Hey, can you tell me some more about this Fantasy Grounds deal? Is it D&D, D20, something else?

It's an online tabletop RPG facilitator. And I think you can configure it for a variety of games, so d20 or multi-dice or all six-siders...

Here. Fantasy Grounds

I gamed a lot when I was in school during the '80s. Then I moved to DC and never found a group to game with, and I kind of drifted away. So I'm more the era of Nuclear War/Nuclear Escalation. Oh, and Kingmaker -- can't forget Kingmaker.

I loved Kingmaker, but it too had serious balance issues. My usual strategy was 'get hold of an heir and go sit on an island somewhere'. On the other hand, the card-based combat and event stuff was a revelation. There's a whole slew of wargames out these days that have taken that card thing even further - Paths of Glory is a well-regarded WWI card-based game, and War of the Ring makes good use of them too. (I so wish I could find someone to play that against.)

Oh, another card-based strategy, if not war, game, is 1960: The Making of the President. Wallybee and I played that just tonight. (She was Nixon, I was Kennedy.) It was a tight game. She was dominant in the West, and cherry-picked New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Michigan our of my stronghold. (And, like Kennedy, the Dems took Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, but they threw their votes to Byrd.) End result - I won by pretty much a single state. If Mrs Nixon had grabbed Ohio or California off me, she would've pulled it off.

It's an online tabletop RPG facilitator. And I think you can configure it for a variety of games, so d20 or multi-dice or all six-siders... Here. Fantasy Grounds

Thanks for that. I've bookmarked it.

amych - I think it's called Burnout.

Yes! Burnout! Or Burnout Revenge or something.

All I could come up with was some generic racing game title like Super Fast Bad Ass Mega Turbo Thrust Grand Racing Turismo 3!! or something.

I want to create one similar wherein you get to "create" a work place - like Sims or something - and then you go in and FUCK IT UP. Detroy the office and burn it down. Very theraputic.

The original Sim City was a lot like this. At least it was the way I played it. After a while, the city was all carefully built up by tweaking the zoning laws, and all the ungrateful little shits who lived there were rioting over taxes even though you had tried to give them nice things like sports stadiums and other such bread and circuses, and it all just got incredibly, incredibly boring once the city reached a certain equilibrium. And that's when the temptation to hit the "tsunami" "earthquake" and "godzilla attack" commands all at once came into play.

Other board games I've played over the years, semi-regularly:

Axis and Allies
Rail Baron
Ironclads

Also used to play a bunch of different RPGs, but they were all pretty much custom designed games.

And I've done a LOT of wargaming - mostly medeivals, civil war and modern armor. Also, pretty much custom gaming systems.

My favorite game is the World's Greatest Travel Game.

It's a bingo-type game with a 5x5 grid. Inside each square is a cube with 5 pictures and one [X] side to flip to when you complete a cube. Each picture is valued from 1 to 5 in order of difficulty. You can either set all the squares to one value and play only that level (bo-ring!), or you can set them all at 1 and play from 1 to 5 (this is the way the experts do it). A picture is scored when you see that thing outside the window of your car. Rules vary as to whether images of that thing count - in the modern era of highway travel, it's nearly impossible not to count images, since the game assumes you will be driving through lots of small towns and therefore will value, say, "mailbox" at a level-1 even though your chances of seeing a mailbox on the Pennsylvania Turnpike are pretty slim.

My mom and I still talk about the time when we wound up following a car with a poster on the back showing a hammock hung between two palm trees, allowing us to score 2 nearly impossible level-5 cubes at once. This was nearly 20 years ago.

The WGTG is the reason I love long-distance driving. I used to play over and over and over on the 18-hour trip to Canada every summer when I was a kid, and I can't wait to pass it on to Dylan when he's old enough. My copy is a battered one missing 2 cubes that I paid way too much for on eBay because my parents wouldn't give up theirs. (I have, however, stolen 2 of their cubes to round out my collection. I picked two at random - hopefully neither was the one with the snake or the hammock.)

Oh, another card-based strategy, if not war, game, is 1960: The Making of the President. Wallybee and I played that just tonight. (She was Nixon, I was Kennedy.) It was a tight game. She was dominant in the West, and cherry-picked New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Michigan our of my stronghold. (And, like Kennedy, the Dems took Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, but they threw their votes to Byrd.) End result - I won by pretty much a single state. If Mrs Nixon had grabbed Ohio or California off me, she would've pulled it off.

My housemate thinks this is the Best Game Evar, but the theme just doesn't pull me in.

MM & Aims, it is indeed Burnout Revenge. Great game, that.