Any boardgamers?

[ThunderTitan]

Gah, stop reminding me that i know no one to play board games with...

[Daerandin]

I absolutely LOVE Space Hulk, I have all three editions of it, and the two expansions for the first edition. However, I am so in love with third edition that I couldn't imagine going back to the first edition (second edition was not so good). I also happen to find the new Horus Heresy board game quite fun.

Also a role player, dungeons and dragons and the new Deathwatch role playing game.

However, like ThunderTitan I have a little problem. I don't have anyone to play with. I used to play with my sister and cousin, but cousin moved away and sister started getting social as she reached 19. And I do admittedly not really have friends as such, guess I'm too much of a geek and loner for that, haha. Been thinking of putting an ad in a local newspaper "Desperate geek needs friends for board games", haha. I really like these games, and I have it in me to get quite serious about them too, but at the same time I dislike those who get too serious about games. Even though I like to take is somewhat seriously, it's still games and it's still supposed to be entertainment.

[Kristo]

Have you tried VASSAL as a solution to the problem of no local people to game with?

[Darmani]

Look for board game clubs in your area.

I belong to my university's board game club. Current students actually form a minority. A lot of the other regulars are alumni, but some have no affiliation with the school.

I know there's also a group which meets every weekend at a cafe in New York to play boardgames. My former roommate is there for the summer, and has been attending.

[Daerandin]

I live in a small city called Tromsø in Norway. Just barely above sixty-thousand inhabitants. We don't even have a dedicated hobby store in town. There is a used book store that also carries some other stuff, but mostly they just got used books. I have bought all my stuff online.

I had a look at vassal, but nothing can compare to the actual board game. I might search for people here if I get desperate, haha. Currently I'm hoping I'll manage to get my only friend interested. However, that involves tearing him away from WoW which will be a grand feat indeed.

Also happen to suffer from a minor bout of social anxiety so it's not easy for me to take the step of actually looking for someone.

[ThunderTitan]

Also happen to suffer from a minor bout of social anxiety so it's not easy for me to take the step of actually looking for someone.

It's not that hard... all you have to do is not care... and just fake it...

[Gaidal Cain]

This week's win in Citadels: sneaking up behind the two apparant leaders after a rather weak start, take Architect, build Lighthouse+ tavern I got from said Lighthouse. Be only one to reach 8 buildings, win by 1 point.

[Angelspit]

Played A Game of Thrones, with the Starks (they make the game easier for noobs) as I was playing against veterans. I'm not really into wargames, but this one has some nice mechanisms and remains true to the source material. Lots of little details to keep track of though...

[Angelspit]

I just rediscovered Talisman (which was mentioned above a few years ago) by playing the Digital Edition on Steam with my kids, who absolutely love the game. My five year old daughter even manages to play a good game, and doesn't hesitate to take on the bigger creatures (while her brother and I are more conservative). We've also been trying one expansion, The City, which certainly adds a bit of variety.

I want to buy the real board game now, but I shudder to think of the total price tag should I pick up expansions as well. We'll see...

[JamesGoblin]

Slightly offtopic, but Warhammer Online is my best game ever <3

PS speaking of board games, it "only" chess in my case.

[Groovy]

Would anyone like to play test the board game that I'm busy making? I can email you all the blueprints that you would need to print and cut out in order to play the game.

The game design was originally based on Heroes, but has deviated from it quite a bit over the years. It can be thought of as Magic The Gathering on a map, or as chess on a randomised board. A lot of information is available here, though I haven't posted the latest (11th) iteration yet.

[Groovy]

I finished the preliminary design of version 23 about a month ago. Based on the play testing since then, it looks like this will be the final major version. It doesn’t appear to be missing any features, and there’s nothing any of us can think of taking away. There's a lot of balancing and fine-tuning left to do, though.

I wanted to make the game available for you to play via Tabletop Simulator or Tabletopia, but unfortunately, neither handles PNG transparency properly. This happens to be the basis of the key mechanic of the game.

If anyone would like to play the game, I can send you the raw files so that you can print, glue and cut out the game components yourself. This will take some effort, but not nearly as much as the more cumbersome early versions that I've posted previously. I can also describe the game here if anyone is curious about how it works.

[Panda Tar]

What happens with the transparency?

[Groovy]

Semi-transparent stacking is the key mechanic of the game. I discovered it in version 19, and decided to build the game around it from version 21.

For example, say that you have a Grassland map tile. The only feature of this tile is that it has a Plant trait - it is made of plants.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1b92IZ ... wJ1huL2HLw

Now say that you place the Cavern creature token on top of it. This creature has the Stone trait (it's made of stone) and has the Sinkhole ability. When placed on the Grassland tile, both the creature and the tile now have both Plant and Stone traits because they occupy different slots. The map tile doesn't affect the creature's ability, which is visible and therefore available.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1N8SCS ... hhZ3rfqB4J
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xkFtN ... WqX1yKjhJ-

Now say that you place the Granat creature token on top of it. This creature has Crystal and Stone traits and Earthquake ability. When placed on top of the Cavern on Grassland, it hides both traits as well as the ability. Only Granat's traits and ability are visible and therefore usable.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=13V7zZ ... m2eZjzBmD1
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ugdO4 ... 5EEqmnxpoJ

Now say that you place the Cyclone creature token on top of the stack. Cyclone is made of Air and Crystal and has the ability to rotate map tiles. Because this ability occupies a different slot, it is available to the creature stack alongside the Earthquake ability.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pC1ho ... DnrLCVuqj9
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WEPoK ... 0eyd7h5NZV

Now say that you place the Huracan creature token on top of the stack. Huracan is made of Air and Water and has the ability to rotate tiles at a distance provided that they are made of Crystal (because Huracan's tile rotation ability is attached to the Crystal trait).
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1WvH7s ... suB7PLxXA2
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Q3vfQ ... n_ofzNLDJS

Now say that you place the Wingnut creature token on top of the stack. Wingnut has the Recoil ability modifier - if the ability attached to it causes another creature to move, Recoil causes you to move the same distance in the opposite direction. In this instance, it becomes a side-effect of the Earthquake ability.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=14AF-C ... 0EiIPzJLib
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1pHlke ... xAk27XKvoG

I hope this is clear enough to illustrate the mechanic.

[Panda Tar]

Yes, though still a bit confusing just by taking an example without playing to feel the evolving context. In resume, it looks like there are problems when many things are stacked and they share traits which occupy, visually, the same places. Is that what you are having problems with?

[Groovy]

I thought that was a feature rather than a bug.
Having some traits and abilities obscure others is intended behaviour. It requires players to make trade-offs when stacking creatures so that they get the traits and abilities they want on top, including not having stacks that are too big. Also, some of the abilities are double-edged, so you may need to cover them in certain situations in order to make progress.

The challenge lies with making the game available for playtesting remotely, outside of my local gaming community. Tabletop Simulator and Tabletopia don't handle transparency properly, and not many people have thin transparent plastic lying around from which to make the creature tokens.

[Panda Tar]

Ah, now I got it.

[margaritacruz]

I play lichess apknite and Exploding Kittens.