It Came From the Tabletop! - Western Legends and Thunder Road

Just started really listening to this (and working my way through the previous podcasts.)

It's just enjoyable listening to you guys talk.

My phone is informing me that the listeners of It Came From The Tabletop also listen to the Mindful Living Spiritual Awakening podcast. Thunder Road and Meditation, eh?

Listen, I'm just trying to get by day to day Sag.

engineer Al wrote:

Space Ghost wrote: Just another thing I have to add to "list of shit to keep up with".

Thanks for listening, Space! Glad we could make your list of "shit". . .

More of a compliment than anything -- my list is long and most of it is work related, so nice distraction

I'm interested in the games you mentioned when playing with your kids. I'm always looking for good games to play with my kids at school. Battleball has been a favorite for a while, but I've never heard of the rest that you mention. They seem to not exist on BGG, except for Curse of the Cobras which is owned by a total of 18 people. Where did you get these games? Are they ALL remnants of your childhood?

How old are the kids at school? These are almost all remnants of my childhood in the 80s. Curse of the Cobras is like that game where you press the crocodile teeth and hope not to get bitten -- this is just much more charming and I would say exciting. Also, it has the Indiana Jones theme.

Bumper Cards should have been Bumper Cars -- my son likes it quite a bit, but right now, he is in to Daytona 500 with altered rules where everything is die rolls. We're using some exploding sixes and drafting. Finally broke down and took him to his first NASCAR race -- it was pretty cool. Made me appreciate Thunder Alley more.

We are probably going to play Key to the Kingdom soon and maybe Dark World -- I have all the expansions, so that should be an event.

Josh Look wrote:

Gary Sax wrote: I adore it when Al is very agreeable but then quietly turns the corner... "actually, you're wrong, some of the characters do determine your strategy..."

Except that I was still right, just not about the first stages of the game.

Space Ghost, I think you’re right about a lot of what you listed. I was just thinking about how easy going to jail is and what I would have done if designing the game. I kind of came up empty handed. When we showed our Kaiju game to Matt a few months ago, something he said that lead to a lot of course correction is that dicking someone over or denying them can definitely be fun, but there’s a thin line between fun and bullshit. There’s definitely the sweet spot between those two things (and Intrigue is the living proof of it), but I do feel like arrest in Western Legends is done the best way it can be done. There’s definitely some tropes that can’t be mined there, but what would the outlaw player be doing on those turns where they’re brought to town? Dueling to get away? The marshal player would need a pretty killer hand to ensure they can hold them. Even then, the process would slow down advancement of not only the outlaw player, but the marshal. I think it would lead to less interaction if it were to take more time than it does, and that would _really_ hurt the game.

Played Western Legends a bit more and thought about this more. I think that it could be something that happens in the normal course of events. First, the Marshall gets 1 point for the arrest. Then, at the beginning of the next turn (after the arrest), the outlaw can attempt to escape (which I am sure could be resolved with the ubiquitous poker card system): (a) if he fails, then he goes to jail and the Marshal gets an additional LP, (b) if he succeeds, he gets 1 LP and can put his figure within a move of anywhere between where he was arrested and the jail. No added time to the arrest action, and adds a bit of push your luck to the escape attempt. If he doesn't make the attempt, he just goes to jail as the rules are written.

Space Ghost wrote: How old are the kids at school?

I work with kids ages 6 through about 14. I've been using board games for years as a way to develop relationships with kids as well as to help them develop social skills. I'm always looking for fun, interesting games that can be played within about 30 minutes. Especially cooperative games.

Cool -- here are some that might be neat

Eagle Eye Detective Agency -- I think it is great, especially for the older range of the age group you listed.

Caves and Claws -- it is an exploration game that is co-op. There's a "smelly sock" that you can encounter, kids usually love that.

Deap Sea Diver -- my brother and I played this to death when we were kids. Teaches teamwork so you can complete a dive and get some treasure.

Sky Travelers -- you are extra-terrestrials who have crashed on Earth and have to find parts to fix your ship.

Earth Game -- another game we played a lot with my cousins. Goal of this one was not to let World War break out. You still have to make trade agreements, deploy "Peace" armies to quell trouble areas.

These are all cooperative -- I had more when I was a kid, but these are the ones that survive (or at least that I have).

Guys, I love your banter. Your conversations are great.

PEAK LIMITER. You need this. When Al jumped up with a loud "Bang!" out of nowhere you damn near gave me a heart attack.

If you need help running the audio through something to reduce the peaks and valleys, I'm happy to help you. It's a simple process to flatten out the audio which will make it much more listenable.

stormseeker75 wrote: Guys, I love your banter. Your conversations are great.

PEAK LIMITER. You need this. When Al jumped up with a loud "Bang!" out of nowhere you damn near gave me a heart attack.

If you need help running the audio through something to reduce the peaks and valleys, I'm happy to help you. It's a simple process to flatten out the audio which will make it much more listenable.

Hey -- it's about the content, man. These guys aren't some sellouts to the corporate sound, they send it raw and real. The day they start limiting their peaks is the day they become part of the corporate machine.

I have cassette tape copies if anybody needs one.

stormseeker75 wrote: Guys, I love your banter. Your conversations are great.

PEAK LIMITER. You need this. When Al jumped up with a loud "Bang!" out of nowhere you damn near gave me a heart attack.

If you need help running the audio through something to reduce the peaks and valleys, I'm happy to help you. It's a simple process to flatten out the audio which will make it much more listenable.

I’ll get at you for the next one.

Space Ghost wrote: Cool -- here are some that might be neat.

Awesome! Thanks so much, I will be checking these out!

I've been curious about Thunder Road for a while now, and your podcast pushed me over the edge. I made up a quick and dirty copy to try it out with some friends. If successful, I'll make a full sized board with wargame-like terrain.

I printed off a basic board from BGG, found some wasteland cars, wrecks, and helicopter on Thingiverse and printed those off on my 3D printer. I whipped up some rotor blades (I fucked up the size ::shrug:: ), helicopter stands, and a Road die. Kind of on the small side (GW fig for scale) but it should work just fine for tryouts.

Side question: The Road die is 1-1-2-2-3-4 right?

Sounds about right to me.

Side note, I do think this is being reprinted. I don’t want to spread rumors, but I think it’s coming.

Also, sorry for the delay in episodes, folks. It’s been a crappy month for me, had a death in the family followed by a cold. You’ll have a new episode soon!

disgustipater wrote: Side question: The Road die is 1-1-2-2-3-4 right?

Just checked the die. You have it right!

Beautiful job!

For some reason I thought Western Legends wasn't coming to "discount retail stores" but it just turned up on miniature market. Am I thinking of the wrong game?