Board Games!

[Starsign]

So: what characters play more interestingly? I was more or less ho-hum on her gameplay.

Ho boy there's a lot. Just with the base game, Bunker and Absolute Zero are some of the most complex characters to play as, with Zero in particular being able to do all sorts of crazy fire and cold attacks once his setup is done. I'd put Visionary up here too; she plays a completely different game from the other heroes. She's very good at manipulating various decks and giving interesting effects to heroes (such as Twist The Ether, applied on a target which can change their attack type and can also increase or decrease that damage).

From expansions, Mister Fixer is more varied than Expatriette as he has tools and styles which he can switch on the fly for many situations. He can seem a bit weak but the rewrite on his Dual Crowbars can greatly help out his damage potential. There's also Argent Adept, who uses instruments and aspects of music to call forth different kinds of effects, including throwing out additional powers and plays to other characters. Nightmist also has a spell system where the effects of some of her attacks depend on the number that is specified on that card or cards on top of her deck. Then there is Omnitron-X who, if you've fought Omnitron before, you know what his 10th iteration is like. Between playing components, platings, and throwing timeshifts around, Omni-X can be a tank, a damage dealer, a healer, and a deck manipulator all at once, so long as you don't get his components destroyed by receiving 5 damage in 1 turn.

As for Guise, he's a crazy silly character who is all about three things: Playing cards out of turn, drawing cards like crazy, and using the abilities of other heroes in play to his advantage. He takes a couple rounds of setup, but he's capable of doing hilarious things in a round once he's got enough ongoings out and has the right ongoings and equipment "borrowed" (incidentally Fixer is one of the best to have for Guise, as Fixer's styles and tools happen whenever he does damage, and Guise can basically hit once or twice every turn).

I also found out Guise is also a massive counter for any villain who tries counterattacking whenever you deal damage them. I'm not being hyperbolic when I say Guise by himself literally makes Advanced Chairman kill himself in a single round.

[Knaight]

Ho boy there's a lot. Just with the base game, Bunker and Absolute Zero are some of the most complex characters to play as, with Zero in particular being able to do all sorts of crazy fire and cold attacks once his setup is done. I'd put Visionary up here too; she plays a completely different game from the other heroes. She's very good at manipulating various decks and giving interesting effects to heroes (such as Twist The Ether, applied on a target which can change their attack type and can also increase or decrease that damage).

This is why Absolute Zero is my favorite - you're pulling off ridiculously convoluted attacks, bouncing things off of each-other, fluctuating hit points, and if your allies have fire attacks quite possibly taking some of them to pull your shenanigans even during their turn. It's great.

Granted, Absolute Zero is also the hero I played first, so there's some first time bias in there.

[Starsign]

This is why Absolute Zero is my favorite - you're pulling off ridiculously convoluted attacks, bouncing things off of each-other, fluctuating hit points, and if your allies have fire attacks quite possibly taking some of them to pull your shenanigans even during their turn. It's great.

Granted, Absolute Zero is also the hero I played first, so there's some first time bias in there.

He's a crazy hero to use for sure. I've had mixed experiences with him though. On one hand he can be durable as hell due to healing like crazy... but on the other hand he can kill himself insanely quickly (or get killed) and he has an awful start up time even compared to most other heroes. That plus his bad card draw and the lack of ways he can help other heroes, and he's not my favorite.

I should also say my dislike for Bunker may be first time bias too, as he was the first hero I used... granted the other two times I used him much later were just as fruitless.

[Cristo Meyers]

I should also say my dislike for Bunker may be first time bias too, as he was the first hero I used... granted the other two times I used him much later were just as fruitless.

Bunker's right up there with Fanatic and Absolute Zero in heroes that can get screwed hard by a bad shuffle. They all just need those equipment cards to reach full capacity, and if the deck ain't cooperating then you aren't going anywhere. Fanatic can at least do some damage without Absolution, but she needs that sword to reach full capability.

My first game was me with Fanatic and LadyMeyers with Visionary against the Baron. It went about as well as you would expect a striker and a debuffer to do unsupported. Got trounced hard.

Switched to Legacy and Wraith and returned the favor, though.

[Starsign]

Bunker's right up there with Fanatic and Absolute Zero in heroes that can get screwed hard by a bad shuffle. They all just need those equipment cards to reach full capacity, and if the deck ain't cooperating then you aren't going anywhere. Fanatic can at least do some damage without Absolution, but she needs that sword to reach full capability.

My first game was me with Fanatic and LadyMeyers with Visionary against the Baron. It went about as well as you would expect a striker and a debuffer to do unsupported. Got trounced hard.

Switched to Legacy and Wraith and returned the favor, though.

Well my bigger issue with Bunker is that even WHEN he's all set up, he's still not that good. He needs a ton of cards in play to be good such as Gatling Gun, Flak Cannon, Omni-Cannon, Grenade Launcher, and especially Assault Mode to get going, and he has to stay in Assault Mode if he wants to keep the damage as he can't do anything else. What's worse, he needs to draw and play cards quickly and any of his modes can't let him do both, so he'd have to either use one mode to draw a lot, hope he gets the cards, then switch modes so he can play all those that he needs. THEN he goes to Assault Mode. By this point many villains have already been taken down and there are numerous characters who can outdamage Bunker anyway (Tempest, Chrono Ranger, Nightmist, and The Sentinels come to mind) and they can do other stuff while setting up. Bunker doesn't feel like one of those heroes that's in need of a new promo or rewrite of text; he needs a flat out redesign.

That's probably way too harsh but I really wish he could be as good as I'd like him to be. The most I think he can be made use of is if there's another hero or two that can grant him extra plays (like Argent Adept) and/or draws (Tachyon's Team Leader promo, which is hilariously powerful even among hilariously powerful hero variants)

Also, you play Sentinels with 2 heroes? I know people have done such things but I've more commonly used 3-5, generally as it's what the game expects and accommodates for. How is going at it with 2 heroes?

[Cristo Meyers]

Also, you play Sentinels with 2 heroes? I know people have done such things but I've more commonly used 3-5, generally as it's what the game expects and accommodates for. How is going at it with 2 heroes?

We pretty quickly moved up to playing 2 heroes each.

Joking aside, it wasn't that bad. The scaling systems is simple enough that it still works pretty well. Some villains scaled better than others but none really seemed out-and-out broken. We beat Blade and got lucky against Dawn, Apostate was one heck of a challenge. But going two heroes each is just easier and not as limiting.

We also did one three person game, six heroes, against Voss. It actually turned out really well, came right down to the wire until Expatriette shotgunned him in the head.

[Starsign]

We pretty quickly moved up to playing 2 heroes each.

Joking aside, it wasn't that bad. The scaling systems is simple enough that it still works pretty well. Some villains scaled better than others but none really seemed out-and-out broken. We beat Blade and got lucky against Dawn, Apostate was one heck of a challenge. But going two heroes each is just easier and not as limiting.

We also did one three person game, six heroes, against Voss. It actually turned out really well, came right down to the wire until Expatriette shotgunned him in the head.

The scaling is mostly good, yeah. Some villains rely more on fixed damage over hero-based damage though (Voss and Dawn come to mind, as a lot of their minions like to hit everyone for 2-3 damage). It also doesn't influence how minions come out, which is probably why a lot of players apparently struggle with the Chairman in a 3 player game. No the Operative doesn't care how well you offense is, she's bringing out another Underboss and- oh hey it's the freaking Contract.

On the flip side, I've heard The Dreamer and Miss Information get terrifying with 5 heroes, as Dreamer when flipped plays something like (Hero - 1) cards a turn while Miss Information requires (Hero - 1) Clues to be on the field for her to flip. I've only fought them with 3 heroes so far but I can imagine how this goes. The latter can be brutally debilitating when there's 3 there you have to keep around, and the former is outright murderous given Dreamer's projections are decimating. And that's not mentioning when you play on Final Wasteland, normally delightful to fight minion-heavy villains in, only to realize Unforgiving Wasteland is taking away her projections, or worse targeting her outright.

Also I think next time I'm gonna try Cosmic and Bunker again. I can't stand how they're designed but I'm positive I can make the two work if I keep at it. If needed though I'll just go with my favorite build of Greatest Legacy, Team Leader Tachyon, Omnitron-X, Prime Wardens Argent Adept, and The Sentinels. All the draws, all the plays and all the powers to timeshift through and use The Sentinels' deck like mad!

[Tentreto]

My favorite hero is Fanatic, followed by Tempest for the sheer narrative plays I get. I haven't played much sentinels- i have yet to lose, but with fanatic, I finished the Matriarch using her low hp rage thingy. My least favorite is possibly Expatriate, for not being simply that interesting: you only have guns!

[Starsign]

Been rather quiet here, though I've also been busy getting ready for University and such.

In the meantime, I was wondering if anyone has Tabletop Simulator on Steam. Been hoping there might be more people here with that so that I can round up more players for a possible game or three sometime. Would anyone be interested?

[Fri]

I'm hoping to get that myself, seem to be a pretty convenient way to game with my friends, but I'm waiting for a discount

Also there's a kickstarter for Tabletopia, which is kinda like Tabletop simulator but... I don't know. What's the difference I wonder.

[Starsign]

I'm hoping to get that myself, seem to be a pretty convenient way to game with my friends, but I'm waiting for a discount

Also there's a kickstarter for Tabletopia, which is kinda like Tabletop simulator but... I don't know. What's the difference I wonder.

Took a look at it myself. By what I've seen from the Kickstarter it looks like TTS with more official developer support and a UI more accustomed to mouse and touch controls. It definitely looks like it'd be more convenient in a way to play board games there but it also has subscription fees, something I'm not the most keen of.

It's still in development though so we'll just have to wait and see. For now there is still just Tabletop Simulator but that may be changing in the coming future if there may be a challenge to see who can come up with the best tabletop digital sandbox game.

[tgva8889]

How many games are on Tabletop Simulator? I've been itching for some tabletop games but I wasn't sure what they had access to.

[CantigThimble]

How many games are on Tabletop Simulator? I've been itching for some tabletop games but I wasn't sure what they had access to.

Well you can get about 4000 various games and stuff through the steam workshop, basically anything someone has taken the time to mod in.

And I'd be up for some games on there, I haven't played it much just because I don't know anyone else interested and the pub servers are often unlikely to work out.

[Starsign]

Well you can get about 4000 various games and stuff through the steam workshop, basically anything someone has taken the time to mod in.

And I'd be up for some games on there, I haven't played it much just because I don't know anyone else interested and the pub servers are often unlikely to work out.

Great! Me and my group of friends would be happy to have more players. If you're interested, can you send me a PM so I may add you on Steam? We can work out when we can do TTS after.

[Fri]

Last saturday there was a board game day in a nearby FLGS. I had really much fun there, played a lot of games (Dead of Winters, finally!), and got some new friends, but two games really stands out and might be some of the most fun I've ever had playing board games.

One of them is a coop game Space Cadet. Basically there were six of us, and each of us were playing as a station officer in a space ship. There's a board in the middle, where there's a ship token, and in the board there are nebulas and asteroids and enemy ship token and whatnot, and we can move to the edge of each sector or scan sector to open new boards randomly. But the basic premise is, each station have their own "mini game" and the officers must deal with their own minigames while cooperating together. And there's a small hourglass that's turned for every turn, so everyone must do their job frantically within that small amount of time, before the turn get resolved

The engineer's minigame is that he's the final arbiter on the distribution of energy to each system. Everyone might yell that they need the energy more, but he's the final arbiter.

He got a pile of four-sided tiles, that each turn (with that limited amount of time) he pull seven of them randomly. Each tile sides have different colored circles, with each color symbolizing different systems. Basically he must match the colors, a full circle gives an energy to the related system

He also have to deal with preparing for jump, which is basically playing yahtzee by himself


Then the next thing that get resolved is the shield and repair system. The shield officer must decide which part of the ship got shielding. The shield officer got a pile of tiles with numbers and colours on them, and depending on the amount of energy he got he must pick a number of tiles. then he must basically play poker with limited time. Each "hand" have different amount of shielding provided, and he must decide which part of the ship got shielding.

He must also decide which repair to be prioritized when the ship got damaged.

Then the helm. He got a pile of maneuver cards, and depending on the amount of energy assigned to him he draw an amount of random card, and decide to order that card to maneuver the ship on the main board, and also accelerate or decelerate the ship (both need energy). Really need good spatial awareness, I definitely can't play it.

The next system is the sensors, where there's a bag with tetris-ish pieces inside them, and he also got cards with picture of tetris-ish piece on them. Depending on amount of energy he got, he can decide to lock on to enemies, do a super lock, sector scan, or cloak, and he have to open a card and see what tetromino piece is in there, and he must put his hand inside the bag and try to pull the fitting tetromino piece or the action to be successful, which more complex action needing more success

And finally, there's the weapon officer. He draw cards depending on amount of energy given to him and he also got a pile of tetromino shapes.

In each card there's a complex shape, and he must put the tetromino shapes to fit within that shape, with each complete shape giving him one chance to shoot.

Then he got this board where he must flick a puck with his finger against targets to decide if he hit or not or how much damage does the shot did. Basically it turn into dexterity game somehow.

The last player plays the captain, but he's basically superfluous, and the owner just played it to teach the game and make it simpler basically.He also decide the use of special equipment and tractor beam. Tractor beam give you double damage, and you play it by playing "memory" and matching cards.

So as you can see, everyone do their own job frantically at the same time with a very limited amount of real time each turn (30 seconds I think), then it got resolved.

I was playing the weapons officer, because we had an audition for it. And I somehow managed to do a perfect shot on my first time. It was a fluke, mostly. But I did a few of one hit kill in the game anyway. And I realized that I hit more when I only managed to prepare one shot. Everytime I managed to prepare more than one shots I always miss.

And also the helm was a really hillarious job, because as you can imagine, you need a really good spatial awareness for it. And for the first few times we move like he's drunk and just smashes into asteroids and turn around randomly when we actually want to move here and there.

It was really, really fun. One of the funnest thing I've ever had playing a board game.

The second game where we really had fun was colt express.

It's a western-themed game with a 3d miniature cardboard train, where the six of us play as bandits who for some reason decides to rob the train at the same time.

Basically each character have different special abilities and we have to play cards to do actions, and they all are resolved together.

At the end we laughed so hard that I think someone almost pissed their pants and I honestly cramped my stomach.

Because, everyone got 250 dollars as starting fund.

And we move around and do gunfight and punch each others and dodge sherrif and steal money for the duration of the game.

We tally the amount of money everyone got at the end of the game.

And everyone got the average of around 2000~ dollars.

Except me, who somehow got 250 dollars at the end.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Colt Express is hilarious.

Also, you'd probably enjoy Space Cadets Dice Duel: it has that hectic feel of Space Cadets, but it's a 4v4 spaceship deathmatch between two crews. (It can also play 3v3.)

[Fri]

Also, an amusing story from the time we play Dead of Winters.

We pick random characters, and... my friend got the ninja and the hot librarian. I immediately says "what is this, an anime?"

[Cikomyr]

We played Dead of Winter last Friday. First time playing for everyone involved. I had the job explaining the rules, but i think i did all right.

We had two games. First was the suggested intro mission of collecting samples. Due to inexperience and the presence of a badly played traitor (who ended up helping a lot), we almost lost that game. We were nearly overruned with Zs (had the goddamn 20 zombies crisis surging, and we even had to kill dumbass Jenny Clark who was bringing 8 more to the Colony..)

We scraped desperately for food up to the last turn. We had a famine event.. Man it was hard.

Second game was collecting medication. We owned that one. Finished 4 turns in, with 5 morales left. Funnily, i succeeded twice at my private objectives (only 1 survivor left, which happened to the WRONG character due to a 5-zombie noise surge, grr) and for the 2nd game, i needed 12 survivors part of the colony. We had 16 ^_^ (4 players).

Since i had read a bit online, i stressed one, BIG part of the strategy involved: DO NOT ROLL THE EXPOSURE DICE IF YOU CAN AVOID IT. And as a result, we all had a fantastic expetience and none of the usual frustrations related with learning that lesson the hard way. The only one who allowed himself to roll it was Sparky. Who was awesome both games.

Fun moment: when i ended a turn, i had to use a Medication to save Sparky from a Frostbite that would have killed him next turn, and that put us to 10 waste cards. I took a lot of flak for causing this to happen, and people suspected me of bring traitor, until i pointed out that if Sparky had died next turn, we would STILL have lost a morale.

The next turn, we decided to allocate more seriously who would do some clean up, and most of us volunterred a die to clean. And then it hit me:

"Guys. We are allocating chores"

The guys around the table then gave the game a nasty look. So hilarious.

[CarpeGuitarrem]

The next turn, we decided to allocate more seriously who would do some clean up, and most of us volunterred a die to clean. And then it hit me:

"Guys. We are allocating chores"

The guys around the table then gave the game a nasty look. So hilarious.

I love how they make something so mundane into a gradual thing that slowly builds up as your colony gets filthy.

Also, yeah. Never roll Exposure if you can help it, because every Exposure roll is a calculated risk. DoW is all about minimizing risk.

[houlio]

I love how they make something so mundane into a gradual thing that slowly builds up as your colony gets filthy.

Also, yeah. Never roll Exposure if you can help it, because every Exposure roll is a calculated risk. DoW is all about minimizing risk.

To give a relevant anecdote, I have seen a bite roll kill 3+ characters at once.

[Erloas]

So we got some gaming in this weekend. First opening and playing of both Viceroy and World of Smog: On Her Majesty's Service, both kickstarter games I got a while ago.

Anyone else play these and what did they think?

Viceroy is by far the favorite so far, the daughter really likes it even though she is only 8. I don't think she gets too much of the strategy it takes to actually win, but she likes the mechanics. What is getting me the most though is that so far my wife has kicked my butt pretty hard every single game. I'm not actually 100% sure if she is doing everything correctly right now but I think she is. She doesn't play a lot of games so it is a bit unusual. I've tried several different strategies but she always comes out ahead. The game looks very good, and I'm glad I got the play mat for it, but it sure takes up a lot of space, it is all we can do to fit 3 people on the table.

World of Smog we just had one game to try and learn it. We didn't quite figure out the agents yet, but we're going to try again when the kids aren't around and being ... well kids, so we can have a bit more time to figure it out. Without the agents it seems like a pretty simple race to victory, especially with only 2 players. We're hoping it gets a bit more interesting with the agents actually involved. The game is absolutely beautiful, my wife loves it for that on its own.

We're also now looking for a game the 3 year old can play. I'm not actually sure what the options for him are.

[Magentawolf]

Viceroy isn't shabby; I need another couple of games to get a proper opinion of it, but I'm liking it so far.

[Erloas]

Well I know it isn't a board game, but there isn't really a general wargaming thread so this seems like as good a place as any to ask about it.

Anyone played Dystopian Wars, Armoured Clash, or Dystopian Legions by Spartan Games? They are all set in the same universe, it just seems different scales and different focuses. I'm still just scratching the surface of the games and I'm hoping to find someone that has some experience with it. I mostly found it trying to find steampunk models to get my wife to paint, but if the games are good then I'll look at it from that direction instead and maybe see about getting starter armies for us in addition to some centerpiece models for her.

[TheEmerged]

\checks to make sure it hasn't been >45 days

As feared, September & October's actual gaming budget was sacrificed on the altar of my DVD collection. I did however have a bit of "slush" money left in the pool. Having heard good (even great) things about the new Pandemic Legacy (NO SPOILERS! IF YOUR GAMING GROUP PLAYS THIS, PLEASE DO NOT SPOIL ANYTHING!), I figured I was due to play Pandemic itself.

It was a pretty big hit with the group. We actually came close to winning the first game (3 players, 4 epidemic cards), right up to the moment where the Scientist player told the Medic player "Don't worry, guys, I have enough cards for the last cure. All we have to do is survive the Medic's turn and..."

Researcher: "Oh you did not just..."

Medic: "...of COURSE we just drew the third Epidemic card!"

*resolve it* *draw another card*

Scientist: "We can still do this! One more card without an outbreak and..."

Researcher: "Oh you did not just..."

Medic: "...and of COURSE we just drew the fourth Epidemic card! And look, it's a territory RIGHT NEXT to the previous one! We just had <counts> 4 outbreaks at once!"

Researcher: <begins beating the Scientist over the head with the Dominion box>

Ahem. We won the second game, but were within one time around the table from running out of player cards. We're still wrapping our brains around how often to use those for travel versus curing. I think when we try it again in Dec with 4 players, I'm going to try the Operations guy for building Research Stations.

=============================

Anyway, I think Pandemic is now higher on most of the group's list than Forbidden Desert; personally I still prefer Desert because of the wider selection of drawn "special" actions.

You may notice from my signature that, yes, I'm actually painting the lead miniatures that came with my old copy of RoboRally. Mind, I'm not the best miniature painter in the world to begin with and my recent eye surgeries are making this a slower process than I'd like. I'm not trying for too much detail, but I like how well most have turned out so far (for most I've only done a base color and their eyes, although in Twonky's & Twitch's cases I got a promenient secondary detail done).

Increasingly, it looks like Dead Of Winter could end up in my collection after all. I was eyeballing "Mission Red Planet", what with the recent reprint and all, but the heat is backing off a little bit.

Finally, the youngest member of our gaming group (the pre-teen) actually got assigned a school project of creating his own tabletop game. All of the adults were practically squeeling like fangirls, but we all promised to HELP without INTERFERING. I give us a month (it's a long-term project)

[Fri]

Ooh boy. I can't remember how many board games I made as a kid even before I know that it's a thing

Also got my copy of Say Bye To The Villain. The artwork is cool as always, I'm really a fan of the artwork of Seiji Kanai's games. They're just the right amount of style and simplicity of my liking.

I'm going to play it this saturday. My group isn't really a fan of coop games though sadly (they'd want to play this because it's new, but I don't know how often they'd like to play this later).

[Cikomyr]

So we had ourselves a game of Cold of Winter on monday.

First game was a disaster. Truly, a disaster. We dies within 3 turns because of famine, zombiw onslaught of the Colony..

Secons game was waaaay closer. We came down to the last turn. We knew we would fail the crisis, but we had 2 morales left. We could pull it off. We just needed to have enough Food cards for the common objective, and enough food to feed everyone for that turn.

Problem was, we needed 3 food card and 4 more food tokens..

So we pulles together and managed to rush-search the supermarket and the school. Me. Specially, searched a LOT and managed to get lots of it.

Thing is.. Another player had the encounter with the Pirate character, and had the choice between losing a card and bringing him on board.

Me: you cant bring him on board. We have barely enough food as it is.
Him: i cannot afford to lose a card, i need it for my objective
Me: if the group lose, it doesnt matter that you suceed at your private objective, you realize that?
Him: i dont care. Ill bring him on board.

I was the last player to play on the last turn. Like i said, i manage to get us to the number of required food cards AND nearly enough food token...

Me: goddamnit. We are one food token short because of you!
Friend #2: hmm.. If we banish someone, his characters dont count against the number of fod required, right?
Him: then i motion we banish [Me]!
Friend #3: no. [Me] is the active player, he is the only one who can call for a banishment vote
Me: i motion we banish [Him]!

It even came down to a single die roll after that, but we won!! Worse thing is, i wasted my last Action Die trying to get [Him] his extra food, but i could have used it to achieve my private objective , had i known he would have been banished.

Man, this game gets intense at time

[Erloas]

So I'm going to start looking for so co-op games for my wife and I, and maybe our daughter who is 8. But the games have to function well with 2 people as the daughter is often playing with the 3 year old, but the occasional game she can join in on would be a plus.

I decided to go with co-op because we've been playing a few different games lately (Dominion, Carcassonne, World of Smog: On her Majesty's Order, Viceroy) and what I've found is any real focus on attack cards in Dominion or trying to compete for cities in Carcassonne tend to lead to offers of having various game pieces stuck in various orifices.
So I'm thinking co-op is the way to go.

I got Shadowrun: Crossfire last year but I haven't had a chance to play it yet, I'm not even sure I had the chance to finish the rules. I'm thinking it might be a bit too involved and need more people, but if I'm mistaken on that I would like to hear it. (Playing while making dinner and making sure the kids don't make a mess means it can't be too involved.)

Another thing is that she *hates* zombies, so no zombie games, which I think leaves out some of the co-op games mentioned recently.

[Cikomyr]

Andor is a solid Co-op game, as far as i know..

Pandemics is also solid

[Fri]

Forbidden Island/Desert has similar basic gameplay premise with Pandemic, but cheaper and more compact, with both less and sturdier pieces, so if you're into that, I recommend either of those two. Island is more basic (which might suit your need), while Desert is a bit more complex.

If you're thinking of storytelling rpg-ish game, Andor is a solid choice I guess. Or if you want something rpg-ish but more tactical (but still simple enough and cute!) get Mice and Mystics. Play as mice in grand adventure!

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Hanabi is pretty neat, especially if you've got a regular player. Granted, it can lead to frustration with the other player(s), but it's got a cool concept: you're only allowed to look at all the other players' cards, not your own, and you can only give out (very limited) information about cards by spending "clues".