What GAME ARTICLES/REVIEWS are you WRITING?

Gary Sax wrote: well paid

I just spit my coffee

Exactly. GMT just has volunteer developers (thus of massively differing quality with little accountability) as far as I can tell.

I wrote ana rticle about how too many alliances break Cosmic Encounter and why new players should be careful about them. I don't think most of you guys have this problem, but it's the reason why so many have had an awful experience so it seems worthwhile to share:

Cosmic Encounter: Please don't ally everyone, every time

I also wrote a (negative) review of Blood Rage. I like the game and always think it's going to be great but every single time I play it, there's a runaway leader or some small combo that takes over the game and destroys it.

Blood Rage ★

In Feb on The Giant Brain you'll be seeing a review of Megacity: Oceania, Tinderblox/Kittin, Beyond the Veil gets into the Circle Undone (that won't be up on this site for a while) and an article on shelves of shame and the language around them.

5e warlock guideMaking a Warlock

As you make your warlock character, invest some energy pondering your benefactor and the commitments that your agreement forces upon you. What drove you to make the agreement, and how could you reach your benefactor? Is it accurate to say that you were allured into gathering a fallen angel, or did you search out the custom that would permit you to reach an outsider senior god? Did you look for your supporter, or did your benefactor discover and pick you? Do you scrape under the commitments of your settlement or serve happily fully expecting the prizes vowed to you?

Work with your DM to decide how huge a section your agreement will play in your character's adventuring profession. Your benefactor's requests may drive you into experiences, or they may comprise totally of little favors you can do between undertakings.

What sort of relationship do you have with your benefactor? Is it agreeable, hostile, uncomfortable, or sentimental? How significant does your benefactor believe you to be? What part do you play in your supporter's arrangements? Do you know different workers of your benefactor?

How does your supporter speak with you? In the event that you have a well-known, it may once in a while talk with your supporter's voice. A few warlocks discover messages from their supporters carved on trees, blended among tea leaves, or afloat in the mists — messages that lone the warlock can see. Different warlocks chat with their benefactors in dreams or waking dreams, or manage go-betweens.

I played a lot of Civ VI this weekend, so I set out to write about it in a sort of "I just want to write something" way. But I think I actually ended up writing about culture shock and dealing with change. I guess I was processing something, who knows?

You can read it here.

I discuss Oceans, a game I found vastly better than its predecessor: playerelimination.com/2020/02/20/evoluti...es-an-oceans-review/

Folks here may want to know: I have my own site now! It's a colab space between me and a friend. No gimmicks, just words. Our writing styles are absolutely nothing alike, which is fun.

Just put up a writeup for the Epic app implementation. It sucked. Currently working on Never Bring a Knife (really cool hidden teams game) and Little Town (frighteningly strategic small box euro).

pixeldie.com/

Awesome, thanks for popping it in here. Feel free to bump the thread when there's something notable.

I realized I hadn't written about Cosmic Encounter yet on my new blog, so I did so last night. I actually wrote it from the perspective of telling people why it might not work for them. I don't know if that's a line of thought worth pursuing, but pursue I did.

Read it if you like.

Have written something on the problem of accessibility in Root, but not sure it's saying anything interesting. Still mulling it over.

san il defanso wrote: I realized I hadn't written about Cosmic Encounter yet on my new blog, so I did so last night. I actually wrote it from the perspective of telling people why it might not work for them. I don't know if that's a line of thought worth pursuing, but pursue I did.

Read it if you like.

The fragility concept is the crux for me. I gave up on CE after years of mediocre sessions. But I love RPGs, which are even more fragile than CE. I suspect that for me, RPGs are fragile in a different way. People can not show up, or not be feeling creative. But in CE it seems that the players have to be able to grasp a central concept that is suggested by the rules but never made explicit.

It seems faintly reminiscent of an RPG concept used by Vincent Baker (Dogs in the Vineyard, Apocalypse World): the “fruitful void”.
lumpley.com/index.php/anyway/thread/119

For me anyway, there’s a disconnect. I can see the fruitful void in RPGs, and I have a lot of tools in my box to manipulate it for increased fun and engagement. But in CE it eludes me. Dunno why. I suspect because that with board games, my brain sees rules as the point, but with RPGs, my brain sees rules as fellow travelers to the point.

Rallyman GT thoughts: playerelimination.com/2020/03/20/pulling...-rallyman-gt-review/

Excited to see any end of the year content on the site, but also want to encourage everyone who writes off the site to keep posting in this thread. It gives me great joy to read and helps me keep up with people I otherwise have trouble keeping up with since freelancing and hustling is a mfer in terms of shifting outlets, etc.

Ok, let me see what I have:

I reviewed March of the Ants after talking so much about it on here. I think it's the best boardgame I've played in the 4X genre, beating both Eclipse and Twilight Imperium. Sounds something you guys might like.

I also wrote a controversial article arguing against needless memorization in games . I did not intend it to be controversial but apparently, it is. Weirdly enough, the two most common arguments against my point of view are opposite to each other. People argue either you are not supposed to memorize and I'm wrong for doing it, or that it's a vital part of the experience and I'm wrong for not wanting to do it.

I'm toying with this week's article and it might be either a review of a videogame or some general thoughts on game balance.