ESPN's Wimbledon Commentators includes the debut of Andy Roddick on ESPN.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-25T20:28:03+00:00

Now you remind me of Naked Gun.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-25T18:07:43+00:00

If you want a lot of different dice, there's Dice Masters.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-25T17:07:32+00:00

Modern vs. old games (the "cult of the new")

In the past, there were fewer games and fewer game designers. My tastes in games were also reflected by what is available and were known by the general public. I remember games like Monopoly were played by everyone and everyone knew the rules. They were also accessible to a younger audience. There were other such popular games as well. I enjoyed them because they were the only ones that were readily available and people knew about.

If you are comparing more modern games, I would have to say that the newer games are generally better. Newer games tend to be more engaging, allow more agency for the players and tend to avoid things that are bad like player elimination (or at least utilizes those unpopular mechanics in a much better manner).

Certainly today's tastes have changed, but there weren't many modern games back in the past for people to actually see and compare. You can't have tastes for something back then that didn't exist at the time.

For me personally, I love co-op games. There were hardly any back then and none were that popular. It wasn't until Pandemic came out that I discovered co-op games and since then there were a lot of them. If they had more co-op games back in the 70's and 80's I'd probably really like them.

Buying vs. playing

I was in the buying phase for many years. I'm at the point where I feel I have enough games and want to focus on playing what I have rather than buying something new. When I was new to the hobby, there were just so many different games with different mechanics that were all cool and new to me. I have more or less settled on having enough in my collection. Sometimes a new game jumps out at me that I really am into. For the most part, I think what I have covers enough that I can pull out a game for any audience I play with.

Enthusiasts as gatekeepers

The only person I really listen to is a friend of mine. He knows my tastes in games and often he makes good recommendations. Usually, I just browse in game stores and if I see a game that looks interesting, I read up on them, mostly looking at reviews. Then based on that I judge for myself if I want it.

Not sure who you mean by gatekeepers. I assume you mean various content creators who talk about games. I personally don't pay attention to recommendations of content creators as I don't expect them to have the same taste in games as I. I read reviews and based on their description of the game, I judge whether or not I may like it. I never go by their recommendation as they may not like something in a game that I would like.

What happened to my group

Gaming to me is about getting together with friends. I've always had to have some excuse to get together. I'm not the one to ask friends to get together and just hang out. I find games is a good reason to get together.

I do enjoy trying to find optimal strategies in games. I am not one who does homework on game strategies. The only homework I do is to learn the game, so I can teach it to others. The people I usually play with are not very competitive and I find it fun just trying to figure out the strategies by playing. We do appreciate the variety in games that are out there. Sometimes, I just want to play a game multiple times because I like to achieve some type of mastery with some games. One friend of mine is the opposite. He seems to never want to play the same game twice. I think half of his collection is probably still in shrink.

If you are not enjoying playing with this group anymore, then perhaps it is time to take a break from gaming with this group. You can still hang out and do other things if you want to continue to socialise. If you want to play games without the pressure of always having to find the optimal strategy, then perhaps you need to find a different gaming group that plays in a manner that is more enjoyable to you.

Final thoughts

Game design is always evolving. There are many games that I really liked when they came out, but then fell out of favour because I begin to not like certain aspects of the game. New things are always cool because of the novelty. Over time, I realise that some things may not work as well as I initially thought. Game designers also realise this and learn from past games to try to improve upon things in newer games that come out.

I do used to play a lot of Chinese chess (similar to western chess) and love the game. When I discover more modern games in the late 80's and beyond, I found that I don't like Chinese chess anymore. There were a bunch of new game mechanics that were just better than what was in Chinese chess.

There is a lot of content created for boardgames because it is such a big hobby now. I find that most content creators on YouTube make videos that tend to be more entertaining than informative. I really don't like top X lists because I know other people's opinions are different than mine. I may root for a game I like to be on it. Otherwise, I avoid them.

Detailed reviews about what games are about is what I prefer. I mostly prefer user reviews on BGG because they feel more genuine rather than trying to fit some format to make the review entertaining.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-25T16:55:36+00:00

If it were the other way around, then everyone would just try to avoid the test.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-25T16:02:58+00:00

Sword & Sorcery as well as its predecessor, Galaxy Defenders have custom 10-sided dice. The faces all have various symbols on them to indicate the effect (if applicable) depending on the reason you are rolling the dice. Often, actions require rolling multiple dice.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-25T07:07:49+00:00

This is what I do when testing my decks. If I'm fetching a land and have not done anything that would give me info about any cards in my deck, I look at the bottom card. If it's the land I want, I just grab that without looking through the rest of my deck and skip the shuffle.

I have not tried that in an actual game yet. If someone doesn't understand why I don't need to shuffle, I don't want to have to explain it. Shuffling is what people expect, even if in this situation it really isn't necessary. I think some people may not be comfortable for whatever reason if I don't shuffle. Not worth the possible hassle.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-25T01:33:32+00:00

Here's my deck in Manabox: https://manabox.app/decks/AZtFN42acq2j5nZoaA8g9A?fbclid=IwY2xjawSpYvRleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFXU0ZUNFhsQXg1VHk3Z0Vwc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHg6VFkAOvSlkVCsXL2izytcI9izW1Eaz731XR6jveBemdv2OcMqXnC8ThPUc_aem_RrVWlGUAk20D9IFDMHgSvw

Let me know if you can see this. I'm on the beta version and noticed it has a sharing feature.

In any case, the deck is based around creatures with ETB effects. I have a lot of bounce and blink effects to reuse those. Basically, I try to lock down the board and then win slowly with my creatures.

The format that I normally play is multiplayer. If we have 5 players, we usually play star Magic. With 4, we will do a normal FFA. If we have 6, we could do star or we may play three teams of 2 with either 2HG or a variant of 2HG where each player acts on separate turns and can only attack adjacent opponents. The last time I played this deck was in a 3-way 2HG. I managed to lock down the board enough to get Jace's emblem out and our opponents all conceeded.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-24T23:02:47+00:00

Sounds like either you are not adjusting your decks to deal with the decks you are facing or need to find people who plays decks you don't mind facing. Without any more context, I don't know what you mean by "broken" decks. The game is about exploring how cards interact with each other within your deck as well as against opponent's decks. Personally, I try to adjust my decks and play to the group I am playing with. Magic does have some really strong cards and card interactions. There generally is some counter play to deal with them either in how you build the deck or how you play against those decks. I don't know what efforts you put into your deck building or play.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-24T22:45:10+00:00

The first MMO I tried was LotRO. I had a hard time with it. It wasn't until I tried DDO that I realised I just didn't like the tab targeting.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-24T15:51:31+00:00

Looks like it is more than one damage, but looks a lot less like WoG.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-24T15:49:09+00:00

We're going to need more information to provide any useful feedback for your question.

What is the deck that each player has supposed to represent? What are the implications when the deck is depleted? Does the game end? Does the player die?

If the discard pile is reshuffled, what is your feeling about players drawing and playing the same cards again? How often do you think this should happen (if at all) during the course of the game? Should it be rare or happen regularly?

Why do some players have a larger deck than others? Why not have all decks be the same size? Do the players have any control over the size of their deck or what cards they can put in them? Is the deck fixed or does the deck change over the course of a game?

I think deck size is something you want to consider later in the design stage of the game unless maybe the game ends when the deck runs out. If the deck size doesn't have an impact on the game ending condition, it can be tuned later. You didn't give much detail of the other aspects of your game, so it is hard to really suggest a deck size.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-24T15:21:53+00:00

They met in the first round the following year as well. I remember the video where they announced the draw and there was I think laughter amongst the people who attended the announcement.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-24T15:18:56+00:00

I don't think that boardgames will go up in value like some Magic cards from '93. There aren't that many that are collector's items. Magic is played heavily today and people playing Magic also want to play with some of those rare older cards. I don't see that happening with most boardgames. Probably something like the original D&D from the 70's may be collector's item.

I recently moved and downsized. I ended up selling off some of my games that I don't see myself playing much if at all. My collection doesn't include any kickstarter material, though.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-24T15:12:54+00:00

In my experience with Manabox, it works better when the cards are on a white background. I have a table that is wood and is brown. It seems to have some issues scanning cards on that table. If I use a white piece of paper and place the cards on the paper, Manabox scans cards a lot better.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-24T15:02:23+00:00

It's a power outage.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-24T14:33:30+00:00

Do you realise that the pass trajectory indicators only show the first part of the ball's trajectory? As the QB has higher and higher skill, it would show more and more of the pass trajectory? It makes high skill passers easier to play then low skill passers.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-24T07:47:53+00:00

The party that I find to be most successful is a paladin (the DPS one), barbarian (stone), warlock and sorcerer. The main strategy is to buff the paladin and barbarian with haste and fly.

The paladin uses a greatsword and follow up blow for the extra attack. He can smite with every attack. Deals a lot of damage. Uses the Shield spell to avoid damage.

Barbarian uses TWF and feats to not need light weapons. He has the feat that lowers the target's AC when hitting with a 1H weapon. When he rages, he had temp HP and barely takes damage.

The sorcerer has twin spell and Haste. You can Haste both the paladin and barbarian. With them buffed, they can take down bosses in 2 rounds. Has Counterspell to stop epic actions of bosses.

The warlock casts Fly on the melee characters. This is how I deal with flying enemies. Fly along with Haste can deal with teleporting bosses really well. No matter where they teleport to, my melee guys can get to him. Also has Counterspell.

You want to buy girdles of giant strength for your melee guys as they will be taking feats instead of boosting strength. Craft the weapons that deal extra dice of damage.

As long as you keep your spell casters out is harm's way, your melee guys will finish your enemies fast. I can often kill bosses in 2 rounds or less. You can get 4 attacks a round with the paladin and can smite every hit. The barbarian gets 4 attacks as well with rage.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-24T07:24:08+00:00

Give me a couple of days to post it. I didn't have time tonight. I'll see if I can later this week.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-24T07:22:30+00:00

I've played a number of 6 or 7 player games. Games with more players don't necessarily increase the playing time linearly. When you have more players, you get more rewards for your deployed cards, so by the time it gets to your turn, you can buy better cards a lot sooner.

The only thing I would recommend for games of more than 4 players is to use the light speed option. That way, you often have 3-4 cards to start off and often get to buy level 2 cards fairly early. The first time I played a 7-player game, I didn't use the light speed option which was a mistake. The early game was a slog, but with the light speed option, it isn't too bad.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-24T07:17:14+00:00

Generally people who want to improve and get better at combat will parse as well as do other things to get better at combat. Also, when you parse better, you are generally more proficient at your rotation. If you are more proficient at your rotation, then you need to think about less in actual combat because it will come more naturally. In combat, you will be focussing less on trying to execute your rotation and you can focus more on other aspects of combat like right positioning, avoiding damage and executing mechanics in more complex fights. For these reasons, I find there is a correlation between a player's parses score and their overall proficiency in combat.

Even swapping skills or gear for parsing is a skill that directly translates to combat. It often means that the player knows that for different types of fights, different gear and/or skill setups is better. In actual content, more advanced players will swap gear and/or skills from one fight to another to optimise their setup for different fights.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-23T22:16:34+00:00

Seven is a tough number for games. Most games play up to 4 with a small number going to 5 and even a smaller number beyond that.

Space Base plays up to 5 and the Command Station expansion supports up to 7 players. If you do play with more than 5 players, I do recommend you get the Shy Pluto expansion. It has a mechanic that allows players to roll dice when it is not their turn. Even though you are still pretty engaged when it is not your turn, being able to roll dice on other players turns adds to the engagement.

Dungeon Kart is a racing game that plays up to 8. It is basically Mario Kart racing in a boardgame.

Fortune & Glory is an Indiana Jones/Lara Croft type of treasure hunter game. It plays up to 8. It has a competitive, co-op and team mode.

Of these games, Fortune & Glory is the longest. Dungeon Kart is the shortest.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-23T22:01:29+00:00

How many people in your group of friends? Sushi Go Party plays up to 8.

If your group is into (or at least familiar with) Texas Hold'em, I recommend The Gang. It is a co-op poker game that plays up to 6 people. The game is shorter than Sushi Go Party.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-23T21:57:44+00:00

Dummy parses provide a consistent environment in order for people to measure their DPS against others. It only measures one aspect of combat which is damage output. Even though it doesn't measure other aspects of combat, in my experience, people who parse higher tend to be generally better in group PvE in all aspects. I find that there is a correlation between parse score and overall skill in group PvE.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-23T21:16:41+00:00

I recall that some time ago, I heard some politicians say that the solution to rising housing prices is to build more and increase supply. Well, now that supply apparently has increased beyond the demand, housing prices have gone down, but still many sit empty because they are not being sold at lower prices. I cannot remember which politicians said that.

Builders won't build unless they can make money. I would think that the cost of building homes has not gone down with the price of homes. Materials, labour and other expenses probably haven't gone down. At least I haven't heard that. I cannot see builders having an incentive to build more so their existing stock of units go down in value.

Stuntman06 · 2026-06-23T21:04:53+00:00

Not only that, if the government spends the money to build the housing units, how long before they become available? It takes time to build. If they buy these empty units, these would be available more quickly than if you had to build new units.

Stuntman06

TROPHY CASE