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.

It’s a mod, but it may as well be a completely new game. It’s a huge revamp that Max has pumped so much time and money into.

Energy could have lost:

• Guide of Souls
• Galvanic Discharge
• Static Prison
• Amped Raptor

And on the non-energy portion of it:

• Ocelot Pride
• Ajani
• Phlage

I guess removing Raptor helps prevent those unwinnable turn 3, turn 4 board states, at least. But getting rid of Phlage would get strip away some of their removal and survivability. Getting rid of Guide of Souls would kinda crush Energy as a deck. Ocelot and Ajani are being left alone because they can still be used in a Boros go-wide deck, at least.

TOR in Legacy feels okay to me, but I don’t play or follow Legacy too much. I feel like Legacy has the answers and counterplay for it, though, no?

Honestly, this feels very well thought-out, and close to an ideal B&R.

Standard is still finding its footing post-Foundations, and it’s a bit too soon to really ban anything there.

Pioneer, I could’ve been happy to see Cruise get banned, but that might be too much of a shakeup after last ban. Jegantha going away feels funny, because almost no decks truly relied on Jegantha as a win condition or anything, but the value of an extra card was just too much, and its Companion condition was just stifling creative builds. In general I’d like to see a bit more variety in midrange decks be viable there (I’m a Gruul Boats player, and that deck has basically vanished over the last year).

Modern needed these bans months ago. One Ring was just too homogenous. Basically every deck that could fit it wanted it. It stalled out games in a way that didn’t feel interactive. Boros Energy definitely needed a check, and I hope Amped Raptor is enough to bring it back down to earth. Could have just as easily been Ajani or Ocelot Pride or Galvanic Discharge, but time will tell. The unbannings seem relatively safe. Opal should open up some affinity decks. GSZ is a big maybe; I don’t know if Yawg would even want it right now. Looting is great. Twin is hilarious, but shouldn’t actually make an impact besides getting old Modern players back into the format.

Legacy needed those bans. The frog was scary good and flexible, and the Bauble just shut down too much in a format where free things are vital.

Overall, just an absolute Christmas gift of a B&R. Hoping to see this improve player turnout at local events.

I’m having a good time with it! If you’re a Marvel fan, it draws from a lot more than just the MCU, and is much better for it in my opinion. If you’re not a Marvel fan, it’s similar to an Overwatch, but with each character playing drastically different from each other. Character complexity can feel like a lot, but it works out in a chaotic, fun way.

Iron Man, my preferred character, has a projectile repulsor blast, a close-range unibeam, perpetual flight, boosters to move quickly (with a recharging meter), a temporary damage buff, rockets that can fire while buffed or while using boosters, and an ultimate bomb. If he’s on the same team as a Bruce Banner/Hulk, then whenever Hulk drops Gamma radiation, Iron Man’s buff is stronger (and green).

On the indy front, I picked up Terra Memoria, and it’s been interesting so far!

Hell Let Loose, I’m assuming. Haven’t played it, but I think it’s a WW2 sim shooter?

I mean, it’s certainly one way to have “flavor of the month” characters without actually having to rebalance things monthly.

A lot of good games can be based on randomness. Being in control of the deck building means that your choices shape the odds. I used to have a similar viewpoint as you, but learned to really embrace randomness and the design challenges it presents.

I say this as a Magic player, where even the greatest players in the world can get screwed or flooded on mana. The possibility of screw/flood increases the importance of card draw/card selection, makes the playability of low-mana cards more important, and makes heavy color pip investment, multiple colors, and higher mana costs a very serious concern.