tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post2031866493337081146..comments2023-11-03T02:44:56.790-07:00Comments on Fortress: Ameritrash: Burnout: Taken Down EditionMatt Throwerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04426055092986158446noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-31695275279643505962007-10-20T07:43:00.000-07:002007-10-20T07:43:00.000-07:00I'm hitting the two year wall as well. It's a com...I'm hitting the two year wall as well. It's a combination of nice but dry eurogaming members of my group, no time, a satisfying albeit small collection and spousal friction. I just got a complete set of wizard king maps and armies however. But thinking of the tension caused by trying to keep a longer game set up while my wife finds excuses to try and take it down or complains about the time makes me nauseous. Also I have been craving a high quality airsoft pistol lately. I need the forced meditation of target shooting.craniachttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17581351884044064053noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-62467362661979653332007-10-15T10:53:00.000-07:002007-10-15T10:53:00.000-07:00and when the store closed at 9:00, we all stood in...<I>and when the store closed at 9:00, we all stood in the cold parking lot for a while, talking excitedly about setting up a boardgame day on the weekend before Halloween.</I><BR/><BR/>Damnit, one of these days, you're going to have to have a game night that I can actually make :P Or maybe if I can ever find a freaking table big enough to be worth bothering, I'll start throwing my own again.<BR/><BR/>Working as film crew that weekend...Thaaddhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11932331171153653300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-60201650336897067372007-10-14T16:56:00.000-07:002007-10-14T16:56:00.000-07:00Just stop playing for a while and the itch will co...Just stop playing for a while and the itch will come back. <BR/>I'm the opposite - I have been so busy lately that my gaming time has been cut to next to nothing, and I'm antsy for some more gaming!Mr Skeletorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17641339798508135450noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-20287638571088808682007-10-14T14:13:00.000-07:002007-10-14T14:13:00.000-07:00Doesn't it? Imagine "tilting" your "Tangerine Dre...Doesn't it? Imagine "tilting" your "Tangerine Dream Score" card to make Rutger Hauer kiss the bird...Michael Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01465993224831900150noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-30325540847284708122007-10-11T22:06:00.000-07:002007-10-11T22:06:00.000-07:00All I know is that a LadyHawke CCG sounds pretty d...All I know is that a LadyHawke CCG sounds pretty damn awesome...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-31803344312427227202007-10-11T07:16:00.000-07:002007-10-11T07:16:00.000-07:00Stephen Avery is right, play with different player...Stephen Avery is right, play with different players if you get the chance. Nothing wrong with playing with your closest friends or your most reliable gamer acquaintances. But different players will come up with different strategies, and different groups will have different social dynamics happening during the more interactive games.<BR/><BR/>My loyal band of local AT players loves to play Mall of Horror, but the game is a little stale if it's just our usual group, as we have all played it enough to know who will try to do what. So every time we get even one new player at the table we bring out Mall of Horror again, knowing that new player will throw off our usual metagame. <BR/><BR/>(For experienced MoH players... our metagame devolves into the 3 players who usually try to control the parking lot plus the 2 players who usually try to control the Security room. It's kind of like the upstairs versus basement debate from Night of the Living Dead. That white guy was a jerk, but he was right about the basement.)<BR/><BR/>Last night, I showed up at the Local Game Store, where a small but fanatical group of players is keeping Jyhad still alive in the metro area. I wanted to play, and I also wanted them to playtest my new game. To my shock, the local group had tripled in size in recent months. I had a great time playing a 4-player game of Jyhad with a store employee and two rookies, then we roped in another guy for my playtest. It was great fun, and when the store closed at 9:00, we all stood in the cold parking lot for a while, talking excitedly about setting up a boardgame day on the weekend before Halloween.Shellheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02023484901650550355noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-82225346312670294382007-10-11T05:16:00.000-07:002007-10-11T05:16:00.000-07:00It happens-I just move on to something else hobby ...It happens-I just move on to something else hobby wise.Painting<BR/>& converting figs or planning<BR/>homebrew campaings or rules usually<BR/>fills the bill until the "playing bug"again bites.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-81573833228501596762007-10-10T22:28:00.000-07:002007-10-10T22:28:00.000-07:00I think that uba hit the nail on the head.When bur...I think that uba hit the nail on the head.<BR/><BR/>When burnout starts setting in play something mind-numbingly simple like talisman, or Bang or-- you get the idea.<BR/><BR/>BG'ing, for me, has always been about the socialising first and foremost. Nothing beats getting together with a group of people whose company I happen to enjoy and talking some shit.notbillysparkleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18444040476675723195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-89429548696948266762007-10-10T21:08:00.000-07:002007-10-10T21:08:00.000-07:00Shellhead--Didn't the Mythbusters guys finally dri...Shellhead--<BR/><BR/>Didn't the Mythbusters guys finally drive a stake into the "jump out of an airplane and use a raft to slow your descent" trick?<BR/><BR/>Nice to see your Physics buddy was on his toes and ready to let it fly. At least he could get away with it there; when my wife and I watched National Treasure a couple of years ago, she thanked me for holding my tongue on how it butchered the U.S. history so she could enjoy the escapism. It hurt -a lot- to keep my mouth shut on that one.<BR/><BR/>--Mike L.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-5645449794706195602007-10-10T19:51:00.000-07:002007-10-10T19:51:00.000-07:00michael barnes said...every game we play lately co...<I>michael barnes said...<BR/>every game we play lately collapses into mayhem/disarray/incompletion...I dunno, we get in these goofy modes where we wind up talking about things like how to design a LADYHAWKE CCG or what the hell happened in that Atari 2600 Raiders of the Lost Ark game. It's not a bad thing, but I think when we start getting burned out, <B>we tend to focus more on socializing and having a good time with friends than the games.</B></I><BR/><BR/>Isn't that what games like Talisman are for? And if a game grinds to a halt because everyone finds themselves more engaged with each other than they are with the game, isn't that a good thing? <BR/><BR/>I often come back from a game night and realize that I only spent a third of the evening with a game in front of me. The rest of the time I spent socializing with people who were "between" games. I've been in the middle of some long, butt numbing game, when someone has looked up and said, "Look, he sun's come out." And then we've decided to screw the game and go to the beach.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01990801735325411116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-8911165770932512942007-10-10T14:14:00.000-07:002007-10-10T14:14:00.000-07:00lol - I remember Raiders and ET. They sure don't m...lol - I remember Raiders and ET. They sure don't make 'em like that anymore.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-22713759565518795722007-10-10T13:09:00.000-07:002007-10-10T13:09:00.000-07:00Ken,I saw Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom with ...Ken,<BR/><BR/>I saw Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom with a friend who was also a physics major. When they bailed out of the plane in that inflatable life raft and managed to land safely, he stood up and shouted profanity and physics terms at the screen. Fortunately, it was a weekday matinee showing, so the only other people in the theater were teenagers and/or stoners.Shellheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02023484901650550355noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-17259771578658657392007-10-10T12:41:00.000-07:002007-10-10T12:41:00.000-07:00The Tsetse flies are non-canonical.The Tsetse flies are non-canonical.Ken B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/01621793460967739987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-33954613691778172442007-10-10T12:40:00.000-07:002007-10-10T12:40:00.000-07:00But Ken, what about the BEES, man? Weren't there ...But Ken, what about the BEES, man? Weren't there bees in it? Or Tsetse flies or something?<BR/><BR/>My god, imagine if those guys who did the Raiders 2600 game tried to adapt something like INLAND EMPIRE or MULHOLLAND DRIVE to a game...aggh!Michael Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01465993224831900150noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-22041400153228795572007-10-10T12:10:00.000-07:002007-10-10T12:10:00.000-07:00I have yet to have boardgame burn-out, but I have ...I have yet to have boardgame burn-out, but I have played boardgames while thinking how much more fun it would be to be doing something else. Even during a good session of my favorite games. Ususally this occures when I get much-lusted after new equipment for any of my other hobbies.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-7106890057414643502007-10-10T11:50:00.000-07:002007-10-10T11:50:00.000-07:00Mostly burned out myself. The thing is, I would no...Mostly burned out myself. <BR/><BR/>The thing is, I would now much rather be playing (or running) an RPG. (Something I haven't done in 10-12 years, but am getting back into.) That or living that florious Gordon Freeman scientist with a gun life. <BR/><BR/>And that means the games I really want are all RPG-ish....things like the Prophecy expansions, and the Road to Legend expansion for Descent. ( I like Descent. I would adore a Descent that can be played in short doses. )<BR/><BR/>Or of course find folks who like the purely dry and puzzle-like abstract games that I'm inordinately fond of. I could probably alternate playing Black Vienna and Code 777 for days.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-44909818731647763662007-10-10T11:38:00.000-07:002007-10-10T11:38:00.000-07:00I thought the plot of the 2600 Raiders game was pr...I thought the plot of the 2600 Raiders game was pretty coherent:<BR/><BR/><BR/>1. Indy materializes in the middle of nowhere. There are snakes.<BR/><BR/>2. Indy wanders south and immediately finds a market. There are still snakes. He finds some gold in a basket as well as a gun, and a grenade. No one seems to mind. <BR/><BR/>3. He blows up the wall with the grenade. If he's in the area the blast will kill him, but 10 more feet south into the market and he's okay. Again, no one seems to mind.<BR/><BR/>4. He walks through his new tunnel, he randomly ends up in a jail cell. His whip proves amazing at destroying concrete.<BR/><BR/>5. He finds a hidden temple room. He wanders in and out to find all sorts of weird treasure, like a magic ankh. (Aren't they all)?<BR/><BR/>6. He takes the random treasure that looks like a vaguely triangular grouping of pixels to the black merchant in the market. This somehow teleports him to the black market halfway around the country, or at least two or three screens away. He has to bribe a lunatic with one of his precious bags of gold; trying to walk around him causes death by lasers of some sort.<BR/><BR/>7. He buys a thing from the black market. Time has not been kind to my memories. The shovel, is it?<BR/><BR/>8. Luckily not far away from the black market is the room to find the location of the ark. This is convenient. You just have to wander through a pitch-black room full of thieves who have restless leg syndrome and can't sit still.<BR/><BR/>9. You put the thingamawhat in the ballyhoo and find the location of the ark. Hope you brought a parachute.<BR/><BR/>10. Use your suddenly magical rotating whip to leap from mesa to mesa. If you fall, you will be in a swamp with a thief hanging out. The thief will make you angry because he is a magical thief who is impervious to bullets. This will be the last time you bother picking up the gun.<BR/><BR/>11. Anwyay, find the right mesa, and parachute down. A lone branch might snag your chute. Fortunately it is in the same place on EVERY MESA and can be avoided.<BR/><BR/>12. You're suddenly in a room with more thieves with ADD. At this point, you are convinced the whole country is populated by merchants, a laser-wielding lunatic, and thieves. This is as bad an advertisement for tourism as Hostel ever was.<BR/><BR/>13. Dig a hole by running back and forth over a spot in the ground. Voila, you've found the ark!<BR/><BR/>14. Then apparently Indy dies and is lowered on a pedastal in a dark room; here he re-enacts the plot from "Lathe of Heaven" in his mind.<BR/><BR/><BR/>The end.<BR/><BR/><BR/><BR/>What the hell is so hard to understand about that? It's just like the movie.<BR/><BR/><BR/>NEXT WEEK: A review of E.T., the best movie-to-game of all time.Ken B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/01621793460967739987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-14196334014843872532007-10-10T11:18:00.000-07:002007-10-10T11:18:00.000-07:00I'm pretty much in Dan's camp, where I'm a multi-h...I'm pretty much in Dan's camp, where I'm a multi-hobby geek. Things go in cycles for me: right now the big thing is stargazing with an old reflector I got for Christmas as a kid some ::mumble mumble:: years ago. <BR/><BR/>If you keep your horizons broad enough, the gaming will come back into focus. In my case, my wife and I get together with another guy for gaming once every couple of weeks or so, and that keeps things fresh. <BR/><BR/>--Mike L.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-41363071106025588132007-10-10T09:34:00.000-07:002007-10-10T09:34:00.000-07:00My current gaming group has been kind of taking a ...My current gaming group has been kind of taking a break lately. Last summer, we had a few sessions that I found unsatisfactory, where people wanted to bail in the middle of a two-hour game and quickly move on to something else. I'm used to old-school marathon gaming, where we would happily play one really long game like Divine Right instead of a half-dozen partial games.<BR/><BR/>But before I hit any actual burnout, I got pulled into a side project. One of my gamers and I have just about wrapped up the design of an AmeriTrash filler game, hopefully to be published by a specific game company that published my previous game just one year ago. Even if they don't we think that we've actually got a really good game, so we can shop it around or maybe even self-publish.<BR/><BR/>So with all that time away from boardgaming, I'm really looking forward to getting back to the table for some AmeriTrash slugfest action. And even then, I probably won't get enough boardgaming in, because I've been talked into running an Orpheus campaign. Killing all the characters just isn't enough if I want to end that campaign early.Shellheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02023484901650550355noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-91494570985673704132007-10-10T09:22:00.000-07:002007-10-10T09:22:00.000-07:00Hobbies should enrich your life, not consume it. D...Hobbies should enrich your life, not consume it. <BR/><BR/>Does your hobby feel like and obligation?<BR/><BR/>Do you feel that your life is interfering with your hobby?<BR/><BR/>Does your hobby feel like work?<BR/><BR/>If you answer yes to any of these it is time to take a step back. Go do something else.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01990801735325411116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-65620675338588328332007-10-10T09:13:00.000-07:002007-10-10T09:13:00.000-07:00I kind of have problem #1...most of the games my f...I kind of have problem #1...most of the games my folks play tend to be mine so I wind up doing the rules and everything so like Ken says, the rules just kind of start to blend together and people (like Robert Martin, prime offender) get ill if you have to spend a minute with the rulebook...it's refreshing to play someone else's game, but I usually get really irritated being taught rules and wind up reading the rulebook between turns. <BR/><BR/>We've been kind of having a little burnout spell here lately, but a weird one...every game we play lately collapses into mayhem/disarray/incompletion...I dunno, we get in these goofy modes where we wind up talking about things like how to design a LADYHAWKE CCG or what the hell happened in that Atari 2600 Raiders of the Lost Ark game. It's not a bad thing, but I think when we start getting burned out, we tend to focus more on socializing and having a good time with friends than the games.<BR/><BR/>I'll tell you one thing that kicks it for me...playing a fucking hardcore-ass wargame, one on one with somebody like my pal Billy Motion.<BR/><BR/>Of course, TALISMAN is here so suddenly I've got that "wanna play now" itch again...Michael Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01465993224831900150noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-23645223752559588862007-10-10T08:55:00.001-07:002007-10-10T08:55:00.001-07:00Like...I'm thinking I pushed them too hard, they g...Like...I'm thinking I pushed <I>them</I> too hard, <I>they</I> got burned out, and it's rubbing off on me.Ken B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/01621793460967739987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-69238005536148058442007-10-10T08:55:00.000-07:002007-10-10T08:55:00.000-07:00Hiya Ken, May I suggest a trip to ATL to hang wit...Hiya Ken, May I suggest a trip to ATL to hang with a fresh crowd. You can drift in and out of games without having to be up on the rules or have an agenda. Being the main organizer can be wearying. I've had the same experience with RPGs. <BR/><BR/>If that doesn't work, I'd try two weeks cold turkey. No posting/surfing games or boardgaming during that. Arrange a game session right before you do so that after the short hiatus it will be a welcome revival.<BR/><BR/><I>disclaimer:SteveAvery is not liscened psychologist and in no way are his veiws or opinions endorsed by this website. We do not accept any partial or complete resposiblity for any damage accrued from the reading of his posts. Readers may suffer the following symptoms,insomnia, mental paralysis, nausea, Black outs,hallucinations, anxiety and attacks, and incontinence. </I>StephenAveryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12443764334663921706noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-31280661982009026012007-10-10T08:44:00.000-07:002007-10-10T08:44:00.000-07:00No, I've got a great group of friends who really d...No, I've got a great group of friends who really dig the same types of games I do.<BR/><BR/>But the energy is lagging. Like...this time last year, we scheduled a game day for TI3. We had so many show up we had to break into several different games instead.<BR/><BR/>I can't tell if it's my lack of enthusiasm that's rubbing off or vice versa.Ken B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/01621793460967739987noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8811769968708731746.post-49424566846171750732007-10-10T08:34:00.000-07:002007-10-10T08:34:00.000-07:00To me, it all comes down to the people you play wi...To me, it all comes down to the people you play with. Not to be catty about people I have not met, but you should look for some other people who are willing to put forth effort. <BR/><BR/>I like teaching new people to play, but I also acutely miss that rare thing of a bunch of spot on, interested, attentive players. My favorite boardgaming buddy just moved off to East coast. I'm a bit spoiled with the work crew now, but gaming at work is not as much fun as kicking back at ones house on the weekends. <BR/><BR/>I lack a table atm, which is also enforcing a pause in home gaming. :P So I spend way more time at the computer. I'm too old to sit crosslegged on the floor these days :PThaaddhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11932331171153653300noreply@blogger.com