The Tao of Gaming

At gaming last night we broke out Funny Friends (full session report). I'm pleased to report that my earlier problems were just that my problems. Ok, that's not entirely true ...

The game is fine, although the rules translation seems vague at times. My interpretations lined up nicely with Matthew Gray's when he answered several questions. Sadly, the designer then posted different answers. Ah well. FFFF is an experience game, but one that has lots of planning, at least on the surface. You like to plan ahead, but other players can mess with you. Now realistically, that's not a problem. If others couldn't affect you at all, you'd have multiplayer solitaire. If they could just affect you via outbidding, you'd have a ton of games. But here you have a travelling salesman problem where other players can make you catch a flight to another state. Granted, here states are depression, hospitalization, and euphoria instead of Idaho. But the idea holds. It mildly tweaks my mental map. But now that I expect it, it's more a nagging voice saying "Why are you planning?" than outrage. Given that the rules have a 'variant for control freaks,' I suspect I'm not alone. Another mild complaint is that there are too few "Mega Goals" that anyone can compete for. After all, Variety is the spice of life. And experience games.

Anyway, it's a "fun in the right group" game, but not something particularly to my tastes.

The Fury of Dracula showed up this week. I've never played the original, so the release didn't excite me, but I did glance at the rules. The basic mechanism reminds me of Scotland Yard, and then I read the combat section.

Oooh, it's a decision matrix. Chock full of game theory. But it gets better. The matrix is actually done with cards, and each player has a base number of cards. The hunters have 3, and Dracula has 3 during the day, but 8 at night. But the hunters (and possibly Drac, I'm not sure) may have some cards beyond what the started with, which means that your opponent may or may not be able to make some choices.

I think this is an innovation; it's certainly new to me. You also have a one-turn delay. Once you pick a tactic, you can't use it during the next round. Combat keeps going until one side escapes, dies or a certain number of stalemates occur in a row.

Unfortunately, Fury of Dracula adds dice as well. Each entry in the matrix has two outcomes depending on who wins the die roll, but ties are not re-rolled (the cards have an initiative number to break ties). There's also multiple combat if several hunters corner Drac ... they each play a card and Dracula picks his opponent. If Dracula wins, you resolve his card against his opponent. If the hunters win, they pick which card to use.

So you have a reasonable "find the villian" game, and then a decision matrix with hidden information.

Interesting, in theory. No idea if it works in practice ... but I hope to find out.

And yes, I realize the title plays on the Exorcist. I couldn't think of a good vampy quote.

Alfred worries he's too late for Caylus:

By the time I get another chance to play Caylus, it'll probably be with people who have become Caylus adepts, who look at me trying to play the game in my clumsy, ham-handed way with the same kind of indulgent, patronizing gaze people give small children playing with toy power tools.

First of all, anyone dissing Bob the Builder will answer to legions of disgruntled three year olds. Trust me. That being said, this reflects more poorly on the adepts than anyone else. I'm hardly without sin here, as I recently got angry at an online game. [I would have done better face-to-face, part of the problem is the limited communication bandwidth of typed text.] The stories of rude Puerto Rico players are legion, and almost all online. It's not the game, it's the medium.

Now, some people don't enjoy games where they have little to no chance to win. Many people don't enjoy games they have no chance to lose. So it's fair for the adepts to (politely) refuse to play, or to mentally adjust. Personally, I like playing with adepts. I've played Grandmasters at Chess, World Champions in Bridge, and Peter Sarrett in damn near everything else. I had an enjoyable game last night against Alex Rockwell (the Jedi of 2 player Caylus), and kibbitzed another. Alex is an enjoyable opponent, and providesr interesting insights and analysis. He's not out to crush his opponent (although thats the typical outcome). It's the opponent, not the game.

Let's turn to the Hideous Hog, bridge expert. I don't remember the exact quote, but it's something like "And we must think of our duties to the expert! For crushing the weak is not enough of a reward." [He was talking, of course, about raising the stakes]. An adept should have a reason for playing with novices ... raising the game's profile (proseltyzing), teaching, being a gracious host, they want to try a wonky line against unsuspecting people, whatever. If you don't have a good reason, don't play. The strong players are a game's public face, so if they play with random players (or novice players), snide remarks should be kept in reserve. I sometimes fail, but it's my failure.

I've spent two months playing Caylus against whoever showed up. I still do that, but I'm also seeking opponents out, and doing some screening.

So I encourage Alfred (and everyone) to play the game, but make sure everyone knows what the status is. Perhaps the adept will take a handicap.

Jacqui picked up some games at 75% off at Barnes and Noble. And I got Jambo on sale. Well, the local store has upped their Sale table to 50% off. I got Snorta, which should delight the Kinder.

Then there were the two big boxes. Nautilus and Goldbrau. So, are those worth it? I passed, since I can't recall ever reading a review that gives me enough information. (There are reviews on the geek, of course, but I don't recognize the reviewers).

So, open thread -- are they good? Worth it at 50% off? Goldbrau, if I recall, got good buzz then dropped off the face of the earth.

The store also had plenty of RPG stuff at 50% off, as well as Confrontation minis (which are really pretty, but I can't paint well enough to do them justice). Still, I'm tempted to get a few...

As noted in an early comment, my old website is gone. (I got the webspace as part of a deal with a UNIX shell and dialup ... and I have DSL now). I've migrated my old reviews to Boardgamegeek. I move content over after a reasonable lag.

Just like movies go to cable first. Only premium content here!