What I Played Today: October 30

Code Words, Smash Up, Red7, One Night Revolution, Race for the Galaxy

I made it to game night! I should get a tiny trophy! I had a mild panic attack that everyone would hate me for not showing up for over a year. That didn't happen! I don't know what I would do if it did!

Anyway, there are a lot of people I DON'T know there, including a guy that apparently has a hook-up with game designers, so much so that he has prototype for a game that is similar to Spyfall, which is a game I have not played. There are two words; most player get one word, one player gets the other. All players writes down a related word to the word they have, and then they must try to figure out who is the sole recipient of the other word, OR if you are that person, you try to figure out what the other word is. Whoever does the best gets points. There are a bunch of other rules. The concept is fine; the execution is clearly in need of work, thus, prototype. I got into a tiny fight with a guy who was like, "Well, why wouldn't everyone just be an asshole to the guy who is winning?" because the thought of being a dick NEVER OCCURRED TO ME. I guess I am just not tooled that way.

Then a game of Red 7, which went fine, everyone wasn't too dumb about it. This game has a weird level of entry. I don't know, it's fine, but it's unusually difficult to teach.

A game of Smash Up! Which is now officially out of control! The game was already kind of difficult to handle when there WEREN'T 40 goddamn factions. We played a game, slowly, and eventually it got to the point where someone was clearly going to win and I tried everything in my power to stop it, but I couldn't, because ninjas. The end.

I also tried to play One Night Revolution, which I might just fucking stop doing, because it has gone poorly every single goddamn time I've tried. This time it was five players, and I should have known immediately this was a bad idea, because I was playing with the same goddamn player who ruined One Night Werewolf with this group for this, and this other player who just seems....slow? Like, I don't want to be an ableist jerk, but...this guy takes a while to understand some concepts. And of course these two problem players break the game when one views the other and fingers him as a baddie, game over, pack up your cards, throw the game in the fucking garbage.

I admit that I kinda lost my shit here. I had reached a breaking point in which I was very frustrated that I could not get an even decent experience with this ten-minute game, and I said some frankly dickish things to people who did not deserve it, both when I was cleaning up and just now. I am very sorry that I feel this way, but I also feel that it is important to admit and display that I do, in fact, have this feelings, and while I am in no way proud, I am definitely a real human being who feels a bit of pride from this dumb game that I paid money for. I paid for this thing, and I want to play a single good game of it. I'm sorry for my stupid foolish pride.

BUT enough for that. How about a game of Race to the Galaxy? This game is pretty good. I got stuck on a military track, and couldn't get the planets I needed. It happens! I have no hard feelings about it. I could CARE LESS about Race for the Galaxy, because I've gotten my money's worth from that one copy I bought three or four years ago. Apparently they changed the Gambling World at some point. Who knew?

But yeah, kind of excited to going back to this again, TWO weeks from now, because the game center is closed for bullshit next week.

What I Played Today: Vacation

Guild Wars 2, Reus, Civilization 5, Magic: The Gathering, Dominion, Le Havre: The Inland Port, Smash Up

I was on vacation, so of course I didn't feel like keeping this updated. Vacation.

I played a ton of fucking Guild Wars 2, because of course I did. I spent maybe the entire week trying to complete the Dragon Bash event so I could get the dumb wings, and then NOT succeeding, because man, screw this one time only events. I understand that they have an incredible commitment to keep adding content to this game, and they are doing a fastastic job, but they are also...doing it too fast? Like...two weeks is not enough time to do everything I want to do, game. I can't be playing every single night, and I have a really hard time getting into a dungeon. I don't know, maybe I need to join the right guild. My current guild is worthless to me.

Also did some more general Steam game, played a bit of Civ 5, waiting impatiently for the new release (should be tomorrow), played some Magic 2014, I think I logged into Reus for a little bit?

And occasionally some people would come over and want to play games. So I played a game of Dominion with the latest Guilds expansion, and man...kind of screw this one? The coin tokens are kind of too powerful. "Oh...I only have five coins in my hand, but I got these three coin tokens that I didn't really work for! Free Province!" But it's what everyone wanted, and they got what they asked for, and now they can suck on it. Also played a game of Le Havre: The Inland Port, which I won somehow, even though I had no resources and my opponent had a full warehouse and three of the buildings that count resources. And a game of Smash Up, which I didn't enjoy that much.

There you have it!

What I Played Today: November 14

Smash Up, Skull and Roses, Dominion

Played some Smash Them Up, again with four people. I'm really like to play a game without all the dumb factions being present, see if that changes things. Anyway, I did an awesome thing where I played a zombie lord to drop a ton of cheap jerks from my graveyard onto the table, including some replicating robots, which let me bust up a base right away. But I still didn't win, because someone had aliens, and aliens have that guy who just drops VP like candy. Well, whatever, it was fun.

Also Skull and Roses, which I like a lot. It's a good game!

Then a game of vanilla Dominion, with all of the attack cards. Like, all of them. It was a pretty aggressive game, and I took on a lot of curses. I did buy a lot of provinces though, so I think I won? I don't remember.

What I Played Today: October 17

Nanuk, Smash Up, Dixit, Netrunner, BattleCON, Avalon, Dungeons of Dredmor

Lot of games today! First Nanuk, which is a bit of liar's dice. I've talked about it before, I'm sure. I didn't win, although I did pretty okay. I don't know, middling.

Then a game of Smash-Up. It took forever for the game to actually get going, because everyone was playing minions, but was spreading them out. Come on guys, break those bases. The game ended pretty quickly when the robot pirate player managed to dump a full 10 points onto a base into a turn, so that was cool.

A quick game of Dixit, that I somehow ran away with. Well, whatever.

Then a couple of two-player games while a full ton of people were learning Battlestar Galactica. I lost in Netrunner because man on man, there has got to be a better way with slowing down card snatching from the HQ. I have no control over what's there! I also lost BattleCON, because I chose the doppleganger character, which I hate, and my opponent was not easily copyable. We managed to go to time, probably past, in fact, because we weren't paying a lot of attention.

Then we went to a bar and tried to play Avalon, which was a bad idea! Some people missed the rules, some spies didn't see each other, some spies didn't even open their eyes, it was a disaster. Don't play games in bars if all players aren't within five feet of each other, everyone.

Then I was at home, and thought to myself, "Dungeons of Dredmor. That's a thing, right?" So I played that for a bit, looked around online, apparently a lot of people have made their own skill mods for it, that sounds cool. So I might play it again!

What I Played Today: October 9

Smash Up!, Magical Athlete, Netrunner

Some game called Smash Up! is finally out, and I bought it, because that's how I roll. It's an interesting idea where you shuffle together two distinct piles of cards (a gameplay idea I've been toying with for literally years), and that sets your group. Each player takes turns playing minions on bases. When the value of the minions exceeds the bases break number, everyone gets points. Of course, all cards do something, so the game isn't nearly that straight-forward. I like how each faction has a very specific feel, and how the factions in your deck can occasionally combo off each other. One player had robots and dinosaurs. Robots specialize in dumping a lot of guys on the board, while dinosaurs are all about being huge, which allowed from some interesting "little guy summons huge guy" plays. I like it, it's pretty clever, and I hope to play it more. Although...already want more expansions. Being able to see all the cards in a standard game leaves me cold.

Then a goofy little racing game called Magical Athlete, in which you roll and move your little guy, and each guy has special rules. Whatever, it's short enough, and enjoyable, and I placed in every race, so get over it.

Also a couple of games of Netrunner, one where I tricked the runner to go straight for a Junebug that had been advanced four times (FOUR TIMES!), and one where I managed to snag a winning agenda from the top of the deck. A couple of mistakes were made, but I like the criminal a lot. His general playstyle is pretty fun.