Reminds me of an old Murphy’s Rules cartoon:
2 Likes
I think Firefly is the biggest game I own for that: it takes up pretty much the whole dining table. (50×20" map, 22 card decks and discard piles, individual player layouts…)
1 Like
I’ve been playing Burgle Bros via Tabletop Simulator. It seemed incredibly difficult until we realised you could (and should) spread out between floors. Good fun, and the mod we were using scripts a lot of the faff: set up and guard movement become a lot easier.
4 Likes
You’ve piqued my interest! Found it for £20, so worth a punt. My local game group prefer fun throwarounds so this looks like it’d be a hit.
1 Like
Tried a solo game of Everdell testing out Tabletopia, and just played over the course of a few hours between work. Tied with Rugwort at 45, though going by the tie breaker rules, I think I won? Unless I missed some rules specific to the solo game. Which wouldn’t surprise me.
2 Likes
Played more Hive, Jaipur and Kingdomino on BGA with my son last night.
2 games of Hive, 1 a piece. I took the win in Jaipur, but I was trounced in Kingdomino!
Pretty good fun all things considered!
2 Likes
I can’t grok Hive at all. Every game we play is a race to put the blocking bug on top of the other player’s queen and then surround it.
I’ve read the rules at least 5 times but I’m sure we’re doing something wrong.
Love Jaipur and Kingdomino
2 Likes
I never said we were good at it! Lol.
We’ve definitely done that a few times. I think we had an unspoken agreement not to anymore, as it just became the same thing. It still feels like a race half the time admittedly.
Kingdomino is fun, but not sure I’ll look into it one this is over. Jaipur on the other hand I’m strongly considering grabbing a physical copy at some point.
1 Like
I played Fog of Love with my husband on Sunday. I was curious because it seemed very different from any other game I’ve played. I’m glad we tried it but it was decidedly Not For Me…
Role playing in general makes me really anxious, and I think this pushed a few too many of those buttons. A shame, because I generally enjoy a game with an interesting theme or mechanics.
4 Likes
I’ve been role-playing since, um. (1982.) And Fog of Love felt to me as though there was a huge tension between the role-playing and the game: on the one hand, it’s often obvious what the “right” action is to achieve my goals on the card, but on the other hand the person I’m pretending to be might feel quite differently…
3 Likes
I definitely had some cards that would have helped me fulfil my character’s goals, but would have made no sense in the context of the story. For example, a card about having a fight with your character’s in-laws, when the story setting was a first date.
2 Likes
Personally I’ve always felt like trying to make sense of those sorts of contextual glitches was part of the fun of a storytelling boardgame that you don’t get in “proper” roleplaying. E.g., imagine a first date where the other person’s parents got involved. Wouldn’t that be a disaster? or in the classic Mythos CCG, there’s always, e.g., taking careful aim with a TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPON against some GIANT ALBINO PENGUINS.
6 Likes
Yeah, for me FoL is an improv comedy generator, with each suggestion needing to be incorporated into what came before. Treating it as a game that needs to be won is besides the point for me, it’s more a suggestion of what you want to push towards for the story. There are very few people I’d want to play it with, but my theatre friends are great at it. They go from high comedy to strict dramatics on a dime, and it works really well.
I don’t think I’ll keep it forever, but I got it at a decent price second hand so it’s worth the experience I’ve had with it before I sell it on.
7 Likes
As long as you note that you cannot place a new piece anywhere it touches an opponent’s piece, getting a beetle on the queen may be slower than you need. I have never found that play to be dominant, it’s just a baseline for new players to build on.
4 Likes
One odd thing about this game was almost (one non strip) every card I flipped for property was on the strip.
Which sounds awesome but isn’t as they are more expensive and no proprieties together. Just felt I never had enough money to do that I wanted.
1 Like
That’s when you start trading to generate cash.
2 Likes
I played my first game of Cartographers, in solo mode. I thought I was doing okay until I had to do the solo scoring… I ended up on -22, a Dimwitted Doodler… Good fun though, I like the game a lot.
2 Likes
I had a few minutes to spare today between conference calls and procrastinating the process of thinking through how to run a Play-by-Post Roads & Boats game (don’t worry, folks, I’m still working on it!)
So, with nothing better to do, I reached over to the shelf next to my desk and grabbed something; luckily, this time it was a game. Crypt to be precise.
By the time I had finished reading through the rules for the first time and getting the game setup for solo modo, I was invited to an impromptu conference call to listen and observe; I continued to fiddle with the game, mostly distracting my ADHD. After the call concluded, I quickly whizzed through a game.
I could see this being a good game to play on the couch with my partner when we’re both too exhausted to sit at a table after our kids are in bed at night. As a solo experience, it was surprisingly good and I’ll definitely be keeping it handy near my desk for when I have 5-10 minutes of downtime.
1 Like
Another jaunt into Norway for me this evening, playing some Nusfjord. It’s such a great solo game, every time I play it it goes differently, and it’s got the same Feast For Odin, Rosenberg mechanic of blocking yourself with a second set of workers.
The game is still cheap everywhere here (UK) so I’d really recommend it.
6 Likes
Nusfjord is charming. This and his lighter compact stuff is now more of my alley than his big games like Caverna or Feast for Odin.
1 Like