Yacht Sea

Yacht See.  Yacht C.

Something of a follow up to my prior post.

Let’s talk about game design … and a not so obscure game that starts with a Y.  Actually, if you look at the Wikipedia entry for Yahtzee, you get some rather convenient background on the name.

Anyway, on that trip, Yahtzee came up twice.  Once when I played a bunch on the plane in lieu of playing other things (though I did play a few other things).  The other time when an Australian who didn’t know what CCGs are asked me why I thought Yahtzee was so popular.

I answered with reasons including:  visceral appeal of rolling dice; rerolling dice; gambling roots; scoring system is both understandable and varied.  Actually, maybe I didn’t mention that last one at the time.  But, it’s important to why this blog post exists.

But, let’s talk about rerolling.  Actually, because actually is the secret word for today … doh!  Actually, let’s get off on a tangent.

RPGs often use dice.  As everyone knows, the best dice rolling mechanic is a single d10, with explosions.  Yes, even better than 1e/3e/4e L5R R&K because it’s easy for people not into probability calculations while R&K is suited to people who can approximate TN probabilities in their head.

Then, there’s rerolling.  Rerolling dice is like, totally, the wasp’s elbows.  Every sane, normal, mundane personage wants to be able to reroll dice when they don’t like their initial results.

Gambling is frequently about random results.  Lot of games come out of gambling games.  I have discussed the contrast between poker and Yahtzee recently, but that’s a tangent.  And, if there’s one person who can’t stand tangents, that would be this bloke.  This not-blue eyed, not-blond bloke [there’s like three people who might get this reference … FTW!].

People enjoy bingo, keno, lotteries, bunch of other random stuff.  So, sure, dice.  But, then you have redicing.  It’s like draw poker over stud.

Where was I?

So, game design.  One thing about thinking like a designer/developer in a professional sense is evaluating the replay value of games.  There might be games that are cool/fun/entertaining at first blush and grow sickly right quick.

It gets back to Cards Against Humanity and its ilk.  I enjoyed playing Before I Kill You, Mr. Bond the first time, but I pretty quickly lost interest after that.  I was already losing interest in CAH just in a second session.  Sure, the thrust of these sorts of games is the social interaction rather than the mechanics, and there are plenty of games that are more popular that are hitting the social nerve rather than the quality mechanics nerve, but, in theory, can do both.

Yahtzee has replay value to me.  Now, I wouldn’t rate it as the greatest things since pound cake.  But, for someone who can play solitaire for hours yet has little tolerance for games like Through the Ages, Yahtzee is at least a starting point on simple mechanics with some level of replayability.

Funny.  How long does funny stay funny?  There are folks I’d be happy to play CAH with a lot, though I think that has a lot more to do with wanting to hang with those non-gamer folks and would imagine doing something besides CAH with them would be even better.  Jokes are better when you don’t see them coming.  In Valley speak, you are looking for disruptive verbalizations to sink venture capital into.

It’s not our goal to make perfect games.  It is one of our goals to make games that fit the source material.  It is one of our goals to make games people would want to buy.  Goal isn’t the right word, but it’s a lot better if we make games that we enjoy.

For gamer types, pulling something off the shelf is more likely when the mechanics of the game feel righteous, dude.

Now, I would not be into a Yahtzee variant.  The scoring system being fixed makes it easy, it also makes it limiting.  Consider American Mahjong, where you get new scoring cards every year.  While there could be a scenario based game that plays like Yahtzee, still not really achieving the replay-driving level of variance being looked for in a game that is not trying to compete with solitaire but trying to compete with whatever Eurogames and Ameritrash are happening in the open gaming room.

Nothing wrong with jokes, you there, in the woods.  I am in the woods.

But, note, so much of my entertainment in multiplayer CCGs comes not from eviscerating my victims but from the emergent humor when you “get” the mechanics or thematics of the game.  Hmmm … this paragraph seems rather tangential.  Well, who doesn’t love tangents?  Actually …

Maybe I should just reroll this blog post [don’t let them know that these posts are constructed just based off of a bunch of die rolls … okay, sure, the secret will never be revealed].

Appealing games are more appealing if they have replay value.  There are mainstream/classic games that can point to how to achieve replayability or to how there are really popular games with kind of terrible replayability.  Using the former, can think about how to achieve multiple goals with a new game, a fun game.

Actually, on a tangent, CCGs should have immense replayability.  When they don’t have l33t replayability is when they have a crucial flaw.  I find Ultimate Combat! very replayable even with its small and internally similar card pool.  V:TES, of course, has l33t replayability, but certain storyline events had unl33t replayability.

Dice can be appealing.  Rerolling dice can be pre-appealing [OMG, nobody will get this reference, not even her, as she would never read this blog, besides, this use doesn’t even make sense, anyway].

In other news, have had a couple more sessions of Rokugan 1600, where we learn how different gamers perceive …

Kućna Biljka

When is a gaming blog not a gaming blog?

When it’s ajar, a jar, … *sigh*.

I can get into TV reviews, movie reviews, book reviews, food reviews, and make some loose tie in to gaming to justify my whims.  Then, there are the travelogue posts that tend to be even sketchier when it comes to fitting this blog.

But, hey, I didn’t take any games but I totally played some (not mind games, well, not intentionally).

In the beginning, was a city.  A city with an airport.  And, an airport shuttle bus.  And, a Metro and a Decathlon on the way to the AirBnB.  Oh, right, there’s only like one or a few people in the world who would understand why I took note of the Metro store and the Decathlon store on the way in.

We were a group of seven.  Five convicted murderers and the other six in the group.  Uh … Germany.  So, I met up with two of the party in Frankfurt.  Success.  Shelter.  Success.  Well, time to declare victory and call it a week.

I headed to the Diocletian Palace area because 4.5 movies on the first flight left me full of chi.

So, I may have said something about not being a movier.  I have in my decrepit old age of traveling an airline a bunch for status (not gaining me much since I dropped from gold) become the moviemeister, Baron von Movie.  Or, Baron von Ultimate Yahzee.

I finally saw Solo.  Watched Deadpool 2, Kingsman: Golden Circle, Monkey King 3, and most of Deadpool.  My early filter didn’t show Deadpool, thus the sequencing.  It’s refreshing when characters actually say what they think.  Yukio is adorable.  I can see getting tired of the Deadpool schtick, though.  Solo – terrible beginning, not exactly all that afterwards.  Golden Circle just bad.  I can understand the value of Bond parody, but, even with the cheesiness of Bond movies, they exude some stylin’ and profilin’.  But, then, I don’t watch action movies so much for action [just like I don’t eat massive quantities of meat because I care that much about the meat … oh never mind, Andy].  Monkey King 3 is not what I have in mind when I think of martial arts flicks, but my lukewarm feelings had more to do with the beating over the head of gender relationship stuff.

We eat at Maslina.  You know, I’m not going to spend a lot of time reviewing food.  I’m hypercritical, I mean, hyperanalytical and mostly complain about how my food and drink don’t rise to the level of … of … really great food.  I did learn to not order lemonade in Europe as I’m not entirely sure who drinks unsweetened lemonade.

Get this out of the way, now.  If you don’t get breakfast and lunch served everyday, then Croatia is about eight gelatos a day for, like, $12.  No matter what tourist port you are in, somehow, they will present gelato to you right as you get off the ship.  If you just need to scavenge for dinner, like us, then knock out your three gelatos for $4.50.  Now, you could order smoothies, like someone who drinks copious amounts of sugar, but just say yes to $1.50 cones and “suffer”.

Obligatory Port Shot

On to Makarska.  Weather was unkind early on …

Hindshadowing

So, what’s a group of young folks and a blogger going to spend time doing when not rafting or kayaking?

Heads Up!.  Yup, Heads Up!.  Cards Against Humanity.  First time, for me, and it was just like Apples to Apples (from a certain perspective).  I even played Uno and mansplained some on why I’m not into games like chess to someone who had just played some chess.  I’m just going to assume any time I say anything, I’m doing it in a manly way because of my early nurturing.  Also, much later in the trip, Exploding Kittens.

See, gaming content.  I’m nothing if not focused.

Night one of the trip, I didn’t get to sleep until after 4AM.  In fact, I was playing solitaire at 3AM … gaming, booyah!

Yup, me and all of the other kućna biljke [not sure this is as kosher as I think it could be] just notpartying late into the night.

So, that gave me a perfect opportunity to bail out on the next night’s socializing.  Not that I qualify for Navigator cruises, Contiki, et al, but one can just imagine.

Not the “Marco Polo”!?!

Tourist joke time!

I left a review for Sail Croatia.  Quite happy with this ship, though, to be arguably unfair, it’s not their ship, they just lease vessels from ship owners.  Might have been different if I shared a cabin with a stranger, but can worry about that the next time …

Sand not shown.

So, I didn’t take a lot of pictures.  I took no pictures while dune buggying as I was the seventh wheel, the wheelman.  All alone in my buggy (the second one as, of course, the first one wouldn’t turn over).  Anyway, one thing about our trip was lack of connection between beaches with sand and being in the water.  This beach would have been an opportunity for that, but the weather was still gloomier than usual.

Back to the lightning storm in Korčula.  Dinner at a nice restaurant and it didn’t rain at our sea wall locale.  Not here but near here.

Europe …

I also took no pictures while kayaking Malo Jezero (malo) and Veliko Jezero (Most-ly, sic humor FTW), while zip lining (see, gaming, as Andy and I discussed how Zip Line is a stealth card due to the squealing sounds matching the frequency of bats), or on …

Not Old … Town

The walking tour.  The Game … … … of Thrones walking tour.  Who loves irony?  Who?  I’m sure there’s a fantasy oriented sort who suffered through all of the Wheel of Time books (if not all of the chapters) who has never watched a complete episode or read any of the books who would be into such a tour.  Pretty safe bet.

I was definitely impressed at Dubrovnik Old Town.  Those three tourists, yum.  Anyway, Dubrovnik is one of the (numerous) locales on the trip I would have been interested in spending more time.  In this case, I felt like I only scratched the surface of touristdom.

The day after Dubrovnik was, I believe, when I had this sense of the trip being incredibly dense.  Sure, you don’t spend a lot of time in any given port (unless you stay up until 4AM doing … whatever), but each day is different to where there’s a lot of feeling of activity.  Also, weather improved and we actually hit swim spots.

Swimming.  I don’t actually swim much.  Kućna biljke aren’t known for mobility – all about the floating.  But, between being dumped in the middle of placid water, it being chilly, and whatnot, I even coordinated using arms and legs at the same time at times to achieve water-based motion.  I know, pin a medal on me right now.

I drink my sugar.

Oops, forgot to put this picture in the Dubrovnik “section”.  Most pictures of food I take for coworkers.  At least one of our group consumed the products of these dispensers.

Blocking the nudist beach.

The back half of the trip had a group humor moment.  Probably had to be there.

Gender bias – 40 kuna.

From here.  Okay, fine, I’ll explain.  At various times, we were low on cash and lots of things were cashy.  Now, ATMs are everywhere, so this isn’t actually much of a challenge, but one groupster would have more cash than another.  So, five of us went into the fortress.  I paid for myself and another male.  The third male paid for himself.  His fiancee was going to be covered by a female.  The ticket dude was having none of this outrageous chivalrouslessness once he realized we were “together”.  So, the two non-males saved some precious gelato-producing materials.

Oh, the adventures I could …

Getting to the end.  Last swim spot was most involved for this one, heretofore known as the “Water Wheel”.  If only someone had a Go Pro, someone who switched helmets with me to mount an electronic device and if only someone with a bumpy skull was into taking pictures while in motion.

Oh, which reminds me.  Safety is a six letter word.  When we had to sign waivers and wear safety equipment for ziplining, given that to that point our entire safety instruction was “Put the life jacket over your head, pull the strap around, and buckle.  Life jackets under the beds.” and at no point when I went kayaking by myself “Do you know how to swim?  Have you been kayaking before?  Do you want a life jacket?” to the point where I think I technically crossed out of Veliko Jezero into the sea, we figured there was a 10% kill rate on ziplining.  Bucked the odds, again.

Almost Splitsville.

Back in Split was trip-py.  It was an odd feeling to me to be back in a “city” where not everything was touristful (Dubrovnik outside of Old Town might have been that if we were ever more than a hop, skip, and jump from Old Town).  Also, the “return” of, er, returning to our starting point.

Return trip was ending of Deadpool, Black Panther, Infinity War, and lots of Yahtzee.  Because, gamer, yo.  Dice forever!

While I still don’t have the enthusiasm to cinemize, except when with family or the like who are more cinematic than I, I guess I’ve got to realize that it doesn’t really bother me to watch superhero movies, anymore.  I was reasonably entertained.

While not a tournament report, thanks to Athena for the invite on her trip and the groupsters for sharing gelato.  Thanks to the crew for not forcing us to use life jackets.  Thanks to Lara for mucho guidance.  Thanks to fellow passengers.

Now, when could I possibly fit in a return trip, where, of course, a V:TES tournament and Traveller feature prominently?

Wait, more gaming.

So, one thing about watching five years’ worth of movies was philosophizing upon the idea that entertainment can be less than great and still, somehow, be good.  In the next three thousand words, I’ll – …