Scott Nicholson 🏳️🌈 @scottnicholson@tabletop.social
Playful Professor of Game Design living in rural Ontario near Brantford. Escape rooms, gamification, board games. Former host of Board Games with Scott.
Joined Nov 2022
If you have interest in transformative or educational games, the first day of the upcoming CUNY games conference is free and online on Monday, January 23rd. It includes a game design workshop run by Joe Bisz. You can register here: https://games.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2023-conference/
Enjoyed solo Woodcraft enough to play it three times over the last week. Several very different paths to explore. Prefer Lignum for a crunchy wood-based board game, but do want to try Woodcraft with other players to see if that helps with bad luck on dice/cards.
Hold/Merge Order is my most purchased game at
Board Game Bliss! I just can't get enough of it - I keep buying it!
....as I teach my new game design undergrad students and do my introduction, I realize that many of them were not born when I started Board Games with Scott ...
Today's game to learn is Cat in the Box. I look forward to trying this trick-taking game with others. Cards are colorless and you declare their color when played, but track which cards have been played in a round and who is out of a suit. If a player can't legally play a card, they are penalized and the round ends. Bonuses for predicting tricks taken come from connecting your markers on the tracking board.
Playful take on the concept of quantum!
#boardgames
Today's solo learning #boardgame is Racoon Tycoon. Straightforward economic game with some nasty teeth based on timing of "who blinks first", but the animal layer adds nothing other than pretty art.
I was disappointed they didn't lean more heavily into the narrative layer. I'll play it with others (someday), but don't know that I'll keep it, as I appreciate games where the theme and the mechanisms support each other.
While I'm not meeting with others to play board games due to COVID concerns, I've made it a resolution to work through the collection of unplayed games I've gathered over the last years.
Today's #boardgame to learn solo was Creature Comforts, a heartwarming worker placement game.
It's more luck-dependent, and has less emergent narrative than Everdell, but is also shorter and kinder.
I'm wary of my earned solo title of "Deliciously Prepared Creature of the Village!" #poachedwithmustardsauce
I really enjoy the new deduction #boardgame, Turing Machine.
- It removes the "one player screws up the game by answering a question wrong" element.
- It's got simultaneous play (although I'll prefer playing solo as I talk out loud to solve puzzles).
- The puzzle space is limited to the numbers between 111-555.
Just finished watching The Traitors UK reality show. It's Werewolf, but only players left in the game split the money.
In traditional Werewolf the whole good team wins together, regardless of who died.
That small rules change has huge implications.
This creates a nasty situation where good guys can work to get each other out so they can earn more money.
That makes sense for the Traitors - it fits the theme.
It does not fit the theme for good guys.
Mechanics need to support theme.
Who else is playing solo #boardgames this evening?
I just finished up a 10-week pottery class with Michael Collins in Cambridge, Ontario. My favorite piece was this Green Man plaque (he's about 10 inches tall), and if you'd like to see the others, they are all up on my Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/professor.scott.nicholson/posts/pfbid0VcQhF6MwLztUFyaeH8mghHP5My3335QgCZbFqRqChjXf25oqdyyZrsavW2VBPUjUl
horse skeletal head
remember, if you're cold, they're cold... let them in
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mari_Lwyd
A blessed winter solstice to all who celebrate! May this be a time to reflect on the past and rest to face the challenges ahead.
(artwork by Tabitha Mcbain)
After looking over the list of the top 100 Escape Rooms for the year, I need to plan a trip to Montreal for escaping! https://terpeca.com/2022/
#escaperooms
@iain @kifty@mastodon.social @BoardgamesToGo
If I try to look at @Kifty's posts, it shows up for me as "not found", as tabletop.social has blocked mastodon.social
There's lies, damn lies, and seed catalogs. #herewegoagain
I've been playing through old campaigns on World of Warcraft, and came across this quest. I imagine the game writer got tired of trying to justify why they player would know what to do.
..just having a pause from everything to take a moment for a happy memory when we did a Harlem Shake video at BGG.con 2013 around the release of Going Going GONE! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR21xIdKTt4
I turned to ChatGPT (https://chat.openai.com/chat) to design board games. Here's what they created (full proposals attached):
Simple - "Roll and Move"
Complicated - "Treasure Quest"
Win Spiel des Jarhes - 2 tries:
"City Builders"
"The Great Expedition"
Haircut Day!
Where I try to decide when it's time to stop trying to grow a little poofy combover on the front of the head and accept that hair loss is happening...
Playful Professor of Game Design living in rural Ontario near Brantford. Escape rooms, gamification, board games. Former host of Board Games with Scott.
Joined Nov 2022
