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Boz0r posted:I'm looking for a board game recommendation for me to play with my girlfriend. She's usually only plays games like Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit, but I'd like to try something more nerdy, so I'm looking for something not too hard to get into, with cooperative gameplay. I'd prefer something with a modular board, and maybe a cool horror theme. Any good ideas? Please don't make your girlfriend jump from Monopoly to Eldritch Horror or Mage Knight if you want her to continue to consider the hobby. If you want something that can be taught easily, I would go with Pandemic. Very simple, and it can actually pique interest with the combination of its solid design, theme, and component quality.
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Oct 18, 2015 14:55
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Honestly, Eldritch isn't that complicated and with 2 players it shouldn't be that long. It's only 1 step up mechanically from Pandemic in that there's a lot to do but the core is there and there are only so many actions to go over.
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Oct 18, 2015 15:00
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Also consider what theme she's more likely to enjoy. For a lot of people, bringing in the Cthulhu mythos can make or break a game irrespective of the rest of it.
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Oct 18, 2015 15:10
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Shadow225 posted:Please don't make your girlfriend jump from Monopoly to Eldritch Horror or Mage Knight if you want her to continue to consider the hobby. This is the right answer.
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Oct 18, 2015 15:14
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Pandemic takes about 5-10 minutes to set up with only the table footprint of a normal sized board. Eldritch takes 20-30 minutes and requires nearly an entire kitchen table. I'm cool with Eldritch, but I sincerely doubt that someone coming from Monopoly will not be overwhelmed.
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Oct 18, 2015 15:15
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If you want to go for ease over theme, then Forbidden Island / Desert are some of the easiest co-op games I can think of.
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Oct 18, 2015 15:20
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Andarel posted:Honestly, Eldritch isn't that complicated and with 2 players it shouldn't be that long. It's only 1 step up mechanically from Pandemic in that there's a lot to do but the core is there and there are only so many actions to go over. Wrong.
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Oct 18, 2015 15:31
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Golly (yes, GOLLY) I think the jump from Monopoly to even Pandemic is a bit much. Not impossible in the least, but if your girlfriend isn't really into your gaming habit now by all means go the Forbidden games route. They introduce variable game play, a bit deeper thought process than a die roll and moving the doggie, and play quick enough that you won't turn her off from it. Pandemic can play longer and you can lose pretty easily if you approach it casually. Topic change: Regarding Codenames, I walked by piles of this at Gen Con nearly every day before it sold out and sort of gave it a shrug. Seems like something that will get reprinted soon enough though. Is the game actually that good or is it just the new 'easily approachable/relatively quick player?
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Oct 18, 2015 15:41
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It's really good
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Oct 18, 2015 15:48
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Also, oddly for word games, there isn't really a barrier to entry. I played it with someone on Friday who thought "Bugle" was a kind of dog and had no idea what half a dozen other words meant but they did really well as Codemaster (fortunately on a board with words they understood)
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Oct 18, 2015 15:51
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Boz0r posted:I'm looking for a board game recommendation for me to play with my girlfriend. She's usually only plays games like Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit, but I'd like to try something more nerdy, so I'm looking for something not too hard to get into, with cooperative gameplay. I'd prefer something with a modular board, and maybe a cool horror theme. Any good ideas? Might be worth checking out Legendary Encounters: Alien. It's a pretty straightforward coop deckbuilder. I've been playing a lot of it lately and have been really enjoying it. It works well with two.
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Oct 18, 2015 15:57
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Impermanent posted:@radicalbytes, who is one of the creative minds behind feminist frequency, made a pretty entertaining list of board games with colonialist and racist themes. Don't say I didn't warn you people this was coming after that horse poo poo on bgg last year.
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Oct 18, 2015 15:57
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MrL_JaKiri posted:Also, oddly for word games, there isn't really a barrier to entry. I played it with someone on Friday who thought "Bugle" was a kind of dog Duh. Everyone knows it was the name of Darwin's ship.
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Oct 18, 2015 16:21
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Keep in mind that you can make exceptions for noobies if they have video game experience, especially strategy games. I've taken a few people straight from "never played anything besides monopoly even once" to Twilight Imperium without any major hangups because video games had acclimated them to complex systems.
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Oct 18, 2015 16:32
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Boz0r posted:I'm looking for a board game recommendation for me to play with my girlfriend. She's usually only plays games like Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit, but I'd like to try something more nerdy, so I'm looking for something not too hard to get into, with cooperative gameplay. I'd prefer something with a modular board, and maybe a cool horror theme. Any good ideas? What you are after is Betrayal at House on the HIll. It is dirt simple to learn and set up, it has a great horror theme, and it's much better than Monopoly. Don't get Eldritch Horror or Pandemic, if you want your girlfriend to stay your girlfriend.
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Oct 18, 2015 16:36
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Rutibex posted:Don't get Eldritch Horror or Pandemic, if you want your girlfriend to stay your girlfriend. Rutibex isn't the marrying type 
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Oct 18, 2015 16:39
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MrL_JaKiri posted:Rutibex isn't the marrying type I'm married to the sea.
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Oct 18, 2015 16:51
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Rutibex posted:I'm married to the sea.
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Oct 18, 2015 16:56
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MrL_JaKiri posted:Also, oddly for word games, there isn't really a barrier to entry. I played it with someone on Friday who thought "Bugle" was a kind of dog and had no idea what half a dozen other words meant but they did really well as Codemaster (fortunately on a board with words they understood) My brother gave Rollo: 2 for chocolate and center and his operative hadn't heard of them. I pointed out later that since telescope was also a clue he should have gone with Milky Way: 3
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Oct 18, 2015 16:59
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Das Doppelganger posted:Regarding Codenames, I walked by piles of this at Gen Con nearly every day before it sold out and sort of gave it a shrug. Seems like something that will get reprinted soon enough though. Is the game actually that good or is it just the new 'easily approachable/relatively quick player? It's both. The mechanics are really, really good (how teams are balanced to require you to go for CLUE: 3 or 4 after a bit, for example) and lead to a lot of memorable and fun interactions. The primary restriction on clues is something that most people intuitively get, and have fun figuring out. Field Agents and Mastermind are both fun to play, so it doesn't feel like you're just waiting for your turn to master. Apart from that, it is easily approachable and quick. People outside the hobby are familiar with the core wordgame idea, and it's easy to teach. Plus the art and theme are fun and fit well. You can get in a lot of games right after the other without the gameplay going stale, which is more than I can say for my two other intro games (Sushi Go and Love Letter).
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Oct 18, 2015 17:01
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Would Codenames be a good classroom game for an English room or does it's main mechanic rely more on being clever than word comprehension? It sounds from an earlier post it's more cleverness than comprehension.
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Oct 18, 2015 17:11
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I swear the red male agent in Codenames is Barry Dylan
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Oct 18, 2015 17:13
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The male bystander is Rodney Dangerfield.
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Oct 18, 2015 17:24
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Tekopo posted:I agree that there is an issue with games whitewashing colonialism in board game but (and it might be because I live in London) board gaming has been pretty much the nerd hobby where I've seen the most diversity in any nerd hobby ever. X-wing, on the other hand, is completely filled with white guys. I think that the reason boardgames are mostly white comes down to the usual factors, which is the typical parts of white supremacy that result in lower economic achievement for non whites. Boardgames are relatively cheap ways to have fun, but they require a lifestyle that can sustain large time investments in leisure activities, and are a niche within within a niche. I agree with you that board games do seem to be a more diverse subcategory of nerd hobby. Arguing that colonialism in board games somehow keeps PoC out of a field where, sure, there is a colonialist streak, but also many other themes, is a pretty weak argument. That doesn't mean that colonialism in board games isn't a problem, though. My favorite genre of games is 4X's, and there's an obvious lie those games tell players: that, in every Era of history, there exists empty, fertile land for your empire to take without violence to indigenous people.
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Oct 18, 2015 17:44
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Das Doppelganger posted:Would Codenames be a good classroom game for an English room or does it's main mechanic rely more on being clever than word comprehension? It sounds from an earlier post it's more cleverness than comprehension. It's definitely more about word association than word comprehension. If you completely misinterpret a word but everyone else on your team also misinterprets it the same way, it's technically a success.
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Oct 18, 2015 17:45
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Impermanent posted:I think that the reason boardgames are mostly white Boardgames are not a white thing by any stretch of the imagination. Maybe modern German nerd games, but not board games in general. Every civilized culture (and some uncivilized ones) throughout all of history and the world have played board games.
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Oct 18, 2015 18:18
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Impermanent posted:I think that the reason boardgames are mostly white comes down to the usual factors, which is the typical parts of white supremacy that result in lower economic achievement for non whites. Boardgames are relatively cheap ways to have fun, but they require a lifestyle that can sustain large time investments in leisure activities, and are a niche within within a niche. Maybe it's just where you live? In the bay area our meetups are 50% white at most.
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Oct 18, 2015 18:22
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In London the meetup I go to had literally a meetup every evening on weekdays and events on both weekend days. The type of people that come are a mixture of regulars and people that just found he meetup online and there's a really good mix of different nationalities and women/men. It helps that the group tries to be as welcoming as possible.
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Oct 18, 2015 18:28
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That's awesome! My experience of board games comes mostly from Chicago, which has a host of local problems regarding race. If my experience is not typical, that's great news.
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Oct 18, 2015 18:52
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Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll check them out. I looked at Betrayal at House on the Hill and thought it looked cool, but it said it was for 3+ players.
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Oct 18, 2015 19:02
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If retirement in Hong Kong is chainsmoking around a mahjong table for hours, I may need to retire in Hong Kong.
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Oct 18, 2015 19:05
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Malloreon posted:Maybe it's just where you live? Our meetups are 75% white or so*, but given the area is 90% white... *Except for the table playing Tanto Cuare, which is 100% white and 100% male obviously MrL_JaKiri fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Oct 18, 2015 |
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Oct 18, 2015 19:08
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I joined a monthly Game of Thrones game a while ago and last night we had only 4 players so we played the variant with objective cards, a first for me. Playing the Lannisters, I won in 6 turns by scoring two turns of my constant "have King's Landing and your own home" objective plus a 1-point card every turn. I happened to be dealt objectives that were pretty easy for me to complete, like holding territories or tokens that I already had. So I'm curious, does anyone have a lot of experience with that style of game and an opinion on if it's much more subject to luck? Because I felt very lucky, but I'm also not sure I could have won even with my easy objectives if my opponents had paid a little closer attention. For instance, I literally abandoned King's Landing before the Baratheon player sent an army after it and then never made an attempt to take it back. I would have thought that would signal to him that I was much too happy with what I was holding to be left alone, but he chose to play very defensively.
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Oct 18, 2015 19:12
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Boz0r posted:I looked at Betrayal at House on the Hill and thought it looked cool, but it said it was for 3+ players. You can play it with two people, if each of you take control of two characters each. Once the Haunt starts the antagonist has to give up their extra character to the other person. It works out fine as a two player game, I've done it this way lots of times.
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Oct 18, 2015 19:28
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Rutibex posted:You can play it with two people, if each of you take control of two characters each. Once the Haunt starts the antagonist has to give up their extra character to the other person. It works out fine as a two player game, I've done it this way lots of times. It's definitely not a co-op game with only two players, though.
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Oct 18, 2015 20:39
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You are cooperating to tell a story 
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Oct 18, 2015 21:18
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Oof. SO, today's trip report: played a dice game (Pharoah's Favour I think) which took an hour with 4 including explanations but was, at heart, a dice game, and one in which you want to roll high not low, so always iffy. Then new Through the Ages. Including rules revisions, which took us a while, took MORE THAN 5 HOURS with three. My loving LORD my group is slow and prone to chat and/or AP. We all contribute to the former, but some people contribute a LOT more to the latter. And I lost >.< It's been a long while since I played and I just ran completely out of steam in the mid-game.
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Oct 18, 2015 21:36
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Rutibex posted:You can play it with two people, if each of you take control of two characters each. Once the Haunt starts the antagonist has to give up their extra character to the other person. It works out fine as a two player game, I've done it this way lots of times. Please don't listen to Rubitex. Betrayal has a ton of flaws, which may or may not matter to you, but there's a big reason you shouldn't break it out - the variance of the endgame. There are 20+ scenarios that are chosen at random at a certain point in the game. While it sounds exciting, there's two big issues: 1- They all require additional special rules which may or may not be easy to parse 2 - It's entirely possible to get a completely unwinnable scenario for one side If you want to move your partner into more advanced games, Betrayal has a real chance of dying with a wet fart in your first playthrough, not something you want to use as an introduction to modern games. Crackbone fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Oct 18, 2015 |
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Oct 18, 2015 21:44
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Crackbone posted:Please don't listen to Rubitex. This should at least be in the OP, if not the thread title. Avoid Betrayal as a first game. Pandemic is a good safe bet and you can adjust the difficulty as you see fit.
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Oct 18, 2015 21:46
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Yeah, definitely do not buy Betrayal at the Hill as it's balls: random, long and complicated, and a huge proportion of the time your decisions have no impact on the outcome of the game. If you want a long, boring game where you're just going through the motions, monopoly is cheaper. The Supreme Court fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Oct 18, 2015 |
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Oct 18, 2015 21:48
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