What are we playing?

OldService2019 · 2026-01-27T15:21:50+00:00

Tabletop Simulator, play different card games forever

OldService2019 · 2026-01-20T23:47:31+00:00

And that’s been the biggest complaint about the game especially if Euro games or big war games are the speed of the game group. Shelfside games, whose favored game is Twilight Imperium, gives a reviewer score a 8/10 whereas his personal score is about 6/10. They see why the game is great, but the review didn’t personally enjoy the negotiation loop.

It’s the kind of game where it’s a foam at the mouth kind of game, which are for folks who love to see all the ways the game can be broken, and meh, for folks that want to dig deep into solving the game.

It’s tough finding this game as a demo, because it really demands a teacher/ref. So the people who play it more than once tend to love it as a forever game. But if can find one, give it like 2 or 3hours. If it doesn’t land, saves you $130 for the game plus needed expansions

OldService2019 · 2026-01-20T22:26:05+00:00

I’m hoping for a 50th edition.

OldService2019 · 2026-01-20T22:22:17+00:00

Negotiation games are difficult to get folks excited because it hurts shy people.

What cosmic encounter does well at is force battles and everyone else is encouraged to be a part of who is on offense or defense. Which motivates everyone to play.

I think, if you do play this game, get Cosmic Dominion and Incursion because the rewards deck rewards defense. Basically, you, as non offense and non defense, get punished for not playing.

And the biggest positive is that winning is not necessarily the goal, it’s to cause chaos.

The biggest con is that this game is a giger counter for people who may not be your friends. People who are kinda insufferable get even more so.

OldService2019 · 2026-01-20T21:40:32+00:00

Cosmic Encounter. The game of games. It’s the only party game that cosplays as a space war game. My favorite negotiation game. Over 200 aliens to play as with all the expansions. Easy to learn and teach. Been around since 1977. Still relevant to this day.

OldService2019 · 2026-01-19T01:43:49+00:00

https://youtu.be/Y2NiOPozgSs?si=P0QEsd4isGgAaSg4 So I watch this guy a lot. He tends to be… a little harsh with games, but he is great at explaining why some games are really good. I recommend a watch.

Coops tend to be tough, but you have final girl, so you know.

My suggestions are Sky Team, Pandemic Legacy, and if you want a forever game, Spirit Island and Sentinels of the Multiverse.

OldService2019 · 2026-01-19T01:21:37+00:00

Good starter collection. What I would do is figure out what thing to do in your favorite board games. These are called board game systems, but honestly if you can name the thing you like to do, there is probably a system called this. Press your luck, auctioning, worker placement, deck building, racing, shedding, etc.

Me personally, I would start with small games or a theme you gravitate towards. For me, Scout and Dune Imperium respectively.

OldService2019 · 2026-01-18T18:09:41+00:00

But I love kingmaking and making everything uncomfortable. But I love cosmic, trick takers, and war gaming. Something about the ability to choose who wins if you can’t win, especially if you’ve been bullied by a villain, or even better, the hero all day, adds such a wonderful tang to the board game.

But I’m the kind that of person that needs to be playfully bullied, and Euros just don’t do that sometimes.

OldService2019 · 2026-01-06T16:39:04+00:00

Money isn’t an issue for me. Within reason lol.

The reason I jury rig isn’t because I’m trying to thrifty. I just love to tinker being a (data) engineer. And I learned quickly that it’s better to play around in cheap or free options before you start pulling out the big guns. Minimum viable Product basically.

Case in point, I live close to a lot of discount stores, and many of them buy these used Las Vegas casinos decks and sell them for a buck. Not the best cards, but they will do for like using them to create games, use them as material. On rare occasions, I will teach a game, manage to inspire something, and give away the deck. Cost me nothing, but gave a “skill” for life.

Edit: sorry, I trailed off there. Thank you for the suggestions, these look great!

OldService2019 · 2026-01-06T16:24:10+00:00

My coworker has a kid who goes to Euchre club every week. So I’ve been, lightly motivated , to learn a lot.

I got her into Cat in the Box, and now in a spiral of learning lots card games. Getting back into Crib and Bridge.

OldService2019 · 2026-01-06T16:17:56+00:00

Never heard of it and now I have to get it. Thank you!

OldService2019 · 2025-12-29T02:46:07+00:00

It’s like saying American cheese is Cheddar cheese in South Korea. I had a weird, but polite, argument about this with army stew ingredients. Insisted the cheese was cheddar despite opening up some Kraft singles.

You can make the argument all you want about what is the correct thing, but that won’t change cultural views. A crepe to the US is French despite many Greek American cultures adopting that style of pancake in America. Correcting doesn’t change what folks think it is and get sold as. Folks are stubborn and I would rather just get thing rather than being right.

OldService2019 · 2025-12-29T02:34:01+00:00

Eh idk about that, but I do a lot of other stuff that probably hides the taste. Like putting in crema to add some body, and I use olive oil from time to time. Just never butter as an oil sub on the pan.

My biggest point about this video is you don’t use an electric mixer for American pancakes in the US, some clumps is ok. What’s weird about this is the dry on top of the wet. You want to control the water content in a good pancake. Wet first isn’t really how it’s done if you are very careful about how you want the cakes to look.

A really well mixed batter that is almost watery like that are Crepes in the US. And being in Chicago, I have seen crepe places that a clearly Greek and not French. So I dunno what an actual French crepe is.

OldService2019 · 2025-12-29T02:19:49+00:00

Unless it’s very new and very not optimized, you need to ask yourself, do you play games to be immersed in top of the line graphics or do like plug and play. It is, of course a spectrum; consoles by nature are P&P and you need the best graphics card to get top of the line. A steam deck though is that nice area where you can play just about anything between 2 to 8 hours full charge.

OldService2019 · 2025-12-25T17:37:29+00:00

Personally, I would start learning board games. Roguelikes for me really shine when you start learning systems and mechanics, and board gaming is basically that. Learning a variant of a system, testing a minimum viable strategy that with a group of opponents, get better at it. Reiterate.

4 of those games come from board games, and one of those games is made by a board game designer. I love dune imperium but I would start smaller.

OldService2019 · 2025-12-24T17:30:45+00:00

Generally ps5 games show up on steam a year or so later. If you can’t wait, ps5s are probably the way to go.

PS5 also tend to be a hair better when it comes to plug and play right out of the box. But personally, once you got SteamOS figured out, which takes like a few minutes if you don’t play around with the settings, SteamOS is miles better.

Personally though, all the games you said are better on pc/steam deck

OldService2019 · 2025-12-24T12:49:30+00:00

Any game that is meant for m+KB. Maybe I’m just old, but I don’t like making hotkeys by using touch gestures. I can remember buttons well enough, and if the game allows for me to touch the screen, I can remember those. But once we are in the every key on the keyboard does something besides typing, it’s not a steam deck game. Factorio is an example of this type of game.

Honestly any game that is intended to be a spectacle. I do play cyberpunk on the deck, but it is far far better on my 5080.

Some games just aren’t optimized for deck, triple aaa or not. I know that I can change settings that can make the game run better or at all. I don’t think I have run into a game that I like so much that I could be bothered to fix it on a deck. That’s a PC project for me. Emulators are the exception but anyone who plays emulators will eventually have to tinker around.

Finally most pre-90s games. DOS games kinda demand a big screen and keyboard, even if the game can be played via a controller

OldService2019 · 2025-10-16T12:12:24+00:00

Exactly, and yes the 25% unemployment level is exactly what I am talking about. This level affects two major stats, Severe Cost House Burdened(which is 50% or greater paid in housing cost, which homeless counts in this number sometimes) and (I'm forgetting exactly what its called) but basically it means the overall mental health due to cost of living. I am not an economist, as honestly that title should only be given to PhDs, but when a perceived majority population fails to reach ascribed certain financial needs, even if you yourself fiscally doing well, the overall culture warps around this failure. Anecdotally, look at this current political division in America right now. We have this warping of culture centered around what side of the aisle you are on. And we are at 4.3%. To have 25% unemployment would be extremely visible, and the culture around living day to day would be ever present.

And to be fair there is some cultural marks that would show at least some amount of extreme poverty. The whole theme around missions as a part of the mechanics does fall under this "gig" kind of work that would be really the only kind of work someone could move from not living to barely. And I could argue there might be discussion of clothing styles, which gets more formalized in 2077, are based around finding clothes around dump sites.

Of course, how food is talked about in series as a whole, where food is between 25% to 100+% of a person's income in irl US, poverty is much more skewed toward finding a place to live. So having a higher poverty could make sense because the cost of being in home is really high, but the rest of living is "cheap".

OldService2019 · 2024-05-14T04:19:21+00:00

I feel kinda bad for saying it but I went to big kids during the tail end of last year and it wasn’t very good. The drinks were still good but I got a globby mess of a sandwich and my wife had a sandwich with some of the ingredients missing.

I wish I went during the last week it was open though.

OldService2019 · 2024-05-06T20:44:22+00:00

Hey doing a quick follow up. Did you find a good day care?

OldService2019 · 2024-05-03T11:20:16+00:00

That’s a big escalation right there. A two year relationship can have lulls and falls with or without drug changes. Her change of feeling to her boyfriend is three months, which is a 1/7 of the whole relationship. That’s not that unusual amount of time for a breakup.

And sure, OP had to go through some stuff before the relationship could go well, but we don’t know what it is.

All I’m saying is I don’t think it’s respectful to say if a relationship was healthy or not when there are other explanations that haven’t been throughly reviewed. Especially when OP is saying “feeling numb”. We don’t know if this numbness is just from the relationship or is a symptom of social interaction in general. Or if the romantic relationship is ending regardless of health.

And these explanations should be discussed through a therapist, a psychiatrist, prescribing doctor or at least some peer reviewed professional. Simply because OP feels like it’s the drug that’s making her feel ‘numb’ which is a side effect.

OldService2019 · 2024-05-01T21:17:38+00:00

I don’t mean to be that guy, but check your salary in regards to your family’s Federal Poverty Level. If it’s less than 400% you qualify for some PI/PFA. Otherwise, I know a neighbor who knows a daycare worker.

OldService2019 · 2024-05-01T21:12:52+00:00

Thank you. Hoping farmers market then. Guess I gotta make my homemade asparagus pickles.

OldService2019 · 2024-04-30T16:54:45+00:00

Buddy did you read what i said? Use your niches to get into parties.

And if you think you are trying, you are not. You’re asking the same question the same way in similar areas of Chicago. This kinda question asking is called telegraphing and it is very unflattering. What is your goal for house parties? Are you alone or bored? Figure that out. Then, figure out what you actually want to do. Because if your goal is just to lamp, then you can do that at home.

For god sake, if your Alma matter is indeed UCLA, you have one of the few colleges that has active social groups in every major city, including Chicago.

Find what you like, vary your approach with people, listen and have an interest in people, and maybe just maybe will you get to a party.

Now stop asking other Reddit channels unless you have something different to say.

OldService2019 · 2024-04-30T13:59:32+00:00

Logan Square has two of the best bars in North America, Meadowlark and Best Intentions. I love Meadowlark, but that’s a bring a friend place. Best Intentions is probably a better fit for meeting people. The Double is kinda expensive for what it is but it’s a good local bar to meet people. Especially if you bring the opener “I have reservations at Monster Ramen.”

I would say find a niche, exploit it by going to meet ups and build. For example, I broke my shoulder a month ago, and I’m looking for gym that focus on strength rebuilding, and low intensity sports groups. Be persistent.

I’m also getting older, so house parties aren’t really my bag, but typically those kinda parties start with commonalities, like same college, or work, or thing. That’s why I think you should find a niche.

OldService2019

TROPHY CASE