Upon reading the initial announcement, I was cautiously optimistic. After seeing the CES demo, though, I think it will be a load of fun for kids as is.

Ultimately, though, I think how well it will do will be heavily impacted by how hackable it is. It will eventually be hacked, of that I have no doubt - it’s just a matter of how easy and how cheap it is to do. If they used common standards for NFC & the data contained onboard the tags, we might see these used pretty regularly in MOCs - imagine a train layout that plays different sounds and displays different lights as a train moves through a town, GBC modules that react to modified balls with tags in them, or MOCs that add simple movement as a means of triggering custom nature sounds.

Currently rereading The Exiled Queen, the second in Cinda Williams Chima’s Seven Realms series (one of my favorites). I read the first just before Christmas, then took a detour to read one of my Christmas presents - Symphony of the Sojourn by Rowan Alexandria Bennett, which I positively adored. It’s been a really good few weeks of reading, and I’m looking forward to continuing the Seven Realms, and then the follow up series - The Shattered Realms - after that.

My reading goal for the year is to actually track the books I read, so I can look back at the end of the year and actually remember what I read. I’ve downloaded the StoryGraph app to that end, now I just have to remember to use it…

Swampert - I love my big, mudskippin’ boy. Also, mega Swamper just makes him more ridiculous

Pyroar and Noivern, in case you are curious

I’ve had good luck with Amazing Tales. It’s very rules light, but has a lot of good set up for all sorts of different adventures - fantasy, sci-fi, Western, pirate, etc. My 6 year old has loved it. I also really want to try No Thank You, Evil, but haven’t picked it up yet.

A bunch of the sets (I think the whole first wave) have been at 30% - 40% off for the last few weeks, and appear to still be available if you’re interested.

I also backed it. It seemed like a good system to try with my son.

If you wanted to allow customization but without user accounts, you could just store all that data in a cookie on the user’s machine. Just make sure you put clear warnings about how the data is stored and what will be gone if they delete the cookie

This is anything but simple. The LEGO build was very complex (and entertaining), and leaves almost no room for electronics. The person that is doing this had to make an entirely custom circuit board that fits just behind the inserted game, and working buttons will only come with custom printed bricks.

That being said, I’m still really pumped to see this become real. The build has easily become one of my absolute favorites, and being able to actually play it will just make it that much cooler.

Yes. Ironsworn is designed to be run either split or co-op without a GM (although it does have additional bits if you want to run with a GM). I recently just started my first game - haven’t gotten very far into it, though.

I’m in the middle of the Creator 3-in-1 dragon. All I have left to finish on the main model is the wings. Naturally, after that I’ll disassemble the whole thing and start on the sea serpent model

If that’s the case, then I would suggest looking at City, Friends or Creator sets, or doing what @[email protected] suggests.

I would actually recommend starting with something from the Classic theme - there’re a lot of really great sets that are essentially a bunch of varied pieces with some great build ideas. Much more cost effective than pick-a-brick (which is generally much better when you’re looking for specific pieces for a planned build).

https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/classic

Stunning! Well done!

How do you feel about it? Was it a fun project? Are you excited to have it finished, or sad to be done?

You’re only as old as you feel!

Ugh. Typo - was supposed to be “remakes” but I wasn’t awake enough to proofread

I think I have to give it to Heart Gold, though it’s not an easy choice. Those remakes just really captured the spirit of the original but with all of the improvements to the format that has been made since. It’s a fantastic game to replay.

In fact, my oldest kid and I are making our way through Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee right now, and after we finish we’ll be moving to Heart Gold and Soul Silver. I’m really excited to walk through every generation with him, but that duo is the one I’m looking forward to most.

I believe you mean “borb”

I finished up Terry Pratchett’s Equal Rights the other day, and have moved on to Mort. As much as I enjoyed Equal Rights,I think Mort takes the title of my favorite so far. Lots to read yet, though, so we’ll see if it gets displaced

If you want something simple, you could try Peril in Pinebrook. It was designed to be used in schools to teach kids to play. It uses a much simplified set of rules and pre-generated characters. I’m going to be using it with my family in a few weeks