When I originally rediscovered the hobby, one of the things that I was most interested in when scouring the web, was finding strategy discussions. I wanted to learn how to improve my play, plus simply reading posts on strategies and tactics for games was entertaining. Now, years later, my opinion has changed.
Games, for the most part, have a theme. Many games are designed entirely around involving players in their theme. RPGs form the lion’s share of these, and the remainder form a category that is commonly referred to as Ameritrash (this isn’t a derogatory term in most circles, despite the sound of it).
With the large amount of new CCG’s released every year at Gen Con, I have found it hard to find info about these games and their creators. In my home town one of these new companies exists, PK Cards created In Mentor, Ohio. I have the pleasure of speaking with Brandon Pelok about once a week. On this visit I decided to put him in the hot seat.
Everyone likes to win and so when we play games we attempt to use every means at our disposal to stack the odds in our favour. The most natural means we have by which to influence the outcome of any game are our tongues. Most every gamer has tried at one point or another to manoeuvre himself into a win. We negotiate, manipulate, subtly hint, misdirect, you name it — and each and every one of these tactics can be pulled off by our clever use of words: table talk.
By Mario T. Lanza There is a guiding principle in the world of strategy games by which all players should
Too often, game masters design their worlds around “the basics”. Elves inhabit the woods; dwarves live in the mountains. While this may have worked well for Tolkien, it has simply been done to death. Oh, it can be nice at first, because everyone can easily figure their background, but eventually it gets dull. Why not start out with a new beginning?
My Mario T. Lanza When an order of games arrived, I used to neatly stacked each title on the shelf
The TactDecks Battle System is a card-based strategic combat game set in this precarious world of feudal warfare, magic, and decaying technology. Part CCG, part miniature war-game, TactDecks combines the tactical challenges of skirmish gaming with the collectability and deck-building components of CCGs.
As the second of my reports on the talks and seminars given at Dragonmeet on the 27th of November, I’ll continue with the candid talk that Angus and Dominic gave during that morning.
I am now ‘progressing’ into my mid-40s, and somehow, thanks to having tolerant gamers in my gaming group, am still able to game!! Admittedly, folks have been very flexible to help me (and Stuart) out in this regard….. Insane amounts of work (I teach social sciences and thus have tons of marking, and an ever shifting teaching / knowledge domain) coupled with commuting 2 hours a day….
