I do have Asks!
When's the last time a game, digital or physical, made you audibly go "Huh, neat" and what aspect got that reaction
Almost constantly. I'm not yet so jaded that when I look at or engage with a game that doesn't make me do that, and the games that don't do that, tend to make go 'ew' instead.
Most recently on my mind:
- Spicy has cards that vary on two axes; their suit (one of three) or their value (one to ten). While the natural impulse is to make these axes roughly comparable, by making them like that, since it's a bluffing game, the narrow and long suit create different axes on which you can serve a bluff.
- Zoo Vadis gives each player player powers, but only ever lets them be used for other people's benefits. The idea of a game where you can only advance by winning votes, meaning you either want to isolate or team up, but also you can't stay teamed up, is a really good system.
- Moonrakers adds depth to the typical player solitaire of a deck builder by making it so players want to work together to do things, and that is fucking cool, a system I really, really want to use, but I feel like the best use for it is exactly what Moonrakers is.