What's on your table right now?

[ArizonaTank]

Preparing for a game of Churchill at the local gaming group on Saturday...  Too bad it only supports three players.  Quite a bit of interest.

[Barthheart]

Preparing for a game of Churchill at the local gaming group on Saturday...  Too bad it only supports three players.  Quite a bit of interest.

Take pics! If there's enough people you could form "governments" and play that way for each power.

[Jack Nastyface]

Finished pasting-up the board and counters from Minden's Poor Bloody Infantry and started my first game last night.  PBI is really an "experience" game about crossing no-man's land in WWI in the same way the B-17 Queen of the Skies is an experience game about bomber flying.
Of note:  also last night I was playing a game of ARMA 3 King of the Hill on the 'puter.  It was interesting to note that after I finished playing ARMA 3, I was mostly kind of anxious.  I attribute this to the frustrations inherent in multi-player on-line game play (griefers and trolls, poor teamwork, sniper camping, etc).  After playing 1/2 an hour of BPI, however, I was quite calm and relaxed.  It has been a while since I played a solo board wargame, and I realize now how much that experience has been missed.

Yours in gaming,

Jack Nastyface

[Nefaro]

Of note:  also last night I was playing a game of ARMA 3 King of the Hill on the 'puter.  It was interesting to note that after I finished playing ARMA 3, I was mostly kind of anxious.  I attribute this to the frustrations inherent in multi-player on-line game play (griefers and trolls, poor teamwork, sniper camping, etc).  After playing 1/2 an hour of BPI, however, I was quite calm and relaxed.  It has been a while since I played a solo board wargame, and I realize now how much that experience has been missed.

Solo tabletop games are like calm meditation to me also.   O0

[bayonetbrant]

There are observed and statistically significant interactions around frustration in video gamers and the states of mind that they can inculcate. In this case, "frustration" is defined as a "prevention of goal attainment."
That frustration need not come from the difficulty of the game itself, but can also come from the multiplayer context when the other players are preventing you from attaining your goal, either in game or around the enjoyment of the game.

[LongBlade]

Finished pasting-up the board and counters from Minden's Poor Bloody Infantry and started my first game last night.  PBI is really an "experience" game about crossing no-man's land in WWI in the same way the B-17 Queen of the Skies is an experience game about bomber flying.
Of note:  also last night I was playing a game of ARMA 3 King of the Hill on the 'puter.  It was interesting to note that after I finished playing ARMA 3, I was mostly kind of anxious.  I attribute this to the frustrations inherent in multi-player on-line game play (griefers and trolls, poor teamwork, sniper camping, etc).  After playing 1/2 an hour of BPI, however, I was quite calm and relaxed.  It has been a while since I played a solo board wargame, and I realize now how much that experience has been missed.

Yours in gaming,

Jack Nastyface

Sorry to hear about your troubles.

A few years back we hosted our own game server for exactly that reason - the ability to control the environment and boot griefers was enormously helpful in creating a fun environment. When the Call of Duty franchise ceased supporting that model, I pretty much gave up on the game.

It's one thing if Jarhead is constantly smacking you around because he's really good. We can come back to the boards and laugh about it. It's quite different when someone (or several someones) show up and start deliberately causing problems and aggravation. The ability to curtail their antics is healthy. The inability to do so can often ruin the experience.

[Jack Nastyface]

Hey LB,
I'm doing great, really..."mostly kind of anxious" was perhaps too clinically severe.  Perhaps what I should have said was: "I was really pissed about the fact that there are many players on both friendly and opposing sides that either refuse to work as team, learn from mistakes, play well with others, are humble in victory and generous in defeat, or resort to ban-able behaviour.  That, and the fact that I can't hit sh*t with whatever weapon I choose while other guys can rack-up 50+ kills in one game, left me with negative feelings".
In any case...I think I was reflecting on the fact that FPS gameplay leaves my brain very active ("should have this, shouldn't have done that, that guy was a idiot, etc") while the process of placing counters, rolling dice, pulling cards, consulting tables and checking results was almost zen-like.

[LongBlade]

Ah. Understood.

There is a certain zen which can be achieved by playing those games, but it isn't nearly as easy as boardgaming :)

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Hey LB,
I'm doing great, really..."mostly kind of anxious" was perhaps too clinically severe.  Perhaps what I should have said was: "I was really pissed about the fact that there are many players on both friendly and opposing sides that either refuse to work as team, learn from mistakes, play well with others, are humble in victory and generous in defeat, or resort to ban-able behaviour.  That, and the fact that I can't hit sh*t with whatever weapon I choose while other guys can rack-up 50+ kills in one game, left me with negative feelings".
In any case...I think I was reflecting on the fact that FPS gameplay leaves my brain very active ("should have this, shouldn't have done that, that guy was a idiot, etc") while the process of placing counters, rolling dice, pulling cards, consulting tables and checking results was almost zen-like.

Cracked had a rant about this very topic today.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-people-who-are-ruining-online-gaming/

[Nefaro]

Cracked had a rant about this very topic today.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-people-who-are-ruining-online-gaming/

;D

[LongBlade]

Gotta love the 35-year-old-born-before-Jesus-raw-dinosaur-spike-eating-MILFer.

Damn he's old.

And cool.

8)

[GJK]

I created and printed out a set of cards for my variant version of "None but Heroes".  I think that they came out pretty well (even rounded the corners you #$%*ers):



Also got in my copy of Flat Top that I won in the "Wargamer Pay It Forward" group.  New and unpunched.  I haven't had a copy of this game for 34 years.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Preparing for a game of Churchill at the local gaming group on Saturday...  Too bad it only supports three players.  Quite a bit of interest.

Any impressions on this one?  I'm interested in it but I doubt there'd be too many others who frequent the shop would would be.  The poor buggers tried out Roll for the Galaxy today and complained that it was too complex.

[BanzaiCat]

I just played two games of Marvel Dice Masters with my daughter. The game is loads of fun just with the base set but it can be addicting to buy more dice and expand your choices.

The front page has an impressions piece I wrote on the game...check it out if you're interested. Will play some more tomorrow and some D&D Dice Masters too if there's time.

[GJK]

My Frenchies have a lot of Germans coming towards them!  They still have to get over the bridge though. ASL game at a friends house: