Learning Board Games: I Interview a Newbie About the Line on the Pain/Reward Graph

As a lot of board gamers who defaulted to solo mode when their friends refused to play have found out, the avoidance of the unknown and the learning curve is real.

Contributing writer Fritz Godard had never engaged with a solo dungeon crawler before 52 Realms: Adventures and writing this account of his struggles with the experience.

This was fascinating for me, as I love strategy and hobby games, but still hate learning them. I called him up so we could compare notes about the process of getting over the hump of confronting new systems and hitting the payoff.

We talked about the pleasure vs. pain of learning new stuff, what we saw as a reviewer’s responsibility, and I also asked for his help in trapping/killing some kind of wight or will-o-wisp on my property now that he’s a big, tough dungeon adventurer. Hit Play below to hear our chat.

Vale of Eternity, Wingspan, Cascadia: The Games of Summer

I acquire, learn and play slowly, so this doesn’t happen often: My play-pace over the last six weeks has totally outstripped my ability to makes sense of it on a microphone. Notes/initial impressions on new acquisitions here; look for a deeper dive in upcoming episodes.

The titular Eternity, a dragon who simply presides for the ‘Gram

Vale of Eternity
Buying a game with no solo mode is a major act of optimism for Breakup Gaming Society (me). I was rewarded by having something like seven different people join me for games, from hardcore M:TGers to casuals. They all loved it. One of them had his own copy the next time I saw him.

I’ve seen a few breathless reviews (unmerited) and a lot dismissal in comment threads (misguided). It’s a good game, as much for its timing in my life as anything.

See, now that’s just lovely

Wingspan
Another purchase where I went against my usual instincts in the name of game shelf biodiversity. It’s every bit as beautiful to see and touch as they say it is. I foundered in the three rulebooks and programmed instruction. I just could not picture how a turn worked. (Liz Davidson solved that. Thanks, Liz.) But I’ve got a solo game under my belt and will try it again, hopefully with others. But that’s low-priority because…

This is what the fuck I’m talking about right here

Cascadia
This game is my new girlfriend. I’ve played solo and against two other folks, each time appreciating the growing contrast between the ludicrously simply play steps and the colorful, crunchy puzzle you find yourself in about a third of the way through. (“Oh, this is nice…fuck. How do I keep the bears happy and find somewhere for this contentious hawk. Oh, my.”) Interpreting the variable scoring patterns of the animal’s five species is producing more moments of confusion than I would like, busting the flow. But I’m going to put up with that and figure it out because I woke up this morning thinking about playing this. Which I’m going to do now. Fuck blogging.