Break the Ice! (A Review of Android: Netrunner)

Many years ago, a fellow named Richard Garfield created a card game that found its way into the homes of millions of people and has since continued to grow and expand and thrive.  It is the game that keeps many a game store afloat, it has tournaments worldwide, and it has kept a huge following of players since its inception.

Netrunner is not that game.  But, shortly after Magic: the Gathering, Mr. Garfield went on to create a number of other games, and one of those games was most definitely Netrunner. Alas, it did not achieve the popularity of Magic.

Fast forward a few decades later.  Fantasy Flight Games, seeking to expand its complex and incredibly geek-friendly Android universe, acquired the rights to Netrunner and published it as a revamped, re-themed "LCG" called Android: Netrunner. 

Here is my review.

News Bits: 6/10/2013

Here's this week's NEWS:

Donald X. Vaccarino previews Dominion: Guilds [Preview 1, 2, 3, 4, 5] I'm becoming very interested in this set...as I always am when the previews begin.

Guide to Gaming: Research Before You Buy

Board gaming is a great hobby, accessible to a broad range of ages and demographics. As such, it is wonderful for both casual and structured social occasions, it can stimulate the mind, and it is ideal for family bonding. And it accomplishes all of that through fun. But like any hobby, it’s not cheap. Indeed, there are three major concerns that you, the average gamer, face when building your collection. One, you’re most likely on a tight budget. Therefore, you cannot take a “shotgun approach” to buying games, hoping to land a few diamonds amongst the rough. Two, your available free time is likewise probably constrained. So you want to be reasonably sure that the games you do buy are able to actually see the table from time to time. Which leads to three, there are so many games out there that it can often be overwhelming. Few things are more frustrating in this hobby than spending your limited budget on games that gather dust on the shelves because it turned out they weren’t interesting, good, or relevant to your gaming. How do you know which titles best fit your family, group, and personal gaming habits so that your money and time are used to best advantage? The challenge is to build a collection that is strong, suits a variety of situations, and that you will actually play – all without breaking the bank. So where to start?

Breaking In, Breaking Out (A Review of Infiltration)

The day is finally here.  You've been planning this for weeks.  Well, you and your team.  Technically they're not YOUR team. You don't really trust them anyways.  But you needed them to get into the building. It's not easy breaking into the highly secure headquarters of CyberSolutions, Inc, to steal valuable data.

But now you're inside.  You just realized you don't need the other guys anymore.  You're in and you're off to do your own thing.  You have your reasons for being here, and you don't really care why anyone else is here.  Time to set off on your own, steal what you can, and get out.

Welcome to Donald X's Infiltration, a game of corporate larceny for 2-6 players, published by Fantasy Flight Games.

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.

FDQ: Quality or Quantity?

Okay, so the dichotomy isn't perfect: there are great games that are short, and there are not-so-great games that last forever. But this week's FDQ deals with your game night preference: would you rather play more shorter games or one long game? Answer in the comments!

(This FDQ inspired by a question @ianoble asked on Twitter. Also, sorry about the lack of FDQ last week. Technical and other difficulties prevented it from getting posted.)


@FarmerLenny answers:
Like my answer to most other iterations of this question, I'm a quantity player. Part of this is because I like variety, but part is also that I have a hard time staying interested in a really long game (at least one that lasts longer than two hours). Of course, I haven't yet played a game that lasted longer than two hours that I thought should have kept going (see: Android). Most of the games I play over and over fit within an hour, and many of the ones that I love can easily hit the two-hour mark with experienced players.

There are some exceptions to this. I play most of my games over lunch hours, so at game nights recently I've wanted to play longer games just because they don't hit the table as often. In general, though, I'm a quantity guy through and through. (I did say I'd play in one of @Futurewolfie's soon-to-take-place epic games of Twilight Imperium...but I'm in it for the snacks.)

@Futurewolfie answers:
I generally prefer games to last around an hour, although a lot of that has to do with lunch hour being the most common time that I play.

That being said, I love games in which you build up something epic.  You start small, plot a strategy forward, and by the end have something awesome going on with a lot happening in between.  <1hr games tend to be simpler or rushed, which is okay sometimes, but I do love that epic feel.  Many games take around 1.5 hrs which is fine, and usually leaves room for a couple games on a single night.

And then you have those epic, huge games that last hours and hours.  You really have to plan ahead to even have a chance of playing.  But they leave plenty of room for snacks, hanging out with your friends, and good times.   I enjoy those... but those are once-in-a-while events, not regular gaming staples.  Even if I do like all the parts to a game and wish i could play more often, it just doesn't make much sense to.

FDQ: What's Your Favorite Gaming Snack?

It's game night, finally. Your buddies are on their way over. Your wife finally let you off the hook (or maybe you picked a game she wants to play...or maybe you're wife's a gamer. Or maybe you are the wife. Or maybe... okay, whatever. Forget the wife thing) and you're about to break into a few hours of board gaming bliss.

Of course, a key element of every game night, let's not forget, is the snacks. Those yummy, delicious things that replace your normal blood with sugar and caffeine. Good snacks can elevate a great game night into an AWESOME game night.

So, what's your favorite snack to have on hand for game night? Or do you like to keep the condition of your games so pristine that you have banned all forms of salt and grease from the gaming table?

@Futurewolfie answers:
My number one "snack" to have at the table is probably pop. Yes, I am from the north. You can call it soda or soda pop or coke or whatever. I'm just saying. Nothing gets you through three to four hours of gaming like a tasty, caffeine-loaded beverage. Yeah it's unhealthy. Yeah my hobby is extremely sedentary. What of it? You know what tastes great? Vanilla Coke. That's my favorite. I also recently discovered a non-caffeinated beverage in a can from the makers of Pepsi (yes, I have both Pepsi and Coke products in my house; get over it) called "Manzanita Sol." That's Spanish for Little Apple Sun (or maybe Baby Apple Sun? I dunno. I'm not Spanish). Anyway, like 90% of the population of my little town that is named for its location relative to Chicago is Spanish-speaking and/or of Latino descent, so there are a lot of special Latino-y products on the grocery store shelves. Like tasty carbonated apple-flavored drinks.

Incidentally, I had a roommate in college whose last name was Latino. He was a white boy, though. He draws comic books these days.

Anyways, my wife makes a mean homemade salsa that is both tasty and delicious, and it's got quite a kick.  I like scooping it with Ritz Crackers. Best snack in the world.

@FarmerLenny answers:
I'm not a no-snacks-at-the-table kind of gamer, but my favorite gaming snacks are those that don't leave residue on the fingers. I've mentioned that I'm a sleever, and with good reason. My games don't need to remain in "pristine" condition, but I prefer not to have card text obfuscated by fake Dorito cheese, nor do my cards need to carry the extra sheen that pizza grease brings to the table. For this reason, I think a good gaming snack is pretzels or, my personal favorite, Combos.

Also, I will say that snacks greatly improve a game night, especially if you're playing a loooooooong game like Android. In fact, I don't think I would have made it through the one game I played had I not had an ample supply of snacks at my elbow. Snacks are one of the antidotes to my grumpiness toward players suffering (or rather causing their fellow players to suffer) from Analysis Paralysis. I have made it an incontrovertible rule that there are always treats at my book clubs. Game nights should be no different.

Shut Up and Play!

Have you ever been to a concert where the band onstage, instead of doing what they've been paid to do, practices for their future career as the voiceover guy for America's Home Videos? The cry of "Shut up and play!" rises from the audience (or if you, like me, attended mostly Christian rock concerts as a youth, in Christian charity you silently bore ill will toward those onstage, especially if they were the opening act).

Well, a similar problem can plague you when you try to teach the rules to someone. You want to get every rule in, but there are some around the table who either have played before, who understand more quickly than someone else at the table, or who have a low attention span. They cry, "Let's learn as we go!" the board gaming equivalent of "Shut up and play!"

A Noir Dystopian Sci-Fi Murder Mystery (A Review of Android)

It's in a box!

The world changed.  Crime did not.

That's the tagline on the box cover of "Android," a game of murder and conspiracy set in a dystopian future for 3-5 players.  (Also written on the front of the box.)

If you like mystery, noir, sci-fi, and conspiracy stories, you might like Android.