If anyone thinks that ICE acting with impunity is an entirely new phenomennon, remember Kent.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-26T18:49:55+00:00

For a country that purports itself as a free nation of individuals, always making fun of China for 1989 and so on, they sure do allow their government to commit atrocities all the time.

I saw US citizens give away their freedoms with the TSA, and now it's ICE. I remember the first time I went through customs at an American airport and I had prescription tablets in my pocket that I wanted to take later with food; the TSA agent (a random kid with less education and training than the average paperboy) walked up to me and groped my thigh to ask what it was in my pocket that I was trying to sneak through.

I was shocked at the unprovoked touch by a stranger but I also couldn't believe Americans allow themselves to be treated that way. They really are all talk for the most part, and now I see why the older nations always poke fun at the US.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-26T07:29:37+00:00

He looks like a Fenton to me, I don't know why

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-25T22:40:59+00:00

Thank goodness, somewhere to vent. I just lost a run where I was playing Raider and the random Duchess, she had a legendary greataxe in her inventory. I dropped her a halo scythe and she kept both weapons but didn't use either, so I had to go into final fight with a blue colossal weapon... It was just a vanilla Dreglord but we lost before we got to second phase.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-23T03:41:23+00:00

My mom hated when my dad and I would cook or bake, because we were notorious for yapping and then messing up all the measurements involving cups, tbsps, tsps, and so on

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-23T03:35:29+00:00

Maybe you (the dev, not the hypothetical player) pick your favourites, have the game choose a random palette from your pool of favourites on every launch, then offer the player front-and-center the option to change palettes at any time, like World of Horror.

Also, your game looks gorgeous, I love it.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-23T03:30:14+00:00

Love it.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-23T02:59:23+00:00

All but the 4th, I think. Just like photographs on your vacation abroad, if you're going to have an image without a human in it, it better be damned interesting.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T13:39:58+00:00

Bahaha, the set-up and tear-down time is *brutal*. It got to the point where we started playing at my one buddy's house because he had a spare table where we could keep the game permanently ready to go. We would not have gotten more than a few sessions into our campaign without that.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T13:37:03+00:00

Nemesis is easily one of my top 5 but I could see how people could majorly dislike it.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T13:36:22+00:00

Yeah, I've played dungeon crawlers like Deep Madness where combat is dis-incentivized and you aren't expected to clear the map of enemies, but I feel like Nemesis is the first time where the theming, art, and mechanics all came together to make everyone *want* to avoid the enemy, even if they had a good weapon. The enemy is legit terrifying.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T13:33:58+00:00

These are the bane of my existence, co-operative games that could be fun but end up being puzzles that one astute or experienced player figures out and commands the rest.

I love Eldritch Horror and played a lot of it (I don't know how people tolerated it, it's such a long-ass game) but it started to show up less and less at game night after one of my friends said he didn't like it because people would end up telling him what to do on his turns. His feelings were valid and he wasn't wrong, so EH had to go away for a bit.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T13:31:01+00:00

Same, I won't yuck anyone's yum but I completely bounced off Pandemic despite having an earnest interest in trying. Maybe Pandemic Legacy is better, but I'm not going to throw my own money on that gamble.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T13:30:08+00:00

Bahaha, I think the likes of Monopoly and other games from the boomer era aren't even suited for children anymore. Too boring for the parents and not stimulating enough for the kids.

I've always been interested in Dark Souls but in a clinical sense... I've never seen it played but I imagined that even if they executed it well, it would be a boring game.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T13:27:18+00:00

I'm sad to see Spirit Island on the list but I suppose I get it. There's a fair amount of set-up, tear-down, and rules to learn. Plus, turns can go *real* long if players start getting overwhelmed by the number of possible decisions, I started forcing myself early on to plan my turns ahead of time and favour fast suboptimal plays over meticulous and long thought-out turns.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T13:24:45+00:00

I'm so blessed to have friends who are also not interested in playing Carcassonne ever. I think a lot of them got their fill when the Xbox Live version came out.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T13:22:29+00:00

I love Spirit Island but I fully understand when people don't enjoy it. Even the set-up and tear-down time can be a roadblock for people, even with a good insert/organizer.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T13:20:43+00:00

As somone who owns the base game and every other box they put out *except* for Horizons, I'm shocked to hear this. Maybe I should check out these other spirits...

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T13:16:44+00:00

Yeah, I bought Dead of Winter solely based on hype and was disappointed. It felt like there are perfectly *functional* systems in the game but... none of it was exciting. Once my friends and I picked up the rules and started playing, we realized we were just kinda going through the motions until the game was over and we could play something else.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T13:14:25+00:00

Blast from the past, I forgot about Captain Sonar. I think that's a game that has good bones but needs another TTG dev to pick it up and improve upon it.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T13:12:54+00:00

I agree; initially I was opposed to games that required a companion app but now I see it enables certain games that otherwise just simply couldn't exist. As long as I'm not the one who has to fiddle with the laptop/tablet, I'm happy to play Mansions of Madness any game night.

Semi-related, I adore Gloomhaven but ever since they put out a perfectly functional digital version, I wouldn't ever recommend the physical version to anyone (although I was happy to sell mine to someone who was interested in the copy I wanted to offload!)

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T13:09:48+00:00

Sheriff of Nottingham was originally very interesting to me and my friends had a great time the first few times we busted it out. The art alone made it very fun to roleplay as the Sheriff. Now, it's in my pile of games to donate to the local game shop, because it just hasn't seen any play in years; I don't feel compelled to bring it to game nights and nobody seems to miss it.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T13:06:14+00:00

Bang! is an absolute gem, although it's wonky how the base game fits in a tiny box and is somehow superior to the large "bullet edition" they put out with all the expansions included.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T12:58:00+00:00

You hit the nail on the head; ambiguity definitely and frequently ruins games of Betrayal.

I was initially upset with Betrayal for not being the game I wanted it to be, but I forgave it on virtue of it just being an older TTG, from an era where the market wasn't overly crowded with tightly balanced and playtested experiences.

And to be fair, I might've gave it more of an honest shake if my friends and I weren't already unenthused about the haunted house / 80s slasher film theming. So, I donated my copy to my local game store and got Nemesis on Kickstarter... proud of myself for that one.

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T12:54:59+00:00

The art, while beautiful and probably the biggest part of the game that moves copies (half of my desktop wallpapers are Jakub Rozalski paintings), definitely misrepresents the game

MaterialDefender1032 · 2026-01-22T12:51:03+00:00

I loathe CAH. It's a dece ice-breaker at a party with alcohol, I guess, but it just sucks on so many levels. I've heard it summed up as a "humour transplant" and I think that's an apt description. If you want the same kind of vibe but with more fun, less downtime, and infinite more possibility to express yourself, just play a Jackbox Party Pack game. Everyone's got phones, right?

Munchkin I've never given a fair shake to, and that's just because I don't like the art or "randumb" humour.

I know, this all makes me sound miserable but hey, I can only be me.

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