Recent content by Ayrk

I agree with this statment. I find the straight Catan the best experience. If I wanted to start adding expansions, I'd rather just find an entirely different game that does the same thing. That's not to say that I think expansions are bad, just that I feel Catan works perfectly as is. I don't...

Is he looking to design a game for another company to sell or does he want to do it all himself? If it is the former, you will want to make the best prototype you can. Make it as polished and professional looking with a clear and well-written rulebook. Once you are to that stage, playtest it a...

I certainly understand why people don't enjoy the game. It can drag on too long, the first half is pretty random and the second half can be one-sided. On the other hand, I see why people love the game. In my eyes, it is more a game you play to experience than play to win. Knowing going in that...

If you are using Excel 2007, you can create custom views and then make a macro to switch between them. Go to the View tab and click Custom Views. Click Add and name the first one Standard or something. Then hide all the rows and columns you want, adjust zoom, and whatever you want. Click on...

Hello, Since we have this nifty new forum, I thought I'd let people know about out podcast On Board Games. We have a roundtable discussion about a topic related to boardgaming and then we have some reviews. If you are familiar with Board Games with Scott, he is one of the round table...

It is a little complicated but I found it to be the best story-type CCG out there. You really feel like your party of characters are exploring Middle-Earth. I still play it on occasion and the solitaire rules work well also.

I've found it to be a fun game although pretty luck dependent. If the right cards come up at the right time, one side has an easier time of it. That being said, I always have fun when playing the game, even if I lose.

My group has done it for four years now and it works great. We are in similar life experiences as you (in our 30s with kids) so having a set date each month works well for us. We actually take it a step further and gain a level after each session. By doing that, we've been able to do a complete...

No sweat, email sent. I was on holiday this weekend.

I wrote a VB app to do that years ago (for personal use). Imagine typing in the entire book from scratch. Ugh. It was ugly, but it worked. I've thought about building the same thing for Second Rat's Background Noise (which I wrote part of) in Excel since you can just copy and paste from the...

I'll second this. Terragenesis is an amazing site and also got me into terrain making. Their pipecleaner trees are super simple to make, look great, and you can bend them how you want them.

I'm glad you asked this question, because we just put out a product exactly like this a couple of weeks ago. Check out Background Noise.

Reaper is coming out with a new line that includes modern, wild west, sci fi, and just about anything else that isn't fantasy. The look pretty darn good and you can check out some previews at Reaper's site.

Second Rat Games (see my sig) has People, Places, and Things: You are Here which is a book or download with 29 different locations. Each location is detailed with plenty of plot hooks and background information. Also, each location can be printed out in full battlemat scale.

Background Noise Breathe life into your character Available at RPGNow Another product in our line of generic supplements, this one allows you to randomly generate a background for any fantasy character. By walking through a series of tables, you will determine: Where the character grew up...