Skinner's gone rogue

FTL: Faster Than Light recently released a free expansion. So I booted up my copy to jump through the stars on a mission to deliver a message critical to a civil war. Many hours later, I was surprised to find myself still playing. This had me thinking about why FTL has such addictive game play. FTL is a Roguelike, a genre started by the text game Rogue. There are three key features of a Roguelike. First, everything is random. The levels, enemies, and items you get are all randomly generated. Other than you starting gear, there is no guarantee of finding any particular item or location in a play through. In FTL, there are a fixed number of stages and the power of the enemies ramps up through them, but within those minor constraints it is all random. Second, Roguelikes have perma-death. If you die, you have to start over from the beginning with a completely new random world. There is no way to revert to a saved state. Finally, Roguelikes are hard and tend to boarder on punishingly so. If you are winning more than 50% of the time, the game is too easy. Sounds like a fun game, no?

Despite how awful Roguelikes sound, they are a popular genre. Some of the popularity has to do with the creativity and adaptability these games require. But that is not what I wanted to talk about. Instead, I want to talk about the psychology of conditioning and how it relates to games, in particular operant conditioning. Loosely defined, this is providing positive or negative feedback to encourage or discourage certain behaviors. An example is Sheldon giving Penny a chocolate every time she does something he approves of when she and Lennard start dating the first time.

On the surface, this clearly relates to games. Every time you defeat an enemy or finish a quest, you are rewarded. Though often the rewards are random in games. This is where things get a bit weird. It turns out that only sometimes rewarding for a behavior reinforces the behavior better than always rewarding for it. Random rewards are one reason that gambling is so addictive.

Putting this together, we see that the difficulty and randomness of Roguelikes utilizes this random reinforcement mechanism. Instead of knowing where a certain enemy is that gives a great item, players sometimes stumble upon interesting enemies that might give a nice item. And this could happen in the next location you visit! Instead of always having the sweet taste of victory, you have to fight for it. But this makes the cases when it happens that much sweeter. Granted it is possible to have the good outcomes happen to infrequently, see the first release of Diablo III. But FTL and other successful Roguelikes condition you to want to come back for more, even though they repeatedly beat you to a pulp.

Dissertation Nemesis

nem·e·sis (noun) : an opponent or enemy that is very difficult to defeat

Right now I am struggling through my PHD thesis. Calling it my nemesis would not be an understatement. Even though I am in the home stretch, motivation to finish it has been hard to come by. I recently read Reality is Broken and starting toying with an Alternate Reality Game to find the element of fun and make this job a game. This was inspired by the part of the book talking about SuperBetter, an alternate reality game to help with injury recovery. While SuperBetter could conceivable be used to motivate thesis work, I think some variations are needed. In particular, every PHD student is working on a thesis and could use a support group. Hence, the dissertation version is more of a team game than SuperBetter.

In this game, you and your fellow dissertaters are part of some team working together for some purpose, like protecting the world. But each team member has their personal adversary, their Nemesis, that they alone can defeat. The team can and should support each other in this endeavor, but no kill stealing. Two obvious ways to theme your team would be the Justice League or the Avengers. They are working together to save humanity, but each has their own personal enemy. Thor has Loki, Captain America has HYDRA, the Incredible Hulk has his anger issues and Robert Downy Jr. Tony Stark his alcoholism.

The first step is to assemble your team. This means recruiting like Nick Furry. Your team can come from any discipline. It doesn't have to be just people in your program or sub-sub-sub-specialty of your program. In fact, it is helpful to have other perspectives and not have to worry that you are directly competing with those on your team. Recruitment is probably the hardest step. Programs tend to be very insular, especially near the end. Just remember that everyone is in the same boat as you and wants people to commiserate and support them through this. Don't get discouraged. It took Nick Furry 6 movies before he could get the entire Avengers team together.

Once you have assembled your team, everyone needs to pick their in game identity and Nemesis. Your group doesn't need to have as tight themeing as the Justice League or Avengers. Mixing DC and Marvel is perfectly fine. Or a mash-up like the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen does for classic literature or Fables for faerie tales.

Picking your nemesis is as important as who you are. This dichotomy represents the major focus of your energies. While some characters, like Sherlock Holmes and Moriarty, are easy to pair, others are much harder. Batman has so many great opponents in his rouges' gallery that you can really fine tune you Nemesis to how your thesis feels to you. Maybe it is the Riddler if your thesis is an enigma to solve. Or perhaps the Joker because your dissertation is just wonton destruction and chaos. Or Ra's al Ghul if you keep having to rewrite the same portion of your thesis over and over again. I would just recommend against Captain Ahab chasing the white whale as that doesn't end well.

Once you have your team and nemesis, you need a base of operations. The Avengers have the S.H.E.I.L.D. helicarrier and the Justice League their satellite. This is your teams safe area. It is a place you can go and talk shop without reservations. It could be a lounge in your department, some meeting room on campus or even your groups' favorite coffee house. Any place you can all gather and talk about the dissertation writing process comfortably will do. In addition, also schedule a weekly meeting there. During this meeting your team should discuss how they are faring against their nemesis. Is the battle going well? Do they need some help? What are people worried about that is coming up? This way the team can support each other and help those that are struggling.

Contact with your team should not be limited to just the weekly meetings. Members of your group should be in contact daily. This does not mean talking to everyone every day. If you know someone predicted a hard week or had a hard previous week, check in to see how they are doing. Conversely if you are struggling, don't be afraid to reach out, that is what your team is for. This can be as simple as and e-mail, Facebook Post or text. Or if someone needs something bigger people can meet up for lunch or coffee to help formulate strategies.

Outside of the normal meetings and check-ins, having group writing sessions is extremely valuable. Having everyone gather to write for a few hours is a great commitment device. In this scenario, all your nemesis have banded together to create a super team to challenge your own. Only a concerted, joint effort can push them back. This is a great way to start the game or re-set people's writing if their schedules have gotten screwed up.

Finally, you need goals and achievements. Goals are things that you have set out to do and achievements are things that other people bestow upon you. Both are important to the process. Goals enable you to focus your efforts. Achievements show you hidden strengths and provide positive reinforcement.

Clearly, your ultimate goal is the defeat of your Nemesis finishing your dissertation. This should be broken into smaller pieces so that every day you can complete a goal. Goals should vary in length and difficulty with some of them being quite a stretch. Short term goals can be like writing a page of text or finishing a subsection. Stretch goals are things that you would like to see in your dissertation that aren't key to its completion. Keep a running list of these and update your team on your progress at the meetings. This provides both a way to track progress and a commitment device for accomplishing your goals.

Achievements aren't things you can work for but can give others. They should be recognitions of a job well done or acknowledgments of a strength the person is overlooking. Obvious achievements would be congratulations for finishing a chapter or surviving giving a presentation on your work. Smaller ones could be about regaining momentum after a speed bump or making a really cool graphic for your thesis. Even things like recognition for a very cool turn of phrase in the text or handling a tough adviser meeting are achievement worthy.

Everyone should make an effort to hand out achievements to other people and publicize them. Group meetings are a good place for them as everyone is there. But even during a daily check in they can be awarded if you think the person has done something achievement worthy which they might have overlooked. So if you see Batman working for 8 hours straight, especially if he has never done this before, telling the group that he is a Diligent Detective would be in order.

Doing a dissertation is a unique experience, which can be very isolating. The alternate reality game outlined above is an attempt to create a framework where dissertaters can socialize around their work. Its goal is to provide a support network of like minded individuals so you can push each other over the hump and finish your thesis. I am not sure it is complete in its current form, but should provide a good starting point. Hopefully, I'll assemble a team and be able to post updates to the rules as we play.

PnP Wiz-War - Part 4: Finishing touches

In addition to the base game, I also printed out the community expansion. This adds many more cards to play with and lots more tokens to cut out. As of now I have not integrated any of the community expansion cards into my deck. Most of them are on the complex end and many of the basic support cards are missing to make a usable expansion. In particular, number cards (27.5% of the normal deck) and Pick Lock (3%) are not included in the file. I used Ilya's source files to add the community expansion symbol to some number cards and pick lock cards, which will let me tweak the deck. I will probably just select my favorite cards from the community expansion and balance them with numbers, Pick Locks and some other simple cards from the original game after some plays.

For the tokens I followed my previous method. First I pasted one set of each token to a big sheet of matte board.

So Many Tokens...

Once affixed, I sprayed with my ink fixative and allowed it to dry overnight. Then I scored the tokens and cut the outline of each strip and attached the back label, except for the creatures. These I fully cut out because I wanted the creature names to be on the same edge on both sides. With the original game, I could rotate 1/2 the labels before printing in the source files. Unfortunately, I don't have the source files for the full community expansion, which meant I had to do it the old fashioned way. Once the backs were attached, I sprayed them with my ink fixative. Then sliced them apart.

Community Expansion Tokens

This completed all the game components. In addition to the pieces, one also needs the rules. At the time of this post, there isn't a super good version of the rules to print and use. The core rules can be found on at Wiz-War.com along with a good card FAQ. Sadly the formatting on that site sucks. The first few pages of Kwanchai's Wiz War Redesign have the rules from the website formatted nicely. Unfortunately, there have been a few player made updates to clarify the rules. In particular, the distinction between Line of Sight and Line of Movement, which is present on Ilya's redesign, but not in the core rules. So in addition to the core rules, I strongly recommend having Ilya's Quick Reference on hand. It doesn't have the complete rules, but enough to get you started and fill in some of the clarifications to the core rules. I had mine laminated.

Quick Reference & Rules

I also found some great storage options for my copy. At my local hobby store, there was a square box which was perfect dimensions to hold all the boards & warps. I also purchased one of the small plastic dividers for all the different tokens. For the cards, I used one of my Magic: the Gathering boxing I had lying around. This is the complete set.

Completed Set!

One last thing, you will need a 4 sided die to play the game. Every reference in Wiz-War to a die is to a 4 sided die. This can be found at any gaming store.

King of the Hill

During International TableTop Day I had a chance to try out Illuminati at one of my good friend's recommendation. The game has some very cool and thematic mechanics. Plus the satire and crazy conspiracies you can create make it a very flavorful game. Unfortunately, the end game is a bit to reminiscent of another of Steve Jackson's games, Munchkin. Until the end, the game is rarely adversarial. As soon as one player is about to win, all the others dog pile him or her to prevent it. This happens to the next two or three people who try to win. The winner is decided then by being the first player to be in position when all the other players' have exhausted their resources. This creates a very frustrating and confrontational end game to otherwise light games.

I think this is a separate phenomenon than King Making, or a losing player making the deciding choice between two contenders for first. Games like Settlers of Catan have King Making. Often there will be a just two players with a good shot a winning. Then actions of the third or fourth player will ultimately determine who wins, either through trades or placement of the robber. These players can simply impede progress or aid in another player's progress, it is impossible for the King Makers to actually tear you down and remove points. In Munchkin, it is very likely that the efforts of the players will result in losing a level or completely wipe out the gear one acquired. Further, the efforts of all the players will be coordinated as most will stand a decent chance of winning if they tear down enough other players.

The best analogy that I have come up with is playing King of the Hill. The objective is simply to be the only one standing at the highest point of some hill or other terrain feature. The game is rough as people will physically push and throw each other down. You can even have multiple people team up to pull one person off the hill. Contrast this with King Making, which is more like a duke peddling influence to frustrate his least favored candidate.

The problem with King of the Hill environments in games is not the underlying analogy game. King of the Hill is a fine game and something like Smash Up implements it well. The problem is having this rough and tumble situation evolve at the end of a game. In Smash Up, you are told that it is a free for all to capture bases. But Munchkin wants to be a game about killing monsters in funny ways. It is purely an emergent result of player behavior that the game ends with King of the Hill. Essentially all the play until level 8 or 9 is set up for the final King of the Hill match. This is not explained by the rules nor generally expected by the players, which is where the game fall flat. That King of the Hill is not an intentional part of the design and isn't integrated into the flavor of the game breaks player expectations. Any game that does something counter to player expectations runs the risk of being frustrating. Especially if the violation of expectations happens in a very rough and tumble way.

PnP Wiz-War - Part 3: Cards

Last time I finished with all the pieces for the Base game and the two official expansions. This left me able to do take really nice staged pictures. Like this one:

5 Player Board in Action

Unfortunately, I can't actually play the game without the cards.

Instead of doing standard print and play using Ilya's files, I ordered custom cards through an online service. I knew that I wanted nice cards that would stand up to lots of use. And didn't trust myself to get the cuts correct on standard card stock.

After doing some research, I settled on PrinterStudio.com. They do custom cards of many sizes. I went with standard Poker Cards. It is just over $20 for 234 cards with the premium linen finish. (The linen finish is like $1 extra, so I went with it.) If you print all the cards (Base game, 1st Expansion, 2nd Expansion, Community Expansion) you will need 2 sets of 234 and one set of 54. This leaves you with 20 extra slots for anything else you can dream up. I added 2 custom cards, 8 pick locks and 10 black cards. You can skip the community expansion and fit everything in a set of 234 and one of 54. This is about $30.

To use the website you must first have a separate image for every single card. They should be formatted as 822x1122 pixels for this service. The easiest way to do this is use Ilya's source files and a free trial of Corel Draw. You can then select the card and export as a .jpg. After exporting simply expand the canvas to the correct size and add a canvas color to match the border (xFFFF00 is what I used) in your favorite editing program. This works for all but the community expansion. Ilya's is not complete. If you contact Black Canyon on BoardGameGeek.com, he can send you the community expansion properly formatted. Or you can just send me a message and I can send you everything bundled up.

Once you have the files, it is simply a matter of uploading them to the site in batches of 30. Then autofilling once they are all uploaded. The one wrinkle is the site doesn't really like files with the same art so you have to manually copy all cards that have duplicates manually. It is just drag and drop, but still a bit tedious with all the number cards.

The site often runs deals on shipping or simply larger orders, so be sure to search around for codes to reduce the final price.

PrinterStudio gave me an estimated delivery of about 7-10 days. The cards arrived at the early part of that window. They were in good condition so lets check them out.

Why is Buddy an Attack?!?!?!

Overall I am very satisfied with the cards. They are clearly of good quality and all the colors are nice and crisp. My only complaint is there is some inconsistency across the card packs. I ordered 3 sets, 2 of 234 and one of 54. One of the sets of 234 has a slight yellow-green hue and is cut a little more off center than the other two sets.

Can you tell which one is miscolored?

Honestly the difference in hue is not the big. If you are not a perfectionist, like me, you should have no issue mixing the cards. Even if you can tell the difference when studying them, given lower lighting and focus on the game it shouldn't be noticeable.

If PrinterStudio had given me consistent hue and cutting I would give them a 5 out of 5. But I can only go with a 4 out of 5  for them. And only for PnP. If you are doing a game to sell, I advise a test run first.

Now that I have over 550 Wiz-War cards, who wants to play with me?

PnP Wiz-War - Part 2: Tokens

Last time I finished the boards and other foam core pieces. This left me able to build magical dungeons to play in like this:

5 Player Board Setup

Unfortunately, I have no pieces to move around the game board. So that is the next step in the construction.I have to build the absolutely massive number of tokens present in Wiz-War.

For the tokens I was looking for about 2mm thick cardboard. They needed to be stiff and actually have some size to them so they are easy to pick up. What I ended up with is 1mm matte board. You know the stuff that is used to edge paintings. It is definitely a nice rigid material for tokens. The downside is 1mm is a bit thin to pick up. Also matte board is HARD to cut. I went out and bought the special Zirconium coated Exacto blades to speed up the process and tear the label paper less. Definitely a worthwhile upgrade if you are using matte board. Other options are illustration board (matte board with a different coating) or chip board. Sadly I couldn't find those in the hobby shops I visited.

I think that I screwed up my first batch. And being the smart cookie that I am used the treasures as the first batch. Essentially I pasted them close to the edge. Then cut out the outline. This left me with no registry marks for accurate cutting. Overall the pieces look OK, but are a bit irregular. Which is not good for things that are used all the time.

Treasures and walls

With the next batch I tried something different. Instead of cutting out all the pieces I pasted of one side of the labels to the matte board.

The rest of the tokens for the Base game & 2 released expansions.

Then I scored between all the tokens. This allowed me to use the registry marks for more regular tokens. It is important not to cut all the way through yet. Then I cut out the outline of each row of tokens. This let me affix the back side label to the row and provided good guiding marks. Once the back side was on, I flipped the labels and used the scores to separate the tokens. This worked MUCH better and resulted in very regular tokens.

For the large block of walls I didn't do them double sided. So I just cut the inside lines first. Then did the outer edge so everything pops out in one nice bunch.

Sticks & Stones will break your bones

Creatures & Environmental Effects

Wizards, Treasures & Home Bases

Unfortunately, I am not done with tokens. There are still the community expansion tokens. Plus I think I will re-do the treasures because the are a key game piece.

PnP Wiz-War - Part 1: Foam Core

One thing I have been meaning to do for awhile is make a Print and Play (PnP) version of Wiz-War. The most recent, and nicest looking, re-design of 5th edition I have found is Ilya's which is posted at BoardGameGeek.com. 5th seems to be the most popular version to PnP as it was the last iteration by Jolly Games. 6th and 7th are simply 5th with minor graphical updates. I have never done PnP before, and am not that good at crafts so making my own copy of a board game is going to be a challenge.

The first step was printing out all the boards, token, and other game pieces (excluding cards & rules) on full sheet labels. (Base game, 1st Expansion page 1, 2nd Expansion page 1, Community Expansion Part 1 pages 1-3, Auto-warps, Wizard HP) This allows you to just stick them to your backing without worrying about glue. It is really the simplest way to go about making pieces. The one catch with this game is the pages are formatted A4 which is slightly bigger than letter. Most stores only sell full sheet labels in letter size. My advice when printing is to choose the Actual Size option and just look at every page in the print preview to ensure nothing is being cut off.

A big recommendation I have seen when researching this topic is to use an ink affixative to preserve the printed images. Also it seems that ink jet printer's color can be faded by the sun, so needs UV protection. I used Krylon UV-Resistant Clear Coating Matte for this project. As of now I am still experimenting with it so not sure how necessary this step is, but will go over what I have done, will do and have learned.

I sprayed a few coats on the sheets before mounting them on my chosen backing. Then used another few coats once mounted and cut. This makes the pieces look nice, but they are grainy to the touch. Plus I found a fine white powder from handling them, which is a bit annoying. I think that I used too much on my first pieces and didn't give it enough time to dry before handling. I would spray VERY thin coats, you shouldn't see any wetness, and leave them to dry for a good few hours. Plus I would only do 3 coats or so. One before mounting and 2 after mounting.

For this project I choose 3/16" Black Foam Core for the mounting material on my boards, auto-warps and HP trackers. A large sheet of this will provide you with exactly enough space to mount these things. Before mounting I cut most of the white space off. This way the pieces didn't take as much room and I could save the tokens for another material.

Being the perfectionist that I am, I used a decoupage tool to ensure no air bubbles and a flat mount. It is probably overkill, but an option for those who must have it perfect.

Once mounted I used an exacto knife and metal ruler to cut through the foam core, using the nice registry lines Ilya included. This take about 4-5 passes per line to ensure a smooth cut. For the player boards and Wizard HP trackers the results are quite nice.

I am less impressed with the small warp markers and auto-warp markers. The foam core is hard to cut in a circle and doesn't like to be cut starting from an edge. Which makes it hard to cut small pieces and anything else fancy.

I also STRONGLY recommend that you have a vacuum on hand. Foam core is pretty messy and leaves lots of particles lying around, especially with the smaller pieces.

One last cool thing that I found is a storage case which holds all 8 boards and the auto-warp pieces perfectly.

As I complete more pieces of the game, I'll continue this series. Next up will be the massive number of tokens for this game.