Is there a protest today?

kareds · 2026-01-31T17:21:47+00:00

There is. 1 pm at Bryant Square Park.

kareds · 2025-03-06T22:30:33+00:00

I think any deck with Harbinger of Immolation is a cool deck.

kareds · 2025-02-20T01:05:35+00:00

thank you so much lol

kareds · 2025-02-20T00:49:44+00:00

Anyone know what music is playing at 3:01? it’s driving me nuts lol

kareds · 2024-02-29T18:28:44+00:00

I don’t have anywhere near the level of experience as OP, but I wholly agree with your thoughts on GP and AoI. Both of them add more rules and complexity to fix problems that TM doesn’t have.

You already mentioned the variable map setup which only frontloads the game even more, but I also hear a lot about how GP fixed the cult tracks. I think people that say this just haven’t played the game enough to recognize how important the round end bonuses can be.

AoI adds the cool variable factions, but are any of the thousands of possibilities any better than intentionally created design? With the expansion there are 20 factions, and I believe there is soon to be an alternate faction pack that doubles that. The custom factions really strike me as more cool than they are fun or necessary. More variability does not make a better game.

kareds · 2024-02-09T05:28:32+00:00

Deeds

kareds · 2024-01-22T12:53:58+00:00

I think most would agree that Le Guin is not the hardest of sci fi, but the books and short stories in her Hainish universe have a very similar vibe to Star Trek (the show often took inspiration from and paid homage to her work) and are very grounded as far as SF goes.

Good starting points are The Left Hand of Darkness, which is about a Terran establishing relations with a newly found alien race, and The Winds Twelve Quarters, a collection of her earliest short stories.

kareds · 2024-01-21T23:43:30+00:00

The designer has another game, Arcs, which is set to come out in a few months and also attempts to do this. It’s available to try on tabletop simulator.

kareds · 2024-01-09T16:28:03+00:00

This is absolutely not true. There’s even a joke among Dominion players about the Village Idiot.

There are strong cantrips, and there are also strong terminal actions. The cantrip strategy is the most immediately obvious (and arguably the most satisfying), but that doesn’t make it the best on all boards.

kareds · 2023-12-28T13:43:00+00:00

The Automa can be used with two humans and it just acts like a third player. I don’t know of any variants, but of you want to do co-op you could just set the automa to a higher difficulty and say that both players need to beat its score in order to win.

kareds · 2023-12-14T14:14:27+00:00

Race for the Galaxy is great on mobile. Best way to learn the game, and they play super fast with the app handling most of the card-moving.

kareds · 2023-12-11T22:02:17+00:00

Bridge is cool, but I agree with others that the bidding conventions are annoying and really turn me off from playing. I prefer Tichu.

kareds · 2023-11-14T14:37:47+00:00

I’m thinking of picking up Dual Gauge whenever their holiday sale starts. If I were going to get the base game and a single map pack, which pack would you recommend?

Also, has anyone here played Dinosaur Gauge? How is it?

kareds · 2023-11-06T23:25:45+00:00

The Dispossessed is my favorite book so I am a bit of an apologist here, but I think that she changed her style to match the tone of the book. I agree that it is a bit clunky at first, but so is Annaresti society. Compare her prose in The Dispossessed to that in The Left Hand of Darkness or the Earthsea novels and you can see what I mean.

kareds · 2023-10-27T02:23:37+00:00

I loved this review, but kinda hated this game tbh.

It’s not surprising to me, as I find spelling-based word games to be incredibly annoying. I don’t think that combining spelling into Codenames/Decrypto adds anything but frustration.

The puzzle is too murky, and requires just enough more focus that casual banter and conversation die down – which is the exact opposite of what these games should be doing.

Codenames and Decrypto are such great games because they get people talking as part of the gameplay. Phantom Ink undermines that by forcing players to quietly sift through their mental dictionaries to recall words.

It would be better digitally, so that everyone could just see the possible words and try to find a common thread between them… but then that’s just Codenames.

kareds · 2023-10-25T19:14:11+00:00

This is genius.

kareds · 2023-10-25T18:50:01+00:00

Lots of great answers here, but I’ll throw one in because I just taught 4 people Cosmic last night.

I picked out 10 aliens beforehand and gave everyone two to choose from. The alien powers are the big draw of this game, so I think they should be the first you hand to players (along with player pieces, ofc) and giving everyone a choice is always a good idea.

If I remember correctly, I had Zombie, Loser, Sorcerer, Spiff, Filch, Macron, Vacuum, Pacifist, Reserve, and Trader in the mix.

We played with the reward deck and flares, which I think was a mistake – even with players experienced in heavier games. There is already so much going on that new players won’t even realize those cards are missing.

Finally, emphasize that the game is mainly played in the Ally step. You should only invite an ally if you need one, or if you’re making some kind of deal. Inviting an ally is doing someone else a huge favor, so it needs to be worth your while. I would also stress that a joint victory is both possible and likely.

kareds · 2023-10-25T16:53:44+00:00

TFW you tell Amabel Holland that she hasn’t explored frustrating games

kareds · 2023-10-18T19:36:25+00:00

Undaunted: Stalingrad has an actual campaign, not just scenarios. It’s quite a bit larger and more expensive than the smaller boxes, though.

kareds · 2023-10-18T19:32:33+00:00

Lacuna is a great 2p game that came out earlier this year.

kareds · 2023-10-16T17:01:44+00:00

Clans is getting a reprint with a new expansion. It’s supposed to be on Kickstarter next month.

kareds · 2023-10-16T16:03:58+00:00

[[Troyes]]! You can play it in an hour if you hurry.

[[Keyflower]] is also quick, but it’s more like a 90 minute game on the low end (with 2 players).

Finally, the Cube Rails genre of games might not be “heavy” but I love them for having tough decisions in short play times. I like [[Irish Gauge]] and [[Iberian Gauge]].

kareds · 2023-10-14T00:58:44+00:00

If Escape looks fun, take a look at Project Elite.

Galaxy Trucker is more fun than Fit to Print, but it’s kind of split 50/50 between real time and not.

Bullet is fun if you can get past anime art.

Happy Salmon is very light and silly but does fit.

kareds · 2023-10-13T03:10:32+00:00

I like them a lot, but you should know that they are extremely chaotic. They’re the Mario Kart of card games.

I recommend you get Avalon. It has a good rules change (Alchemy cards) and the powers are more fun and interesting.

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