Here’s a hot take I’ve flirted with before: unbalanced games are more fun than balanced ones.
I think it has to do with gaming a system, beyond even outplaying an opponent.
Continue readingMonthly Archives: June 2023
Suffering, Acceptance, & Play
What the hell is going on when playing feels like suffering?
Being bad at a game often feels bad to me. That’s most true when I think I *should* be competent, or when I’m playing with my close peers, people I feel competitive with. Being bad at a game feels terrible when I’m emotionally attached to a specific outcome, especially if I think I’m failing my team.
But this suffering is worse in some games.
Continue readingThe Black God’s Drums, by P. Djèli Clark (2018)
The Black God’s Drums is a sprint. It’s a sprint full of flavor, a window into another world that feels overflowing and wild and vibrant—a fantastical reimagining of our own world’s history, bringing us to a “might have been” that feels true and honest and exciting, with plenty of our own world’s horror worked in. It’s quick, here and gone again, and a greater pleasure for it.
Thinking about a recent conversation with a fellow book-nerd friend, I have to warn you:
Continue readingHobgoblin (from Mike Hutchinson)
Yesterday I played my first match of Hobgoblin. It was a delight, and an epiphany.
I’ve wanted something like this for years. I was in middle school when I got a copy of the core rulebook for Warhammer Fantasy. I read through that book cover to cover, and then I read it again. I bought a faction’s army book (for the Skaven) with all their special rules and abilities, and read through that over and over too. I bought my first box of models. I yearned to play.
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Fistful of Wits 