Are you saying you lost interest because you didn't want to look at the actual wording, or because other people didn't?

Both.

Not that I didn't want to, but because the actual wording didn't always match the "real life" aspect, and it took me out of the fantasy.

Plus I find the game imbalanced and too luck based.

When the average attack has a 58% chance to hit, strategy takes a backseat.

I have like the biggest first world problem ever. The wife is turning 40 tomorrow and all her friends and family have chipped in for her present... but some gave so much we actually have way more money than we need for the present. But now I have done a little bean counting and decided how much money we actually need from the big donations. The rest... I'll offer a refund, otherwise we can put it aside and use it for something fun later on.

I don't actually have the data to back it up, but my general impression is that the average attack value has gone up more than the average defense value in the past few years. And with the availability of perplex and probability control, I think the effective odds of hitting are even higher.


on a semi-related tangent, I think I was one of the few people that loved the GCPD Cruiser team used to win Worlds a few years ago. A lot of people hated on that team, but when he was winning games without even picking up his dice, no one could use the excuse that he "got lucky."

Quebbs talking valley girl tickles me.

Yes yes yes. So much this.

I mean, do people say "Well, in real life you can't trade goods without a road, so no trading until you have a road that touches another player's road or settlement" in Catan?

Eh, I'm way more frustrated by being told something functions one way, only for it to function another. If, for example, I'm told I'm bulletproof, but then I get killed by somebody who doesn't have anything special about their kill because "they use a knife instead of a gun", I'm going to be upset about that. If the mod specifically builds that aspect in (instead of making it an ad hoc decision), then I'm ok with it.

That said, I've been thinking about running more of a story-driven game where people aren't told their specific powers, only given a general idea. They would still be well-defined on the back end, though. I wonder if anybody would be interested in that.

I don't think that necessarily follows, either for Heroclix specifically or in the general case, but to be honest I don't have that much interest in debating a game I haven't played in well over a year and that suffers from an almost comical failure to have a coherent, consistent ruleset (although I believe lately they've been making good strides in that direction, from what I can tell).

I think I'm doing pretty good at getting a handle on controller/console play, surprisingly. I'm 55% through game 1 of Uncharted and my hit ratio is 43.13%. Now I know that's nothing to brag about, but it's better than I expected. 126 headshots out of 454 enemies defeated. Most headshots performed in a row is 5. Don't diss that. I'm proud. Is it odd I prefer the PM 9mm to automatics? And I'm sticking with the AK-47 as backup? Though I do love the Dragon Sniper. I wish I had more stealth kills but I don't think the game is made for that. Only 4. I'll have to find other games for that kind of play. Suggestions? Rokk suggested Assassin's Creed. Others?

Catan mirrors real life.

"Anybody want this sheep?"

"God, no. It's cute but what would I even do with it?"



Btw have any of the board game/Parks and Rec fans in the house looked at the rules for Cones of Dunshire? Most horribly over designed game I have ever seen. I want to play it so badly.

I can't really compare it to anything else since it's been years since I've played console. Previously we had a Wii. But generally speaking I'm loving it. My one daughter is a PC snob and saying how much she prefers that and I can understand that since that was my preference for so long, but I don't have any complaints so far with the PS4. Uncharted 1 probably isn't that challenging of a game to run on the console, but I haven't had any problems with frame rate or bugs. It's been fast and smooth. I'll update once I start Fallout 4. I've read there might be a little frame rate issue or loading time issue for the PS4. I'll let you know.

When I play Catan (admittedly, it was a long time ago), it always descends to the "I need wood. Anyone got wood?" level.

The newest AC is arguably the best from what I have heard. The reviews for it have me wanting to get the game and I'm not an AC guy.

If you want other RPGs, Dragon Age is always solid. Though that's more party based with no real stealth.

Speaking of table top games, anyone play Roll For It? Watched Wil play and seemed a fast and easy game for non-nerds/drinking game night.

We have PC Dragon Age.

I know roleplaying gamers who do this in D&D and Pathfinder.

I specifically avoid playing with them. Every rules quibble turns into them wanting to do a LARP show-and-tell to try and convince the GM to ignore the book. I #### you not, it turns into, "Wait, dude, okay, stand up for a second, I want to show you what I'm talking about."

Ugh.

No, I don't want to get up, I like sitting and playing my stupid dice and paper game.

It's really a pretty poor game.

Your most interesting decision (board games are built on making interesting decisions) is where to place your starting towns. The rest of the time, you're so limited by resources or position that you have only a few marginally different choices you can make, usually "do a thing" or "hold my cards and hope for specific dice rolls to maybe do a different thing on my next turn."

The entire game has a lot of luck and kingmaking and getting the robber stuck on you all game or never rolling what you need is infuriating. Trades are usually outright rejected because demand is fairly consistent across the players. You either have the right supply or you don't. There's always one thing nobody can get and there's rarely a reason to trade it away. On the off chance two players have a lot of trade going on, everyone else is screwed.

Seafarers is far better because it adds a use for sheep (traditionally almost useless) and decreases the demand for brick (previously essential and horded). This makes wood the only essential resource and adds trade motivation since you can't just sit on wood and brick and win. It also really opens up the board.

Still not that great of a game but idk why anyone plays vanilla Catan.