Card games!

There are some things I'll agree Ultra Pros are not well-suited for. They tend to be slick and aren't well suited for stacks of cards in excess of about 80. I find them to be quite good for LCG/CCG style games where you generally have a ~60 card deck and the cards see quite a bit of action when you're playing games - potentially a lot of shuffling and sliding and rotating that can wear cards down quickly.

For a game like Race to the Galaxy both the draw deck and discard pile would get unruly in Ultra-Pros because there's just too many cards - you'd have card-avalanches all over the place.

It always makes me feel like I should be sitting on a plastic-covered couch in a house full of three-year-olds cramming Play-Doh into every open space they can find and at least two pets on every available surface shedding fur and pissing on the plastic-covered carpet.

Dudes wearing tails are not worried about ruining a card that comes in a 18 dollar box. They'll just send Jeeves to fetch another copy in the off chance some cognac spills.

My copy from coolstuffinc.com just showed up. Haven't looked at the cards yet, but the rulebook looks like it's well laid out. Giving it a quick glance it looks like keywords are restricted to limited, renown, and stealth. No crests and no house keywords, which is hardly surprising in a 2-faction limited game like this.

How are the components? Saw a complaint or two on BGG that they're cheap glossy cards and the tokens are messed up, but the bigwig at FFG posted to say that the cards are of a better stock than they usually use (though he did say that they're glossy, which isn't surprising considering the audience and the fact that screencaps/photographs are going to look a lot sexier on glossy stock) and that there shouldn't be anything cheap about the tokens so if they're printed wrong he should contact customer service.

Edit: It bugs me more than it should that the rules still aren't available on FFG's website.

It's the same rules as the regular card game though except with 50-card decks, right? It's silly that the game has hit stores and their page isn't updated, but it's not really a huge deal I wouldn't think.

I'm of mixed feelings on this release. On one hand it makes sense to use the broader appeal of the show to expand the audience for the game (and it really is an excellent card game). On the other it irks me that they decided to not try to bring this release into the fold of the much wider LCG. People who maybe get interested in the game through this release would have to start back at square one buying core sets, and I can see that maybe being too much of a hurdle for some.

I can only hope they went the extra mile on keeping these decks balanced and still interesting enough to be fun. FFG's track record for designing decks to be played out of the box is notoriously crappy and has been that way going well back into the CCG days. Generally they make the cardinal sin of releasing Highlander decks, and then it rightfully feels like complete luck whether a player happens to draw the lone card in their deck during a game that happens to perform some remarkably basic function that any sane person could see would make sense to have some redundancy to handle.

Well, yeah, but like I said it bugs me more than it should. I admit it!

I can appreciate this, but there's simply zero chance of me ever getting into the LCG. So this release is perfect for me.

And while the cards aren't compatible with the base game, I wouldn't be very surprised if, given a good response to this game, we see season-based expansions. Like Game of Thrones: Season 2, featuring Greyjoy and Baratheon decks or something along those lines. Then they take a note from Plaid Hat and start releasing mini-expansions for specific decks, allowing deck building. And mercenaries. And then they've got two competing games in the same genre and for the same license featuring the same mechanics which aren't compatible and oh my god the world is going to shit!

Er. Anyway. You get it.

The new cards are thinner than the regular LCG ones. No idea on stock quality, but they feel fine to me. I've read about half the rulebook that came with it and so far it seems almost identical to the regular game. Just trimmed down and simplified a bit. No dupes at all during the setup phase is one change I've noticed though; there is no setup keyword in this version.

That's not a change. Per LCG FAQ section 4.2 "Duplicates may not be played during setup."

This is basically the corner I just see as something stupid for them to be painting themselves into.

Also, maybe you'll like the game so much you'll want more. And then you'll be one of us!

Also, you don't need to physically own all the cards to enjoy the game - playing over OCTGN works remarkably well for this game at this point. They're even at the point where they have a centralized server with chat and a games list to handle matchmaking.

I assumed OCTGN would require you own the game. I know FFG allows VASSAL modules of their games, but requires that anyone doing them wipe all the text off of the cards.

OCTGN cares not. People create blanked cards but also sets with full text that they distribute on the quiet.

I picked up Legendary, the new Marvel deckbuilder, yesterday. I'm hoping to get a group together to play some this weekend, but the solitaire version was pretty fun. It has a bunch of ramped up difficulty level suggestions that I think will be necessary for older players, but the base game is really accessible and an appropriate challenge for younger players.

With the different schemes and Masterminds (uber super-villains like Magneto and Loki) it has, play seems like it'll be different enough to keep interest in it as a fun, easy game to pick up and put down for more casual groups.

FFG's official stance on the game is that they only require blanked text on cards released within the past 6 months. It's a much looser policy than they use for their board games and dates back to their unofficial support for Raven, the tabletop software used prior to OCTGN back in the CCG days. At this point, that means that the core set, ALL six house expansion sets, and ALL chapter pack cycles except for the one we're currently in have high quality full-text scans for use in OCTGN.

If by "distribute on the quiet" you mean use FFG's official forums as the main hub for sharing the downloads, then you'd be correct. However, I host and try to keep up-to-date a zip containing absolutely everything needed to use OCTGN for AGoT play - the OCTGN installer, AGOT game install file, and all card sets in a single download. There's also a Readme I put together in there to explain how to install everything.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/20252115/AGoT OCTGN.zip

Most people use the excellent online deckbuilder over at www.cardgamedb.com to actually put decks together, because they can output the decks directly into OCTGN format, which makes the whole process incredibly simple.

Many thanks for that archive, Reldan. I have a pile of AGoT cards that I can just never bring myself to go through to make decks, but maybe your ZIP will make it easier to get it done on the computer and actually play (you up for a game in the near future, Bahimiron?).

I have no idea how to play, but sure!

Edit: Now I'm curious as to whether OCTGN supports LotR solo play. Or, hey, would anyone like to play some of that?

Edit edit: And they support Android: Netrunner. Neat. I just got that from a secret Santa.

Just to make it easier on y'all, I just added a Sample Decks folder to the ZIP and moved the most recent OCTGN version install in as well.

The Sample Decks folder has the deck files for the 4 forty-five card decks that come with the Core Set along with the community-suggested 4 sixty-card decks that can be built out of just 2 copies of the Core Set.

So it should be literally less than 5 minutes to set up and start playing.

I'll also add that if anyone wants to learn how to play through OCTGN PM me. If I'm free I'd be happy to teach you how to use OCTGN. And I can probably teach the game as well although we'd probably need voip (I do have a Mumble server though).

I get card sleeves from Meijer or Walmart at $.99 for 100. They aren't the really nice quality of the Mayday cards, but they're so much cheaper and work just fine for my needs.

D'oh! You're right, I always get that screwed up in my head. Just played half-a-game with my wife, trying to teach her the rules (no influence in this version). The text on these cards seems to be smaller than the regular LCG ones, really struggled to read most of them even with my reading glasses on. Don't think the wife cared too much for it, she's not a gamer and there's just too much complexity for her tastes. Plus she went with the Starks and by round 3 I had Tywin, Jaime, Cersei, Gregor, and a few other gold location cards out in play to her Robb, Jon, Varys, and some generic low-strength allies.

I absolutely abhor penny sleeves for anything other than storage. If they're dry they make the cards so slippery you can't easily stack them. After exposure to some humidity the cards start sticking to each other and you can't shuffle them. I know at one point LK ended up buying a bunch of them to sleeve his Yomi decks and he wound up tossing them and buying real sleeves within a day of trying to use them to play with.

The real cost there is sleeving, desleeving, resleeving. Oy.

(Though to be honest, I find sleeving to be pretty relaxing.)

Having played Legendary solitaire a couple of times over the last few days (first MP game session tonight!) I can say that this game is really easy, difficulty-wise. You'll definitely want to use the higher difficulty suggestions to make it a challenge.

That said, I really recommend it, not just for a fun time, but for those with kids. It's super approachable and made for co-operative family play. If your chilluns love them some superheroes, this is your family game night. The different schemes coupled with random heroes, masterminds, henchmen and villain groups not only keep things fresh, but you can encourage their imagination with them, too.

Example: Heroes: Emma Frost, Rogue, Spider-Man; Mastermind: Magneto; Villain group: Radiation; Henchmen: Doombots; Scheme: Mid-town Bank Heist. Hmm, so... while on the trail of Magneto, Emma and Rogue stumble across The Leader and Abomination robbing a bank using some salvaged Doombots in order to fund some new plot. Fortunately for the X-Men, when the alarm bell rings at the bank, your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man happens to be swinging by...

The rulebook is plainly written for non-competitive, non-tournament play, though, so you'll probably have to have some discussions over the course of a game if you play it with anyone who really, really wants to win. It's pretty ambiguous at times, and you'll probably want to figure out a system for figuring out what's been used, what's been revealed from your hand (an odd mechanic, and one that feels a little redundant to just playing cards, so I may try house-ruling it at some point) because playing your turn can get a little messy since the order you play cards in this one is super-important. Many cards combo off of previously played cards, plus you have to remember how much recruit and attack points you have like standard deck builders.

Finally, a pro-tip: this game could use what the Penny Arcade deckbuilder did, namely having a spare card for each hero, mastermind, villain and henchman just for drawing to set up the game. However, it does come with something like 60 divider cards (with a space you can write on at the top), so I pulled one of each of the above from their decks and set them aside for ease of setup, then when the game is done I make sure to replace one card from each used card type into the respective hero, villain, etc. drawing deck for next time. If that made any sense.

It is also infinitely more fun than the DC deckbuilder.

Yeesh.

Your review got me interested. A coop game where you can play Marvel heroes going up against Loki might be right up my wife's alley. Then I looked it up. Man, Legenday is kind of at the other end of the spectrum from Spartacus. A $60 list price for a deck builder? I think this one's gotta wait for a sale.

To its credit it comes with a ton of cards and decks. They could have easily cut down on the content and charged the same price.

It's not as good a value component-wise as something like Sentinels of the Multiverse, but I'm kind of shocked by how many hero decks they included with the core set.

Yeah, it's pricey; I happen to be lucky that my FLGS is Cardhaus, where they sell for internet pricing in-store, so it was only ~$40. As Baker says, though, it does have like 15 heroes in it for a lot of variety.

Notes from my first MP experience: okay, SOLITAIRE is really easy and you should jack up the difficulty. MP will vary, depending on scheme, mastermind and heroes. We did Loki with Deadpool, Rogue, Spider-Man, Storm and one more hero I forget with the scheme of Portals to the Dark Dimension and got our asses kicked. Loki and his Enemies of Asgard villains caused way too many wounds (same basic mechanic as Nightfall) and the heroes we used had a dearth of deck-trimming and card drawing options, so we ran out of time before our decks got up to speed.

Our second game went a lot more smoothly against Red Skull, who was trying to organize a prison breakout in the Negative Zone. Cyclops, Nick Fury, Captain America, Thor and Hawkeye put the kibosh on that really easily, punching Hydra pseudo-Nazis, Sentinels, Hand Ninjas, evil mutants from the Brotherhood and Spider-Man villains right back into their cages. Those heroes really worked together, being mostly Avengers, and Nick Fury works awesomely with your basic SHIELD guys in your starter deck.

My opinion is reinforced, though; a pretty simple game for a fun, quick night of gaming. Really recommended for family game nights and when you have the non-hardcore over.

Finally downloaded OCTGN. I'll have to find time to get together with Reldan and Baker to learn up some GoT.

Played around with some LotR, using it as an opportunity to get used to the program. It's way less clunky than VASSAL, but it's still a disappointment to anyone who expects it's going to do much for you. I decided just to make the basic core set Spirit deck and run through the Passage Through Mirkwood adventure. Even just setting up that deck was kind of a pain, though it was mostly about my own lack of understanding about what I had to do. When I originally put it together I ended up putting my entire deck in as heroes, so it all went directly into my hand. Whoops. So I went through and remade it. Now I'm pretty quickly going through the adventure, but since it doesn't do anything for you, it's just as fiddly as playing the game. Maybe even moreso until I learn the hotkeys. For now it's not much of a replacement for just pulling the game out and playing it as a solitaire experience, though if I knew anyone who wanted to play it online I could see that (obviously) being the biggest boon. It's also a nice way to try out a new deck without having to dick around with dragging out the game, pulling out the cards, sorting them back out when done, etc etc. On the other hand, I have zero adventure or expansion packs. So if nothing else it's a way to give them a test drive before committing to buying them.

It's also a good test of whether or not I remember the damn rules, since it doesn't tell them to me at any point. So far it's still a better solitaire experience than the Space Hulk Death Angel VASSAL module, whose multitude of windows made for a downright miserable experience, and once I get more used to playing it it should be a lot better. Especially once I put together a decent deck.

Edit: Can't figure out how to deal out shadow effects without revealing 'em, dangit.

FWIW I didnt' find anything ambiguous in the Legendary rules so far after several playthroughs

Well, some of the hotkeys are literally programmed into the game by whoever set up the game file, so I can't speak to what the LotR game allows. In AGoT you can do the following which makes thing much easier:

Ctrl+S - Shuffle your deck
Ctrl+D - Draw a card
Ctrl+Shift+D - Draw multiple cards at once
F5 - Stand all of your cards at once
F1 - When hovering over a card, add a Power token to that card
F2 - Same as F1 but removes the token
F8 - When hovering over a card, flips the card facedown/up

You can also have a card come into play face-down by holding shift when you drop the card onto table. You can make a target icon appear/disappear over a card by shift-clicking the card. You can make a targeting arrow appear between two cards on the table by shift-dragging the cursor from one card to the other.

The reason the deck doesn't come pre-shuffled after you load it is because that makes it much easier if you need to pull some specific cards out beforehand. Not sure if this ever happens in LotR but there's multiple reasons you may need to do this in AGoT.

I do not find that games of AGoT go any faster or slower than playing in person would. The building of the decks is much faster/easier though. I'll reiterate that I think the built-in deck builder is a pile of shit. Find an online builder that outputs in OCTGN format.

Perhaps this isn't quite the right thread for it, but Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 is on sale for $5 pretty much anywhere you can get it, I believe.

I sleeved up the copy of Android Netrunner that my BGG SS sent me. Got a nice box to make it easy to get at the tokens. Sat down and read, then reread the rules. Watched a couple of videos that went over a game. Yep. I sure am ready to play this game.

Too bad I have nobody to fucking play it with!

Dammit.

So instead I'll just read about other people playing it on BGG. That's just as good, right?

The OCTGN version is pretty good. You could try that - it has a fairly large community.

This may be true! (Though it seems to me that for learning games it'd be a real pain in the ass to have to constantly look up cards since it's not old enough for OCTGN to have uncensored versions yet.) Though to be honest I was hoping some local would read my post, decide he wanted to play Netrunner too and then say 'bro, let's meet up at Panera for some black bean soup and awesome cyberpunky good times'.

I also have a copy of Netrunner that needs to make it out of the box, but the commute would be awkward.

There are certainly uncensored versions around, though it might take a bit of digging. I don't have one handy unfortunately.

I finally had a chance to play the Star Wars LCG last night since a friend of mine from Minneapolis is visiting and brought a copy with him. The cards are beautiful and I can certainly see this getting some mainstream appeal given the quality of the product and the license. The game itself feels like a blend of mechanics from all over the spectrum. I enjoyed playing it, but I don't see it having the depth in either deckbuilding (because of the restrictions) or play (because of a sizable element of luck and bluff) that would rocket it into being any CCG player's main game. It does seem like it makes for a fun secondary game, especially given that you can probably find non CCG players who might be willing to do it because of the license.

Got another play of the Star Wars LCG last night playing as the Dark Side. I got the dial clicked up to 10 and was going to win on the next turn unless my opponent could kill one more objective on his turn. Unfortunately, it came down to me drawing my final hand of cards and needing simply to be able to win one edge battle, because if my opponent won and got first action he would be able to kill my objective with his first action, but I could stop him if I could go first and take out his attack ship.

I draw six cards and get a total of 4 force icons combined. And so I lose. Depending on your point of view, this is either a great way to decide the game or the worst thing ever. I'm just going to chalk it up to not having enough midichlorians.

Okay I'm serious about getting some Netrunner going on OCTGN. In fact I'm willing to spend some time scanning in my cards for an uncensored set. Who else wants to play?

How does OCTGN work? I got netrunner as a Christmas gift and have no idea who to get to play with just yet.

It's a framework for playing card games against other people. You need the OCTGN Netrunner module and possibly some other stuff. You create your deck beforehand (either externally or in OCTGN) and the module handles all the busywork and has options for all the different actions you can take during the game.

Went to visit some friends today to finally swap presents. Came away with a spiffy version of Cards Against Humanity, which we played with lots of alcohol. It's silly, childish fun, like Dixit for adults, and I couldn't stop laughing. Now to see if I can get my colleagues playing it...

For the sake of accuracy it's actually Apples to Apples for adults.

Which is to say that Dixit actually has some merit, unlike the other two. Which is of course my own biased opinion.

Man, I really want to say more but I apparently have a lot of rage built up toward CAH and AtA so anything more that I say just sounds like I'm raining on your parade (well, moreso) so I'll try to be nice.

I'm glad you found a game you like. I'm sure the alcohol helps. Damn, not meant to be.