Comments on: progress!

By: tom

tom — Tue, 15 May 2007 19:42:35 +0000

Oh, I might have some idea who that is, Genevieve.
As for the trees: it’s actually not lichen. That’s just the way the bark naturally is (including the pink highlights). Also, it’s actually just one tree with several trunks, although of course that’s impossible to tell from the photo.

By: Genevieve

Genevieve — Tue, 15 May 2007 19:23:09 +0000

You have great potential to add a side real of geeky traits if you actually learned the names of the lichens growing on the trees you have the picture of for your site.
Also I’m pretty sure we have a mutual friend that just might have some of that collectible card game that begins with an M… but you didn’t hear it from me.

By: son1

son1 — Fri, 11 May 2007 05:12:02 +0000

The best part about Paranoia were the game-forms that you filled out in triplicate. Beyond awesome.

By: jeff

jeff — Thu, 10 May 2007 19:58:24 +0000

Well, if it's more tiles you need be sure to explore the exciting world of Carcassonne expansion packs. There's no end to the amount of money you can sink into this. (btw, count me in for some by-email-Diplomacy. This is all you need.)

By: mike d

mike d — Thu, 10 May 2007 13:29:53 +0000

The Palladium books were always better for reading than playing, especially the alt-hist/post-apocalytic books. The one on England was where I first heard about the Chunnel. Diplomacy is a great game, if for no other reason than presenting a situation in which Austria-Hungary can become the dominant power of Europe. Paranoia is one of the best, no doubt. The interesting bit on that is that it was published the year before Terry Gilliam's Brazil, and came up with the color-coded security system (from 'Ultraviolet' to 'Infrared') almost two decades before Tom Ridge.

By: son1

son1 — Wed, 09 May 2007 14:28:33 +0000

I think everyone eventually settles on “get the Glitterboy out of his suit” as a solution, but it’s still a lame design — you either have this near-invincible character who can deal god-like amounts of damage, or some totally normal guy with no money to his name. But Ninjas and Superspies! The gadgets, and the martial-arts catalog! Ah, it’s all coming back to me now. I should dig up those books again, the next time I go home.
Have you ever heard of/did you ever play a (non-Palladium) game called Paranoia? That’s gotta be one of my all-time favorites. “Stay Alert! Trust No-one! Keep your Laser Handy!”
The Diplomacy play-by-email systems are pretty sweet. There are queue systems set up, so that you don’t have to personally know six other people just to get a game — the queues match up players, and then the games are run by online judges. Everything is done by email. The usual pace is about two moves a week, or so. It usually takes about 15-30 minutes of attention a night, two or three times a week, if you’ve got the time.

By: Taxing Justin

Taxing Justin — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:05:45 +0000

Playing the Catan demo last night turned out to be a surprisingly fun hour. I can’t recall trading wool for lumber and building roads ever entertaining me before. Must have satisfied a deep need to arrange things and accumulate wealth.

By: tom

tom — Wed, 09 May 2007 05:17:22 +0000

son1: yup. I mostly played Rifts, which was pretty cool. I never really enjoyed playing the game much, but reading the books was fantastic (same thing happened with pretty much every other RPG I encountered — the books were cool, but I didn’t like actually playing the game). I rolled characters in TMNT and a game that I think was called Ninjas & Superspies (and maybe Heroes Unlimited, too — can’t remember). Anyway, as I recall the GM’s solution to the glitter boy problem was to mostly run campaigns set in cities where the character couldn’t take the armor. Also, I believe there were some elaborate rules for importing Palladium characters into Rifts (via a Rift, of course) and perhaps vice versa.
As for Diplomacy — I’ve never played it, but would love to give it a try. But the folks I know who’d make the best potential targets for it have already passed through their Diplomacy phase in high school, I’m afraid.
Jason: those sound pretty cool. I remember you talking to me about Ticket to Ride, but Shadows Over Camelot I don’t recall (or it sounded too complex for me to commit to memory). Do you own those? Can we give em a try sometime?

By: JasonT

JasonT — Wed, 09 May 2007 04:26:10 +0000

Carcassonne will soon be joining Catan on Xbox Live Arcade, I hear. I like the actual tabletop version, though, because it’s sort of like dominoes for dorksâa pleasant game involving lying down tiles while reclining, preferably with a lemonade on a slow, summer day. Also, it’s easily transportable if you just dump all the pieces in a ziploc bag.
If you are truly looking to get into more hard core games, consider Shadows Over Camelot (a cooperative game about staving off nigh-inevitable doom) and Ticket to Ride (for the train lover in all of us).

By: son1

son1 — Wed, 09 May 2007 03:23:34 +0000

The Palladium system? Really? HDC and MDC? I was always a big fan of the Rifts world that they published (also: the original TMNT system, and the Heroes Unlimited book) -- but their books always felt like they were "too much story" and "not enough playtesting." Fr'instance: the Glitter-boy OCC in Rifts? Seriously unbalanced. Also: your Risk-disdain is pretty accurate, but have you tried going even simpler? As in, Diplomacy? Great to play if you've got six friends and an equal number of free hours... but if you don't have those, there are some really nice play-by-email systems as well.