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OmegaGoo posted:Dominion may be very good, even when played with two players, but the thing that soured me on it is the setup time. Yes, it's not very long, but with two experienced players, the setup and tear down feel just as long as playing the game, and I personally don't think that's worth it. Look at this beast  Really the best thing ever though was sleeving so shuffling decks of a couple dozen cards doesn't suck rear end
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Feb 17, 2015 17:55
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fozzy fosbourne posted:Look at this beast I will never own dominion for this reason
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Feb 17, 2015 18:06
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StashAugustine posted:The trick is to play a bunch of games at once since it saves on setup/teardown and also alleviates the handful of lovely boards or bad luck you can sometimes get. This is just experience with base set IRL though, I imagine even getting out the cards would take more time when you've got all the expansions. Figuring out how to efficiently store, setup, and tear down Dominion with expansions is the real fun of the game. The whole deckbuilding thing is just something people do to make it multiplayer.
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Feb 17, 2015 18:07
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Thoughts about Seasons and particularly 2 player with one or both of the expansions? I bought it from Amazon, but then found out it's on boardgamearena and I'd be playing mainly two player. But boardgamearena doesn't have the expansions.
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Feb 17, 2015 18:10
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Our youngest loves Clue: The Great Museum Caper and I was thinking of getting another "hidden movement" game like it. Is there any reason I shouldn't just get Letters From Whitechapel? Is the deluxe version worth it? Does it play well with just 2 players?
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Feb 17, 2015 18:19
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fozzy fosbourne posted:Look at this beast This has been the big issue for me buying a physical copy of Dominion. Playing against bots the setup is instant; I can blast through a game in 5-10min total. I own Thunderstone I know what a pain in the rear end setting that up is, which is half the reason I don't bother playing it. That and the fact that I would need to pay like $500 to get all of Dominion and I know that I would never be satisfied unless I did.
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Feb 17, 2015 18:34
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Bubble-T posted:My wife asked me "are there any other games like Race for the Galaxy?" last night (it's by far her favourite game). After discussing San Juan and Glory to Rome we talked about it a bit and figured out she's [i]probably[i] looking for a game that: Get Glory to Rome because it is the best game. I mean, if you can find it. There's almost no set up and you build stuff and try to break the game better than others. Have you considered Eminent Domain? It's a bit fiddly, as you say, but it feels like RFTG in a lot of ways because you are building a tableau of planets, you have mostly simultaneous turns so there isn't downtime, and it has about as much PVP as RFTG. Otherwise, what's wrong with San Juan? I haven't played the physical game but I've played the android clone and it seems like it would fit, but maybe someone who has played a physical copy could help you out.
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Feb 17, 2015 18:41
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Medium Style posted:I picked up Castles of Mad King Ludwig expecting to play it primarily as a two player game and I have been enjoying it very much. I like how the auction/master builder mechanic works with only one opponent to consider. You have to think about which rooms your opponent might want, which rooms you are okay with them having, how much money they might be willing to give you, if they might deny you the room you want, etc. It's a little bluffing showdown thing. It gets deep. I also got Castles of Mad King Ludwig to play primarily 2 player. My wife and I have played a bunch of games 2 player and one with 4 players. One interesting aspect that comes up more with just two players is unwanted pieces can build up a lot more added money on them than when playing with more players. It definitely felt like it added a new dynamic to make up some for what's lost with fewer players since it emphasizes the strategy of taking a crappy piece just because it can gain you a bunch of money. Also, I'd recommend playing with at least the 3 player amount of room cards and all the rooms even with two players. We experienced a couple games where randomness kind of decided the game since we were playing with fewer room cards and rooms. One game only had a single sleeping room which basically decided the game since one of us had that as a major part of our strategy. Using all the cards will make the game take longer, but I think it's more fair, and also lets you build an even bigger castle which can be fun in itself. Playing with all the rooms also means setup is quicker which is nice.
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Feb 17, 2015 18:45
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EvilChameleon posted:Get Glory to Rome because it is the best game. I mean, if you can find it. There's almost no set up and you build stuff and try to break the game better than others. Have you considered Eminent Domain? It's a bit fiddly, as you say, but it feels like RFTG in a lot of ways because you are building a tableau of planets, you have mostly simultaneous turns so there isn't downtime, and it has about as much PVP as RFTG. Otherwise, what's wrong with San Juan? I haven't played the physical game but I've played the android clone and it seems like it would fit, but maybe someone who has played a physical copy could help you out. Holy poo poo. Glory to Rome is 90 dollars? Some random board game shop owner convinced me to buy it on a whim 3 years ago for 15 bucks since he said it was his go to game. Since it wasn't the game I purposefully purchases, I forgot about it, and It's been sitting on my shelf unplayed since. Is it actually good?
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Feb 17, 2015 18:48
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bowmore posted:Elder Sign is coop Yahtzee no doubt about it If you've actually played more than a few games, then it really isn't just that. You have to manage your resources and plan out what you're going to buy. Then you have the Pandemic issue of not managing poo poo and then it all blows up in your face. Some rooms that aren't so easy to beat but have an negative attribute that requires your attention start becoming more difficult because you were too busy cleaning up the easy rooms or rooms that had supplies you wanted. Now what you've ignored has started breeding monsters you have to take care of. Then it starts spreading everywhere. And then you also have your Yahtzee rolls. I play the app of this instead of doing Arkham Horror because gently caress setting that thing up if I don't have to. On a related note, has anyone played the original version of Arkham Horror? From what I'm reading, it sounds like Elder Sign is similar, compared to what Arkham Horror eventually turned into. As for recent gaming, I finally got my family to play 7 Wonders. It went a lot smoother than what the directions made it out to be, plus I'm using the app for scoring and tracking stats which helps out a lot. Everyone seems to like it and we're all just trying to figure out strategies at this point.
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Feb 17, 2015 19:01
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Lorini posted:Thoughts about Seasons and particularly 2 player with one or both of the expansions? I bought it from Amazon, but then found out it's on boardgamearena and I'd be playing mainly two player. But boardgamearena doesn't have the expansions. Seasons is way better two player, in my opinion. I haven't played it much, but I definitely enjoyed it more with 2 than with 4.
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Feb 17, 2015 19:08
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chemosh6969 posted:If you've actually played more than a few games, then it really isn't just that. It doesn't matter how you manage your resources and purchases (especially since those are random). If the dice don't like you, you lose, and there's no planning your way out of it. In addition, where most random games these days try to include some kind of mechanism that lets you mitigate the randomness, Elder Sign goes the opposite way and includes mechanisms that cancel out what few mitigation tactics that might exist. e: loving autocorrect Tippis fucked around with this message at 19:32 on Feb 17, 2015 |
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Feb 17, 2015 19:11
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chemosh6969 posted:On a related note, has anyone played the original version of Arkham Horror? From what I'm reading, it sounds like Elder Sign is similar, compared to what Arkham Horror eventually turned into. The original 1987 Arkham is actually pretty similar to what exists today. A lot of the mechanics where streamlined or jazzed up but it's basically the same thing. Instead of drawing cards for location or gate tokens you just roll a D6 on a chart.
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Feb 17, 2015 19:17
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Megasabin posted:Holy poo poo. Glory to Rome is 90 dollars? Some random board game shop owner convinced me to buy it on a whim 3 years ago for 15 bucks since he said it was his go to game. Since it wasn't the game I purposefully purchases, I forgot about it, and It's been sitting on my shelf unplayed since. Is it actually good? It is my favorite game. It will seem random at first, and everything and it's mother is broken*, but the game is absolutely fantastic. *GtR is one of the most balanced games I've played. Since everything is ridiculous, it merely levels the playing field at a very high level.
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Feb 17, 2015 20:07
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You mother fudgers with your copies of glory to rome 
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Feb 17, 2015 20:10
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Tippis posted:…and everything you do relies on those rolls, which is why — in spite of all the thinly veiled attempts at covering it up — it's still just Yahtzee. Does the app hide extra dice rolls from me? I've only ever played the app version.
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Feb 17, 2015 20:23
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OmegaGoo posted:It is my favorite game. It will seem random at first, and everything and it's mother is broken*, but the game is absolutely fantastic. I won a game last night by completing a Catacomb the turn after someone Merchant'd a Stone. I beat him by a single point. The game took maybe 15 minutes. I would get a copy, but the art on the available version is so so bad.
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Feb 17, 2015 20:34
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There's an available version?
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Feb 17, 2015 20:40
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chemosh6969 posted:Does the app hide extra dice rolls from me? I've only ever played the app version. In a sense, yes, at least the last time I used the app. It uses far more locked dice than the regular game, it doesn't handle secured dice properly, and it doesn't let you defeat the ancient one once they awaken. The former two cancel out two critical mitigation strategies, and the latter removes an entire round of yahtzee completely. So yes, the app is even worse than the board version, and the board version is pretty bad as it is. That said, as a random die rolling game with cards, it's still a decent enough time-waster. It has far better presentation and (semblance of) choice than your average solitaire app, for instance.
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Feb 17, 2015 20:55
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Lorini posted:Thoughts about Seasons and particularly 2 player with one or both of the expansions? I bought it from Amazon, but then found out it's on boardgamearena and I'd be playing mainly two player. But boardgamearena doesn't have the expansions. I love Seasons but I personally find it plays best at 3 players. If you only have two players, then there's only two packs of cards to draft from so if you know the cards well you can figure out what your opponent is trying to do too easily for my taste. Four players just takes too long. Three to me is a nice sweet spot where there's some mystery as to what people are trying to do but the game doesn't feel like it's dragging. That's just my opinion though. I personally find the expansions make the game a lot better, both for variety in cards and because the newer cards make the game feel more interactive. That said, the new mechanics the expansions add are kind of forgettable, and I'm fairly sure BGA has the cards from the expansions, just not the Destiny Die or the extra one-shot powers I forget the name of. Since I remember you saying you have a lot of new players come in and out, I'll just give you a warning that in my experience this is the type of game that you just won't get without playing it. Nobody I've tried to teach understands it until they've seen it in action, including myself. Also, knowing what cards are out there and what they can do(especially how they interact) is a huge advantage so if you have competitive players, you'll want to make sure the people playing are at the same relative skill level.
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Feb 17, 2015 21:05
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So for Print and Play what are most of you guys doing? Printing and cutting cards seems REALLY fiddly, but it seems to be the best option since going to a print shop is usually kinda expensive - even if it does REALLY save on labor. Are there any other real alternatives?
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Feb 17, 2015 21:09
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fozzy fosbourne posted:There's an available version? Is the awful clipart version also severely OoP? I've never bothered to look for a copy.
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Feb 17, 2015 21:14
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Yeah I think the rights to both are held eternally by the same dude who lost his house due to some bad economics behind the kickstarter? e: sicarius posted:So for Print and Play what are most of you guys doing? Printing and cutting cards seems REALLY fiddly, but it seems to be the best option since going to a print shop is usually kinda expensive - even if it does REALLY save on labor. Are there any other real alternatives? Check out printerstudio
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Feb 17, 2015 21:18
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sicarius posted:So for Print and Play what are most of you guys doing? Printing and cutting cards seems REALLY fiddly, but it seems to be the best option since going to a print shop is usually kinda expensive - even if it does REALLY save on labor. Are there any other real alternatives? Pretty much. I print on paper then use sleeves with an old Magic the Gathering card as a back If you have access to a guillotine and know how to use it, that can save time but with PnP you just have to accept there's just gonna be a bunch of fiddly cutting.
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Feb 17, 2015 21:21
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Can anyone suggest games that have Exploration as a significant part of the game? This bring up a side question: what do you think counts as Exploration? There are game features you could consider exploration, but it's a slippery definition. Examples:
Expedition: Northwest Passage sounds interesting in some ways with an exploration mechanic, don't know much about it though. Any other games that feature exploration heavily? The Eyes Have It fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Feb 17, 2015 |
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Feb 17, 2015 21:42
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Mister Sinewave posted:Any other games that feature exploration heavily? Escape, sort of?
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Feb 17, 2015 21:52
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Claustrophobia had a decent take on dungeon exploration I think, as there where few enough tiles with enough variety between them that the individual tiles felt meaningful and interesting. It's very much a run-and-peek feel where you're racing down tunnels poking your head in each branch to look for the exit or whatever. Archipelago has a satisfying 4X style of tile reveal as you look over the next ridge, but it's just an enhancement to the game rather than the reason you play.
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Feb 17, 2015 22:04
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sicarius posted:So for Print and Play what are most of you guys doing? Printing and cutting cards seems REALLY fiddly, but it seems to be the best option since going to a print shop is usually kinda expensive - even if it does REALLY save on labor. Are there any other real alternatives? I just print onto cardstock and cut. A whole game takes like half an hour or so, but that's nothing a Pandora station can't fix.
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Feb 17, 2015 22:41
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Elder Sign isn't like Yahtzee at all. Yahtzee is, at its core, a resource management game (where the resource is 'spaces to fill'), and the dice are rolled as much before your decision as they are after. Your rolls gradually narrow your option space about which space you can choose to fill and for what value. The important choices in Elder Sign are all pre-rolling, in which mission to take with which character. During an encounter you have some decisions about committing more resources, but for the most part what you want is clear and you're just rolling resolution to see whether you succeed. The fact that you get multiple rolls just makes it take longer (and allows for some design space in terms of designing resources). King of New Yokyo is much more like Yahtzee, in that your dice rolls tell you what options you have on your turn, and those options shrink with rerolls - that's the Yahtzee mechanic. Getting 3 changes to roll a static target is not Yahtzee, it's just rolling a variably sized dice pool. (Overall, Elder Signs has enough interesting decisions in terms of character/mission assignment that it works as a single player 15 minute game. For 4 players/90 minutes, those decisions are spread far too thin. The game also has TERRIBLE feedback problems - if you do poorly, not only does the board get away from you quickly (which makes future missions harder by itself and drains your health/sanity) but you don't get the new resources that make missions easier. So if you do poorly early, everything is harder and harder - while if you have some good luck early, you develop a stock of crap, the board stays clean, and you have a boring cakewalk. It's kind of a terrible design, really.. but again, those problems don't feel so bad when it's over in 15 minutes). VV: It shouldn't be an insult. Yahtzee is an OK game, and King of Tokyo is quite good. "Elder Sign is C'thulu Yahtzee" isn't a hyperbolic insult, it's false advertising. jmzero fucked around with this message at 23:22 on Feb 17, 2015 |
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Feb 17, 2015 22:54
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jmzero posted:Elder Sign isn't like Yahtzee at all.  Everyone knows that, it's an insult not a detailed mechanical analysis.
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Feb 17, 2015 23:14
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Mister Sinewave posted:Any other games that feature exploration heavily? I haven't played it, but Lost Valley is billed as a game about exploration and managing your supplies.
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Feb 17, 2015 23:20
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bobvonunheil posted:I haven't played it, but Lost Valley is billed as a game about exploration and managing your supplies. Neat! I'm going to look into that one. Thanks for the tip! PerniciousKnid posted:Claustrophobia had a decent take on dungeon exploration I think, as there where few enough tiles with enough variety between them that the individual tiles felt meaningful and interesting. It's very much a run-and-peek feel where you're racing down tunnels poking your head in each branch to look for the exit or whatever. Claustrophobia and Archipelago are both on my radar for other reasons, I don't think of them as featuring exploration but after some hands on we'll see if I change my tune.
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Feb 17, 2015 23:27
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Mister Sinewave posted:Can anyone suggest games that have Exploration as a significant part of the game? In Northwest Passage you hold a hand of tiles, so it doesn't have the immediate "ahah! oh poo poo it's" effect that stuff like carcassonne or eclipse has. That said, you watch the draw tableau very carefully looking for that tile you need and then play it adjacent to your boat (or sled). Gameplay-wise there's two ways play: race for the pacific or go exploring for points. Both are viable strategies, but exploring is more open to luck since people are more likely to piggyback off each other racing than exploring. Also, being a dickface and using tiles to close up the current race's path is fun. I claim Bafflin' Island for the king because there's no where left to go.
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Feb 17, 2015 23:30
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Broken Loose posted:I just print onto cardstock and cut. A whole game takes like half an hour or so, but that's nothing a Pandora station can't fix. You must be much faster than me - it takes me ages to properly cut that stuff 
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Feb 18, 2015 00:07
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sicarius posted:You must be much faster than me - it takes me ages to properly cut that stuff Protip: Use a box cutter instead of scissors, you can cut much faster.
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Feb 18, 2015 00:38
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sicarius posted:You must be much faster than me - it takes me ages to properly cut that stuff True. I make prototypes all the time, so I have a lot of practice.
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Feb 18, 2015 00:44
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quote:You must be much faster than me - it takes me ages to properly cut that stuff It takes me forever too, if I print on cardstock. And the result is usually poor visually, problematic to shuffle, and wears out quick. It works, and I'll print on cardboard for some types of components, but I don't understand how people do this for big games with lots of cards. What I usually do is print on thin paper, and a little bit small. Then you leave the paper in piles and cut like 8 sheets at once (guillotine is best, but even just with scissors this is fine). It doesn't matter if it's ragged or whatever, since it'll be undetectable once it's opaque sleeved with a MtG land or whatever. The end result is easy to shuffle, feels right in your hand, looks OK, and lasts as long as you want it to. I wouldn't want to do thousands of cards like this, but I've done a couple hundred before.
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Feb 18, 2015 00:45
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Ginger Beer Belly posted:Our youngest loves Clue: The Great Museum Caper and I was thinking of getting another "hidden movement" game like it. I enjoy Letters from Whitechapel most with two players. My younger nephew watched us play part of a game and found it interesting specifically because of the hidden movement combined with the darker theme. My understanding is that the deluxe edition is really a revised edition with better components (less easily marked wood for the bluffing tokens, a bigger screen for Jack, and some other things), so I would buy the deluxe/revised version.
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Feb 18, 2015 01:35
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I still have my copy of David Sirlin's Pandante in shrink wrap. I don't remember hearing much about it here. Is it worth opening, or should I gift it away somewhere down the line?
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Feb 18, 2015 01:39
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Vlaada Chvatil posted:I still have my copy of David Sirlin's Pandante in shrink wrap. I don't remember hearing much about it here. Is it worth opening, or should I gift it away somewhere down the line? It's literally Texas Hold-em. If you like one you'll like the other and the opposite is true as well. I don't think there's enough of a distinction to recommend it if you already have a poker set. I'm not a fan of bluffing games in general, though, so maybe I'm being a bigot and think they all look the same. Gimnbo fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Feb 18, 2015 |
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Feb 18, 2015 01:46
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