Here's how a band of unlikely heroes defeated Vecna and save the Forgotten Realm
For posting all the anonymous reactionary bullshit that you can't post anywhere else.
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Most subtle NYT war crime apologia
"I played the war game from the perspective of an evil-doer evilly doing evil for evil reasons, like Putin."
I think the "rules-based international community" made it very very clear they don't give a fuck about civilian casualties.
I guess the NYTs writers have to keep up the pretense.
At this point they actively seem to revel in civilian casualties and use them to numb further reporting about a conflict, if how they kicked off the Iran war is anything to go by
Biden blew that up by sending bombs to Isreal during an active genocide. What happened to R2P? Trump dynamited the foundations. Now it's just naked power.
Well, when the author did it, it was fine because it was a game and not real humans and doesn't reflect their real life values. But when Putin plays, his strategy must exactly reflect his real life strategy.
One thing I was shocked to find from participating on boardgamegeek back in the day is just how many people really do take games seriously and don't understand it's just a game. "My mom always liked my sister better so I always attacked her in any game." "I was in college before I knew a game could end without someone flipping the board and throwing punches." I didn't even know what flipping the board meant or that people commonly did it when they figured out they were going to lose.
I've gotten mad during a board game cause I was the one being constantly attacked by someone even to their own detriment. When someone would rather I lose than them win, I will be mad at them. I've for sure made people mad, my favorite games are Cosmic Encounter and Diplomacy and board games are my Safe Space for being a deceptive little shrew. Lying is totally allowed in both games and is basically a necessity in Diplomacy. If during a Cosmic Encounter negotiation if I say ill trade my strongest attack card for your weakest, it probably means I dont have any attack cards and tricking you into agreeing to giving a card away and allowing me some defense until I can draw again.
Super long games where someone gets a runaway lead and you're just playing out the inevitable for hours gets frustrating as hell if your group doesnt do mercy rules. Sometimes you could have another game in the time it takes to reach a slow but inevitable defeat and unless theres a way to play for 2nd place or whatever it stops being fun
The entire game of Diplomacy is "play for a few hours until you backstab someone." Then that person quits and ruins the game. We used to play full 8 hour games of it in college but that was with people who understand it's just a game. We all did back then. We played all sorts of awful,evil games like Survive!, Illuminati and Talisman which are nothing but conflict. Today's gamers hate them.
I also love those 3 games. Talisman slaps hard. I hate Catan and it's ilk, I am old
Accept ONLY the 2nd edition. no expansions! It gets wildly unbalanced and too long. My brother found one and we play it every time we're all together. PvP is an integral part of the game. Some of the characters only exist to attack the others. We used to play 5-7 players and it's awesome.
I played 3rd. When I was board gaming the most was like 2010ish when I was living with a gen x hippie with a house and open door for pals to come by. It was the board gaming place after the nerd shops shut down. He had a shitload of em and there was always at least one gsme happening. I liked 3 with the expansions he had, they just added areas on to the board and a few other win conditions, I think, neber played without em, I think it was the dungeon and highland expansions. Pvp mostly became a factor toward the end. I remember it being super fun as a 2 player game cause it went back and forth super fast and you both got to sorta level up for a final battle with each other, cause we decided regardless of what win condition we got, we had to beat the other player as well. It was also fun as hell with a big group but in a different way, good party vibes.
My favorite of all time is cosmic encounter. Is there a good online version yet? During the birth of hexbear an online diplomacy game was attempted but half the players ghosted. Id love to get some Hexbear diplomacy going. It works better online where you can DM or make public posts, you dont totally know each other and therefore cant do the personal level of manipulation that can make in person diplomacy with friends potentially rough, I have totally used real life stuff when playing to set people against each other, a roommate alliance must always be nipped in the bud and bringing up the dishes always gets the job done. Can't do that online so it's easier to stay friendly and it changes the dynamic. Plus a week between turns or so and playing over the course of most of a year just fits the game well. It feels like you're representing a nation with other diplomats you dont really know personally. I know there's online talisman but it sucks
"flipping the board" doesn't mean ragequitting, it's usually used by the geekiest player to explain how wormholes or parallel dimensions work by showing how a piece may theoretically pass through to the underside of the board.
It works better with board games that have alternate maps on the flip sides.