Nine circles of gaming hell

[matgb]

What happens when a group of gamers who prefer European/German board games get told they have to play Advanced Squad Leader?

"These rules," he wailed, "all these rules! Look at them--rules for smoke screens, rules for vehicles, rules for tanks who don't have turrets... rules... too many rules. Too much conflict--I don't want to shoot anyone, I just want to move wooden cubes and trains across the board--where is the auction system? Why can't we bid on who gets shot?"

GeekList: Gaming in the Nine Circles of Hell... | BoardGameGeek

I know how they feel. I've met players of all the types listed, and more. I can see older versions of myself and friends in some of them. Via Mr Pink himself.

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I is sat in bed watching Jennie's birthday present from pmoodie, having eaten a midnight snack of haloumi, oat bread and carrots. Life is goooood...

Comments

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

What about the fundamental fact that both Settlers and ASL are *bad games* that are both stupid and *really fucking boring*?

Grr. Stupid article.

[matgb]

ASL I'll give you, and I'll agree that Settlers is nowhere near as good as I once thought, but as the first of the "Eurogames" to break through into the anglo market, it's got a little place in gaming history to itself.

If I'd never played Settlers, I'd have never picked up decent games like Carcassonne, Domaine or Amun Re.

But, y'know, fun.

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

Where do people who Don't Do Board Games At All fit in? I don't see the point myself, at all.

[fearmeforiampink]

They don't. This is a list for gamer geeks that do boardgames, not geeks in general nor gamers in general. Note that it is on a site specifically for boardgamer geeks.

A similar version could probably be done for RPGers, and so forth.

[matgb]

I disagree with Pink, you'd be in the outside circle playing Stratego, possibly the dullest game ever...

I like board games because if they're good (and until recently most British made games weren't) they're social and challenging, especially German games, designed for non-geek adult. It's definitely a case of YMMV, but there are some games that are worth playing just because.

[pmoodie.livejournal.com]

I is sat in bed watching Jennie's birthday present from pmoodie, having eaten a midnight snack of haloumi, oat bread and carrots. Life is goooood...

Splendid! I am glad that I contribute to the goodness of life! :)

We're slowly making our way through that set too. Last night we watched Journey to Babel while having our dinner. Those crazy Vulcans!

[matgb]

You did, and many thanks, we're watching a couple episodes a night, not sure which ones we got to last night, the one with Sarek and Amanda and all the ambassadors.

[pmoodie.livejournal.com]

That's the same one we watched last night!

I like that one, lots of intrigue, silly aliens, and people having a go at Spock and his crazy Vulcan logic.

I must say, sexual politics on Vulcan don't seem very logical to me. "Attend me, wife." El was giving him a different kind of hand salute...

[matgb]

Heh, so we're at the same point. Weird. TBH, I think I dosed off during it, I can only vaguely remember the plot, but yes, it was daft, and I do wonder what was going through ol' Gene's head when he came up with that sort of 'logic'.

Ah well, it was better than I, Mudd.

[pmoodie.livejournal.com]

Yes, Vulcan logic often doesn't stand up to close scrutiny.

Seems to me for a people to try and suppress emotions that obviously evolved to serve very important purposes (self preservation, the desire to mate etc) is in itself, illogical! Vulcans are just silly!

[mdmnmdllr.livejournal.com]

FYI, "the one with Sarek and Amanda and all the ambassadors" is Journey to Babel, as pmoodie pointed out.

And I, Mudd is actually a far deeper episode than a lot of folks realize, but we won't digress terribly. Truly, I'm surprised you - as a Brit with full penchant for witty comedy - didn't really care for it. But, as you said, YMMV.

Yes, I am a Star Trek geek - Trekkie, Trekker, all of that. I've probably forgotten far more than most people ever knew in the first place.

For instance, there was a time when I could tell you name and plot of any episode before the first thirty seconds of the opening teaser had finished. Worse, I got to know the second movie - The Wrath of Khan - so well, I could tell you what was happening at that moment simply by listening to the soundtrack score. It was much the same with The Motion Picture, as well.

You should see my model collection. (Speaking of ... many of those are to do with Star Fleet Battles, Trek's version of ASL. Check it out sometime if you don't believe me.)

Yeah, I had it bad.

Favorite ep ... probably Balance of Terror, followed closely by The Trouble With Tribbles ...

[matgb]

We're watching it as a late night entertainment before we sleep, so I'm not fully following the plots.

I've only ever watched them on broadcast before, and I'm not doing great with episode names. I did know Wrath fairly well, I liked the films and think I had that recorded, definitely had the novelisation, fun. Tried SFB, sort of liked it but preferred Full Thrust for space stuff, no real reason just personal taste I think (there are ship stats for Trek online, FT is a fairly open system, although the designer is a git).

Don't recall Balance, will look it up, Jennie will want all the episodes soon anyway so it's not like I won't get the chance.

[mdmnmdllr.livejournal.com]

Late night's entertainment, eh? That's interesting, cuz thanks to TVLand I'm watching 'em as early morning wake-up entertainment.

Today's episode was Elaan of Troyius, with Francie Nguyen in that yummy costume. I can only imagine what that episode would be like today ...

Oh wait. TNG ... Famke Jannsen ... Kamala the metamorph ... right.

Alt.sexy.bald.captains, anyone? 8-D

Anyways, Babylon Five it isn't ... but Original Series Trek almost uniformly is about far more than entertainment. Each episode provides some form of societal commentary, some of it quite penetrating. Well worth paying attention to.

Did you try SFB? Cool! I played avidly at least and somewhat seriously for a number of years, even entering a couple tourneys - nothing major, just some local but still pretty competitive. Primarily, though, I was in it for the miniatures.

I've played FT as well. It's a completely different game, wonderful for short, sharp and extremely bloody large-scale engagements that would take hours if not days with SFB. They truly and honestly are two different games for two different purposes.

A system I liked that cut a nice compromise of SFB-like detail and FT-like economy was Babylon 5 Wars. Actually, that system still exists on a fan-based level. Ignore the dreck from Mongoose, B5W is still the true Bab5 starship combat, and is a damned good system. It's also got tons of fan-developed cross-over material, too.

Balance is where we first meet the Romulans ... and Mark Lenard, in fact (it wasn't Journey).

[matgb]

Heh, the Earthforce Sourcebook had in it "a quick system for resolving situations if the PCs get involved in a starship battle". Which was basically a modified version of Full Thrust without a licence to be a B5 starship system.

Was rather nice. I think due to my massive collection of spaceships I prefer FT because I can use the lot, and I played it before SFB.

Elaan of Troyius is third season, we've not got that box yet. And it looks like I may have to track down a few eps of TNG at some point, Jennie's not so much of a fan...

[mdmnmdllr.livejournal.com]

"Earthforce Sourcebook"? A) That's truly ancient (i.e. before anything we've been talking about) and yes, B) it was based off of Full Thrust. They even made note of it in the Sourcebook.

Use the right tool for the right job, really. You're a fleets guy, right? Masses of metal on the table, and all that. Therefore, FT is far superior. (It's also WAAAAY more adaptable, but we won't go there for the moment.) Wanna due 1 v 1 properly? SFB is much better.

Still, it had its moments where we had a bunch of people around the table and a fair bit of metal. "Orion Democracy" was a scenario I used to run where everyone had a light cruiser and the object was to get to a station to vote yea or nay on an issue. The idea is to finish the scenario with the most votes for your side, and each player knows how one and only one other player is gonna vote. Add to that a battlecruiser which wades in later on who doesn't want anyone to vote, and it gets pretty fun.

Elaan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elaan_of_Troyius) is pretty good. Don't worry terribly about TNG ... not as good story-wise though it too has its moments.

[pmoodie.livejournal.com]

The Trouble with Tribbles is a work of genius! :)

The final scene with Kirk having Tribbles flung at his head is possibly Trek's finest moment! :D

[mdmnmdllr.livejournal.com]

Well, not quite the final scene. That's when everyone's hemming and hawing about telling Kirk where the tribbles were sent to (i.e. the Klingon's engine room, "where there'll be no tribble a'tall").

The one you're talking about is when they dump a storage bin's worth of tribbles on his head as they're investigating whether the security on Station K7 had been breached. And yeah, that's a pretty good moment, too! 8-D

Favorite line - McCoy is reporting on the Bridge reporting to Kirk regarding the tribbles' biology ...

McCoy: "They reproduce at will." (looks around Bridge, which is covered in tribbles) "And brother, have they got a lot of will ... !"

[matgb]

I really liked the DS9 episode where they went back in time and pasted everyone in, really well done.

I also was with a friend when he ended up losing his ship in Elite on the C64, unfortunately they weren't on the Speccy...

[mdmnmdllr.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the DS9 Tribble ep was a real treat, and ditto on the job they did adding the DS9 characters to it.