Take away Birthday card

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Facsantos
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Joined: 05 May 2014, 21:28

Re: Take away Birthday card

Post by Facsantos »

i also am in the camp to get rid of this card, two days in a row players abusing that card, giving the same lame escuse that everybody does it.

Not everybody.
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Jellby
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Joined: 31 December 2013, 12:22

Re: Take away Birthday card

Post by Jellby »

Another option would be to let anyone claim it's their birthday. OK, fine... but then you have to wait 1 year until you can claim it again.
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Jellby
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Re: Take away Birthday card

Post by Jellby »

Yet another idea: make it random: 1/365 probability of it being your birthday, e.g. 20/365 probability of it being some other "special" day.

This would agree with some other subtle changes on BGA. For instance, many games say things like "the youngest player starts" or "the player who most recently travelled to Rome starts" or "the last player to see a dragon starts"... but in BGA the starting player is (I assume) random.
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xjk_cn
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Joined: 28 January 2020, 14:55

Re: Take away Birthday card

Post by xjk_cn »

If I can change the rule, I would like it to have random effect on this card.
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diamant
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Joined: 18 April 2016, 16:39

Re: Take away Birthday card

Post by diamant »

fiscused wrote: 25 May 2021, 02:01 I agree with this card being a pain. The first few times I saw it played people were honest. But the last few games it is just an opportunity to cheat. In Fluxx...which is more fun than strategy anyway.
A game is not real life. Unless the rule explicitly specifies it, no event in a game refers to the real life of the players. No event in a game refers to the preferences associated with the nickname on the BGA site. These preferences are moreover the characteristics of a fictional character, not necessarily those of a real person.

The Action card Today's Special allows the player playing the card to choose between 3 possibilities. As these possibilities are not related to any other event or game situation of the game, it follows that the player freely chooses between these 3 possibilities, in each game. It is just possible to wonder if the same player could decide on a different choice if he had to play the same card a second time during the same game.

When other players understand the rules better than you, you are not justified in calling them cheaters for that reason.
Cheating is giving you an advantage that other players don’t have access to. That’s not the case here.
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fiscused
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Joined: 27 December 2012, 05:34

Re: Take away Birthday card

Post by fiscused »

diamant wrote: 31 July 2021, 12:49
fiscused wrote: 25 May 2021, 02:01 I agree with this card being a pain. The first few times I saw it played people were honest. But the last few games it is just an opportunity to cheat. In Fluxx...which is more fun than strategy anyway.
A game is not real life. Unless the rule explicitly specifies it, no event in a game refers to the real life of the players. No event in a game refers to the preferences associated with the nickname on the BGA site. These preferences are moreover the characteristics of a fictional character, not necessarily those of a real person.

The Action card Today's Special allows the player playing the card to choose between 3 possibilities. As these possibilities are not related to any other event or game situation of the game, it follows that the player freely chooses between these 3 possibilities, in each game. It is just possible to wonder if the same player could decide on a different choice if he had to play the same card a second time during the same game.

When other players understand the rules better than you, you are not justified in calling them cheaters for that reason.
Cheating is giving you an advantage that other players don’t have access to. That’s not the case here.
Have you not read this thread? It is absolutely against the rules. The card would be WAY too powerful if you could just decide anything when you play it.
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diamant
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Re: Take away Birthday card

Post by diamant »

fiscused wrote: 31 July 2021, 13:36Have you not read this thread?
I didn’t find anything which makes sense reading this thread. What do you think I would have missed?
fiscused wrote: 31 July 2021, 13:36 It is absolutely against the rules.
That’s the kind of unfounded assertion that proves you don’t have any argument against my point of view.
fiscused wrote: 31 July 2021, 13:36The card would be WAY too powerful if you could just decide anything when you play it.
I have little experience in this game, but I found that the Keeper the Brain was a little too powerful. Should we eliminate it too?

My opinion is that the rules of a game are the domain of the dictatorship of the game designer, not that of democracy. So even if 100 players shouted haro on Today's Special, it wouldn’t matter.
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Jellby
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Re: Take away Birthday card

Post by Jellby »

diamant wrote: 31 July 2021, 12:49it follows that the player freely chooses between these 3 possibilities, in each game. It is just possible to wonder if the same player could decide on a different choice if he had to play the same card a second time during the same game.
I guess if the intent had been to give the player the freedom to choose any of the 3 options each time the card is played, the text would have said something like "choose one of: (1) ... (2) ... (3) ...".

(By the way, the card is also biased against people born on Feb. 29th :D )
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diamant
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Re: Take away Birthday card

Post by diamant »

Jellby wrote: 31 July 2021, 15:18I guess if the intent had been to give the player the freedom to choose any of the 3 options each time the card is played, the text would have said something like "choose one of: (1) ... (2) ... (3) ...".

(By the way, the card is also biased against people born on Feb. 29th :D )
"The player who last visited an island goes first and play continues to the left." (Forbidden Island)

Polygraph is not part of the game material and you have to admit that players can lie and it can be part of the fun of playing.

About Today's Special!, the player chooses between the 3 possibilities at the time he plays the card, and not during the action. Thus, he must decide the number of cards to play before learning about the 3 cards drawn. The reason is that the criterion of choice between the 3 possibilities of action does not include information on the 3 cards drawn during the course of the action.
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Jellby
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Re: Take away Birthday card

Post by Jellby »

diamant wrote: 31 July 2021, 16:17"The player who last visited an island goes first and play continues to the left." (Forbidden Island)
That was my point above: If BGA changed the rules of Forbidden Island to make the first play random instead, they could also change the rules of this card to make it random instead. (It could even be a random choice at the beginning of the game, e.g. "Congratulations, today is Player A's birthday!" or "It's a special holiday today!", and make it stick for all players, the whole game.)

PS. Not that I care, actually... I'm just throwing out suggestions in case the dev/designer wants to pick them up :)

PPS. What would happen if you play with a stranger in real life? If they claim it's their birthday, would you say "prove it"? Or if they say it's their hometown's major day?
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