Lazy Links: Your Weekly Massage

When you're all stressed out, there's nothing better than a massage. The applying of pressure, then the release. Press... release. Press... release. Aaaah, so good. Some people in the industry must be under a lot of stress, as all we get from them are press releases. But, no complaints here. Beats reading my own mail.

Burn All Legacy Games

Image source: BGG

I love playing legacy games. My family always loses interest after a few sessions, so I can only play the coop ones - solo. Once I'm finished though, I'm always a bit sad and frustrated, as I am not left with a good game afterwards. Such a waste. (And yes, I am one of those people that normally would play their games more often - 40+ times is no exception.) So I was quite happy with the news on BoardGameGeek about two upcoming legacy games. The new Leacock/Daviau collaboration Ziggurat promises an "adventure that you can play again and again", while after playing Flash Point: Legacy of Flame, you can set it on fire! - Or, as I understood from Rahdo's videos, you can play it as a standalone game afterwards, even integrating content you already own. And I own everything Flash Point: Fire Rescue.

Burn All Automas

Maggie from ThinkerThemer updated her Top Solo Board Games of All Time, and this time Amy tried them all as well. Now Amy is not interested in solo gaming, and she enjoys multiplayer games with good interaction. So you might think she'd enjoy the games with an automa best. But no. She actually is one of us. Just start watching 22 minutes in:

"Even though it was quite easy to implement, I found myself completely demotivated playing against a fictional character. And the idea of it generating a somewhat randomised or arbitrary score at the end that I had to beat was just not motivating to me, versus like if a rulebook has a score in it (...) When I'm playing solo I like it to be an even playing field, with very little luck, and I can beat my score - or the score that's in the rulebook."

Then at the end of the video you can see what Amy's number one was (out of Maggie's picks), and guess what, I couldn't agree more.

Burning for ER

Shut Up & Sit Down is a channel I rarely watch (maybe a video once every three years or so), but now that they covered on of my current favourite games of course I checked them out. They seemed to have the same experience with the game and the same thoughts on it as me. So cool. Until I found out that they probably only played it as little as I had either...

"I haven't seen a whole bunch of this, and that's fine, because it's great and I can't wait to see more of it."

But who cares. Earthborne Rangers does some things very, very well. You are really adventuring in an open world, but even more, in a living world. How all cards will interact with you and with each other, just as much as you are interacting with them, is amazing. And for once I don't mind there are no monsters to fight. I wander in wonder, and, you know what? Playing this game might be just as good as getting a massage.