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Gemini gamers (Astrology files) · Pick Up and Deliver

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to pick up and deliver the podcast where I
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: pick up my audio recorder as I step out for
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: a walk and deliver an episode to you while I
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: stroll around. I'm Brendan Riley.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Reetings, listeners. It's a lovely day here in suburban Chicago.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: The sun is out.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: There's little wisps of cloud dancing across the blue sky.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: The temperature is on the warm side, but perfectly reasonable
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: for mid June day. It is, after all, June fourth,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: and I'm out for a walk to talk about board games.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Could things be better?
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Probably, but it's hard to imagine how So join me, ah,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: I realized it had been Actually, there's a funny story here.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: About three weeks ago, I.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Realized it had been a while since I.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Did board game Astrology episode.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: For those of you who haven't heard one in a while,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: it's been like sixty forty episodes fifty episodes since I've
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: done one. Board The Astrology Files is a series of
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: twelve episodes that I'm doing over the course of a
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: couple of years where I pick a astrological star sign
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: and I look up what that star sign is supposed
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: to be about, and then I talk about the.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Games that go with those ideas.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Generally, what I do is I pick the star sign
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: of the moment that I'm walking. So that's why it
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: takes a while, because I don't do one every month.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I'm doing one every few months, so I have to
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: kind of stagger it. I made a mistake in that
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: I didn't really look at I haven't really been very
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: carefully cataloging which signs I've done. Apparently I've marked most
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: of them astrology files, but not all of them. And
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: so when I searched to see if I had done
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: one a couple months ago, the one that I.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Was trying to search for, it did not come up.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: So I did a whole episode on Taurus then I
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: and honestly, as I was doing I was like, this
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: seems kind of familiar. And I got home and I looked,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: and sure enough, I'd already done a tourist episode. So
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I deleted that, just tossed it in the recording bin
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: and waited a month, and now I'm doing Gemini.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: So that's right.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Today we're gonna talk about Gemini. What are Geminis like
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: according to the Internet, and what kind of games fit
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: with the primary characteristics of Geminis. So there are four
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: primary characteristics that allure dot COM's what do astrological signs?
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: What are they like? Webpage points out.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: The first of these is Geminis are very good at
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: guiding change and transformation. The idea in the website is
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: apparently that there is a sense of creative inspiration, that
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: they're good at idea, ideation, the brainstorming part. There's a
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: sort of backhanded that's sort of a backhanded compliment though,
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: because it kind of says like Geminis aren't great at
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: finishing the things they start, which as a Gemini myself,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: I have to say hits a little close to home.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: But anyway, so I was thinking about what are three games?
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: What are some games that think about or focus on
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: change and transformation as themes as ideas. The first one
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: came to mind is one that's been in my consciousness
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: lately because I'm playing it on board Game Arena with
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: a couple of the folks from the Shuffle Buddies podcast,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Hey Chris and Hey Amy. I also got this game
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: in a mass trade and I played it on the
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: table and I thought it was pretty fun.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: This is Seasons.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Seasons is an older game in which you are building
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: a tableau of cards and you're trying to get points,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: and the gimmick is that as the game goes along,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: you're rolling different dice to get resources, and the different
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: dice correspond to the different seasons. The game is played
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: over three years, and there's four seasons in each year,
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: so the game is sort of constantly about the changing
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: landscape of which things you can get, and it's about
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: how do you anticipate and benefit from that changing landscape.
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: Seems to fit pretty well. I think that's Seasons.
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: The next one I want to talk about is Revive.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: I think Revive is really interesting because, like many games,
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: it has this complex tech tree, and what you're doing
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: when you play is you are shaping the evolution of
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: the You're shaping the evolution of your tribe. As you
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: play the different pieces or the different sections of the
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: tribe board, you have a bunch of different options for
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: your tech tree, not only built in. As you place
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: your little me pals, you unlock different powers, and each
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: tribe board has a different set of powers, but there's
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: also all of these slots and machines and cards. Each
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: one has different combinations of benefits and so a big
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: part of the game is wrangling which benefits you are
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  Speaker 1: going to get, and sort of learning to chain them
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  Speaker 1: together in ways that are effective and successful. Revive is
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: really fun that way, and I think it fits this
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: guiding change and transformation idea pretty well. And the third
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: one I put in here is ark Nova. I think
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: ark Nova's pretty interesting. Again, you are you have a
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: lot of flexibility in how you build your zoo, what
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: kind of transformation or change you lean into as the
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: zoo is built. I suppose we could quibble about whether
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: building is the same as transformation. Maybe transformation should be
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: more about changing a thing over time, but I wasn't
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: able to think of other games that did that well.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: I'd love to hear in the forums.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: What else do you think is what other games should
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: I have used to talk about guiding change and transformation?
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: You can share those over on board game Geek in
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: guild three two six nine, which is where we chatt.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: I'm told that Geminis are very talkative and communicative, So
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: my question is, what is a game that is talkative
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: and communicative like or a game that is for people
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: who are talkative and communicative. And obviously these are games
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: we're going to talk a lot, and there are thirty
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: three categories that I want to point to here. None
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: of these are gonna be surprising. I sort of picked
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: best in category games for these.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: Which maybe makes them repetitive.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I'd hate for pick Up and Deliver to be the
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: podcast where you keep hearing about the same games, but
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: I feel a little repetitive with this one. Monikers clearly
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: is a game about speaking quickly, giving clues, communicating fast
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: with your team. If you haven't played Monikers, you have
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: a card. You're trying to get your team to say
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: the word on the card or the phrase on the card.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: It's based on the classic parlor game Celebrity or salad.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Bowl as it's sometimes called.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: And other than title recall what Time's up title recall,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: I'd say Monikers is best in class for that kind
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: of game. Next is the Resistance. I could point to
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: any number of social deduction games for this category. I
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: almost said Blood on the clock Tower, which honestly is that.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Game is a little too much for me.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: But it is all about talking to other people, wheeling
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: and delan sewing suspicion, generating suspicion, gathering suspicion in ways
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: that fit much more the talkative part than The Resistance.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: I've seen lots of people play The Resistance without much
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: talking at all, which isn't super fun.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Something like Blood on the clock Tower is probably.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: A better example than The Resistance, but I think The
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Resistance is a great game, and I like to point
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: to that one instead. And then, finally, as I was
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: thinking about talkative communicative where would this connect I thought
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: sidereal confluence is the other one I wanted to point to.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: Again.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: This is a game of wheeling and dealing, talking to
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: people fast, talking, making deals, making connections.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: I think works really well.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: You could also put maybe escape room games like Unlock
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: or Exit in this category, because those are all about
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: talking and communicating with your team, and I guess in
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: a broader scheme cooperative games that involve collaborative collaboration, being
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: talkative and communic and good at communicating is a plus
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: for those games, although it can be really easy to
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: turn that into railroading the other players if you're too talkative.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Sometimes people who are a little more timid don't find
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: an opportunity to talk.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: That is siderial confluence.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Nextcept, the next category of Gemini that mind to point
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: too is the what are Gemini bad at They're talked
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: about as being unreliable or scattered or even they say
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: even two faced, And this of course points to the
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: image of the Gemini, which is twins.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: But the unreliable or scattered part.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Is interesting because the characters are or the characteristics involve
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: the sort of the opposite of this brainstorming thing we
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: were talking about, where you're good at communication and ideation,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: but that might mean you're not good at follow through,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: and so unreliable or scattered might fit there. So thinking
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: about what is unreliable or scattered mean for a board game,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: and I was thinking about games that are too swingy.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: If a game is really swingy, particularly a long game
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: that's really swingy, the shorter game is, the more forgiving
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: you can be of its swinginess, because it doesn't matter.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: The longer game is, the less we want to have
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: that game be wildly swingy because you're investing so much time.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: I'm in it, and it feels not fun to have
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: some random mechanism destroy your game. So along those lines,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: some games that I think are interestingly swingy. One would
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: be Flip seven. This is a game that I really
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: enjoyed when it first came out, I thought it was
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun, and I'll still play it occasionally
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: if it comes out. I don't really get it out
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: very much anymore, though. I think there are more fun
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: games that are at the same level of play than
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Flip seven, and Flip seven is incredibly easy to teach,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: but often when I play it, there's at least one
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: person to use a language of a friend of mine
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: who just never gets to play, because the way the
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: game works, the first time you get a card, you
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: can't bust, but then after that it's possible to bust.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: And it seems like often there's somebody who the randomness
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: gods are frowning upon who just busts on their second
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: card every time. And I guess the argument could be,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: while you're pushing your luck to take a second card,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: but everyone takes a second card, it's your third card
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: or your fourth card when it feels like it should
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: be pushing your luck. If taking a second card is
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: pushing your luck, that's just not fun and you're never
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: gonna win if you don't take second cards. If you
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: only take first cards, I don't think you win, although
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: it'd be interesting to check. Depends how risky your group
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: is if people are really risking it and brate and
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: busting a lot, you might just if you take one
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: card and pass every time, you might end up with
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: a good score. But that wouldn't be fun either. That
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: doesn't feel like you're playing the game then, So flip
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: seven is really swingy or in the language of Gemini,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: unreliable or scattered. A similar game is Atinai. Matinai is
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: really interesting. It's a complex game where you have a
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: variety of different cards. It's sort of a faster version
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: of Glory to Rome, and it's very swingy. Sometimes you
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: get early on cards that like, oh okay, I lean
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: into metal right now, I can get a ton of
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: points and then you never draw another metal card the
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: rest of the game. It's really hard to lean into
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: metal if you can't get any and there's nothing to
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: control what kinds of cards you're going to get, so
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: there is an argument that you should be tactical. There's
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: a schnauzer looking at me from a porch and the
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: dog the owner is cautioning it.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: No.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: I don't know if it wants to bark at me
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: or run to me, but it was a good boy.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: It stayed on the porch and did not do either
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: of those things. So I don't know if the lesson
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: there is that you should be more tactical. You play
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: with the cards you have. You can have a strategy
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: in mind, but you also deal with the cards you have.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: That's one possibility and maybe why I'm bad at the game.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: But it does feel really swingy, and it feels hard
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: to get better at a game if you are entirely
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: beholden to the weird cards you draw.
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: So that's swingy. And the third one, the third one
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: I wanted to point to is maybe a cheat because.
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: I haven't played it yet. I've read about it quite
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: a bit. I'd like to play it at some point,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: but it takes a lot of effort. This is Station Fall.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Station Fall is, as far as I can tell from
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: reading ameritrash game where people are being There's all sorts
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: of crazy stuff happening. Wild events are happening. I'm not
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: sure what's going on with the team boys who just
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: bicycled buy me, but one of them said democracy is
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: so good for Navel forty percent something something, So I'm
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: wondering if they're talking about like sid Meyer's civilization.
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: Video game maybe anyway.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So Station Fall has all these wild characters, and
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: the big thing is you don't know who's in control
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: of which character. You have a character you're trying to control,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: but you are trying to keep that secret from other players.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: And it is a.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Storytelling engine, as I understand it, wild and silly, with
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: lots of chaotic events happening and a little hard to
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: tell what's going on, but supposedly a delight.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: So that is Station Fall, which I haven't played.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: So the image that shapes the image that represents Gemini
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: in the zodiacis twins. And so the question is what
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: some games that have to do with twins? I confess
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: this was a difficult one. The only one I could
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: really think of where twins are part of the game
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: is Awkward Guests. One of the SATs of the six
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: Suspects are the pair of twins, the Berwick Sisters, who
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: then are featured in the follow up game Awkward Guests
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: to the Berwick Case or the Berwick Cases, in which
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: both Berwick sisters have been murdered and you're supposed to
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: figure out who murdered them. But I couldn't think of
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: any other games that have twins in them. I Kurt
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: certainly couldn't think of games that have twins you can play.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: I guess one other thing, I think there is a
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Final Girl. I think one of the Final Girl chapters
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: has like evil Hotel twins who want to play with
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: you as one of the villains, like in the Shining
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: or something. But I don't know that that's true. I
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: just I feel like I saw that somewhere. So the
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: question is what else could twins mean in a game.
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: One option is where there are elements in the game
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: that are connected, that are twinned, and you have to
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: get both to do well. The prime example of this
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: is Fantasy Realms. There are a bunch of cards where
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: like if you have this card, you get a little
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: bit of points, or if you have this card and
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: this other card, you get a bunch of points, like
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: the King and Queen. We also see that in Guillotine
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: the Count and the Countess, and then the Tiling game
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Sanctuary also has the animals that have their mates, and
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: there's only one of the mates. So if you get
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: both of them, put them next to each other, they're
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: twined and you get points.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: I guess the other thing.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: Would be games where you are trying to mimic the
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: play of the other players that you're trying to match
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: what they've come up with, something like Decrypto. In Decrypto,
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: you are trying to match the pattern of the person
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: giving you clues while also intercepting the pattern of your opponent.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: That's an interesting balance to be walking, and that feels
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: a little bit like twins. But again, I'm having trouble
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: thinking of some more for this one, so I would
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: love to hear from you what are twins that fit
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: this category? Head over to board game gee, Killed three, two,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: six y nine. Let me know what games you can
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: think of that have twins in them. So what do
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: you think about my Gemini analysis? Are you a Gemini?
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: Do you know a Gemini's Do you think this is
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: a fair analysis? I apologize if astrology is a really
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: important thing for you and I've bumbled my way through it,
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: But I think it's an interesting way to approach the
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: question of what are some games that fit different kinds
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: of categories?
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: So hopefully that's fine.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: I've yet to hear any complaints, so we'll hope this
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: episode of The Astrology Files goes off just as well
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: as the previous ones have Well that's about it for
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: me today. I hope that you have a lovely afternoon,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: and I want to say thank you for joining me
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: on my walk.
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: And I hope that your next walk is as pleasant
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: as mine was.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: Bye bye.
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: Brought to you by rattle box