Webcomics from Semi Co-op

A webcomic about board games and other geeky things.

No System

No System published on 3 Comments on No System

Welcome!

I’ve always played with the idea of starting a webcomic in my head and one evening, Heinze and I just kept spilling great ideas for comics… all about board games we’d played. After doing some research it turned out there are some very good webcomics about boardgames, but there aren’t that many  related to the subject.

So we’re launching this adventure today, on International Tabletop Day, with lots of great and creative ideas which we’d love to share with the world! Enjoy the ride, I’m sure we will.

Disclaimer: We might not actually own as many games as the visual image suggests, but it does express our feeling. We fell in love with board games about two years ago and our collection has grown quite quickly. Up to the point that we had games piled up laying around in our living room, simply because we didn’t know were to put them.

So, which game are you certainly going to play today on International Tabletop Day? 🙂
It's an emergency!

It’s an emergency!

It’s an emergency! published on 5 Comments on It’s an emergency!

Netrunner, I love and hate this card game. The game with runs, stim hacks, hidden agendas, brain and meat damage, bad publicity, advancement tokens, ice breakers and many more terms that belong in the Android universe. It took us more than two weeks before we felt like we started to grasp all the different aspects of the game. And that was only the base set! Expansions and Data Packs soon followed, accompanied by actual deck building. People that actually play Netrunner might reconize the outfits of our characters as the outfits of the runner Exile and Director Haas.

Netrunner is brilliant, ridiculously hard, a little nerve wrecking, but very rewarding in my opinion.

About the comic, this happens quite often. Luckily not the printer part, but people tend to call while we’re playing a game and that can be rather anticlimactic.

This fire is out of control!

This fire is out of control! published on 7 Comments on This fire is out of control!

We like to make music playlists for the games we play for some extra atmosphere. With the playlist we made for Flash Point we were mostly focused on songs that somehow involved the word fire. That resulted in us singing along with the tunes of Electric Six, The Prodigy, Bastille, Johnny Cash, The Bloodhound Gang and many more while trying to save innocent people and preventing the house from collapsing on our heads.

You can find our Flash Point: Fire Rescue playlist over here:
https://play.spotify.com/user/uptonpickman/playlist/3tyaoYPArkTZiWdMlVBoTu

Do you know any good songs we should definitely add to our list?

Hoarding wizards

Hoarding wizards published on 3 Comments on Hoarding wizards

The creators of Seasons use different terms for their ‘ magical’  persons: sorcerers, wizards and magicians – so I don’t want to start a discussion wether a sorcerer is the same as a wizard or not. I just stuck with wizards for this comic. 😉

Seasons is a beautifully illustrated card game that’s playable for 2 to 4 players. The very nice, big and heavy dice which you roll to gain energy tokens, cards, crystals and summoning spots for cards bring a nice variety to the game play. There’s room in the game to get technical and pull off some cool combo’s, but it’s also a game that is easily picked up by beginners thanks to the pre-made card decks.

We like Seasons so much that we swapped it in our 10×10 challenge (play 10 board games for 10 times in one year) after we started it. The game scratches our deeper card game itch, but it doesn’t fully absorb our time … and money. And besides, did I mention the really cool dice and the beautiful artwork? Really, check it out.

Which game do you think is the prettiest of them all?

It’s just a game

It’s just a game published on 14 Comments on It’s just a game

So, last week I participated in my first Netrunner tournament (actually my first game tournament ever!). I’ve only ever played Netrunner against Heinze in the comforts of our home. So this was quite a big step for me.

I find Netrunner a very, very hard and slightly nerve wrecking game. My brain tries to grasp all the possible aspects of the playing field. If this, then that. If this, then that. If this, then that. Endless calculations and mapping of my (and my opponents) possible moves. I had to train myself in making quicker decisions with a timer.

The actual tournament went really well! It was a small casual tournament organised by our local gaming/comic book store Comicasa and only six people participated. Alas, there were no breaks for me between the first rounds, so I ended up playing Netrunner for three hours straight before starting the finals. I think I now know how a runner feels when getting brain damage. That was intense.

But, hurray! I ended up being the winner! 😀
And no, you don’t get to judge me on my choice of card sleeves!

What are your favorite card sleeves? 

Hide your wallet!

Hide your wallet! published on 9 Comments on Hide your wallet!

We both very much enjoy the reviews of Shut up & Sit Down, but they can be quite harmful for our wallets.
I believe that it was their review of Netrunner that sparked our interest and enthusiasm for the game. Also Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective, Dead of Winter and Seasons! And probably some other games as well. The game that is mentioned in this comic is the game Last Will . We haven’t played or bought it yet, thanks to excellent wallet-hiding skills, but it is certainly on our list of games we still like to play one day.

If you have never heard of Shut Up & Sit Down (and you’re interested in board games), you should totally check out their website: http://www.shutupandsitdown.com/. But remember to hide your wallet!

For the people that do know Shut Up & Sit Down:

Which games did you almost immediately buy after seeing the Shut Up & Sit Down review?

Like a box of chocolates

Like a box of chocolates published on 7 Comments on Like a box of chocolates

This comic is about the monster cup in Elder Sign from which you have to randomly pick a monster token when a new monster appears in the game. Pulling out a really strong monster at the wrong moment can really determine the ending of the game. Mostly you just hope that you pull out a Cultist and not something like a High Priest. 😉

Elder Sign is our ‘light version’ of Eldritch Horror. We both love the Lovecraftian setting and the storytelling, but Eldritch Horror just takes a little too long to just pick up and play in the evening when you have to get up at 7 the next morning. Elder Sign is the perfect alternative! And yes, they are completely different games, but sometimes you just want to indulge yourself in the mysterious world of Cthulhu and R’lyeh.

Elder Sign is a game purely based on luck. Although you can increase your chances by adding a red or a yellow die, there is always a possibility that you’ll fail miserably. The game is unpredictable: one time it almost seems too easy, the other… you know you’re going to be devoured by some dark evil Ancient One and his monster buddies within five rounds. In our case that mostly happens when the museum is completely overrun by monsters and multiple dice are locked.

The game is not flawless, but it’s just great fun. 🙂 Unless you really dislike luck-based games, you should check out Elder Sign! If you’re curious: Tabletop has an episode about the game (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh4nSpV2n4k) or try the app (https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/products/elder-sign-omens/).

What is your favorite Lovecraftian board game?

Aww! Can we keep it?

Aww! Can we keep it? published on 3 Comments on Aww! Can we keep it?

In Agricola players can hold one animal in their house as a pet, no matter the size. There is quite a difference between sheep and cattle, so I always love to imagine how it would be for your farmers to actually have these ‘pets’ in their tiny little house.

I’m going to admit that I hate Agricola as much as I love it for its charm and cleverness. This game just really stresses me out because of the limited amount of rounds and the many -many- things you need (and want) to do. I often start out having a game plan, which I then have to diss early on in the game because my family is about to starve or other players have exactly the same game plan.

In the end it’s mostly a game of survival for me and while I’m busy surviving, I’m trying to scramble together as many points as possible along the way. Maybe we just need to play it more regularly or maybe the game and I will never be best buddies. I just experience quite some AP (analysis paralysis) with this game. Speaking of AP, the amazing webcomic TinyWoodenPieces did a comic about that (and Agricola!) this week, check it out!

Agricola was one of the first games we bought at the start of our journey into the wonderful world of board gaming. I’ve never regretted it, Agricola showed us how amazing board games are nowadays.

What’s your opinion of Agricola? Love it or hate it? 

Safety First

Safety First published on 6 Comments on Safety First

I guess most of us board and card game players know this feeling. You can only protect your game up to a certain point, but at least sleeves do help a lot. Playmats are excellent for protecting those pretty art sleeves. 😉

Personally, I’m not a fanatic card sleever, actually I only sleeve the cards with which we play outside of our own house like Netrunner and Star Realms. My biggest problem with sleeving cards of board games, like Pandemic for instance, is that the game doesn’t fit in its box anymore!

I used Magic as an example in this comic because we have thousands of Magic cards laying around in the house (a relic from Heinze’s past!) and the condition of the cards vary from mint to … well, really bad. I’ve played played Magic for a short period and when I bought my first deck, I was basically forced to sleeves for it by a friend of mine. That’s when my younger self discovered that sleeving is serious business.

How serious are you about the protection of your cards?
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