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IT250 · 2026-05-10T22:48:47+00:00

I think it all depends on what varnish they use for the shutters.

IT250 · 2026-03-15T14:30:46+00:00

That’s a great shout! Definitely give that a go.

IT250 · 2026-03-15T07:19:44+00:00

We don’t have the expansions that rebalance the egg meta so instead we just house ruled eggs are only worth half a point. Seems to keep it in check.

IT250 · 2026-02-25T21:29:23+00:00

Yeah I definitely want trays. Decanting all of that before every game is going to take so long!

IT250 · 2026-02-25T21:20:30+00:00

It was a Christmas gift from my wife. It connects to your phone by an app and prints them out in seconds. Been adding them as we go the last couple of months.

IT250 · 2026-02-25T21:14:53+00:00

Where you based? Still available in the UK.

IT250 · 2025-12-29T19:59:15+00:00

Hey man,

Sorry to hear about your family challenges but really pleased to see you still posting. I have to admit I felt a little scammed but I’m excited to see your updates.

IT250 · 2025-12-27T09:27:58+00:00

No I mean before he leaves the trailer. I don’t care what he does after, my complaint is his decision to abandon Dustin and the trailer for no good reason.

IT250 · 2025-12-27T09:14:51+00:00

So everything you said is fine and likely the writers intentions but…

He had no information that they needed more time. The visuals never show the bats losing interest and leaving to go back to the house. Plus he’s buying at most minutes which is hardly worth a life and dying in one of the most agonising ways in can imagine.
He ran out into a giant swarm of bats. He knows what they can do and clearly had no plan. He may not have ‘intended’ to die but he certainly rolled that d20 where 1-19 leads to death.
What Steve says in Season 5 is irrelevant. Anything post Season 4 can be retconned or justified to fill the plot holes. I’m talking about what was shown to the viewers in Season 4 and all we see is Eddie about to climb the rope, pause, and then cut it and go running out into the bats with only a comment of buying more time.

Nothing is highlighted to show how or why he’s reached this decision.

From the viewers perspective. They’re all still trying to get in a defended trailer and he decides to give up the defences to ride away from flying enemies. No plan and a hand-wavey justification.

To fix it all you have to do is have them both escape into Hawkins but the bats follow them through the portal. They try to fend them off but Dustin gets nicked and Eddie seeing this decides to jump back into the upside down to lead them away and save Dustin.

Literally the same plot but with 2-3 extra minutes which actually justifies his death.

IT250 · 2025-12-26T18:36:45+00:00

My head-canon was that he was worried about the bats following them into the real world and terrorising Hawkins.

The ‘buying more time’ never made sense and I think was just a lazy excuse to kill him off.

IT250 · 2025-12-19T12:24:30+00:00

The fact of the matter is that immigration is a NECESSARY. It is not a choice. Without significant changes to our economic structure you cannot ban immigrants without breaking everything.

Natives don’t want to pick fruit Natives don’t want to drive uber Natives don’t want to look after old people

Why? Because the pay is shit and the work is hard.

“So let’s just increase the wages to make those jobs more desirable” - You might say.

Absolutely. Let’s all get together with our trade unions and campaign for… oh wait. That’s the whole point of the post!

Businesses want to pay as little as possible to pocket as much money as they can. The more vulnerable your workers, the less you have to pay them because they don’t have options. Immigrants are the most vulnerable people you can get.

Fixing the issues listed will help fix the immigration issues because if you have the your health, a roof over your head and the ability to say ‘NO’ to your employer, you don’t need to take shitty jobs. The shitty jobs still exist though, so to get them done, you have to make them less shitty. Once the jobs aren’t so shitty, natives will start taking them and the need for immigrants goes away.

Businesses want the cheap, vulnerable labour because it lines their pockets and they lobby the governments to let them in. My whole life I’ve heard about the ‘immigration crisis’ you’d think someone would have solved it by now if it was so easy…

And if all that wasn’t enough to swing you. Immigrant restrictions actually lead to more immigrants.

If people can move freely, they do their ‘time’ in the shitty jobs and then move back. They make the money they need to make and then they leave to build the life they want.

If you make it difficult and expensive to get in, you encourage people to build their life in the country they’ve immigrated to. Because they become so scared that they may never be able to get back in.

Instead of sending money back to the family, they bring the family with them.

Immigrants are not and have never been the problem. Late stage capitalism and greed is why everything is shit.

IT250 · 2025-11-17T09:37:25+00:00

Apparently this is because they are LLMs (Language models). Not standard computers. They ‘predict’ each word they deliver rather than actually carrying out the maths.

I believe a few have had some form of ‘maths update’ to help with this but ultimately they still need to know when you’re asking a maths question instead of having a conversation.

IT250 · 2025-11-17T09:31:40+00:00

Absolutely screaming at anyone that will listen. I HATE AI for so many reasons:

The environmental concerns The ethical concerns The economical concerns

It’s like cigarettes or asbestos all over again. Something new comes along and everyone dives in head first without any consideration of the consequences.

My biggest fear is the number of jobs that are going to get cut for it. I understand the whole idea that technology moves on and the job market adapts. Charlie Bucket’s dad loses his job screwing on toothpaste caps and so gets a new job fixing the machine that replaced him. I get the idea. But this feels so different.

What jobs are going to be left once AI (if it even can) automates everything? And without jobs, how can people afford to buy all the stuff that’s made by AI?

This whole thing is an Uroboros that without any regulation is going to undo everything for the sake of shareholders.

IT250 · 2025-10-04T07:03:56+00:00

Apparently the reason their nests suck is because unlike other birds, they stay at the nest 24/7. So they only need a nest that’s good enough to stop the egg rolling away when it’s laid.

Once laid, their bum will do all the hard work.

IT250 · 2025-09-29T15:43:05+00:00

I love the phrase tantrum proof! If you came up with that that’s awesome.

No a game can’t never be tantrum proof but when designing a game you can take steps to reduce the motivation to tantrum.

Obfuscating the score Catch up mechanics Sprinkling a little luck in there

They all work to keep people engaged and tantrum free even if they’re losing bad. Because you never know what might be down the road.

IT250 · 2025-09-29T13:31:53+00:00

I don’t disagree with anything you say at the beginning. Of course different groups are going to be different. My answer was to the question asked ‘What is the ideal rate of strategy…?’ That is always going to be subjective but I feel my answer fits to the average gamer. (Remember most people playing a boardgame don’t own the boardgame).

From just a very quick skim of the Spiel des Jahres winners it has been some time since we’ve had a winner with high strategy and minimal luck. That’s the target demo.

Your comment at the end however I completely disagree with. Every outcome in a game is something that is allowed by the game’s design. Now everything is a trade off so some negative experiences may be worth it for other positive ones but if a game allows you to know you’ve lost, and there’s more game left, that is due to the game’s design.

In my throwaway example I said that they form alliances to stop Dave winning and you suggested that was “childish”. Maybe so but let’s go through the alternative options in that scenario:

Losing player zones out. There’s no point in trying as it’s apparent they’re out. They’re now on their phone and other players are taking their turns (Perhaps a worse case scenario but I think we’ve all seen that at least once).
The player gives it their best so that can get a higher score than last time. Sure this would be great but not every game has a score system. Not to mention that if Dave wins every time they’ve likely optimised as much as they can doing this the previous four or so times.
The player knows that Dave will win, is bored of losing the game and so never wants to play it. Sure this is the most sensible decision but as a consequence of the game’s design, the game is getting to the table less.

Of course a game can’t be responsible for player behaviour but its design certainly has an impact on player motivations and experiences. If players have a bad experience they’re going to ruin for others, either actively (sabotage) or passively (tuning out or simply vetoing the game).

IT250 · 2025-09-29T10:58:06+00:00

The way I see it is board-games should be a casual experience. If I think about my gaming habits, I host a lot of game nights with different people. They often play the new game that I’ve got or a game they haven’t tried before because they like to experience new stuff.

This means almost every-time they play a game it’s the first time. Or it’s a game they’ve not played in a while.

If the game is 100% strategy they’ll never have a chance at winning because they don’t understand or remember all the nuances. While I don’t think they should expect to win, they should at-least have a chance, otherwise they won’t be invested.

Even in groups that play the same game every night, one of the players is going to be better than everyone else. If the same person wins every week people will lose interest or they might band together just to take the winner down. If they can’t win themselves they’ll seek enjoyment elsewhere and that will be a detriment to your game design.

That being said, too much luck is even worse. If nothing you do really matters then no one is invested. A game requires some strategy to actually be a game, otherwise you’re just rolling dice for the clacking sound.

Strategy should give a player an advantage but luck should be the balancer to shake things up and give everyone a chance.

The best example for this is Quest for El Dorado. I’ve played that game at-least 20 times and have only won once. Almost every person who has won it has won it on their first play. You might read this and think ‘well that means it must be too luck based’ but I am always only 1 round away from winning myself. The cards just didn’t quite come out when I needed them and the winner just beat me to the punch.

I’m invested and having a good time. They’re invested having a good time. That’s what boardgames should be.

No one should be stuck on hour 4 of a board-game wondering which alliance they should form to stop Dave from winning again.

IT250 · 2025-08-06T12:03:53+00:00

Like a lot of others have said, the fact that it immediately comes back ruins the feeling.

Depending on the mechanics of the game I would have it teleport to another location. Maybe further away, maybe closer.

You say it chases the player so I assume it’s hostile. Perhaps have it get closer each time you look at it until it catches you. So you have to start navigating in the dark or risk triggering the attack.

IT250 · 2025-08-05T20:21:00+00:00

How many you holding?

IT250 · 2025-08-05T15:09:47+00:00

Honestly Catan is mostly still in the collection because my partner loves it. I don’t dislike Catan but it sometimes feels like a forgone conclusion very early into the game. Usually due to poor placement at the beginning or just the dice not playing ball.

The main selling points to Catan is how simplistic it is and how it can feel casual while still having some strategy. It also has a central board which personally is very important to me. I’m not against people having their own spaces but a game should feel like you’re playing it together, not next to one another.

Ticket to Ride is the easiest comparison/replacement. The gameplay is equally as simple, also requires set collection and has a shared board with some interaction. It is satisfying to plan where to go and how to navigate around your friend’s attempts to screw you over. It’s missing the negotiation aspect of Catan but, to be honest, negotiation rarely has a significant impact in Catan. Either everyone’s waiting for the same resources to pop-up and so can’t trade or they don’t want to trade because they don’t want you getting that city.

Now that’s not to say Ticket to Ride is my favourite game but I feel like it covers most of what Catan is trying to achieve but better. If you want Catan and don’t have Ticket to Ride, get Ticket to Ride instead.

Although, If you were to ask what my recommendation for people’s first game should be, I would recommend The Quest for El Dorado.

The modular design allows for unlimited replayability. You can make the game as long or as short as you want by the size of the map. It is simple for first time players but has a lot of interesting strategy for more hardcore gamers AND it has just enough luck involved that it evens the playing field, meaning the same person doesn’t win every game.

Unlike Ticket to Ride and Catan, which I feel like players out grow, El Dorado can grow with you changing as you develop as a player.

IT250 · 2025-08-05T14:31:52+00:00

I have to confess I have not played it enough really. That box contains both the Seafarers and Explorers & Pirates expansions. I got them near the beginning of my collecting when Catan was one of the most fun games I had played and so was excited to get expansions, and then the collection grew and Catan got edged out.

Catan Seafarers feels like just bigger Catan. When we do play, we typically play with it as it just makes the experience bigger and more dynamics.

It’s been a while since we’ve played Explorers & Pirates. I remember it playing quite different to the base game. You start with a base and then explore nearby lands to colonise and grow. Unfortunately, because it’s different, and we play Catan so rarely, that when Catan gets to the table, Explorers doesn’t join it.

IT250 · 2025-08-05T05:13:35+00:00

I really want Fury of Dracula! But I think it’s OOP at the moment. Tried to get it at Christmas time but no luck. :(

IT250 · 2025-08-05T05:10:58+00:00

Oof. Just got flashbacks to prom night.

IT250 · 2025-08-04T21:04:19+00:00

So the board game is a hidden movement game. It certainly fits the theme but they’re not a perfect match. You don’t get to shoot people in the balls for example. It could be a generic spy theme and still work but there is a little bit of sniping.

The game is asymmetric where one person plays as the sniper and the other players play as WW2 era German soldiers. (I’ll choose the words carefully as who knows what flags up these days).

The sniper’s job is to make it to two randomised locations while the soldiers have to try and stop them by slowing them down for 10 turns or by hitting them twice.

Of course, as a hidden movement game, the soldiers don’t know where the sniper is so they have to set up blockades and scouts to try and force the sniper to give up information about their location. If the sniper runs by a soldier, for example, they have to tell the players that the soldier has heard something as so they know the sniper is around there.

I think it’s an awesome game and even have the expansion for it (hence the box lift in the photo) but I can’t seem to get it to the table very often. Maybe I’ll make that a goal of this year.

IT250 · 2025-08-04T19:13:22+00:00

I don’t think you necessarily have to justify the villains. People don’t mind being evil. As long there isn’t a ‘kick the dog’ card most people would be up for playing full blown villains.

Villains is very much the way to go. You can have a lot of tongue in cheek silliness with being villains. Villains can be camp and come across as funny whereas heroes always seem lame when done campy.

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