game

The Resistance

/ Shane / 1 Comment

I mentioned playing a game called The Resistance. You can buy The Resistance, but there’s really no point; it’s kind of like buying Uno when you can just as easily play Crazy 8s with a deck of cards. This is a great game; tons of fun and easy to play. The only downside is that you need at least 5 people to play.

So without further ado, here are the rules (slightly adapted from wikipedia).

Setup

Split a regular deck of playing cards into red and black cards.

Shuffle an appropriate number of black (Resistance) and red (Spy) cards as per the table below and deal them out at random.

Number of Spies & Resistance Members

Number of players:

5

6

7

8

9

10

Resistance

3

4

4

5

6

6

Imperial Spy

2

2

3

3

3

4

After each player looks at his card to know his role, discard the cards.

The first mission leader instructs the group to close their eyes, for the spies to open their eyes and see each other, for the spies to close their eyes again, and then for everyone to open their eyes and begin the game (with long pauses at each stage).

Missions

During each round of the game, the player to the left of the previous Leader becomes the new Leader. The Leader selects a certain number of players to send out on a mission (the Leader may choose to go out on the mission themselves), starting with Mission 1. The table below shows the required number of players to go out on each mission. All of the players then discuss the Leader’s choice and, simultaneous and in public, vote on whether to accept the team make-up or not. If a majority of players vote no to the proposal, leadership passes on to the next player to the left, who proposes his own mission. (I take this to mean that ties mean the mission continues.) This continues until a majority of players agree with the current Leader’s mission assignment. After five rejected mission proposals in a row, the Imperial Spies automatically win the game, therefore it is a common house rule to not vote on the fifth mission proposal and simply send whatever the Leader proposes.

Number of players required be sent on each mission

Number of players:

5

6

7

8

9

10

Mission 1

2

2

2

3

3

3

Mission 2

3

3

3

4

4

4

Mission 3

2

4

3

4

4

4

Mission 4

3

3

4*

5*

5*

5*

Mission 5

3

4

4

5

5

5

(*) Two Mission Fail cards are required for the mission to fail

Once a mission team is agreed on, the players then “go” on the mission. To “go” on a mission, each selected player is given a black (Success) card and a red (Failure) card. Players will turn in either their black card or their red card. Resistance members MUST turn in, face down, a Mission Success card, while the Imperial Spies may either secretly turn in a Mission Success or Mission Fail card. The cards are shuffled and then revealed. If all cards show Success, the Resistance earns one point. If even one card shows Fail, the Spy team has sabotaged the mission and earns one point (except for the above-noted exceptions on Mission 4, where it may be necessary for 2 Fail cards to be played in order for the mission to fail).

The game continues until one team accumulates 3 points.

That’s the boring details, but not the fun part of the game. The game is not really about the cards that are played, the game is about trying to guess who the spies are (or, conversely, trying to throw suspicion away from yourself and onto other people). It’s about bluffing, and reading body language, and misunderstandings.

It is so frustrating when you are accused of being a spy, when you are clearly not. I have never been the spy, not a single time, but there’s obviously something very suspicious about me, because nobody ever believes me. I am never the spy! Spoiler alert, Sara is ALWAYS the spy. I think the universe is trying to tell her something.

I also always make the first mission leader specify what exactly we are resisting against, and each individual mission leader specify what exactly the mission is. I think this adds a lot of fun to the game, and gives you something to talk about if you’re not chosen to go on the mission. I just like to imagine what kind of secret missions my friends and family are going on in order to disrupt the Evil School Administrator Overlords, or the 4 Year Olds in Strollers status quo.

Anyway, enjoy. Let me know in the comments if you give it a try.

Mischievious Fairies

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Evie and my mom have been perfecting a new game they like to call, “Mischievious Fairies”.

The game goes like this: mom and Evie (well, mostly Evie) dress up like fairies, complete with wings, wands, and fancy dresses, and fly about the house causing mischief. Later, when someone discovers some of the mischief, Evie shouts out, “Mischievious Fairies!” For our part, we just have to go around finding mischief and saying things like, “Hmm, I guess some mischievious fairies must have been here!”

Evie is very anxious that we find all of the mischief, checking every few minutes to see if we’ve found everything yet. In fact, this time they left little calling cards that said, “Mischievious Fairies” next to each piece of mischief they were responsible for.

I have to tell you, I love this game. It seems counter-intuitive to enjoy a mischief causing game, but the mischief is surprisingly low-grade stuff like tying shoes together, hiding pajamas, moving the bed out a couple of inches from the wall, putting little toys inside of shoes, putting objects in unexpected places, etc.

In fact, I suspect that is the part of the game that is fun for my mom: how many different little pieces of mischief can they come up with while also not really doing anything that will cause real trouble? I am constantly amazed at the amount of mischief the fairies can get up to in a short time, and how my mom manages to keep Evie from causing any actual mischief. For example, we’ve never had any hidden car keys or damaged items. Every once in a while Evie will tell me, “Oh, I wanted to do X, but grandma wouldn’t let me.”

Let no one think that this is not a game of skill!

Board Game: Ticket to Ride

/ Shane / 2 Comments

When you don’t have the time for Axis and Allies, and you don’t feel like exerting the mental stamina it takes to play Acquire, but you still want to play a great game, how about Ticket to Ride?

I should start by saying that the game I actually have is Ticket to Ride: Europe. So when I say Ticket to Ride, I really mean Ticket to Ride: Europe. However, I believe the two games are the same, but just with different maps. So everything I say probably applies to both.

Ticket to Ride is about building trains. You get secret destination cards, and the goal is to try to complete your destinations by connecting the two cities listed with a train line. The farther apart the cities are, the harder it is to connect them, the more points the destination card is worth (higher risk = higher reward). Of course there are wrinkles along the way, like tunnels and ferries across bodies of water.

This game is a *little* complicated, but not too bad. Once you get the hang of it, it’s a breeze. Also, you don’t really compete much against each other. Sure, someone might steal your route now and again, but usually you just build a train station to lease their line and move on. It’s certainly less player-to-player competitive than most games of this caliber. You’re more playing against the clock: seeing if you can complete all of your destinations before the game ends.

It’s hard to explain why this is fun exactly, but everybody we’ve introduce it to has enjoyed it. There’s a little bit of stress and worry over completing your destinations, there’s a little bit of strategy over choosing your routes, and there’s a little bit of friendly competition (especially when you get to flip up the cards on someone who’s trying to build a tunnel!). But there’s not *too much* of those things, so it keeps it fun.

So come on over and give it a try! You’ll definitely have a good time. Games take about an hour and a half.

Missilebreak Outvaders

/ Shane / Leave a comment

Friday is as good of a day as any for a time wasting flash game. In case you couldn’t tell by the name, Missilebreak Outvaders is like an ’80’s greatest hits mash-up of all the best video games: a combination of Missile Command, Space Invaders, and Breakout.

It’s kind of weird, since the games seem like they’re nothing like each other, and yet the combination works surprisingly well. Very enjoyable.

My high score is 150300. Can you beat it?

A game for font nerds

/ Shane / 1 Comment

Alright all you font nerds out there, this game is for you. What do you do in the game? You practice your kerning.

Wikipedia defines kerning as ” the process of adjusting the spacing between characters in a proportional font, usually to achieve a visually pleasing result.”

In other words, act like a typesetter and properly adjust the spacing of each letter in a word. The closer your letters are to the correct spacing, the higher your score. That sounds kind of dumb, doesn’t it? But it’s surprisingly interesting.

I got an 83, but I choked on the last one (an 8!?!), so I think that threw my average off a little bit. How did you do? Leave your score in the comments.

Link courtesy @LittleBiv