Spike: At least give me Wesley's office since he's gone. Angel: He's not gone. He's on a leave of absence. Spike: Yeah, right. Boo-hoo. Thought he killed his bloody father. Try staking your mother when she's coming on to you! Harmony: Well…that explains a lot.

'Destiny'


Gaming 1: You are likely to be eaten by a grue

A thread for the discussion of games: board, LARP, MMORPG, video, tabletop RPG, game theory etc. etc. and all attendant news, developments and ancillary subjects thereof, as well as coordinating/scheduling games either online or IRL. All are welcome to chime in, talk about their favorite games or learn about gaming of any sort.

PLEASE TO WHITEFONT SPOILERS for video games, RPG modules or anything for which foreknowledge of events might lessen one's enjoyment of whatever gaming experience.


megan walker - Jun 10, 2011 12:51:27 pm PDT #11663 of 26134
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

Do you have any plans to sell it, or are you just keeping it for sentimental value?

I don't think I'd sell them, only because filling in the remaining gaps took a bit of time.

And it has a bizarrly morbid sentimental value as I completed the collection by doing ebay auctions from the hospital where my Dad was dying. I had time to fill, and Dartmouth Hospital provided computers with Internet.

At that time I had the first French cards (which is where I got into playing), which I did sell off to pay for the more expensive dual lands and such.


Laga - Jun 10, 2011 1:00:33 pm PDT #11664 of 26134
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.

BSG

I don't have the skills to track which cards are played from turn to turn, but I appreciate that others do. Unless I'm a cylon. Then I hate it.


Volans - Jun 10, 2011 2:03:46 pm PDT #11665 of 26134
move out and draw fire

I have 6 3-ring binders full of M:tG cards that I haven't touched in years.

After a certain point, deck creation became "paralysis by analysis" and we stopped playing.


Laga - Jun 10, 2011 2:10:55 pm PDT #11666 of 26134
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.

I haven't played Magic except when cajoled and I don't own any cards but two of my housemates do and there are currently Magic cards in at least four different rooms of this house.


billytea - Jun 10, 2011 5:14:33 pm PDT #11667 of 26134
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

BSG

Here is something that I've been considering and would like to bounce it off the group. When playing BSG in person I have found that it is much more difficult to track every single card being played and as such people are trying to rely on their memory and impressions a lot more and I actually like that dynamic. Online the game play seems to be tilted towards players who are very keen on keeping track of how every single card is played in and out of a deck. I'm wondering if there is a way we can tweak how cards are shuffled to obfuscate the deck contents a little more, or if anyone else would even be interested in that.

PBF does differ from F2F play in that it creates a paper trail, which makes things easier for humans generally, and card-coutners specifically. Conversely, Cylons don't have to worry about their body language giving them away, and can think more carefully about what they reveal. In practice it doesn't seem the Cylons are suffering too much.

However, there is one small variant that would at least make Destiny less predictable. Here's how it would work: I create a Destiny deck using three cards from each deck (so 18 in total). Whenever the deck gets down to 6 cards, I shuffle in another two cards from each deck. Makes Destiny harder to predict, and it never gets to the point where a card counter can say "there are two cards left and I know what they both are".

Would people like to try this?


NoiseDesign - Jun 10, 2011 5:16:07 pm PDT #11668 of 26134
Our wings are not tired

BSG

That actually sounds like a pretty cool variant to me.


Laga - Jun 10, 2011 5:46:03 pm PDT #11669 of 26134
You should know I'm a big deal in the Resistance.

BSG

Although I have come to rely on the card counters, I do think it would be fun to try this variation. And more in character with the TV show too.


Polter-Cow - Jun 10, 2011 6:22:05 pm PDT #11670 of 26134
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!

BSG

Nooooooo, you're going to destroy my system!!

But that does sound kind of cool. Although with that variant, I may lean toward IC revealing Destiny to offset the greater variety.


billytea - Jun 10, 2011 9:36:28 pm PDT #11671 of 26134
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

Ok then, let's give it a try. If that changes anyone's votes on the ICs, let me know. Anyone who hasn't put in their votes yet, I'll keep it open until tomorrow morning (my time). Then I'll send out the files and we'll start character selection.


billytea - Jun 11, 2011 7:18:50 pm PDT #11672 of 26134
You were a wrong baby who grew up wrong. The wrong kind of wrong. It's better you hear it from a friend.

BSG

OK, we are ready to go. Here are the details, and the voting outcomes:

1. This will be a six-player game, using the No Sympathiser rules. That means that there will be no sympathiser card in the loyalty deck; just 2 Cylon cards and a bunch of Not-A-Cylon cards. To balance things out, resources start a bit lower, and revealed Cylons (once they leave the Resurrecion Ship) draw 3 cards instead of 2.

2. By a vote of 4-1, this game will include both expansions. None of the optional modules will be included.

3. The vote on character selection was 2-2. We will therefore use the default choice. Character selection will be done in player order, per the standard rules.

4. By a vote of 2-1 (lots of abstentions), we will use the Exodus loyalty deck. That means that there is always at least one card left in the loyalty deck, and an executed human player gets a new card (so their replacement may be human or Cylon).

5. By a vote of 2-1, we will use the nukes from the Cylon Fleet module. This means that a nuke has a chance to destroy everything in the sector at which it is fired, both Cylon and human ships alike.

6. By a vote of 4-1, we will use base game Investigative Committees. They reveal all cards in a skill check, including Destiny.

7. We will use a variant for the Destiny deck. It will start with 3 cards from each deck (total of 18 cards). Every time it drops to 6 cards, I will add 2 cards from each deck and reshuffle. This should make it somewhat less predictable.

Game files are going out. Character selection starts now, in this turn order:

-t
omnis_audis
NoiseDesign
chrismg
Laga
Polter-Cow

I've received preference lists from a couple of players, which I'll use per the standard rules for their character choice when it gets to them. Everyone else is welcome to put in a list of preferences too, or wait to see what the players before them select.

-t, you're up. Which character would you like to play this time around?