{"items": [{"author": "Josh", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/915220054552?comment_id=915220703252", "anchor": "fb-915220703252", "service": "fb", "text": "When I learned the game (possibly at Swat? I don't recall now for sure, but have this vague recollection of playing with Melissa Binde and Geoff Hopcraft, this weird new game with the plain but brightly-colored wooden pieces), I think we just mis-read the rule. :^)
It's definitely better open-hand, and I agree that it's still better even if you only do it unilaterally.", "timestamp": "1512828521"}, {"author": "Thomas", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/915220054552?comment_id=915235463672", "anchor": "fb-915235463672", "service": "fb", "text": "MIT's gaming club has the meta-rule \"all publicly derivable information is public\" for all the games they play.", "timestamp": "1512835568"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/915220054552?comment_id=915235463672&reply_comment_id=915236771052", "anchor": "fb-915235463672_915236771052", "service": "fb", "text": "→ Two people can break this: we each trade a card face down with each other. Now what cards people have are no longer quite publicly derivable.", "timestamp": "1512836219"}, {"author": "David Chudzicki", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/915220054552?comment_id=915235463672&reply_comment_id=915266950572", "anchor": "fb-915235463672_915266950572", "service": "fb", "text": "→ My read of the rules is that this doesn't work, Jeff:
\"On your turn, you can trade Resource Cards with any of the other players. You can announce which resources you need and what you are willing to trade for them ...\"
It's not completely explicit, but I think I would interpret this to mean that trading consists in making such announcements, so all trades are public.", "timestamp": "1512846722"}, {"author": "Geoffrey", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/915220054552?comment_id=915235463672&reply_comment_id=915272359732", "anchor": "fb-915235463672_915272359732", "service": "fb", "text": "→ What is stolen by the robber is not public though IIRC, so hands are still not derivable", "timestamp": "1512849355"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/915220054552?comment_id=915235463672&reply_comment_id=915275204032", "anchor": "fb-915235463672_915275204032", "service": "fb", "text": "→ David seems like the rules are consistent with announcing I will trade a sheep for a wheat or a brick and someone saying ok, giving me a face down card that (when I check) does turn out to be one of the two.", "timestamp": "1512850410"}, {"author": "Alexei", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/915220054552?comment_id=915297798752", "anchor": "fb-915297798752", "service": "fb", "text": "My favorite rule to improve that game: let\u2019s play another game!", "timestamp": "1512861481"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/915220054552?comment_id=915297798752&reply_comment_id=915323661922", "anchor": "fb-915297798752_915323661922", "service": "fb", "text": "→ I had felt similarly, but I recently played with some friends from work after not having played the game for ~5y. It was a lot of fun! It reminded me how much I enjoyed the trading and dealmaking, and other games I've been playing recently don't have quite that kind of player interaction.
The state of the art has definitely advanced since Catan came out, and in some circles it's way overplayed, but right now I'd be happy to play a few more games.", "timestamp": "1512875495"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/915220054552?comment_id=915297798752&reply_comment_id=915323736772", "anchor": "fb-915297798752_915323736772", "service": "fb", "text": "→ (though I've generally been gaming much less since having kids, and since buying a house that has needed a lot of work)", "timestamp": "1512875560"}, {"author": "Kiran", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/915220054552?comment_id=915297798752&reply_comment_id=915352788552", "anchor": "fb-915297798752_915352788552", "service": "fb", "text": "→ I concur with Alexei, but I played it only after playing several much more modern games. It was certainly a huge step forward from the roll-and-move that preceded it, while also being highly accessible, but being first and satisfying a lowest common denominator, while very useful, don't necessarily make it good.
We tried a new game \"Empires\" the other night. It plays up to 10(!) and has very simple rules, but allows you to trade anything for anything, including things like your unique player power. We only played a few rounds; I would've happily tried the full game but the guy who brought it thought the other players didn't want to try that. \ud83d\ude1e", "timestamp": "1512902575"}, {"author": "Maxwell", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/915220054552?comment_id=915297798752&reply_comment_id=915472932782", "anchor": "fb-915297798752_915472932782", "service": "fb", "text": "→ Cities and Knights expansion is a nice improvement. After playing that, it's hard to go back to the original because there's just a lot more rolling and waiting around to get some resources to do anything.", "timestamp": "1512968138"}, {"author": "Manoli", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/915220054552?comment_id=915299081182", "anchor": "fb-915299081182", "service": "fb", "text": "How does this rule change interact with the monopoly card? It\u2019s already quite powerful/possibly game winning in some contexts, does it make it substantially better?", "timestamp": "1512862363"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/915220054552?comment_id=915299081182&reply_comment_id=915304934452", "anchor": "fb-915299081182_915304934452", "service": "fb", "text": "→ It makes it a bit better, but people already have a pretty good idea where things are so it's not that much. Especially since people typically combine monopoly with trading away all of some resource they currently have a lot of.", "timestamp": "1512865675"}, {"author": "Andrew", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/915220054552?comment_id=915301501332", "anchor": "fb-915301501332", "service": "fb", "text": "Fundamentally we should ask ourselves: is memory one of the skills that this game is intended to test and challenge? And if not, why would you artificially add a test of memory to it?", "timestamp": "1512863341"}, {"author": "Danner", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/915220054552?comment_id=915424060722", "anchor": "fb-915424060722", "service": "fb", "text": "naa, hidden hands, face down trades, otherwise it feels more like playing against machines.", "timestamp": "1512942242"}]}