I haven't played backgammon for ages, but I'll give it a shot omnis. Maybe Sunday?

We can start whenever. Like the scrabble, its move as you can. I'm registered with the same e-mail addy in Facebook as I am in here, feel free to ping me.

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At the moment, I think I'm keenest to find out more of what they've done with social encounters. If they've made it easier for me to give PCs real challenges outside of combat, then that's a great advance for me.

I think you'll be disappointed. It looks to me like they've made it more combat-centric (and I wasn't sure that was possible).

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There is a facebook app for backgammon! Anyone game?

OMGOMGOMG! I must now go install it!

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It looks to me like they've made it more combat-centric

well... dang. I haven't played D&D in umpty years, so I don't have much of a stake in it, but all the talk about big gameplay changes had me hoping for some more varied play. Which I think is what it would take to get me in again.

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I think you'll be disappointed. It looks to me like they've made it more combat-centric (and I wasn't sure that was possible).

What gives you that impression? From what I've seen combat's received the most overhauling (of course, as combat has the greatest need for rules), but this is about the first time they've really paid attention to the notion of mechanics for social encounters.

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well... dang. I haven't played D&D in umpty years, so I don't have much of a stake in it, but all the talk about big gameplay changes had me hoping for some more varied play. Which I think is what it would take to get me in again.

Ultimately that's really up to your GM, though it looks like GMs might now have a little more support for designing out-of-combat encounters. If they find it easier to set up a challenging goal-oriented social encounter, they might be more willing to do so. (I know for the campaign I'm running, I'm rather keen on raiding the 4E social encounter ideas to help out with this sort of design, whether or not we convert to 4E wholesale. I've already added the new death and dying rules.)

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I think you'll be disappointed. It looks to me like they've made it more combat-centric (and I wasn't sure that was possible).

That's not the impression I'm getting. Granted, we won't know until we see the books, but they've been talking about their new skill challenge system and how social encounters can be run with just as much detail and with a similar mechanical approach as combat, with an over-arching idea of everyone in the party has a chance to contribute in both. If they can pull it off, it will be great to be able to run social encounters where everyone is involved, rather than everyone else updating their characters sheets or checking their dice for "bad rollers" while the bard does his thing.

I think it only seems more combat-focused at the moment because the only things we've seen concrete rules for so far have been combat related. (Which makes sense, seeing as the official Dungeon Delve events at cons have traditional been hack-and-slash, kick-in-the-door adventures, and they didn't change that formula up when they used them to run exhibitions of 4th Ed back in February.)

I am disappointed that core 3.x classes like the Bard, Druid, Barbarian, Monk and Sorcerer aren't in the first PHB and will be pushed back a year. That it makes it really hard on folks with existing campaigns that may want to switch.

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I like the multi-player games. Pit's a longstanding favourite. (I once played with a group that actually stopped to think between bids. How perverse is that?)

OMG, the whole fun of Pit is the crazy bidding and everybody screaming out their trades. I can't even imagine pausing. I'm sad I don't have my old cards anymore with flax, etc., but I do love the bell that came with my new version.

Right now, though, the multi-player game I always reach for is Bohnanza. It's a trading game set in the competitive world of bean farming and has an excellent balance of fun and competitiveness.

I've found that Bohnanza is a great introduction to games for people who think they don't like them. And it's really good for any number of players because of the trading.

Wallybee is just so much fun to play against, she really takes to trading games. I wound up buying a board game, Traders of Genoa, on the strength of her enjoyment of Bohnanza.

Hmmm, how do they compare?

I gave Lost Cities to my nephew this past Christmas. I liked it, but it seems that it might get old quickly.

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I bought Lost Cities for Drew for Christmas, but we haven't played it yet. (Hence, game closet cleaning needed.)

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Hmmm, how do they compare?

Traders of Genoa is a full board game, and is more complicated. (Not as bad as your average wargame, but there's a bit to keep track of.) Less of a gateway game than Bohnanza. It's still heaps of fun though, and the scope for negotiation is broader than in Bohnanza - you can basically trade anything you have, for anything the other player has.

If someone enjoyed Bohnanza, I'd give that a few rounds, and then try them out on Traders.

I gave Lost Cities to my nephew this past Christmas. I liked it, but it seems that it might get old quickly.

It feels that way to me too, though it's stayed fresh longer than I expected so far. Odin's Ravens is the two-player card game I'm most likely to recommend these days.

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