Episode 50: Changing Phases and Messed Up Chess
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Intro and Welcome:
Fun with Charging
Whatcha been playing?:
Jason has been playing: Wasabi
Rob has been playing: Drunk Quest
“Mechanic” of the Week:
Variable Phase Order
Other Games we mentioned:
Rob Pitches The Legend of Chess
Quick cartoon notes: I too revisited Thundercats a few years ago and wish I hadn’t. Some things are better left as memories (man that sounds like a tagline for a Horror Film). On the flip-side Batman the animated series is still amazing and is also part of my DvD collection. Thumbs up there.
Cartoon nerdness aside, lets talk games.
As appealing as a game with potentially misplaced animals in the everglades might be, I think that if you wanted to move forward with this an African Safari photography theme would make more sense. All sorts of animals to use there. I realize that was not the point, but hey, just throwing it out there.
The Legend of Chess idea personally isn’t my favorite. I guess it would depend on what the deck of cards allowed you to do, but overall it doesn’t sound terribly exciting to me. I like the idea of being able to switch between black and white, good and evil, but it sounds like it would get confusing after a while. The relationships between the characters and this switching sides thing is cool, but using the chess pieces and movement rules sounds odd to me. I think there’s potential to make something out of this, i’m just not sure how.
First of all: alligator and duck? Really, Rob? 🙂
Rob, there are a number of variations of chess out there that build on using just a few pieces, but one that I thought of when listening to the podcast was Barca (http://www.playbarca.com)
A comment on Hidden Agendas: when I lived in Ireland (1998-99) my Irish roommates had Risk but their version had hidden agenda cards. So you play the old-fashioned world domination way or with these Mission Cards. Examples included: Hold Europe and South America for one round, Eliminate all Red armies, or, the fallback for all missions, Hold 18 territories with at least 2 armies on each territory. It certainly made the game quicker and changed the strategic choices people made. I have always meant to replicate them for my Risk set.
The Blue Shell is superior. You have to think long term people. Think like a God!
Also, where are the rules to this Legend of Chess pitch eh? You guys used to be cool and post those things. I want to read it!