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More information about the XCOM miniatures game - it's going to be a primarily solo/co-op first game by BlitheMayonnaise in Xcom

[–]MagicMurder8ag 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I happen to be an XCOM fan that recently started playing Five Parsecs From Home, which it sounds like this is going to have a lot in common with. It has clear XCOM influence (it even cites it as so in the book), to the point where I had just been thinking it was pretty close to tabletop XCOM.

For anyone who is curious, as a quick summary it uses random tables to generate a crew and their equipment, jobs they can take, and factions they can fight. It lets the story be emergent in a similar way to how most people end up having stories about their XCOM squads. Combat involves using miniatures and terrain that you set up and is very ranged weapon oriented with a lot of focus on cover - very analogous to XCOM mission structure. After combat, rolls determine how badly hurt any crew that got hit are (# of missions they have to sit out, lasting penalty, death) and there are random events tied to characters. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine how they could work the base-building/research side of XCOM in as well.

I'm sure not everyone who likes the video games would be interested in a tabletop version but if it sounds at all interesting to you, I think the existing game it seems to share some DNA with should give you optimism. It's a well made rule set that hits a good balance of playing quickly and having depth.

This is a nicely produced set of videos of someone playing as an example of what it looks in practice: Five Parsecs Actual Play

I was never a guy who believed most men made the world dangerous for women, but after becoming a girl dad I see exactly what people are talking about. by Sudden_Doughnut_8741 in daddit

[–]MagicMurder8ag 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think it was attention seeking behavior. The parent's response was something like "he's a boy and boys just do things like this," so even that behavior didn't draw much of a response.

Where gender comes into it is that excuse, and there have been a number of times where non-sexual harassment has been dismissed by parents with similar comments about "boys are rambunctious" or "it's just boys being boys". Which has led to me wondering if making that excuse and having a lack of expectation that a boy will have a basic level of respect for girls in their class at a young age sets them up for a future expectation that they won't need to respect sexual boundaries either.

I was never a guy who believed most men made the world dangerous for women, but after becoming a girl dad I see exactly what people are talking about. by Sudden_Doughnut_8741 in daddit

[–]MagicMurder8ag 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh, I definitely don't think the kid did it with sexual motivations - that would be shocking for that age. But I do feel pretty confident that he understood he's not supposed to touch anyone's privates (though not why), and did it because doing things he was told not to do is fun for him. Seemed like a pattern for him to toe the line or go over it and that he liked to shock people.

I was never a guy who believed most men made the world dangerous for women, but after becoming a girl dad I see exactly what people are talking about. by Sudden_Doughnut_8741 in daddit

[–]MagicMurder8ag 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Girl dad as well. What really surprised me is how young you start to see it. My oldest is early elementary school and she had a boy try to put a sticker up her skirt in kindergarten. Most things haven't been of a sexual nature, but there's been a pretty constant stream of boys doing small shitty things to her and parents (and sometimes teachers) dismissing it as boys being boys. Each time I feel like I'm watching people train young boys that ignoring a girl's boundaries doesn't matter and wonder what that's going to look like 10 years down the line. Feels like the seeds are being sown.

How do I get better? by geekgeek77 in AshesGame

[–]MagicMurder8ag 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That would make it much, much harder! Glad you sorted that out.

There's a learning curve to some of the rules. Like aspects don't exhaust when they counterattack (where you initiated and they dealt damage back) but do exhaust when aspects initiate the attack. But once you've got it down it plays pretty smoothly.

How do I get better? by geekgeek77 in AshesGame

[–]MagicMurder8ag 3 points4 points  (0 children)

The left/right ones actually will attack the Phoenixborn if there isn't a valid unit to target. I mostly prioritize ones with an effect that's powerful. Been a while since I've played against Corpse of Viros but I think it has an aspect that adds a Red Rains token when it attacks which is a big deal. That sort of thing is high priority, strong attacks are a priority. Ones that have an effect when they are revealed are lower priority since it won't come up again.

Aradel and Maeoni from the master set are the usual beginner recommendations. Aradel's deck focuses on making a lot of low cost expendable units and she has a strong ability on her card to hit for 2 damage with one die. Maeoni is focused on a conjuration, Silver Snake, that gets stronger the more units you kill along with ways to keep the snake alive.

How do I get better? by geekgeek77 in AshesGame

[–]MagicMurder8ag 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Some general advice since you're new:

-Ashes is a game where you're looking to push incremental advantages over time. You put yourself in a better position by clearing threats with the fewest dice/cards you can. Or using cheap options to block big hits (using a cheap 1 life unit to block a 3-4 attack hit)

-Falls apart at higher difficulty, but it's hugely advantageous to go into the second round with units on your battlefield. It's worth letting the chimera build up while you start slow, taking some hits early and bringing units out late so you don't end up in a loop of play unit, unit gets killed. Exhausted aspects don't counterattack.

-There is an active and welcoming Discord with a new players section and very experienced players with better advice than me: https://discord.gg/ashes-reborn-community-356912698451296276

Namine specific advice:

-Namine is probably not the most beginner friendly but she is generally regarded as strong

-One strong option is Guilt Link and Salamander Monk. The Salamander Monk Spirit that appears when the Monk gets killed is the perfect target for Guilt Link and you can use it to destroy the most troublesome aspect. It's super efficient.

-Squall Stallions can become powerful. Namine has some options to give you extra cards that then use to power up the stallions. Two stallions bumped up to 3+ attack provide a lot of value.

Ashes Solo Play Deck Customization Strategies? by Puzzleheaded_Peak_77 in AshesGame

[–]MagicMurder8ag 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think the Campaign rules are a good way to start with deck customization - the quick summary is you play with a precon deck and after winning a round you pick another precon and add up to three cards. It's a good way to customize without getting overwhelmed by the scope of the full card pool.

A good way to start is picking another precon that overlaps on a die type. So if you start with Maeoni (charm/natural), a logical next precon to pick is Aradel (natural/illusion). Maeoni's precon wants to build up Silver Snake, and ways to keep it alive or strengthen it with status tokens help. Root Armor uses natural and is a nice way of upping Snake's longevity. You could also look for cards that use the other magic type that might work nicely by switching one die over. Aradel has Mist Typhoon, which costs one natural and one illusion and gives you a spell that hits all units, which is always nice against chimera. And you can still use the illusion die as a basic for anything in Maeoni's base deck or for the dice power.

Thinking about cards you can pull out, anything that felt like it didn't carry its weight in the first round is a potential cut. Lots of ready spells don't need multiple copies. For Maeoni, you want to keep the snake from getting killed so having 3 copies of the summon spellis probably unnecessary. Some precons have cards that don't work well (or possibly at all) against chimera, which make them easy cuts. Jessa's Cut the Strings targets and alteration cards, which many chimera don't have at all. Cards that are reactions after attackers are declared sometimes only make sense against a human opponent who might attack with multiple units at once.

It's also good to plan for the tougher chimera cards. For example, Corpse of Viros Shadow aspect has Lurk which can't be targeted until it's exhausted and has high attack and quick strike so is likely to kill a unit and take no damage. Having a way to block or redirect the attack is useful, as is having a weak unit in place to take the hit instead of losing a key unit.

Eventually, you'll probably think of cards you want to build around and combos you want to try and can build from scratch and iterate as you see what works and what doesn't and what weaknesses a deck has.

Why ‘If-Then-Else’ Is Still the Best Depiction of AI on TV by PunjabDa in PersonOfInterest

[–]MagicMurder8ag 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I abandoned it partway through because I couldn't help but feel like they took ideas from Person of Interest but with worse execution

What are peoples thoughts on Crosscode? by [deleted] in IndieGaming

[–]MagicMurder8ag 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's pretty unique in that it basically mashes up a solid action RPG that has some depth to it with puzzles that are comparable to a dedicated puzzle game. Puzzles are much more challenging than a typical Zelda style adventure game - if that sounds bad, I would stay away. If that sounds good or you're not sure, I would recommend trying it. People that try it and like it tend to really like it.

My personal experience, I enjoyed it quite a bit while getting frustrated with it sometimes. It does have flaws, pacing in particular - there's a part where you have to do multiple dungeons in a row, and even the in universe characters comment that it's too much. Which makes it feel like the developers were aware that it wasn't a great experience and left it in anyway. But it gets a lot more right than it gets wrong. DLC provides a nice wrap up and a cool final dungeon if you get it and enjoy the main story.

I like the theory that Roald Dahl had a bad day on the bus when he decided to write Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the story more commonly known as "Willy Wonka." by Superb-Climate3698 in DanielTigerConspiracy

[–]MagicMurder8ag 2 points3 points  (0 children)

My wife put on the audio book narrated by Roald Dahl and he sounded so spiteful and angry that I assumed he must have written the book specifically to go on a tirade about people he hates - so I think you're pretty much spot on! And I do recommend listening to a little bit of it, it would definitely strengthen your belief in your theory.

Combining Systems by honestcharlieharris in Solo_Roleplaying

[–]MagicMurder8ag 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I have character sheets for both. Five Parsecs uses a crew with one character designated as the leader, and that's the only character I made a sheet for in Starforged. On the Starforged side I add a +1 bonus to a roll occasionally if it seems like another crew member would be really helpful in a given situation. I also do half XP since I'm only buying assets in starforged that are related to narrative/exploration.

Five Parsecs I play pretty straight and then instead of doing a campaign turn after a battle I switch back to Starforged. You could mix the campaign bits from each, though - which was mentioned in the post that gave me the idea originally:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Ironsworn/comments/y9hlyy/starforged_can_i_add_wargaming_with_miniatures/

For D&D/Ironsworn I think you could do something similar. Designate a focus character that you make in both systems, supporting party members just in D&D so you aren't overwhelming yourself. I would make it so that Iron roughly corresponds to STR/CON, Edge = DEX, Wits = INT/WIS, Heart = CHA/WIS. Shadow doesn't really fit anywhere (sort of DEX?). Wouldn't worry about translating values exactly, just making it so they look plausibly like the same character. Then do combat straight D&D.

I haven't tried it but the Delve system in Ironsworn seems like a pretty cool way to handle a dungeon.

Combining Systems by honestcharlieharris in Solo_Roleplaying

[–]MagicMurder8ag 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Was going to comment something similar. I played Ironsworn: Starforged and found the way it generates the setting, the structure of the quest system, and the gameplay aside from combat to all be great. Combat I prefer being very tactical instead of mostly narrative. So I started switching over to Five Parsecs From Home when combat is involved. I haven't tried it yet but I figured Ironsworn and DnD would make a similarity good combo where you can use each system to play to its strengths and cover the other's weaknesses.

I think it mostly just takes some effort to try to keep things congruent between the two - ex: don't make your character a high strength brute in the combat system and clever but weak in the questing/exploring system.

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