Favorite ecology or solarpunk themed games
I wanted to come in and ask everyone about what their favorite ecological themed games were. I'm also looking to know what Solarpunk games are around, any good ones?
My favorite ecological game is Wingspan. Which is just this great chill engine builder game that manages to feel different for me each time I play. Like a new puzzle to solve. You play it in competition with others but it often feels more like you're playing together rather in direct interference, though there are ways to interact because of the shared resources, most of the interactions are positive because of cards you play benefiting other players too. I've actually still had fun playing alone because of their automa rules.
The aesthetics and theme involves you being the conservator of land trying to attract birds to nest there.
Anyways I just wanted to gush more about Wingspan because I feel more people should try it out. Most other games in the same mechanics category are much more complicated and strategies are harder to see, once you understand the turn order and resources in Wingspan it's a pretty smooth experience.
A lot of the classic table games, the ones that have survived through the centuries, are often quite durable and adaptive to play. Think Checkers, Chess, Go/Weiqi, backgammon, Pachisi, gungi (😉), etc. Often time pieces for these games can be improvised or fashioned from nearby materials. Boards are often simple to draw on the ground or build. This also means that these games often have very compact and durable portable boards.
Plastic waterproof standard cards are actually something I always carry around with me, as are a few packs of standard dice. You can do a lot with those two. I use them to play Poker, or President, or certain tabletop roleplaying games. A really good portable card game I've found that's surprisingly fun was called Don't L.L.A.M.A. which is a lot like Uno with more strategy and interesting decisions. It's accessible and it fits into a small box.
I'm not sure I'm exactly answering the question, but these are what come to mind when I think about games that can survive and be played during natural disasters, when far from civilization or amenities, etc
I would personally also love to know more about people's portable travel games. I hear Bananagrams is a good one. And Sushi Go was mentioned and I play that on the go too.
okay I've made my introduction post, thanks for everything, here's hoping the best for the community there
Introductions
Hello /c/[email protected],
It looks like this community is needing a little bit of love and I thought I might be able to help as a moderator.
I'm Lariedos, and though I'm a professional video game designer by trade, I've also got a background in tabletop game design. I Kickstarted and published a tabletop roleplaying game a few years back and I've got a bunch of prototypes waiting in the wings. I am passionate for finding that sweet spot where mechanics and narrative support each other to one cohesive experience.
I'm hoping to leverage some of my skills to help folks with their projects and build a supportive community of tabletop development as well. Engaging here might encourage me to develop my prototypes more. Maybe we'll also come up with some neat solarpunk or ecological themed projects out it.
My favorite boardgames are: Splendor, Wingspan, Mysterium, Bang!, and the classic card game President
My favorite classic table games are (I'm bad at them, but enjoy them and their mechanics): Go, Poker, and Riichi Mahjong
Hi I'm a Game Designer (tabletop and videogames) and if the ownership of the board games community is up for grabs, I'm cool with keeping watch over it. One of my favorite games is Wingspan which isn't solarpunk but definitely is ecological and educational.
I'm thinking a good way to invigorate the community is to encourage discussions on board game design as well that way people in the solar punk community can support making environment and ecology themed game projects together. I can leverage my experience in this way.
But the main question is if most people end up using the community for general boardgames discussion is that considered alright? Most board games aren't solarpunk oriented and many of them might even have anti-ecological themes (ex. most natural resource management games, think Settlers of Catan).
This reminds me about how network traffic worked in a book called "The Diamond Age" by Neal Stephenson (author of Cryptonomicon, and Snow Crash). In the book they described every device or application being a node and packets were routed through random nodes until they were pieced back together at their destination. That there was no central routing in these cases. It was a plot point because it's noted how difficult it is to track messages in this kind of networking. I'm not sure I'm remembering it correctly but it's a neat idea.