Re: OT: Bruce Geryk's other choice
 

this looks interesting, but I haven't been able to track down the Mac version, even though I've read that there is one.

Anyone know where I can pick up a Mac demo?

Re: OT: Bruce Geryk's other choice
 

Funny, I ran across the game on a website today and thought that it looked interesting just from the thumbnail screenshots. The card thing killed it for me, though, given the year of release it seems to me that it was trying to cash in on the popularity of Trading Card Games prevalent in the big boom of them during that time.

Re: OT: Bruce Geryk's other choice
 

Here is "a" Mac Demo, probably horribly out of date:

http://www.macgamefiles.com/detail.php?item=19036

Re: OT: Bruce Geryk's other choice
 

I don't run a mac, but I know that at least one long-time player of SC does. I think his handle is mattness, if you register on the SC boards (http://forums.station.sony.com/strat...w.m?forum_id=3) you could PM him or simply post asking for help. You'll probably get a reply within 24 hours.
It's a niche game and its current publisher, Sony Online, does nothing to help get it noticed, so I don't know where to find the mac software.

I've been playing this game for 6 months now, and I still feel that I'm a newbie. While the game is easier to learn than Dominions is, I have found it surprisingly harder to get good at. It is hard to describe why; I think it has something to do with the fact that there are 3 truly distinct victory conditions and with the unique combination of the possibilities, contingencies and interconnections between spells (card play) and the map; it really *is* a hybrid boardgame / card game, and the board game by no means comes up short. In Dominions, you have billions and billions of possible things to do; in SC, the sheer number of entities and their possible actions are smaller, but it's the way that these entities interact with their environment (the "board") that make the possibilities at times surprising. I think that's what I like most about this game: I still get surprised every game. In Dominions, I feel like the leader of a huge army, and careful planning will normally keep me on the track I want to go on; Dominions does a perfect job of giving me command of huge armies with boundless amounts of "stuff" to do with them. Yet I am rarely surprised; at least, much less so than in SC. In Dominions, I find the end-game to be, at times, while not necessarily tedious, than at least often less than exciting or surprising, or at least not nail-biting. In SC, at least half the games involve great surprises, and that is also because the 3 victory conditions really are distinct -- and unlike games such as Civilization, it is hard to see far ahead who is going for what and when they can reach their goal. The good thing which can be said about this is that new players can ask veterans to handicap themselves by playing with extremely limited amounts and power of spells (cards in hand); I still get beaten regularly.

Re: OT: Bruce Geryk's other choice
 

I played Star Chamber a couple years ago. 02/2006 according to a search of my gmail account. Also revealed my login and password. Gonna have to fire this up and have another go.

I didn't play back then for very long. Even in '06 it was hard to consistently find an even match except at prime time. And I lost quite often. It was a really good game though.

Re: OT: Bruce Geryk's other choice
 

I got a request to put the link to the Star Chamber Mac client....

http://homepage.mac.com/mattness/starchamber/

there it is.

Good luck and see you in the Mezz.
Cheers
sox