tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.comments2015-10-05T20:38:04.009-07:00Ad AstraKeith Fergusonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-83116933067868809552015-09-28T01:13:37.197-07:002015-09-28T01:13:37.197-07:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.katrinakaipphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04068689901895071214noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-43616143161574539602015-07-25T06:04:33.646-07:002015-07-25T06:04:33.646-07:00Or perhaps go with a positive theme for manufactur...Or perhaps go with a positive theme for manufacturing: adroit, adept, agile, efficient, producer, effective, indefatigable, alert, wired, adapter, clever, improviser, fixer, creative, resourceful, ingenius, idea factory, http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/adroit<br /><br />Stealing from Dungeon Master: Craftsman, journeyman, expert, master, apprentice, artisan, adept. <br /><br />Pick your favorite beers, move the letters around, no one will ever know. <br /><br />Then there's the easy approach: Belf, Smelf, Gdelf, Kfelf, Flep, Felp, Flek, Felk, Felf, Krelf, Klef, Kelp, Kelf, El F, el'F, This approach works if you want to add a little fun confusion to the game. <br />Kriegspielerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16249933193318725220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-57608467595113590752015-07-25T06:03:52.061-07:002015-07-25T06:03:52.061-07:00If you are suffering Elf Block, you can always wor...If you are suffering Elf Block, you can always work with anagrams. Famous composers, generals, physicists, astronomers, comedy teams, Simpsons characters, etc, then just "anagramize" [you heard it here first] the names, no one will know the difference. How hard is it to create elf names out of Chico Harpo Groucho Gummo Zeppo? <br /><br />There are a lot of variations on the seven dwarfs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Dwarfs#Names <br />Add some vowels, a dwarf name becomes an elf name. <br /><br />The Seven Duffs: Sleazy, Queasy, Surly, Edgy, Tipsy, Dizzy, and Remorseful. SW is basically a factory. Maybe you could vary that theme: Clumsy, Oafish, Awkward, Fall Prone, Blundering, Bumbling, Tripsy, Lazy, Agitator, Part Breaker, Klutz, Toy Dropper, <br />http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/clumsy<br /><br />Are these elves unionized? Supervisor, Observer, Checker, Smoke Break, Lunch Break, Tardy, QC, Card Puncher, Check Casher, Clock Watcher, On Disability, Vote Counter, Muscle, <br /><br />How about variations on terms Smithers uses for workers: chair moisteners, low-level employees, schmoes, drones, stiffs, boobs, carbon blobs, fork and spoon operators, organ banks, cabbage heads, donut eaters, donut dunkers, <br />Kriegspielerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16249933193318725220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-1769366763172638082015-07-25T06:03:24.781-07:002015-07-25T06:03:24.781-07:00First, a thought on production. Using uniquely sha...First, a thought on production. Using uniquely shaped meeples might drive up the production costs. Printing the name on the meeple (other ideas?) might also increase production costs. <br /><br />Bear in mind long names like Reginald Van Pippington III, Esq, might be too long to print on the card or meeple. <br /><br />Themes: <br />Another option is by continents, and then just pick noted rivers, mountains, volcanoes, deserts, etc, for that continent. <br />Another option is animals by class: mammals, reptiles, lizards, birds, fish, insects, etc. <br />Another option is to steal from Magic the Gathering, but yeah, you'll probably want to replace Black's theme of death and disease -- doesn't fit the happy flavor of SW. <br />Another theme: woodwinds, brass, percussion, strings....<br /><br />If you chose one color to be white, you could go with snow theme, and then blue could be water theme. <br /><br />Roman and Greek gods and goddesses and often good for names. The muses alone fill out a couple catogories: Calliope, Clio, Euterpe, Erato, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia and Urania. <br /><br />Stars and Constellations can make categories. Northern hemisphere constellations, southern hemisphere constellations, northern hemisphere stars, southern hemisphere stars, need a fifth category? Jovian moons, Saturn moons, etc. <br />Kriegspielerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16249933193318725220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-71801662321362367652015-05-30T10:33:01.012-07:002015-05-30T10:33:01.012-07:00Occurs to me some of my favorite games are card, a...Occurs to me some of my favorite games are card, and handle this in a different manner. <br /><br />All of these are 2-player, and each player shares the same deck. <br /><br />Up Front is the classic. <br /><br />Although only a 162 card deck, it's nearly pointless to memorize cards, with half the cards going to your opponent, and 1/3 (?) the cards being used as RNCs or RPCs to resolve combat and other mechanics of the game. As the cards are multi-use, there is no reason to expect a particular card will ever be played as its "face value". <br /><br />I suppose a munchkin could memorize the cards, and card-count as they come up, and then at least play the percentages. But as players discard -- face down -- far more cards than they play, that defeats the munchkin option. <br /><br />Maybe 1 in 15 games one player has such bad card draws, he stands zero chance of winning. No problem, the game has such great replay value, just play again. Routinely maybe 1 of 5 games goes down to the last hand, and a few times a game has gone down to literally the last card. <br /><br />As an aside, if your opponent is winning and has fire cards, he can just blast away at you to eat up the deck. [The deck is the measure of time (typical game is 3 times through the deck).] Some might call this "gaming the system" or "poor sportsmanship". To the contrary, this wonderfully models how difficult it is to accomplish even the simplest thing, when somebody keeps shooting at you. <br /><br />-----------------<br />Hannibal: RvC is another example. <br /><br />Depending on which side you are and where in the game, maybe 20% of the cards can be used four ways, maybe 50% can be used three ways, maybe 30% can be used 'only' two ways. All cards can be used at least two ways. <br /><br />Routinely, entire game go by with a set of cards never being played as events, thus making for a different "history" each time. <br /><br />-------------------<br />OTOH, Battle Cry and Memoir '44 (the smaller version), nearly all cards will be used at face value, yet at least each player draws from the same deck. And yes, there is some card memorization in those games. <br />Kriegspielerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16249933193318725220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-12433616661420236202015-04-28T20:06:36.627-07:002015-04-28T20:06:36.627-07:00Well, I disagree that every game needs to "si...Well, I disagree that every game needs to "simulate" all the decisions one would make in "real life", but I get your point.<br /><br />Having multiple of the same factory is an intriguing thought, as that could lead to more direct competition in the resource market.Keith Fergusonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-81214372212048070322015-04-25T15:03:24.124-07:002015-04-25T15:03:24.124-07:00I gave up on Power Grid many years ago, after abou...I gave up on Power Grid many years ago, after about 4-5 games. <br /><br />You raise a good point<br /><br />One solution is to have the ratio of 'cards in the deck' to 'cards drawn during the game' to be very high, such that memorizing the deck becomes meaningless. Note in some games that ratio is 'cards in the deck for round n' to 'cards drawn during round n'. <br /><br />Most gamers don't seem to like this approach, I think because they like the idea of only a certain number of possible cards, within the possibility of memorizing. <br /><br />As always, what is the game trying to model? <br /><br />Using card draw as a pseudo-random event is a poor choice. <br />If a player rolls a 1d6: 3,1,2,5,4, that does not mean the sixth roll will be a 6 because it's 'still in the deck'. It's still a 1 in 6 chance.<br />But if a player draws cards two, one, four, five, and three out of a six card deck, you can bet the bank the next card is six. To make card draw pseudo-random, a few hundred cards would help. <br /><br />Possible solutions include: 1) roll dice, or spin a spinner for each draw, and reference a pre-existing table for the factory. This means the same factory may come up many times, and some factories will never come up. Players will need to have some kind of duplicate cards to put in front of them. <br />2) Greatly increase (x4? x8? ) the number of available cards in the deck. <br />3) Put all discarded factories back into the deck and shuffle before every draw. <br />4) Draw twice (3x?) as many cards so there is a plethora of available factories to choose from. <br /><br />Re: Strategy: A "good" game -- IMHO -- is one where the player's strategy is mighty similar to the strategy of the person he represents, and makes similar decisions, in whatever the game models. So in this case, the player's strategy should be similar to the strategy of the CEO of a power company. Does the CEO of a power company memorize the deck of future available factories? <br />Kriegspielerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16249933193318725220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-36342009469029119362015-04-20T15:20:30.981-07:002015-04-20T15:20:30.981-07:00Well, that's what the Prezcon playtest was, in...Well, that's what the Prezcon playtest was, in effect. I didn't give them explicit instructions per se, but there were some very "high level" gamers playing, so I knew they would really be "gaming it" - i.e. working math and probabilities in their head.Keith Fergusonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-62193023603019185132015-04-18T15:22:43.206-07:002015-04-18T15:22:43.206-07:00Have you tried a playtest as a stress test? Tell t...Have you tried a playtest as a stress test? Tell the players, instead of playing like you normally would, intentionally try to break the game. ? Kriegspielerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16249933193318725220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-75707348822396162532015-02-28T07:35:11.236-08:002015-02-28T07:35:11.236-08:00This sounds promising. Keep us "posted" ...This sounds promising. Keep us "posted" on how it goes. Kriegspielerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16249933193318725220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-91802045635798576622015-01-02T13:27:19.514-08:002015-01-02T13:27:19.514-08:00Your copy of (mini?) Mastermind has the same cover...Your copy of (mini?) Mastermind has the same cover as mine (not mini?), four (plus?) decades ago, wherever it might be now. Recognized it instantly. Kriegspielerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16249933193318725220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-43558371001343082572014-09-08T18:24:29.099-07:002014-09-08T18:24:29.099-07:00Thanks for the comment, Paul. Your list is chock ...Thanks for the comment, Paul. Your list is chock full of wargames - I'm shocked, I tell you...shocked! :) <br /><br />Like Paul O., but tastes have shifted somewhat to broader themes, and more ease of access to relatively new gamers. I was never quite the grognard that you guys were...though I did enjoy some Squad Leader ages ago. <br /><br />Time and # of players can be a factor as well. A 1.5-2 hour game that comfortably handles 5-6 players falls right in our wheelhouse these days. Still...a weekend of full-on brawling battlefield is probably overdue at this point.Keith Fergusonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-106151122628205332014-09-08T18:20:19.652-07:002014-09-08T18:20:19.652-07:00Yes, I've had my CoP 2nd edition pre-ordered f...Yes, I've had my CoP 2nd edition pre-ordered for some time (as might expect). We really need to get you to play it sometime.<br /><br />I hear you on the Agricola mechanic...but I think the better you tie in a mechanic with theme, the better the game is. Brew Crafters does this, and actually Caverna (i.e. Agricola 2.0) addresses this as well.<br />Keith Fergusonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-74122607662043446662014-09-06T15:21:11.448-07:002014-09-06T15:21:11.448-07:00I just noticed that Conquest of Paradise second ed...I just noticed that <i>Conquest of Paradise</i> second edition is on the P500 with a pre-order price of just $39. Hmmm.<br /><br />I rationalize the <i>Agricola</i> "why can't I plow if you're plowing" question with the idea that there's only one village ox, or village plow, or something, so the first villager to claim the plow gets to use it. (Is there only one midwife for having children?) But that's just making up an excuse for what is obviously a game-driven mechanic, not a thematic one. Like you, I anticipate <i>Brew Crafters</i> will be the worker-placement game of 2015.<br /><br />I'll respond to Paul R.'s list on my own blog, but the long and the short of it is that no wargames made my list, which testifies to the way my gaming taste has evolved over time.Paul Owenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02260814589584723033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-83115000005795847172014-09-06T14:16:33.785-07:002014-09-06T14:16:33.785-07:00I'll duplicate my list from Paul Owen's pa...I'll duplicate my list from Paul Owen's page: <br /><br />The first set of 8, roughly in the order I acquired them, not "most favorite first". <br /><br />Anzio<br />Third Reich<br />Up Front (and expansion Banzai) <br />History of the World<br />Hannibal: Rome vs Carthage<br />DBA (particularly played as DBx) <br />Stonewall Jackson's Way <br />Down in Flames <br /><br /><br />The second tier of 3, in no particular order. <br />Caesar's Legions<br />Caesar Alesia <br />Battle Cry<br /><br /><br />Third tier of 3, in no particular order: <br />Robo Rally<br />Memoir '44 (particularly Overlord expansion)<br />Pretty much any ancient, AWI, ACW, WWII, or Vietnam miniatures game someone else has organized<br /><br /><br />That's 14. To take the list to 20 would seriously dilute the list. <br />Kriegspielerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16249933193318725220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-42325408494485107312014-08-29T05:05:35.633-07:002014-08-29T05:05:35.633-07:00You keep reminding me of games we should play on T...You keep reminding me of games we should play on Tuesdays. "Oh, yeah, <i>Concordia</i>. I should bring that next time. Oh, yeah, <i>Pergamon</i>. I should bring that next time. After we play <i>Panamax</i>. And I still want to learn <i>Conquest of Paradise</i>...."Paul Owenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02260814589584723033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-58080233242353055942014-08-29T04:27:21.284-07:002014-08-29T04:27:21.284-07:00Yeah, and I realized I forgot our hotel lobby gam...Yeah, and I realized I forgot our hotel lobby game of Targi, plus somewhere in there I played Pirate's Cove. Packed a lot in! Keith Fergusonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-18888803821016460182014-08-28T20:23:27.499-07:002014-08-28T20:23:27.499-07:00I didn't remember that you played TtR on top o...I didn't remember that you played <i>TtR</i> on top of everything else. Wow, that was a fun con.Paul Owenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02260814589584723033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-64847537197666758012014-06-27T07:01:01.080-07:002014-06-27T07:01:01.080-07:00Kudos on putting together a successful day. Well d...Kudos on putting together a successful day. Well done! <br />And a good writeup, too. <br />Kriegspielerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16249933193318725220noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-87991809227321073422014-06-25T20:33:30.967-07:002014-06-25T20:33:30.967-07:00I'm glad you could make it, Austin. Also happ...I'm glad you could make it, Austin. Also happy you were able to get in some playtests of Underground Street Racing...hopefully you got valuable feedback!Keith Fergusonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-213315383564555992014-06-25T10:30:34.370-07:002014-06-25T10:30:34.370-07:00Do not feel sad about there not being a 12 person ...Do not feel sad about there not being a 12 person game of Post Position. Paul and your hard work got over 30 play testers to attend the event. That by itself is more than what anyone can reasonably ask you to do.Dr.Wictzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17880199562978081307noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-73253543302011823282014-06-19T04:34:34.951-07:002014-06-19T04:34:34.951-07:00Hi Ben - I'm a Hokie myself (class of '93 ...Hi Ben - I'm a Hokie myself (class of '93 & '95) - happy to have you come up! There's an Italian place two doors down that sells pizza slices, subs, pasta, etc. I usually spend $7-$10 for a meal there, though some of their pasta dishes are in the $15 range. There's several other restaurants withing walking distance, including some fast food. So, I would say you can get away with $20 (maybe less) for the day on the low end. The Game Parlor sells drinks and snacks (candy bars, mostly) - though I've never bought them, so I'm not sure what they charge for that.Keith Fergusonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-78339517533167246972014-06-19T00:39:48.759-07:002014-06-19T00:39:48.759-07:00Hailing from Blacksburg here! If I wanted to trave...Hailing from Blacksburg here! If I wanted to travel to this, how much can I expect to spend food-wise? Thanks for making this happen!Ben Foxhttp://projecttiles.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-56815096364151903702014-06-09T20:17:53.485-07:002014-06-09T20:17:53.485-07:00No particular schedule...just playing the games as...No particular schedule...just playing the games as player fill in...Keith Fergusonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11448281228327616030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2943679732992973776.post-38699663456361736082014-06-07T08:51:44.910-07:002014-06-07T08:51:44.910-07:00Great of you to organize this. Good on ya! Will t...Great of you to organize this. Good on ya! Will there be a schedule, or is it all games as soon as there are enough players? <br />Kriegspielerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16249933193318725220noreply@blogger.com