in general, and many games these days are designed with that in mind. Some of my favorites have been Final Girl (solo only!), Star Wars Outer Rim, Cthulhu: Death May Die, and Spirit Island (the latter two are co-op games that work really well solo).
There's so many great games that work solo nowadays, I'm having to introduce another, painful rule - one game in, one game out. I can't buy a new board game unless I get rid of one first. Shelf space is at a premium.
posted by Roommate at 12:28 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Unfortunately, I'm only able to get a group together to game, maybe once or twice a year? My girlfriend will play some two player with me, but even that isn't often enough to satisfy me. Board Game Arena is a nice option, but again, that loses the appeal of the physical presence.
So I've really gotten into solo gaming, and have a rule that I can't buy a new game unless it has a solid solo mode (either in the box, or a well reviewed fan-made variant. Lot's can be found on boardgamegeek). Luckily solo gaming seems to be on the rise in general, and many games these days are designed with that in mind. Some of my favorites have been Final Girl (solo only!), Star Wars Outer Rim, Cthulhu: Death May Die, and Spirit Island (the latter two are co-op games that work really well solo).
There's so many great games that work solo nowadays, I'm having to introduce another, painful rule - one game in, one game out. I can't buy a new board game unless I get rid of one first. Shelf space is at a premium.
posted by Roommate at 12:28 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Never got into Wordle, but started playing Thrice over the holidays and have cajoled my private Facebook group into playing along. A couple of them do reasonably well, but I fear I have overestimated the intelligence of several old friends. Same happened with Connections - I find it ridiculously easy, but my friends seem to struggle with it much more. Probably going to have to give up on both before they all decide I am showing off and abandon me.
I have been a Civilization addict for the last 25 years, but started playing Old World last summer and haven't touched Civ in months. When Civ VII finally makes an appearance, I am 100% sure I will go back to it, but for now Old World is the only 4x game I am playing.
Even though I like board games, I feel like I am about 10-15 years too old to be accepted by board gamers, who all seem to be late GenXers and old Millennials. I read about a new Game Night at a local community center just a few minutes from my house, and for about 30 seconds thought about going, but that age barrier is real.
posted by briank at 12:28 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I have been a Civilization addict for the last 25 years, but started playing Old World last summer and haven't touched Civ in months. When Civ VII finally makes an appearance, I am 100% sure I will go back to it, but for now Old World is the only 4x game I am playing.
Even though I like board games, I feel like I am about 10-15 years too old to be accepted by board gamers, who all seem to be late GenXers and old Millennials. I read about a new Game Night at a local community center just a few minutes from my house, and for about 30 seconds thought about going, but that age barrier is real.
posted by briank at 12:28 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
My wife and I are semi-fiercely competitive at Metazooa. Mostly we play our own games but in each others' company. People keep giving us card and board games that require 3-4 players and we're like... we don't have any friends who are local and have time anymore.
So I just realized another side benefit of my parents moving to town in a few weeks: they're into Exploding Kittens and Banangrams, and maybe we can convince them to try Azul, Gloomhaven and other things we've never gotten a chance to try yet. And the occasional Wii Sports night too!
My current game lineup is Slay the Spire (I stink, can't get past Ascension 9 but I keep trying)
I think I've done the heart-stabby thing maybe 3 times? I usually lose way before that. None of this Ascension stuff. So no, you don't stink at it, I stink at it.
posted by Foosnark at 12:36 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
So I just realized another side benefit of my parents moving to town in a few weeks: they're into Exploding Kittens and Banangrams, and maybe we can convince them to try Azul, Gloomhaven and other things we've never gotten a chance to try yet. And the occasional Wii Sports night too!
My current game lineup is Slay the Spire (I stink, can't get past Ascension 9 but I keep trying)
I think I've done the heart-stabby thing maybe 3 times? I usually lose way before that. None of this Ascension stuff. So no, you don't stink at it, I stink at it.
posted by Foosnark at 12:36 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
For people who like to find words: cell tower
posted by farlukar at 12:54 PM on January 22 [4 favorites]
posted by farlukar at 12:54 PM on January 22 [4 favorites]
I bought some guitar strings yesterday. I have a guitar that I pull out of the closet every now and then with the intention of teaching myself. I usually quit in frustration, thinking there must be something different about my fingers. Lots of "my fingers are supposed to be there? Not possible! I need several more finger joints!" and the like. Last time, I tuned wrongly and broke a string. So I got some new ones and shall restring my guitar and get back on that horse. I would really like to play a full song one day, rather than just pick at random chords.
posted by zardoz at 12:55 PM on January 22 [7 favorites]
posted by zardoz at 12:55 PM on January 22 [7 favorites]
I've been playing Warcraft: Rumble on mobile a ton recently...it's addicting.
posted by schyler523 at 12:57 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
posted by schyler523 at 12:57 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
zardoz: learning guitar is simple but really difficult.
I don't know what you mean by "play a full song" but I do know that you can learn one chord, where you fingers go with that, and then take you hand away from the neck and put your fingers down and find that chord again, and you can work that until you can do that, and then you have a second cord and you work to move back and forth between them and you add a third chord and by the time you can shift back and forth between all those, you've probably got Michael Row The Boat Ashore under your fingertips.
posted by hippybear at 1:01 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
I don't know what you mean by "play a full song" but I do know that you can learn one chord, where you fingers go with that, and then take you hand away from the neck and put your fingers down and find that chord again, and you can work that until you can do that, and then you have a second cord and you work to move back and forth between them and you add a third chord and by the time you can shift back and forth between all those, you've probably got Michael Row The Boat Ashore under your fingertips.
posted by hippybear at 1:01 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
My husband and I play NYT Connections and Wordle every day. Most of my gaming is done while I sit on the couch and watch TV with my husband, as I get really restless trying to just do that. I play Angry Birds Dream Blast almost every day, as it's really great to fill 1-2 minutes at a time (jenfullmoon, if you haven't tried this, you should!). I also play Animal Crossing (I swiped one of my kids' game cards), but I struggle with the thing that has always been a problem for me with games that have a daily component, which is fearing that I have missed out when (inevitably, as an adult and a parent) I can't play every day. I have a completionist/perfectionist streak that gets in the way and has made me bounce off other games in the past (I'm looking at you, Kingdom of Loathing!).
posted by Night_owl at 1:02 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
posted by Night_owl at 1:02 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
My sister recently hosted a Bring Your Favorite Childhood Game night. It was hilarious and strangely evocative to play things like Mille Bournes, Stadium Checkers, Password and “Chinese’” Checkers (Sternhalma).
posted by kinnakeet at 1:14 PM on January 22 [5 favorites]
posted by kinnakeet at 1:14 PM on January 22 [5 favorites]
I feel your pain zardoz. Learn the easy chords. E, A, D, G (I cheat on G with my thumb). C is good too, but tougher. F sucks. Try the E bar up the neck where you need it. That's a lot of songs right there. Em is easy, as is Am. Play through your mistakes.
posted by Windopaene at 1:15 PM on January 22 [4 favorites]
posted by Windopaene at 1:15 PM on January 22 [4 favorites]
I have been spending so much time building exhibits in Planet Zoo lately. Very soothing: not only can I pause time if I want to, but I can build beautiful spaces that are also functional for the animals to inhabit them. It's really nice.
posted by sciatrix at 1:17 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
posted by sciatrix at 1:17 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
I start most mornings with: Wordle, Flagle, Worldle, Mathler. and Nerdle.
I used to play in chess tournaments, but it feels like my brain's not what it used to be, so that's frustrating.
As far as sitting around playing games with family and/or friends, I find I have a hard time finding an appropriate line between a competition and a game.
I find it's best for me to play a mindless, non-competitive game. Cards Against Humanity works for me.
I also play a lot of table tennis, but that's definitely more competition than game.
posted by MtDewd at 1:22 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
I used to play in chess tournaments, but it feels like my brain's not what it used to be, so that's frustrating.
As far as sitting around playing games with family and/or friends, I find I have a hard time finding an appropriate line between a competition and a game.
I find it's best for me to play a mindless, non-competitive game. Cards Against Humanity works for me.
I also play a lot of table tennis, but that's definitely more competition than game.
posted by MtDewd at 1:22 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
some of my first coherent memories were spent pondering the insidious mysteries of the Original Master Mind packaging
posted by elkevelvet at 1:23 PM on January 22 [4 favorites]
posted by elkevelvet at 1:23 PM on January 22 [4 favorites]
Cards Against Humanity works for me.
I abandoned that over a decade ago when I saw how cruel it was at its core, but I won't stop you from enjoying it without me.
posted by hippybear at 1:24 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
I abandoned that over a decade ago when I saw how cruel it was at its core, but I won't stop you from enjoying it without me.
posted by hippybear at 1:24 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
The old guy is the Master Mind, so he gets the young, exotic, chick?
You know he has a British accent, right?
So much weirdness and cringe
posted by Windopaene at 1:28 PM on January 22
You know he has a British accent, right?
So much weirdness and cringe
posted by Windopaene at 1:28 PM on January 22
Want to get into the weird marketing of Master Mind?
Here's a 1975 television commercial, from just a few years after Master Mind went onto the market.
I guess the old guy on the box was a hairdresser.
I have memories of other much weirder Master Mind television commercials but haven't found any of them yet.
posted by hippybear at 1:40 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
Here's a 1975 television commercial, from just a few years after Master Mind went onto the market.
I guess the old guy on the box was a hairdresser.
I have memories of other much weirder Master Mind television commercials but haven't found any of them yet.
posted by hippybear at 1:40 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
Grumpybearbride and I decided at the beginning of the pandemic that we missed bar trivia, so I built a website - triviarobot.com - on which trivia could be hosted and played in concert with a videoconferencing app. We had weekly games without a break for 3 years, during which time we had 1, 2 and 3 year anniversary celebrations (one of which included custom branded glassware, one of which involved a special Cameo from Mark McGrath), a mini convention in Las Vegas (called TROBCon) for which custom schwag was produced (a gift bag, a poker chip, postcards), and got to see kids who were basically newborn infants when we started playing grow up and learn to walk and talk and have opinions. We are very good friends with many people we didn't know at all prior to making that site. And we still play! Just every other week now, instead of weekly. The hard party, truly, is coming up with a new trivia every week - something grumpybearbride is incredibly good at. I'm just the Ron Burgundy of the team, honestly, now that all of the tech stuff is stable.
Also: I haven't played it in a long time, but just today I was thinking about Jumpman on the C64 and what an amazing game it was.
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:05 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
Also: I haven't played it in a long time, but just today I was thinking about Jumpman on the C64 and what an amazing game it was.
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:05 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
Trivia Robot is.. sleeping?
posted by elkevelvet at 2:08 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
posted by elkevelvet at 2:08 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Trivia Robot is.. sleeping?
It is! Because I can't afford a CDN, and I didn't want to deal with hardening it against hackers or a DDoS, the easiest thing for me to do is to turn the system off between games. In which case, the robot is indeed sleeping!
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:12 PM on January 22 [4 favorites]
It is! Because I can't afford a CDN, and I didn't want to deal with hardening it against hackers or a DDoS, the easiest thing for me to do is to turn the system off between games. In which case, the robot is indeed sleeping!
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:12 PM on January 22 [4 favorites]
but just today I was thinking about Jumpman on the C64 and what an amazing game it was.
Okay, there were two.
The one I loved was the one that had ladders and platforms and a ridiculously long fail animation if you fell off a level.
And it was an amazing game.
I did not play the other Jumpman and was maybe 40 when I learned there was a second one...
posted by hippybear at 2:12 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
Okay, there were two.
The one I loved was the one that had ladders and platforms and a ridiculously long fail animation if you fell off a level.
And it was an amazing game.
I did not play the other Jumpman and was maybe 40 when I learned there was a second one...
posted by hippybear at 2:12 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
We are fans of the same game! The one by Epyx, written by Randy Glover. Which other one are you thinking of? Jumpman Junior?
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:14 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:14 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
Trivia Robot is just getting up please wait until it has its coffee before asking Trivia Robot any questions seriously please not yet
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:21 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
posted by AzraelBrown at 2:21 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
All I know there were two Jumpman games, I only played the one. It was decades later when I learned there was confusion.
posted by hippybear at 2:21 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
posted by hippybear at 2:21 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
grumpybear69, yes Jumpman is ludicrously brilliant and underrated. On Youtube there's a 58-minute talk by its creator Randy Glover, and Atari podcast ANTIC did their own 1 hour 58-minute interview with him!
posted by JHarris at 2:26 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
posted by JHarris at 2:26 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I played D&D in the stone ages, then got back into RPGs about five or six years ago. The real life gang I play with--the ones I'd consider friends in any context--is just awesome and we do D&D/Pathfinder. Often older editions, and usually with restricted rulebooks. That avoid the main thing I don't like about those games: the wild kitchen sink approach the publishing model drive them towards where every fantasy trope in every book exists in your one setting.
I started playing more during the pandemic, and outside my core group I find I enjoy other systems a lot more. I'm a big fan of Gumshoe games (Swords of the Serpentine, TimeWatch, Night's Black Agents, and others) which I find much easier to improvise in. A perverse part of me recently wants to try RuneQuest, which is almost the opposite in terms of crunchy rules (including hit locations and different armor ratings depending on whether you are wearing greaves and pauldroons . . . ) but has an imaginative setting.
I haven't done Brindlewood Bay yet, but I just got my kickstarter copy. I have played with a guy a who wrote one of the adventures in Nephews in Peril and am hoping my intro is a game where he runs his adventure.
I love boardgames too but tougher to schedule these days--at least RPGs can be remote.
posted by mark k at 2:27 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
I started playing more during the pandemic, and outside my core group I find I enjoy other systems a lot more. I'm a big fan of Gumshoe games (Swords of the Serpentine, TimeWatch, Night's Black Agents, and others) which I find much easier to improvise in. A perverse part of me recently wants to try RuneQuest, which is almost the opposite in terms of crunchy rules (including hit locations and different armor ratings depending on whether you are wearing greaves and pauldroons . . . ) but has an imaginative setting.
I haven't done Brindlewood Bay yet, but I just got my kickstarter copy. I have played with a guy a who wrote one of the adventures in Nephews in Peril and am hoping my intro is a game where he runs his adventure.
I love boardgames too but tougher to schedule these days--at least RPGs can be remote.
posted by mark k at 2:27 PM on January 22 [3 favorites]
I should also mention that grumpybearbride also did all of the visual and user interface design for the site, including the logo and font. She is very talented! So I misspoke when I said that I built the site, because it was 100% a collaborative effort, and without her it would still look and feel like... well, something designed by a software developer who thought UI was "easy to do."
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:28 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:28 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I'm on record as hating games, which has been a real sticking point in my friend group in ways that my distaste for theater, fiber crafts, library science, and cooking somehow have not. (How did I end up with a friend group that is so homogeneously and diametrically opposed to my interests? Your guess is as good as mine.) I can resign myself to the odd game of Connect Four at the bar, or a single round of Superfight at the holidays for the sake of family comity. But heaven preserve me from a whole party centered around a game of some kind.
That said, my nibling loves Battleship with the passion of a thousand suns, and because it is the only passionate love that isn't "endless screen time" I feel somewhat obligated to indulge. The kid is not good at Battleship! And does not give a damn about my Hunt for Red October voices. But I will not stop doing the voices, and eventually the kid will get better at the game probably. So now I have a board game in my house, and presumably here to stay.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 2:44 PM on January 22 [5 favorites]
That said, my nibling loves Battleship with the passion of a thousand suns, and because it is the only passionate love that isn't "endless screen time" I feel somewhat obligated to indulge. The kid is not good at Battleship! And does not give a damn about my Hunt for Red October voices. But I will not stop doing the voices, and eventually the kid will get better at the game probably. So now I have a board game in my house, and presumably here to stay.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 2:44 PM on January 22 [5 favorites]
I was on the radio twice in the run-up to Christmas with recommendations for good new family games, but was completely unable to persuade my family to play anything over the festive season.
This last bit is me as well. For my sins, I have married into a family of non-gamers, and save for an occasional round or two of Splendor or Azul (maybe twice a year), I have to look elsewhere for game gratification.
I was running a fantasy TTRPG in 2019 or so but some pandemic put paid to that. After a few weeks of waiting the lockdown out, we switched to an online version, and have been doing that ever since. The old game advanced for basically one pandemic's worth of play, the characters got more and more powerful, and ended up saving the world.
Hard to think of a followup to that, se we retired those ones and started again with some more novice characters -- I mentioned recently on the site the new game.
Thing is, I have never liked the 'you all meet in a tavern' trope, so we all talked before character generation about what kind of framework the thing would have -- how do the characters all know each other? After some discussion, they decided they'd be a travelling troupe of theatrical players. Cool. We built some characters, with a decent assortment of non-combat skills, and got characters who were performers, a barker, a teamster to look after the horses, etc.
Once I started the game, I gradually ascertained that the travelling players thing was not a front for being murder hoboes -- they really wanted to wander around doing performances on the village common and passing the hat.
The first adventure, put into motion before I fully grasped this, was a kind of standard trouble-in-a-small-village thing. Several villagers have vanished, there were signs of violence, rumours of a monster in the woods. The local lord had tried without success to track down the creature and now the peasants were revolting (heh) because he clearly couldn't keep them safe while they harvested the fields.
In a standard sort of game, the PCs go looking for the monster. Here, they decided to write and perform a play to embarrass the local lord into action. Okay!
In the previous game, one character was a bard, chronicling their deeds in song. I used to tell the player, "I'll give you a +1 on your Musical Composition roll if you come up with a good title for your song." I did the same thing here; the goblin playwright's player sent me a scene-by-scene breakdown of the play: what characters appeared in which scenes, what songs were performed, what special effects the illusionist needed to provide. That was above and beyond.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:55 PM on January 22 [7 favorites]
This last bit is me as well. For my sins, I have married into a family of non-gamers, and save for an occasional round or two of Splendor or Azul (maybe twice a year), I have to look elsewhere for game gratification.
I was running a fantasy TTRPG in 2019 or so but some pandemic put paid to that. After a few weeks of waiting the lockdown out, we switched to an online version, and have been doing that ever since. The old game advanced for basically one pandemic's worth of play, the characters got more and more powerful, and ended up saving the world.
Hard to think of a followup to that, se we retired those ones and started again with some more novice characters -- I mentioned recently on the site the new game.
Thing is, I have never liked the 'you all meet in a tavern' trope, so we all talked before character generation about what kind of framework the thing would have -- how do the characters all know each other? After some discussion, they decided they'd be a travelling troupe of theatrical players. Cool. We built some characters, with a decent assortment of non-combat skills, and got characters who were performers, a barker, a teamster to look after the horses, etc.
Once I started the game, I gradually ascertained that the travelling players thing was not a front for being murder hoboes -- they really wanted to wander around doing performances on the village common and passing the hat.
The first adventure, put into motion before I fully grasped this, was a kind of standard trouble-in-a-small-village thing. Several villagers have vanished, there were signs of violence, rumours of a monster in the woods. The local lord had tried without success to track down the creature and now the peasants were revolting (heh) because he clearly couldn't keep them safe while they harvested the fields.
In a standard sort of game, the PCs go looking for the monster. Here, they decided to write and perform a play to embarrass the local lord into action. Okay!
In the previous game, one character was a bard, chronicling their deeds in song. I used to tell the player, "I'll give you a +1 on your Musical Composition roll if you come up with a good title for your song." I did the same thing here; the goblin playwright's player sent me a scene-by-scene breakdown of the play: what characters appeared in which scenes, what songs were performed, what special effects the illusionist needed to provide. That was above and beyond.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:55 PM on January 22 [7 favorites]
I also got into boardgames during the pandemic and I am pretty deep into the rabbit hole now. Thankfully my partner got into it just as much. I always knew that it was something I'd enjoy I just somehow never got around to trying it in a serious way. My initial gateway was the digital version of Onirim. Our current comfort zone is mid-weight euros. It's a huge hobby with lots to explore.
posted by donio at 2:57 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
posted by donio at 2:57 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Thanks for the kind words/commiseration. As far as the group goes, it’s a group of long time friends that I’ve only just met, aside from the one guy who invited me, so I don’t want to mess with their thing, but also there’s added pressure that if I leave, they’ll need to find another player.
Past that, any kind of rpg is hard as hell to coordinate. I don’t know a ton of other people here who play, and the time difference makes it next to impossible to play with people elsewhere. Seeing people mentioning the different games there in (hell, Vampire the Masquerade takes me back) is awesome, but also very much the kid standing outside the candy shop window for me.
When it was finally launched, I fell into Townscaper in a big way, quickly realizing its full glory was as a city planner for DnD urban campaigns, and put together several little maps with stories behind each part (my floating city arranged around a central tower, with communities circling different levels of the tower is my favorite). Even playing this (not great) game has gotten my daydreams to take on a more “what campaign would I run” flavor, to the point I’m off and on planning out a city-state campaign where the players get used to the setting enough that when the overall plot kicks in, the collapse of the city’s governing structure and essential no man’s land result turns it into a campaign of trying to figure out who or what was behind the upheaval, while trying to rescue friends they’ve made from the little fiefdoms that have sprung up, and trying to defend the places that have set themselves up as safe zones from incursions by, for instance, the remnants of the city watch, the merchant’s guild, etc. It’s pretty involved already, but part of me needs to accept that it’s largely something that, if I do it, it’ll be just for me, as I’m not likely to find a group to play it with.
Aside from that, an old laptop keeps me from playing most new games, but XCom 2 is the game I play when I can get the time. On PS4, I’ve fallen into finally getting around to Borderlands 3 but I think I’m about to throw in the towel. It has very little of the charm of the first two, and I’m not crazy about the newer stuff. That, and not having people to play with means doing it all solo, which is not really the point of the game. For the most part, the non-boss gameplay is the kind of mindless shooter that it’s easy enough to unwind to, if you can ignore the story, but then the side missions are annoyingly dumb (go get some coffee?). Avoiding them means my character isn’t at a high enough level to face the main mission bosses. Not a great game, really.
(Nthing Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West for anyone who hasn’t played them, though)
posted by Ghidorah at 3:15 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Past that, any kind of rpg is hard as hell to coordinate. I don’t know a ton of other people here who play, and the time difference makes it next to impossible to play with people elsewhere. Seeing people mentioning the different games there in (hell, Vampire the Masquerade takes me back) is awesome, but also very much the kid standing outside the candy shop window for me.
When it was finally launched, I fell into Townscaper in a big way, quickly realizing its full glory was as a city planner for DnD urban campaigns, and put together several little maps with stories behind each part (my floating city arranged around a central tower, with communities circling different levels of the tower is my favorite). Even playing this (not great) game has gotten my daydreams to take on a more “what campaign would I run” flavor, to the point I’m off and on planning out a city-state campaign where the players get used to the setting enough that when the overall plot kicks in, the collapse of the city’s governing structure and essential no man’s land result turns it into a campaign of trying to figure out who or what was behind the upheaval, while trying to rescue friends they’ve made from the little fiefdoms that have sprung up, and trying to defend the places that have set themselves up as safe zones from incursions by, for instance, the remnants of the city watch, the merchant’s guild, etc. It’s pretty involved already, but part of me needs to accept that it’s largely something that, if I do it, it’ll be just for me, as I’m not likely to find a group to play it with.
Aside from that, an old laptop keeps me from playing most new games, but XCom 2 is the game I play when I can get the time. On PS4, I’ve fallen into finally getting around to Borderlands 3 but I think I’m about to throw in the towel. It has very little of the charm of the first two, and I’m not crazy about the newer stuff. That, and not having people to play with means doing it all solo, which is not really the point of the game. For the most part, the non-boss gameplay is the kind of mindless shooter that it’s easy enough to unwind to, if you can ignore the story, but then the side missions are annoyingly dumb (go get some coffee?). Avoiding them means my character isn’t at a high enough level to face the main mission bosses. Not a great game, really.
(Nthing Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West for anyone who hasn’t played them, though)
posted by Ghidorah at 3:15 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
After a lifetime of playing D&D I'm now really enjoying Pathfinder 2. That plus Gloomhaven (specifically Frosthaven right now) and City of Heroes is keeping me occupied.
posted by PennD at 3:47 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
posted by PennD at 3:47 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Cards Against Humanity works for me.
hippybear- I abandoned that over a decade ago when I saw how cruel it was at its core, but I won't stop you from enjoying it without me.
hmmm- maybe I was playing the kid's version. It's raunchy but not cruel, at least the way my family plays it, and we're kinda sensitive.
It's one of my favorite things to do with my 11-y/o granddaughter.
posted by MtDewd at 3:54 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
hippybear- I abandoned that over a decade ago when I saw how cruel it was at its core, but I won't stop you from enjoying it without me.
hmmm- maybe I was playing the kid's version. It's raunchy but not cruel, at least the way my family plays it, and we're kinda sensitive.
It's one of my favorite things to do with my 11-y/o granddaughter.
posted by MtDewd at 3:54 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
A few years ago somebody in my friend group brought Cards Against Humanity to a game meetup when it was still new; we really got into it and just avoided playing the really nasty and gross cards. Eventually I bought my own deck and a few of the expansion packs, weeded out the ones I didn't like, and even got a bunch of both black and white blank cards, to add my own questions and answers (which was a lot of fun!).
Unfortunately that all transpired just as the group got bored with the game and stopped playing it...
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:22 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Unfortunately that all transpired just as the group got bored with the game and stopped playing it...
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:22 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
My twin sibling was very good at games and basically sucked all enjoyment out of them when we were kids because they were in it to win and i was not, so I don’t really play games as an adult as most people in my circle care about winning. Which is not my jam at all.
So the last games I played were Monument/Monument 2 and Machinarium. Occasionally I dip into the Washington Post crossword or an online jigsaw puzzle.
The PSO is playing the score to Fiddler with the movie next month. I’m trying to find someone to go with me (both spouse and child have refused). I would love to go with my dad, as the memory of him whistling along with the score while making chili when I was a child is burned into my brain. But even though he is staying sober and doing much better, he still has a tendency to forget things and I’ve learned to not make plans.
Sorry for the melancholy.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 4:33 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
So the last games I played were Monument/Monument 2 and Machinarium. Occasionally I dip into the Washington Post crossword or an online jigsaw puzzle.
The PSO is playing the score to Fiddler with the movie next month. I’m trying to find someone to go with me (both spouse and child have refused). I would love to go with my dad, as the memory of him whistling along with the score while making chili when I was a child is burned into my brain. But even though he is staying sober and doing much better, he still has a tendency to forget things and I’ve learned to not make plans.
Sorry for the melancholy.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 4:33 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Ah, I remember those years, HeroZero. I have so many great "kids games". I've been playing a lot of Labyrinth too, but, probably a different Labyrinth.
(And the "Master Labyrinth" just mucks things up, avoid.)
Or move up to RoboRally or Ricochet Robots.
Santorini is a sweet chess-like abstract, with some special powers. Also things like Hive, the awesome GIPF project games, (I like Dvonn the best, some I do dislike).
posted by Windopaene at 4:51 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
(And the "Master Labyrinth" just mucks things up, avoid.)
Or move up to RoboRally or Ricochet Robots.
Santorini is a sweet chess-like abstract, with some special powers. Also things like Hive, the awesome GIPF project games, (I like Dvonn the best, some I do dislike).
posted by Windopaene at 4:51 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
A few of you have mentioned dismay that it is difficult to persuade some friends and family to play games with you, or to persuade them to learn complicated rulesets for the sake of playing a game you have proposed.
In the world of librarianship there is a craft called reader advisory. It is the craft of learning more about a person and then being able to recommend and introduce a reader to a book they are likely to enjoy. What is that skill called in games, and do you have favorite resources on how to learn it?
Relatedly:
At least one of you has said
"A couple of them do reasonably well, but I fear I have overestimated the intelligence of several old friends. Same happened with Connections - I find it ridiculously easy, but my friends seem to struggle with it much more. Probably going to have to give up on both before they all decide I am showing off and abandon me."
Another:
"As far as sitting around playing games with family and/or friends, I find I have a hard time finding an appropriate line between a competition and a game.
I find it's best for me to play a mindless, non-competitive game. Cards Against Humanity works for me."
I request that you consider changing your point of view on the relationship between caring about and being able to do well at a specific kind of game and the thing you are calling intelligence, and on what different skills are employed in different games (I notice the improvisational speaking skills involved in Cards Against Humanity and wouldn't call that game mindless the way an entirely deterministic game like Snakes and Ladders is).
I am intelligent in ways that often don't show up the way people who really love puzzle-y games expect it should, so I particularly notice this sort of thing.
posted by brainwane at 5:16 PM on January 22 [7 favorites]
In the world of librarianship there is a craft called reader advisory. It is the craft of learning more about a person and then being able to recommend and introduce a reader to a book they are likely to enjoy. What is that skill called in games, and do you have favorite resources on how to learn it?
Relatedly:
At least one of you has said
"A couple of them do reasonably well, but I fear I have overestimated the intelligence of several old friends. Same happened with Connections - I find it ridiculously easy, but my friends seem to struggle with it much more. Probably going to have to give up on both before they all decide I am showing off and abandon me."
Another:
"As far as sitting around playing games with family and/or friends, I find I have a hard time finding an appropriate line between a competition and a game.
I find it's best for me to play a mindless, non-competitive game. Cards Against Humanity works for me."
I request that you consider changing your point of view on the relationship between caring about and being able to do well at a specific kind of game and the thing you are calling intelligence, and on what different skills are employed in different games (I notice the improvisational speaking skills involved in Cards Against Humanity and wouldn't call that game mindless the way an entirely deterministic game like Snakes and Ladders is).
I am intelligent in ways that often don't show up the way people who really love puzzle-y games expect it should, so I particularly notice this sort of thing.
posted by brainwane at 5:16 PM on January 22 [7 favorites]
Solo: I'm hooked on backgammon -- GNU on the desktop, Backgammon NJ on mobile.
But mostly I'm two player with the SO: Cribbage, Scrabble, Carcassonne, Catan Card Game, Ticket to Ride
Games that we like with the kids: Hearts, Euchre, Azul, Alhambra, Splendor, Sherlock Holmes Master Detective, Alhambra
I also am in two long-running D&D games, online (sadly, prefer live).
posted by 4CFCFF at 5:39 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
But mostly I'm two player with the SO: Cribbage, Scrabble, Carcassonne, Catan Card Game, Ticket to Ride
Games that we like with the kids: Hearts, Euchre, Azul, Alhambra, Splendor, Sherlock Holmes Master Detective, Alhambra
I also am in two long-running D&D games, online (sadly, prefer live).
posted by 4CFCFF at 5:39 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
I play League of Legends several nights a week with close friends and have ongoing Stellaris games involving about five people (we have a bunch because a different combination of people show up most nights). I’m essentially a social gamer - when I’m alone I’m more likely to be reading - but games have really been great for keeping in touch and having fun with people who physically I don’t often get to see.
posted by AdamCSnider at 5:49 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
posted by AdamCSnider at 5:49 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Lately I've been playing a lot of Yomi 2 on Steam, which is basically a hybrid card-game-fighting-game. It's pretty cool, I think! Lots of that I-know-you-know-I-know mindgames stuff, and they recently added some very cool QoL features, like tracking information known to each player. This means that you can click a little thing to see what cards you would be able to know for certain the opponent has (i.e. based on fixed starting hand cards, and also cards you've seen go into their hand from discard or returning to hand), but maybe the coolest part of that is that it also works for letting you get a little reminder of what the opponent knows for sure about your hand, and what you could potentially catch them by surprise with.
Anyway, I like it! It's pretty good.
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:07 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
Anyway, I like it! It's pretty good.
posted by DoctorFedora at 6:07 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I request that you consider changing your point of view on the relationship between caring about and being able to do well at a specific kind of game and the thing you are calling intelligence, and on what different skills are employed in different games
My wife is a big ol' nerd for history and literature and she's one of the smartest people I know but she doesn't play board games. Every once in a while she'll accompany me to a board game night and she declines to play a game because she doesn't know the rules and the person offering will say something like "it's a basic worker placement with light deck-building and a BSG-style betrayal mechanic" as though those words will mean anything to her.
It's very easy when you've been marinating in a subculture for a bit to forget how intimidating it can be from an outside perspective, especially to people who aren't kids anymore and are maybe out of the practice of trying to learn new skills in front of an audience.
I played my first TTRPG in 1992 and attended my first LARP in 1996 and I'm sure part of the reason I took to it is because by high school standards it was so much more accessible to me than the other versions of socializing available to me, but by adult standards it's pretty wild and I try to be mindful of that.
If you've been in TTRPGs or LARPing or deep in adjacent communities for a long time it feels completely reasonable for someone to respond to your asking if you can play in their game with a 264 page rule book and a 97 page appendices and a laughing "not even remotely" when you ask if those are all of the rules. That's... kind of crazy?
Coming into it can feel hard, especially with LARP because it's a confluence of four to six different hobbies (gaming, improv, costuming, camping, etc.) and any one of them can trip you up. Boardgames and TTRPGs aren't a whole lot easier than that unless you're the sort of person for whom they were always going to be easy. I have a great deal of respect for anyone who gets out of their comfort zone to pursue these hobbies.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:44 PM on January 22 [6 favorites]
My wife is a big ol' nerd for history and literature and she's one of the smartest people I know but she doesn't play board games. Every once in a while she'll accompany me to a board game night and she declines to play a game because she doesn't know the rules and the person offering will say something like "it's a basic worker placement with light deck-building and a BSG-style betrayal mechanic" as though those words will mean anything to her.
It's very easy when you've been marinating in a subculture for a bit to forget how intimidating it can be from an outside perspective, especially to people who aren't kids anymore and are maybe out of the practice of trying to learn new skills in front of an audience.
I played my first TTRPG in 1992 and attended my first LARP in 1996 and I'm sure part of the reason I took to it is because by high school standards it was so much more accessible to me than the other versions of socializing available to me, but by adult standards it's pretty wild and I try to be mindful of that.
If you've been in TTRPGs or LARPing or deep in adjacent communities for a long time it feels completely reasonable for someone to respond to your asking if you can play in their game with a 264 page rule book and a 97 page appendices and a laughing "not even remotely" when you ask if those are all of the rules. That's... kind of crazy?
Coming into it can feel hard, especially with LARP because it's a confluence of four to six different hobbies (gaming, improv, costuming, camping, etc.) and any one of them can trip you up. Boardgames and TTRPGs aren't a whole lot easier than that unless you're the sort of person for whom they were always going to be easy. I have a great deal of respect for anyone who gets out of their comfort zone to pursue these hobbies.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 8:44 PM on January 22 [6 favorites]
and the person offering will say something like "it's a basic worker placement with light deck-building and a BSG-style betrayal mechanic" as though those words will mean anything to her.
I can't even find four for bridge.
posted by hippybear at 9:05 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I can't even find four for bridge.
posted by hippybear at 9:05 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
And by that I mean, what the fuck is wrong with bridge, or its lesser cousin spades? Because they are both truly quality games and are easily played with pieces and parts easily acquired at nearly any gas station, but I don't see anyone talking about bridge anymore since Omar Sharif stopped his daily newspaper column which always felt kind of strange, because why the fuck is there a national if not global bridge puzzle article?
in summary, that deck of 52 cards is a world of possibilities.
posted by hippybear at 9:09 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
in summary, that deck of 52 cards is a world of possibilities.
posted by hippybear at 9:09 PM on January 22 [2 favorites]
I’m actually looking for a new onlin game now. I play remotely with a friend once a week. We played through Gloomhaven (first Jaws of the Lion, then the regular version), but now, hmm.
I suppose we could go back to our old practice of picking a random game on BGA, refusing to read the rules, and trying to work them out by playing and seeing what we could do and what the score was. That was a good metagame for a while.
posted by nat at 9:12 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
I suppose we could go back to our old practice of picking a random game on BGA, refusing to read the rules, and trying to work them out by playing and seeing what we could do and what the score was. That was a good metagame for a while.
posted by nat at 9:12 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
I wondered if anyone would mention bridge! I used to play contract every couple of weeks, but one of my four moved away, as did their replacement, and another is now disabled by age to the point where it's not much fun for him to play. It took me years (and starting to wear glasses) not to find it stressful, but I miss it now. Also, a friend gave me an antique trumps marker just at the point we stopped, so I've only been able to use it once.
Trivial Pursuit on the Xbox with my sister's family is fun though frustrating with the last minute-changes to who's winning (score versus wedges). I was foiled last time by a question about potatoes, which was very annoying.
Now I think I need to book a game of cards, maybe whist, with family this weekend.
posted by paduasoy at 11:58 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
Trivial Pursuit on the Xbox with my sister's family is fun though frustrating with the last minute-changes to who's winning (score versus wedges). I was foiled last time by a question about potatoes, which was very annoying.
Now I think I need to book a game of cards, maybe whist, with family this weekend.
posted by paduasoy at 11:58 PM on January 22 [1 favorite]
oh man, I know a guy who wants to learn contract bridge, but has had a lot of trouble with a lot of the signaling/communication rules, which he has described as being given a long list that explicitly lays out the various signals you can give to your partner, which you are strictly forbidden from actually doing
posted by DoctorFedora at 12:39 AM on January 23 [3 favorites]
posted by DoctorFedora at 12:39 AM on January 23 [3 favorites]
Mod note: [btw, this post and Wobbuffet's comment have been featured on the sidebar and Best Of blog!]
posted by taz (staff) at 4:20 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
posted by taz (staff) at 4:20 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
hippybear, I do better with boardgame or RPG rules than I do with basic card game rules. Not sure why, but always have. Some years ago I did bridge lessons with my wife and some friends, run by our area's bridge club. It was something I'd always wanted to do, in spite of/because of my relationship with cards, but of course the rules faded from my brain through lack of practice, and our little group never got it together to play after our 6-8 week introduction.
That said, for those with an interest in bridge, there are tools to find a game and/or learn to play. I had no idea there was a larger club in my area, but when we went to the semi-disused storefront where they host their meetings, it was packed, and with a surprising-to-me variation in age of players.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:36 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
That said, for those with an interest in bridge, there are tools to find a game and/or learn to play. I had no idea there was a larger club in my area, but when we went to the semi-disused storefront where they host their meetings, it was packed, and with a surprising-to-me variation in age of players.
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:36 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
Most evenings, we chill out on the couch with 80s TV streaming. I play Good Sudoku+, and the Slay the Spire on my iPad. My wife plays some match 3 game on her phone. Apple Arcade has just enough OK games to keep me from diving too deep into the quagmire that mobile gaming has become. Desktop and Console gaming used to pull at me, but I kind of like the slower evenings and less 'chore' oriented games I tend to play now.
Most Saturdays I play MTG with an old group of friends. We used to play D&D semi-regularly with another group of friends and their kid, but scheduling is -rough- across 5 adults and a now 15 year old.
posted by DigDoug at 5:17 AM on January 23 [2 favorites]
Most Saturdays I play MTG with an old group of friends. We used to play D&D semi-regularly with another group of friends and their kid, but scheduling is -rough- across 5 adults and a now 15 year old.
posted by DigDoug at 5:17 AM on January 23 [2 favorites]
....Holy crap, someone I know was just nominated for Best Actor in the Oscars today.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:53 AM on January 23 [10 favorites]
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:53 AM on January 23 [10 favorites]
CAH… It's one of my favorite things to do with my 11-y/o granddaughter.
Are you sure you weren’t playing Apples to Apples? It’s a sort-of kid-friendly game similar to CAH.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:53 AM on January 23 [2 favorites]
Are you sure you weren’t playing Apples to Apples? It’s a sort-of kid-friendly game similar to CAH.
posted by Thorzdad at 6:53 AM on January 23 [2 favorites]
I can't even find four for bridge.
A friend of mine is constantly lamenting that our friends will play a 62-hour board game with a hefty and ever-changing rule book but nobody will come to the brewery with her to play Euchre. Now, as I do keep telling her, that's at least partly because she doesn't live in Michigan anymore and none of us fuckin know what Euchre is. But I suspect she'd have as hard a time with any organized card game, if my partner's attempts to get a poker night together are any indication.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:18 AM on January 23 [2 favorites]
A friend of mine is constantly lamenting that our friends will play a 62-hour board game with a hefty and ever-changing rule book but nobody will come to the brewery with her to play Euchre. Now, as I do keep telling her, that's at least partly because she doesn't live in Michigan anymore and none of us fuckin know what Euchre is. But I suspect she'd have as hard a time with any organized card game, if my partner's attempts to get a poker night together are any indication.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 8:18 AM on January 23 [2 favorites]
I admit to being a bit bemused that some card games (like Arboretum or Parade) could essentially be played with a standard deck, but dropping 20 bucks on a custom deck and printed rules now makes them a legitimate entry in a "game day" in a way that Spades or Hearts no longer is.
I'm not complaining, I like both games and the art is great, but if I was a die hard cards player I could imagine being frustrated.
posted by mark k at 8:34 AM on January 23 [3 favorites]
I'm not complaining, I like both games and the art is great, but if I was a die hard cards player I could imagine being frustrated.
posted by mark k at 8:34 AM on January 23 [3 favorites]
I can't even find four for bridge.
I try and try to get the hang of bridge, but it just escapes my ability to grok. Dunno why. I'd really like to learn it.
................
A friend of mine is constantly lamenting that our friends will play a 62-hour board game with a hefty and ever-changing rule book but nobody will come to the brewery with her to play Euchre. Now, as I do keep telling her, that's at least partly because she doesn't live in Michigan anymore and none of us fuckin know what Euchre is.
That's a shame. A brewery (or brewpub) is a perfect spot for euchre, seeing as how a side of beer is more-or-less a requirement.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:38 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
I try and try to get the hang of bridge, but it just escapes my ability to grok. Dunno why. I'd really like to learn it.
................
A friend of mine is constantly lamenting that our friends will play a 62-hour board game with a hefty and ever-changing rule book but nobody will come to the brewery with her to play Euchre. Now, as I do keep telling her, that's at least partly because she doesn't live in Michigan anymore and none of us fuckin know what Euchre is.
That's a shame. A brewery (or brewpub) is a perfect spot for euchre, seeing as how a side of beer is more-or-less a requirement.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:38 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
I haven't played it in a long time, but just today I was thinking about Jumpman on the C64 and what an amazing game it was.
Epyx, Inc (or, at least, the entity who currently owns that name) has released Jumpman on Steam - wrappers for both the C64 and MSDOS versions to work on current Windows boxes.
They've also released a few other classic games this way, including Chip's Challenge, California Games, and Temple of Apshai.
posted by hanov3r at 8:42 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
Epyx, Inc (or, at least, the entity who currently owns that name) has released Jumpman on Steam - wrappers for both the C64 and MSDOS versions to work on current Windows boxes.
They've also released a few other classic games this way, including Chip's Challenge, California Games, and Temple of Apshai.
posted by hanov3r at 8:42 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
I used to collect board games, and as a result have far too many of them taking up space in my house. But no-one I play games with has the patience any more to learn a complicated new board game. It was getting to the point that every time I tried to introduce a new game, everyone's eyes would glaze over on page 3 of 25 or whatever of the rule book, and I would put it down and get out a deck of cards or an old standard board game instead.
So for years now, whenever I see a new game that looks interesting I think to myself is this likely to be better or more fun than playing a card game like Euchre, Cribbage, Crazy Eights, etc., a classic game like Backgammon, or one of the games I already have that everyone likes? As as a result, except for a couple simple card games I haven't bought anything new in years. I just know that if I can't explain how to play a new game in about 5 minutes, it probably ain't gonna get played.
What I really miss playing, though, is Pinochle. That was the game we always played in my family when my great-aunts, great-uncles, great-grandparents and grandparents were still alive. I could still get a two-handed game going with my dad, but it isn't the same as four-handed Pinochle so we usually play Cribbage.
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:44 AM on January 23 [3 favorites]
So for years now, whenever I see a new game that looks interesting I think to myself is this likely to be better or more fun than playing a card game like Euchre, Cribbage, Crazy Eights, etc., a classic game like Backgammon, or one of the games I already have that everyone likes? As as a result, except for a couple simple card games I haven't bought anything new in years. I just know that if I can't explain how to play a new game in about 5 minutes, it probably ain't gonna get played.
What I really miss playing, though, is Pinochle. That was the game we always played in my family when my great-aunts, great-uncles, great-grandparents and grandparents were still alive. I could still get a two-handed game going with my dad, but it isn't the same as four-handed Pinochle so we usually play Cribbage.
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:44 AM on January 23 [3 favorites]
For computer games I've been playing the heck out of the Retro Rogue Collection lately. Two original PC versions and 4 original UNIX versions, compiled to be played on a modern machine with optional CRT emulation.
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:49 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
posted by fimbulvetr at 8:49 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
Neglected to mention I usually do 1 or 2 KenKens a day. I prefer those to Sudoku, although I really got into these three Cracking the Cryptic Sudokus with fewer givens and extra rules:
1, 2, 3, -and I worked out hundreds of variations just of those three.
I really enjoy Simon, especially in #3, where he starts out angry, thinking he's been trolled, but ends up praising the puzzle.
posted by MtDewd at 9:52 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
1, 2, 3, -and I worked out hundreds of variations just of those three.
I really enjoy Simon, especially in #3, where he starts out angry, thinking he's been trolled, but ends up praising the puzzle.
posted by MtDewd at 9:52 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
I just started playing Robot Turtles with a few of my preschoolers. It's a board game aimed at teaching introductory "coding" skills to young kids. Add that to Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders and some other random games I've found at thrift stores, we have a nice little collection.
Fun story, I had Robot Turtles in my Amazon cart and then found a brand new one at Goodwill for $4.11. Can't beat that.
posted by kathrynm at 10:37 AM on January 23 [2 favorites]
Fun story, I had Robot Turtles in my Amazon cart and then found a brand new one at Goodwill for $4.11. Can't beat that.
posted by kathrynm at 10:37 AM on January 23 [2 favorites]
Are you sure you weren’t playing Apples to Apples? It’s a sort-of kid-friendly game similar to CAH.
We enjoy both, but I don't think we've played Apples to Apples in a while. It has the same feel to it so I can just 'play' instead of trying to 'win'.
posted by MtDewd at 11:01 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
We enjoy both, but I don't think we've played Apples to Apples in a while. It has the same feel to it so I can just 'play' instead of trying to 'win'.
posted by MtDewd at 11:01 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
I played BSG a couple times, the last time someone got very into the roleplay aspect and doomed the group to an hours-long death by attrition. Somewhere in that long, slow grind we also got into the roleplay part and spaced them.
The youth in my social circle are very into Among Us, although I suspect we've been taught homebrew variants. The roles keep changing on us. BSG was a bit much, but I do like the games where you end up arguing about who is lying.
posted by mersen at 11:39 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
The youth in my social circle are very into Among Us, although I suspect we've been taught homebrew variants. The roles keep changing on us. BSG was a bit much, but I do like the games where you end up arguing about who is lying.
posted by mersen at 11:39 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
All of you euchre people need to try sheepshead. Which, weirdly, seems to follow very similar play to the French tarot game (without the over-the-top scoring).
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:46 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:46 AM on January 23 [1 favorite]
I enjoy Big Ben but I'm not very good at it.
posted by JanetLand at 12:19 PM on January 23 [1 favorite]
posted by JanetLand at 12:19 PM on January 23 [1 favorite]
In 1990, a friend and I started making dice-and-chart games based on various things, from sports to combat. Even after he and I parted ways in 1991-92, I still kept making them. They're much more sophisticated now (we were in high school back then) and can operate in Excel spreadsheets. I think we got up to 125 or so different games and variations.
Also, Spades is totally the best card game.
posted by grubi at 12:31 PM on January 23 [2 favorites]
Also, Spades is totally the best card game.
posted by grubi at 12:31 PM on January 23 [2 favorites]
Nice kathrynm. Way better than Candyland and Chutes, where there are no decisions to be made. Check out games from HABA for interesting kids games. and Rat-a-Tat Cat is great for young kids.
posted by Windopaene at 12:39 PM on January 23 [1 favorite]
posted by Windopaene at 12:39 PM on January 23 [1 favorite]
BSG was a bit much, but I do like the games where you end up arguing about who is lying.
If you've got a group of a decent size you may want to give Blood on the Clocktower a try.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 1:13 PM on January 23 [2 favorites]
If you've got a group of a decent size you may want to give Blood on the Clocktower a try.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 1:13 PM on January 23 [2 favorites]
I played BSG a couple times, the last time someone got very into the roleplay aspect and doomed the group to an hours-long death by attrition. Somewhere in that long, slow grind we also got into the roleplay part and spaced them
I have played it seven times and seen seven Cylon victories. In one six-player game, we (humans) had some uncertainty about whether or not Adama was a toaster (an uncertainty largely engineered and enhanced by the two then-unrevealed Cylons). Thus the commander wound up up the brig, from which he could of course do little.
When everyone's allegiance was revealed, Adama was demonstrated to be a human. The player controlling Tigh -- also a human -- spent the rest of the game (successfully) using every tactic he could to keep Adama locked up because, as he said repeatedly. "Now I have the nukes!" No amount of persuasion or argument, even after everyone's true nature was revealed, could convince Tigh to spring the commander to give us some much-needed help. If this had been a plot point in the series, audiences would have rightly mocked the terrible writing and characterization.
The Cylons eventually wore us down. Yes, that is how the human race ended: with one power-hungry doofus desperately fighting to keep his power, which he never used. All this has happened before and will happen again.
Incidentally, the guy playing Tigh, in another game of BSG, had the dining room chair collapse beneath him. He was uninjured but refused all offers of assistance or a new seat, and insisted on playing the last half of the game reposing in the floor, repeatedly asking people to describe the situation on the board to him.
He now wonders why he doesn't get invited around to games nights anymore.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:22 PM on January 23 [5 favorites]
I have played it seven times and seen seven Cylon victories. In one six-player game, we (humans) had some uncertainty about whether or not Adama was a toaster (an uncertainty largely engineered and enhanced by the two then-unrevealed Cylons). Thus the commander wound up up the brig, from which he could of course do little.
When everyone's allegiance was revealed, Adama was demonstrated to be a human. The player controlling Tigh -- also a human -- spent the rest of the game (successfully) using every tactic he could to keep Adama locked up because, as he said repeatedly. "Now I have the nukes!" No amount of persuasion or argument, even after everyone's true nature was revealed, could convince Tigh to spring the commander to give us some much-needed help. If this had been a plot point in the series, audiences would have rightly mocked the terrible writing and characterization.
The Cylons eventually wore us down. Yes, that is how the human race ended: with one power-hungry doofus desperately fighting to keep his power, which he never used. All this has happened before and will happen again.
Incidentally, the guy playing Tigh, in another game of BSG, had the dining room chair collapse beneath him. He was uninjured but refused all offers of assistance or a new seat, and insisted on playing the last half of the game reposing in the floor, repeatedly asking people to describe the situation on the board to him.
He now wonders why he doesn't get invited around to games nights anymore.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 2:22 PM on January 23 [5 favorites]
Finally well enough to step in here and comment about TTRPG (in my case, actually PBEM) stuff. I am recovering from a hysterectomy and waiting for pathology to find out whether I still have cancer or get to go through radiation/chemo, and my game is currently on hold.
Since 2001, Mr Epigrams and I have been GMing an email game based on Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber, specifically the first five books. There's a role-playing game based on the books, but because we're Those People, we didn't like the ADRPG and used the then-current (1995) Everway rules to simulate what we wanted out of Amber. We were the third email group to try this route for Amber; I played in the other two and was motivated to try Amber my way.
(Aside for nerds who are into this stuff: ADRPG is great at simulating Throne Wars but we wanted an option for more cooperative groups. Also we're Snooty First Series Purists, which is to say we like the vibe and story of the first series but not the second. In particular, we're not crazy about the second series depiction of Chaos.)
We've had a couple dozen, maybe 30 players go through the game over the years, with a current active group of 15-20, and participants from around the corner to folks in Europe and Australia . We have one player who's not a native English speaker but is good enough to only need context for things like knock-knock jokes. I wish I were good enough at a second language that I could do that. It's also brought us into a small fannish community that meets every year at a couple of different tiny gaming cons, like 100 people kind of tiny, and I'm crossing my fingers that we're going to be able to go to the one in March.
One of the conceits of Amber is that everything is a "shadow" of Amber which is "real" and we've used that, as Zelazny did in the books, to raid a variety of myths and legends and fiction. We do a lot of filing off of serial numbers and using bits and pieces to make things make mythic sense. What I like about Amber is that it has the giant cinematic stakes of saving the universe combined with the smaller stakes of how you get along with your family, and on top of that sometimes the people you think are destroying the universe are your family so ideally you figure out how to solve the problem without killing them. It's the moral question of how you can be an immortal superhero and make the universe a better and fairer place.
We're really fortunate to have a cast of amazing, spectacular, phenomenal writers (including the ESL player) who bring amazing characterization and plotting skills to the game. The earliest characters in the game are 20+ years old in the real world and have developed enough to go from needing mentors to becoming mentors/parents. We've also seen the game change as the times have changed: we have a nonbinary character now, the PC and NPC cast has become much more ethnically diverse, etc., as the group has expanded/thought more about these topics.
One of the things I have thought a lot about over the last few months of dealing with cancer is how to bring the game to a successful and (relatively) happy end for the players if my diagnosis becomes terminal. I have ideas about how to do that but I'm not going to bring them out here because I know at least one player is a MeFite. But I do think about it a lot even though right now I'm stoned out of my gills on pain meds and not really capable of braining enough to write posts, just enough to sound like a happy drunk at the bar who loves everybody in it. (And I do. Also the Metafilter bar, as it were. Cheers.)
posted by gentlyepigrams at 3:53 PM on January 23 [7 favorites]
Since 2001, Mr Epigrams and I have been GMing an email game based on Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber, specifically the first five books. There's a role-playing game based on the books, but because we're Those People, we didn't like the ADRPG and used the then-current (1995) Everway rules to simulate what we wanted out of Amber. We were the third email group to try this route for Amber; I played in the other two and was motivated to try Amber my way.
(Aside for nerds who are into this stuff: ADRPG is great at simulating Throne Wars but we wanted an option for more cooperative groups. Also we're Snooty First Series Purists, which is to say we like the vibe and story of the first series but not the second. In particular, we're not crazy about the second series depiction of Chaos.)
We've had a couple dozen, maybe 30 players go through the game over the years, with a current active group of 15-20, and participants from around the corner to folks in Europe and Australia . We have one player who's not a native English speaker but is good enough to only need context for things like knock-knock jokes. I wish I were good enough at a second language that I could do that. It's also brought us into a small fannish community that meets every year at a couple of different tiny gaming cons, like 100 people kind of tiny, and I'm crossing my fingers that we're going to be able to go to the one in March.
One of the conceits of Amber is that everything is a "shadow" of Amber which is "real" and we've used that, as Zelazny did in the books, to raid a variety of myths and legends and fiction. We do a lot of filing off of serial numbers and using bits and pieces to make things make mythic sense. What I like about Amber is that it has the giant cinematic stakes of saving the universe combined with the smaller stakes of how you get along with your family, and on top of that sometimes the people you think are destroying the universe are your family so ideally you figure out how to solve the problem without killing them. It's the moral question of how you can be an immortal superhero and make the universe a better and fairer place.
We're really fortunate to have a cast of amazing, spectacular, phenomenal writers (including the ESL player) who bring amazing characterization and plotting skills to the game. The earliest characters in the game are 20+ years old in the real world and have developed enough to go from needing mentors to becoming mentors/parents. We've also seen the game change as the times have changed: we have a nonbinary character now, the PC and NPC cast has become much more ethnically diverse, etc., as the group has expanded/thought more about these topics.
One of the things I have thought a lot about over the last few months of dealing with cancer is how to bring the game to a successful and (relatively) happy end for the players if my diagnosis becomes terminal. I have ideas about how to do that but I'm not going to bring them out here because I know at least one player is a MeFite. But I do think about it a lot even though right now I'm stoned out of my gills on pain meds and not really capable of braining enough to write posts, just enough to sound like a happy drunk at the bar who loves everybody in it. (And I do. Also the Metafilter bar, as it were. Cheers.)
posted by gentlyepigrams at 3:53 PM on January 23 [7 favorites]
> the signaling/communication rules [in bridge]
I've never come across these, just the conventional bids in ACOL, but I have rarely played at bridge clubs so maybe that's the difference.
I have extended the cards suggestion to my sister and her family for this Sunday, and it has been accepted, so thanks to this thread for inspiring that.
posted by paduasoy at 4:13 PM on January 23 [1 favorite]
I've never come across these, just the conventional bids in ACOL, but I have rarely played at bridge clubs so maybe that's the difference.
I have extended the cards suggestion to my sister and her family for this Sunday, and it has been accepted, so thanks to this thread for inspiring that.
posted by paduasoy at 4:13 PM on January 23 [1 favorite]
Today's “5 Small Box Games Review ” from The Dice Tower which is mostly about trick taking games, made me remember that I played Cat in the Box over the holidays. If you're a trick taking fan, it's really very fun. It gave me the same kinds of feelings Pinochle used to.
posted by ob1quixote at 4:15 PM on January 23 [1 favorite]
posted by ob1quixote at 4:15 PM on January 23 [1 favorite]
A friend of mine has mentioned a Candy Land rule variant for slightly older kids, where on each player's turn you draw two cards and pick which one to use. It helps teach valuation, and perhaps much more importantly, makes the game go WAY faster.
There's also the adult rules for the game Sorry, which make use of the fact that the game uses cards instead of dice, by having players maintain a hand of cards instead of simply playing the top card of the deck.
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:40 PM on January 23 [2 favorites]
There's also the adult rules for the game Sorry, which make use of the fact that the game uses cards instead of dice, by having players maintain a hand of cards instead of simply playing the top card of the deck.
posted by DoctorFedora at 5:40 PM on January 23 [2 favorites]
Yes, the only way to play Sorry! Give me that hand management
posted by Windopaene at 6:03 PM on January 23 [1 favorite]
posted by Windopaene at 6:03 PM on January 23 [1 favorite]
On the other hand...
Damn you Ford or Chevy or whomever for putting "I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home" into your ads. That was my secret cover song... Sigh
posted by Windopaene at 6:25 PM on January 23
Damn you Ford or Chevy or whomever for putting "I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home" into your ads. That was my secret cover song... Sigh
posted by Windopaene at 6:25 PM on January 23
And it is just today that I realized that Sorry and Trouble are two separate games and Trouble uses the Pop-O-Matic for rolling the die, and Sorry uses cards.
Somehow all that had blended together in my brain because old.
posted by hippybear at 6:42 PM on January 23 [2 favorites]
Somehow all that had blended together in my brain because old.
posted by hippybear at 6:42 PM on January 23 [2 favorites]
But, back to games, even though I said I would stop, (it's a free thread, I will post all of my related butts game thoughts).
As the good Dr. Knizia said:
"Remember: When playing a game, the goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning..."
(About board gaming, doesn't apply to RPGs and such)
And those interactions are what make gaming, well, gaming. Play on MeFites! (Anyone in Seattle needs an old, old school-OG gamer in your group, sned me a memail...)
posted by Windopaene at 6:43 PM on January 23 [3 favorites]
As the good Dr. Knizia said:
"Remember: When playing a game, the goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning..."
(About board gaming, doesn't apply to RPGs and such)
And those interactions are what make gaming, well, gaming. Play on MeFites! (Anyone in Seattle needs an old, old school-OG gamer in your group, sned me a memail...)
posted by Windopaene at 6:43 PM on January 23 [3 favorites]
When I was playing Magic: The Gathering, way back in the early Nineties so people are reading this comment who are playing M:TG today who were not born when I was playing the game, I had one deck that I had designed that would lose and lose and lose... but it was designed in such a way that if all the circumstances came together it would win in a cascade of events that were legendary.
The whole deck was designed around sets of cards that were 5 or 6 cards deep, and if they came together, they were epic. And I tried to refine the deck to get those sets of cards to overlap as much as possible.
Anyway, I loved playing M:TG back in those days, because then it wasn't what it is now. And I was playing for fun, as all my friends were.
I'd love to play with that deck again, but M:TG as a game has changed so entirely in the intervening decades that it's unrecognizable to me now and I don't care to try to relearn it.
posted by hippybear at 6:53 PM on January 23 [2 favorites]
The whole deck was designed around sets of cards that were 5 or 6 cards deep, and if they came together, they were epic. And I tried to refine the deck to get those sets of cards to overlap as much as possible.
Anyway, I loved playing M:TG back in those days, because then it wasn't what it is now. And I was playing for fun, as all my friends were.
I'd love to play with that deck again, but M:TG as a game has changed so entirely in the intervening decades that it's unrecognizable to me now and I don't care to try to relearn it.
posted by hippybear at 6:53 PM on January 23 [2 favorites]
I only ever play MTG now when I visit a couple of old buddies every year or so - we pick up a few prebuilt decks from the local gaming store and then just play them in rotation. None of us have the energy to keep up with the game’s evolution so encountering new mechanics is just part of the fun.
posted by AdamCSnider at 9:33 PM on January 23 [2 favorites]
posted by AdamCSnider at 9:33 PM on January 23 [2 favorites]
hippybear, if you do want to try it again, look into Commander. It's a format for M:TG that's designed for playing fun decks with friends.
posted by tofu_crouton at 6:49 AM on January 24 [1 favorite]
posted by tofu_crouton at 6:49 AM on January 24 [1 favorite]
I really love the game Codex: Card-Time Strategy as a sort of self-contained “MtG but with the stuff I don’t like about MtG fixed” game, but tragically the bulk of the print run was lost to a warehouse mold disaster. It’s available to play for free on Screentop.gg at least, if you can find an opponent who’s interested. Lots of very cool design decisions, especially the Patrol Zone.
posted by DoctorFedora at 2:32 PM on January 24 [1 favorite]
posted by DoctorFedora at 2:32 PM on January 24 [1 favorite]
I got new lenses in my glasses today! My myopia gets bad pretty quickly and it has been four years since I last had a fresh prescription.
ALL THE TREES HAVE LEAVES ONCE AGAIN!
posted by hippybear at 3:03 PM on January 24 [5 favorites]
ALL THE TREES HAVE LEAVES ONCE AGAIN!
posted by hippybear at 3:03 PM on January 24 [5 favorites]
(2/2) I'm not playing many games - or, more accurately, allocating time to game play - around this time. Life is super-busy with all manner of things, one being academic-adjacent games research (my core research thread is examining how the cryosphere and sea level changes are represented in mass-market i.e. not educational digital games). After reading umpteen academic texts dissecting digital and analog games and the people who play them, brain-switch-off activities are often something else (a long walk usually).
Having said that, a quick Wordle in the morning (not a euphemism) is always satisfying, and I'm sometimes playing old-school text adventures (NORTH, INVENTORY, TIE ROPE TO ROCK etc). That's partially through fun, partially intellectual exercise, and partially as I'm (painfully slowly) creating a text adventure with an ecosystem of other media. More on that, possibly in MetaProjects, some other time.
One of my best friends is currently playing Chants of Sennaar and, because I'm trying to build a rudimentary language, I'm very tempted to play this one myself.
My gaming history goes back to very young, and tends to go in bouts. Home computers in the early to mid 1980s e.g. the Sinclair ZX81, ZX Spectrum, Acorn Electron, Amstrad 6128 were prominent in my life, as were the consoles and games in that intense period roughly around the end of the last century and start of this one e.g. Nintendo 64 then GameCube, Sony PS2, Microsoft Xbox, and ...
Favorite ... game console? Sega Dreamcast, and periodically I buy a second-hand one and a bundle of games, to fill a month or two. Game? That's a tie between Jet Set/Grind Radio on the same console, and Animal Crossing: New Leaf on the Nintendo 3DS (some of my screenshots). Developers? Infocom in pre-Activision days (I am old). Old school single game hardware? Astro Wars.
posted by Wordshore at 4:01 AM on January 25 [3 favorites]
Having said that, a quick Wordle in the morning (not a euphemism) is always satisfying, and I'm sometimes playing old-school text adventures (NORTH, INVENTORY, TIE ROPE TO ROCK etc). That's partially through fun, partially intellectual exercise, and partially as I'm (painfully slowly) creating a text adventure with an ecosystem of other media. More on that, possibly in MetaProjects, some other time.
One of my best friends is currently playing Chants of Sennaar and, because I'm trying to build a rudimentary language, I'm very tempted to play this one myself.
My gaming history goes back to very young, and tends to go in bouts. Home computers in the early to mid 1980s e.g. the Sinclair ZX81, ZX Spectrum, Acorn Electron, Amstrad 6128 were prominent in my life, as were the consoles and games in that intense period roughly around the end of the last century and start of this one e.g. Nintendo 64 then GameCube, Sony PS2, Microsoft Xbox, and ...
Favorite ... game console? Sega Dreamcast, and periodically I buy a second-hand one and a bundle of games, to fill a month or two. Game? That's a tie between Jet Set/Grind Radio on the same console, and Animal Crossing: New Leaf on the Nintendo 3DS (some of my screenshots). Developers? Infocom in pre-Activision days (I am old). Old school single game hardware? Astro Wars.
posted by Wordshore at 4:01 AM on January 25 [3 favorites]
Well I'm playing vampire survivors again
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:41 AM on January 25 [1 favorite]
posted by seanmpuckett at 4:41 AM on January 25 [1 favorite]
I'm having one of those weeks where every conversation makes me feel like maybe I'm actually a ghost who cannot be seen or heard by the living?
Me: So the problem with this project is that phases 1 and 2 were done without oversight, by an outside party who didn't really follow our best practices. Phase 3 was under our supervision and will be more like what you're used to seeing. Just bear that in mind as you dig in!
Coworker, 3 hours later: These documents are so weird, it's almost like different teams did Phases 1 and 2 from the team who did Phase 3.
Me: [blows on mirror to see if my breath will fog it; tries to reach through walls] You don't say.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 1:58 PM on January 25 [6 favorites]
Me: So the problem with this project is that phases 1 and 2 were done without oversight, by an outside party who didn't really follow our best practices. Phase 3 was under our supervision and will be more like what you're used to seeing. Just bear that in mind as you dig in!
Coworker, 3 hours later: These documents are so weird, it's almost like different teams did Phases 1 and 2 from the team who did Phase 3.
Me: [blows on mirror to see if my breath will fog it; tries to reach through walls] You don't say.
posted by We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese at 1:58 PM on January 25 [6 favorites]
I feel your pain, We put our faith in Blast Hardcheese.
In other news, between a friend with a daughter of a specific age in another state and the totes adorbs young women who showed up on my doorstep this evening, I’m up to 18 boxes of Girl Scout cookies.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 4:18 PM on January 26
In other news, between a friend with a daughter of a specific age in another state and the totes adorbs young women who showed up on my doorstep this evening, I’m up to 18 boxes of Girl Scout cookies.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 4:18 PM on January 26
I've been talking about my cancer diagnosis in these threads so I wanted to tell everybody that I got my pathology report yesterday: looks like they got everything with the hysterectomy. No chemo or radiation in my future. I just have to heal up from having my reproductive innards removed!
posted by gentlyepigrams at 4:22 PM on January 26 [24 favorites]
posted by gentlyepigrams at 4:22 PM on January 26 [24 favorites]
gentlyepigrams, that is amazingly good news. May your healing be swift and peaceful.
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 4:28 PM on January 26 [3 favorites]
posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 4:28 PM on January 26 [3 favorites]
As the good Dr. Knizia said:
"Remember: When playing a game, the goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning..."
Another delightful observation on games (well, a particular game) -- in the TVTropes entry for Diplomacy, the third sentence is:
"Remember: When playing a game, the goal is to win, but it is the goal that is important, not the winning..."
Another delightful observation on games (well, a particular game) -- in the TVTropes entry for Diplomacy, the third sentence is:
While playing the game, a practice of dealing honestly and fairly with your opponents (inside the rules of the game) can be described much more succinctly as "losing".posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:02 PM on January 27 [3 favorites]
Great news gentlyepigrams!
posted by tofu_crouton at 7:56 AM on January 28 [1 favorite]
posted by tofu_crouton at 7:56 AM on January 28 [1 favorite]
It takes my coffee maker about 10 minutes to make a pot of coffee. It takes about 10 minutes to play an arena of Tanki Online. Tanki is a complete waste of time... you get a tank with a cannon. Different tanks and different cannons have their own characteristics that are more or less suited to different arenas. You drive around like a maniac shooting at other tanks. So most mornings, I start the coffee maker, and then play an arena of Tanki. And so often, I find myself thinking that I keep getting blown up by other players who have spent actual money to get faster and more powerful tanks than mine. And it makes me think of what I should REALLY be doing instead, so Tanki is useful for getting my day started.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 4:48 AM on January 29 [2 favorites]
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 4:48 AM on January 29 [2 favorites]
We've been playing board games: Last Friday, which is a hidden movement game clearly based on the Friday the 13th film series but altered enough to avoid legal action; Final Girl, a solo game where you can play different horror scenarios via modules... we have the ones that looks like The Strangers and The Thing; and the just-released via Kickstarter officially-licensed Halloween II game, which I haven't played yet but it looks rad.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:15 AM on January 29 [1 favorite]
posted by DirtyOldTown at 7:15 AM on January 29 [1 favorite]
Picked up Talos Principle on sale in the PS4 store. Almost wrapped up, just ahead of in time my library hold on the sequel. For some reason I get a motion sickness headache playing the game. Probably because the run speed is too fast? But the puzzles are also quite hard so the one to three puzzles I can stomach in a session are about all I can do anyways.
The philosophy of the mind bit is... pretentious. And the "everyone dies in a pandemic" setting lands differently in 2024 than I expect they intended in 2014.
posted by pwnguin at 2:22 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
The philosophy of the mind bit is... pretentious. And the "everyone dies in a pandemic" setting lands differently in 2024 than I expect they intended in 2014.
posted by pwnguin at 2:22 PM on January 29 [1 favorite]
Ctrl+f mefightclub 0/0
Hey gamers of metafilter! This is your periodic reminder that the mefightclub is still going strong!
This link will get you on our discord server for the next 24 hours or so: https://discord.gg/yv5bEZYg
If you're seeing this later than that, hit with a memail and I'll get you a fresh invite.
The latest obsession is Palworld where I believe we have setup a private server. Or just chat with us on discord. We're very chill and drama free.
posted by VTX at 3:02 PM on January 29 [3 favorites]
Hey gamers of metafilter! This is your periodic reminder that the mefightclub is still going strong!
This link will get you on our discord server for the next 24 hours or so: https://discord.gg/yv5bEZYg
If you're seeing this later than that, hit with a memail and I'll get you a fresh invite.
The latest obsession is Palworld where I believe we have setup a private server. Or just chat with us on discord. We're very chill and drama free.
posted by VTX at 3:02 PM on January 29 [3 favorites]
Kitteh: I will continue to lament my kingdom for a Dominion game app with all the extensions. I miss playing Dominion.
I may have good news for you, then.
posted by hanov3r at 12:09 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]
I may have good news for you, then.
posted by hanov3r at 12:09 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]
If you like Dominion, you might also like Puzzle Strike, which is available on Steam and iPhone/iPad! It’s basically “what if Dominion were fundamentally built around player interaction” and the digital client has a reasonably solid AI
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:07 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:07 PM on February 2 [1 favorite]
Suika Game is a simple $5 Japanese game for Switch that's been proving extremely popular. It's spawned a lot of webgame imitators, but my favorite version is Cosmic Collapse, also $5 on itch.io. It's implemented on Pico-8, has bouncier physics, feels a lot more dynamic, and it's even got much better music too. I finally got to the stage in it after Sun, and it was really hard to do!
posted by JHarris at 4:35 PM on February 3 [1 favorite]
posted by JHarris at 4:35 PM on February 3 [1 favorite]
Oooh, free gaming thread is still open! Tie-in coming with this week's FT, (two FTs later), thread.
So, I have been playing PBEM wargames with a guy over in minnesota. Mostly all Card Driven Games, (CDGs)s, and he has been the most responsive and reliable person I've played against. Very different computer usage so every night have to wait, because he's always already shut down his computer at like my 3 o'clock... Sigh
But, back in the day, I used to play a lot of We the People, which was an amazingly innovative game. And I was able to play it essentially through email, with ACTS, the Automated Card Tracking System. It had a unique battle system, that worked FTF, but was cumbersome for asynchronous play. Someone clever figured out a way to do it though, and though at first blush, it looks like you are giving away information, you're not, and it works.
Another game, Hannibal: Rome Vs. Carthage uses an almost an identical battle system. So I explained it to my email opponent. And then realized it didn't exactly work in Hannibal. Damned attrition table.
Anyway, in a quest to find a good way to deal with it, starting writing my own damn program, that will hide the things that need to be hidden and such. But a fun project to fail at I guess, don't have any idea how to make it work exactly. Haven't coded much in a year or so, so good times.
posted by Windopaene at 8:11 PM on February 6
So, I have been playing PBEM wargames with a guy over in minnesota. Mostly all Card Driven Games, (CDGs)s, and he has been the most responsive and reliable person I've played against. Very different computer usage so every night have to wait, because he's always already shut down his computer at like my 3 o'clock... Sigh
But, back in the day, I used to play a lot of We the People, which was an amazingly innovative game. And I was able to play it essentially through email, with ACTS, the Automated Card Tracking System. It had a unique battle system, that worked FTF, but was cumbersome for asynchronous play. Someone clever figured out a way to do it though, and though at first blush, it looks like you are giving away information, you're not, and it works.
Another game, Hannibal: Rome Vs. Carthage uses an almost an identical battle system. So I explained it to my email opponent. And then realized it didn't exactly work in Hannibal. Damned attrition table.
Anyway, in a quest to find a good way to deal with it, starting writing my own damn program, that will hide the things that need to be hidden and such. But a fun project to fail at I guess, don't have any idea how to make it work exactly. Haven't coded much in a year or so, so good times.
posted by Windopaene at 8:11 PM on February 6
« Older As if words could make a difference | Reading the algorithms Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
I’m in my fifth decade as a game player of all types. In the weekend before last, my D&D group had a “Happy 50th birthday, D&D” themed session. We ate cake, pizza, and goodberry cocktails as my players faced off against owlbears and a displacer beast among other classic foes.
My favorite board games of late have been Root, and Dune:Imperium or Dune:Uprising, plus lots of play of Heat online at Boardgamearena. I also just had a chance to play my own published game, Mystic Paths, with a dear friend who doesn’t normally play board games but enjoyed that one - which was a special feeling. As a mini-plug, Mystic Paths is a cooperative word based game which I think many Mefites would enjoy.While the publisher draped it in a magical mystical theme, the play is all about clever cluing with available words.
I simply haven’t had time for much digital play recently. Lifetime hours awards would go to the Civilization series,World of Warcraft, Slay the Spire. Recently I mostly have used Tabletop Simulator to recreate the boardgame experience and because it’s a great way to build and test prototypes for other designs. An additional design that came out of that process from the pandemic is signed with a publisher, so I’m hoping this year will bring it to Kickstarter or Gamefound.
posted by meinvt at 2:58 AM on January 22 [10 favorites]