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I was playing a complicated board game, Inventions: Evolution of Ideas, and I noticed something about another player that I’ve noticed before; They are Game Rules Optimistic. I’ll explain: The game has a map, and on the map are some tiles. The tiles are double-sided, with very different…
Continue readingMany modern board games incorporate card-based mechanics to introduce variety, surprise players, or offer small bonuses that can impact gameplay. Often, these cards give the impression of receiving something extra—an unexpected perk or tactical edge that breaks from the standard flow of the game. In Galactic Cruise, players…
Continue readingMany tabletop games devolve into a race to get points before the game ends. SETI: Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is a unique game that, like many others, devolves into a point collection process with little or no theme left by the end of the game. I won’t be…
Continue readingIn the interest of full disclosure, ChatGPT wrote the title of this post and helped with grammar issues in this and other posts. I was watching a movie review, or rather a review about movies, and it struck me that board games don’t receive the deep analysis that…
Continue readingI think I have an installable version of the 3D Lander game: https://www.rectorsquid.com/Lander/Lander.msi This is a Windows installer file that is digitally signed by me with my code signing certificate. If You encounter this Linage.msi file and installing it doesn’t show my name as the publisher, run away….
Continue readingI was listening to an interview on NPR with author Daniel Pink, who wrote an article for the Washington Post titled “Why Not Get Rid of Grades?” I apologize that the article is behind a paywall and the link is to a podcast. But you won’t need to see…
Continue readingLast night, I played Salton Sea for the second time. The first time was a year ago so the setup and review of the rules was lengthy. I was teaching an accomplished board game player so it only went badly for the first few rounds. Salton Sea is…
Continue readingI have a collection of about 150 board games. There are many themes, mechanisms, and point styles in these games. This post is about the style or method of tracking points in games. What are “points?” They are the measurement of success in a game. In the game…
Continue readingUndergrove is a modern board game by Elizabeth Hargrave and Mark Wootton. Elizabeth Hargrave also designed Wingspan, a wildly popular game, so I had high expectations for Undergrove. After a single play with everyone at the table playing it for the first time, I saw that it has…
Continue readingAfter playing the board game Arcs recently, I realized that no matter how well a game’s theme is developed, that theme can be weakened if the action selection mechanism feels unthematic. In board games, “action selection” refers to the process of choosing what to do on a turn….
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