The Game – Sleeping Gods

Story without a direct focus is what we’re going to talk about today. And I’ll describe what I mean by that. This story can be explored in almost any order. New avenues will open up if you have keywords, but you can go anywhere and just explore. That is part of the game.

The question is, is that a good part of the game. I have played other games that do this, Near and Far as well as Seafall, and it can be a problem. In Near and Far, the little vignettes were fun, but the story overall for the game felt like it was lacking. The glimpses I got into the world made me want to explore it more, but also didn’t help me care that much about it. Especially in a mechanically driven game.

Seafall also tried to do little vignettes into the world. However, most of them were so generic that it felt like it really didn’t matter. And because they wanted to add reveals into the story, we actually, but poor luck, got a reveal of some of the mystery after the bigger reveal had happened. So the story that was there came out of order.

Now, this all sounds pretty negative. And I totally get that, I do often have issues with story written like that. But in the case of both Near and Far and Seafall, the story was treated as secondary. The mechanics going on were what drove the game, and the story felt more like an afterthought. I don’t believe it was, but that is how it felt. In Sleeping Gods, that isn’t the case, the game is about the story.

Mechanically, Sleeping Gods is still very sound. But the story is what drives the choices you make and what you do, not the mechanics. And that is why Sleeping Gods works as a game with story vignettes. Exploring the world is how you beat the game. Exploring the story is how you beat the game. Not by having the most points to trigger then end, as in Seafall, or get rid of all your tents in Near and Far.

Hopefully that distinction makes sense. Sleeping Gods is so driven by the story that I want to explore that. The mechanics are there to make it a game, but exploring the world and that story is what the game is about. And even if it’s not a grand epic fantasy story told in a normal format, it is still great.

The Drink

Last nights drink wasn’t anything too fancy. I went with a Mojito. The mixer part was in fact from a mix, which I generally don’t do, but I picked some up to try a while ago.

When I pick up alcohol for a mixed drink, I don’t think about it for that purpose. If I’m not willing to sip on the liquor, I’m not likely to buy it. The idea kind of comes from wine. Wine is often used in cooking and there is a mindset that you can get cheap wine for cooking. You aren’t going to drink it, just use it in cooking so why should it be good? But the flavor is what you’re going for, so a less appealing flavor in wine will make your cooking less appealing.

In a mixed drink, if I wouldn’t sip it, that means it’s going to negatively impact the flavor of my drink. Sure, something like Bulleit Bourbon or Whiskey I’m less apt to sip on, but I would. So when I make an Old Fashioned with it, I know the flavor is going to be good.

Upcoming Steaming

So Wednesday’s as always are going to be Sleeping Gods. Subscribe to the channel and click the notification bell to know when we’re going live. But if you don’t want pesky push notifications, I generally don’t, know it’s every Wednesday at 8 PM Central Time.

I honestly don’t know how much of Sleeping Gods is left. With the introductory scenario, I believe I’ve streamed about four and a half hours. So my guess is that I have at least another month to go of game play. But I know what game I’m playing next. Just coming in this week, from Favro Games, Spire’s End. I’ll talk more about it as we get closer to streaming, but it looks like a fun one.

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1 – Not Being Ready to Game

Now this one might seem obvious, but I don’t think that some people get it or are ready to game. While there are certainly social elements to game nights, that is meant to be done in the context of while you are playing a game. So come ready to sit down and play again, not ready to talk for 30 minutes to an hour and then play a game at some point in time and then talk more after a filler game. I fairly often theme in filler game nights for those more social times, but sometimes you need to be prepared to play a bigger game and it’s a game night, so that should be the mindset.

2 – Quashing Fun

This really is #1 through #7, but I want to call this out specifically. It’s something that was talked about in the thread a fair amount. Don’t quash other people’s fun because something in the game offends you and the flip side of this as well, don’t pull out a game that you know will offend someone. If you aren’t sure, leave it on the shelf, if you are uncomfortable, sit out the game. You can always bring it up after the fact and do so respectfully. And if you don’t know, ask before pulling out a game if the person is fine with it. This also is true for conversation on a board game night. We’re trying to create an inclusive place. If you can’t shut up about the debate last night, don’t come, if you are wearing hateful or polarizing material on your shirt, or whatever it might be, don’t assume everyone is like you, and don’t assume everyone wants to talk about politics or whatever polarizing thing like you do.

3 – Alpha Gaming/Analysis Paralysis Gaming

Now, I’m lumping these two together, and really, like I said, this falls into quashing people’s fun. But while that is more specifically about your tastes and views on things, this is more about the game itself. Don’t tell people what to do on their turns, sure they might not be doing an optimal play, but that’s okay. It might mean you’re less likely to win a cooperative game, and that’s okay. By the same token, don’t take too long on your turn, that is how people checkout of games, and I’ll talk about that later. But slowing a game down makes it less fun for everyone. For AP players, they feel the pressure to go fast and not let everyone else get bored, for the other players, they don’t want to get bored. Here’s going to be an odd statement, but alpha gamers and AP gamers tend to have the same issue, they need to win. The issue is how they do it, one thinks they know what everyone should do, and one locks up to make the optimal play. Winning the game isn’t everything.

4 – Sore Losing/Winning

As I just said, winning the game isn’t everything, and losing the game isn’t nothing. But don’t be sore at either of them. Don’t huff and puff and say that the game isn’t fair, that people ganged up on you (even if they did), lose graciously. Again, this steps on people’s fun if you lose poorly. At the same time, if you win, don’t gloat about it. Also don’t deflect and say it was all luck and that you just happened to get lucky to win, because someone might have been playing their hardest and gotten crushed and feel now like they are a terrible player. Instead be gracious in both winning and losing and that’ll make the game more fun for everyone.

5 – Cheating

Simply put, don’t do this. No game matters that much that it’s worth cheating at, at a board game night. I don’t care if you’re playing poker for the last piece of Rhubarb Cream Pie, don’t cheat. Cheating if you get caught ruins the game for everyone. If you don’t get caught, it makes the whole experience more hollow. I’ve found that the people who cheat usually don’t cheat to win, or if they do, they’ll also cheat to win by more, which makes it less fun.

6 – Readily Getting Distracted/Checkout of the Game

This can happen for several reasons, but try not to. Firstly, again, it’s a game night, you’re hear to play a game, not to look at your phone, not to have a conversation with someone who is playing another game, or someone who just showed up at the expense of missing it’s you’re turn. It’s fine to chat, but don’t get so distracted you lose track of the game, hold it up by missing your turn, and then spend a while figuring out your turn because you weren’t paying attention to what everyone else did. Also, don’t checkout of a game because you think you can’t win. First, you might not be able to actually tell that. But also if you start playing worse than you were, you can king make or otherwise mess up the fun other people are having. See your strategy and plan through to the end.

7 – Mistreating the Game

Now, as I’ve said, we have food at the table, so I’m not as strict about this as most people. In fact we’ve had Doritos and red wine (not the worlds tastiest combo) at the table before. But I’m talking about doing stuff intentionally to a game, or subconsciously. Don’t bend cards and throw pieces. Wipe off your fingers if you have Cheetos or Doritos’ dust on them before picking up pieces and cards. Just generally be respectful of other people’s property, it’s a common courtesy but be conscious of that, and resprect the rules the owner of the game has for their game.

So obviously some people in the thread were more clever than I was and created ones related to the actual seven deadly sins, but I thought it was an interesting topic for a gaming group and board gaming in general, so I wanted to write something up about it. Generally, I think that The RPG Academy gets it right with their motto, “If you’re having fun, you’re doing it right”. So make sure that you’re having fun, and make sure that everyone at the table is as well and playing board games will be fun for everyone.

What are your rules for gaming?

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