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Also, when you say "I don't get all the hate" in a place full of said hate, you're kind of implicitly inviting people to explain the hate.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 16:34 |
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# ? May 28, 2024 16:05 |
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Gimnbo posted:Also, when you say "I don't get all the hate" in a place full of said hate, you're kind of implicitly inviting people to explain the hate. I'd say it was more explicitly asking people to explain why they hate it.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 16:40 |
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Gimnbo posted:Also, when you say "I don't get all the hate" in a place full of said hate, you're kind of implicitly inviting people to explain the hate. It's not even like people stripped a gear and went on some embarrassing tirade over it. Like hey, I've actually played a bunch of Arkham Horror before, been the one to request it be played over other games, even, gasp, had fun with it. But if you're wondering what its flaws are then they become pretty apparent in short order and it doesn't take a frothing rant to encapsulate them. As for the expansions my personal experience is that of the ones I played with, none of them significantly improved the game over the base experience enough to be a must-have and some actively made the game worse (making it more random/more tedious than it needed to be).
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 16:44 |
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I bought Dunwich Horror at the time without even owning the base game, it is probably the best expansion but there is still a degree of 'babysitting the expansion board' which isn't great.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 16:51 |
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Poison Mushroom posted:We all had a time when we had a less-than-fantastic game that we thought was The poo poo, before we'd played enough different and better games to start seeing the flaws. Whats wrong with Epic Spell Wars? I guess some cards are just vastly more powerful than others? The balance seems a bit wonky yeah. I really like the modular design of the game though and it fits well with the spell-casting theme, and its a game that I can actually get non-nerds to try out and have fun with because its just 3 simple cards, no complex settlers-of-catan rules or board or resources to keep track of. I just saw that they made a second edition / standalone expansion and thought about picking it up, although I don't exactly play a ton of epic spell wars as is so my current set should so me well enough.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 16:54 |
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Settlers of Catan isn't difficult or complex at all
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 16:56 |
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I kind of expected a bunch of "nnnrrgghh if you want some more cool windows programs may I suggest installing Linux" responses. It's arkham horror in the boardgames thread. That's ok. Anything else would be different and strange. E: thanks though, I'll look into DW and maybe eldritch horror. Harvey Mantaco fucked around with this message at 17:03 on Jul 10, 2015 |
# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:01 |
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People just answered what you asked: both the recommendations and the 'I don't get the hate'
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:09 |
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Tekopo posted:Settlers of Catan isn't difficult or complex at all I mean not compared to Arkham Horror but compared to Uno or Epic Spell Wars it turns off non-gamers.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:12 |
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Now that they have Eldritch Horror, I wonder if they'll consider making an Arkham Horror app. I'm assuming that FFG has a little bit of that old GW fear of other mediums replacing their cash cow. I would buy an Arkham Horror app to screw around with, but I don't have the time to fire up the board game even out of nostalgia. The money from the board game is p sweet though to use in other games. edit: I played Arkham Horror once on the floor because our table wasn't big enough for the expansions, with my wife, for like 5-6 hours, years ago. I think I did some damage to my wrists and my wife needed board game therapy for a few years to recover from the experience. I also scared off some of the boardgame illuminati at work back then by talking to them about Arkham Horror fozzy fosbourne fucked around with this message at 17:17 on Jul 10, 2015 |
# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:14 |
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I dunno, I've had pretty good going with getting people in the hobby with Settlers of Catan: people seem to grasp the trading aspect of it pretty well. There isn't really that much to get wrong in Settlers of Catan. I would say that it was more the theme that puts people off but Epic Spell Wars is pretty equivalent to Catan in terms of complexity.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:15 |
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Zaphod42 posted:I mean not compared to Arkham Horror but compared to Uno or Epic Spell Wars it turns off non-gamers. Gimnbo fucked around with this message at 17:18 on Jul 10, 2015 |
# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:16 |
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Tekopo posted:People just answered what you asked: both the recommendations and the 'I don't get the hate' I was just joking It's all appreciated.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:19 |
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I can only speak from my own experience. Its not that the rules are beyond them, they can absolutely pick it up. Its just when you bust out the box and all the stuff it intimidates them and turns them off and they're like "yeah I'd rather do something else". Compared to something really simple like epic spell wars which is just a deck of cards. Certainly I have convinced people to play Catan who haven't before and they picked it up just fine. But we usually start with a game like Cards Against Humanity for a few rounds first, to draw people in. If you're at a game night everybody is there to play games, so that's fine. But if you're at just a normal friendly party or a family gathering and you whip out Catan, lots of people will sit out or watch. But if you pull out CAH everybody wants to play. Its like how Nintendo designed the Wiimote to look like a remote control instead of a traditional gaming controller. If I try to get my dad to play a PS4 game, he takes one look at the controller and says "I don't know how to do that and I won't", even if its like an NFL game that appeals to him otherwise. But you show him something like a wiimote and he'll at least try some goofy Wii Bowling or whatever. I don't mean to start a huge derail here about non-gamers or game complexity sorry
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:20 |
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Well yeah then that's not the rule complexity, just the general theme/the fact that it is a board game rather than a card game.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:23 |
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Zaphod42 posted:I don't mean to start a huge derail here about non-gamers or game complexity sorry I don't think it's a derail at all, and actually think it's a topic plenty worth discussing. And for what it's worth, I agree with what you're saying in full. There's no one in the world who would be unable to comprehend the rules of Catan, and I don't think you'll find anyone who will disagree with that, but that's not the point. There is absolutely a difference in introducing someone to a game with more componentry rather than less in regards to how willing they are to set aside their reservations about trying something new, making mistakes, looking foolish, or any of the other reasons people generally opt out on board games. While mechanically Catan is no more complex than ESW (or any number of other games that could be named in ESW's place here), I fully agree that a huge board with a bunch of tiles and numbers and symbols, several decks of cards, a pile of different wooden pieces, plus rolling dice is going to appear a lot more intimidating to a non-gamer than a game with a deck of cards and some dice.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:27 |
fozzy fosbourne posted:Now that they have Eldritch Horror, I wonder if they'll consider making an Arkham Horror app. I'm assuming that FFG has a little bit of that old GW fear of other mediums replacing their cash cow. I would buy an Arkham Horror app to screw around with, but I don't have the time to fire up the board game even out of nostalgia. They have an app for Elder Sign (that weirdly isn't an exact port of the game, but whatever) and I think they have one for Battlelore (I don't know how representative it is of the actual game)? And Talisman is on Steam. I'd totally buy an Android (the game) app, but I know there's going to be something missing when I'm not using a car ruler thing to do my move. I'm still kind of sad that Android never got a fix or even expansions since I'm sure there's a pretty decent amount of interest in fiddling around in Netrunner's setting.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:28 |
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Tekopo posted:Settlers of Catan isn't difficult or complex at all imho no game that doesn't have a ten-page technical manual for a rulebook is really 'complex' e: GrandpaPants posted:I'd totally buy an Android (the game) app, but I know there's going to be something missing when I'm not using a car ruler thing to do my move. I'm still kind of sad that Android never got a fix or even expansions since I'm sure there's a pretty decent amount of interest in fiddling around in Netrunner's setting. Yeah Netrunner has a pretty interesting setting for me even as someone who generally prefers historicals but whenever I briefly consider checking out Android I remember that it's even shitter than AH StashAugustine fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Jul 10, 2015 |
# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:29 |
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GrandpaPants posted:They have an app for Elder Sign (that weirdly isn't an exact port of the game, but whatever) and I think they have one for Battlelore (I don't know how representative it is of the actual game)? And Talisman is on Steam. I was thinking that an Android rework of BSG borrowing themes from Bladerunner/sheep book might be kind of cool.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:32 |
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I guess I'm a little late to boardgames -> digital versions but releasing the player from mechanical upkeep has real value to it. Not to mention you can play against AI players as well, or pass-n-play with your SO while you watch TV or something. e: The following are all iOS Alien Frontiers makes a great pass-and-play partly because I find the game turns perfect for the stop and go sort of experience that pass-and-play is. When you receive the board you can take in the entire board state and see exactly what everyone did in the previous turn at a glance because of how the game works. Also, it perfectly sidesteps the game's main speed bump - which is 'roll your dice at the beginning of your turn, then decide what to do based on your roll'. Elder Sign is really well done, and not needing to do all the setup and upkeep is what it took for me to be able to enjoy just playing it. Otherwise it's a game that to me doesn't pull its weight - it can be enjoyable but not enough to be worth the setup and upkeep. Take that away and suddenly the scales tip. Eclipse has a really good digital port and good AI players. Combat becomes much less of a chore when the computer handles all the modifiers and actual rolling, you just hit 'roll' and choose where to assign resulting hits. Thanks to the digital version I have played easily at least six times the number of games I would otherwise have played. e: Also something that is unusual for tabletop ports: the tutorial actually teaches you to actually play the whole game. Galaxy Trucker is a cool app, super well executed and of value even if you own the 'real' game. But I am finding it more and more frustrating and I can start to empathize with people who don't like the game. In the tabletop version I enjoy a frantic rush to build a lovely ship with whatever you can get your hands on, then laugh as things go horribly wrong and maybe accidentally make some money. In the digital version I find myself focusing far more on the ship building - extremely so on with the turn-based option (for anyone who hasn't played the app, robot truckers prefer turn-based and humans prefer realtime.) I put a lot more care and attention into previewing the cards and crafting a ship and it feels like the more work I put into the ship the less I enjoy the game, because you can never plan for or accommodate everything in your build, you always take shortcuts or cross your fingers on something. Getting wrecked by unfortunate combinations of the cards or some other random factor really sucks when every time you build you're investing a lot of time and effort into it. Well, didn't unlock the next route - try again! Still though, the app is ridiculously well done. The Eyes Have It fucked around with this message at 17:42 on Jul 10, 2015 |
# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:35 |
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Mister Sinewave posted:
Is this VASSAL or is it somewhere else?
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:37 |
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StashAugustine posted:Is this VASSAL or is it somewhere else? Eclipse has an iOS version.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:39 |
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lordsummerisle posted:Any good suggestions for a Warhammer Quest like dungeon crawl? Though my tastes have turned a bit euro after getting into the hobby again a few years ago, I really miss playing Warhammer Quest in my teens. Nothing has really replaced that feeling of playing a persistent randomized rpg-lite/roguelike. We have tried Descent and Mansions of Madness, and though I like both, I really don't want to have to be the keeper each time. Descent is kind of done now after playing the full campaign once. MoM will be pulled out whenever I feel like setting up the damned thing hours in advance. MoM also lacks that campaign itch I want to scratch. The D&D board games like Wrath of Ashardalon might work as a replacement to WQ. Nice figures, dungeon's randomized, and enough scenarios to keep a person interested. Problem is, I don't think they ever got a campaign mode working unless it came with one of the later games. Still, lots of content with three (at my last count, anyway) different boxed sets to choose from and/or mix'n'match with. It's based on a bastardized version of 4E which works well for a pure dungeon crawl. Wish I had a better suggestion, but nothing seems to have hit all the beats that WQ did.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:39 |
StashAugustine posted:Yeah Netrunner has a pretty interesting setting for me even as someone who generally prefers historicals but whenever I briefly consider checking out Android I remember that it's even shitter than AH Netrunner isn't even that original of a setting (it's essentially literally all sci fi tropes smashed together that somehow doesn't involve aliens yet), but I think the latest cycle taking place in future India (and even the current cycle taking place in the future suburbs) does a good job exploring visions of the future that aren't the dank shitstains of future-LA/NYC, and for that it should be praised. Future. That being said, I replayed Android a few months ago after a couple years of developing my board game tastes and wow is it clunky as poo poo. Half the cards are super situational, you can get completely assed out in terms of cards drawn, there's no real reason to visit half the map, the game flow is really loving weird and has a ton of downtime, the theme of "finding" evidence and placing it on a killer is really weird for a mystery game, there's a bunch of FFG rulesisms, etc., but I'll be damned if I'm going to give up my copy.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:39 |
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StashAugustine posted:Is this VASSAL or is it somewhere else? iOS. Also I edited in something worth mentioning because it's unusual for tabletop ports: the tutorial actually teaches you to actually play the whole game.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:41 |
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Zaphod42 posted:Whats wrong with Epic Spell Wars? I guess some cards are just vastly more powerful than others? The balance seems a bit wonky yeah. It's ultra random and sucks with more than 4 players, takes too long for what it is and for a filler game there are many better options. You have random die rolls on top of random card draw, and it's entirely possible with 5 or 6 players to be killed before you even get a turn. It's alright if you're just goofing off and want to be lovely wizards for a bit but as a game there are many better options to fill the same niche like Coup.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:48 |
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SilverMike posted:The D&D board games like Wrath of Ashardalon might work as a replacement to WQ. Nice figures, dungeon's randomized, and enough scenarios to keep a person interested. Problem is, I don't think they ever got a campaign mode working unless it came with one of the later games. Still, lots of content with three (at my last count, anyway) different boxed sets to choose from and/or mix'n'match with. It's based on a bastardized version of 4E which works well for a pure dungeon crawl. D&D Adventure (Ashardalon, Ravenloft, Drizzt) are all pretty fun and aren't bad, per se, but I think in general I just like Talisman and Descent better. I did have some good times with D&DA but it just kinda fizzled out for me really fast. Its hard to put my finger on what elements make the big difference. In D&DA there's no DM but in Descent there is, but in Talisman there's no DM either. Talisman has a fixed board while D&DA and Descent have randomized roguelike adventuring. Maybe just personal taste. The class powers reminded me too much of 4th Ed D&D. EBag posted:It's ultra random and sucks with more than 4 players, takes too long for what it is and for a filler game there are many better options. You have random die rolls on top of random card draw, and it's entirely possible with 5 or 6 players to be killed before you even get a turn. It's alright if you're just goofing off and want to be lovely wizards for a bit but as a game there are many better options to fill the same niche like Coup. Yeah I kinda like just farting around as lovely wizards, and the Ugly Americans / Adventure Time style artwork really goes a long way in my book. I do agree its pretty badly unbalanced though. And I usually play with like 4 players so that hasn't been a huge issue, but yeah with each round possibly having to resolve the order and everything could bog down a bit. I like how you can cast a shorter spell to try to get it off sooner and there's some fun risk vs reward there with reading the other players, but yeah. Fair points.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:50 |
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Gutter Owl posted:I don't like Arkham, but I've played enough to know what expansions mitigate its problems, and which exacerbate them. I couldn't ask for more than this. Done and done - thanks!
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 17:58 |
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Probably my least favorite thing about Epic Spell Wars is it takes too loving long with 4, because in a race to two points, in a game with this much player interaction, you can bet your rear end you're more often than not going to play n+1 rounds where n is the number of players.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 18:03 |
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Dre2Dee2 posted:I really like using the Witch a lot. Can definitely cause some craziness if they turn someone into a wolf and then that gets shuffled around with robber/troublemaker. I think the curator is ok, but I dont like using the mask or cloak. Seem kind of dumb to me. Also he can curate himself which is something people tend to forget for some reason. The Witch does seem pretty fun, yeah. We had an enjoyable time messing with a masked person, since she's usually one of the chattier players, but as a social game, I can see the mask being a problem. I honestly just didn't like figuring out that both werewolves are in the middle and it all coming down to a 25% chance that the artifact on someone the werewolf claw. Seemed really dumb and punished us for deducing well. Scyther posted:Probably my least favorite thing about Epic Spell Wars is it takes too loving long with 4, because in a race to two points, in a game with this much player interaction, you can bet your rear end you're more often than not going to play n+1 rounds where n is the number of players. This is exactly why we treat it like a filler game. We play as many games as we want to until we get bored of it, then play something else. I like it quite a bit played that way, it can be a chore to play until 2 wins.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 18:07 |
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Scyther posted:Probably my least favorite thing about Epic Spell Wars is it takes too loving long with 4, because in a race to two points, in a game with this much player interaction, you can bet your rear end you're more often than not going to play n+1 rounds where n is the number of players. Yeah, the designers fully acknowledge this, and offered a "variant" mode in the sequel's rule book wherein you get points for eliminating players, and you play three rounds to Last Wizard Standing completion. Most points at the end wins. It both eliminates the inevitable playing n+1 rounds situation, and encourages people to be less reserved/political about dealing damage to certain players because the few points you can earn are much more precious by the end.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 18:12 |
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Epic Spell Wars still fills a niche in my collection, and that niche is "something to hold up to play instead of Munchkin", which I'm very thankful for, but that doesn't make it a GOOD game.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 22:03 |
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Considering the best thing about Munchkin I've seen is the video of the goon setting it on fire I think you could hold up a sock filled with poo poo and it'd fill the same niche
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 23:19 |
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lordsummerisle posted:Any good suggestions for a Warhammer Quest like dungeon crawl? Though my tastes have turned a bit euro after getting into the hobby again a few years ago, I really miss playing Warhammer Quest in my teens. Nothing has really replaced that feeling of playing a persistent randomized rpg-lite/roguelike. We have tried Descent and Mansions of Madness, and though I like both, I really don't want to have to be the keeper each time. Descent is kind of done now after playing the full campaign once. MoM will be pulled out whenever I feel like setting up the damned thing hours in advance. MoM also lacks that campaign itch I want to scratch. Dungeon Saga by mantic is coming out in a couple of months, and it's basically a love letter to Warhammer Quest. I'm not convinced by the preview rules in comparison with modern boardgames, but they might have updated them with community feedback. It'll certainly be fine in comparison to WQ's rules, though.
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# ? Jul 10, 2015 23:25 |
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Gutter Owl posted:I don't like Arkham, but I've played enough to know what expansions mitigate its problems, and which exacerbate them. It's actually Dunwich that introduced gate bursts. It's also probably the most important mechanic in the game, because without it you quickly learn that sealing four specific locations gives you about a 90% chance of victory.
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# ? Jul 11, 2015 00:42 |
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Finally got to play Archipelago. Sadly the other two players didn't seem to like it. Is taking the Separatist card out okay? That was my goal and I was easily able to tank the game. Well it helped that we had two crisis back to back that required us to give up cattle to stand our meeples up. When it happened the first time the first player took all of the cattle out of the market to stand most of the meeples up. Then it happened again the next turn and there were none in the market. Plus none of the other players had cattle to give up. All they could manage were a couple of wilds. I left all of my workers laying on the ground which tied the population and rebel tokens and then during the next action phase I just taxed my boat to end the game. There was nothing they could do to stop me at that point. But one of the players had already said she wasn't having fun. I just decided to go all in and end it since I could. I'm sure it would be better with an experienced group. So I'm considering just removing that card the next time I get to play and just explaining why I'm doing it. It's sad, because I never get to be a Cylon in BSG and finally had a chance to be the betrayer and it was a cake walk. Looks like I messed up the action discs thing. We did empty the first stack of explorer tokens, so we all should have had 4 action discs. I read it wrong and thought you got them from doing the exploring action after the tile stack was gone. But it just gets reshuffled in... Clearly we should have been exploring more. Once you control a building with a meeple, he can just stay in that building forever right? Unless he becomes a rebel I assume. Even then, does he get booted out? Assuming he's only engaged if you actually use that building's ability. Oh man, didn't read the part about chaining ships to move your dudes multiple tiles either. That's pretty sweet. Oh well, I'll mess up less next time.
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# ? Jul 11, 2015 02:47 |
QnoisX posted:Finally got to play Archipelago. Sadly the other two players didn't seem to like it. Is taking the Separatist card out okay? It's probably good to take out the Separatist and the other one out of the first few games to get used to the flow of the game, but the threat of the Separatist becomes necessary after a point or else people will just pretend the Revolt marker is just another shared resource, when in fact it's a shared resource that also happens to be a possible win condition for someone else. This revealed itself to us when someone got (and used the hell out of) the Slavery card. Not teetering on the edge of ruin also means that one player can't just end the game immediately if they feel that they're losing. What did you guys use your Explore tokens on? Those usually do a good job handling early game crises while economies are being set up.
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# ? Jul 11, 2015 02:55 |
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Jesus, Zombicide: Black Plague raised 4 million dollars
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# ? Jul 11, 2015 03:14 |
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GrandpaPants posted:It's probably good to take out the Separatist and the other one out of the first few games to get used to the flow of the game, but the threat of the Separatist becomes necessary after a point or else people will just pretend the Revolt marker is just another shared resource, when in fact it's a shared resource that also happens to be a possible win condition for someone else. This revealed itself to us when someone got (and used the hell out of) the Slavery card. Not teetering on the edge of ruin also means that one player can't just end the game immediately if they feel that they're losing. Yeah, Pacifist. I think the rulebook suggests removing that at first. Looks like both will go next time I play. I haven't looked through all of the cards since I didn't want to get an advantage vs the other noobs, but I'm guessing the Slavery card doesn't make the rebels like you much. One of the other players (the one that made it obvious she wasn't having a good time) really had a problem with the theme already. Glad that card didn't show up. "Okay I'm going to buy some more dudes...sorry Recruit some more dudes." Yeah, gotta make it known that I'm not buying natives, I'm hiring them to work for me. Even though I only pay for them once... Hehe. Um, mostly we used the explorer tokens to fill in for crisis like you mentioned. One of the other players really wanted a market but couldn't get any wood since it was the trend, so he used a wild for that too. I still had plenty of wilds, but they didn't have to know that. I was also last in play order most of the game. Once I got stuck there I was fine with it and just didn't bid at all for turn order. No one else really cared because they were fine being 1 and 2. But yeah, don't let the Separatist go last!
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# ? Jul 11, 2015 03:19 |
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# ? May 28, 2024 16:05 |
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New 2d fighting card game by L99: http://www.level99games.com/homepage/all-news/96-exceed-fighting-system-announcement.htmlquote:EXCEED is a 2-player fighting card game that simulates the flow of 2D Fighting Games, with a focus on insightful play, calculated risk, and fast-paced tactics. In EXCEED, each player chooses a 30-card deck representing a single fighter, or mixes together two decks to form a Tag Team, and then uses their fighter or team to do battle and defeat their opponent. That akuma looking dude on the cover looks rad as hell
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# ? Jul 11, 2015 04:20 |