Had a small group and so I played two games of Attika, which is an excellent two player game. Some people (not me) like it with three, but nobody (that I know) likes it at four. Reminscent of Hex or Go, a ‘connection’ abstract but you also are managing resources (cards and more importantly tempo) to try to get all your pieces down. If you make a connection its an auto win, so you mainly exploit it by threatening when it will be expensive for your opponent to block. Fast and on my fifty by fifty list.

Rating — Suggest.

Welcome to the Dungeon — A cute little push-your-luck filler, kind of like “Name that tune.” “Well, I can beat that dungeon that has five monsters!” “Six monsters” “Six monsters but I’ll leave my vorpal sword behind!” etc. Does not overstay its welcome, at least with three players. Not earth shattering, but I got it for $5, so sure. Indifferent.

Magical Athlete — I was sure I had played this before when it was announced, but it turns out that I was thinking of Monster Derby. This one reminds me of Mrs. Tao’s name for Strat-o-matic Baseball: “Bunco for Boys.” It’s an amusing way to spend rolling dice for 30 minutes. This one comes closer to overstaying its welcome. (But we played with six players). Great production values with “Kids Educational Cartoon” style coloring, drawing and meeples. I’m sure if you brought this out with chits it would lose ~3 BGG rating points, deservedly so. Indifferent.

Welcome to the Dungeon — A cute little push-your-luck filler, kind of like “Name that tune.” “Well, I can beat that dungeon that has five monsters!” “Six monsters” “Six monsters but I’ll leave my vorpal sword behind!” etc. Does not overstay its welcome, at least with three players. Not earth shattering, but I got it for $5, so sure. Indifferent.

Magical Athlete — I was sure I had played this before when it was announced, but it turns out that I was thinking of Monster Derby. This one reminds me of Mrs. Tao’s name for Strat-o-matic Baseball: “Bunco for Boys.” It’s an amusing way to spend rolling dice for 30 minutes. This one comes closer to overstaying its welcome. (But we played with six players). Great production values with “Kids Educational Cartoon” style coloring, drawing and meeples. I’m sure if you brought this out with chits it would lose ~3 BGG rating points, deservedly so. Indifferent.

Five Ideas You Can’t Unsee — I don’t know, I’ve forgotten most of them several times.

SETI @ Home has now finished its analysis after 27 years. (Video from Anton).

Zoning does more harm than good.

A quick video showing a game (that I’ve never heard of, probably educational) being assembled at the factory.

International Go is struggling for the usual reasons, but also because China, Japan and Korea can’t agree on the rules (and ended up agreeing to use the U.S. rules as a compromise).

Works in Progresses Top 10 Articles of last year — Includes an article on the Hanseatic Shipping League, which I’ve played three or four games revolving around.

52 Things I Learned in 2025 Lists (Kent Hendricks)

Jorbs makes a humorous PSA — Do Not Play Slay The Spire.

Hasbro is being sued for printing too many Magic cards.

The RPG industry is like a water pipe. (I’m linking this to a post that simply quotes a facebook post, because I don’t use facebook).

Feral Historian — Is the Matrix a Right-Wing story?

Veritaserum on The Expert Myth — This contains a lot of stuff I’ve encountered, but is well done.¹

1. In fact I hadn’t seen the Red/Green Button example, although I described something very similar in DMPOR. ︎

Steam is having a sale on board games, and I’m debating whether to buy any. I’ve mainly not been too happy with board games on steam (see Mr. President and Space Corp), but for the price of a decent lunch having a game I might spend 20-100 hours on seems reasonable, so I’m considering getting one or two.

Also, GMT has announced a digital version of Space Empires 4x (dropping in June) That could be excellent as the real problems with the game were the accounting (and related errors) and digging up a bunch of counters without revealing what you were buying … both of which should be easily fixed by being on a computer.

Update — Still on the fence for videogames, but after watching the Heavy Cardboard playthrough of Stellar Ventures, I decided to back it.

Steam is having a sale on board games, and I’m debating whether to buy any. I’ve mainly not been too happy with board games on steam (see Mr. President and Space Corp), but for the price of a decent lunch having a game I might spend 20-100 hours on seems reasonable, so I’m considering getting one or two.

Also, GMT has announced a digital version of Space Empires 4x (dropping in June) That could be excellent as the real problems with the game were the accounting (and related errors) and digging up a bunch of counters without revealing what you were buying … both of which should be easily fixed by being on a computer.

Update — Still on the fence for videogames, but after watching the Heavy Cardboard playthrough of Stellar Ventures, I decided to back it.

I mean, if a game convention is going to be literally two miles from my house, there is a fifty-fifty chance I will go¹.

Games Played

• 1822 PNW
• Boast or Nothing
• Dice Realms
• High Frontier 4 All (twice)
• Hot Streak
• Indonesia
• Merchant of Venus
• No Mercy
• Scout
• Stationfall

Games of Note

I saw many new games, but I suspect that most (or all) of them are easily skippable. It did warm my heart to see a bunch of “Play this new game, let us know what you think, and you might win a copy” going unplayed, because they didn’t seem any good at a glance.

However, one game that did catch my eye is Giants Moving Tiny Furniture, which has a bunch of small cute furniture and you (and team-mates) have to move around on top of the box. I only watched ten seconds, but it seemed like a delightful idea, sort of like a pop-art Jenga. From glancing at the BGG page, after I left, it sounds like Welcome to the Dungeon (which I haven’t played but picked up a copy at the bazaar) where there are things to do and you bid on less and less time (etc) to finish it.

Oh, and you have to use only your pinky? In teams?

I arguably could have played more games, but 2 days is enough for me.

Update — More Thoughts

There were quite a few new “ginormous overproduced games” being played. (At least) one of which was being promoted by the creator/designer/publisher, but they just all gave off the feel of “You wouldn’t look at this twice if it was cardboard chits, and it you shouldn’t look at it twice just because it doesn’t.” There were a number of boxes that looked to be a cubic foot (roughly). Just hulking square boxes taking up space.

Amusingly, one of those was … Food Chain Magnate Deluxe Edition! But that box at least still has the retro 50s artwork that might make people take a second glance instead of “Pew Pew Space-ships!” or whatever. I keep saying I need to put FCM back into my bag (although the new Indonesia is getting good reps this last month), but I’m happy with the old edition, which takes half the space even if I bring the expansion box.

Speaking of “Cool!” (that is in fact, not). The organizers piped in “Geek Music” to the venue. By which I mean …. Movie Themes. Oh, its the Imperial March! Lord of the Rings! Harry Potter! Superman! I may be in the minority, but I hate that. The music is fine, but two days of that got old quick. If people want music, they’ll bring it themselves.

It would be rude if I took out my air pods and played X music on speakers because I thought it better fit the mood (whatever that was), unless I asked everyone. Normally I would have just moved away to a quiet area, but the open gaming was pretty much right up against the speakers. The local game store also does it, and I get it for a game store, where most people are wandering in and spending a few minutes browsing (or playing games for a few hours)²³, but for two days it gets old fast.

1. I skipped the last one, but went to this one. ︎
2. I believe that I read somewhere (probably in Why we Buy by Paco Underhill), that piped in music does lead to more sales, and stores often carefully curate their sounds. So that makes sense even if I personally hate it. But a convention is a pre-sale buy a ticket thing. ︎
3. Although now that I realize that Underhill makes his living on consulting for this kind of stuff (coupled with the replicability study in psychology) I wonder if that is in fact true, but I suspect enough companies have A/B tested the hell out of that to verify it. ︎

Oh, right.

Day One’s entry is For Sale …. um, ok. It’s a fine game and all that; but I have no idea why it is a game that “made meaningful contributions to the board game hobby in the areas of innovation, artistry, and impact.”

Day Two is Puerto Rico … OK, this is the “We didn’t put this in the initial class for the reasons you expect, but we are putting it in” day.

Day Three is Memoir ’44 … I prefer Battle Cry, but I understand honoring the much bigger seller.

Day Four is Love Letter … I like Love Letter and I think it’s a good game. I think it’s a bit wild that a small game from 15 years ago is in before …. lots of other games.

I’ll update this post as I notice the games this week (assuming I do).

Recommended

Still enjoying The Great British Baking Show as a cozy watch. But even if you don’t watch it, here’s a great phrase — “A total bag of pants” (meaning a disaster). Has entered my lexicon and I’m experimenting with all the “<container> of <garment>” combos. And also watching Prue Leith (an 80 year old proper British Matriarch type, but with an Austin Powers 60’s flair) innocently ask things like “Tell us about your beaver,” or “I am interested in your large nuts” never gets old. Sadly only have a series or two left to watch.

Maybe

The 9th Configuration — An insane 70s movie (although released in early 80) set in a military insane asylum where the inmates apparently have access to a Hollywood prop department to enact whatever crazy stuff they want. Written, Produced and Directed by William Blatty (fresh of The Exorcist) so the studios were willing to let him do whatever he wanted. Some great scenes and mostly great but nonsensical dialogue. I had to watch it in chunks. Definitely a noble failure and not a cookie cutter movie.

Grantchester — A Masterpiece Mystery that is definitely ripping off Father Brown¹. (Except that the priest is Anglican? Church of England? In any case, Not Catholic and it’s post WW-II instead of WW-I). But I like Father Brown and this is close enough for me. But as the series goes on it gets less about the mystery of the week and more about the main character(s) being miserable, and lost a fair chunk of the joy². (Netflix only has the first four of the ten(!) seasons).

In the Mouth of Madness — A (90s) rewatch of which I remembered almost nothing. Attempts to capture Lovecraftian dread, but the execution isn’t quite there. Some genuinely creepy moments but also too reliant on “repeated dream awakenings” and re-used footage. Amazing to think that John Carpenter did this a decade after The Thing, because the monster effects are a step down; less is more would have been so much better here³. But …. any schlock horror movie is elevated by David Warner & Jürgen Prochnow looks very anti-christ-like. Clever ending, but “ah, that’s clever” clever instead of a gut punch. I think it works better if you simply lop off the last few minutes.⁴

The Long Kiss Goodnight — (90s Rewatch, pt II). Shane Black makes another Shane Black movie. Action movie? Check! Partners who don’t like each other? Check! Banter? Christmastime? Checkity Check! Sadly this isn’t up the the heights that Lethal Weapon started, but its not bad.

Nobody Wants This (S2) — A reasonable ‘comfort food’ romcom/sitcom. Sometimes veers into cringe, but it understands that a romcom/sitcom must be funny (and heartwarming) so that both Mr. and Mrs. Tao will watch.

Under the Skin (book) — Read this after watching the movie (see Sep-Oct). Good, but in a very different way (books can show inner monologues, movies are visual). I think that the near silence of the movie was a good choice, but that necessitated changing the story to make it much more ambiguous. Note — Not for the squeamish.

Wick is Pain — Documentary on the John Wick Franchise. Reasonable if you liked the franchise. What impressed me was seeing stunts that I said “Obvious CGI” in the theater and then discovering that the CGI was only for the environment, not the stunt itself, which was real. (The building fall at the end of John Wick 2)

Maybe Not

Turned Off / Not Recommended

“Oh, Hi!” — I saw this recommended by Marginal Revolution. The plot is that a young couple go on a weekend vacation, find some bondage equipment, he gets tied up and (after sex) reveals that he doesn’t consider this a serious relationship, at which point she leaves him tied up and tries to convince him that she is girlfriend material. BUT nobody is sympathetic. She’s crazy. (It’s established that she considered stabbing her last boyfriend). “Leave him tied up” isn’t played for laughs, and isn’t funny. On the other hand, she’s right. You don’t go on a weekend trip alone after dating for four months and expect her to think it’s a fling. In Re: “Crazy girl” vs “Idiot Boy” I find both guilty. Turned off at the 30 minute mark (or less), tried to continue a few times. Failed. Now re-reading Marginal Revolution I realized that “better than expected retelling of…” isn’t necessarily an endorsement.⁵

Tenet — This finally showed up on streaming and … man; was Christopher Nolan trolling us the entire time⁶? “What if I just didn’t have a plot at all, but did as much cool stuff as possible?” Turned off before the hour mark; tried again and couldn’t get through another few minutes. It’s like a Bond movie with truly excellent set pieces and locations. (Off-brand Bond but not skimping on quality). Plus Time-travel special effects. But when you break it open it’s just Nelson Munz “Hah hah!”-ing you, the sucker audience.

1. OK, its an actual series of books on its own that started a few years ago, and the author’s father was formerly the Archbishop of Canterbury, but still … ︎
2. After finishing season 4 I realize that part of that was the requirements to switch the lead actors. ︎
3. Such as the people in an oil painting moving. If they never moved on camera and if you thought they had but weren’t sure, it would have been creepier. ︎
4. For example — Sam Neill’s character “sees” the carnage in the hallway (a ‘less is more shot’, where you see vague shadows and hear screams), realizes the door keeping him the sanitarium is busted … and then chooses to retreat to his room & close the door. ︎
5. But then I see it’s on his years best film list, so uh, whatever. ︎
6. No, mostly he’s pretty good. I guess this was just a misfire. ︎

(Posting early so you have some reading during the Christmas break! Enjoy!)

On BGG I posted a geeklist with more thoughts on cheating.

If you read HPMOR you will probably like this — HPMOR is a Disney Movie about a Serial Killer (lots of spoilers).

David Byrne’s Tiny Desk Concert.

RPG Designer Monte Cook has a substack.

A furloughed IRS Lawyer opened a hot dog stand and called it Shyster’s — “The Only Honest Ripoff in DC“. (Photo and blurb).

Richard Ayoade interviewing Tim Burton on Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. (For the Criterion Channel).

Via Marginal Revolution: We are repaganizing (in a Christian Magazine …. discusses Christianity, Abortion, Infanticide, Peter Singer, Medically Assisted Suicide and Paganism)

The Zvi’s thoughts on AI during the Winter Solstice — We will win.

Was there a second starting point of life that formed 1 cm long beings and died out on Earth 2B years ago? As always, Betteridge’s law looms large, but …. Possibly.

“Imagine that you’re much smarter than me, and I also party all the time and abuse drugs while you live a completely sober lifestyle. If I end up more economically successful than you are, you need to look inward and ask what you’re doing wrong. That is the situation of East Asia relative to the US and Europe.” Human Capital, Not Industrial Policy.

The Dave Berry 2025 Holiday Gift Guide

A 4th Chinese Poem constructed in a 29×29 grid of characters (similar to a magic square) palindromic poem that produces 4,000 sub poems (that rhyme and are coherent) depending on how the subsections are combined & read. Written (Embroidered, actually) by a 21 year old to woo back her husband, who had left her for a concubine. (“At the center a single character she left implied but unwritten: 心 (xin) – “heart.” Later copyists would add it explicitly, but in Su Hui’s original the meaning was even more beautiful: 4,000 poems, all orbiting the space where her heart used to be.”) A nice introduction (Twitter) . Wikipedia Page.

A runaway supermassive black hole found moving at 2.2 million mph near the Cosmic Owl.

Feral Historian discusses The Doomed City, a soviet SF novel (published after Perestroika) and uses footage from Dark City¹ because they share themes. In fact, after seeing the video, Dark City seems to clearly rip off The Doomed City’s “Experiment” and motifs, but Wikipedia does not show a link.

Video Game Trailer that I watched on a whim, and was delighted to find it giving off “Iron Giant” vibes. Coven of the Chicken Foot.

Birds — Not real, but conscious?

An LLM/AI was put in charge of the vending machine … “Profits collapsed, but morale soared.” “Leave it to business journalists to successfully stage a boardroom coup against an AI chief executive.”

Sumo — Aonishiki’s Elite Technique accounts for his astonishing rise. (Japan Times)

1. The very first DVD I bought, because it really is quite good, and Roger Ebert did a commentary track and that says something. ︎

(Posting early so you have some reading during the Christmas break! Enjoy!)

On BGG I posted a geeklist with more thoughts on cheating.

If you read HPMOR you will probably like this — HPMOR is a Disney Movie about a Serial Killer (lots of spoilers).

David Byrne’s Tiny Desk Concert.

RPG Designer Monte Cook has a substack.

A furloughed IRS Lawyer opened a hot dog stand and called it Shyster’s — “The Only Honest Ripoff in DC“. (Photo and blurb).

Richard Ayoade interviewing Tim Burton on Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. (For the Criterion Channel).

Via Marginal Revolution: We are repaganizing (in a Christian Magazine …. discusses Christianity, Abortion, Infanticide, Peter Singer, Medically Assisted Suicide and Paganism)

The Zvi’s thoughts on AI during the Winter Solstice — We will win.

Was there a second starting point of life that formed 1 cm long beings and died out on Earth 2B years ago? As always, Betteridge’s law looms large, but …. Possibly.

“Imagine that you’re much smarter than me, and I also party all the time and abuse drugs while you live a completely sober lifestyle. If I end up more economically successful than you are, you need to look inward and ask what you’re doing wrong. That is the situation of East Asia relative to the US and Europe.” Human Capital, Not Industrial Policy.

The Dave Berry 2025 Holiday Gift Guide

A 4th Chinese Poem constructed in a 29×29 grid of characters (similar to a magic square) palindromic poem that produces 4,000 sub poems (that rhyme and are coherent) depending on how the subsections are combined & read. Written (Embroidered, actually) by a 21 year old to woo back her husband, who had left her for a concubine. (“At the center a single character she left implied but unwritten: 心 (xin) – “heart.” Later copyists would add it explicitly, but in Su Hui’s original the meaning was even more beautiful: 4,000 poems, all orbiting the space where her heart used to be.”) A nice introduction (Twitter) . Wikipedia Page.

A runaway supermassive black hole found moving at 2.2 million mph near the Cosmic Owl.

Feral Historian discusses The Doomed City, a soviet SF novel (published after Perestroika) and uses footage from Dark City¹ because they share themes. In fact, after seeing the video, Dark City seems to clearly rip off The Doomed City’s “Experiment” and motifs, but Wikipedia does not show a link.

Video Game Trailer that I watched on a whim, and was delighted to find it giving off “Iron Giant” vibes. Coven of the Chicken Foot.

Birds — Not real, but conscious?

An LLM/AI was put in charge of the vending machine … “Profits collapsed, but morale soared.” “Leave it to business journalists to successfully stage a boardroom coup against an AI chief executive.”

Sumo — Aonishiki’s Elite Technique accounts for his astonishing rise. (Japan Times)

1. The very first DVD I bought, because it really is quite good, and Roger Ebert did a commentary track and that says something. ︎

Recently broke 50 (FTF) games of 1846 … I counted all of 18xx for one entry for my 50 by 50 project, which was kind of a cheat (I suspect I have 50 plays of 1830, but most of them before I started logging), but not I definitely have two titles with 50+ plays, as 1862 was already past.

So if I ever do a sixty by sixty a) I’d only need to add 10+ plays to 51 odd games and b) someone shoot me.

Played another game of Moon Colony Bloodbath. Still indifferent, but fine in a once in a while kind of way. Unlike my first game (where everyone survived until the “end game” event) this one ended with two players losing on the same turn, with the winner having one surviving colonist, presumably with a harmonica.

Played Knarr. It was fine. Actually, I was pleased with game, which packs a reasonable number of decisions into a quick time. But the obvious strategy I tried won easily my first time playing, so I’m not sure there’s much depth. So — Indifferent but might play again. It keeps showing up to game night ….

As per my “No prototypes at conventions rule¹” I haven’t played Dark Pact, but its Tom Lehmann and appears to be an autobuy when I see it. Not sure any other games coming recently/soon are.

So, open thread …. what are you getting for Christmas (or slightly later).

1. Although these days its really more of a guideline. ︎

Recently broke 50 (FTF) games of 1846 … I counted all of 18xx for one entry for my 50 by 50 project, which was kind of a cheat (I suspect I have 50 plays of 1830, but most of them before I started logging), but not I definitely have two titles with 50+ plays, as 1862 was already past.

So if I ever do a sixty by sixty a) I’d only need to add 10+ plays to 51 odd games and b) someone shoot me.

Played another game of Moon Colony Bloodbath. Still indifferent, but fine in a once in a while kind of way. Unlike my first game (where everyone survived until the “end game” event) this one ended with two players losing on the same turn, with the winner having one surviving colonist, presumably with a harmonica.

Played Knarr. It was fine. Actually, I was pleased with game, which packs a reasonable number of decisions into a quick time. But the obvious strategy I tried won easily my first time playing, so I’m not sure there’s much depth. So — Indifferent but might play again. It keeps showing up to game night ….

As per my “No prototypes at conventions rule¹” I haven’t played Dark Pact, but its Tom Lehmann and appears to be an autobuy when I see it. Not sure any other games coming recently/soon are.

So, open thread …. what are you getting for Christmas (or slightly later).

1. Although these days its really more of a guideline. ︎

I mentioned Feral Historian last month …. his video on Buckaroo Banzai pointed out something that I’d never noticed (despite many rewatches, including one during Covid): It is a Cold War Allegory. The Red and Black Lectroids fight using proxies, but the proxies are the US (via Buckaroo) and the rest of Earth. The US is forced into the war by the “good” side threatening nuclear annihilation unless they are appeased.

“never ask a highway engineer to dispose of a whale corpse. Those are words I live by, every single day.” — Dave Berry

“It’s time to move on, it’s what Shelly would have wanted…. Well, Shel said the only person I could move on with was Keira Knightley …” (British Commercial-slash-RomCom)

Google is no longer avoiding evil (as per their original slogan), but still sometimes does good (or at least tries). Google aggressively going after text messaging scammers. Also, I didn’t realize that private parties could bring RICO suits.

It’s time for your pet Racoon — Raccoons are showing early signs of domestication (Sci. Am).

Good news — Scientist have figured out how super recognizers are able to distinguish faces with such accuracy. Bad news (same article) — it seems to be at the retinal encoding stage, not something you can learn. More Bad News — You can’t learn it, but computers can. (Then again, since that particular genie is out of the bottle, at least it may prevent the number of false accusations based on bad facial recognition that have made the news).

An article (and paper) arguing that between 700 and 1850 there was a large growth in genes that lead to educational attainment, priming the Industrial Revolution. Also, the Black Death might have helped.

Begun, The Orca War Has … (Episode IV, Episode V)

A new paper showing that AIs vary their strategy (in the game theory classic “Guess 2/3rds of the average guess”) based on who they are told their opponents are, and that they view themselves as most rational, other LLMs as mostly rational, and humans as irrational, and that this is an argument for self-awareness.

Marginal Revolution links to a study showing that those who are wrong are often more confident and includes a reminder that “A Bet is a tax on bullshit.” (“Caplan’s law”).

Also Marginal Revolution — UC San Diego students (many of whom got As and Bs the entire way, including pre-calc and calc) can’t do elementary school math. Seriously, go look at some of the problems and pass rates. Some of these students are trying to be engineers. This is making the rounds. Slashdot story. Actual report from UCSD

Anton Video — Math suggests We May Be The Only Intelligent Life (also discusses some rebuttal papers). The very next day — A Sabine video highlighting a model suggesting the opposite (by asking “if we assume that each planet has the same independent chance of life, what are the odds that it only happens once.¹”

AI Tools are making (some) people hyperproductive. Related — My Programming Career is a Historical Artifact.

Voyager I will be a light-day away from earth next year.

1. If you believe the rare earth hypothesis, then that’s a bad assumption, but ignoring that seems just a reasonable approximation as the Drake Equation and it doesn’t seem like you need a uniformly equal chance on each planet. I’m sure there’s some math handwaving I’m missing. ︎