What it’s like to hate a game and then fall in love with it OR why your first impressions of a game aren’t always fair

When I was first introduced to Star Realms, I think I gave it a fair try. In principle, it wasn’t a totally unfamiliar premise - though at that point I hadn’t played too many deck building games. But I understood the premise, and liked the idea of something like a trading card game, but that you only had to pay for once, which was the main reason, at that point, I had not delved into the world of TCGs (fair reader, how things have changed now!) 

I played against Skully, Hand Limit editor, a couple of times, and lost spectacularly, before declaring it was a trash game for trash humans and I would never play again. I played the cards in my hand, I did a little damage to their authority, I chose cards from the marketplace and tapped my currency cards to pay for them, when they eventually entered my hand I used them and did a little damage to their authority again. My opponent seemed to get the better cards, they did spectacular damage to my authority, and it didn’t take them long to get another good card in their hand again and do even more damage. My little 1 hit Vipers were useless and I couldn’t regain authority quick enough to keep up with the damage being done to me. 

Back then I was a novice, a baby TTGer, and I hadn’t fully discovered any skill for forward planning, ruthless competition and dastardly strategy. If I played it for the first time now I think my first impression would have been completely different. 

Skully found a friend who was into Star Realms, and they played happily on work breaks and over the mobile app version of the game for several months. I looked on suspiciously - how can they love this unequivocally terrible game, that punishes less experienced players and affords no opportunity for learning and improvement? 

Eventually, after months or even a year, I was persuaded to give it another go, after several thorough explanations (lectures) on the importance of strategies such as discarding cards (getting rid of the stuff that doesn’t help), building a deck around a specific faction (benefitting from buffs and boosts), and being a sneaky little goblin and trying to purchase the cards you think your opponent will want before they have an opportunity to. 

We played again, and this time I tried implementing the strategies I had been told about and I didn’t lose so fast. I decided to buy cards that matched colours, I discarded the lower value cards by making sure I had some Machine Cult faction cards that allowed you to do this. I played the game as it was supposed to be played. And reader, I loved it. 

So then I had to put my big girl pants on and admit I was wrong. Maybe the problem wasn’t the game? Maybe I was the drama after all? 

I’ve actually spoken about this game in some talking therapy since. It was a neat demonstration of my stubbornness and fixed thinking around things that I perceive as too difficult or beyond my knowledge and skill. If I cannot do something, it is therefore not worth doing and is even a Bad Thing. American psychologist, Carole Dweck’s Growth Mindset theory is a good place to start if you are interested in looking into the psychology of this further. Using this neat little example of a tabletop game as an illustration of this tendency of mine, and being able to unpick my responses and reactions to it, was a much easier and more comfortable task than thinking about an example of this behaviour from work, personal relationships or studies. 

Games are great aren’t they? They teach us how to play nicely with each other, how to share, how to be a gracious winner, how to deal with disappointment. They can also show us things about our own inner worlds and self-limiting beliefs. 

So, if there is a game you really don’t “get”, maybe give it another go one day. You might find out something about yourself.

Review: Wiznerds - A TTRPG for lovers of chaos

I love chaos. Specifically I love the chaos factor of any tabletop game. This is the game's ability to pull sharply at the rudder in unexpected and sometimes catastrophic ways. It is always just as entertaining to me when things go magnificently wrong, as when they are serendipitously fortuitous. My favourite games are always those that leave players constantly on edge no matter how carefully they have planned their moves and the game I am reviewing today is a master at this.

Wiz-Nerds by Michael "Wheels" Whelan from Just for Fun is a TTRPG in which players take on the roles of bright-eyed first-year students at Ibus Engleberry's School for Aspiring Wizards (IeSAW). However, before they can even get started learning simple spells, something at the whim of the GM will have gone terribly wrong and our unlucky characters must use their introductory spell books to save the day. The catch? They don't know what any of the spells actually do!

All players are equipped with three columns of bizarre words. Each word represents either an Aspect, Form, or Target relating to the spell, meaning that combinations of words work together to make surprising results. Players will need to ascertain what each word actually means through good old fashioned trial and error. Whenever the players want to do an action that can be considered challenging or dangerous they have the choice to roll for it or cast a spell, but from our experience the dice will be left almost untouched as it is far more exciting to shout out three magic words and see what happens!

Of course, the sensible thing to do would be to carefully find a quiet corner and experiment with the words methodically until you have a good grasp of the spells needed to save the day, but really who has the time for that when some bad guys are after the mystical MacGuffin!? No, the only way forward is to run in blind and figure things out as they go.

This is a beautifully simple and silly game that requires little preparation from the GM and players, in fact it is advisable not to keep too firm a grasp on any of the story as it will undoubtedly be wrenched from your hands the first time a player accidentally turns a vital NPC inside out with poorly timed spell experimentation.

The format of this game works well in person or online and can be stretched or shrunk to fit almost any time requirement. Available on itch.io on a "name your price" basis, I cannot recommend this game enough and Whelan could easily be asking for a fixed price.

If you are looking for something with a healthy dose of chaos and silliness for your next one-shot RPG session, you could do a lot worse than getting over to itch.io and grabbing a PDF of Wiz-Nerds.

Can playing board games help us cope with failure?

Kingdomino - "I can't remember the last time I won this one" 

I have a simple rule with any board game: I am not happy until I've lost as many or more times than I have won. Losing in cooperative or competitive gaming is just as important for the enjoyment of the game as winning and a well designed game will recognise this and reward effort with entertainment, but how can losing at games help us in our daily lives?