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2020-02-05 13:18 from IGnatius T Foobar
I think we should build a hybrid of Monopoly and Risk where you can use
financial strategy *and* military force to win the game.
Does Scythe count?
In that game you are basically managing workers in order to generate and move resources around the board, then a player with more Mechas attacks you and takes your hard earned stuff.
All this talk about the ChinaVirus reminds most people of the board game "Plague Inc." but that's too obvious. It reminds me of a lesser-known board game called "Plague & Pestilence". This game has two phases. The first is a "prosperity" phase, during which players (representing medieval towns) build up their prosperity by making improvements or stealing from other players -- the cards in this phase are considered assets.
Then at some point during the game, the "plague ship" card turns up. This brings the game into the "plague phase" during which cards are liabilities and you have to get rid of as many as possible, which inflicts war and pestilence on the other players.
I might not be remembering it exactly, but that's the basic idea. I played it with some friends a few years ago and it was fun.
I find it amusing that the world is getting plunged into hysteria, and what people does is to download apocalyptic mobile games and try to recreate the destruction of mankind. It says a lot about us.
2020-03-14 12:18 from darknetuser
Are you familiar with "Pandemic!" ? I would have thought it was the
most popular epidemic/pandemic controll game. "Plague Inc." is based on
the videogame right?
Pandemic is one of those games I would like to try, but I never get around it.
I purchased Through the Ages, a board game, as a gift for somebody very special. It is a game with many playable historical figures such as Napoleon or Hammurabi.
I was disappointed when I realized Hitler was not playable, but then I found out Bill Gates IS, which is basically the same thing isn't it?
Just make a House rule. You've got the template with however THEY handle it. This is what DIY is about.
Thu Apr 29 2021 10:34:06 EDT from darknetuserSubject: Trhough the Ages
I was disappointed when I realized Hitler was not playable, but then I found out Bill Gates IS, which is basically the same thing isn't it?
2021-04-29 14:44 from ParanoidDelusions
Just make a House rule. You've got the template with however THEY
handle it. This is what DIY is about.
Thu Apr 29 2021 10:34:06 EDT from darknetuser
Subject: Trhough the Ages
I was disappointed when I realized Hitler was not playable, but then
I found out Bill Gates IS, which is basically the same thing isn't
it?
Well, Bill Gates is supposed to be played with high teh labs, aka computer labs. Maybe we can change the name of the labs with a crayon so they are "Eugenics Labs" instead, then it will be perfect.
Also, unsurprisingly, in our first game a player got both Bill Gates and then impossed Communism upon his civilitation. By the end of the game she had the saddest population around the table, the less resources, the less military and the less military power. I don't think this is coincidence.
It was about a city that receives a letter from the Emperor of Darkness: either they return Rose back to the Emperor or the Armies of Death storm the city. The city council gathers and debates what the best course of action is: to find how who Rose is so she can be returned, or to send a squad of heroes to vanquish the Emperor before he unleashes his Army.
Of course my players are not heroes, but scumbags hunting easy mercenary money, so they pass on the quest.
They are desperate for money and look for a job. Eventually, they get hired by an evil wizard to locate a deserter from the Armies of Death. They investigate the smuggler gangs, a sect of pedophile priests and a cabal of corrupt nobles until they learn the deserter is hidding in a camp in the with something he stole from the Emperor.
They storm the camp and find the guy. The deserter holds a knife against the neck of a sorry nag and screams "Let me go or I kill Rose!"
The deserter is beaten by the cunning of the players. They hand both the deserter and the nag to the wizard , who turns out to be the Emperor of Darkness. The Emperor of Darkness hugs his beloved mare in a tear jerking reunion and unleashes the Armies of Darkness against the city. The players leave with a good bag of silver reward for finding Rose
I love happy endings.
The after-session time was very fun. A player asked me whether the game was original or I had purchased it as a comercial module. Another player answered: "Do you think an adventure about an ancient evil wizard who is decided to waste a whole city unless his mare is back has the tiniest chance of not being a 100% darknetuser original adventure?"
I wish I had enough friends to play FRPs or tactical games. Look up Gaslands. I bought the book, made a bunch of cars - 3d Printed the dice and templates. I can't find anyone to play with. My friends are all too normal to geek out with me. That is my personal hell - I'm simply too smart and all my other smart friends are worlds away.
It's kind of funny, isn't it. When I finished college in 1993 and moved back to NY, I wished more than anything that we could have enough bandwidth for videoconferencing, so we could keep our gaming group together. Today we have plenty of bandwidth but that group has been scattered to the four winds. I probably couldn't find them even if I tried, even if I could remember all their names. And a few have been turned into enemies by facebook.
2026-01-10 17:53 from IGnatius T Foobar
It's kind of funny, isn't it. When I finished college in 1993
and moved back to NY, I wished more than anything that we could
have enough bandwidth for videoconferencing, so we could keep
our gaming group together. Today we have plenty of bandwidth
but that group has been scattered to the four winds. I
probably couldn't find them even if I tried, even if I could
remember all their names. And a few have been turned into
enemies by facebook.
I have done audioconference for RPGs and it is serviceable but not good. You certainly do much better switching from classical DnD-style games and using narrative systems. I had a lot of success running Polaris games during the COVID lockdowns.
It was great because I set a wiki and playes yould keep their character sheet and their campaign notes on it. It was great.
What we need is a VR room where you all sit at a table, you've got your paper and dice in front of you, you see one another. It is absolutely do-able. At this point, you could have an Ai DM and actually the party could be filled in with NPC Ai.
I'm surprised that nobody has done this. The problem is - if it were done today, it would be 5th edition Inclusive "Mexiorcs" and "Gay Beholders" AD&D... which I suppose would be great for the demographic that they would want to be marketing for. It would gatekeep most of the old time 1st edition players out of the experience, though.
What we need is a VR room where you all sit at a table, you've
got your paper and dice in front of you, you see one another. It
is absolutely do-able. At this point, you could have an Ai DM
and actually the party could be filled in with NPC Ai.
Right, that's what I had envisioned 30+ years ago ... a real "telepresence" setup that joins a pair of tables in two conference rooms as if they were a single table. Those do exist.
It doesn't have to be D&D, you could choose any game you want. I played 2nd Edition with some modifications ... I doubt I'd want to have anything to do with the post-Gygax editions.
This - exactly. And you're right - it could be game agnostic - anything SHOULD work. Once you get the framework in - all you have to do is feed the rule set in... from before the original pre-blue-book BASIC rules to the 5th edition Alphabet Army version... Champions, GRUPS... Ogre, GEV, all the original TSR games like Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Boot Hill...
It is such an achievable thing - and with VR gear it would feel like you were sitting RIGHT there. I don't know if you've played with VR - but when you FIRST experience it - the simulation is SO convincing - you feel the presence and weight of all the atmosphere around you.
I don't know why it hasn't been done. All the talk about Metaverse and other VR realities - and no one has realized THIS is the killer app for VR. You could play Monopoly or Clue or Risk in this environment - it doesn't have to be FRPs. It can be ALL the games. Digital, virtualized versions of... heck... do you remember Milton Bradley's "The Dark Tower" board-game? That would be ideal for this framework. They remind it (woke) and the Kickstarter made a bundle - for the real physical game - this would be just as successful. There is already an online web based version of the game. The VR one - though - set it in a virtual den that recreates an 80s atmosphere and put a bunch of 50 year old guys back to 1981 and profit.
Wed Jan 14 2026 02:53:23 UTC from IGnatius T FoobarRight, that's what I had envisioned 30+ years ago ... a real "telepresence" setup that joins a pair of tables in two conference rooms as if they were a single table. Those do exist.
It doesn't have to be D&D, you could choose any game you want. I played 2nd Edition with some modifications ... I doubt I'd want to have anything to do with the post-Gygax editions.
2026-01-14 02:53 from IGnatius T FoobarWhat we need is a VR room where you all sit at a table, you've
got your paper and dice in front of you, you see one another. It
is absolutely do-able. At this point, you could have an Ai DM
and actually the party could be filled in with NPC Ai.
Right, that's what I had envisioned 30+ years ago ... a real
"telepresence" setup that joins a pair of tables in two conference
rooms as if they were a single table. Those do exist.
It doesn't have to be D&D, you could choose any game you want. I
played 2nd Edition with some modifications ... I doubt I'd want to have
anything to do with the post-Gygax editions.
I am pretty sure I have heard the plan for future Dungeons and Dragons is to turn the franchise into a game as a service. You buy your digital library, play at a digital tabletop, and miniatures and other materials are digital extras. I am sure at some point they will switch to AI NPCs and Dungeon Masters.
Telegaming is popular just because people has a hard time organizing an actual table. In places that still have an active local community you don't see telegaming happen that often.
Here is the thing with this. Grok and ChatGP and Azure can all - with a minimal prompt - DM you, for free, right now. I tried it early on... I thought to myself, "Can this damn thing lead me through an adventure?" and ChatGP did a damn good job. I fed in the prompts, told it what I wanted - and it DMed a good module it was, evidently, making up on the fly. From rolling a character to combat - it found the rules, interpreted them, read some modules, figured out how to throw together an adventure - and it was better than ANY "Make your Own Adventure," book... or... ZORK...
So with THAT out in the wild, for free - what value add does WoTC and Kenner or whoever owns the official franchise - make any money on a commercial product? It isn't even piracy at this point.... It is just in the public domain. The Ai can make a UNIQUE rule base that doesn't infringe on WoTC copyright - simply because Ultima and Phantasie and other CFRPG and FRP games exist with such similar rules about attributes, and skills, and classes, and races and whatever - that it isn't UNQIUE enough to sue over. So I can make ChatGP make me a "NON infringing" AD&D campaign that still scratches all the itches and play it for free.
It becomes one of those areas where Ai destroys markets by being able to know EXACTLY how to legally circumvent legal challenges while delivering EXACTLY what end users want.
Meanwhile, I'm listening to techno-dance mix MP3s playing on my FPGA Vampire Amiga while writing messages on a Citadel BBS.
We certainly are balanced on the edge of a singularity unlike any mankind has ever balanced on before.
Fri Jan 23 2026 15:09:52 UTC from darknetuser
I am pretty sure I have heard the plan for future Dungeons and Dragons is to turn the franchise into a game as a service. You buy your digital library, play at a digital tabletop, and miniatures and other materials are digital extras. I am sure at some point they will switch to AI NPCs and Dungeon Masters.
Telegaming is popular just because people has a hard time organizing an actual table. In places that still have an active local community you don't see telegaming happen that often.