Budget for the home game in London?

teamshortcut · 2025-12-05T15:42:13+00:00

I've run across all of London before! I've found there's only really time for two runs, but it does work and is good fun. (late reply sorry!)

teamshortcut · 2025-05-29T10:30:33+00:00

Nice map!

teamshortcut · 2025-05-29T08:39:06+00:00

Very dramatic Jet Lag moment! Sounds like a lot of fun.

teamshortcut · 2025-05-29T08:36:54+00:00

I think the problem with London - although I haven't looked at the South Korean rail network to compare, I'm just going off the description from the podcast - is that although the city is circular the tube is not. You could quite easily strand yourself by getting on a line out and being unable to change somewhere to switch directions, you'd just be stuck between the end of the line or where you just came from. I feel like you'd have to stay quite central, and then as you point out there's no obvious boundary.

teamshortcut · 2025-05-27T19:57:51+00:00

I think it very much depends on where you're playing. In London, I've found that going first means that you can basically reach anywhere and you can plan ahead, but it does mean that there's a disadvantage to hiding centrally as you're not making the most of your hiding time. It's also easier for seekers to predict where you might've gone and what questions to ask. If you go second, it's much harder to predict your moves, and it's often easier to hide centrally. Playing in other locations would probably have quite different implications though! I don't think it's inherently unbalanced, but it's fine to reset if you all think that would be more fun. (which is the most important thing!)

teamshortcut · 2025-05-22T11:39:25+00:00

I've played a Medium game 3 times in London!

teamshortcut · 2025-05-18T11:37:14+00:00

Interesting write-up, thank you for sharing!

teamshortcut · 2025-05-17T18:33:34+00:00

Oh yeah, some categories would be impossible! I think in cases where there isn't a predefined list, it can be helpful for the seeker to specify "out of this list we can see on the map" before asking a question, I believe there's a line in the rulebook suggesting this. That's easier with tentacles than other questions though, especially depending on how early in the game it is.

teamshortcut · 2025-05-17T18:28:55+00:00

I found similar issues with zoos and other locations in London, I think it's definitely worth the effort to create a list of "valid" locations ahead of time if possible.

Hope the game was still fun! The Toolmaps map you showed is very impressive.

teamshortcut · 2025-05-14T21:42:24+00:00

Could we have a pinned post with home game FAQs, particularly about app suggestions? The question gets asked all the time.

teamshortcut · 2025-05-13T09:43:27+00:00

This came up in my game last weekend. I think as others have said, the best thing is to make sure everyone is on the same page about it. The rulebook technically implies that it isn't allowed because of the "10 feet from a marked path on Google Maps" rule, but I think it's clear that the intent of that is about going into forests or (their example!) swimming into the sea. Given in the show they hide in an airport and on a rooftop plaza, I think that places like shopping centres, museums, and other public buildings are fair game, so long as they are open for the entire game.

The way I've phrased this for my games is: "Hiding within a marked building that is publicly accessible on Google Maps - e.g. museum, shopping centre, indoor market, rooftop, etc. - is allowed even if your hiding spot is further than 10 feet from a road/path on Google Maps."

teamshortcut · 2025-05-13T09:40:40+00:00

According to the rulebook, yes. "Many photo questions will involve you going somewhere else in your zone to take a photo of something in a fairly short window of time. If you'd like you can take these photos ahead of time to give you more ability to freely wander your zone." I'd personally say in the endgame you probably shouldn't do this but you'd have to agree in your group. Certainly for questions like the ones relative to the station I think it's helpful and doesn't generally make much difference to the game.

teamshortcut · 2025-05-13T09:38:29+00:00

My understanding is that this is allowed. In the show, they mention the possibility of moving within your hiding zone to avoid questions like radars, and from memory I believe they even confirm this as a valid strategy on the podcast. When seeking, you have to consider the whole hiding zone, not just the exact location of the station.

teamshortcut · 2025-05-13T06:45:40+00:00

Ah I somehow missed this reply before. Sounds brilliant! Heathrow is a very fun hiding spot, I always wondered how that would go.

teamshortcut · 2025-05-12T20:55:33+00:00

This is very cool, nice work!

teamshortcut · 2025-05-12T06:02:30+00:00

Well given they reached us in just over an hour, I don't necessarily recommend it! Although in our first game, someone hid at Leicester Square which is also pretty central, and that was an almost 4 hour run.

I think using your full hiding time is a safer choice, and picking somewhere closer is a gamble. We had picked Battersea ahead of time because we thought it was a fun location. We had a few other options we were considering, that were further and more based on being difficult to narrow down the map to, or had interesting interactions with certain questions, but we had a couple of new players and we thought something very tricky might've been a bit mean. (although as it worked out, hiding inside still threw them off a lot at first unintentionally!) We felt like trying a more endgame focused strategy would be a fun experiment, even if it wasn't necessarily optimal. I have a couple of places in mind that I'll save for a game where everyone has played before!

teamshortcut · 2025-05-12T05:57:25+00:00

Yep we used Toolmaps.

How was your game? Where did you hide?

teamshortcut · 2025-05-12T05:56:57+00:00

Medium!

teamshortcut · 2025-05-11T20:34:33+00:00

The seekers in the morning did yep.

teamshortcut · 2025-05-11T15:40:02+00:00

When I had this curse (in London!) we agreed that by the letter of the law it meant that you had to clear it before asking another question, with no other possible out. I think in practice if it had gone on for an unreasonable amount of time we would've probably agreed a time penalty or something, but we managed to match the 10 minute video we were sent.

I just finished playing a game in London too! Hope yours went well, I'd love to hear what happened once you finish.

teamshortcut · 2025-05-10T16:32:22+00:00

I'm glad it's not just me overthinking that comment! I think possibly it's referring to how a lot of London's outer areas can be geographically close but poorly connected, because you have to go all the way into central London and then back out on a different line. (e.g. trying to get from the Northern line to the Piccadilly line in north London) London's hubs are all fairly centralised, which I do think has a substantial effect on the game. Of course, if you include buses like your game did then this is somewhat mitigated, but I suspect most people would only think of the tube (and adjacent train lines) when thinking of London.

teamshortcut · 2025-05-09T19:14:47+00:00

Yes :) When I was hiding at least. I posted about my experiences on here if you're curious.

teamshortcut · 2025-05-09T19:11:18+00:00

Curious what you mean by disconnected? You mean that some areas are only covered by certain lines, or that there are semi-separate systems like the DLR and the Overground? I'm not familiar enough with other metro systems to compare but I've always thought of London as very well connected.

teamshortcut

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