Unboxing new games

Bison · May 20, 2015, 10:32:29 PM

And if you really need to expand your Car Wars game or Jackson titles this site has a bunch of pdf and physical stuffs. http://www.warehouse23.com/

GJK · May 20, 2015, 11:15:05 PM

Quote from: Bison on May 20, 2015, 10:32:29 PM
And if you really need to expand your Car Wars game or Jackson titles this site has a bunch of pdf and physical stuffs. http://www.warehouse23.com/

Wow, I didn't realize how many games that guy has actually made over the years. He's the John Tiller of the boardgaming world the way he cranks out templated games!

bayonetbrant · May 21, 2015, 05:28:59 AM

Gary, SJG might be the most prolific publisher in the US if you count all the RPG stuff, too. Just their board games alone number in the hundreds, but once you add all the GURPS titles, you've probably got over a thousand titles they've published over the years.

GJK · May 21, 2015, 07:00:48 AM

That's pretty impressive (he's right here in Austin too by the way - or at least he used to be).

I knew that he had produced quite a bit of stuff but really didn't realize just how much probably because out of it all, the only thing that I ever sampled of his was Ogre game. I had overlooked that he did Munchkin and Gurps and a slew of other stuff. That's good for us; he could of been a flashy used car salesman instead and we'd of lost out. ;)

TacticalWargames · May 23, 2015, 01:07:56 AM

I too bought the Car Wars reprint. Then went on to buy the 2nd Edition deluxe rules off Ebay. Sill have all the counters from CW, SD, TS and duel track expansion.

Currently the sixth edition is being worked on. Personally I want to see a PC conversion.

Cyrano · May 23, 2015, 12:23:27 PM

Coolest thing in a walk from the CW reprint is the heavier stock counters that come PRE-CUT.

My relationship with SJG is like that girlfriend where you always hope it works out because so much is awesome, but then she insists on doing the dumbest, frankly, sh*t on the planet and you wonder why you ever fell for her in the first place.

Ogre/GEV/Battlesuit, CW, GURPS, In Nomine, Illuminati (the original boardgame), Melee, Wizard, &c., are some of my favorite games of all time. Some of them would be on my desert island list. Yet Steve and his crew can't seem to leave well enough alone and it seems near axiomatic that ever good, clean design has to morph into some unplayable wreck.

CW moved from this elegant -- if somewhat overwrought and under-edited -- game of future vehicle combat to a pen and paper physics experiment (look up the vehicle jumping then rotating rules to see what I mean...hell, look at the rules for grenades being thrown and then bouncing). Why it didn't start with gas-powered vehicles I will also never know.

Illuminati was this genius little game (I even liked Hacker) that morphed into this overdone, creaky collectible card game.

GURPS fell under the weight of the demand for supers, so I'll blame the nerds for that one, although Vehicles was its own exercise in absurdity...that I said during the playtest.

For reasons I will never understand he tried to turn Melee and Wizard into TFT.

I will not even look in the the direction of the nonsense that is Munchkin (I know of no better example of a skewed investment:reward game in major production) and Frag. I have, however, recently mulled BC's suggestion that Frag was some meta-commentary on gaming and the limits of adapting the digital format to pen and paper unleashed by Evil Stevie on a gaming public that still doesn't get the joke.

And whatever did happen to Heavy Metal?

I LOVE Ogre DE. I sincerely hope that CW6ED learns the lessons of that release and succeeds like a crazy thing.

In the meanwhile, drive offensively...

Best,

Jim
"Cyrano"
:/7)

bayonetbrant · May 23, 2015, 12:33:22 PM

munchkin is a perfect beer and pretzels game. Especially if you forget the pretzels

Cyrano · May 23, 2015, 12:36:52 PM

^ You using some definition of perfect with which I'm unfamiliar?

bayonetbrant · May 23, 2015, 12:45:30 PM

probably. Those who have yet failed to reach perfection in their own lives, fail to recognize it when those of us that have use the term correctly ;)

Barthheart · May 23, 2015, 12:46:42 PM

Both Munchkin and Frag must be played while drunk to full enjoy. They are staples in my game group for that reason... and yes we have all the expansions for Munchkin... must be over 200 cards in the Door deck by now.

I still have all my Car Wars stuff. I started with the black plastic case version and I now have 2 paper boxes full of expansions and add ons. I even mounted the Midville maps, both East and West sides. Made for some great weekend long car driving madness.

I, too, hope that CW6 returns to clarity.... But still has tanks! :)

Bison · May 23, 2015, 08:03:10 PM

Dropped way too much money today on a few of the Pokemon Theme decks and card sleeves. And of course you have to pick up a couple of booster packs just for the thrill of opening them too. On the upside, the kids like the game and actually sat through a whole game and didn't lose interest. Hopefully it's a gateway to opening up additional gaming opportunities.

Nefaro · May 24, 2015, 04:17:57 AM

Quote from: Bison on May 23, 2015, 08:03:10 PM
Dropped way too much money today on a few of the Pokemon Theme decks and card sleeves. And of course you have to pick up a couple of booster packs just for the thrill of opening them too. On the upside, the kids like the game and actually sat through a whole game and didn't lose interest. Hopefully it's a gateway to opening up additional gaming opportunities.

I got Smash Up for a card game that might hold some interest with the varied youngster ages, while still holding a bit of variety, but haven't played it yet. I think the card text is pretty straightforward but you never know until some playthroughs.

bayonetbrant · May 24, 2015, 05:32:53 AM

My son is a big fan of Pokemon. He started with MtG, but switched to Pokemon after some friends at school turned him onto it. He has a lot of Pokemon cards, but is not a completist collector type that tries to round up complete sets or anything.

Bison · May 24, 2015, 10:17:21 AM

I have no intention of being a set completionist. Although I must admit my card organizing OCD kicked in after we opened the couple of booster packs we bought. I looked up the value and then pulled the valuable cards off to the side so we wouldn't damage them during game play. I need to let it go. They love the cool looking foil cards and if it keeps them interested in gaming I'll just need to accept that the card worth $5 today may not make it to the future in a near mint condition. OMG! It goes against every collecting impulse that I bred into myself all those years ago collecting sports cards and comics. I may need to join a gaming collectors self help program....

Arctic Blast · May 25, 2015, 01:22:04 PM

Quote from: Nefaro on May 24, 2015, 04:17:57 AM
Quote from: Bison on May 23, 2015, 08:03:10 PM
Dropped way too much money today on a few of the Pokemon Theme decks and card sleeves. And of course you have to pick up a couple of booster packs just for the thrill of opening them too. On the upside, the kids like the game and actually sat through a whole game and didn't lose interest. Hopefully it's a gateway to opening up additional gaming opportunities.

I got Smash Up for a card game that might hold some interest with the varied youngster ages, while still holding a bit of variety, but haven't played it yet. I think the card text is pretty straightforward but you never know until some playthroughs.

The only real issue with Smash Up is that it can really bog down as things begin developing at bases. Everyone is playing cards which are constantly changing the game state and the way that card power is scored, meaning constant re-calculation of what the total strength is at, and so on. It doesn't kill the game, but it can become a bit of a slog.