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Fat Samurai posted:It does have a good tutorial, so yeah, you can learn from that. 4 inches is pretty cramped, but workable. For comparision, it has a bit more room than Le Havre on an iPhone. Just realized that's an older version. Boardgamegeek has the latest version: http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/4475/leastmr8pdf Also, I should mention that another great way to learn Magic Realm is by using Realmspeak, a Java app that faithfully reproduces the rules of Magic Realm. The full Magic Realm rules can be found here: http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/102943/magic-realm-31-rules-enhanced Finally, there are two alternate rules sets that I haven't used personally but have heard recommended by others: The Magic Realm Tutorial Project and Magic Realm in Plain English.
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Jan 20, 2015 20:27
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Tekopo posted:This is incredibly funny to me because both me and Broken Loose think that Mage Knight has serious, serious issues. But keep tooting that horn. silvergoose posted:I mean, just last week BL basically said he hates TtA because it's a single deck game where you can get completely screwed early and have to play it out, which all of us who love the game completely agreed with. Rutibex, the Scourge of God, has brought the dark age upon us.
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Jan 20, 2015 20:28
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Hey, speaking of Vlaada, has the new edition of Tash'Kalar come out yet, and if so where can I buy it?
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Jan 20, 2015 20:29
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Luck to you, I'm still trying to track down the expansion to Tash Kalar.
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Jan 20, 2015 20:32
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Go RV! posted:Hey, speaking of Vlaada, has the new edition of Tash'Kalar come out yet, and if so where can I buy it? CSI has it like $20 cheaper than anyone else for preorder: http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/210437 e: can also preorder Everfrost there: http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/210442 T-Bone fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Jan 20, 2015 |
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Jan 20, 2015 20:39
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T-Bone posted:CSI has it like $20 cheaper than anyone else for preorder: http://www.coolstuffinc.com/p/210437 Awesome, much appreciated. Is Everfrost a normal Vlaada "Buy this when you've mastered the normal game" expansion, or is it just another deck to play?
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Jan 20, 2015 20:47
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Go RV! posted:Awesome, much appreciated. Is Everfrost a normal Vlaada "Buy this when you've mastered the normal game" expansion, or is it just another deck to play? In my experience, it's another deck to play but with the new frozen mechanic. It's about as quirky as the green deck.
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Jan 20, 2015 20:49
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Definitely just another deck to play, more variability without making the game more complicated.
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Jan 20, 2015 20:53
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echoMateria posted:https://www.humblebundle.com/ started a Humble Card Games Bundle which includes digital versions of a bunch of card games including Scrolls, SolForge, Star Realms, Talisman, Magic, Dominion, Card Hunter and possibly more. I've never understood how Magic works as a PC game. How does the CCG aspect work? Do I buy the base game which is essentially a booster pack then buy a bunch of expansions for more digital cards or am I able to unlock more cards some how for free? Since this seems to be an annual release, is each year a different set of cards or do people just buy it as an expansion and use their old DLC as well?
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Jan 20, 2015 20:55
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The Duels of the Planeswalkers games give you a stack of preconstructed decks that you can then unlock more cards for as you play. Each yearly installment features a different slate of features, one had a booster draft mode, for example.
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Jan 20, 2015 21:07
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SolitarySolidarity posted:I've never understood how Magic works as a PC game. The deck-building is usually restricted to a much smaller card pool, and if memory serves you're also usually tethered to a specific pre-constructed deck that you can then modify X number of cards in. So, it's fairly limiting, and isn't really meant to capture the full breadth of a TCG experience. Basically you play through the campaign of AI opponents unlocking new decks, and then other wins will unlock additional single cards to your collection. In the 2014 release (maybe 2013 actually?) they introduced a Sealed Play mode, which emulates real sealed play where you get 6 packs of cards, and build a 40 card deck from those you open +unlimited basic lands. They also allowed you to unlock additional packs in the sealed campaign to increase your card pool, and then you could play these sealed decks online with other players. This was the closest i've seen them get to straight up building a deck from your collection and competing, and it was enjoyable enough, albeit again with such a small card pool the meta for good strong decks was fairly narrow. Each annual release stands alone, they don't cross with past year's games. All in all they're enjoyable enough if you're a big fan of Magic and/or TCGs in general, but will never replace physical MtG; that's what Magic Online is for.
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Jan 20, 2015 21:07
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SolitarySolidarity posted:I've never understood how Magic works as a PC game. The yearly 'Duels of the Planeswalkers' series essentially removes the booster packs. Instead you have a bunch of specific deck bases, and through playing the game you unlock options which you can swap into the decks. The system is also fairly simplified and automatically taps your mana and so forth. Each instalment is a separate game so DLC doesn't carry over. There is a CCG, Magic Online, which iirc the client is free but you have to buy virtual boosters. That uses the full rules and has drafts and stuff built in.
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Jan 20, 2015 21:08
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EDIT: severely beaten
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Jan 20, 2015 21:25
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Tekopo posted:The main thing about Vlaada rulebooks is that they might be great for starting up and are fun to read, but they are incredibly awful about actually finding rules that you might have missed, because you don't have a clue where the rule is: is it in the advanced section, or maybe it is in the 'learning how to play', wait, no, it's actually handled separately in THIS section etc etc. Thanks for spelling it out. I wouldn't personally lay "bad documentation" at Vlaada's doorstep, but it's a fair complaint if there is trouble looking up the fiddly bits after the fact, especially if the games tend to have such questions pop up. Having significant trouble looking stuff up after the fact in games isn't really my recollection but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. Also there were things you brought up that are outside my experience; the way you describe TtA makes me cringe. Speaking of separate, more comprehensive rulebooks for looking up specific rules questions that come up: The Witcher Adventure Game stands out as incredible in this regard. The how to play was straightforward but I have - honestly, no word of a lie (and I would never lie to you anyway, you dear friends) -- I have never had an easier time looking up specific rules questions in a reference and having a conclusive answer in no time flat. Like, not even any significant casting through the index to figure out what your issue is listed under.
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Jan 20, 2015 21:32
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I picked up Xia: Legends of a Drift System on Amazon yesterday.The sandbox approach really appealed to e in board game form. Anyone have any strong feelings one way or another about this game?
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Jan 20, 2015 21:35
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EdsTeioh posted:Does anyone have any experience with Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers? My lady and I are huge fans of the base game, and I just recently discovered H&G (and how rare it is). Is this worth going out of my way to get a copy of? I like it. It cleans up the end-of-game scoring by making upright meeples only score on feature completion, while horizontal meeples and the fishing huts (basically super-thieves) only score at the end of the game. There's a bit of a traders-and-builders mechanic that rewards you with bonus tiles for completing forests (cities) whether you are in them or not, which adds an interesting dynamic. This same mechanic also discourages "football cities" which some people really dislike, but are less of an issue when farmers don't care about cites. One of the bonus tiles is generally regarded as broken (the shrine), but you can take it out.
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Jan 20, 2015 21:37
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Debawv posted:I picked up Xia: Legends of a Drift System on Amazon yesterday.The sandbox approach really appealed to e in board game form. Anyone have any strong feelings one way or another about this game? It's a trash game. A couple good ideas in the worst possible implementation. Edit: Here is what I said about it in the old thread quote:So like I mentioned earlier in the thread, I played Xia today. God, ugh. There was some real potential involved, like I did like the Tetris equipment (although I wish there were more than just iterations of the same systems with higher numbers), I like how your ships kept upgrades as you rose in tiers, and pick up and deliver is a pretty tried and true concept. But that seems to be about the extent of the designers' creativity, since everything else about the mechanics is the laziest thing imaginable. Want to move? Roll a die! Want to shoot something? Roll a die! Want to roll a die? Roll a die! The last one may be an exaggeration, but God. And it's not like the same sort of randomness of say Eldritch or even Arkham Horror, since your die roll is not a pass or fail thing. poo poo, I might have felt better if you just straight up failed to initiate your engine, than to roll a 1, 1, and 2 to roll to move, while your friend gets a 5, 5 and 6 (actually happened). Die rolls range from anything from a somewhat reasonable D6 to a goddamn D20, so the range is HUUUUGE.
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Jan 20, 2015 21:38
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I'm interested from the perspective of seeing what the designer chose to do and how they tried to do things (and how well it works) but at just under $100 it's well outside "impulse buy" territory. I'm curious in making up my own mind about it - I have read people say that the game takes sandbox and randomness (to create uncertainty) too far. Big sandbox but no substance. I can see that happening, has it happened there and to what extent?  e: ^^^ whelp The Eyes Have It fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Jan 20, 2015 |
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Jan 20, 2015 21:39
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Debawv posted:I picked up Xia: Legends of a Drift System on Amazon yesterday.The sandbox approach really appealed to e in board game form. Anyone have any strong feelings one way or another about this game? It's terrible.
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Jan 20, 2015 21:42
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Defnitely agree that Vlaada rulebooks are hard to go back and reference for actual rules later. Was nice and refreshing to get a simple and easy to reference DXV rulebook with Temporum. Granted it's a pretty simple game, but everything is laid out right there, and then there is the FAQ for every single card and zone for any extra questions.
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Jan 20, 2015 21:44
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Mister Sinewave posted:Thanks for spelling it out. I wouldn't personally lay "bad documentation" at Vlaada's doorstep, but it's a fair complaint if there is trouble looking up the fiddly bits after the fact, especially if the games tend to have such questions pop up. Having significant trouble looking stuff up after the fact in games isn't really my recollection but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. Also there were things you brought up that are outside my experience; the way you describe TtA makes me cringe. That was put out by Fantasy Flight right? How in the hell can they have the perfect rulebook with what is basically Talisman but have issues explaining poo poo correctly in what is basically Descent (Imperial Assault)? Despite the kind of lovely rules explanations Imperial Assault is a great game that everybody should go play
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Jan 20, 2015 21:45
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I like Vlaada rulebooks for the flavor and story they impart, but yah they're an absolute mess for trying to find specific rules. For good rule books, Key Flower is one that has stood out to me as being pretty good. It's organzied well, the rules aren't overly verbose, the important bits are bolded and there's a summary of the rules in the margins plus lots of images. Eclipse is also pretty good from what I remember. E: Just curious, what do people think of Legendary Encounters? EBag fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Jan 20, 2015 |
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Jan 20, 2015 21:53
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Debawv posted:I picked up Xia: Legends of a Drift System on Amazon yesterday.The sandbox approach really appealed to e in board game form. Anyone have any strong feelings one way or another about this game? It's poo poo in every way but production values. Don't buy it. If you really crave a similar experience just get Merchants and Marauders. M&M isn't a perfect game by any means and it has some flaws, but it has the a similar overall theme/feel without rules that are complete pants on head retarded like Xia.
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Jan 20, 2015 22:09
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SolitarySolidarity posted:I've never understood how Magic works as a PC game. Everything everyone has said is true of the pre-2015 Duels of the Planeswalkers games. The 2015 version is different. You start with a limited cardpool, and whenever you win a game you open a booster that gives you more cards for your card pool. The card pool isn't that big and boosters are designed to not give you extra copies of cards when you already have a playset, so sooner or later you get all the cards. This is just word of mouth. I didn't buy 2015 because it reportedly did a lot of stuff wrong: At release, you couldn't get all the cards from boosters. You had to in-app purchase special premium boosters for the rest, costing an extra $28. This alone was a deal-breaker for me. I've heard that this may not be the case anymore due to how much bad press it got them. The game starts you out with a very weak deck, but reportedly doesn't put you up against weak opponents to start you out, so you need to keep fighting a lopsided battle until your opponent gets manascrewed to progress. Each previous year featured puzzles, two-headed giant mode, and one additional mode (e.g. archenemy, planechase, sealed) on top of the regular game. 2015 has none of those. Lots of reports of technical problems like crashes or making the computer run slowly. Complaints about the cardpool not being very good, don't know specifics here. I don't have firsthand experience with the game and I don't know if the expansion changed any of this, but if DotP sounds interesting at all then I'd just wait for it to go on sale and pick up the 2013 or 2014 complete edition for $5.
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Jan 20, 2015 22:20
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Dominant Species has a flawless rulebook and GMT games in general are somewhat of a gold standard of rulebooks for me.
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Jan 20, 2015 22:20
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The COIN series in particular manages to fit a hugely fiddly game into ~10 pages with a couple reference sheets (4 sheets each displaying all possible faction actions.)
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Jan 20, 2015 22:23
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Let's put it this way: Despite their incredible love of thematic, lots-of-bits games regardless of mechanics, and incredibly blind spot for issues like luck-dependency, SU&SD still didn't recommend Xia. (They recommended Merchants & Marauders instead.) They basically talked about Xia with the same tone that they did Fortune and Glory. Edit: From what I'm seeing, though, it does look like the kind of game that could be drastically improved with some house rules/errata, and extra components, though. girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 22:38 on Jan 20, 2015 |
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Jan 20, 2015 22:30
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Yas posted:Dominant Species has a flawless rulebook and GMT games in general are somewhat of a gold standard of rulebooks for me. This is the truth right here. Go buy a GMT game and find out for yourself.
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Jan 20, 2015 22:31
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Speaking of Xia, I'm playing it at some point over the next week or two. How do I break it? Normally I wouldn't set out to break a game on the first playthrough, but the guy who owns it always buys these types of games and refuses to acknowledge any criticisms about their design. He's a super nice guy, but he just doesn't seem to grasp that there can be design flaws in games. He likes Galaxy Trucker as much as he likes Sentinels or Legendary, and Coup just as much as Bang: The Dice version.
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Jan 20, 2015 22:41
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Poison Mushroom posted:Let's put it this way:
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Jan 20, 2015 22:41
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Big McHuge posted:Speaking of Xia, I'm playing it at some point over the next week or two. How do I break it?
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Jan 20, 2015 22:42
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The verdict from Quinns on Xia was yeeeeessssss??????? so he liked it but he knew he couldn't in good conscience recommend it.
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Jan 20, 2015 22:43
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Big McHuge posted:Speaking of Xia, I'm playing it at some point over the next week or two. How do I break it? Just roll 20s till you win. That's a valid strategy.
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Jan 20, 2015 22:48
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There's also a rule that says rules disputes should be rolled off with a d20, with the winner's choice staying permanent until end of game. So just get in a rules argument about anything that is ridiculously in your favor, win the die roll, and rub his face in it, cause that rule supersedes all others.
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Jan 20, 2015 22:54
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I bought Dead of Winter before checking the thread, which seems to be saying it's bad. If I have a group that likes Betrayal at House on the Hill theme style stuff without worrying too much about balance as long as it's fun (I die on turn 1 of the haunt always in B@HoTH) can fun still be extracted from it? If not, are there any decent house rules that could be applied? I haven't played it yet and don't want to take it out of the plastic if it has no redeemable aspects.
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Jan 20, 2015 22:57
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AbortRetryFail posted:I bought Dead of Winter before checking the thread, which seems to be saying it's bad. If I have a group that likes Betrayal at House on the Hill theme style stuff without worrying too much about balance as long as it's fun (I die on turn 1 of the haunt always in B@HoTH) can fun still be extracted from it? If not, are there any decent house rules that could be applied? I haven't played it yet and don't want to take it out of the plastic if it has no redeemable aspects. Yes, a group that likes lovely games will like a lovely game.
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Jan 20, 2015 22:59
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If your group like BatHotH, you will probably like Dead of Winter. Just don't think too much about how the victory conditions work (they don't).
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Jan 20, 2015 22:59
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Lord Frisk posted:There's also a rule that says rules disputes should be rolled off with a d20, with the winner's choice staying permanent until end of game. So just get in a rules argument about anything that is ridiculously in your favor, win the die roll, and rub his face in it, cause that rule supersedes all others. What? Now that has to be bullsh 
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Jan 20, 2015 23:00
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Lord Frisk posted:There's also a rule that says rules disputes should be rolled off with a d20, with the winner's choice staying permanent until end of game. So just get in a rules argument about anything that is ridiculously in your favor, win the die roll, and rub his face in it, cause that rule supersedes all others. Be sure that you roll the die so you get the VP on a 20 too. BonHair fucked around with this message at 23:02 on Jan 20, 2015 |
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Jan 20, 2015 23:00
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Legendary Encounters: Alien is Rab Florence of RPS's game of the year.
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Jan 20, 2015 23:01
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