This must be what going mad feels like.

Simon ,'Jaynestown'


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.


billytea - Jul 01, 2010 7:58:43 pm PDT #6295 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

I'm not sure I want a character who's got a better chance than most to be a Cylon to sit there with all the Yellow cards in hand.

Fair comment, and a discussion worth having. I will offer in my own defence:

1. I am more likely than anyone else to wind up being a Toaster; but I'm still more likely to remain human than not. Right now, of course, I'm as likely to be human as anyone.

2. For my own credentials, on my turn I scouted twice (postponinng increasing my own hand), and twice left a card with a jump icon on top. If I were a Cylon, I could've buried one or both of them, and no one would be any the wiser.

3. I agree, it's a worry to have any resource largely under the control of just one player. That's why I put myself forward for this gig. At the moment, our Politics supply is largely controlled by Zarek (whom I trust, but still). If I draw some Politics too, it spreads it out over more of the fleet and reduces our concentration risk.

It's fair to be cautious, which leads to another suggestion: XOs are good, but if there's any doubt about people's loyalties, don't XO the person directly after you. Doing so gives them three actions in a row. If they're a Cylon, that can easily lead to mayhem and wacky hijinks.


omnis_audis - Jul 01, 2010 8:19:58 pm PDT #6296 of 26134
omnis, pursue. That's an order from a shy woman who can use M-16. - Shir

BSG

I texted Laga. She doesn't have internet access quite yet. She will be at the library tomorrow around noon, board time, to use their computers. So, let's debate away so she can get good counsel on the choice.

I will make the following board observations. Food is actually +1 from the starting point. Current Player, Tigh, has 4 cards, so tossing 3 of them would be significant. President has 7 cards, so 2 less would be less of an impact.

Now. Discuss!


billytea - Jul 01, 2010 8:32:07 pm PDT #6297 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

I vote for saving the cards. Food's looking good, we can afford to lose 1; losing 5 cards would put a dent in our ability to meet more serious challenges.


megan walker - Jul 01, 2010 8:34:13 pm PDT #6298 of 26134
"What kind of magical sunshine and lollipop world do you live in? Because you need to be medicated."-SFist

BSG

Obviously, it depends on the card values that our noble leaders hold, but, at this point, I'm leaning toward losing the food and keeping cards.


DeathQuaker - Jul 02, 2010 1:50:40 am PDT #6299 of 26134
Illigitimi non carborundum

BSG "That's it, take that ya motherfrakkin' Toasters! And you owe my wife a new negligee! There ain't a Victoria's Secret out here in space, ya know!"

Re: the crisis: I'll also note that if I lose three of my four cards, I'll lose my fourth card at the start of the next turn, due to Tigh's weakness. Glug glug glug. Mr. President, please take the Admiral's, erm... need for additional resources into account when you make your decision.

BTW, with all this talk of pirates: I'm doing a BSG rewatch, and we had several weeks ago nicknamed Tigh "Salty." I am seeing the increasing appropriateness of this name.


DeathQuaker - Jul 02, 2010 1:58:56 am PDT #6300 of 26134
Illigitimi non carborundum

bsg On an entirely different note:

This spreadsheet omnis and BT has... this is an excel sheet, yes? Is there any weird colors or graphicness or is it a pretty straightforward spreadsheet? Is this where the crisis card text comes from or do you have this in a separate text file?

Why I ask: two of the people I play this game with IRL are blind. We've brailled the skill cards (L1EO for Leadership 1 Executive Order) and the loyalty cards, but obviously the crisis and quorum cards have way too much text to recreate in braille. While we can play as is, it means the blind players can't be the President (they need to know what the Quorum cards say) and can't be Roslin or Boomer or scout the Crisis Deck because they can't secretly look at the cards--they need someone to read them to them.

They often keep their laptops with them for gaming, and have put the free rules on their computer, and I've sent them the BSG game skill card descriptions, etc. from the earlier game, so they have the rules text they need, and can access them while playing. Screenreader software does the rest of the work.

If the stuff you have is fairly plain texty, it's probably screenreader friendly. Do you think it would be, and would you be willing me to send me the files so I can send them to my friends?

If the spreadsheet is easy to use, they might be able to track the whole game that way, which would be awesome. Thanks.

PS: Also, do you have similar materials for Pegasus?


omnis_audis - Jul 02, 2010 2:23:19 am PDT #6301 of 26134
omnis, pursue. That's an order from a shy woman who can use M-16. - Shir

bsg

It's an OpenOffice workbook. It has many tabs, buttons, and a ton of macros. I'm not sure how friendly it would be for a blind person to navigate. Visually impaired, maybe (aka "leagally blind"). But for a text to voice type of application, I think it would be challenging.

I'm not sure it's source. I'll let bt fill in those details.


billytea - Jul 02, 2010 2:53:57 am PDT #6302 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

Why I ask: two of the people I play this game with IRL are blind. We've brailled the skill cards (L1EO for Leadership 1 Executive Order) and the loyalty cards, but obviously the crisis and quorum cards have way too much text to recreate in braille.

This? Is awesome.

Like omnis says, it's an Open Office spreadsheet, and the format is probably not going to work so well. (It was created to support play-by-forum games at boardgamegeek. There is a Pegasus version floating around too, though I don't have that one yet.) Nonetheless, I can send it to you if you like, and you can see if it's any help.


Kalshane - Jul 02, 2010 3:00:48 am PDT #6303 of 26134
GS: If you had to choose between kicking evil in the head or the behind, which would you choose, and why? Minsc: I'm not sure I understand the question. I have two feet, do I not? You do not take a small plate when the feast of evil welcomes seconds.

BSG

I'm good with losing the one Food. We're way too short on cards to be dumping them right now.

Ugh. Another basestar (I almost typed "bastard", which also works) activation. This could hurt.


billytea - Jul 02, 2010 3:17:22 am PDT #6304 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

Ugh. Another basestar (I almost typed "bastard", which also works) activation. This could hurt.

The good news is, the Chief's up next. His special ability lets him repair a location (if they hit anything more urgent than the Admiral's Quarters) and still take another action (say, give out an XO or activate the location he repairs). The biggest risk I see is if they hit the Hangar Deck and send Chief to Sickbay.

I think this was a pretty fortunate activation for us right now. It means the heavy raiders are still two activations away from boarding, and we're at least two raider activations away from risking any civvies. It guarantess our star pilot will get a turn before anything happens on that front. (Of course, if both basestars hit, I might change my mind.)

And we pulled another jump icon, so only two away from auto-jumping and leaving theam eating our tylium.

You know what? I just realised, that basestar hit us on Helo's turn. We forgot Helo's reroll ability. (No biggie, just something to remember next time.)