F@#% the New Edition

Wizards of the Coast is already working on the 5th Edition of Dungeons & Dragons.

BRIEF historical background/refresher: The game was first rewritten in 1989, but not much was changed. They clarified the rules and consolidated all the material that had been accumulating since the game's inception. 3rd Edition came out in 2000, and 3.5 ed. came out in 2003. 3rd Edition (and 3.5) was pretty successful, but I think it had run it's course. It sort of became MtG in the end, getting this prestige class power, that feat, and this magic item to get a combo going. And there was so much material out there that the combinations were out of control. If you didn't want to play like that, but had a table that did, it probably wouldn't be much fun for you (being the weakest). Even if you did play like that, someone at the table would likely be much better than you at min-maxing, and it still might not be much fun for you. But I digress, the edition was out of control and needed a reboot. 4th edition to the rescue. 4th ed. came out in 2008. They modeled this one after the wildly successful MMORPGs, trying to capture what people enjoyed on the computer. However this edition contained much fewer viable combinations of races, classes and "prestige" classes. WotC seemed to be trying to reign in the excesses of 3rd edition. But they tweaked and updated the game regularly to try to get the game they wanted, in fact there have to be thousands of erratas to the original players book. Of course the min-maxxers were up to the challenge - when Wizards closed a loophole, they just found another one. Other players were just annoyed by all the changes. I'm not sure if you can call 4th Edition a complete failure, but it came out just three and a half years ago and we're already talking about a replacement.

If you played any of those editions, I invite you to discuss what worked for you and what didn't work for you in each. Was 4th Ed. a failure? What went wrong?

My table top RPG days are in the past, and maybe that's the real problem Wizards faces, i.e. fewer young players and old players who just aren't interested anymore. For me, I don't know what an RPG experience can be anymore. But I am pretty sure it can't live up to what it should be in my mind. I do know this, it doesn't have a lot to do with the rules (other than the whole table being comfortable with them).

For me, it's about telling a compelling story, a story that the players actively participate in and shape. And that's a tough task for the gamemaster, not many can hack it. Fewer can hack it with their own stories/adventures instead of published material. But really I came to realize that rolling dice wasn't telling the story. So why do you do so much of that in a table top RPG? Why do we have volumes of rules, most of which are dedicated to combat?

But even if I could get past that, I'm sitting at a table of 5 or 6 or more people all with potentially vastly different expectations for the experience. And different motives for even being there. How do you satisfy these people with different playing styles? And how much WORK for a gamemaster might that entail? It's supposed to be fun...

Believe it or not, just writing this makes me want to play again, remembering what I liked about RPGs and what made them satisfying. But then I remember how the game goes in practice, and I'll pass :) I didn't stop playing because of any rules, I stopped playing because it could never live up to my expectations.

My advice to Wizards? Don't make it too complicated, and write adventures again. It's about the story. Write a compelling story. And good luck, because ironically now that the game isn't as stygmatized, it's market is only shrinking.

What would you do in a fresh edition?

F$@& Carcassonne

Carcass1

Plot:  Build walled cities in southern France.   The theme fits…almost.   The art is good but the scoring and play mechanics can be transferred to another setting pretty easily.

Mechanics:  A tile laying game.  Draw a tile, examine it, and play it legally.  Legality is very straight forward.  A city side must connect to another city side or be open, similarly with roads and fields.  Upon placement of the tile, you may drop a meeple onto one of the terrain features (the field, the abbey, the city or the road).  Once the road/city/abbey is completely closed in that meeple scores and returns to your supply.  You can’t play a competing meeple into the same area as an opponents, but you can place one in a position that eventually you’ll share scoring.  Meeples score like this:

Knights : Upon closing a city, a knight gets 2 VP per tile and shield (shields are printed on selected city tiles) the city contains.  Very small cities, or cities that required only 2 tiles to score are an exception.  These count as 2 VP total.   Uncompleted cities get 1 VP per tile and shield at the end of the game.

Robbers :  Robbers play on roads, and upon closing you get 1 VP per road length.  At end of game you still get 1 VP per uncompleted road tile.

Monks:  A monk scores when every tile surrounding an abbey (9 total) scores.  The 1-1 VP ratio for uncompleted abbeys is the same as roads.

Farmers:  Farmers score at the end of the game.  For every uncompleted city in the farmer’s zone of control, you score 3 VPs.

Tactics:  It usually comes down to farmers.  Occasionally a player will close a crap load of cities to get wicked awesome scoring for knights, but even then, that guy probably still scored at least a few farms.  So pay attention to the zone break points (roads mostly) and work to extend your zone and thwart other peoples.

Review:  A two part review here.  This is among my favorite gateway games.   If I am introducing board games to n00bs or family, this will absolutely be my go to choice.  It’s simple to teach and after just a few rounds n00bs can get a feel for tactics.  My family will remain clueless for the games entirety.  As a teaching game this rates 9/10.  Amongst nerdcore gamers, I despise this game.  As soon as someone actually tries hard to win, the pacing bogs way the hell down.  And the game isn’t nearly deep enough to justify 15 minute waits between turns.  Nerdcore rating : 4/10.

F$@& Gencon part 2: forming the plan

Gencon Survival Guide Part 2:  What to do?

So now everyone is convinced of the wisdom of having a plan.  Now actually make one…!

There’s really no wrong way to do this, but maybe you can use a little guidance.

Do something new

First and longest, because this is absolutely my go to move at Gencon.  The show offers 10s of thousands of events, so there’s got to be something you haven’t played before.  Maybe it doesn’t always work, but the truth is that I would rather spend $6 and 4 hours at Gencon to test drive a game than $50 and one replay in Mike’s basement.

Last year’s results were mixed, as always.  New games I tried included Fiasco, Shootout, Carmegeddon and some Steam Punk RPG.   

Fiasco was a win.  It’s a very well designed story telling game.  Some setting is chosen, and then fleshed out with die rolls.  These die rolls define the relationships, fill in the setting, or give some object to focus on.  It’s not a game that I would play regularly, but as a party game or something to do at some other con it’s great.

The others ranged from meh to yuck.  Shootout was a demo by a startup company, the cards were printed on regular paper not even card stock and it’s comparable to a lot of the ‘filler’ style games.  You know, things to do while waiting for people to show up, but nothing you want to spend the whole night doing.  Carmeggeddon, the GM let too many people play.  And that’s seriously a sin in miniature skirmish styled games.  Players end up waiting 10 minutes between turns, and it’s not a good experience.  Steampunk RPG was just meh.  It played ok, but the GM wasn’t very prepared and the whole thing felt like a fanboy tribute to Abner Park (a steampunk band.  Whatever that means).

The point is, that I like trying new things, and the Fiasco block more than made up for the misses.

Try something old

Maybe you can’t go back again, but Gencon is the place to find out.  Again, $6 and a 4 hour window seems like a much better deal than at home experiments.  Mike knows what I am talking about, since he constructed neat Car Wars arenas to have us play them once and then realize that, in hindsight, Car Wars actually sucks.  Or maybe you’ll find out that its still fun, so long as someone else does the work in setting it up.

Try a Tournament

Enter NASCRAG and prove that you can do a silly voice better than anyone else.  Play a Brass tourney and prove that you are smarter than everyone else.  To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentations of their women. (I would prepare back up plans if you enter tourneys.  Elimination leaves you with free time…)

Do something with friends

Mike pontificated on this on our drive back last year.  Everyone kind of did their own thing, which is fine, but Gencon is better when you can share the experiences.  I’m going off memory here, but (paraphrased) he continued with “Next year, I think I will trade events with people.  You pick one, I pick one and we go to both.”  I think that’s the only rational way to go about this; our group of friends has wild and varied interests.  I can’t expect Mike to be excited about my schedule and I won’t be excited with his.  But we did the Steampunk RPG event together which made it better (at least imo).

Don’t be afraid to something on your own

I no longer do NASCRAG.  Oh, I may change my mind later, but the way the tourney is set up just hammers me.  I am absolutely not at my best when the championship round is scheduled.  Not only do I not have fun in the final round, but it turns into a cascade of suck because I end up feeling that I am letting my friends down.  You know what that tells me?  I should play something else.  Now suppose that everyone else in our group is in the tourney.  I still don’t want to play, but I still should schedule something.  Wa-la!  Miniature skirmish games.  I’m pretty sure I am alone in still wanting to try these at Gencon, so here’s the perfect time.  It’s a win-win.  I don’t have to play in something I have no interest in and don’t have to inflict it on someone else!

F@%& Gencon Planning

Gencon Survial Guide part 1: have a plan

So in about a month, Mike will probably start his email campaign reminding everyone about Gencon and banding together for rooms, so in honor of that, my survival guide.

Gencon is good entertainment value.  Our typical costs are around $150-250 for badge, events, gas money and hotel.  We Priceline and double up in rooms so a lodging bill downtown is sure to be higher.   It is a lot of our groups one vacation a year so some tips are in order.

The most important thing is to have a plan.  In fact that is probably 8 of  the 10 most important things.  If you arrive to the show on Wednesday, you have 12-16 hours to fill for Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 0-6 hours on Sunday.  That is 36-54 hours total, and I for one, don't drive from St. Louis to Indy to people watch or browse the dealers room.  There are ample opportunities to do something fun, but they will get steam rolled if you do not have a plan.

In the past, I entered the NASCRAG tourney annually.  This books up 4 hours on Thursday or Friday and my entire Saturday since my teams usually overcame the extreme handicap of playing with me to make the 3rd round.  This formed the basis of my plan, I knew Saturday was off limits so schedule events to conform.

Also in the past, the NF group played in every Living Forgotten Realms module offered with Thog, Ukla and Grok the Puzzled forming the core of a really really silly role playing experience.

Last year, I believe the JC's (that's Jeremy and Josh) went heavy into Magic: the Gathering tournaments.  Bob played in nearly every Legend of the Five Rings living game that's offered.  Jason played a lot of ticket to ride variants, while I split my team between RPG events and the Rio Grande room test driving new games.  

That's a lot of varied nerdy interests laid out there, and the point is that as long as everyone had fun, everyone did it right!   The Gencon's that were miserable to me were the ones that I showed up without a plan and expected the fun to begin.  So give some thought to how you will spend your convention time.

Next time, some thought on how to figure out what to do with that time.

Friday Board Game Recap!

Since I sent the invitation to David instead of the whole distribution, and didn't realize my mistake until 4 hours before game time, we had a three person table.

No problem! We still played games.

Samurai - Since all the people who dislike Samurai were not in attendance, I suggested we play Samurai! Well turns out there are two more people who don't like Samurai. Oh well, thanks for humoring me guys.

Bohnanza - AKA "The Bean Game" - Took a few minutes to explain the rules and strategy to David, but he then picked it up fast and began to trounce us. I held fast, finished strong, and won!

Glen More - Warren built quite a little resource generating tableau and on his last turn sold everything to the bank for 14 coins (and 14 points), bought a +3 tam castle, and moved a doober off the board to become a chieftain. He had 17 tiles to my 11 for a 18 point penalty and still won by 8 points. Impressive!

good fun was had.

F#¢& Influence Control

Influence control is a bit harder to explain than drafts or auctions, and a big reason of that is influence control is almost a sub-set of a draft game.

How it works is a player gets X amount of influence tokens to start, and places them onto the game board, which activates...something.  You get some benefit by choosing to go there, like other resources, bonus actions or whatever.

Here's where it's like a draft.  If a limited amount of people can play in a specific area, it's a draft.  First come, first serve.   Where it differs from a draft is the amount of influence required may vary.  Like some action is so good, that it requires 2 meeples instead of 1.

I think the purest form of an influence control game I have played is Carcassone.  You draw a tile, and that tile gives options on what kind of meeple you play.  That meeple stays in play until/unless conditions occur that allow you to score it.  You have a limited amount of dudes, so that scoring really comes into play so you can retrieve your doobers and play them again.

Hybrid influence-draft games abound, just off the top of my head Notre Dame, Fresco, Stone Age, Olympus (and Olympos for that matter), Automobiles, and Lost Cities.   In my opinion, the prevalence of those is because it's actually quite hard to design a pure draft or influence control  game that's worth playing more than once.

Overall I have mixed feelings about this mechanic.  I love the idea of it, there's resource management decisions and opportunity cost analysis two of my favorite aspects of these games.  The implementation a lot of times leaves something to be desired.  Take the examples of Stone Age and Fresco, previously reviewed.

Stone Age is borked because player #2 has a huge advantage.   The top 2 spots on the board are the hut and the fields.  The hut gives you a bigger population (more actions...) and the field reduces your food upkeep (reducing the need to use the inefficient hunting ground spot).  Spot #3 is the tool shed, and tools are not nearly as useful for the entire game as the other 2 spots.  Pity player #4, who doesn't even start the long range investment of tools. 

Fresco is borked because the portrait studio action has no diminishing returns while every other action does.   So put max doobers into the studio, and accept doing less elsewhere, but be happy that you are doing less more efficiently.

A conclusion!   Generally speaking, this mechanic will guarantee some replay by me.  Unfortunately, it really seems prone to broken moves, and once discovered that game gets shelved forever.

F#%& Auctions

Today I discuss auction games.

 

Proving that game designers don’t often name things to fool people, an auction mechanic is usually some kind of auction.  Players “Bid” on some item(s), and upon winning the bid gain those item(s).  Those items further the game, and by how much is again, an opinion.

One Pass Auctions

 One pass auctions give the player, one and only one chance to bid, like a silent auction.  Ra is an example of such a game.    You can’t low ball and re-raise later.  I find that these are more tactical.  A lot of times bids are made not to purchase the item, but to make sure an opponent don’t get it too cheaply.  It’s an interesting decision, too high and you might get stuck with the bid.

Multi-Pass Auctions

Multi-pass auctions keep going on and on like an art auction, till there are no more bids.  These are more strategic, you have to calculate how much that item is worth, and how much it helps you for the rest of the game.  Power Grid is the best example I can find of this type of auction.  I really don’t know a lot about that game, but one thing I have figured out is that the early plants aren’t worth much; do not get into ANY kind of bidding war for them.  As the game progresses there probably are some really good fits that will be worth bidding a lot for, I just haven’t figured out which ones yet.

Now for some generalist commentary.  Auctions are a neat straightforward mechanism that is also generally pretty balanced, since once again it is opinion based.  In my opinion, it is really tough to make a game with replay that only centers on auctions; the only one that comes to mind is Ra.  Ra has one genius thing going on with it however.  Your current bid affects your future bid power, you trade bid tokens with the last one that purchased tiles.  Honestly, without that mechanic, Ra would be boring.  Now auctions in conjunction with some other mechanics can really help a game, it adds some player v. player interaction and conflict.