What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

Truly wild that your reaction to destinies is *identical* to charlest.

Just had a read and I think I liked it more than he did. That may be partially due to sharing the experience with my partner and the banter that ensued. I think it achieves what it set out to do. As an evolution of the 'choose your own adventure' and 'app assisted' genre it works. It's a ride and you're going along for it. It's certainly not a taut and balanced competitive affair. I definitely enjoyed it a lot more than 'Forgotten Waters'. The 'fail forward' mechanics employed save it from the arbitrary dead ends of that effort. I'll try and finish my piece on it for the site to elaborate further.

You're killing me Andi. Taking shots at Nemesis, Tainted Grail, and now Forgotten Waters.

I don't think you need to play Destinies extremely competitively, but it's decidedly not cooperative so the ONLY tension in the game is who wins first. You can't die or be irreparably harmed.

If a player or two is meandering around and everyone is failing forward, the gothic Ravenloft-esque world is simply limp.

But I'm eager to read your full thoughts.

Haha the tragedy is that I desperately wanted to love all three of them! Especially given how much I paid for Nemesis and TG. They've all since successfully been re-homed though.
You're right about the absence of tension. We treated it more as an interactive story experience which I think helped a lot. It gave me the narrative feel of a co-op with the autonomy of a competitive game, and yet it isn't really either. I think we can agree the story was no great shakes but did I mention I've been chugging cough syrup?

About 25 years ago I bought a set of Chinese Mah Jong cards in London. I had never actually used them because handling the heavy stones has always been an integral part of the game's appeal. Just like the European cardboard Mah Jong from the 1940s I have, they were more of a novelty item.
I am happy to report they work great on 4-player trips where small luggage is required. While I missed the meditative and clattering part of mixing the stones, setting up and breaking the wall, I loved the gain in speed and viciousness.

I've always wanted to learn Mah Jong

I played Arkham LCG three times today. It absolutely has me.

God damn… SC:AM hurts so good.

For the uninitiated: Space Cadets: Away Missions

Andi Lennon wrote: I've always wanted to learn Mah Jong

I'd be happy to teach you the version we play (it's kind of a homebrew. There is supposedly a Chinese joke stating that Taiwan will never be part of the empire again because their Mah Jong rules are too different.)

The basic rules are actually very easy, there's a ton of optional special hands, but we decided to not allow more than two or three to reduce the overhang.

The part that's a little more complicated for most people is the points and how to see what something will be worth, but no one on this site should have problems with that.

You'd need the presence of 3 other persons to play. The actual game is a deep and unnerving psycho war mostly against the person sitting across from you that's just represented on the table.

"The actual game is a deep and unnerving psycho war mostly against the person sitting across from you that's just represented on the table."
That actually sounds pretty fantastic. I'll see if I can round up some interested parties.

I really do not think gaslands gets enough credit for how insanely perfectly designed it is. I get that it's the game you play with hot wheels, but it's so much more than that glib low rent description. It's tuned so perfectly.

Is that a dirt playmat?

My wife got real into gaslands and made a post-apoc red dirt playmat a while ago. Duck cloth, caulking mixed with brown paint. Then sawdust with brown paint and spread over the top as flocking. Then sprayed with glue and water.

The truck (Crash Master) and the big car (Rust Bucket) are hers.

Gaslands is my main game. I play it every other week, sometimes more. Most of our games are pretty close and end with someone crossing the finish line as a flaming wreck, which is the best way to win.

Gary Sax wrote:

I really do not think gaslands gets enough credit for how insanely perfectly designed it is. I get that it's the game you play with hot wheels, but it's so much more than that glib low rent description. It's tuned so perfectly.

I agree, the design is great, no question. For me, the low rent hot wheels (they'll always be matchbox to me...) is a HUGE feature though.

Last time we played was a couple of weeks ago: