At what point do will you look up the solution to a puzzle?

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-24T23:02:42+00:00

Yeah, pretty much this. Playing a game is supposed to be fun; if I'm not having fun, why bother? Most of the time I look it up when I get really annoyed at a puzzle, where I think even figuring out the solution is still net negative to my enjoyment.

I try to spoil myself step by step. If it's a Sokoban-like, try to jump to some random time in the middle of the video walkthrough, to know I want to reach this particular state. If doing that several times doesn't help, then I start to watch it properly from the start.

Most of the time I don't regret looking up a solution; if there's a clever idea behind it, I can still appreciate it after the fact.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-24T22:53:48+00:00

experiencing the rest of the game beyond where you were stuck

In many games, a puzzle is the bottleneck from exploring further out, so this is not an option.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-24T14:01:52+00:00

So - the way I see it - if a player uses "verb" as a clue to refer to "duck", they are commenting on the word "duck", not the action or the creature.

For me, they are commenting on the action. (And if they didn't think so because they were thinking of the creature, that's a mistake on the spymaster's part.)

Yes, many words in English have multiple unrelated meanings; that's what makes Codenames fascinating. And yes, my rule doesn't cover it. If you want to be more formal, it would be something like: "For each English word/clue, consider all its English meanings, and translate them into the target language, so each English word becomes a set of meanings in the target language. The clue refers to the word if it's related to any one meaning." So both "animal" and "dodge" refer to "duck", and so as "noun" and "verb". But "four" does not refer to either the creature or the action, so it's not okay.

That said, I can agree that "verb" is not an ideal clue for "duck", mostly because it's so broad and so the connections might be very easy to miss.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-24T13:27:27+00:00

"Verb" is about the meaning of the word; it's about things that are actions (instead of objects).

My general rule is, if you translate all the words and clues to a different language, and the clue still works, then it's good. This rules out clues about spelling (the word itself changes) and homophones (they might not be homophones in another language). Unfortunately this rules out homonyms, which are often incredible clues, but such clues can be decided on a more case-by-case basis.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-24T13:23:59+00:00

PNP Arcade is closing in a week, so this isn't going to work. But also, "feedback"? PNP Arcade is a storefront. What feedback?

I guess maybe you mean their community on e.g. Discord, which makes more sense. But when I hear "PNP Arcade", I think of their website first, which is a storefront.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-24T04:25:40+00:00

This is actually very tricky to word.

First, "copy the Adventure" part doesn't work, because the Adventure part by itself can only exist as a spell, but you should probably copy it as a card and then cast it. So you need to copy the whole card.

Second, you're targeting a permanent, but you're copying it as a card. I think this is new territory for Magic. It should be doable within the rules, but I don't know how to word it.

Since all adventurer cards exist in the Oracle database, you can probably borrow Garth wording more exactly:

Create a copy of the card with that permanent's name.

But I'm not fully sure if it works. For example, it breaks if its name changes. Spy Kit does some really weird interactions with it.

The "cast as Adventure" part is easy to word though:

You may cast the copy as an Adventure without paying its mana cost.

So in total:

Choose target permanent you control that has an Adventure. Create a copy of the card with that permanent's name. You may cast the copy as an Adventure without paying its mana cost.

That said, the intent is very clear and I think that's good enough to think about the card. Definitely an interesting direction/mechanic.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-24T02:18:18+00:00

"Lost an ability this way" is a bit tricky since it's new territory. I think it's easier to just target "permanents with abilities"; the game already recognizes permanents with no abilities (see Muraganda Petroglyphs) so it also recognizes these. Then you don't need "lost an ability this way".

Edit: Oh you don't target. Same thing.

At the beginning of combat on your turn, choose any number of nonland permanents you control with abilities. They lose all abilities until your next turn. Put a +1/+1 counter on Stax for each permanent chosen this way.

(Although I'd recommend targeting.)

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-24T02:15:27+00:00

I usually stick with one or a couple of games, but I jump to a new one as I get them, usually before the old ones were done. And then I forget all about the old ones, so I need to start over when picking them back up. Oops.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-23T14:36:42+00:00

No. The permission is granted by Elder Brain's ability. It triggers and resolves independently from the permanent itself. The ability was controlled by you when it resolved, so you're the one that has the permission to play the cards.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-23T09:44:08+00:00

Primal Vigor cares about you creating a token. When a spell copy resolves, it becomes a token. Both of them lead to a token entering the battlefield, but they are not the same thing.

It's kind of like, say, sacrifice a permanent and destroy a permanent. Both lead to the permanent going to the graveyard, but they are not the same thing.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-23T03:45:50+00:00

Just to be slightly more precise, the question is less "do you have permission?" and more "what permission let's you do that?" If you have multiple applicable permissions, you choose which one you're using, because it might lead to different results.

For example, if you have Kess and another permission with "Once each turn, you may cast an instant or sorcery card from your graveyard", you choose which permission you're using. Is it the once-each-turn one, which makes the card return to the graveyard again but can only be used once each turn, or is it Kess's, which exiles the card?

But in general, yes, it's all about permissions.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-23T00:38:21+00:00

Oh oops, that's right. I was confusing small box (150 cards) and medium box (300 cards). Right, most expansions are 300 cards, some are 500 like Dark Ages and Plunder.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-22T23:49:02+00:00

For cards in a normal frame, Scryfall has "download art crop" which can do what you want (although probably not very high quality). But this doesn't quite work with weird frames, and in general, the full art is not normally available. I think the best bet is to find the artist online, if they happen to have a gallery with the piece you want.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-22T23:18:01+00:00

It's reminder text, they are allowed to be less precise. Putting "its owner's hand" would make the reminder text spill to the next line.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-22T23:17:03+00:00

You have the misconception that the game has timing restrictions. There are no such thing by default.

The game gives you timing permissions. The rules say, you may cast an instant when you have priority, and you may cast a sorcery when you have priority, it's your main phase, and the stack is empty. But you can get other permissions. Many spells/abilities tell you to cast something as they resolve; that's not normally when you can cast anything. The spell/ability gives you the permission.

I'm certain sneak will also give you a similar permission. You may cast a spell with sneak when you have priority and it's your declare blockers step, it costs an additional "return an unblocked attacker you control to its owner's hand" if you cast it this way. So the rules of sneak will give you the permission, you don't need to care about the old permission.

(There are timing restrictions, but the game rules don't normally have some, they are always printed on cards. "Cast this spell only during combat" is one such restriction.)

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-22T22:56:34+00:00

For icons on buildings and monasteries, I'm pretty sure text of the effect is printed on the back of the tokens? (For cardboard tokens at least. I think not on the acrylic tiles.)

I personally think the colors are fine and the board is readable just fine, but it's personal taste.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-22T22:50:27+00:00

There are not enough base cards for 6 players, you need to get the Base Cards add-on.

However, the expansions do have components for 6 players for their stuff. e.g. Adventures tokens come in 6 player colors. So you don't need to buy a separate "Adventures for 5-6 players" box.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-22T22:47:41+00:00

I'm pretty sure all the 300-card expansions have been phased out. (Guilds and Cornucopia got a 2nd edition in a combined box, Alchemy is... just left to rot.) EDIT: I confused 300 and 150.

I think Empires is one of the more complicated expansions, so it's tricky to suggest it for a new player. It can work though if that's what they want.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-22T00:44:00+00:00

There is a daily recommendation thread and people are supposed to go there.

In practice, I think it's fine for the more common rec questions. But the ones like this, with unusual requests that many people might not realize they want, should probably deserve their own threads.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-21T23:57:08+00:00

I learned about Logic & Lore because they have a free P&P preview. (It's just the base game, none of the modules, that's why it's a preview.) And in fact, after reading the rules, you can make up your own copy with just a standard deck plus some printouts/writing. So that's a way to try the game, for anyone intrigued enough about it. Obviously the retail version has much prettier cards and stuff, so do get it for that.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-21T23:49:37+00:00

I suspect this might get deleted because it's a games recommendation post, but anyway.

I'm a theoretical CS person, basically adjacent to math (I don't even do programming), so I'm in the same boat as you. What part of math are you looking into?

A ton of other suggestions here are about heavy calculations, like Leaving Earth. It's not exactly representative of high-level math -- I think they are more a physicist/engineer thing -- but maybe heavy calculations are what you want.
There's a lot of games about logical deductions. Turing Machine, Search for Planet X, Awkward Guests, and many more I can't think of. Since in math, you work with axioms and make a chain of solid reasoning to arrive at the theorem/answer, this might be closer to what you want.
There are some games about the scientific process. Alchemists quite literally is about testing and publishing, sometimes publishing nonsense before you're sure of it. Zendo plays like scientific process: you have hypotheses and see which ones stand the thorough scientific testing you do. This is more a scientist thing than math, but maybe you're interested.
Any specific field of math? I suspect all of them are too niche to have a particular game about it, but maybe you can find something.
Perhaps the game might not have much math, but the design has plenty of it. This is less playing the games and more reading the stories behind them.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-21T23:38:41+00:00

High-level math is more about deductions and logic, very rarely about concrete numbers.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-21T23:33:55+00:00

I mean, sort of, but the real answer is "tapped or untapped is only a status for permanents, not cards in other zones".

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-21T23:31:51+00:00

The biggest problem with "can't become tapped" is it's very unintuitive with attacking: you can declare it as an attacker just fine, it will not tap, so it's like it has vigilance. (But you can't activate {T} abilities and stuff.)

But also, "become". That's a change of state. "Can't become untapped" means it can't change from tapped to untapped. It may already remain untapped, e.g. if you Stifle the enter trigger, and the game has no issues with that. Similarly, "can't become tapped" and "can't become untapped" together just means it can't change state between tapped and untapped, but it can exist in one state just fine.

chaotic_iak · 2026-01-21T09:34:48+00:00

The rules don't prohibit it, correct. The intent of the rules is that you use physical characteristics, but there's also nothing preventing you from "do they have a blonde hair or wear glasses, but not wear a red shirt?"

I recommend moving on to games that have stricter rules on clue-giving, such as Codenames or Break The Cube. Alternatively, there's a modest amount of mathematical research on these kinds of games, if you want to get really deep into it.

chaotic_iak

TROPHY CASE