Actualol Newsletter - October 2021 (Patreon)

Hey there perfect patrons,

This month we had a Top 10 Drinking Games with Dr. Ed Hope and I hope to get back together with him at some point to talk about more games we love - let me know if you have any topics you’d like us to cover.

And my Lost Cities video, celebrating one of my favourite two player games of all time. The video was a pleasant success and therefore won’t be the last of this series.

But the next video that I’ve already filmed will be a review of a new game, so keep an eye out for that one. In this month’s newsletter, I’m reviewing three party games that came out recently.

Actual Life

This month we raced through a TV series - 7Up Millennium Generation. It follows the lives of a selection of British people, starting back in 2000 when they were seven years old, and then has checked in with them at ages 14, 21 and 28.

It is a fascinating look at the human condition and how a person changes as they grow older. For us, seeing how their lives have altered, often dramatically, seven years later is more exciting than any cliffhanger HBO can offer, and we demolished the series in no time at all. Every episode is currently available on BBC IPlayer.

It is inspired by the original 7Up series from 1964, which we became obsessed with a couple of years ago. That one is even more thrilling because it spans a much longer period, with the last installment checking in with them at 63 years old. I would highly recommend watching them both. I believe the original is available on Amazon Prime.

Actual Games

PinPoint is a new party game that I’m not planning to talk about on the channel, for two reasons. One, I was paid to consult on the game. Two, because it is a pretty close copy of Wavelength. The trouble is, it does improve on Wavelength.

PinPoint is actually three games in one. But the best game is “1-100”, the game which the designers admit to being inspired by Wavelength. In 1-100, you have a scale such as “Worst Place to Spend a Hangover to Best Place to Spend A Hangover”, and you’re assigned a number from 1 to 100. You then have to give a clue, for example “At church with your family”, and the others have to guess your number based on where they think your clue is on that scale.

In PinPoint you all make your own guess in private then reveal. You get a point if you’re within 10 of the answer, and the closest gets another point. It’s nice to have your own guess, and it’s nice to get so specific with it - because it’s such an amazing moment when someone gets it dead on (and you get a third point). And you don’t get that in Wavelength.

It doesn’t have the spectacle of Wavelength, but it is smaller, cheaper, and with less downtime because you’re never waiting for the other team. If Wavelength didn’t exist, this would be a big hit. It’s hard for me to pick between them, but I do lean towards the original for ethical reasons.

The box also contains two other modes, which involve having opinions about celebrities/fictional characters, and they aren’t nearly as fun. (They didn’t take my consultation feedback on board!). But there is a variant to make one of them a game about having opinions about each other, which is good to play with close friends. They’re not strong enough to buy on their own, but do have some value, hence them tagging along for the ride.

Snakesss is a striking concept - a trivia game with hidden traitors. And designed by Phil Walker-Harding of Sushi Go and Barenpark fame.

Each round you’re all assigned a hidden role. The humans want to get the right answer. The snakes want the humans to pick the wrong answer.

You are presented with a multiple choice question that you won’t know the answer to - “Which is there more of?”  - Dimples on a Golf Ball, Islands in Fiji, or episodes of Happy Days.

But the Snakesss get a chance to secretly see the answer. Then you discuss. The humans will get more points if they all get it right, so it’s in their interest to talk it out. But the Snakes will be trying to lean them towards the wrong answer.

One player is the Mongoose of Truth, they also want the right answer, and their role is public so the other humans know they can trust them.

It provokes some fun discussions and plenty of accusations. And honestly it works so much better than I expected it would.

But, the appeal didn’t last beyond two games. Often the rounds can be let down by the questions and their fake answers, which either make it too hard or easy for the snakes to persuade the humans towards. And it’s generally hard to get a grasp of anything as a human when the questions are designed so that no-one will ever really know - and so you tend to start meta-gaming “is this too much of a red herring”, which gets repetitive.

I think that as a student I would have loved a game like this, and would have played it to death. But now my eyes are open to all the other wonderful social deduction games and something like Insider/Werewords holds up to more rigour.

In Doodle Dash you are trying to draw something as fast as possible. The guesser closes their eyes, and you’re all racing to draw the same word. The first person to finish grabs the gold baton. The second player to finish starts rolling the dice as fast they can, and when they roll the stop symbol the other players all have to stop drawing.

The guesser will look at the fastest drawing first, and only gets one guess to get it right. Which is tough because it’s the most rushed drawing of them all. If they’re wrong, they will look at the second fastest drawing and try again. If they’re wrong again, they look at all the other player’s drawings.

If the guesser gets it right from your drawing, you both score a point. So you won’t get a chance to score if the guesser gets it right before yours. This is my friend Tom’s drawing for “Gingerbread House”, that somehow Serena got right on the first guess.

Doodle Dash is simple and fun, it totally works. My friends really liked it, but I wasn’t as keen. The rushed drawing challenge is done better in Scribble Time (aka Picto Rush) and Doodle Rush. And personally, I think it’s more fun to take some time over a drawing, for the challenge to be “how to communicate” not “how fast can you draw”.

New Arrivals:

• Bad Company
• Dinosaur World
• Witchstone

Games I’ve Been Enjoying:

• Sobek: 2 Players (on Board Game Arena)
• Carcasonne: Hunters and Gatherers

Song of the Month: Silk Chiffon - MUNA feat. Phoebe Bridgers

Video of the Month: Hamish and Andy - Better Than An Orgasm

Now Watching: 28Up Millenium Generation

Wishing you an auspicious autumn,

Actually Yours,

Jon