Disqus - Latest Comments for blinks

Re: RPG Review: Blades in the Dark

Adam Blinkinsop — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 12:08:15 -0000

The "hyperbaton" sounds like something a Blades character might start with, and I think we all need to show up in more reviews.

*Plug*
Sage [LaTorra, of Dungeon World fame] and I recorded a podcast on Blades in the Dark last month, if you want more of a designer's take on it: http://www.anotherquestion....

Re: Games News! 08/02/16

Adam Blinkinsop — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 16:23:17 -0000

That'd be awesome. You could do it by dealing out the cards as normal, having the Spy reveal (and turn into the Handler), and then everyone closes their eyes while the Handler walks around the table, tapping one person on the shoulder; that person's the Spy.

Questions get asked around, but not to the Handler. At any point, the Handler can guess the location to end the game. If they're correct, the rest of the players can simultaneously point at who they think is the Spy -- if a plurality is correct, the Handler/Spy team loses, otherwise they win.

Re: Games News! 08/02/16

Adam Blinkinsop — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 16:19:57 -0000

CO2 is a strange game for Vidal -- very group-dependent because of the ability for a player to tank it for everyone.

Re: Games News! 08/02/16

Adam Blinkinsop — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 16:18:45 -0000

Vinhos: Not as good as the 'ist, but better than Kanban. Strange kind of rondel, always fun to make wine, age it, and sell it to the States.

Re: Review: Blood Rage

Adam Blinkinsop — Wed, 03 Feb 2016 12:08:07 -0000

"They might have played a vitally useful combat card, some trash, or even something that wasn’t even a combat card, which then returns to their hand." -- quick rules note: cards always return to your hand unless you won the fight, at which point you lose the card even if it wasn't a combat card. (Also note: you _must_ play a card in combat, unless you have no cards.)

Got to agree with you on the point track. Such a strange thing for this game, and makes the occasional runaway leader (or trailer?) in age III a sad time.

Re: Games News! 14/09/15

Adam Blinkinsop — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 12:01:30 -0000

"We really should put together a tips guide for Kickstarter pitches one of these days."

Yes, please. Sometime this year, before I have to make my own Kickstarter pitch. ;)

Re: SU&SD’s Top 25 Games Ever! #10 to #6

Adam Blinkinsop — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 12:20:05 -0000

And bonus game zero.

Re: Review: Fire in the Lake

Adam Blinkinsop — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 16:04:15 -0000

I don't know; TS is all about the bluffing and brinksmanship to me. The COIN games are great, but they satisfy a different niche.

Re: Review: Fire in the Lake

Adam Blinkinsop — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 13:07:07 -0000

Solitaire play is good (the AI is difficult and intelligent), but doesn't hold a candle to a full contingent of human players.

Re: Review: Fire in the Lake

Adam Blinkinsop — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 12:17:18 -0000

COIN (the series of games) is about the same complexity level as Twilight Struggle (albeit with more than two players, which adds its own weight). FitL is probably the heaviest of the COIN games; Cuba Libré is the lightest, so if you're interested, I'd start there.

They're elegant as all get out, though. Once you understand the general concepts, the mechanics generally fade into the background -- political discussion, plotting, strategizing; that's the game.

Re: Review: Fire in the Lake

Adam Blinkinsop — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 12:01:56 -0000

A beautiful review of a beautiful game. I've put my self on GMT's auto-order for the COIN series, so my heart is on my sleeve here, but when I heard the Vietnam game would be co-designed by Mark Herman (For the People, Empire of the Sun, SPQR), I knew it would be amazing.

I've only played the short game myself, though -- glad to hear that the long game adds a bunch of depth.

Re: Games News! 21/07/14

Adam Blinkinsop — Mon, 21 Jul 2014 15:40:08 -0000

Thunder Alley is _far_ more euro than Virgin Queen. You set the cars up, and then move 'em the number of spaces listed on your card. Where the card has arrows, your car is moving _other_ cars along with it. When everyone has moved all their cars, draw and resolve an event, and continue to the next turn. Easy.

To that end, if you ever want to attempt Here I Stand / Virgin Queen again, my friends and I are playing a turn-per-week game online, using Vassal and Google Hangouts. We'd love to have you, if we can make the time difference work.

Re: Shut Up & Sit Down | Review: Blueprints

Adam Blinkinsop — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:03:34 -0000

I still want to lock them in a room and play Here I Stand / Virgin Queen.

Re: Shut Up & Sit Down | Review: Blueprints

Adam Blinkinsop — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 11:50:30 -0000

"Beware of Knizia" in the background cracked me up. :-D

Re: Review: A Distant Plain

Adam Blinkinsop — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 11:52:51 -0000

You like Labyrinth more than ADP?

I'll have to give it another look.

Re: Review: A Distant Plain

Adam Blinkinsop — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 11:51:54 -0000

The Vassal module actually does all the state tracking itself, and is great if you have the game (for the rules) and a couple more people. (I've done it solo via Vassal, and that's great, too.)

Re: University of Reddit : Game Development with Unity 3D and C#

Adam Blinkinsop — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 18:25:10 -0000

Sweet, currently hacking up something now.

Re: 802.heaven: Nothing so formal...

Adam Blinkinsop — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 10:30:25 -0000

What are you writing the book with? I'm a huge fan of Git + LaTeX (so I can keep revisions and get it nicely typesetted). :)

Exciting!

Re: Daniel Solis: Three Best Practices of RISK: Legacy-Style Game Design

Adam Blinkinsop — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 11:53:52 -0000

I know I occasionally play multiple games of Dominion or Puzzle Strike that way -- at the end of the game each player can swap a pile out for something else.

In that sense, you could definitely include a record book with a game, which would both track changes over time as well as provide a way to set up the game based on those changes.

That'd actually be very cool for the long-term narrative aspect... FFG's doing something like this for the campaign mode of the Descent reprint, iirc, but it could totally apply to other genres... hmmm...

Re: Daniel Solis: Three Best Practices of RISK: Legacy-Style Game Design

Adam Blinkinsop — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 10:26:11 -0000

I'm not sure about #3. #1 is practically a given (in particular, "satisfying in its own right" should be applied all the way down in most designs), and #2 is important to remember.

I'm not sure if #3 is necessary, though. It seems like you should be able to make non-destructive, but still persistent changes to the field of play. As a strawman, imagine Risk Legacy with some kind of removable stickers. They'd stay on the board between sessions, but when you ran out you'd cycle back -- or, perhaps, an event would allow you to pull _off_ a sticker and return it to the box.

In this way, the variables defining the game still change each session, and removing an "ammo dump" (iirc) sticker would be satisfying: "you won't get that _next_ game, hah!" I'm curious how well it would work, and if we have the materials tech necessary to make it work well, but it doesn't seem impossible.

Re: Part 49: Sound

Adam Blinkinsop — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:30:34 -0000

Ah, from the snippet I couldn't tell that saucer->m_origin.x was a double; with 150 and 300 as ints I thought it may have been an int/long.

Re: Part 49: Sound

Adam Blinkinsop — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 12:27:09 -0000

> saucer->m_origin.x = -150+ 300*(rand() / (double) RAND_MAX);

Why not this instead: saucer->m_origin.x = (rand() % 300) - 150;

It avoids division, the double cast, the RAND_MAX magic number, and reads somewhat nicer (random integer from 0 to 299 minus 150).

Re: Let's Open a Booster – Zendikar

Adam Blinkinsop — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:42:30 -0000

Ah, it's true. I still root for [card]Decree of Annihilation[/card]. :-D

Re: Let's Open a Booster – Zendikar

Adam Blinkinsop — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:17:33 -0000

Desecrated Earth: *Almost* the first time; what about Incendiary Command? Decree of Annihilation might also count, but it's a bit of a stretch. Most of the other ones combine discarding for the active player with land destruction for the target.

Of course, Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker also might count, but would you ever get to the ultimate ability?

http://mtgcauldron.com/sear...

Re: Gmail Now Tells You Who You Want To Email

Adam Blinkinsop — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 12:44:34 -0000

The "list" feature you speak of is in Contacts -> select a few people -> Groups [dropdown] -> Add to... -> New Group.