Do you play the games you really want to play?

Often the games we like the most aren't the games we actually get to play. It's sometimes hard to find the right opponents or just enough of them and sometimes we just have to accept that nobody else is interested in learning the ropes of a 30 year old wargame.

I've been thinking about this topic lately because it has been ages since I last played a negotiation game. It's by far one of my favourite genres but my playgroup is composed of only three people which is awful for negotiation. So I wonder, how much do you have to compromise and why? And do you see yourself being able to change it?

No, I don't...

I don't get to play many confrontational games is the biggest thing. My wife can't handle it and I can only occasionally coordinate with the people I know who like conflict in games.

I also almost never get to play games that are complicated enough that the participants should glance at the rules before showing up, nor games that are longer than, say, 3 hours. That is a bummer.

You need more than one playgroup. My playgroup from a long time ago wouldn't compromise on breaking out RPG night into a separate group. Instead they wanted it to be RPG once in a while in a rotation of boardgames. That was too much of a compromise for our hero since I don't want to play RPGs anymore. So I had to find a new playgroup.

So I think there is a line there since you're doing it to have fun and compromising on certain things would defeat the entire purpose of getting together to have fun.

Same thing happened with another playgroup that wanted super long wargames on weeknight sessions. I tried it once or twice but just couldn't take it anymore.

It's been years now that I have the perfect playgroup. We all want the same things out of our sessions. They tried pulling World of Warcraft on me once years ago and I pulled the plug in the middle of the game. Then subjected them to Puerto Rico which didn't take for them at all. So it's all about testing the waters and finding everyone's comfort zone. They saw my reaction to Munchkin twice so that’s out of rotation now too.

It's not worth making anyone suffer

Not really. I also enjoy long games and have a lot of older games that just don't generate enough interest when I bring them places.

The Minneapolis area has a small Ameritrash crowd and a relatively huge Eurogame crowd. I don't jive well with that, because I've realized I don't enjoy making clever use of clever mechanics. I usually want more of a story to emerge in the games I play.

We've been in the middle of a minor remodel for quite a while because we're lazy about it, but ultimately I want to get our basement set up with a long table since we already have a big square table in the kitchen/dining area. Once we get that done I've decided I'm going to start scheduling semi-regular games at our house. I'm going to lay down one game I want to play in the invite, followed by open format if time permits. I think it's the only way I'm going to get my stuff to the table.

And damn it, I am going to play Blood Royale this year.

Yeah, I need to do that... maybe w/tenure I can get a pretty open invitation among friends game night going.

The Circus regulars have decreed that they don't like to play "long games" anymore so I rarely get to play things like Ikusa anymore. It fucking sucks.

I like the shorter games too, but sometimes I want to play the games I like and it's almost impossible to get them to play. I have other friends who like them a lot, but there's fewer so getting a 5 player big, epic strategy game going is very, very difficult now.

Two members of my group aren't big on luck or outright wackiness, so it's hard to get swingy games like Wiz-War or Psycho Raiders going. Yet Epic Spell Wars is a hit, which might in part be due to its directed attacks. But these same two people don't like Cosmic Encounter, so what are you going to do.

Hell yes!!

Sometime last year, I began tiring of how I was 'board gaming' over recent years. Looking back on the years where I had the most fun gaming, I actually had a lot more time, but owned less games...though I explored them deeper. Granted they were mainly flavors of GW minis games, but there's a lot to do there and it was very fulfilling. Over the past decade, I found myself with less time (kids, wife, career, etc) but more games. I had the mindset that if I liked one crayon rail game, maybe I should have a few others also. Same with Columbia block games. I also wasn't immune to buying into new games as the hype train rolled in. Thankfully the speed of that train became too much thanks to kickstarter and that helped me realign myself.

So I sold off almost everything.

The only games I keep now are the ones that are getting played...and I'm playing them plenty. Let's take a look...

TITAN (own): I'm always running an ACTS game or two at a time plus I play face-to-face at least twice a year.

Blood Bowl (own): I'm running a table top league that just wrapped up its second season. Over the holiday, since we can't meetup, I put together a league online via Cynanide's game. Also, I've attended four tournaments over the past year. On evenings when our BB meeting falls through, I'll spend the time painting up some minis for future seasons or upcoming tournaments. Less focus on buying and selling games, painting has become a lot more fun again. Here's the crew I took to Nuffleween IV in Oklahoma last month. I took 4th in a field of about 20, but was awarded most brutal causing 14 casualties with only 4 against. I'm proud of the boyz.


Dreadball (own): I ran a little tourney in September that went over well and am running a mini league over the course of Jan and Feb (before the next BB season takes off). Also, I'm attending a tournament in San Antonio in early 2016. MM were selling off complete teams for like $12-14 after Thanksgiving so I picked up a few extras for folks to use over the coming year. I just finished painting up these ref-bots for the inaugural season.


Settlers/Condotierre/Citadels/LotR:Confrontation/Risk2210 (own): These are all classics I play 5-6 times a year with the Casual Players Club. Lately it's been all Condotierre as we've taken to pub crawling with this in our pocket. We'll hit three microbreweries in an evening downing a pint and a game at each. Fun times.

Manoeuvre (don't own): My BB/gaming Arch Rival kept his so I sold mine. We play campaign style and usually meet up at this cafe/game store (the horror) for a beer and a match prior to heading over to out BB matches for league night. If we don't have time to meet face to face, we'll play the round over vassal.

Crayon Rails (don't own): I've got a buddy who loves these and he owns 5-6. In fact, I was at his place last night playing Nippon Rails for the first time (fast playing, cutthroat map!). We usually hook up 2-3 times a year for one of these.

I do play a few family favorites at home, but the above scratches all of my hobby gaming itches. I haven't been this satisfied with my gaming in a long time, and don't really feel the need to buy games. Thanks, Kickstarter!

HOWEVER, the only game I'd like to add is Neuroshima Hex 3rd. I have no idea when it would get played though. The likely spot would be alternating with Manoeuvre. and I may float the idea to Arch Rival later in the year. I'm in no rush to buy a new game, but I have considered getting it soon as I fear the z-man edition with the 5th army may be going or is oop.

For the most part I do because I game at a game shop.
Getting to know the people there has given me a large group of players with diverse tastes. The only type of game I do have issues with are two players game. Being a social setting centered around a social hobby the mindset is to form up with bigger groups rather than a two player game.

Yep, my group has been pretty open to at least trying if not regularly playing my games. I have a three person game of Avalon Hill's Civilization set to go this week.

Multi-player... so-so. I had it really good ~1998-2003, at which point old friends left and Euros arrived. I quit my group a couple of years ago, and things are much better with my new group. Frequency is non-ideal, but it's usually good when we do play

Two-player... absolutely. My 2p gaming bud and I have uncannily similar tastes in games. We only get together ~10 days a year, but it's great every time.

Dr. Mabuse wrote: Yep, my group has been pretty open to at least trying if not regularly playing my games. I have a three person game of Avalon Hill's Civilization set to go this week.

Is it a good number for Civilization? I thought it was a 5+ only game. It or, rather, Age of Renaissance, is one of the games I really want to play.

I ran the numbers. I only own 14 boardgames right now and most of them don't see the table for one reason or another:

Car Wars (Requires me to build scenario, find tokens)
Intrigue (Requires 4 players)
Liberté (Requires 4 players)
The Republic of Rome (Requires 5 players)

My group doesn't like:
Steam (This one makes me really sad)
Genoa

I don't like/Party Games:
Arkham Horror
Bang!
Condottiere

Black Barney wrote: You need more than one playgroup.

I've wanted to find a group to play RPGs with for a long time, actually but I don't really know how to do so. Still, there's also something that makes finding another group and that's age. I'm far younger than the average boardgamer and people my age tend to play only very simple titles so I would be the one pushing weird games into them.

I do get to play a decent amount of BSG and Talisman, so that's awesome. I haven't blown the dust off Age of Renaissance in probably 2-3 years. That's hideous.

Yep. I play exactly what I want to play and am very happy with my choices. No compromise necessary.

Black Barney wrote:

You need more than one playgroup. My playgroup from a long time ago wouldn't compromise on breaking out RPG night into a separate group. Instead they wanted it to be RPG once in a while in a rotation of boardgames. That was too much of a compromise for our hero since I don't want to play RPGs anymore. So I had to find a new playgroup.

I agree with that. I don't get to play everything I want, every time I play, but I get to pick often enough that I don't feel neglected.