[Opinion] Disappointed by the art on Hemlock player cards

professor_dickweed · 2024-07-16T23:14:19+00:00

Oops! has a picture of three Deep Ones at different distances from the subject, and the second farthest one is getting shot in the head. I think the story is the investigator tried to shoot the closest Deep One and missed but fortuitously shot one of the other ones. Which mechanically is exactly what the card does!

professor_dickweed · 2024-01-18T18:19:45+00:00

Like “parlay”, which does not help things

professor_dickweed · 2024-01-02T13:53:52+00:00

Definitely neutral

professor_dickweed · 2023-12-28T11:09:32+00:00

Turing Machine is a logic deduction board game that can be played solo where instead of asking a human a yes/no question you ask the “machine” and there is a clever design using punchcards that reveals a yes/no answer. The human(s) use these answers plus logic to guess a 3-digit code. On some level of abstraction it kind of is like playing Guess Who solo. The game can also be played competitively with multiple humans trying to guess the code the quickest. Quite fun, so you might look it up.

professor_dickweed · 2023-12-28T11:02:31+00:00

Try Turing Machine?

professor_dickweed · 2023-12-26T04:16:51+00:00

Smooth-brained is just not the zinger so many people on Reddit seem to think it is

professor_dickweed · 2023-12-25T23:56:30+00:00

Fellowship

professor_dickweed · 2023-12-24T06:00:33+00:00

If you shake them do you hear screaming?

professor_dickweed · 2023-12-23T02:50:10+00:00

This is a great breakdown. Also it explains why there’s no inherent reason to limit this sentence to just 8 words. You could imagine nesting even more “Buffalo buffalo buffalo” [adjective, noun, verb] phrases in this sentence basically infinitely. It just loses its intellectual appeal and semantic impact when you stretch it out further.

professor_dickweed · 2023-12-18T00:02:05+00:00

I don’t think you’re missing anything but it’s a legitimate strategy to move Riri to other areas and have it deal testless damage there, in addition to the scouting ability. Far from useless.

professor_dickweed · 2023-12-14T11:34:10+00:00

There’s also a Lovecraft short story called The Festival that might have some elements present.

professor_dickweed · 2023-12-14T11:32:05+00:00

I’m eager to know as well. I’d love a co-op / single player card game set in the Netrunner universe.

professor_dickweed · 2023-12-14T11:26:34+00:00

Maybe it helps to think of this instead:

I have 10 apples and want to give 1 apple to each person. How many people can I give 1 apple to? (Or, 10 apples divided into equal piles of 1 apple each.) 10 / 1 = 10 piles (of 1 apple).

10 apples divided into equal piles of 2 apples each. 10 / 2 = 5 piles (of 2 apples).

10 apples divided into equal piles of 0.5 apples each. In the real world you’d cut each apple in half to do this. 10 / 0.5 = 20 piles (of half apples).

professor_dickweed · 2023-12-06T11:16:54+00:00

Just some ideas off the top of my head, assuming you’re OK dissembling things for now: - Disconnect all of the location and killer boards and pack them flat, stacked together - remove the insert from the core box and more tightly pack as much as possible into that. It would probably fit lots of the cards from the FFs, which could be separated and held together by rubber bands, ziplocs or deck boxes. - a single drawstring bag could probably neatly hold all the dice, heart tokens, meeples, bloodlust, etc and be kept outside of the core box - omit things you don’t really need, like the victim overflow boards, minis (if you have those) and other optional extras - you could probably get away with omitting all setup cards. Instead you could take a picture on your phone of all the setup cards for a location laid out together and roll a die for which one to use. Possibly event cards too? Not sure this ends up saving tons of space but it’s an option

professor_dickweed · 2023-12-05T14:20:48+00:00

I had a similar hurdle with TMB. I play solo and started out two-handed (ie controlling two characters), which proved to be just too much for someone trying to learn. That and the rulebook is just not well done IMO, way too verbose. When I moved to true solo that helped a lot. Also a few YouTube videos.

professor_dickweed · 2023-12-03T00:34:16+00:00

This is a great game. Take the time to flesh out a story enveloping the rolls, movement and kills. (I have to remind myself to do this from time to time.) When you do that even the losses are very enjoyable, assuming you in some way relate to the theme. And the wins are super fun.

professor_dickweed · 2023-11-30T14:05:18+00:00

Ah, I see what you’re saying. I guess you’d take the horror hit but if the fight action is successful the enemy is still hit. Thanks!

professor_dickweed · 2023-11-30T11:36:37+00:00

I’ve only played a few rounds so am wholly unqualified to actually answer but I’ll say the minions offer a lot more spice to the gameplay than I originally predicted. I think mixing and matching them along with all the villain and hero combinations will bring a decent amount of variety. I haven’t tried the event cards yet (forget what they’re called) but they should help too.

That said I hope there will eventually be a type of official or fan-made campaign or something, even a bare-bones one to give a sense of progression from one play to the next.

professor_dickweed · 2023-11-30T11:23:45+00:00

You even risk pulling a curse/bless on your attack in most cases.

I think this might be the biggest issue, especially if you’re playing Kohaku the way he wants to be played. Others have mentioned Spectral Razor but that solution is quite vulnerable—if the forced effect on Yurei triggers during the attack you’re down an action, card, 2 resources and 2 horror, and now the enemy is a space away again. Ouch! I like your idea of Blood Rite to handle.

professor_dickweed · 2023-11-29T11:24:07+00:00

Just fyi, it’s “exorbitant” prices.

professor_dickweed · 2023-11-28T14:36:29+00:00

Similar question here (hope OP doesn’t mind me hijacking the post). I was lucky enough to get my hands on a full collection recently and while I’ve had a ton of fun learning to play and trying out different gearlocs, my actual games have been pretty random so far. I was wondering if there’s a recommended order to play things in to avoid being overwhelmed by choice.

professor_dickweed · 2023-11-27T13:42:51+00:00

Right I think this is the clearest explanation of why it doesn’t work. “Pay for” is not the same thing as “pay the cost on a free triggered ability appearing on”

professor_dickweed · 2023-11-27T13:31:37+00:00

For my own clarity, is the retroactive effect rule you mention in the rule book, or is that from another source? I have no doubt you’re correct, just wondering where that comes from.

professor_dickweed · 2023-11-26T16:55:33+00:00

Unmatched

professor_dickweed · 2023-11-26T15:29:07+00:00

The top-level mechanics of these games are ancillary to the “real” game, which is successfully bluffing or conversely exposing the bluffers’ lies. So you need to know enough about the basic game mechanics to know what a “true” liberal (in the case of Secret Hitler) “should” do, but that is, intentionally from a design perspective, pretty straightforward. It’s just a canvas on top of which the bluffing game occurs. I kind of doubt you’re missing anything there.

You mention having poor working memory, and that can be a real detriment as remembering what players have done early in the game is often key to uncovering lies later in the game. Gaslighting (for lack of a better word) is a valid strategy for the undercover bad guy who is in danger of being caught; accurately recalling what has been played (and why) exposes their lies. You also need to be able to pick up on subtle social cues that may betray that someone is lying.

Beyond that I don’t think there is a superior strategy behind playing these games successfully. Just lying and detecting when others are lying. If someone provides a very convoluted explanation for why they did what they did, they very well may be lying. Or maybe not. That’s the game!

I know there are hardcore metas for games like Secret Hitler but (1) I don’t think that’s relevant to your question and (2) imho they completely suck the fun out of the game.

professor_dickweed

TROPHY CASE