The size can make it a bit intimidating but there’s literally something for everyone. There are kids games, family games, party games, advanced games, super heavy games, roleplaying games, wargames and probably some I’m forgetting now. There are toys, accessories, fan stuff, everything.

I went alone for many years, I’ve gone with my GF, I’ve gone with friends. Every experience is a bit different but I’ve never not had fun. The only negative thing I’ve ever experienced was some people hogging a table for a game I really wanted to try but most booths now are pretty good about queueing up.

One thing you have to understand though is that Essen is a fair not a convention. While you can play games, you won’t necessarily get to finish them. Some booths have time slots and will tell you to wrap it up when yours is over. And if you play with strangers some might only be looking to “get a taste” for it and then move on. But if you’re “stationed” in Essen for the night there are several hotspots where you can go to play properly.

we also got out at midnight to watch the Perseids. We’ve been doing this for a few years now and never seen such an intense shower. Like you said, we also saw some fat ribbons across the sky. Not a whole lot but very impressive one. We also had a lightning storm on the other side of the valley.

I never considered using normal binos to look for Andromeda. What magnification do you have?

Regular boardgame nights returned from summer hiatus. The full group assembled for 5 player coop Great Wall. The game has amazing table presence and pretty interesting mechanics but absolutely no balance.

• Some leaders are just vastly better than others (pay a chi to make one additional damage vs get a massive discount when you recruit.)
• Missions have massively different difficulty levels and some are nigh on impossible for 5 players.
• Events are just ridiculous. Their immediate effects are ok but their ongoing effects are just way too punishing. Still the basic gameplay loop is compelling and we’re probably gonna play this on occasion.

On the weekend my sister also hopped over for a visit and we played:

• Thanos Rising - I basically had one decent turn, the rest was all a wash and with only two players pulling we had no chance.
• Earth - First time for my sister but she quickly took to it. This was the first game where I dared to take one of those terrains that forbids you from taking a particular action (growth) and I got by quite decently. Getting another card on every plant action was well worth the tradeoff. With enough card draws, I could fuel a lot of compost actions and on top of it I got lucky and drew the terrain that gives VP based on composted cards. All in all I won with a commanding lead. But after initial confusion over the common scoring cards (fauna) it was nice to see that everyone ultimately got the hang of it and scored at least 3 of them.
• Würfel Ligretto - Early morning we decided to wake ourselves up with someting frantic. So frantic in fact that one of the dice tumbled off the table and somehow into the kitchen installation. But we were ultimately able to find and retrieve the bugger and complete the game.
• Moving on from that we played Shark Attacks - a push your luck game where I consistently have less luck than everyone else. At least this time I lost to my sister instead of my GF.
• Pharaon - We capped the visit off with this game that I had kind shelved for a while. GF wasn’t in the mood for something heavy and just watched leaving it at a 2p setup. I must say I vastly preferr this game with less players. While I apprciate that it does go to 5 players and works it just becomes soooo much thighter. Spots per player are 7.5, 5, 6.25, 5 (from 2 to 4 players) and more importantly with 5 you might not even have the opportunity to go in a particular sector if everyone else prioritizes it.

I grew up with the Ravensburger box of classics so, board games were always a part of my childhood. They quickly captured my imagination and I began to draw roll and move boards, explaining to my mom what should happen on each space.

When I got older the whole family got into games and that turned into a nice sunday tradition.

Eventually I got sucked into BGG and never financially recovered…

The discovery texts in the book just broke up the pace so much. Spliting the party made the down time insufferable and the “combat/diplomacy” mechanic was horrible.

We’re a group of 5 so someone would had to sit out every time and after one play I told everyone I would be happy to be that person…

Yeah. It got recommended to me as an easier Tzolkin. Well, it IS easier but not anywhere near as interesting and every game feels sooo samey.

Hoping to borrow Ares Expedition from a friend soon. Played it once in Essen and wasn’t wowed. Gonna be tough beating TFM after that…

Had it not pulled a Wii

A good expression for the situation. Wingspan’s success is definitly to a large part because of it’s accessibility. Every problem you have (no cards, food, eggs) has an immediate, guaranteed and obvious solution. Everything you CAN do improves your position. And if you play on the blue side there is barely any direct competition in the game. There’s no way to shoot yourself in the foot. There is no requirement to plan ahead.

But it does have some potential to plan ahead, optimize and compete for those who want to.

It also doesn’t fall into any of the typical setting tropes like fantasy or sci-fi that might put some people off. It’s production values are pretty enough to catch some eyes.

There are better sober games and there are better drunk activities than Munchkin.

If you’re at a point where you’re having fun with Munchkin you’d be having fun without it as well…

The secret source of humor isn’t joy but sorrow. - Mark Twain

The situation is dire but not serious - Viennese proverb

Life is too important to take it serious. - ome other proverb

Levity is good. It relieves tension and the fear of death - T80

Humanity has a long tradition of lightening the mood in dark situations with (sometimes inappropriate) humor. Internet memes are simply one of the newer iterations…

It’s SinnERman - he’s not a spice, Maze!

They had Emma Watson!

For his post is dark and full of errors.

Uhm. GoT isn’t exactly the first to use this expression…

Remove? No. Overcome? We’re already doing it.

Our society is far more accomodating than it has ever been. Different sexes, ethnicities, skin colors, religions, sexual orientations, gender identities and whatnot enjoy more acceptance and equality now than ever before. Something like the EU - a voluntary alliance of this size - would have been unthinkable probably just 100-200 years ago. And for all its flaws the participating nations have grown closer through it.

We still got ways to go particularly internationally and we must be ever vigilat against those that want to drag us backward but the progress is undeniable.

If you integrate the digital into an analog game, it’s no longer an analog game. It’s now a video game with a physical dongle. Looking at you LoTR:JtME!

The Lemmy Project has been activated. You are our first and last line of defense!

Much of my group are on vacation and another had to babysit unexpectedly so it was a two player evening.

We first played Firefly (respectable business people I think) and it was pretty tight the whole game. What threw me off at first was just how unimportant a big payday is in this scenario. For the first part you really just need to get one mission from each of the non alliance folks done. You’re almost automatically swimming in cash afterwards. Enough to do some shopping in the line up to the final two stages. We both were reasonably close to each other with me having somewhat of a lead. Then I brain bleeped. After moving all the way to the fringes of space I traveled back to the core, to where the second stage was starting, forgetting to actually turn in my 4th mission in outer sectors. So I then had to fly back out and back in again. All the while the nav decks were getting dangerously small. There’s a bad card somewhere in them in 2 player and every turn became an agonized will it hit me or the other player game? Then luck swung hard and smacked my friend with BOTH of them one after another. This put me clearly ahead again and thanks to my extended crew quarters the final two stages were a breeze.

We still had about an hour to spend so we whipped out Factory Funner, always a blast but I don’t get to play it often enough as my GF doesn’t like it and neither does one of our group. My friend started designing this nice and well structured factory, leaving room for connections, while I again just slammed everything the first place where it fit. This turned out to be costly for me at times as about halfway through I was forced to place over a dozen pipes to make a new machine fit. But my friend’s plans also didn’t work out quite as well and I was actually able to place more machines than he was. After the last round he had a commanding lead but the interconnectivity bonus came in clutch for me once more, allowing me to jump ahead in the final scoring.

On the weekend I had the saturday for myself and invested it in translating an RPG system to German. I am now close to having a pretty comlete wiki for it. Once that is done I can start putting effort into the campaign details.

It’s a joke an the futility of linguistic prescriptivism. I might not have represented it well but the whole punchline is that this ship has sailed long ago.

Gee I wonder why people are against folks like you.