How to play with my less serious, local friends?

[perigee]

How do I do this without serious karma penalties?

Last night I tried to play two full games with my local friends. Love Letter (which to my dismay they didn't read the rules for and hated) and Solo (which they enjoyed but only played 3 rounds out of four).

We were all connected by the Zoom video conference and we are playing this way together because we are in the San Francisco Bay Area which is under self-isolation rules because of the coronavirus.

In the end I had to quit both games early. Love Letter because they wanted to try another game and Solo because they all quit and went to bed. The second docked me 20 karma.

Is there a way for me to handle this better in the in game system? Do I have to make them all time out and give them all penalties? Can I put the game in (frustrating) friends only mode? Or set a game up so it's only 1 round to win?

Also specifically in love letter my friends complained they couldn't see the cards passing by when they used the priest or the cardinal and didn't know how to review the information they missed.

Anyway, I love the product. And I understand why quitting early should be penalized in general. But I don't think my friends will ever understand that and I still want to try these games with them. What's the best way?

[perigee]

I'll answer my own questions:

• What I'm looking for is "Training Mode". If I open a manual table, I can do so with friends. Then in Table Configuration, I set "Training Mode" instead of "Normal Mode" in Game Mode. This removes time limits and penalties for leaving (and ELO changes). Not sure if it also removes penalties for the table host leaving, but we'll cross that bridge when we next play. Here's a post about Training Mode: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewto ... =3&t=13696.

• Also, Love Letter's cards that show what another player has do go by quickly, you have to know where to look on the play area after you play the card, and even so the display of the card is pretty small, it's true, but players can Replay to when they played the card (Priest or Cardinal, for example) and try to go by color, which can be easier to read, but not so easy for new players. It's not ideal. It would be cool if they could hover over the game log item and see the card displayed bigger, or at least the card name and short description. But they're not completely helpless. I'll go make it a suggestion on the Suggestions board.

[perigee]

Another answer:

In Love Letter, the result of the Priest or Cardinal displays in only the Priest or Cardinal playing player's game log directly after the entry for playing the Priest or Cardinal. So in the case of my friends, it was just user error/cluelessness.

[Jest Phulin]

Another option, if you don't set up the game in Training Mode, is to abandon the game.

In the actions menu, there should be an option to "propose to abandon the game collectively" (or similar text -- I don't remember it exactly). The system will then provide a yes/no button to all players. If all players agree, the system cancels the game and treats it as if it never happened -- no ELO change, no win/loss adjustment, etc. And, importantly, no "quit a game in progress" penalties for anyone.

Side note -- all players must agree. If even one chooses not to abandon, the game progresses.

[perigee]

Thanks so much for the additional info, Jest!

Anyone have more information or options?

[qwertasdfg]

Thanks so much for the additional info, Jest!

Anyone have more information or options?

Additional: The abandoning does work as well when players have gone offline completely. Everyone who is over his time limit auto-accepts the abandoning proposal.


Also, you asked about setting the game up so its only one round to win. In love letter: no, it's fixed to how many vp your play.
But in Solo: yes, you can choose in the game settings to f.e. play only one round. That has to be done prior to game start, obviously