MurderHobo.Club

Category: Gaming

Playing games.

  • The DKIS Problem

    The DKIS Problem a shorthand term for pair of competency related issues known as the Dunning-Kruger Effect and Impostor Syndrome. In simplest terms, a lack of perspective means that people will misjudge their abilities, with less introspective individuals judging themselves superior, while same time, more introspective individuals will judge that the tasks were simple. This leads to doubt that they have any additional competence, feeling that they are in fact impostors for any credit that they are given for their skills.

    Mainly this comes from the fact that the better you get at something, the more you understand all the nuances required to do the job properly and all the little things that can go wrong. These are things that a person not experienced in the task would overlook and potentially underestimate. Instead of understanding the task, they’d relate it to a task that they do with ease, and in the process they would not only draw false parallels, but they’d have also likely forgotten the time spent developing those skills to the point where they became effortless.

    I suspect that there is also a variant of this for physical appearance, where people will judge themselves, at their average, based on the appearance of others at their best, especially in this post Photoshop era. Thus people who would be of better than average attractiveness consider themselves to be of below average.

    In any case, I was wondering what the implications of this were for the various communities that I’m involved in, and some examples of it are glaringly obvious. There’s a particular GM who comes to mind, who is at best average in his ability to tell a compelling story, most of his plots are remixes of other stories, without much in the way of unique takes. But as this individual is not overly introspective, he won’t realize the limitations of his creations.

    On the other hand, another GM I can think of, underestimates himself, despite being one of the best GMs that I’ve ever sat down with. He is annoyed by the fact that he needs to refer to the audio logs to recover details from a side plot that occurred during one of the previous 6+ hour sessions, usually a week or two prior.

    In the BDSM community, the same pattern is likely there. I can think of a variety of individuals who consider themselves to be competent or skilled at things, only to have the general consensus being that they inflate their competence. Though in those situations, it is mostly attributed to ego, rather than a flawed thought process.

    Conversely, there are some who are extremely skilled at a certain task, but through practice it has become rote for them, and thus they don’t feel that it is worthy of the praise that they receive for it.

    The balancing act between confidence in something and crushing doubt, made more difficult by the inability accurately judge the difficulty of a task, coupled with the inability to discern the biases of external arbiters; it is daunting. And many would question the value in having that structure in your head in the first place. Why convert the idea into a mental construct, rather than just trusting your gut?

    Without some external points of reference, you can’t have accurate perspective, and I think that’s dangerous. Too many knocks on the head from misjudging the height of things to think otherwise.

  • Starlit Citadel, and Advertising.

    Starlit Citadel is my FLGS of choice, despite not being all that local to me, having hours that totally don’t overlap with my work schedule, and them being more a warehouse than a store. I met them a few years back at Gottacon, and we’ve run into each other at various places since then. I’ve even helped them move. No surprise there, who haven’t I helped move?

    For ages now, I’ve been referring people to their site, though I haven’t actually been using the referral links, so I haven’t been getting the Citizen Rewards bonus points that I should be getting; it’s a pretty nice program, btw… I’ve used it to get a decent number of free games.

    Well, now they’ve set up an affiliate program, so I’m going to be adding those links to a couple of places on my blog. Mostly to posts referring to games that were purchased from Starlit, or could be purchased from them now, since a few of my games weren’t originally available from them, but have since been brought in.

    I’ve been told that this whole social networking thing can bring in money, and while I doubt that’ll happen in this case, I’m at least curious to give it a shot.
    When I initially tried to add their link to my blog, it didn’t work properly, partially because I’m running adblock plus, which I’d forgotten I’d left running. While Starlit aren’t at all excessive in their ads, they’re going through an affiliate company that provides ads to a ton of other companies, which explains why adblock has them blocked. So, I’ll be modifying some of their ads to make them work with my site, and trying to get them to still function with the affiliate code.

    Below is a sample of what I intend to be using.

    Purchased at Starlit Citadel

  • Ashes… Its coming.

    So, my pre-order of Ashes is officially on it’s way here. Its been shipped out of Snakes and Lattes in Toronto. So, I’ll have a copy by Wednesday or Thursday night. This means I need to plan a session for Saturday/Sunday.

    Who wants to give this game a chance?

  • Ashes : Rise of the Pheonixborn – It’s exciting.

    There is a game being published by Plaid Hat Games, that I’m really excited about. It’s a card game, where you’re playing a mage, that uses dice for the spell power pool.

    It comes with a half-dozen heroes, with a premade deck for each, but also with rules for building your own decks and for playing it as a draft.

    The game has elements of several popular games, but has a unique feel to it. Breaking down those mechanics, here they are.

    It has a card pool, provided completely in the core set, with expansions that will be provided quarterly, and not as a blind buy. I’d use the term LCG, but someone owns that term, so I can’t use it.

    When you’re starting the game, you pick 5 cards for your opening hand, a mechanic similar to the Posse in Doomtown : Reloaded.

    Then you roll dice, like Quarriors, or Marvel Dice, or Roll for the Galaxy. Those dice form your mana pool. The higher level dice can be used for any of the lower levels and there are ways to reroll them.

    Some spells like to summon tokens, similar to Magic : The Gathering, but unlike the MtG tokens, these all have card text. Some with special powers, some without. Like Magic and various other games, there are spells that you can attach to your creatures to make them stronger or more durable. There is also an exhaustion mechanic, that while similar to magic’s tapping mechanic, or the kneeling mechanic, has a few differences. You can throw multiple on a card, but only one are removed per turn.

    There is a mechanic I can’t recall seeing elsewhere, which allows you to play down extra copies of an individual card to reinforce it’s powers. These are called Focus, and they trigger at various levels. You’ve also got the ability to toss a card aside to flip the dice around; this is called meditating.

    Basically, it’s a game with a pretty interesting magic system, using dice rolls and dice manipulation mechanics, creating a nice mix of randomness and strategy.

    The biggest thing that makes this game stand out is how fast the turns feel, when compared to Magic or some other games. Each round, you can perform a major action and if you want, a minor action. Then the other play takes their turn, and it goes back and forth for a bit. After you’ve run out of dice and options, then you end the round, pull of the exhaust tokens, heal the cards that can heal, re-roll the dice, and refresh the hand, and start it over again.

    The deck design is 30 cards, with no more than 3 of each card. So you’ve got a 1/10 chance of drawing a card. Given that you can discard and draw 5 cards in a turn, plus whatever you use for meditating, you can burn through your deck pretty quickly. When you hit the bottom of the deck, you start taking damage, similar to hearthstone.

    For comparison, Hearthstone, 30 cards, of which there’s a max of 2 of each per deck. Magic, it’s 60 cards, 4 of each. Netrunner, it’s 45ish, 3 of each card. Doomtown, it’s 52, but you’ve got poker mechanics and 4 of any given card type. I’m not enough of a math guy to actually make much out of these numbers, but I’m sure some of you are finding this fascinating.

    Each of the heroes has at a few cards that are exclusive to them, a limit to the amount of spell cards they can have active in front of them, a limit to the number of allies they can have protecting them, and of course specific amount of health. They’ve also got a power that they can trigger, which is exclusive to them.

    When building a deck, you’ll decide which spells to include and how many dice of each type to include. The dice have 3 different faces, the common face, which is shared by all dice, the path face, which has the basic power for that type of magic, and the empowered face, which you need for the higher powers of that path. I’m not sure on the specific terms, but the ideas are there. The player who rolls the most common dice, they’re first player for the round.

    So far, I’ve only seen it played as a two player game, but I can see it as being pretty cool as a multiplayer game.

    Anyways, that’s why I’m excited for my copy. You’ve got a few hours left to pre-order your copy if you want to get it as part of the Pre-GenCon shipment. After that, I’m not sure when the next shipment is going out.

    http://www.plaidhatgames.com/games/ashes

  • Games I should be playing.

    Solo
    Friday – its apparently really good. Solo Survival.
    Mageknight – complicated, but the gold standard for solo games. A tough nut to crack. Maybe my goal for #GencantSolo.
    Lord of the Rings – solid mechanics, good thematic experience.
    Robinson Crusoe :  – another solid game with some interesting mechanics. Based on the novel, it’s very much a survival game.
    Alien Uprising – Worker placement escape the alien planet game.

    Two player – exclusively.
    Claustrophobia  – asymmetric dungeon crawler. Go into the dark places to fight demons…
    Mage Wars Arena – wizards fighting!

    Two Or more.
    Valley of the Kings – Egyptian deck builder. Neat Crumbling market mechanic.
    Five Tribes – Mancala-based  tiles puzzle. Pick up meeples, drop in them in paths, collect the matches on the last tile, and go for a score. With some auction mechanics.
    Legendary Encounters – co-op survival in the Aliens movies.
    Xenoshyft – co-op lane defense against alien hordes, ala Starship Troopers.
    Blood Bowl : Team Manager – Sportsball battles
    Tokaido – Zen game of wandering through Japan.
    Abyss – Pearls, Keys and the undersea kingdom.

    Three or more
    Dead of winter – tense survival with personal goals and the potential of traitors, and of course zombies.
    Among the stars – build a space station by drafting titles.
    Star Wars : Imperial Assault – mission based adventure game, in the Star Wars universe, around the time of original trilogy.
    Cthulhu Wars – Conquer the world, and end it.
    Black Fleet – Pirates!
    Terra Mystica – Magical landscaping.

    Four specifically.
    Shadowrun : Crossfire – Co-op combat.

    BTW, Most of these games were…

    Purchased at Starlit Citadel

  • Scencest – practical or paranoid?

    Many years ago, when asked why I didn’t date a particular girl, I used the term scencest to explain my discomfort with dating someone inside a small and insular community. Too many crossing paths, too many common friends, or worse too many common ex’s.

    The BDSM community has grown a bit since then, but I find I still have that discomfort. How does one get over it, or it it healthy to maintain it?

    I suppose it doesn’t help that plenty of the guys in my community tend to crowd around the attractive newbies, which tends to scare them off and that just makes the problem worse.

    When a couple breaks up, odds are good that the male will stick around, and the female will either leave or get a ton of messages.

    I’m old, grumpy and bitter, I’ll admit. But how much of this problem is in my head, and how much is what you also see?

  • Characters

    I’m thinking I should put together a page that lists the various characters who appear in this list, separating those who exist from those who don’t and providing as much or as little real world context for them as they feel comfortable with.

    This was motivated by aRedBaroness joining the board games and DerBlob having a handle that I am having a hard time associating with him.

    So, if you want to volunteer your context, let me know.

    Dimestore is our shadowrun GM, a regular board gamer, a scholar and a gentleman.

    John Duggan, when he appears in the blog, is a fictional interpretation of a real person, who I never spend much time with. Less of a scholar, but no less a gentleman than Dimestore, he has serious obligations that tend to interfere with board gaming.

    Reive Doig has been a figure in the Vancouver kink scene for a few decades now. He’s something of a pioneer, with a passion for community building and education. He is part of the team behind Noir and Erotic Vancouver, which I help with. He tends to have too much on his plate at any given time.

    aRedbaroness and I have known each other for years, since I dated one of her friends. While that ended with a bit of a flat note, the friendship has remained. We’ve recently started to collaborate on some projects, as we both have a strong focus on the written word.

    mogdoll, the henchmuffin, is a great minion.

    I’m sure there are more and more details will be added, but this was what came out of my head on the ride to work.

  • Shadowrun returning

    So, it sounds like we’ve for enough players to actually have a Sunday shadowrun start up again. aRedbaroness has an elf adept she’s working on, specialising in some variant of killing hands. DerBlob has a Dr.Nick style streetdoc he’s building. I’m probably doing a face mage again, probably face secondary. Hopefully this time it won’t be a slippery slope into blood magic depravity.

    We played a round of five tribes, and apparently I didn’t explain the game very well, because people were realising midgame some of the rules. But everyone had fun, so that’s not to bad.
    After that, DerBlob and I played a round of Imperial Settlers finally. I now understand why people like that game. The drafting mechanics, the tableau building, the choice to convert a card directly into resources, and the empire building. Over a period of 5 turns, making a game session less than an hour. Definitely one I’ll want to play again, now that we have the hang out it.

    Didn’t get a chance to play Spyfall or Dead of Winter, though Spyfall is now prepped for next time. Well, partially. We’ve decided to upgrade it with manilla envelopes for all the mission sets.

  • Doomtown!

    Saturday Afternoon, I headed over to Magic Stronghold, to check out the new Doomtown : Reloaded Organized play sessions.

    I was late, because of the events of the night before, and the extended period of taking care of Nikita and Guinness, over at my parent’s place. And the transit problems created by Hat’s Off Day, and the related road closures.

    Had I had more sleep, and had more time to properly rebuild my decks, I’d have enjoyed the game more. The deck I built, terrible design. Not enough starting influence. Maybe I should use other people’s deck designs off Doomtown DB, until I get better at it.

    That’s the big stalling point of Doomtown, the deck construction is just a little too heavy, when compared to every other game out there. Balancing the deck structure and the draw structure, balancing influence and bullets. Being sure to have enough starting influence and enough money to keep working on the game. It’s tricky.

    Again, I recommend watching Willingdone’s videos.

    The hosts was a friendly guy, I’ve proposed we do another game in a couple weeks, and hopefully that’ll get things ready for the tournament he wants to run next month. Hopefully that gives me time to get a decent deck built. Still, $5 entry fee, so no big deal if my deck isn’t strong.

  • Our Karma Distribution System

    A while back, we decided that we wanted to figure out a way to make the karma system more interactive and more real time. We took the concept of bennies from either Dresden/Fate or Savage World, and brought it into our Shadowrun 4th Edition game. Players were given a handful of Poker chips that had their initial scribbled on it. Originally it was one chip for each player, but we later raised that amount to be one or two above the number of players. The GM took a handful of red and blue poker chips. The white ones with the player’s initial on it was worth .5 Karma when received from another player. The Blue ones were worth a full Karma, and the red ones were given out to mark a problem or debt that the player had picked up during the session; to remind the GM and the players that there was a shoe that was yet to drop.

    During the course of the game, if someone did something cool, you’d throw them one of your chips. If they took one for the team, or had the right skills at the right time, or any of the other things that the GM might have awarded the end of session, that was a reason to throw them karma. Also, if they did something you thought was worth rewarding, if they exhibited behavior you’d like to see again, you threw them a chip. A particularly cunning plan, or a great joke, a quick recovery when something went wrong; all good reasons to toss a chip over.

    The GM still tosses out the occasional bit of Karma from time to time, for things he thinks should be rewarded, and there’s still the end of mission Karma for obstacles faced and challenges overcome. In the long run, this won’t be more karma than the players would receive, but because it’s more tied to specific events, it tends to encourage better play.

    Anyways, that’s our system, and I think it’s one you might like.