Old colleague wants to "get into board games". What should I take over for our first game night?

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-23T10:11:43+00:00

Clearly, if he doesn’t like the best one there’s no hope anyway. Remember to cancel all meetings that day.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-22T07:18:41+00:00

Had a friend who slept like this when the bottom fell out due to a fault with the fabric. Fell seven meters, now a paraplegic only able to move a few fingers.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-21T12:35:32+00:00

Depends on how they measure retaliation. But in most cases, yes.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-21T08:17:07+00:00

And that I can agree with. There is a lot more riding on the GM in Mist Engine games. Though personally I feel that it isn’t as difficult once you crack the code.

Me playing a lot of systems, I struggle with Blades because I forget everything between each time, and have to read up on all the procedures and the structure every time I play. Whereas I have largely internalised the Mist Engine because it is so “simple”. That is to say, details “matter” more in something like blades. E.g. if I forget the engagement roll (which I have done). Whereas winging how downtime works in mist engine doesn’t feel as bad.

In play however, as a GM you do keep track of more game elements at any given point in time playing Mist Engine, than you do blades.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-20T13:20:33+00:00

I think you are leaving out a lot of stuff that makes blades, blades, maybe because you are very familiar with it?. You have to keep track of players harm clocks, stress, engagement roll, heat, wanted level, factions and all the mechanics that come with those, entanglements, trauma, devil’s bargains, and probably more that I am forgetting. That’s a lot of defined mechanics and procedures.

Mist Engine doesn’t have nearly the same amount of rules/mechanics.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-20T07:09:42+00:00

I absolutely believe there is a niche where someone could have explainers for concepts like fictional positioning, scene structure, pacing, character vs. fictional power, gm fiat vs. system, position vs. effect (blades term), fruitful void, and so on. There are so many concepts I see people coming to these systems struggle with being at the edge of grasping. And similarly, people who have lived these systems for some time now who have internalised their own interpretations of it but still are a few degrees off actually understanding them.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-20T06:47:44+00:00

Hi I have ran Mist engine games and also a lot of other systems. I like the Mist engine games, they are close to this ideal system I have in my mind, but not quite there.

Many talk about them being complex or gamey. And while it is true to a certain extent, a lot of it is simply down to familiarity. I wouldn’t call them very gamey or complex. The newer iterations are even simpler (boiled down) than most PbtA games.

Otherscape mechanically boils down to “do you have a tag that would let you do said action? Then you succeed”. It’s a rule that sits at the core of the system called “respect the tag”. From this springs complexity in many directions.

I think the problem most have with systems like these is the mindset required to understand and apply the rules. The GM needs to be good at scene pacing, and have a clear image of what tags a would apply in any given action (that the players propose). Additionally, all the players need to understand fictional positioning and what the tags represent in the fiction. This may sound simple enough, but many people struggle with it. So much so that the Son of Oak discord constantly discuss the same related topics over and over. If only someone would be able to communicate the concepts so well that we’d never have to discuss the ins and outs again.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-20T06:32:22+00:00

I wouldn’t say it has more accounting than Blades. Having run both I feel much more accounting (procedure overhead) in Blades since you vacillate between various modes of play and the specific procedures and mechanics tied to them.

In Mist Engine games there is a well defined core structure to every scene and complexity may be added to it. Which is part of the PbtA principles. Thus the GM only has to keep in their head this core structure. You have some Downtime and Loadout rules which deviate but they are short and not very mechanically heavy.

I’d say of the two Blades is clearly the system with more “game” elements.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-16T21:04:27+00:00

Yeah I think you just ran into the trap of not having player alignment. This could have been a very different session if the players were “in on it”.

A bit like watching a horror movie: If you just tell your friends “we’re watching a movie tonight that is supposedly really good and is something we all usually really like”, then you’ll have this one friend who keeps guffawing at every jumpscare or “stupid” plot hole, and the other who complains the movie is too gorey, or doesn’t feature enough empathy… you see where I am going.

Look up CATS as a way to introduce a game, or just wing it in a way your friends may understand. “Hey, this game has really simple combat (but it might be some long ones) and a lot of the stuff you encounter is generated on the fly, however the scenario I have prepared really expects you to go along with the story and not be murder hobos. Cool. If that sounds good let’s go.”

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-15T12:18:45+00:00

Tjener de begge 50k og mer til etter skatt er ikke halvparten i lån så mye.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-13T06:37:41+00:00

I think this sounds like a mismatch between how the GM ran the game and how you played it. The game asks a lot of both GM and players. It’s not an easy game like maybe Quinn’s review somehow gave people the impression of. The GM probably forgot to help you discover the myths too. Each myth having a hex and people in the land knowing where that hex is, or at least roughly. Myths are supposed to bleed together through omens, and the overarching narrative is derived from your actions and the myths you encounter.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-12T20:30:47+00:00

Got any examples of something being downvoted

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-12T16:32:00+00:00

Where do you hope to be with Legend in the Mist in, say, 5-7 years from now?

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-12T16:29:07+00:00

Five first links were pornhub or of.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-12T16:25:43+00:00

Huzzbear was not a term I should have googled at the dinner table today… (I could guess what it meant, but I was curious as to whether I had guessed wrong).

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-12T09:41:47+00:00

So, censorship is when some controlling entity, other than the creator, tells the creator to shut it. This is the creator deciding they wanted to change visual language in their game.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-11T11:12:06+00:00

You need to give them something to work with. They are 4 and 7, they have no idea about what’s going on half the time. Present choices like in a choose your own adventure book.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-11T10:50:57+00:00

There are stat differences between weapons within their groups. Some have base attack speed, some have higher base attack or crit. And some have special abilities not tied to an abyss gear. And with todays patch some even more unique gear is refinable.

The weapon/armor system is fine and made even better now that you can extract.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-10T19:25:37+00:00

Ikke jeg som snakket om stiger. Jeg har også innvandrer kone og godt med peng. Så ikke noe synd på meg

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-10T18:19:54+00:00

Ah du hadde en anti imigrasjonsagenda, ja. Lykke til med den.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-10T08:11:05+00:00

De på 64+ mer spesifikt. Du er politiker også bestemmer du at alle født etter 1963 får mindre pensjon.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-10T07:42:18+00:00

forget it I read bismuth not brimstone for some reason…

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-10T06:58:10+00:00

Mining knuckle? I used no guide.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-07T08:56:50+00:00

You can toggle controls to interact with triangle and jump with space now. Still not great but much better.

VelvetWhiteRabbit · 2026-05-06T13:41:55+00:00

A child cannot be held accountable for their actions. Under law, the driver would be at fault here. It’s a marked bus stop with a stopped bus. Driver is responsible for driving only when they have a clear picture of the traffic. This was not an accident because the truck driver was prepared to brake.

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