A Progressive Top 10 to Introduce Player Interaction

Competition is at the heart of any game.  Indeed, it’s a characteristic that often defines the very word “game,” and separates the board gaming hobby from other leisurely forms of entertainment.  In some games, this is manifested in a cooperative element where players work together to beat the system.  Others instill a style of competition in which you solitarily strive to better your opponents at the same task, independent of any influence from each other.

But the great games include some form of direct interaction.  I’m going to attack you, steal from you, lie to you, block you, gang up on you, or generally wreak havoc on your pretty, well-laid plans of building a quiet cottage in the mountain meadows where the larks sing you to sleep in a gently swaying hammock on a warm spring day after sipping your sweet tea with mint.

Some people really like their sweet tea.

But, if you’re a gamer who appreciates direct interaction – even some old-fashioned, sucker-punching spite – just how do you entice wary casual gamers, younger children, or maybe even that hard-nosed Euro player in your group?  Well, you’ll have to ease them into it, of course.  So before you hit them with Bang!, Cosmic Encounter, or Diplomacy, here’s a list of ten progressively recommended titles to turn your peace-loving friend or relative into the Gordon Ramsay of gaming!

Top Ten Filler Games

Last time I posted a top ten around these parts, it was my top ten lunch games, games that can be played and taught comfortably within the confines of a lunch hour.

But what if your lunch hour is more like a lunch break? Or what about those times when you want to play another game, but you're waiting to mix up the players, and the other group is playing a game of Power Grid that simply will not end?

That, friends, is where the aptly named "filler" games come in--short games that can be used to open, close, or fill gaps within your game night.

What defines an ideal filler game? Here are my criteria:

News Bits: 12/2/2013

The NEWS is a little sparse this week (Thanksgiving holiday, over which my family celebrated Christmas). We should return to business as usual next week. In the meantime, the NEWS:

Stonemaier Games offers charity auction for special edition of Viticulture [Link] Stonemaier Games has "made it about others" by auctioning several copies of Viticulture for charity. They reached out to various gaming blogs to choose which charities get donations, and we chose Children's Relief.

News Bits: 11/11/2013

This was a packed week for the NEWS:

Annual Jack Vasel Fund Memorial Auction begins on Board Game Geek [Link] This is Tom Vasel's annual auction in honor of his son, Jack, who passed away shortly after birth. All proceeds from this auction go to the Jack Vasel Fund to help gamers in need. The generosity of the gaming community is truly astounding sometimes, and there are some incredible (and unique) items available.

Top Ten Lunch Games

I've written on the subject of lunch games many, many times, but probably most completely here. The category of lunch games--games that can be played and in most cases taught in an hour--is near to my heart for several reasons, not least of which is lunch when I am most likely to have time free to play a game. The pressures and responsibilities of home prevent me from attending more than one game night a month. But over lunch? Then I am free.

In my earlier post, I listed several criteria for ideal lunch games. They are:

• Goldilocks playtime (neither too short nor too long)
• Simple rules
• Simultaneous (or near simultaneous) play (in other words, there's always something to do)
• Chaos factor (players have an opportunity to break gameplay conventions)

So which games am I most excited to play over lunch? Here's my list.

If a gamer rolls a "1" in the Forest...

Last week I was away on vacation. My ego hopes that you noticed, but regardless, I get to talk about it.  Why? I'm a gamer and a blogger and that's just what I do.

My vacation was not just any vacation, after all.  It was my yearly trek to the western side of Michigan, camping with family for a week right by the lake.  It's a time of relaxation, of getting away from electronics and obligations, and doing whatever one feels like doing at the moment.  Which, for me (and fortunately, for several of my cousins) this meant a lot of playing games.

And the Rockets' Red Glare... (a review of Hanabi)

Fireworks. The sound, the spectacle, the dazzling display. You've probably attended some good fireworks shows in your lifetime, ones that have sent you home with an awed expressions on your face, memories in your mind, and praises on your lips. You've probably also seen the demonstrations that are completely forgettable, perhaps a way to pass the time to celebrate a holiday but not an event worthy of remembrance.

But did you know that fireworks displays require cooperation, deduction, and skill? And playing cards in ascending order? No?

Well, in the world of Hanabi they do.

Once Again, with Feeling (a review of The Resistance: Second Edition)

She looks you in the eye, trying to catch the slightest hint of betrayal.

"I am not a spy," you reaffirm, sterner, more confident than the last time.

"I believe him," she tells the others, and just like that, you're on the resistance's mission to overthrow the corrupt government.

Yet despite her belief, once the cards are revealed, the mark of sabotage is all over the mission. Someone in the group was a dreaded spy. And it turns out it was you.

Enter the world of The Resistance--a social paranoia game of deduction, deception, and good, good fun.

News Bits: 5/6/2013

Did anything happen in the real world last week? Because there is a ton of board game NEWS this week:

Fantasy Flight reveals X-wing wave 3 ships [Link] Star Wars: X-wing is a game I'm definitely on the outside about, but I know many of our readers care about it, so here's a link to the new ships soon to come.

Hostile Takeover (a review of Coup)

The unnamed and generic Italianish city-state is in turmoil, and the people are looking for a new leader to fill the void of power. There are many influential characters in the city-state, some nice and some not so nice, and they are willing to help you.

Well...maybe not.

But if you can make the people--and the others striving for the crown--think that you have these powerful personages in your employ, you may be on your way to a glorious reign.

Someone's got to rule. Why shouldn't it be you?

News Bits: 1/28/2013

Big news this week. Read on!

Toy Vault acquires Firefly license [Link] Geek worlds converged last week when Toy Vault announced that it had acquired the Firefly license to create tabletop games in Joss Whedon's 'verse. I'm not terribly excited about this news, but only because licensed games don't excite me much. (This is the themeless, soulless Euro part of me coming out.) And I'm especially not too excited when the tabletop games announcement came in the same breath as novelty plush figures and pillows based on the characters. Still, time will tell.

iSlaytheDragon's Game of the Year 2012

There's nothing we here at iSlaytheDragon enjoy more than talking about the games we love. Reliving classic moments, discussing strategies or favorite mechanisms, teasing each other about the overabundance of theme (or distinct lack thereof) in the games that hit the table most frequently.

While our pick for Game of the Year of 2011 was unanimous and almost instantaneous, this year it took a bit of discussion. Which is great, because there were a lot of great games that came out this year, and we got to play a bunch of them! We wish we could pick all of our favorites for Game of the Year, but that would make the award pointless. In the end, we decided that one game stood out, excelling in all categories, just barely edging out the competition.

To lay out some of the details behind the choice, we only looked at games that released in 2012, give or take a few months back into 2011. In order to be chosen as the iSlaytheDragon Game of the Year, we had to have played and reviewed the game ourselves. And to make our final choice, we looked at a variety of categories, including gameplay, mechanisms, component quality, replayability, and fun factor. Of course every choice and every rating we make is a judgment call on our parts; if you disagree, that's fine. Feel free to share your favorite game of 2012 in the comments.

Read on for the moment you've all been waiting for. And the winner is...

Holiday Gift Guide 2012

"It's that time of year, when the world falls in love..." It's also that time of year when gift-giving is not only encouraged but expected. And as expected as giving gifts is, what is even more expected--at least in the world of gaming blogs--is the ubiquitous holiday gift guide. Here's our unique take on it, from the hearths of a theme-loving Wolf, a mechanism-loving Farmer, and an eclectic Kinderspieler. And if after reading this you still don't know what to buy for someone on your list, leave us a comment. We give recommendations to order.

(And if you want to see how the list has changed over time, here is the list for 2011. And check out our guide to stocking stuffers as well.)

News Bits: 8/13/2012

This week is GenCon, so that's the biggest news. If you're not going (like me), you can live vicariously through those who are. And you can be sure that, come next Monday, I'll have the juiciest tidbits ready for your perusal, with my usual comments, of course.

Oh, and if you will be at GenCon, be sure to track down chief dragon slayer @Futurewolfie...if he isn't too busy doing all the tasks I've assigned to him.

Now: the news.

Dominion, More Dominion, and Even More Dominion
Again, I make no pretense of impartiality here: I love Donald X's design. I think it's fantastic. So I was especially excited when he released these five previews of Dark Ages (1, 2, 3, 4, 5)--with another 26 cards awaiting discovery at GenCon! But that's only one Dominion announcement. The other centers on third-party Dominion apps and websites. As of August 22, all these will close down. (You can see one such announcement on Board Game Arena and another on Isotropic.) On the positive side, the official Dominion app (and online implementation) will be released August 16 for iOS and Android. Details are a bit scant now, but it seems that users will be able to play the base game for free, with additional expansions available as in-app purchases. And according to DXV on BGG, playing with expansions will require only one player to have purchased it. All of this, depending on in-app prices, seems like a pretty good deal to me, and I am super stoked about this.

News Bits: 7/23/2012

Resisting Expansions Is Futile
In what came as some of the best gaming news of the week, I learned that The Resistance will soon be getting a full expansion treatment from Indie Boards & Cards. The details at this point are hazy (and mostly just referenced in buried threads on Board Game Geek), but it seems the expansion will add more mechanics and not just more plot cards. According to Indie Boards & Cards, this expansion will be going up on Kickstarter in the near future. (If this news means nothing to you, by all means, read our review of The Resistance and then go buy a copy--you won't regret it.) (HT: Theology of Games)

FDQ: What Game Gets a '10'?

There was quite the Twitter conversation a few days ago based on what games (if any) deserve a 10 on the Board Game Geek 10-point scale. So that's the question today: what games do you rate a 10? Answer in the comments! (Special thanks to @benny275 for the question.)

@FarmerLenny answers:
I had a professor in college who never gave a perfect score on papers because he wanted to let his students know there was always room for improvement. That's why I counted it among my best moments at college when he gave one of my papers a 96—the highest he would possibly go.

But listen, folks: this isn't college, and we're not trying to keep entitled college students humble. We are part of a hobby that is supposed to be fun. Saying "There is no perfect game" with our noses in the air isn't exactly inviting to newcomers. And while I agree that there is likely not an absolutely "perfect" game that fits every situation and group, that's no reason to avoid giving a game a 10. This is also why the discussion of late about "serious" board game criticism is not attractive to me. Have we forgotten the joy of the hobby? There is such a thing as overthinking it or too much self-reflection, and we're in serious danger of it when we travel these waters.

I don't exactly hand them out liberally, but when I look at my list on Board Game Geek, the games I've given a 10 are El Grande, Dominion: Intrigue, and Dominion: Prosperity. There are a few games at the 9.5 level (Dominion and Dominion: Hinterlands), and many at the 9 level. Actually, my ratings appear to follow a fairly standard distribution: five 10s, twenty-one 9s, thirty-four 8s, twenty-four 7s, five 6s (and then a few fall in the 3-5 category). Do my ratings skew high? Probably a bit, but there are a few explanations for that. First, I do a lot of research before I add any games to my collection. With a limited budget, I can only add to my collection periodically, so every purchase counts. I usually only buy a game that there's a good chance I'll like. Second, I try to evaluate games based not on my favorite game but based on how well it fits a situation. I rate The Resistance a 9; that doesn't mean I always want to play The Resistance. And third, I try to keep gaming as a hobby, not an all-consuming passion. This can be difficult at times, but when I approach board games looking for fun, I can usually find it—even in Cosmic Encounter.

@Futurewolfie answers:
It all depends on the target "audience" per say when handing out ratings.  When I rate games as far as how I feel about them, there are definitely a few 10's - Cosmic Encounter, Twilight Imperium for certain, and a few others that will probably make the cut once i've played them more (such as Battlestar Galactica or Rex... holy crap those are all FFG games.  Not on purpose.  Dominion (w/expansions), Smallworld, phew, there's a few non FFG ones.)  Plenty of 9's (I find it rather funny that no matter what scale of rating system we use, we will almost certainly want to add a ".5" in there somewhere).  These are games that I greatly enjoy and love playing and have no reservations at all about playing them.

But rating publicly, I feel I need to be more objective.  Do I think any of these games is truly flawless?  Twilight Imperium certainly lasts too long and has a few finicky issues, especially without expansions.  Cosmic Encounter has a few unbalanced powers, and some games end too quickly, go to long, or just fall flat.  Dominion has a few weird uber-strategies that might come into the mix, and is not extremely interactive between players (although more than some would claim).  Smallworld might just last a little too long.  These are things that should objectively knock off points from a public review.  Or should they?  What do you think?

Another thing about the number rating system is that it's wildly arbitrary.  A number can be based off a whole slew of conditions, including the person's emotional state at the time of rating, based on a play with annoying players (or even a bad day having nothing to do with the game itself).  Which is why you should find a trustworthy review site and read what they have to say about the game, and not just go on the numbers.

iSlaytheDragon's GAME OF THE YEAR

Now that 2011 has come to a close, we can safely look back at all the games we played and loved. We love to hand out kudos to those who deserve it, and the new year is our chance to point out the games that stood above the crowd, at least to us. We're only picking games that we played, and games that released in or around 2011, so if you think a different game deserves the top spot... well, go ahead and let us know in the comments. Now, without further ado...

Who Teaches the Teacher?

There's a scene in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Indiana Jones is brought face-to-face with the person who has manipulated both Indy and his father in order to find the holy grail: Walter Donovan. Indy is surprised by this, as Donovan seemed so friendly and forthright before. And for good measure, Donovan had told him at the beginning of the movie, "Don't trust anybody." Surely he didn't mean to include himself in that?

Betrayal by the sage who initiated one's adventure is a well-worn trope and, if the number of movies it appears in is any indication, makes for great cinema. It does not, however, make for great board gaming. And, unfortunately, for those of us who teach board games, it can sometimes give us an unfair advantage.

Christmas Gift Guide 2011

Even dragons love Christmastime.

Christmas is right around the corner, and this means that gift-buying season is in full swing. Rather than giving those special someones on your list another sweater or novelty Monopoly set (Monopoly: The Tacky Christmas Tie Edition!), why not try giving them something they'll really enjoy? Look below as @Futurewolfie and I make gaming suggestions for the people on your Christmas shopping list. If you'd like more details about any of these games, we've linked to our reviews, or you can ask us questions in the comments. If we haven't covered someone on your list, post a comment, and we'll recommend something fresh. It's that simple.

(Oh, and so you know, we're not the only ones doing this. Check out other great lists on Dice Hate Me, Gamer Chris, Games and Grub, The Board Game Family, The Game Aisle, and of course, Board Game Geek. Their lists differ significantly from ours, but they have good suggestions, too.)

FDQ: What Is the Best Party Game?

You're at a party, and someone suggests a game. That person brings out...Trivial Pursuit, an occasion that might merit the "Nooooooooooo!" edited into the Star Wars Blu-ray. (Too soon?) This, or similar situations, sparks today's FDQ: what is a good alternate party game suggestion? Or, really, what is the best party game? Answer in the comments!

@FarmerLenny answers:
Call me old-fashioned, but I might suggest a game of Pit. Pit is riotous fun for players, is easy to learn, and even though players typically start out underwhelmed, by the end of the night they are laughing hysterically. Another good option is Wits & Wagers, the trivia game for people who don't know anything. I love bidding/betting games, and playing with whiteboards, so this is another favorite. I also enjoy The Game of Things, though I've never played the official version. More recently, The Resistance has gone to the top of my go-to list as well. There are plenty of other options. All this to say: friends don't let friends play Apples to Apples.

@Futurewolfie answers:
I haven't played a lot of party games recently. I enjoy Apples to Apples, but it can be pretty exclusionary. I've never played Wits & Wagers (I know, a travesty!). Of games I've played, The Resistance is pretty high on the list but has a limited number of players (ten sounds high...until you're actually at an actual party...). Catch Phrase usually works well with all ages and skill levels (I have some great memories of my 85-year-old grandma). The Great Dalmuti is a pretty enjoyable card game with large groups, and you can play a variant of it (President or Scum, anyone?) with a normal deck of playing cards. Pit is good if your people don't mind a lot of yelling...at least where my family comes from. I can't imagine a quiet game of Pit, anyways.