Bridges to a crafting project

So far, 2017 has been busy enough that I really haven't gotten around to making many print-and-play projects. However, when I saw Bridges to Nowhere, I knew I was going to be making it. Preferable before April :P

In theory, Bridges to Nowhere fits into a niche that I really enjoy, a quiet, low conflict two-player game that would be mellow and relaxing. Morels or Lost Cities are examples of these kinds of games. 

Bridges to Nowhere is a micro game for two players where you draft cards that show bridge sections to build your own bridges. The artwork, both minimal and atmospheric, is lovely. Makes me want to reread Johnathan Livingstone Seagull.

And on paper, it looks like the kind of game we would have fun with. But I have concerns that the pool of cards will prove to be too small. That getting the right cards or even card might swing the game.

But guess what? The game is four sheets of cards. Between printing, laminating and cutting, it will take me less than a half hour to make it, even with a three-year-old's help. It will cost me next to nothing to find out if it's any good so I am going to find out.

Okay, I will rank the Hip Pocket line

I had been planning on making this just a response to someone asking me about ranking the individual games in Cheapass's Hip Pocket Game line. But my response ended up getting so long that I decided to just make it a separate blog entry.

So, here's a ranking and commentary on the Hip Pocket Game Line.

1. Light Speed - it's a real time game of slapping down cards that represent space ships with shields and lasers that you trace to see if they hit anything. It's not the first or only game of its kind but it's the best I've found so far. In large part because it is so stripped down and simple while still feeling like a space battle. When I first played it, it felt like cheating to be so easy but so thematic.

I didn't realize there was a revised version called Stellar Conflict, which adds faction powers, until someone commented on it in my last blog post. I'd be willing to try it but part of the appeal of Light Speed is it's raw simplicity. Adding complexity and time to the scoring part of the game might be a game breaker for me.

2. The Very Clever Pipe Game - a tile laying game of connecting pipes and collecting the cards that make closed pipelines. This is easily the game I played the most, because it is so solid and requires nothing but the cards. It works well because it tosses out everything but the fundamentals. It misses being number one because it's in a more crowded field of tile laying, connection games. These days, HUE takes its place in my bag. Still, I'd never turn down a game.

3. Agora/Camden - creating a Roman market place with special events to spice things up until someone wins by earning enough money. This has some really weird placement rules that restrict how cards can connect to form larger stands but there isn't restrictions on how you place stands. I've never seen another game quite like it and it does a good job being different and and unique.

4. Nexus - you place cards in a basket weave pattern and claim intersections to control paths. When I first played Nexus, I really liked it. It was one of my first area of control games. But time hasn't been as kind to it as some the games earlier on the ranking. Not a bad game but not sparkly any more.

5. The Big Cheese - the token auction game in the line, themed around corporate rats completing projects. The biggest twist in the game is that the value of the completed project is determined by a die roll. While GEM is my choice of quick auction games, the Big Cheese would be interesting to revisit. I've played a lot of auction games since the Big Cheese and it would be interesting to revisit.

6. Steam Tunnels - you lay down tiles to create a maze of tunnels with players claiming tunnels whose value will be determined by their end caps. Okay, it's been so long since I've played it and it left so little an impression, I can't remember what I thought. Which is not a recommendation.

7. Cube Farm - a tile laying game where you build a map of an office floor where you try to get the good stuff like the copier and the exit close to you and the bad stuff like the Vice President far away. I did not have a great impression of it but, you know, I remember it. And I've been in a lot more cubicles since then. I'd revisit it to see what I think now.

Games that got left out:

I swear the Big Idea had a Hip Pocket edition but I can't seem to find any proof of that. Right group, decent party game.

And, as I've mentioned elsewhere, I haven't played Safari Jack or Timeline. And, revisiting the Hip Pocket Game line, I really need to play Timeline. A time travel game where the maze of time lines constantly shifts sounds like a lot of fun.

I personally own all these games but a good chunk of them of them are available as free print and plays on Cheapass's website and I'm sure can be printed on demand at sites like Drive By Cards.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/73/hip-pocket-games

http://cheapass.com/free-games/

My stepping stone of Hip Pocket games

Wandering down memory lane has brought me to the Hip Pocket line of games, a line of games that Cheapass produced that were smaller than their usual games but better than a lot of them.

I played them quite a bit in between getting back into board games with Settlers of Catan and Puerto Rico and Fluxx and getting serious about building a library of games. They were a big part me testing the water with my toe before diving headfirst into the deep end.

Every single game is a little deck of cards in a plastic baggy and most of them are tile laying games. At the time, they cost between four to six dollars so it was easy to get a little library going. The games in the Hip Pocket line were simpler and more solid than most of the other games in the Cheapass catalog at the time.

Over the last few years, as I've become less of a game snob, I've come to appreciate Cheapass's designs more and more. Some of the games that have come out in the last few years have been good and well aimed at the 'causual' audience. But I really believe the Hip Pocket line are some of the best games they made.

The best of the Hip Pocket line, which I'm saying are The Very Clever Pipe Game and Light Speed, I have played more times than I can count, particularly since I wasn't keeping track of my plays back then. I'd honestly play any of the ones I've played again without a problem, even Cube Farm, which I thought was just okay.

Confession time: I have not yet played either Safari Jack or Timeline. I may never play Safari Jack but I do want to eventually play Timeline. It is probably the heaviest game in the lot, which was heavy when Fluxx was one of primary games, but it's probably light to me now. Plus, it looks like pretty good.

Small and short but punchy and well designed. The Hip Pocket line was a good way for me to edge into collecting games. And, while I have other games I now carry everywhere, they still hold up really well.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/73/hip-pocket-games

Second try writing about Cosmic Wimpout

Okay, let's try this again.

Cosmic Wimpout. The last time I tried to write about Cosmic Wimpout, I ended up talking about how dice games have their own cultural spot in games but this time, I'm going to try and really focus on Cosmic Wimpout. 

Cosmic Wimpout is a game and experience that is bigger than its parts. Because, fundamentally, it's just a variant of the old dice game Ten Thousand. But the visually distinct dice, the tweaks in the rules and it's place in Grateful Dead culture has given Cosmic Wimpout a unique identity.

The game consists of five dice. Four white dice and one black did that has a wild face instead of a three. Two thirds of the numbers have been replaced with astrological symbols but they are still really just the numbers. You know, two moons for two and six stars for six, that sort of thing. You could easily play the game with regular dice, just marking up one of the threes. But why would you want to? The dice are neat looking and fun.

The game itself is basically a variant on Ten Thousand. You roll the dice and lock scoring combinations. Keep rolling until you can stop and keep the points or not have any dice you can work and lose all the points from your turn.

One of the major differences between Cosmic Wimpout and Ten Thousand is that there are multiple rules that force you to keep on rolling. This can lead do to really high scoring turns or really big blowouts.

Normally, the game playing me would be a big mark against it. But the roller coaster ride Cosmic Wimpout can take you wan and the speed that you play it is enough for me to somehow not mind. 

Another major difference is that one wild side. Just having one out of the thirty-six sides being wild is enough to make a real difference in how the probabilities crunch out. Even if you are just playing with your gut, which is how most of us would anyway, it makes a difference.

Cosmic Wimpout also has the Guiding Light, which is basically just permission to use House rules. Seriously, you don't need official permission to use house rules but the fact that the game gives you it indicates the kind of philosophy the designers had.

The last and possibly most interesting part of Cosmic Wimpout is its

place in Grateful Dead fandom and other counter cultures. The funny thing is that I've never actually seen it in that environment. I don't know how much it hype and how much is legitimate.

But it is definitely part of its identity and its reputation. That is going to affect who you are going to get to play and what the experience of the game is going to be like. And frankly, I can't think of another game with this identity. 

Cosmic Wimpout isn't one of my favorite games, not even among light dice games. But it was a very acquisition, before I really started collecting games. And, there is no denying that it is fun and it's own experience.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1302/cosmic-wimpout

Dice games in my pocket

It is hardly a secret that I am a big fan of games that you can fit in your pocket. When I was first getting into gaming and hadn't gotten serious about having a game closet, those were the first kind of games that were in my collection. A big part of my reentry into playing board games were games at coffee shops or restaurants or waiting for everyone to show up for the D&D game.

(For a very brief time, a lot of my gaming was done with Cheapass's Hip Pocket line at a coffee shop across from the Music Box in Chicago that I'm pretty sure is gone. I don't think it was for more than a month but it was so early in my gaming experience that it stands out)

While there is now a ridiculous vast wealth of small games, it wasn't like there was shortage back when I got started. Heck, there would have been plenty of options if I'd gotten started twenty years before I did.

And simple dice games are one of the fundamental forms of travel games. 

Seriously, they are their own beast. No one is going to call Cthulhu Dice  micro game, even though it consists of one die and some beads. (On the other hand, since it's basically a LCR variant, I'm not sure I personally consider it a _game_)

Of course, dice have their own profoundly ancient history and cultural significance. They have their own space in the world of gaming, one that has a much wider audience than the kind of games I normally play. I know there are events called Bunko parties and I've passed my share of back alley craps games when I lived in Chicago. I once worked with a guy, decidedly not into games, who still carried six dice around in a cigar case so he could play Ten Thousand at bars.

If you are carting around games in your coat pocket to play anywhere with anyone, games that will appeal to a wide audience are a good thing. And dice games can often fill that bill nicely.

In my experience, particularly with an older audience, more abstract games are often easier sells. Zombie Dice surprised me by being a solid push your luck game with some interesting play with probability. However, if you can sell someone on Zombie Dice, they might be up for a more complicated, thematic game.

For many years, my most reliable simple dice game has been Cinq-O,  a Yahtzee variant that offers a decent number of choices and control. It used to be super easy to find but it's been out of print long enough to be rare. Which is a shame and I hope it gets reprinted. Good for adults and great for parents. Future generations of parents could use this game and I'm glad I have it for my kid.

But, before I found Cinq-O, my dice game in my pocket of choice was Cosmic Wimpout. In fact, this blog entry was originally just going to be about Cosmic Wimpout before I got sidetracked out the window.

Cosmic Wimpout, while obviously developed from Ten Thousand, has its own quirky identity and place in culture. I mean, it's a favorite of Grateful Dead fans. That gives it a crazy street cred that no money can buy. It also takes away a lot of a player's control, which is usually a total deal breaker for me, but somehow it works with Cosmic Wimpout.

Over the last few years, I have looked and played a lot of micro games, mostly card games but board games as well. Print and play hasn't hurt that exploration. However, I know it's important not to stop looking at the fundamental bedrock of dice.

Empire of the East: sword and sorcery meets the Cold War

I recently finished Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East trilogy.

I was interested in it because I knew it was the precursor for his Swords books and I also knew that it was an influence on the development of Dungeons & Dragons. Plus, you know, Saberhagen.

And, I'll be honest, I really have to wonder how remembered this series would be if it wasn't for those things.

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

SPOILERS

The core idea of the series, the world building, is very cool. It's a sword and sorcery setting that takes place after the end. Okay, not so original. However, magic was introduced to the world prevent a nuclear holocaust and has caused different technological things to gain God-like sentence and power.

In fact, the ultimate battle is between a NORAD computer and a sentient nuclear bomb blast. Tell me that's not cool.

Here's the problem. While there are hints through out the series about true nature of the setting, most of it reads like a slightly above average 70s fantasy. Heck, the existence and the arrival of the big bad Orcus isn't even hinted at until more than halfway through the third book. The end result is that most of the entire trilogy feels like fluff. 

I do realize that the entire trilogy is a metaphor for the Cold War. And Ardnah the super computer and Orcus the living nuclear bomb blast do make powerful symbols of the superpowers. I also understand that the series was quite popular when it came out. I think those two things are linked.

And it makes sense that the individual lives of our actual heroes become rather small and unimportant compared to the clash of world powers. That definitely fits with the metaphor. However, it doesn't necessarily create the most engaging storytelling.

I am glad that I read the trilogy. I did enjoy the Swords trilogy that followed it and I am sure that I will someday read the Lost Swords series as well. However, if it wasn't for the final fight at the end, I doubt I would remember reading this a year from now.

The scale of epic adventures

The other night, as I was falling asleep, I found myself thinking about how Trollbabe did have a level mechanic. The characters are basically made up of one number, plus some adjectives and relationships.

But then I realized that scale is actually the equivalent of levels in Trollbabe.

When an adventure is completed in Trollbabe, one of the options players have is to raise the scale of the adventures. Interestingly, if one player chooses to do this, it affects everyone. You also can't raise it more than one increment, by the way.

Scale is literally what it sounds like. The scope of what the players can affect. A starting Trollbabe has a scale of personal. Their direct actions can only affect a couple people. However, as players choose to increase the scale, their actions and therefore the scope of the adventures can become bigger and broader. At the top of the scale ladder, you can affect whole lands, which can mean continents.

This also helps determine what kind of relationships characters can have. With greater scope, villages or armies or whole countries can become allies or adversaries. This isn't quite as power gaming as it sounds. Using relationships to reroll failures can damage or even kill the other party. So, with great scale can come great sacrifice and loss.

Scale, while a very important concept of playing Trollbabe, isn't the most brilliant or innovative idea in the game. No, breaking up the usual responsibilities of game masters so that the players have a hefty part is really what makes Trollbabe so impressive and innovative.

However, as I sat up in bed, thinking about Trollbabe's use of scale, I realized that this was an amazingly simple but effective way to handle epic level adventure and campaigns.

Epic level campaigns can be really tough. I've known dungeon masters who don't like to run Dungeons & Dragons past tenth level. Epic means more power, bigger scope and probably higher complexity. 

Mind you, the Trollbabe method wouldn't work for Dungeons & Dragons system. In D&D, every action is a discrete one. Combat, for instance, tracks every blow and spell and any other kind of action. (Which is why I have seen epic level fights last three several hour sessions) 

Which is a big part of why epic level D&D can be so tough. Even a narratively simple action like slugging it out with a demon lord becomes very complicated mechanically. In a broad strokes system like Trollbabe, it has the same level of mechanical complexity as fighting some goblins. In fact, that is why one of my friends switched a campaign to Dungeon World when the characters got high-level and it worked very well.

Furthermore, using the system that allowed more broad strokes actually about more complicated narratives. In my experience, the more discrete systems ended up getting bogged down by the mechanics. We had to spend so much time on the minutia but it was tough to get around the big picture.

What is nice about Trollbabe and handling those big, earthshaking  storylines is that you set the scale and you have the scale as a guideline. Honestly, I can see using the Trollbabe rules for other genres or at least porting the scale system.