The Actual Table

Root is one of my favorite games of all time.

Unfortunately I’ve haven’t managed to motivate anyone in my surrounding to play COIN games with me.

I been keeping my eye out for Gest of Robin Hood, even backed it on P500, but then withdrew because of the high shipping costs. But bought it eventually as preorder on Miniature Market, with much better shipping prices. The video of Rodney yesterday convinced me that it will hopefully be a great game, and with a bit of luck and patience, I’ll be able to allure a friend to try it. The teach seems not so hard.

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https://legacy.drivethrurpg.com/product/478891/One-More-Quest--Core-Book-PDF?
They made a Dungeon Fighter RPG and I for one am here for it.

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Played High frontier 4 all, a game about industrializing and exploiting the other celestial bodies in the solar system. The board is an awesome thing to look at. The core rules are exquisite with how all the pieces work together. Really a game where the complexity comes from the players, even though it is still a complex clockwork of a game.

And then comes additional modules 0, 1, and 2. Much fiddlier, much more rules overhead. But they add so much more flavour to a game that’s already one of the tastiest heavy games I’ve played. I don’t think I’d want to play without space stations now, even if it does mean running to the rules more often. I can’t unring that space station bell now I’ve tried it

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The designer of the game seems to be a very controversial figure across BGG. But I haven’t had time to read more about it, and I think a lot of controversies all across the internet aren’t worth to dig deeper into in my age. Is he politically right wing oriented or what is the issue about?

He’s a libertarian fruit loop. He was also at one point an actual rocket scientist with JPL IIRC.

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Thank you, but damn… I wish my English was better.

Tried to google Fruit Loop and came up with Kellogs, wrote “Fruit Loop Slang meaning “ came up with this:

fruit loops

A sexual phenomenon in which a group of gay men perform anal sex on each other to form a circle. Each member both receives and penetrates, everyones happy.

:upside_down_face:

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ROFL. British slang for someone who certainly appears to be mentally precarious. Apologies for any confusion.

He is obviously intelligent and on certain narrow fields he knows a lot. Unfortunately he regularly strikes well outside of those areas and assumes he knows more than he does. Colonialism was a particular bugbear, to the extent that he had some good ideas about why it happened as it did, but he also thinks it was cool and right.

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This is not what I was expecting over morning coffee lol

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“Fruit loop” is also used in the U.S. to mean a person with a propensity to endorse wildly implausible claims about reality, often flamboyantly. Some examples:

  • A person who not only fears government overreach but publicly wears a tinfoil hat to defeat mind-control rays and harangues anyone who will listen
  • A person constantly adorned with healing crystals who aggressively sprays a silver solution on any injury in their view
  • Marjorie Taylor Greene
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Thats interesting about the designers politics (and Blackyres hilarious misunderstanding is an image I’ll associate with the designer now too)

Theres room in the game for social commentary, specially in the colonist/future colonist deck. I’ll keep an eye out for it next time.

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The main thing that pissed people off was a little essay, in defense of British colonialism, which made some fair points, but also overall said that colonialism was essentially very good and improved the lives of lots of people. The fact that this essay was included with Pax Pamir, a game he didn’t design, and which, ironically, is about the British attempts to colonise Afghanistan (abandoned as not only a failure, but completely unworkable, naturally), is the icing on the cake.

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Got my copy of Set A Watch: Doomed Run in the mail today from the Kickstarter. Now to organize everything over the next couple days and hopefully start in on the big ole multi-expansion campaign this weekend.


Kluster. A very fun little dexterity game, full of “Magnets! How do they work!” moments.


Heat. I may have taught my group too well, but winning was a tough challenge. I struggled to get clear at any point, even with some good upgrades.


Jekyll vs. Hyde. A very changeable game. I had no problem with Jekyll, then a nightmare playing Hyde. The three suits and very limited wilds mean some hands are a nightmare and some are very easy, if you can convince the other player what you don’t have.

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Well shit, just got the courier notification that my copy of the expansion for Skytear Horde is arriving tomorrow, so now Set A Watch and that are going to have to duke it out for which one I’m more excited to dive into this weekend.

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Slay the Spire.

It’s funny, but for years I’ve been looking for tabletop game similar to the roguelike deck builders that I love. Now I don’t know why; they are perfect as they are. Slay the Spire very faithfully recreates the digital experience at the table in a much more fiddly and time-consuming manner. It is not something I need.

That said, I tried a solo run. The game can be played co-op so that is one significant change from digital that might make it worth it to some.

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I actually backed the game, then I cancelled. Something I did very often I must admit in the past few months, due to low shelf space. I do not regret backing out of this one. You said it, some games are just way better digital. Ascension is another example. I ended up trading all my 5 ascension games away, mostly unplayed, because they never hit the table. Playing them digital is just so much more convenient.

That said, I mutated into an avid anti computergames freak in real life… I think I just did not want my kids to spend their time in front of screens, but to go play outside or play board games with their friends and so on… I have a dark secret, I still continue to play some games with you guys, but my kids do not know.

I know, I digress.

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Invaders. One of my favourite deck battlers, an intense game of alien invasion versus heroic human defence, with three lanes, a maximum of four cards per lane, and point losses causing immediate discards from your deck. We didn’t get into the expansion, but the base game is enough for me and has been for quite a while. Whether you want to create an unstoppable force on the board, or hold a big hand of instants to nuke and counter your opponent, it’s all possible. The fact it’s stuffed full of scifi references is just the cherry on top. The additional fact I only won one of three games is irrelevant.

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My wife is away for a conference so I figured I’d entertain the kids with a game. We got Adventure Tactics and they absolutely love it. They ask to play all the time, so it’s a win in my book.

As for the game itself, it is a bit of a mixed bag. The boggiest issue is that storage is literally impossible. There simply isn’t enough room in the card tray to hold all the cards, and it is important in this game to have the cards organized and accessible since you will be going through the different decks to find loot, gear, abilities, etc. I’ve just got everything laid out on a card table right now but I’m going to have to ditch the insert and find a card box that fits.

The components are generally good, with a few blemishes here and there. Nothing that breaks the game but I do hate paying the one of money these games go for and pulling out a player board with a piece of cardboard stuck to it, or a card that is mis cut a little. Oh well.

The game itself is fun. You just play your cards to move and attack, with class abilities thrown in. You level up Final Fantsy Tactics-style where you can level any class, and different combos can give you advanced classes. My son, for example, leveled Wizard to 2, then advanced to Necromancer. I went Rogue 2, but threw in a Cleric and am working to being a Bard. Leveling up just means you get more HP and add some ability cards to your deck. You do have the option of removing cards from time to time as well, so you really are crafting an interesting character.

The game uses a gamebook that works like a choose your own adventure and depending on your choices you will ultimately end up in a battle, which the book has complete setup instructions for.

The game is a little easy, which is perfect when playing with kids. There are ways to adjust the difficulty but I don’t feel the need to do that.

The game is fun. It is perfect for family time. I don’t know that I would pull it out for game night with my friends as there are probably better dungeon crawl options if that’s the route we are going but for the time I’m getting out of it with my kids, money well spent.

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Different genre, since that one is competitive, but have you played Xenoshyft? It is a lane-based sci-fi deck builder, but it is cooperative.

Only the digital version! Decent enough.