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I was in my local Value Village the other day, and I decided to drop $5 on this: (Don't mind my dirty socks.) The Game of Life has been around, in name at least, since 1860, but the game as we know it was first published in 1960. It's gone through some iterations over the years - different boards, corporate tie-ins, electronic gizmos - but this is about as close to the version I played as a youth as I'm going to get without dropping $35 on a 50th anniversary repro edition.  And it even has all the pieces! Well, it's shy a few people pegs, but there are still more than enough to play a full six-player game.  Which is what we're going to do! I've got the board all set up and the cards, tiles, money, and plastic bits all sorted. All I need now is a half-dozen players... which is where you come in.  If you're interested in playing, pick a car (first-come, first-served on color, though if someone takes the one you want, you can always challenge them to bare-knuckle boxing or something) and a meeple (sadly, The Game of Life is gender-normative, but if you self-identify as a dolphin, I don't care - just pick pink or blue). Also, give me a last name for the family you'll soon be forming. Once I have six players, we'll get started!
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Feb 14, 2018 20:32
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 06:38 |
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Red car. Blue meeple. I live life in the fast lane. Last name, eh, I'll go with Straggle because it's the greatest fantasy last name I've ever made up.
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Feb 14, 2018 20:40
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Man. Levensweg was a staple in my childhood for boardgames. I wonder why we stopped playing it way back when, though? It takes for-loving-ever, is why. Blue car, please, blue meeple. And jot down Dee because I have actually also used that as a character last name in two separate RPG campaigns; it works here, too.
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Feb 14, 2018 20:57
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Alright, sure, this sounds like a fun time. Green car, blue meeple. My family will be Conway, because that's what I first thought of when I read the title.
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Feb 14, 2018 22:15
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Gimme an orange car and a blue meeple. Last name Onions because it's the best name I ever saw on a credit card.
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Feb 14, 2018 23:06
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White car, blue peg-person please. Let's roll with the McAllister family because  Also this is the crappy modern version isn't it. My parents used to have the OG version but yard sales happened.
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Feb 14, 2018 23:29
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i will take a yellow car with a pink meeple, spreading the love of the radcliffe name bitch i will roll in the flashiest car and all yall haters can vacate
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Feb 14, 2018 23:32
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This is going to be fun to watch. Good luck to you six players.
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Feb 14, 2018 23:39
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 BEHOLD THE RADMOBILE
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Feb 14, 2018 23:41
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Coolguye posted:
The midlife crisis is supposed to hit later in the game.......
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Feb 14, 2018 23:57
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it's not my fault most people only care about being RAD after they're old Raquel Radcliffe is RAD from her birth  this is her daddy
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Feb 15, 2018 00:06
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Bud "The Spud" Straggle was a legendary knight in the faraway fantasy world of Blandland, until one day an evil warlock cast a spell to doom his world to ruin. In order to save Blandland, Bud is tasked by an ancient sorceress to undergo the most daunting of trials: survive a lifetime in the modern 20th century Earth. Many have tried and all succumbed to despair and anguish no mere mortal could ever hope or wish to comprehend. Can Bud pass the impossible challenge and bring peace to his kingdom, or at least spin a drat 10 come on dammit not another 2 is this thing busted or something?
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Feb 15, 2018 00:19
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Missed out on the last spot because I was at the local boardgame night. Oh the irony.  Oh well, good luck to all involved. I will be following along for nostalgia's sake. What update schedule are you aiming for OP?
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Feb 15, 2018 02:17
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Mega64 posted:Bud "The Spud" Straggle was a legendary knight in the faraway fantasy world of Blandland, until one day an evil warlock cast a spell to doom his world to ruin. In order to save Blandland, Bud is tasked by an ancient sorceress to undergo the most daunting of trials: survive a lifetime in the modern 20th century Earth. Many have tried and all succumbed to despair and anguish no mere mortal could ever hope or wish to comprehend. Can Bud pass the impossible challenge and bring peace to his kingdom, or at least spin a drat 10 come on dammit not another 2 is this thing busted or something? Ooo, I like this. I'd already planned to spice things up a bit by asking the players questions about their little largely-blue pegs, but it seems you've beat me to it! Pea posted:What update schedule are you aiming for OP? 'As I have time', really. At least a couple of times on weekdays. Weekends are iffier, because I work weird hours. Anyway, let's get started. The ultimate goal of The Game of Life is to retire with the most cash. To this end, there are several things you can do on your turn. You can do any and all of the following:
Since this is your first turn, though, there are a few things that need to be sorted out. First is turn order. I put your names in the virtual hat and came out with the order TheMcD, Coolguye, Bellmaker, Lizard Wizard, Mega64, and Dinictus. Next, you each get $10,000. Last, but definitely not least, you have to decide your starting path.  (Don't mind my legs. Or those socks that really should go in the laundry basket.) There are two paths you can take at the beginning of the game: Start a Career, or Start College. There are two key differences between the two. One is that college is expensive; you take out an $100,000 loan right away, which means you'll owe $125,000 at the end of the game. (e: I've since been corrected that the $100,000 goes straight to tuition. You don't get to spend it.) The other is that going to college gives you much better options when it comes to your Career.  There are nine Careers in the game. Two of them (Accountant and Doctor) require a degree, while the other seven each have a special ability. (I'll cover what's so good about the Accountant and Doctor Careers shortly.) Each card has a special symbol on it as well. Some of the spaces on the board also have these symbols, and if you land on them, you have to pay a certain amount to the bank - but if someone has the Career with the matching symbol, you give the money to them instead. (That's what's so good about the Accountant card - they collect every time someone has to pay taxes!) Each Career card also has two color stripes, one on either side of the special symbol. These are their Salary colors. When you're choosing a Salary, you're restricted to Salary cards of one of those two colors. (That's what's so good about the Doctor card - they're the only one with a yellow stripe!) So how do you get a Career and a Salary, you ask? Well, if you choose to skip school, it's simple. On your first turn, before moving, you randomly draw Career cards until you find one that doesn't need a degree. If you go to college, though, once you reach the red Career Choice space, you stop (even if you had spaces remaining on that spin), then randomly draw three Career cards and choose the one you want. In either event, you then draw Salary cards until you find one with a color that matches one of yours. So going to college is good... but it doesn't guarantee you'll get that Doctor card or the $100,000 Salary card that could potentially come with it. And it puts you $125,000 in the hole compared to anyone who doesn't go. Which means I need TheMcD to answer a couple of questions. (The rest of you don't have to answer right this second, but the sooner I get your answers, the sooner I can process your turn.)
FredMSloniker fucked around with this message at 02:43 on Feb 16, 2018 |
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Feb 15, 2018 02:22
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Bud's been doing the childhood stage for eighteen years and he's tired of being bossed around by his virtual parents. He's jumping to Career. No optional stuff. Bud's still haunted by the time he wet his pants in front of his entire sixth-grade class during his book report on The Official Pac-Man Strategy Guide. To this day this memory haunts him, even moreso than witnessing his father's death at the hands of the Silver Wyrm of Water Creek.
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Feb 15, 2018 10:13
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Looking at the first tiles, there's a small chance to end up having to pay 5000 if you don't have car insurance which costs twice that amount. Presumably there will be more of them later. 
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Feb 15, 2018 13:31
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Poil posted:Looking at the first tiles, there's a small chance to end up having to pay 5000 if you don't have car insurance which costs twice that amount. Presumably there will be more of them later. In the event you have to pay more than you have cash on hand, you must take out enough loans to afford to do so. As for car accidents, yes, there are enough of those that car insurance is a good idea, if you're unlucky. TheMcD, I'm waiting for your move.
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Feb 15, 2018 18:02
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Yeah, I just got home from work. Having the update post at 2 AM my time means it might be a bit before I get to it. 1) Let's college it up. Going for the big bucks. 2) No optional stuff. I'm already in debt, so let's not make it worse. 3) Conway had the bad fortune of spending his childhood somehow constantly getting roped into strange social experiments. By the time he was 13, he'd already gone through a remake of the Stanford prison experiment which saw at least one person die, a remake of the Robbers Cave Experiment which saw at least one person die, and a live-action version of the trolley problem where he was part of the five people that would die if the lever wasn't pulled. The lever was pulled, though the screams still haunt him. As a result, Conway has a chronic hatred of anybody involved in the field of psychology and has grown increasingly paranoid of anybody offering him anything, be it exciting work opportunities or trips to other places.
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Feb 15, 2018 18:24
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TheMcD posted:Yeah, I just got home from work. Having the update post at 2 AM my time means it might be a bit before I get to it. Not a problem! Just wanted to make sure you didn't miss that it was your turn. Mr. Conway chooses to Start College, so I give him $100,000 in cash and $100,000 in student loan cards. Then it's time to spin the spinner  Ouch. Not an auspicious start. Turn order:
Coolguye, you're up. (Other folks can feel free to pre-load their first move. I've got Mega64's already.)
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Feb 15, 2018 19:23
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(skips next turn)
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There seem to be so many versions of this game. The version I got seems to be very similar to this one (except the language). The differences I've spotted so far is that only the police career has the special ability (the other special abilities are non-existant, and as a compensation there's only one police tile on the whole board), and the salary colors don't exist either, any career can get any salary. The main reason to do college in my version is because the doctor and accountant get extra perks on board tiles. I know that my uncle has a way different version. I am not sure of its rules (as far as I remember they are quite different) but what I do know is that the spinner has a sort of thing to the side where you can put flags in which represent the stocks you own. So there's no separate stock cards, there's these flags that go on the board. Does that version sound familiar to anyone?
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Feb 15, 2018 19:51
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1) Go to college. 2) Buy a stock with my opening money. If I get to choose, I'll take lucky 7. If not, whatever's fine. 3) Raquel's attitude toward life is simple: Be the most radical cat around. Precisely what this means seems to change with her moods and the times, but one can be assured that shades and sick dirtbike stunts will always be part of it. Despite the showy tendency, she shows a particular thoughtfulness and deliberate resolve to be more awesome over time, and keeps the original schedule of Benjamin Franklin in her bathroom to remind herself of the ultimate questions in life, and the persistent effort required to answer them. What good shall I do this day? Whatever it is, it will be awesome.
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Feb 15, 2018 20:02
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Carbon dioxide posted:There seem to be so many versions of this game. these are just older and older versions of the game. Life gets reworked every couple of years because it's worked its way into the popular zeitgeist and is very family friendly.
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Feb 15, 2018 20:12
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Raquel Radcliffe heads to College! After assuming some crippling debt, she spends half her student loan on stock #7 (yes, you get to choose the number) and spins the spinner. Bummer. College textbooks are a huge ripoff. Ah well! Turn order:
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Feb 15, 2018 20:29
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THEY ARE A REQUIRED INVESTMENT IN YOUR FUTURE RADNESS also fun fact since this jives with the benny j fluff: benjamin franklin, for all of his apprenticeship as a printer, was a vegetarian and a teetotaler! he would occasionally talk about how it was healthier, but ultimately he admitted he just didn't want to spend a lot of money on food or beer because he had a ton of books he wanted to read, and those bitches were EXPENSIVE.
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Feb 15, 2018 20:33
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every so often when I see a Game of Life boardgame I get very confused by the aesthetic since the version we had in my house was either a first edition or a second edition. It really looks like it came out of the '60s
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Feb 15, 2018 22:15
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Wait you actually gave out the 100k from the student loans to do whatever with? I don't think that's right. I'm pretty sure you just get the debt, not the cash, otherwise that's super busted.
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Feb 15, 2018 22:32
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:Wait you actually gave out the 100k from the student loans to do whatever with? I don't think that's right. I'm pretty sure you just get the debt, not the cash, otherwise that's super busted. The rules I have say 'Borrow $100,000 from the bank'. You have to pay $125,000 back at the end of the game, so you're $25,000 down from anyone who doesn't go to college, and there's still no guarantee that you'll get a high-paying job (though the odds are better).
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Feb 15, 2018 22:43
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Yeah it says "borrow $100,000 from the bank for tuition" I am certain you just get the debt because the money goes to paying for college.
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Feb 15, 2018 22:52
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100 HOGS AGREE posted:Yeah it says "borrow $100,000 from the bank for tuition" I am certain you just get the debt because the money goes to paying for college. Hm. On reflection, I see your point. However, since three people have already made moves based on my reading of the rules...  TheMcD, Coolguye, and Mega64: should we play the game in this way? And, if so, do you want to change what you did with your turn? (Coolguye, if not, you'll need to take out additional loans to cover the cost of the stock and your books.)
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Feb 15, 2018 22:57
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Usually when a rules question pops up for a board game, BoardGameGeek is my go-to for clarifications. Sadly this was the only relevant thread I could find and it pretty much comes to the same consensus as 100 HOGS AGREE. So I vote No $100k on hand since it has already been spent. Not changing anything on my end, either, Straggle doesn't see the point of fancy book-learnin' when he lives by the Way of the Sword.
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Feb 15, 2018 23:03
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hrm. the OG versions it was just straight out 100k debt (not 125k payback later, just 100k that was deducted from your score at the end of the game). i figured they'd since changed that since from a game theory perspective college gave you no benefit whatsoever; it was literally always better to go straight to work, since no salary protections meant the better chances for better pay you got relative to other players was very marginal. the calculation in this game is substantially more complicated due to the colors associated with the salaries - complicated enough that i don't think i care enough to hash it through. this reading of the rules is more in line with the OG rules so i'm inclined to play it as 100 HOGS points out. that said, do note that us college sorts don't start broke. i had 10k to start out with, and can pay for my books in liquid cash. i note that you seem to have a 5k chit under my 50k chit in the last update post though so i'm likely lecturing the choir. i will hold off on buying a stock, though. that would be effectively bargaining on two 7s showing up before i can get my first pay day or two, which is a fairly low odds deal.
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Feb 15, 2018 23:22
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Rules clarifications after play starts, the true way to enjoy board games.
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Feb 15, 2018 23:24
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it wasn't THAT long after
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Feb 15, 2018 23:34
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I'm going to go ahead and revert my inadvertent house rule so Bellmaker can consider his turn. However, I still need TheMcD to let me know if he wants to re-do his turn; if he does, I'll re-spin. e: also, updated turn order, assuming TheMcD doesn't want to make any changes:
FredMSloniker fucked around with this message at 23:52 on Feb 15, 2018 |
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Feb 15, 2018 23:43
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Interesting. I always interpreted it as saying you get to spend the $100000. I guess part of the reason is that the game never seems to 'want' anyone getting in debt, it's not Monopoly. So I assumed it was to pay for the tiles that happen before your first payday. Especially because over here in Europe college is way cheap if not free, and students get loans to cover the costs of buying books and food and paying dorm rent. So for me it makes absolute sense that you get to spend that on whatever.
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Feb 16, 2018 07:34
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I don't need to make any changes. Just roll with it.
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Feb 16, 2018 07:36
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Hold up.  Zoom and enhance...   How many computers are you upgrading for $10,000?
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Feb 16, 2018 07:45
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nine-gear crow posted:Hold up.  Carbon dioxide posted:Interesting. I always interpreted it as saying you get to spend the $100000. I guess part of the reason is that the game never seems to 'want' anyone getting in debt, it's not Monopoly. So I assumed it was to pay for the tiles that happen before your first payday. the thing basically is that loans in this game, since they have static interest, ostensibly make sense any time you can ensure you're going to get more than 5k in return for a 20k expenditure. this one hundred percent requires the players to have relatively little agency in spending money, because if there was a way to ensure this return it would be ideal to take as many loans as possible in order to press that money button as many times as possible. so as an example, if you could own more than one stock, the ideal opening play in a 6 player game would be to borrow 460k from the bank and buy all 9 stocks on the first turn. that way, literally every time someone spins the wheel you have a 90% chance to get 10k. this means that as long as you can expect (575/.9)/10 ~=> 638.8 / 10 => 63.88 (round to 64) turns, you can expect to make a return that's worth it. with 6 players in the game you will statistically be making money by the 11th full round of the game. the expected movement per turn is optimistically 6 (since it's 1*.1 + 2*.1 + ... 10*.1 => 5.5 round to 6) so you can expect this to return money if the shortest path to the end on the board is 66 spaces or more. now, the precise number of spaces varies from version to version of the game, but to my knowledge it has never been less than 120. as such, just changing one little rule to give someone a bit more agency over how they spend their money and the debt rules go completely out of control. but on the flip side, if you place a limit on debt or something of that nature to discourage using your agency that way, it's possible someone could get put into an unworkable situation before they get to the end of the board, which doesn't jive with a family friendly game where everyone can win.  game theory is fun
Coolguye fucked around with this message at 09:26 on Feb 16, 2018 |
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Feb 16, 2018 09:24
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Game rules state you can only buy one stock per turn.
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Feb 16, 2018 13:22
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| # ? Apr 19, 2024 06:38 |
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Carbon dioxide posted:I know that my uncle has a way different version. I am not sure of its rules (as far as I remember they are quite different) but what I do know is that the spinner has a sort of thing to the side where you can put flags in which represent the stocks you own. So there's no separate stock cards, there's these flags that go on the board. Does that version sound familiar to anyone? i.e. Pick two numbers with the flags, spin the wheel and if your number came up, you won big. My version also didn't have college loans. As a result, we hardly ever had to take out any loans. 1 loan at best if you were really unlucky and absolutely wanted to buy stocks or status symbols. College was just a longer track than business with different careers having fixed spaces and salaries for doctor/journalist/attorney/teacher/physicist/dude(tte) with useless degree*. *: the true horror of going to college: Spinning 7-8 and spinning 5+ on your second turn. You'd graduate without a career and earn less after college than you would if you just went into business. nine-gear crow posted:How many computers are you upgrading for $10,000? 
Pea fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Feb 16, 2018 |
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Feb 16, 2018 14:39
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