What does a rat have in common with a snake and a rabbit?

Just a short post to let you know that my 3.X monk project has been updated. Still looking for good Rooster ideas.

Next time, I will reveal level 2 and 3. Stay tuned.

- jatori

More Politics and Gaming (Magic Edition)

Should I have made the creature type Helenzilla instead?

I recently stumbled across Magic Set Editor, or MSE for short. MSE allows you to create your own cards (and thus set)s for various popular trading card games, including Magic: the Gathering. Now, at last, I too can also create those lovely cards with the pretty pictures and funny ability and flavour text (and scathing political commentary or movie/TV spoilers).

- jatori

30 Seconds Software and Boardgame

30 Seconds is a board game that started in South Africa, and revolutionized the “knowledge” gaming scene that was dominated for years and years and years by Trivial Pursuit.  Other games like “Who wants to be a Millionaire” might have gained temporary favour, but was always defeated by the classic Trivial Pursuit.

30 Seconds really arrived on the scene when it was played by the house mates in Big Brother South Arica (first series).  The most important difference between Trivial Pursuit and 30 Seconds, is that in Trivial Pursuit a team’s collective knowledge was important.  Therefor having a diverse team is very important.  In 30 Seconds the team’s communal knowledge is more important, therefor having a team with similar strengths is good.  Like all good games (and good gamers) we always try to improve on the rules.  30 Seconds has one very, very stupid rule… the negative dice.  Random bonus is fine in a game, but a random penalty is demotivating.  Rather double the squares on the size of the board, and make the 0-2 a bonus.  It’s much better moving 5-7 when you get 5/5, than moving 3-5 when you get 5/5.  Or even worse, imagine struggling, getting only 2/5… and then having thrown a 2, you don’t get to move at all.  It’s the same thing, but it works very differently on the psyche of the players!

I recognized (in 2003 already) the educational use that 30 seconds could have.  Imagine for instance trying to teach the capitals, states and other important cities and monuments to a class of kids.  If you had a small database of 200 or 300 words, this could be a quick and fun way for the class to gain the knowledge quickly.

So I created an application back then, and now rereleased it, now that printing cards are somewhat easier via Excel.  If you’re interested you can download the application for free at the website. Also you can become a fan of the boardgame on Facebook or a fan of the software.

Daring Apprentice

Today we have guest post from Kestell, sharing his views on Magic: the Gathering and Reenen’s Daring Apprentice, an open-source, 3D, Apprentice-like M:tG tabletop.

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I’ll address some questions that I think people may have about Daring Apprentice.(DA)

1. What is Daring Apprentice?

Well, it’s for playing Magic: the Gathering on a PC. Currently, only for playing against yourself.

2. Why do I want to play Magic on a PC at all?

Assuming that you do want to play Magic at all, you fairly quickly run into a couple of bridges. Firstly there is the issue of MONEY… Magic cards costs money, and you can play with virtual cards without paying money .(unless of course you WANT to pay for virtual cards, then you can go to Magic Online)

Secondly, playing on a PC saves you a lot of time in sleeving, desleeving and, of course, shuffling your deck.

3. What makes DA better than the alternatives (Apprentice or Magic Workstation(MWS))?

To be honest, for 2 player play, it is not (yet) better. Because it cannot play 2 player yet.

But the deck editor is far superior to that of Apprentice or MWS. The deck editor is a SEARCH ENGINE, it is not a deck editor. It is perfect if you want to search out a combo piece, or all the elves that are standard legal and costs less than 3.

If you are building a Standard red deck that burns, you just want red, artifact and land cards. (So, i filter on Format “Standard”, Colors: Red, Artifact and land)

But the deck needs to have a low curve, so in DA, I can say only cards with converted mana cost 0-4. (change mana cost to converted, 0 to 4)
Now I filter on cards that have the word “damage” on. DA will pick up gold cards that are red unless you tick the “mono-colored” button.

Then DA is VERY good at decktesting.

I am currently testing for nationals 2008. I need to determine which deck is best. So I put the 1 netdeck in the one player’s hands, and another deck (netdeck or maybe a deck of my own) in the other player’s. Then i start playing for both players. MOST plays in magic are fairly obvious and don’t depend on what the other guy is holding. Obviously I continuously try to make the best play for both players. I actually prefer testing in this way, because this gives me a fair indication of which deck is better in the matchup; there are not as many playskill related issues that you can get if playtesting against a buddy. Also, when decktesting, you want to get in as many games as possible, you don’t want to sit and wait for an opponent thinking for several minutes when the game is effectively won by one player.

NEITHER APPRENTICE NOR MWS can do decktesting in this way. MWS can possibly do this if you have a registered (paid for) version.

Daring apprentice is a good midway between the simplicity of Apprentice and the cumbersome MWS with its bad shortcut keys.