Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

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LordMortis
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by LordMortis »

Daveman wrote:As much as I enjoy Settlers of Catan, I didn't enjoy watching other people play it in that episode. Does everyone trade that much in their games? I'm guessing they were just playing up the trading/social aspect of the game... either that or the people I play with are just really stingy.
When we play, most people call for trading on their turn. In a five or six player game any one can call for trading on every turn, so there is a subdued WallStreet of six players happening on every turn before it closes out.

Being Stingy only gets you nuked by a robber or losing badly quickly to those that dominate the ports.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Kelric »

KiloOhm wrote:
Kelric wrote: I wish I had a gaming group. :cry: (working on it, though!)
Are you actually *in* boston? I'm in central MA (Shirley).
Yeah, I'm in Back Bay.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

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Kelric wrote:Yeah, I'm in Back Bay.
Why does that sound like a euphemism?
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by miltonite »

They did not follow the robber taking half resources if over 7. The guy directly to Wil's right had like 10 cards when the robber was on the streak.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Zaxxon »

miltonite wrote:They did not follow the robber taking half resources if over 7. The guy directly to Wil's right had like 10 cards when the robber was on the streak.
Yeah they also made an error by allowing the player to move the robber via dev card before rolling. That's not allowed.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by stessier »

Saw Ticket to Ride this weekend - it seemed like that group had the least chemistry. I love Eureka and was looking forward to this episode to see Colin play. Still decent, just not great. Loved Ann's reaction at the end - an instant classic. :lol:
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

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Colin rules!
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Daveman »

I enjoyed the Ticket to Ride episode, even though it's frustrating watching new people play :P Everyone was so focused on their tickets and they never even discussed, nor did anyone choose, to draw additional tickets as the game progressed. Colin and Wil both had good networks across the board and should have drawn more tickets... chances are they could have easily linked them up and scored more points.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Blackhawk »

stessier wrote: Loved Ann's reaction at the end - an instant classic. :lol:
That was hilarious. I was rolling. I had to jump back and rewatch it a couple of times just to watch everyone's reactions.

I can't afford a bunch of games just now, but thanks to this show, Catan and Zombie Dice have taken up residence in my Amazon wish list. This show is fantastic for finding games.

Oh, also on this week's episode:

I may need to move to Burbank and take up comics just to mumble incoherently and avoid making eye contact with Amy at her shop. :wub:
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Smoove_B »

Munchkin with Felicia Day and Steve Jackson. I wrote a letter to Steve Jackson when I was in 6th grade asking him about the Fighting Fantasy book series (and if more were coming). He actually wrote back and included a signed picture -- which I still have.

And that's my Steve Jackson story.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by hentzau »

Smoove_B wrote:Munchkin with Felicia Day and Steve Jackson. I wrote a letter to Steve Jackson when I was in 6th grade asking him about the Fighting Fantasy book series (and if more were coming). He actually wrote back and included a signed picture -- which I still have.

And that's my Steve Jackson story.
The really screwed up part of that is that the Steve Jackson you're talking about wasn't the Steve Jackson that created the Fighting Fantasy books, but he did write a few of them...
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by PLW »

The Steve Jackson one is the best episode I've seen.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by SpaceLord »

I'm so tired of Munchkin. Cute, but empty. Ugh.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Anonymous Bosch »

SpaceLord wrote:I'm so tired of Munchkin. Cute, but empty. Ugh.
Amen.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Smoove_B »

hentzau wrote:The really screwed up part of that is that the Steve Jackson you're talking about wasn't the Steve Jackson that created the Fighting Fantasy books, but he did write a few of them...
Wow. I'm 38 years old and I had no idea there were two Steve Jacksons.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Anonymous Bosch »

Smoove_B wrote:
hentzau wrote:The really screwed up part of that is that the Steve Jackson you're talking about wasn't the Steve Jackson that created the Fighting Fantasy books, but he did write a few of them...
Wow. I'm 38 years old and I had no idea there were two Steve Jacksons.
Yeah, the Fighting Fantasy/Sorcery! Steve Jackson is British (and was also one of the founders of Games Workshop).

To make matters even more discombobulating, the Munchkin/American Steve Jackson also authored several of the Fighting Fantasy books (Scorpion Swamp, Demons of the Deep, and Robot Commando) as hent mentioned. Weird.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Daveman »

The latest episode covered Castle Panic. The group chemistry was pretty solid this time around and I enjoyed watching them play, but Castle Panic without the expansion is pretty dry.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Daehawk »

Never heard of these games but Castle Panic looked fun.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by MonkeyFinger »

hentzau wrote:
Smoove_B wrote:Munchkin with Felicia Day and Steve Jackson. I wrote a letter to Steve Jackson when I was in 6th grade asking him about the Fighting Fantasy book series (and if more were coming). He actually wrote back and included a signed picture -- which I still have.

And that's my Steve Jackson story.
The really screwed up part of that is that the Steve Jackson you're talking about wasn't the Steve Jackson that created the Fighting Fantasy books, but he did write a few of them...
I find it somewhat amusing that your two Steves are just one Steve linked to twice. :wink:
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Blackhawk »

It's a Conspiracy of Steves.

It sounds like a game one of the Steves would write.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by hentzau »

MonkeyFinger wrote:
hentzau wrote:
Smoove_B wrote:Munchkin with Felicia Day and Steve Jackson. I wrote a letter to Steve Jackson when I was in 6th grade asking him about the Fighting Fantasy book series (and if more were coming). He actually wrote back and included a signed picture -- which I still have.

And that's my Steve Jackson story.
The really screwed up part of that is that the Steve Jackson you're talking about wasn't the Steve Jackson that created the Fighting Fantasy books, but he did write a few of them...
I find it somewhat amusing that your two Steves are just one Steve linked to twice. :wink:
Oops. Well, once you get to the first Steve, you can navigate to the second one pretty easily.

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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Blackhawk »

Daveman wrote: Castle Panic without the expansion is pretty dry.
No kidding. I added Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan to my Amazon wish list after their episodes, and have bought Zombie Dice. This is the first time, though, that an episode has had me remove a game from my wish list. Castle Panic didn't look particularly entertaining.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by hentzau »

My kids and I have great fun playing Castle Panic. I just got the Wizards Tower for Father's Day, looking forward to giving it a go with them soon.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Daveman »

Blackhawk wrote:This is the first time, though, that an episode has had me remove a game from my wish list. Castle Panic didn't look particularly entertaining.
Ack! Base Castle Panic is, in my opinion, an OK, light-hearted cooperative game that isn't too difficult to win... "a good game to play with the kids" is a frequent comment about it. Castle Panic + Wizards Tower expansion is a much, much, much more difficult to win game, with plenty of "oh crap" moments. I still think it's a good family game with the expansion, provided the younger players don't mind playing a game that's going to be a tough win.

Deep down the game is still essentially the same with the expansion, playing cards from your hand and hoping to maximize the damage you can deal out to the approaching monsters each turn, and reacting to potential breakthroughs. The differences are that instead of fairly bland 1-3 HP monsters you get a variety of monsters with special abilities that set them apart. You also get 2 decks of cards, the usual deck and the Wizard deck. Each turn you can discard a card to draw from the Wizard deck (provided the Wizard tower is still up) and those cards are generally much more useful, but you only get one per turn. To me, there's a lot more decision-making to be done in terms of what cards to discard and when to use them opposed to the base game. There's a fair amount of cards that involve moving monsters around, and you can setup combos by clumping up monsters and then playing other new cards that affect targets in the same space like Chain Lightning, Hypnotize and so on.

The Wizard cards are generally very powerful, and at a quick glance almost too powerful... but you really, really need them to compensate for the added difficulty of the much tougher monsters, bosses, and the new mega-bosses introduced in the expansion. I'm tempted to say this was a case of a game that "should have" been sold as one unit as the expansion really does add that much to the game. Looking at my online game shop of choice Castle Panic is $23, Wizard Tower is $17. That's a fair price in my opinion.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Zaxxon »

Blackhawk wrote:
Daveman wrote: Castle Panic without the expansion is pretty dry.
No kidding. I added Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan to my Amazon wish list after their episodes, and have bought Zombie Dice. This is the first time, though, that an episode has had me remove a game from my wish list. Castle Panic didn't look particularly entertaining.
Interesting... The same episode caused me to add Castle Panic to my wish list. I think it'll be a nice, simple co-op game to have in my stable of options. I agree with those that have mentioned that the base game looks a little dry, but as Daveman pointed out, the expansion should add enough depth to keep it fun for some time.

That's my hope, at least.

[Edit - I should mention that I got the game for Father's Day, so we'll see soon enough...]
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by hepcat »

I played Castle Panic a while back. The base game is all that was out at the time and I remember enjoying it but thinking at the same time it was basically just a kid's game. I'll have to check it out with the expansion if it adds as much as you guys say.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Smoove_B »

/shrugs

We like Castle Panic -- plays great with a 6 year old. Also teaches basic strategy, math and the idea of a cooperative victory. There aren't candy bars, little bears or dancing ponies. Instead it's Orcs, Trolls, Archers and Knights. We aren't using the expansion yet (though I know it's awesome) as we're still working on the basics. But for that? It's a great, great game.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by hepcat »

I'm not knocking it, don't get me wrong. The version I played was definitely a great family game.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Zaxxon »

hepcat wrote:I'm not knocking it, don't get me wrong. The version I played was definitely a great family game.
The way I'm looking at it is as another gateway drug for the subset of friends who find Settlers of Catan and Dominion too much up-front learnin' to try. Castle Panic looks like it'll take about 37 seconds to fully explain, and that's the key for this group. Once they're in, then I can expand to deeper games.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by hentzau »

Zaxxon wrote:
hepcat wrote:I'm not knocking it, don't get me wrong. The version I played was definitely a great family game.
The way I'm looking at it is as another gateway drug for the subset of friends who find Settlers of Catan and Dominion too much up-front learnin' to try. Castle Panic looks like it'll take about 37 seconds to fully explain, and that's the key for this group. Once they're in, then I can expand to deeper games.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by stessier »

I was in a group that played Castle Panic at the last Octocon. Only the person teaching us had played before and we barely won. It was amusing for the game we played. Not sure how much fun it would be to replay over and over again.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by hentzau »

stessier wrote:I was in a group that played Castle Panic at the last Octocon. Only the person teaching us had played before and we barely won. It was amusing for the game we played. Not sure how much fun it would be to replay over and over again.
I think that was me...maybe. I know I played at least one game of Castle Panic there. My buddy Joe kept asking me to show it to him. Been on me for over a year to demonstrate it. And yes, that was a skin of our teeth game. But most of them are.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Zaxxon »

My copy of Castle Panic arrived today and I just did a full read-through of the rules. For those that call this a pretty shallow game, have you tried the 'normal' variants of the game? (eg the ones where it's not simply co-op everyone wins or everyone loses) It looks like the standard version (co-op but with a single winner based on points from slaying monsters) would liven up the trading quite a bit, and the Overlord mode (one player vs the rest, with that one being the overlord of the monsters and making some decisions on monster placement to thwart the defenders) seems interesting, too.

I'm still gunning for the expansion to truly deepen the game, but it seems like there's significantly more here than what was demoed on Tabletop (seems like they just played the introductory Gateway Drug™ rules).
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Daveman »

The basic competitive-cooperative rules (goal is to keep the castle alive, but the player who killed the most points worth of monsters is the "winner") just didn't click with me. At what point do you not do all you can on your turn to beat back the monsters in favor of your own personal "score"? Do you only look to kill monsters and avoid wounding the big guys for fear someone else will finish it off and get the credit? I do like the idea of the variant where each player is given a tower of their own, and the goal is to be last man standing. In that case, I have my own personal goal and want the other towers to fall, provided something big and nasty doesn't break through and come after my tower. But trying to work toward a "common" goal and simply be the better at it doesn't work for me. Not to mention the deal of the cards and placement of monsters could easily give some players more chances to score points than others.

We played with an Overlord player once and it was OK... I just think Castle Panic is such a good cooperative game that mucking around with it isn't worth it.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Blackhawk »

This week's is Gloom.

Guests include Amber Benson (Buffy), Michele Boyd (The Guild) and Meghan Camarena (The Internet.)

I haven't watched it yet, but wanted to give everyone a heads-up.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Isgrimnur »

Make sure you read Wil's post about the many egregious play errors once you start frothing at the mouth.

I have the Cthulhu version, which is just as enjoyable. I was introduced to the game at last year's Origins by hepcat and Zarathud. It's a fun game.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Daehawk »

Didn't really care for that Gloom one. i skipped a lot of it.

In this video...at .25....where he is pushing a car.......what game is that? Looks end of the world'ish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVKQ3VgGN3o" target="_blank
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by hentzau »

Daehawk wrote:Didn't really care for that Gloom one. i skipped a lot of it.

In this video...at .25....where he is pushing a car.......what game is that? Looks end of the world'ish.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVKQ3VgGN3o" target="_blank
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Zaxxon »

I didn't care for Gloom, either. Not my type of game.
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Re: Wil Wheaton - Tabletop

Post by Daehawk »

Thank you hentzau.
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