Rule of the Dice

Today's post is about a mechanic I really enjoy: Simultaneous Action Selection.  You know, I'm not quite sure why I just capitalized that...  Anyway, there are a bunch of games that use this mechanic, but I'll stick to just 2 as examples, and the slightly different strategies they evoke. B-Wing movement options The wheels when assembled The first is a game I've talked about before ; Star Wars: X-Wing Miniatures Game .  You can read about the basic premise here.  Today I'll focus specifically on the movement and initiative portion of the game.  Each pilot / ship has an initiative number.  The lower initiative moves first, but shoots last. This is something really important to keep in mind as the main point of the game is to get other ships in range within your firing arc, or to get out of range or firing arc of the enemy (typical dog-fight tactics).  The way movement works in this game is that all players lock in their chosen movemen...

On May 12th I had the pleasure of joining a great conversation about cooperative games run by @boardgamehour on twitter.  It got me thinking about how many co-op games I've played recently and just how much I enjoy them.  First, let's see what can fall in to the co-op category.  There are true co-op games where everyone plays together to beat the game, like Castle Panic , Pandemic , and Forbidden Island / Desert .  Then there are "traitor" games where everyone works together until someone turns on the others, like Battle Star Galactica and Betrayal at House on the Hill .  Finally there are team games like The Resistance , MTG Two-Headed Giant , or 1812: The Invasion of Canada . Today I will focus on the true co-op games, because I think the Traitor mechanic deserves a post of its own.  We'll talk about this some other time. Co-ops can be great fun. With everyone working together they can be a great way to introduce new gamers...

How do you get people to play games with you?  Something I have discovered recently, is that a great game is essential to getting people to go along with you. There are so many board games these days, it's hard to narrow down a choice of what one to play.  If I'm with a small group of hard-core gamers, we'll look through the pile and just pick something we all like.  But if I'm with a larger group, or we're trying to pick a game that not everyone has played, the game mechanic is usually the deciding factor. So what makes a good mechanic?  One of the first things to stand out to me is how simple it is to set up and explain.   Okay, pg.8 of the rules done, and the board is set up.  Now what? The next thing I look for much strategy is required.  Can I master this game by the second playing?  Last is re-playability.  I don't want a game that has the same result time after time.  What can help here is creativ...

That headline may incite some backlash towards me, and you know what? I'm fine with it.  It is time to try to change some gamer's attitudes.  Unfortunately, the ones who really need to change will probably have already stopped reading. This is stemming from a couple of incidents that have come up in recent weeks, like one about a t-shirt and a great reaction to it, and another about a comic book cover and the ridiculous reaction to the article written on it.  I won't go in to details about those ones, you can read them yourself if you haven't already. I won't even mention the disgusting rampant sexism they display, instead, I'm just going to tackle this at a general and gender neutral level. I don't think anyone wants to touch him, casual or not... Thanks to shows like The Big Bang Theory and Cosmos,  high profile tech people like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg, and the proliferation of comic book derived movies, being a geek, nerd, gam...