-
Tyler Swan
Canada
Bedford
Nova Scotia
-
Dear Board Game Publishers
First of all let me say one thing, I do have a lot of admiration for what you do, you keep an old past time alive and well. You are supplying a demand to a niche market and you are taking chances on new games and new designers all the time, with great risk to yourselves. For that I salute you.
However I have an issue that I need to take up with some of you publishers, something that might hit a sore spot with some of you.
I love my hobby and I love that there is a thriving community that surrounds it and I can see why you will need to publish different rule books in different languages, to serve the needs of those that don't speak English. However I find myself in an odd spot, I was in Quebec and bought a game and all the rules are in French.
I figure this is no big deal, I can just go to the website of the Publisher and get a copy of the rule, but alas I was out of luck and now I am going to have to translate the rules via Google translate.
Now I can see why you as game publishers wouldn't want to release rules for game onto the internet, it isn't hard to create all of the parts of a game and then just download the rules. At the same time I would really find it useful, and much faster, to just download the rules to the game that I bought.
Now that being said I know of some companies that already do this (such as the great company that is GMT) and I would hope that others will follow in those companies paths so that we can all game together.
Thank You
Tyler
-
Tyler Swan
Canada
Bedford
Nova Scotia
-
As some of you might have read in the past I have been waiting for my chance to get a full, and much improved, game of Here I Stand going. Readers might remember, but I cannot see that being the case, that my last outing with this game, while fun, turned into a horror show of epic proportions.
Looking back on it now I see that the two main issues were the choice in players and the amount of time that was spend on the rules. I think that I have solved one of these issue and I know that I have solved the other.
First the player issue, well chalk that one up to a combination of poor judgment and a small player pool. Working shift work and not really knowing a lot of people in the city makes players hard to come by and, in a time of desperation, you will take anyone you can get. This time I have had time to think over the people that I know and have switched out two players (with one player left to find). We have 4 players, including me, that will be back for another game, 4 people that have a basic grip on the rules, but there is always room for improvement.
Hence I have been working on a condensed rule 'cheat sheet' for each of the powers, giving a basic summary of the ways that each gets extra VPs and rule that would pertain to that power, such as Theological Debates for the Papacy and the Protestant. This was no easy task, GMT does a great job of writing rules and making things very clear, but there is always room for little tweaks to make things a little easier for the guy that read the rulebook.
However after going over the different rules for each power and then thinking about the other aspects of the game I think that the Hardest power to play (in terms of governing rules) would have to be the English. You need to balance wars on the mainland with the reformation, you have Scotland just waiting for you, the new world needs to be taken and you have to get that male heir. I realize that the book say that the Hapsburg player will be the one that has the most taxing game play but at this point I am unsure if they would be so hard to handle.
Seems that the French would have the simplest time with it, they don't care about the religious battles, they are only interested in the new world, wars and building pretty Château's, seems simple enough?
My next item to prepare for this epic game (aside from finding another player) is drawing up a simple and quick run of the rules to start the game off with. I figure that if I can get 30 minutes of teaching the rules most people should either remember or pick them up.
-
Tyler Swan
Canada
Bedford
Nova Scotia
-
In my mind there is a class of games that are epic, games that you can spend a whole day (and most of the night) playing just once. A game that you can get right into and for a few hours you really think that your friend across the table is out to get you.
Out of the games in my collection I like to think of a few of them as epic, including Twilight Imperium and Diplomacy, but the one that I value beyond all the others is Here I Stand.
This is the game that has it all, factional objectives, hidden deal making, alliances and wars, just epic on another level. But there in lies the problem, with a game with so many things to deal with you need a set of players that understand the rules and how each player works towards their goals.
The last time I had set up a game, and in fact it was the only time to date, we had the full 6 players (which I feel is the best way to play an epic game like HIS, go full or not at all) and it did not go well.
First issue was that while two of us had gone over the rules and knew them rather well (we still made some mistakes) while the other 4 didn't read them, I had sent them the links to the rule book before the game day.
Second issue we had was time frame, we started way to late in the day, 3pm is NOT a good time to start an epic game.
Third issue was that we had one guy coming in late, as a sub in for another player that had to bow out.
But what I feel was the biggest issue was that no one was using Diplomacy, no alliances and no card trading took place.
Well that and the one player that decided that the Pope (myself) was the biggest military threat to his (Habsburg) empire. I have already made my point about this player in another post long ago and have already decided that he will not be invited back due to his seemingly vindictive behavior towards myself.
So now Here I Stand waiting for the perfect game of HIS, or at least another kick at the can. The game, with a good group of people, is one of my geek wishes. But for now I am left wanting and waiting.
-
Tyler Swan
Canada
Bedford
Nova Scotia
-
Well today I got my new game, a factory sealed copy of the 2001 AH game History of the World, something that I had been searching for. So after getting off work and rushing to the post office I was able to get the box, I was so happy to finally get a copy of this game but nothing could have prepared me for the biggest let down that I have ever had in my history with board gaming.
No empire cards...yeah...not a one, oh I have an extra set of minor event cards but no empire cards.
So of course the first thing I think of is that I can just talk to the publisher and see what they can do, but no, this is an 11 year old game and, from what I have read in the forums for this game, there are no spare parts from them. Game's to old, no parts left, bah! (interesting to note that I appear to be one in a small group that has had this problem).
So now what does one do? I have looked at the list of people that have parts from my version and it appears that I am out of luck.
And I really wanted to play it too...
Mon Aug 29, 2011 11:15 pm
-
Tyler Swan
Canada
Bedford
Nova Scotia
-
When I was 18 years old, in what would be the final family vacation before my trip off to college we decided that we would go to PEI, taking the Ferry from Nova Scotia.
While there I made it a point to at least visit one FLGS that my step-father had told me about, up to this point the only place that I could go to look at my geekish hobby was a 50 minute drive away from my home town to Truro.
When we found the shop in downtown Charlottetown I was shocked by what I saw in terms of the number of games, in fact I seem to have forgotten what was there expect for two. I could only get one, I need to choose between Sid Meier's Civilization, or Twilight Imperium. To me it seemed very easy, I knew what Sid Meier's Civilization was, having played the computer game and loved it, and I had never heard for this Twilight game.
Add that to the very bad decisions pile, I had no BGG to save me that day.
Flash forward a few day ago, back in my home town for a vacation and they are planning to go over to PEI so I tag along, wanting to visit the game stores again.
Sadly I believe that the FLGS that I had been to before had come and gone but I was able, thanks to the geek, to find another FLGS. I wasn't looking for anything in particular but I did notice that they had a copy of The NEW Sid Meier's Civilization game. This was taken in a instant and out the door I went, very pleased in the knowledge that this time I had gotten a much better game.
But then the thought dawned on me, I had once again bought Sid Meier's Civilization from a game store in PEI, a strange paradox.
-
Tyler Swan
Canada
Bedford
Nova Scotia
-
Do you remember those days when you weren't old enough to work, not old enough to drive? So you get some friends together down in your parents basement on some random weekend and try to figure out what you can do to pass the time.
This was the scene on a day back when I was 15 and hanging out with two of my friends in my basement and this lead to the creation of something epic...something epically bad.
So it is getting close to 10pm and me and my two friends have little to nothing to do. There are no real places that we can go on a Friday night being 15 and having no way to drive and no money to boot. This is very early on in my board gaming hobby, the only games that I had around where Axis and Allies, Diplomacy, Risk and several different flavors of Monopoly. Nothing that anyone really wanted to play and the shows on TV at that time didn't really entertain us either.
It was at that point the Legend was born, I started playing around with the Monopoly board (the box had gone MIA a long time ago) as my friend Ben was playing with the little Risk men.
With one simple sentience it started;
"I am invading Park Place."
And with the placement of 4 green Risk men on the board we started, are attempt was to merge the two board games into one, using the Monopoly board as the new games board.
Slowly we tried to eek out the rules and if I can remember correctly (it has been 10 years) we had several rules jotted down. We made it so that you had to buy your Risk men with the Monopoly money which you got from rent payments from the properties that you had occupied. The amount that you got from each property was the base rate unless you built a Barracks (Monopoly house, up to 4 per property) or a Base (Monopoly hotel).
We figured that unless you had a Barracks you couldn't have anymore than 5 troops on a given property, each Barracks would give you the ability to support 5 extra troops and if you build a Base you would be able to have up to 40 troops on a property.
At around this point my other friend Matt, who had been flipping channels on the TV up to this point, looked down at us on the floor playing with two different games and remarked,
"You guys are morons."
We tried to get him to come down and play with us, to test our new creation, but we had no luck.
In the end most of the rules have been lost to time and my memories and I think that it a good thing, but the Myth of Riskopoly has lived on amongst my gaming friends, and I am sure I am not the only gamer that, when young, having looked at the games he had wondered, 'What can I make out of this?'
Lesson learned, never combine Monopoly with anything...ever! 
|
|
