Online groups! There are great ways to play using things like Discord or other voice options, along with digital tabletops (roll20) or virtual tabletop applications (Foundry, Talespire, Tabletop Simulator or even the new beta for Project Sigil).

Online has its own set of bumps and friction points, but it can be a good way to get your feet wet with the rules and also practice the role play part. Just make sure that you’re finding a group that is like-minded. There is often something called a “session 0” where the group will discuss the expectations in behavior and roleplay and responsibilities. It doesn’t always happen with online groups, but in that case make sure you have a DM who is setting those expectations in advance.

Rule 0 still exists. This is meant to help give a quick distinction for playing in “untrusted groups” where you don’t know what other people consider a “7.” You can state clearly that by the brackets, your deck is considered a 3, but also mention that it plays out more powerfully, like a 4.

For most players, this is a pretty helpful guide:

• 1 is for your jank and meme decks. It’s not designed to be strong, it’s just to do something funny.
• 2 is for precon level decks. Not awful, but definitely not optimized. A number of budget decks and pet decks may fit in here.
• 3 is for your good decks, but with the caveat that they’re not full of the salt-inducing “game changers” or Mass Land Destruction or 2-card combos that go off turn 2.
• 4 is for your best non-CEDH decks. Push it as far as you want, understanding that other people at the table likely did the same
• 5 is for CEDH. If you don’t know what that is, you’re not playing a 5, just a powerful 4.

I know that most of my decks are 2s, or a 3 with 1-2 Game Changers. None that would really be 4s, but sometimes I can play them at a 4-level table and still luck out into a win.

Unfortunately, yeah. Back on r/losangeles people knew the reputation of HB (and a number of other beach communities, especially as you push further south).

Truly ridiculous, though, to want to commemorate a building like this with the name of a movement that wasn’t there when the building was built, and has no ties to the purpose of the building. They rage about identity politics but have somehow tied their identity into their political beliefs.

Well, no one voted for"Genocide Joe" because Biden was not in the election. I’m sure there were a number of people, though, who abstained from voting for Harris because she also did not represent their wishes for the situation in Palestine, though to me that feels like being a single issue voter.

I don’t understand the quote or run-on sentence of yours. People should indeed try and campaign for candidates they believe align with their ideals of governance.

Imagine if it had

“Max Speed – Haste”

I groan at yet another account situation… But I adore RGG’s work, and will do anything for more Yakuza. Yakuza 3-5 remastered was the reason I even got myself a PS5. Yakuza 0 and Kiwami were the reason I got my PS4.

Five bucks says that the guy who didn’t vote for Ichiro didn’t hand out 10 votes, and that the snub is purely because they don’t believe anyone should be unanimous.

I’m in the LA area. Glad that we’re staying above freezing, especially in the wake of the fires.

But seriously, it feels like we’re getting these humongous weather patterns fairly regularly now. Maybe someone should investigate what’s going on with our global climate and causing these.

I’m over near the Eaton Canyon fire, and man has the day taken a turn for the worse for me. Power went down at 6:34 last night, and I’m not in an evac order zone… Just a quarter mile from an evacuation warning zone.

Spent an hour getting everything together in case I have to pack up my animals and roll out. Still no power as of 7AM.

How’s everyone doing so far?

I took precautions yesterday out in Arcadia, and so far things have been fine, aside from all the dead leaves from a tree forming a humongous mound in my yard.

In my experience working with kids of all ages, from toddlers to high school students, the biggest thing is enthusiasm and energy. If you’re faking enthusiasm, they can tell. If you’re not excited and happy to be there, no one will be having a good time. Obviously everyone ticks differently, but you gotta make sure that it’s something you want to do. Once you’ve decided on that, the actual interaction becomes much easier and more genuine.

I think you definitely have the right mindset, since you’re looking for places to get involved. Just jump in earnestly and it’ll work out.

Not sure what the public opinion is on this, but I used to volunteer with Union Rescue Mission occasionally, and through my church I’ve had a few chances to help out with other orgs and shelters.

There are groups that do trash pickups, especially around the hiking trails and public spaces.

It was a one-off, but my work had a volunteer service day last year where about 15 of us showed up to help out at Catholic Charities of LA over in Long Beach. We helped hand out food for lunch and pack up food bundles for the holidays.

Not sure about how available for commitment you are, but if you’re good with kids and are down to really put yourself out there regularly, look into Big Brother Big Sister. It’s one of those things I know can make a big change in a kid’s life, but I’ve never had the commitment or drive to volunteer myself.

Yeah, if you read other articles by the author, it’s all slop like this. Also note that the OP seems to only link articles from this site…

I haven’t been active in TF2 in years, but I have 2.9k hours, all without idling for items. That game was basically another life for me, around 2010-2016. In that timespan I picked up PC gaming, got into shooters, got into TF2, joined a community, started collecting strange weapons, got my first unusual and traded it, and captained a Highlander team as Pyro.

The game was and still is amazing; I only ever stopped because it was becoming detrimental to my life and schooling. Now, when I try to play, I mourn the loss of my old community servers, get frustrated with my worse skills, and despise the number of bots I run into on Valve servers.

Community servers can still exist… They just require actual community members to hop on and play. I miss my old servers still. 80% of my friend list is still peeps from that 1 west coast community.

I’ve gone through the quick overview, but haven’t played any. My friend group has some people who aren’t into PC games, so I haven’t really tested it out over there.

Our group really likes to find ways to make optimal plays with small advantages that eventually can snowball, so I’m hoping the exploration and randomization will help shift things up game to game, while the voting and stuff can result in good bluffs and social interaction.

Moonrakers is way up there for me personally. I enjoy the cooperative elements and the deckbuilding, even if there isn’t too much politicking, just bargaining.

Agricola is a tableau style game where you’re upgrading your farm, but it feels very tight. It feels like you have to use each turn to it’s highest efficiency to just keep up with the harvests, let alone get ahead. And when someone takes an action on the board, no one else can use that action for the rest of the round, meaning it’s always a contest to get first player of a round and secure the spots you need. No direct player interaction or deal-making, just a lot of making the best decision for yourself while keeping an eye out for someone else who may want the same action.

Forgot to mention, we have some games that have been purchased but not played yet!

Root looks really cool with the asymmetric factions and the number of expansions available.

Windward looks interesting, but I haven’t gone through the rules of it yet.

I’m personally looking forward to Brink next year, from IV Studios. They put a lot of care into their games, and I think my group may enjoy the format of it more than Moonrakers.

My group’s rotation this year has been:

• Agricola. Kind of the go-to that we played a ton during COVID.
• Century (Golem Edition) with one of the expansions
• Everdell. Good tableau building game, but with fairly low interaction.
• Wingspan. We enjoy the expansions, but nectar is definitely a little too good.
• Wyrmspan, definitely our group’s biggest game of the year. Great twist on Wingspan.
• Rising Sun. Hit or miss with the different players. The alliance mechanic makes it feel really tough for an odd number of players, unless people are in the habit of breaking alliances.
• Fractured Sky. Really fun one that takes a bit to get rolling, but it’s one of the more games of partial information I’ve played.
• Power Grid. We got all the expansions that we’d missed over the last decade. It’s still super solid, and it turns out playing on a map other than China means that so much is left up in the air, it’s hard to go in with a pre-planned strategy.
• Moonrakers (with every expansion released so far). Some players prefer the PvE thing, Moonrakers Luminor, but they wish they had more in there, with more varied challenges and an endless mode. I have Moonrollers, but it’s a tough sell when one player is very wary of dice rolling in games.
• Five by Five. A small Kickstarter I backed a long while ago. It’s simple and neat, and can be played with family members.

With my cousins, it’s definitely a bit more casual.

• Not Enough Mana, a drinking game. This one can get out of hand if you don’t use a strong enough drink, or durdle if the drink is too boozy. Gotta find the right drink for your group.
• Heroes of Barcadia. Just a really good excuse to sit back and roll some dice and have a few beers without needing to pay too much attention.

I added this to my Steam wishlist like 2 minutes after I saw this announced… Maybe a year ago? I’m awful at skate games but I really love the look of this game.