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Because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine millions of people have fled the country. Some of them have arrived in my corner of the world (Denmark). I’d like to do my small part in helping them and I hope you’ll spend ten minutes to help me do that.
What I’m trying to do is invite refugees (Ukrainians or others) to one of the board game events in the the board game association of my hometown. If it becomes a success, then I hope to continue doing it.
The intention is that there’ll be a team of volunteers to welcome them, teach games, and participate in playing groups.
My hope is that if I can this project off the ground, then it can help refugees temporarily forget what they’ve been through and make them feel welcome in their new country. I’m told that one of the best things one can do to help refugees is to take care of the kids, not just to help them, but to allow the parents time for themselves to grieve and process the experience without the kids seeing them fall apart.
The participants in such an event might be people who’re at most used to games on the level of Uno and there might be significant language barriers. This put tight constraints on which games can be used.
It might a bit weird to ask about multiplayer game suggestions on a solo gaming blog
but I know that a lot of you are parents and I would appreciate any game suggestions you have that fit these criteria:
1) Can be played by kids. This doesn’t mean that all suggestions must work for young kids, since we’re likely to get varied ages.
2) Can be explained in two minutes across language barriers.
3) Don’t require reading or more than very simple use of language. E.g. Dixit and Scrabble aren’t options.
4) Have peaceful themes or if not peaceful, then non-realistic (e.g. Zombie Dice), or no theme at all.
5) Must play well with at least 3 players.
6) Must be available for purchase now.
I hope you can help me with this.
Thematic Solitaires for the Spare Time Challenged
A blog about solitaire games and how to design them.
I'm your host, Morten, co-designer of solo modes for Scythe, Gaia Project, Wingspan, Glen More II, and others.
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SPIEL ’21 in Essen is over. It was chaos, it was noise, it was overload, it was awesome.
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I knew it was a gamble when I set out to create a solo mode that turned one of my core design tenets on its head, but it seemed like the best and most interesting option.
When my team and I make solo modes, we make artificial opponents called Automas that mimic player interactions and do as little else as possible. Therefore, the fewer interactions a game has, the easier it is to make an Automa.
So, a game like Rolling Realms where there’s no player interaction should be as easy as it gets to make an Automa for, right?
Wrong.
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T minus 13
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Here we are yet yet yet yet again, my dear friends, at the beginning of the solo event of the year, the People’s Choice Top 200 solo games.
As always, I’ll host a contest, where the winner gets to go home with the world famous No Prize™ award. Also as always, it can be picked up at my house somewhere in Europe on the forty-eleventh of Febtember in the Year of the Penguin.
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A few days ago Morten had a smile on his face. A big one. Ear to ear.
Why? Well, read on and let me tell you a story.
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Hi, my name is Karel, member of team Automa Factory. When I'm not working on Automa projects, I occasionally design a solo mode as a personal hobby project. For this summer’s hobby project, I restricted myself to creating an Automa using only the components that were already present in the game. I wanted the solo player to start playing without printing anything at all (apart from a player aid, maybe). Morten has kindly offered me the opportunity to share some of my behind-the-scenes experiences in this guest blog post.
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Why engine builders end just as they get going – or why we (almost) can’t have sandboxes
16
Aug
2021
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I’ve got everything lined up. My mines produce like crazy and the supersonic trains are ready to transport the resources to my maxed out number of fully upgraded factories. My next turn will be epic.
Wait what?!? The game is over? But I was just about to... Sigh.
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I’m normally not much for designated days where you have to be thankful, generous, or romantic on command. To me they can make such gestures less sincere. If I want to thank someone, I’ll do it when they do something I appreciate, if I see them doing something well, or at any other time. When seeing my wife or son warms my heart, I’ll tell them I love them. I don’t do it on command.
That’s of course just my subjective opinion and I’m not saying that such days are without merit. They can act as reminders to pause for a minute and think about people you appreciate instead of just going with the flow of everyday life. Yesterday’s Thanksgiving and writing to two awesome playtesters today (thank you Jamie Specht and Kevin Brown) reminded me how much I have to thank a lot of people for in the board gaming community.
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In the immortal words of Forest Gump: ”Life is like a box of Belgian chocolate you never knew you were going to get.”
OK, that might be slightly paraphrased, but bear with me.
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