Deck-Builders and TableTop

For nerds like me, you all know that the latest episode of TableTop came out this week, and features the heroic Marvel-themed deck-building game: Legendary.

Now, I'm not a deck-builder kind of guy these days. Yeah, back in the early 90's I was bit by the Magic: The Gathering bug as hard as any dorky teen, but soon became annoyed with the power-creep in the card releases, and realized I was just being milked for my paper route money by Wizards o' the Coast. The "most-expensive-card-wins" rule effect of Magic left me with a sour taste in my mouth for deck-builders, so I never really give them a chance after that.

In the first segment of the above episode of TableTop, Wil Wheaton acknowledges that he experienced that very same Magic:The Gathering (of your money) realization and subsequent recoil from deck-building games. But he then goes on to clarify how deck-building games have come so far since then. Such that they aren't about buying individual cards anymore, and everyone playing is at an even level. Plus many of them are now co-operative games, which we all know is the best kind of game because friendship and reasons.

I am relieved to see that there is a DC-themed version. Gotta stay loyal, after all.

I think maybe I should give deck-building games a try, and to actually open that copy of Shadowrun:Crossfire I bought at GenCon last year during the annual purchasing frenzy one goes through in that most glorious of dealer halls. (I grabbed and bought it before I realized it was a deck-building game, as my uncontrollable lust for anything Cyberpunk-related blinded me to the actual description of the game mechanics on the back of the box at the time).

The GenCon Dealer Hall. Such a glorious place where rational purchasing decisions fly right out the window.

So I guess its about time I get my deck-building Game On!

Dead of Winter on TableTop!

While I love the Geek and Sundry show TableTop (on Youtube), its rare that one of the episodes features a boardgame that both:

1) I haven't yet played
and
2) I really want to learn how to play.

In this case they play a relatively new boardgame that I actually own, but haven't put in the effort to be able to both learn the rules and explain them to others. That's the slow step in my boardgaming nowadays, having enough excitement about a game to be able to teach the rules to others. I mean, once everyone knows how to play Shadows of Brimstone, then that's a guaranteed good time so you might as well play that, right?

Well, last GenCon I got a badge to get into the Dealer Hall an hour early thanks to my homey Chad Delp, and went into a rabid buying frenzy. There I picked up the game Dead of Winter, because the reddits said it was so great and I was in a serious buying furvor. However, I also picked up about six other games (including the aforementioned Shadows of Brimstone), so even though I cracked Dead of Winter open and perused the rules and components, I never really put in the time to learn the game well enough to suggest it to my friends. Fortunately for me, this week's episode of Tabletop features Dead of Winter, and does a pretty good job explaining the basics of the rules, so now the game is a real option for game night for peeps that've watched the episode!



So thank you, Wil Wheaton, for continuing to make TableTop an awesome show and helping diversify my gaming, despite my laziness.

Game on!