Board Game Breakfast - Input Randomness

Tom talks about a game from 20 years ago. Tom reviews Severance. Plus, a plethora of segments from our great contributors! Episode #423.

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[makankasappo]

I teach her she wins!!! My favorite as always!! ❤️❤️❤️

[MeaKidpa]

Wendy has been an amazing addition to the team! I love all her jokes and puns, and it has been so fun having a different voice when it comes to games (really evident in the Top 10 Themes video). Thanks for all you do, Wendy!!

[edwardbrost]

Nice selection with Pirates Cove. Love that one and still play it.

[boardgameknight]

Ambie's segment, as always, is a highlight for me. Happy to see you looking at a toddler game this time! My kid might like Tidy Up, too.

[jawsvvvvv]

Just finished Severance oh my goodness was that amazing!! True must watch TV.

[nuroy]

I always enjoy seeing Chris and Wendy in Board Game Breakfast.

[jimgrant]

I loved the discussion on input and output randomness. I have to say there are examples of both sorts of games that I love and hate. I think how a designer utilizes each of them and in combination with other mechanisms ultimately determines how well I enjoy the game. And I've found there isn't one answer that works for everyone!

[anthonyavelar]

My wife and I snagged two of the last 10 tickets.

[Nemspy]

The premise of Severance is basically me except instead of work that I completely forget the minute I leave it’s the rules and manuals of board games.

[brownboys]

Severance is amazing. While the hallway and inside office scenes are on a stage, the exterior of the office building and interior shots are done at the Bell Labs building in Holmdel, Nj where both my wife and I worked in the 90s.

[adamk]

I saw this in the chat and loved it. Why doesn't Wendy do a mini's painting show?

[eddieb]

I like the randomness from the Terraforming Mars Expansion Turmoil. You see something big, it's a long way ahead so you can plan. It also has some tiny randomness with where the neutral delegates fall with the flip of the card. But this is the luck I like in a big strategic game. I'm more forgiving of randomness in shorter party games. In a game where the goal is to laugh, random can be a good tool. Either way, thanks to Stephen Bounocore and Stronghold Games for making your randomness appealing. It's always enjoyable when I see him being added to a video. Stay Classy team.

[LookWhosBloggingToo]

Apple TV is underrated. Way better than Disney+.

[destrio]

There are some things that output randomness can do that input randomness can't do, and vice versa. I do think that the random amount of points for the same actions/effort is a Euro game's way of output randomness. Instead of rolling high for a critical success, you happen to draw a critical success of points. Either way, this could serve to lower the skill ceiling of a game and make it more accessible for players of varying skill levels to compete.

But yes, i agree in general with Wendy's premise. Longer games with more output randomness does not provide an enticing setting for players to compete, rather it is better used as a story generation tool. Yet a lot of good output randomness games give players uncertainty in how well something will pay off despite the planning. Have I setup my position in the best way possible? Mitigating the output randomness may be part of the skill involved in the game itself.

[memoman]

Re Severance - So wrong about needing answers. The point of the show, for me, is the though experiment of the split mind and what you can do with it. I'd love the know about the goats and some other obvious open questions but they seem mostly irrelevant to the sci-fi question of the possibilities of a split mind. I don't need those answers, though I of course must see season 2. I fully anticipate getting answers to my questions in season 2 and being disappointed by the answers.

[durrellwalkersr.]

DO YOU GUYS REVIEW NAY UNPUBLISHED TABLE TOP BOARD GAMES?

[rikhavok]

Re randomness: I used to like randomness because strangely I was very lucky. Then I realized that why should I win just because luck is in my favor. That’s not really a fun win. Felt almost like cheating to me. What sank this home for me - I played a game called killer bunnies years ago. The winner is the one that has the golden carrot or something at the end of the game. You get random carrot cards which you aren’t allowed to look at until the end of the game. And then you flip them over at the end and who has it wins. Don’t get me wrong.. hated this game from the start. But we played it and one person got like 10 carrots and the other two shared the other 5 or whatever. I’m sorry.. 10 carrot guy should win this game. But, no.. it’s the one that has the random carrot.

[thwilee]

Severance kind of sounds like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, if the characters had less agency?