I founded the Indie Game Reading Club in 2010. I've written and developed RPGs since the mid-90s, now I mostly talk about playing them.
View all posts by Paul Beakley
23 thoughts on “But tonight is supposed to be an rpg night. 😭”
Pendrago[dragon emoji]!
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Would you be able to get up to speed on the game in time to play it today? If so, I bow down to you.
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Mark Delsing my COIN chops are strong.
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Brand Robins just got his last night.
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“So the bad news is, I saw ‘Pendragon’ on the cover and went into autopilot…”
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I hope it’s as great as the rest of the series.
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omg! I still don’t have a COIN game. Tried to pre-order one, but I don’t know what happened.
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Matthijs Holter my pre-order didn’t ship because they had the wrong expiration date on my credit card. No email, no notification of any kind. But I saw Mark Delsing had received his and went back to them.
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Matthijs Holter could be that it is still not ready yet. I ordered Pendrago for Brand something like 20 months ago?
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Paul Beakley Mo Jave It’s probably that my card expired while the game was still being designed or something. This was “Colonial Twilight”, specifically made for 2-player. I e-mailed them about it now.
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Paul Beakley what kind of game is it?
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Aaron Stafford a wargame-like thing in GMT’s COIN series.
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I guess what i’m asking is what is a COIN game?
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Aaron Stafford ah! It’s a very unique series of games about counterinsurgencies throughout history. They all feature four sides each with asymmetrical but related goals. An event deck drives play. Usually two of the factions are insurgent/rebels and two are the counterinsurgents/status quo. And rather than old style hex and chit type play, you choose larger, more abstracted commands.
The whole effect comes together in a very narrative way, with lots of temporary alliances, frenemy relationships, and a strong sense of what actually motivated these people historically.
The first ones were designed by a CIA counterinsurgency expert and it shows. The later ones are by other people, and I feel like they’re not as tightly in tune with the underlying themes as they are masters of the mechanisms. Although the American Revolution one, Liberty or Death, is really strong that way.
The COIN model is getting used in all kinds of ways now.
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Paul Beakley interesting
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And just to add: it’s called COIN because “COunter INsurgency”.
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Andy Hauge that makes since now. I thought there were coins involved rather than dice at first.
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Ara Winter I just read some threads on this and it sounds bonkers!
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How did you ever stumble into it? Is it talked about in COIN circles? I may need to travel in those circles more.
What jumped out at me reading about BTR was the super well developed deep jargon surrounding various schools and doctrines within wargaming. Reminded me a lot of roleplaying.
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You know, I’m less curious about wargaming past than maybe I should be. Like, I put my time in over stacks of chits and I have about as much nostalgia for that as I do for red box.
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Played an afternoon of Axis & Allies with a buddy a couple years ago and it gave me the same bout of low level depression as my poorly considered Dungeon Crawl Classics con slot.
(And that’s not even a real wargame!)
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Was this game produced by Chaosium in the 1980s? Pendragon?
Pendrago[dragon emoji]!
Would you be able to get up to speed on the game in time to play it today? If so, I bow down to you.
Mark Delsing my COIN chops are strong.
Brand Robins just got his last night.
“So the bad news is, I saw ‘Pendragon’ on the cover and went into autopilot…”
I hope it’s as great as the rest of the series.
omg! I still don’t have a COIN game. Tried to pre-order one, but I don’t know what happened.
Matthijs Holter my pre-order didn’t ship because they had the wrong expiration date on my credit card. No email, no notification of any kind. But I saw Mark Delsing had received his and went back to them.
Matthijs Holter could be that it is still not ready yet. I ordered Pendrago for Brand something like 20 months ago?
Paul Beakley Mo Jave It’s probably that my card expired while the game was still being designed or something. This was “Colonial Twilight”, specifically made for 2-player. I e-mailed them about it now.
Paul Beakley what kind of game is it?
Aaron Stafford a wargame-like thing in GMT’s COIN series.
I guess what i’m asking is what is a COIN game?
Aaron Stafford ah! It’s a very unique series of games about counterinsurgencies throughout history. They all feature four sides each with asymmetrical but related goals. An event deck drives play. Usually two of the factions are insurgent/rebels and two are the counterinsurgents/status quo. And rather than old style hex and chit type play, you choose larger, more abstracted commands.
The whole effect comes together in a very narrative way, with lots of temporary alliances, frenemy relationships, and a strong sense of what actually motivated these people historically.
The first ones were designed by a CIA counterinsurgency expert and it shows. The later ones are by other people, and I feel like they’re not as tightly in tune with the underlying themes as they are masters of the mechanisms. Although the American Revolution one, Liberty or Death, is really strong that way.
The COIN model is getting used in all kinds of ways now.
Paul Beakley interesting
And just to add: it’s called COIN because “COunter INsurgency”.
Andy Hauge that makes since now. I thought there were coins involved rather than dice at first.
Ara Winter I just read some threads on this and it sounds bonkers!
How did you ever stumble into it? Is it talked about in COIN circles? I may need to travel in those circles more.
What jumped out at me reading about BTR was the super well developed deep jargon surrounding various schools and doctrines within wargaming. Reminded me a lot of roleplaying.
You know, I’m less curious about wargaming past than maybe I should be. Like, I put my time in over stacks of chits and I have about as much nostalgia for that as I do for red box.
Played an afternoon of Axis & Allies with a buddy a couple years ago and it gave me the same bout of low level depression as my poorly considered Dungeon Crawl Classics con slot.
(And that’s not even a real wargame!)
Was this game produced by Chaosium in the 1980s? Pendragon?
Fredrik Bermar nope, totally new thing.