Honestly think it was more social than religious or philosophical.

Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.

…but yeah Brian’s books are…mediocre fanfic at best…

Well feel free to dig right in!

I had this problem as well on the mobile web page. It worked from desktop mode.

These were all mentioned already, but Dragonomino, Rhino Hero, and Animal Upon Animal are pretty good. We’ve had fun with Dinosaur Escape Game and Busy Busy Bake Shop as well (but they skew a little younger, maybe).

I found tbis site to be a good resource: https://weplay2learn.com/

They take the approach that games that are designed to teach fail at being fun and fail st teaching because no one wants to play them. But games that are designed to be fun can actually provide some teaching (not that you were necessarily asking about education, but I think it’s a good take either way).

That’s an interesting idea.

I like patchwork for 2 players. Or if we want to go old school American gaming, Rumikub (although that can play with 4)

…and of course Wingspan and Terraforming Mars play well with 2 players…

…and Pandemic is a good 2 player co-op (but can play with more than 2)

I think there can be a bit of drama, if you consider the drama of “can I build my engine fast enough”… or maybe just dont add up points in your head until the very end and hope for the best. I do think there’s a sort of vaguely chill vibe that maybe tamps down on some of the drama.

Definitely not too much of the sort of “let me bait my opponent into doing X which they think is a good move but it will actually benefit me” (well there’s some of that but not a ton).

Yeah is that the scythe thing?

If it makes you feel any better, I actually haven’t played Oceania, even though I have it…

Ah OK. I was going to try printing one of the ones that sort of overlays the paper boards. The dial is a cool idea though.

Basically same here!

I can’t take credit for the idea. It’s a “house rule” on the big discord server that hosts regular online tournaments.

The egg laying criticism is mitigated a little by the expansions. But I would also say it’s kinda like the first strategy people realize can work. The game is so situational because of the card draw and the randomization that egg laying definitely CAN work well in a lot of scenarios, but personally I look at it as sort of a fall back if something better doesn’t come along.

Of course! All opinions are valid. The RNG factor is definitely an issue. I play a good amount of Wingspan online too and maybe just because of the speed at which you can play games back to back, it becomes really apparent when you just don’t get smiled upon by the RNGesus

I’ll need to check that game out sometime then!

I think its pre-order for the next printing. They don’t pre-make them (they said it would be too expensive, which I guess I kinda understand) so they’re effectively made to order in batches.

Edit: hit send too fast. Yeah the stacks of cards get a little unwieldy when you have sleeves on them. Need some 3D printed accessories to help manage for sure.

Oh for sure re: ravens. See my other comment, but it makes sense to disallow playing them until second round (along with 2 other OP birds)

Absolutely agree. I think it’s cool how the cards themselves and the mechanics all sort of make sense in context of the theme. (Example, birds that-in real life-don’t make their own nests will lay eggs in other nests in the game)

So I don’t remove the ravens but just disable playing them (along with 2 other cards… killdeer and and Franklin’s gull) until the start of round 2

Very cool. I use the ones that came with the big box (and actually bought metal cubes too), but this is a great idea.

EDIT: from the pic I gather the trays you’re referring to are actually the player board resource holders, not the communal cube holders. Very cool.

Have been meaning to 3D print some holders for the player boards. I was dumb and didn’t opt for the dual layer ones.

Glad to see some other fans of Terraforming Mars! I think it’s my favorite game (although I probably haven’t played as many as some other folks have)