4 ms·

I like that the game Set is mentioned. I haven't played in a few years but I've always loved that game. The only problem with it is that for whatever reason som

by eric_h 9y ago

I like that the game Set is mentioned. I haven't played in a few years but I've always loved that game. The only problem with it is that for whatever reason some people are _significantly_ better at it than others (right off the bat; obviously you can get better with practice, playing with a group of relative noobs and having one of them drastically outshine the other can be frustrating for the other).

dahart 9y ago
Set is awesome. And my 6 year old can crush me!
- tomhallett 9y ago
  I'll have to give set a shot. My 3.5 year old (now 4) could consistently beat me and other adults at memory matching games. :)
eru 9y ago
I'm colourblind. I can sort-of distinguish the colours in set, because they still differ in some attributes like brightness, but it takes me much, much longer. And of course some people are better at spatial stuff then other.
- eric_h 9y ago
  Well shit, color blindness would definitely make the game more difficult, but I bet a grayscale version of the game could actually be made to work. > And of course some people are better at spatial stuff then other. Of course. My remark was really that the starting skill level of players can differ so dramatically that some people will literally have no fun at all (because they can't possibly win). I've never come up with a reasonable handicap system to make the game more fun for everyone.
  - jdmichal 9y ago
    Probably best to follow standard guidelines: Don't distinguish anything by color alone. Using color and a pattern within the color would work fine. Figuring out how to make that work with partial fills is another question...
    - eru 9y ago
      Coloretto (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5782/coloretto https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5782/coloretto) is really good at this. For Set, it might not be enough to bridge the gap: being able to differentiate by colour and some pattern might still be faster for a player than relying on pattern alone? (But still better than the status quo.) My vision ain't gray scale. I'm just red-green deficient.
  - glapul 9y ago
    A reasonable handicap system is to allow the better players to take set(s) only if they can take two at once (depending on difficulty, the sets may or may not share a card). Sounded scary at first, but works quite well actually.
  - wes-k 9y ago
    Friend of mine was an ace at it, her handicap was to call "set" as normal but then wait three seconds - allowing others to chime in with "set" and grab it. If her set was still available after the three seconds (no one grabbed it or they grabbed a diff. one) then she got it.
Karrot_Kream 9y ago
I'm terrible at visualizing things and I lose almost every game I play. I've convinced my friends who are good at Set to play a variant based on natural numbers and operations in them, but turns out they're a lot worse at that and it's a lot less fun for them... I think my point is that Set really lends itself to someone with strong visual abilities, and is much much harder for everyone else.
- eric_h 9y ago
  > I've convinced my friends who are good at Set to play a variant based on natural numbers and operations in them I'm curious about this and would like to subscribe to your newsletter ;)
aethertap 9y ago
We like Set, too. We also play a similar game called Qwirkle (played by laying tiles in interlocking groups). Qwirkle is played in turns, so some of that pressure of not being fast enough is eliminated. I play a game with the creative name "make 10" with my kids sometimes that was inspired by Set, except that you have to pick groups of cards that add to 10 (or other numbers, if they're too good at it). My daughter has to find groups of three cards and can use addition and subtraction, and my son just uses addition on groups of two cards. We use regular playing cards with only A-9 included.
edanm 9y ago
Many years ago, when I was first starting a company with 2 other partners, we used to play a few games of Set every lunch. We did this for months, maybe even a year. Needless to say, we got really good. After the initial learning curve of "getting" the rules, it becomes almost entirely a game of memory and recognition. You just remember sets, having seen them so often, that you can almost instantly spot them. It loses a lot of its mathematical shine at this stage, of course, so I consider it less of a mathematical game.

by eric_h 9y ago

dahart 9y ago

Set is awesome. And my 6 year old can crush me!

tomhallett 9y ago
I'll have to give set a shot. My 3.5 year old (now 4) could consistently beat me and other adults at memory matching games. :)

eru 9y ago

I'm colourblind. I can sort-of distinguish the colours in set, because they still differ in some attributes like brightness, but it takes me much, much longer. And of course some people are better at spatial stuff then other.

eric_h 9y ago
Well shit, color blindness would definitely make the game more difficult, but I bet a grayscale version of the game could actually be made to work. > And of course some people are better at spatial stuff then other. Of course. My remark was really that the starting skill level of players can differ so dramatically that some people will literally have no fun at all (because they can't possibly win). I've never come up with a reasonable handicap system to make the game more fun for everyone.
- jdmichal 9y ago
  Probably best to follow standard guidelines: Don't distinguish anything by color alone. Using color and a pattern within the color would work fine. Figuring out how to make that work with partial fills is another question...
  - eru 9y ago
    Coloretto (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5782/coloretto https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5782/coloretto) is really good at this. For Set, it might not be enough to bridge the gap: being able to differentiate by colour and some pattern might still be faster for a player than relying on pattern alone? (But still better than the status quo.) My vision ain't gray scale. I'm just red-green deficient.
- glapul 9y ago
  A reasonable handicap system is to allow the better players to take set(s) only if they can take two at once (depending on difficulty, the sets may or may not share a card). Sounded scary at first, but works quite well actually.
- wes-k 9y ago
  Friend of mine was an ace at it, her handicap was to call "set" as normal but then wait three seconds - allowing others to chime in with "set" and grab it. If her set was still available after the three seconds (no one grabbed it or they grabbed a diff. one) then she got it.

Karrot_Kream 9y ago

I'm terrible at visualizing things and I lose almost every game I play. I've convinced my friends who are good at Set to play a variant based on natural numbers and operations in them, but turns out they're a lot worse at that and it's a lot less fun for them... I think my point is that Set really lends itself to someone with strong visual abilities, and is much much harder for everyone else.

eric_h 9y ago
> I've convinced my friends who are good at Set to play a variant based on natural numbers and operations in them I'm curious about this and would like to subscribe to your newsletter ;)

aethertap 9y ago

We like Set, too. We also play a similar game called Qwirkle (played by laying tiles in interlocking groups). Qwirkle is played in turns, so some of that pressure of not being fast enough is eliminated. I play a game with the creative name "make 10" with my kids sometimes that was inspired by Set, except that you have to pick groups of cards that add to 10 (or other numbers, if they're too good at it). My daughter has to find groups of three cards and can use addition and subtraction, and my son just uses addition on groups of two cards. We use regular playing cards with only A-9 included.

edanm 9y ago

Many years ago, when I was first starting a company with 2 other partners, we used to play a few games of Set every lunch. We did this for months, maybe even a year. Needless to say, we got really good. After the initial learning curve of "getting" the rules, it becomes almost entirely a game of memory and recognition. You just remember sets, having seen them so often, that you can almost instantly spot them. It loses a lot of its mathematical shine at this stage, of course, so I consider it less of a mathematical game.