Welcome again to everybody. Make yourselves at home. In the time-honoured tradition of our group, here is the weekly discussion thread.
☭ Matrix homeserver and space
☭ Theory discussion group on /c/theory@lemmygrad.ml
☭ Find theory on ProleWiki, marxists.org, Anna’s Archive
do you like card games?
game design for card games is fascinating.
I made a card game with some help from friends. Its called “cards with rules.”
Everyone gets the same number of cards (dealer decides)
The remainder of the deck is placed in the middle and the top card is laid face up that number is the “rule card.”
Anyone who plays that number gets to make up a rule. (it has to be a fair rule not like “I win”) the majority can decide a rule is not fair but they have to dispute the rule based off fairness not just because they don’t like it. ( So “i get to play 2 cards next turn” could be disputed, but “Everyone gets to play 2 cards next turn” would be fine or “if you play a 7 you can play any other card” )
some classic rules: if you have to pick up cards you have to pick up 3, or if you play a 7 skip the next person’s turn, or if you play a face card you can place any card, you can play all the cards of the same number as long as the first one matches suit, If you play a face card you have to drink, If you say any word starting with the letter S you have to pick up 2 cards, all the rules are gone
You play any number or suit that matches the last card played, If you cannot play you pick up one from the deck. If the deck runs out the face up cards (except the last one played) are shuffled.
Rules must be enforced before the next person plays. trying to dodge a rule is fair play.
The first person out of cards wins.
this feels like Calvinball: the card game.
Yeah it is highly variable. some times one hand will go for an hour other times you’ll play 4 hands in 20 minutes.
I wanna make a board game one day.
Dead-ass.
Oh, that, and maybe a TTRPG as well.
Idk.
I’m obsessed with mtg and also ecology and really want to make a deckbuilder tcg based on nature and the animal kingdom
i wanna get into MTG but it always overwhelmed me, and am getting into more reading lately. i get dopamine hit when i finish a chonky book with a satisfying ending
MtG is vast and the jargon alone can be pretty confusing (I still don’t know it all and can’t recognize a lot of cards that experts name drop).
What I recommend to newer players is to find a legendary card that speaks to them and build a deck around that using online tools like EDHRec and EDHWiki which can directly tell you the best combos and cards that synergize well with it. If you like greek mythology for example you could start with the Theros sets which are inspired by greek myth.
There are also tons of pre-constructed decks which you can upgrade and experiment with which is basically how I learned to make decks from scratch. It’s thankfully never been easier to play the game with comrades totally for free using Moxfield and screensharing; you can theoretically use any card ever printed (including the infamous One Ring printing) and use Spelltable to host the game.
Trying to get back into fantasy novels.
I need fun.
You should try Baru Cormorant, it’s a fantasy thriller with heavy economic elements. I’m like a quarter of the way through and really digging it. It’s basically about this young woman who is tasked by the empire to audit one of it’s corrupt colonies.
Does it deal with class?
The problem with A Song of Ice and Fire is that nearly all the main characters are nobles or born nobles.
It’s annoying. I don’t think I like ASOIAF anymore. Partly, it’s due to the Orientalism and other racist depictions of the analogues of real-life cultures (since it clearly has analogues inspired by such cultures). The depictions of certain characters, especially female characters, is something I don’t like as well. The setting is even a bit reformist, in a sense; yes, the nobles clearly oppress the commoners but certain characters of noble lineage are essentially the only ones trying to change things. There is no agency with regards to the commoners within the setting or barely any at all.
The worst part is that the fanbase will harangue GRRM for certain things but not for the transphobia displayed in the setting (such as in Book 5 in particular), never mind the sexual assault within the series as well (by other main or sympathetic characters, mind you, at least in the case of Tyrion in Book 5 around the mid-point of the novel). Good grief, the fanbase is literally quite transphobic as well, at least in the case of Westeros.org Forums (the two people that mainly started the site are friends of GRRM and are in contact with him; they also are quite explicitly transphobic and many queer and trans folks have been banned from that forum).
When I read the series, particularly the second novel, A Clash of Kings, it was a bit of a revelation seeing an Autistic rep character in the setting (Stannis Baratheon in this case) but, honestly, he will likely do something stupid or bad or evil or whatever and then he will probably die tragically or painfully in the end, idk. I don’t think I care now.
Honestly, it sucks that Autistic characters are written by allistics most of the time within the sphere of speculative fiction. I don’t mind input from allistics sometimes, I think it’s okay for them to write outside the allistic point-of-view, but there do not seem to be many good Autistic reps within fiction nowadays. Brandon Sanderson’s depiction of Autistic folks is atrocious, imho (don’t even get me started on the enby or non-binary folks within his main setting of stories).
I want good fantasy (though obviously not just fantasy). I even got a well-received fantasy novel but left it at home before I left for Zaragoza (might get somebody to send it here). I just don’t know what to read in terms of novels now.
Oh, I haven’t played MTG. I should at least get the app on mobile.
Are there any other TCGs out there? I only ever hear about MTG and I guess the TCG that Yu-Gi-Oh is based off of (oh, and I guess Pokémon).
MtG: Arena is a freemium game so you can play it without paying anything, you just have to grind a lot lol.
The Big 3 are MtG, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Pokemon. There’s the Disney one, Lorcana, which I’ve heard is decent. And Flesh and Blood. Haven’t played either. But if you want a low-commitment tcg experience you should play Inscryption, that game is a blast and like 25 bucks, no micro-transactions or anything.
I don’t necessarily mind grinding a lot. It can even be used as a “stim” to help me get through boring things or even boring or not-as-exciting parts of video games.
Dunno if it can exactly be used as an “incremental” or “idle” game but eh I can try it out either way to see if I like it.
There’s also Balatro. I haven’t played it yet but it seems fun.
Balatro is AWESOME. Genuinely so addictive and refreshing. To many, the steamdeck is just The Balatro Machine lol
I have it on mobile.
I don’t think there is any difference between the mobile version and the one you play on Steam.
Cool. I was trying to choose between Noita and Balatro. I think I’ll buy Balatro.
I’ve sunk way too many hours into RNG games like rogue-likes. Gambling is too effective for engagement lol.
looked into Yu Gi Oh, it had OTKs. and at that time I was in japan and english versions of cards were hard to get, and didn’t wanna play online. MTG looked cool or even hearthstone, but I recently bought The Bazaar it’s kinda autobattler deck building, stunning visuals, you should check it