25
votes
Accepted
Was it ever possible to target a zone?
The printed text of Circu, Dimir Lobotomist says "target library". The same rules update that changed the rule you quoted also errata'd that card to say "target player's library".
- 80.9k
23
votes
Accepted
What are the reasons behind naming the "community chest" and "chance" cards in Monopoly?
Community Chest is named from the original Atlantic City version of Monopoly.
In Atlantic City, the Community Chest was a welfare organisation. Therefore, Community Chest cards are more likely than ...
- 581
21
votes
Accepted
Which games have ever been rated #1 on Boardgamegeek.com's Geek Rating?
Strangely, Wikipedia had this information:
Paths of Glory (August 19, 2001 - February 20,2002)
Tigris and Euphrates (February 20, 2002 - 2002)
Puerto Rico (2002 - August 2008)
Agricola (...
- 7,785
21
votes
Is there an equivalent of Deep Blue in the Go world?
AlphaGo
Now there is AlphaGo by Deep Mind, a company recently bought by Google playing currently a match against 9p Lee Sedol. It is the Deep Blue of Go.
EDIT: The final result of the match of five ...
- 1,197
19
votes
Accepted
Why are the pips on dice organized the way they are?
This is a really interesting question and just spent last hour googling around for various thoughts.
The first thing is why pips and not numbers. This is because the invention of dice predates the ...
- 10.5k
17
votes
What exactly was so broken about Urza's Block?
I played during combo winter. Some of the responses are good, but a couple issues. For example, when Urza's Saga was printed, 5th Edition was the Standard core set. So no one ran Grim Monolith; it ...
- 171
14
votes
Why is Royal Flush ever listed separately from Straight Flush?
There are a number of different hands that have a specific name. For example, A-2-3-4-5 is called a Wheel. The Royal Flush obviously gets its name from being the highest hand, and specifically having ...
- 10.8k
12
votes
Which games have ever been rated #1 on Boardgamegeek.com's Geek Rating?
If you scrape all the versions of the current browse page on archive.org (that's sorted by geek rating, right?), you get this:
2009-02-05 Agricola (2007)
2010-04-07 Puerto Rico (2002)
2010-11-05 ...
- 26.9k
12
votes
Accepted
Did the first version of Ticket to Ride released in Europe have a USA map or a Europe map?
The German Wikipedia article is pretty clear on this.
Name | Erscheinungsjahr | Spielplan
| (Publication Year) | (Board Map)
-----------------------------------------...
- 334
10
votes
Accepted
How would casting a Lightning Bolt in response to Giant Growth work in early Magic?
This depends on what era of the game you reference:
Pre-Sixth Edition (1993-1999), which used the batch.
Sixth Edition (1999) and onwards, which introduced the stack.
Your question referenced the ...
- 24.5k
9
votes
Accepted
Why did Yu-Gi-Oh! change from an unlimited deck size to a 60 card maximum deck size?
If Reddit is to be believed, there was a person at a German regional tournament who thoroughly abused this by bringing a deck with 2222 cards (enough for about 740 cards with 3 duplicates each). To ...
- 8,550
8
votes
Accepted
What's the "biggest change we've ever made" in Magic?
This was to do with Vision design (see podcast #495 and #496) and the introduction of the design play team. There's an article here where Maro talks about it from October of 2017.
It's a very ...
- 424
8
votes
Accepted
Can anyone provide a citation for the existence of pre-alpha MTG rules about an initiative stat in combat?
Mark Rosewater, Magic's lead designer, says it's not true that such a mechanic existed. He began working with Wizards of the Coast in 1995 (the game launched in late 1993) and has been the game's lead ...
- 24.5k
8
votes
Accepted
What was the effect of AlphaGo on Go?
I've read a couple of articles discussing the impact of AI on professional Go, the second one being a reply to the first one:
Impact of Go AI on the professional Go world
Impact of Go AI on the ...
- 196
7
votes
Accepted
What land destruction enabler was wrongfully banned in the early history of Magic: the Gathering?
Dingus Egg was banned once upon a time, and it does 2 damage to the land's controller when a land is put into the graveyard from play. A few of these do a lot of damage per land, I've seen it in a few ...
- 14k
7
votes
Why isn't "Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small" called "Agricola: All Creatures Great and Small"?
I am almost certain this is a UK / US difference. Specifically, I believe it was named this way because of a marketing decision by the US publisher.
Research:
Although Agricola's creator is Uwe ...
- 1,200
7
votes
Accepted
Vintage Monopoly Game: What Year is it?
If the box looks like the images below, I'd say it's from the 1950's which is when all the mentions of a board with that trademark number appear to be dated. I've found examples estimated at 1955 and ...
- 17.9k
7
votes
Accepted
Why is Modern Affinity called "Affinity"?
The answer is #3. i.e. There was a deck long ago, that exploited affinity. That deck has slowly changed over the years as the card pool has changed. As those changes have occurred, the original ...
- 5,479
7
votes
Accepted
What are the origins and evolutionary track of the Dominion game?
I don't think you will be able to find an actual published book on the subject, but the creator of Dominion, Donald X Vaccarino, has written multiple articles about the subject. They are published on ...
- 74k
6
votes
How many different variations/editions of Monopoly are there?
It depends on how you define "variations" of the game. At this moment the monopoly wiki has 1144 versions of the game, but it includes fictional editions (Monopoly Capitol City Edition from the ...
- 419
6
votes
Accepted
Board games sponsored for an agenda?
[Note: This answer focuses on the history of this subject, citing some famous examples, as opposed to contemporary propagandistic games, which I have no doubt exist, although I can't comment on the ...
- 541
6
votes
Was it ever possible to target a zone?
After posting the question, I continued my Google search, and came across this forum post that seems to have the answer.
In addition to change change in 114.2 (now 115.2), 114.1 was also updated from:...
- 74k
5
votes
Board games sponsored for an agenda?
Very unlikely
It is impossible to prove a negative, especially one regarding anonymity, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is unlikely to have happened.
There have definitely been ...
- 8,550
5
votes
What board game was found in this Viking tomb?
The game is most likely Hnefatafl, the ancestor of a family of derivative modern games referred to as tafl games. Hnefatafl was the most popular board game in early-Medieval Europe, having accompanied ...
- 11.8k
5
votes
What is the Goods Station referred to in Scotland Yard
I believe it might refer to Bishopsgate, it was used as a goods (freight) station, near Shoreditch in Londons East End. ( I'm an old Cockney.)
- 81
5
votes
Why are the pips on dice organized the way they are?
Rotation Invariance
The reason the pips are configured in the pattern they are is so they look the same no matter what angle you're looking at them, as much as possible. This is called rotation ...
- 159
5
votes
Accepted
Was Backgammon played in ancient Rome?
While old, we can pretty conclusively say that Backgammon itself was never played by the Romans. Backgammon is a relatively recent iteration belonging to the Tables family of games, the oldest within ...
- 5,027
4
votes
Do any precolumbian board games survive?
After reading this article I could find several references to games played during the precolumbian era.
For some of them the rules are unknown but here is the list (to be completed) :
Patolli ...
- 475
4
votes
First game board to use hexagonal tiles?
One possible answer could be the game Agon (sometimes called "Queen's Guards" or "Royal Guards"). I ran across a reference to the game in the book "A world of chess: its development and variations ...
- 41
4
votes
Where did Interrupts in Alpha & Beta Magic Editions end?
Wizards have been kind enough to make available the transcript of a rulebook from the first era of Magic here. Among other things, it details the card types.
Instants: An instant can be played at any ...
- 5,773
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible