Gaming and Happiness

Once again, I might be full of shit, but what I understand, psychologists studying happiness seem to believe that happiness has to be intrinsic (come from within us) to last. However, right now, most of our society seems to be geared towards getting extrinsic (from outside us) happiness.

This might sound like some New Age garbage, but this wasn’t told to us by the universe (at least not personally), but its a real result of real studies.

So, why am I writing about this in a gaming (sometimes comics) blog?

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Full Session Combat Scene (HeroQuest, Battle of Iceland)

Since I don’t get to GM that much, I do my best to use the opportunities I do have to do something different. I gave the instruction of something like “300 with Vikings” in the beginning to my players.

Mild spoilers on the Battle of Iceland scenario ensue.

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My Favorite Decks from Pro Tour Khans of Tarkir

Sadly, no Conley Woods concontion this time around. He didn’t do very well. I guess the list would be available somewhere, and I bet its interesting, but from what I heard, the land base was just less than 20 mountains, which would seem like some sort of monored heroic deck.

But plenty of great stuff around.

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Boardgames for Families

In advertising families and children are often synonymous. Any movie for children is advertised as a movie for the whole family. I can see why parents (which I’m not) might want to distract the children just long enough to be quiet for a bit, but that shouldn’t be the extent the adult can enjoy the situation. And studios have (sort of) understood this. Most Pixar and many DreamWorks animations take the whole family into account by making the films be more than noise and colors for the kids (which is a way too patronising view of the children anyhow).

But this is about games.

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EDH Pauper Deck Time: Disciple of Deceit

This one is kind of obvious EDH Pauper material. Still, probably a fun deck to build.

The only time I’ve played with [scryfall]Disciple of Deceit[/scryfall] was in the prerelease of Journey Into Nyx. Sometimes it was very good, other times it was just a smallish wall. Still, that was sealed and I didn’t have many tools to work with. In EDH this guy will probably shine, especially if I can use him as the commander.

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Deck Types: Midrange

In order to make their game more approachable to new players and to keep the game fresher, Wizards’ R&D began to emphasize creatures over spells. This has been good for the game, as now those cards that appeal to new players are actually good, and not just heartbreaking as they are easily dispatched or countered as they used to be.

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