quarrel | games update

Through the magic of the Internet, I reverse-engineered the rules for a simple push-your-luck dice game called Sutakku I saw for sale at a game store. I’m glad I didn’t make it an impulse purchase. It was shallow, with less interesting roll-or-stop decisions than Farkle or Cosmic Wimpout. Most of the game’s $25 price tag was wrapped up in the fancy dice with Japanese numbers instead of pips.

I borrowed the Burning Wheel rulebooks from a friend to see what’s up with all that. Also, two things at Foolscap: I picked up an old copy of Ars Magica from the give-a-book/take-a-book table and I attended a panel on the current state of non-mainstream narrative-centric RPGs. It went into detail on Fiasco, Do, Microscope, and Polaris (specifically, Polaris: Chivalric Tragedy at Utmost North), and mentioned Psi*Run and several others I don’t recall.

I have not been bitten by the Guild Wars II bug yet, nor am I likely to, given I’m in crunch mode at work and that I was pre-emptively — and finally — bitten by the Steam bug and picked up both Deus Ex: Human Revolution and FTL, which is a roguelike spaceship combat and crew management game. Also, I am apparently pretty bad at Team Fortress 2, which comes as no surprise to anyone.

Sometime next month, the Sifteo cubes I ordered should come in, and I’ll lose even more time playing and making things for those.