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Wits and Wagers is a fun, light party game for that size group. Also, Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes (known among my friends as "the bomb game") is a pretty fun experience. King of Tokyo is lightweight, fast, and fun for people new to the hobby.
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Jan 26, 2016 20:58
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Minus1Minus1 posted:Ok, I'm looking to scoop up some more light games- Things that don't have too big a footprint, not-too fiddly, and can be explained and gotten into asap. These are for play with non-gamers and people who are not native speakers of English. I just picked up a game called Hocus which is billed as "wizard poker". The game works by having each player cast a spell on their turn. The three basic spells everyone has let you either add a card to a community (face up), play one or two cards face down into one of two personal pockets, or play a card facedown into a community pot. The advanced games also has several different wizard schools of three unique spells that you can also use once per turn in lieu of casting a basic spell. These can have more advanced interactions such as "draw three cards and put one in a community, one in a pot, and one in a pocket", or "play a card facedown in the community". Things like that. With 2-4 players, there are two communities of 4 face-up cards. With 5, there are 3. The cards consist of four suits with values from 0-14. You remove the 0 and 14 cards for fewer than 5 players. Cards also have point values. Lower value cards have a lower amount of points on them if they are won from the pot. Each player gets a hand of 9 or 10 cards depending on number of players. The game goes around turns until the 4th card of the last community is filled in, then one more round is played with the person who played the final community card to be the last to play. The player with the first-player token then announces which community to score first. Everyone commits one pocket (or passes) and then everyone flips for the showdown. Standard poker hands are used to determine the winner. The winner gets the pot, the points, and then any owl cards that are in the pot. Owl cards are cards of the Stave suit. They have special power text on the bottom that can only be played if you win them from the pot. Once the card is used, it goes back to the bottom of the deck. The rules suggest a score of 25 to determine the winner, but any score can be used obviously. I think it's a pretty good game. I'm not 100% sure about the advanced spells balance; ex: the Dark school has a spell that lets you create any number of additional pockets. This won the game for that player. So a possible tweak would be to play and advanced spell and then tap it. Only when you play a basic spell or another advanced spell does it untap, but I'm not sure. It wouldn't work for the Enchantment school which puts a passive ability on a community, pot, or pocket. Anyway - decent game, especially if you like poker. http://hyperbolegames.com/games/hocus/
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Jan 26, 2016 21:13
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Minus1Minus1 posted:Ok, I'm looking to scoop up some more light games- Things that don't have too big a footprint, not-too fiddly, and can be explained and gotten into asap. These are for play with non-gamers and people who are not native speakers of English. Ugg Tect could work well if language is a problem 
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Jan 26, 2016 21:21
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So not too long ago there was talk about replacement components being issued for Mage Knight's Shades of Tezla expansion. I purposefully avoided it because of how lovely it sounded back when it released, but ultimately would like to have it to complete my copy of the game. I'm assuming Wizkids being a dogshit company haven't actually reprinted the expansion, and the proper way of going about getting an unfucked version of it is to buy an existing misprinted copy and immediately request replacement parts upon getting proof of purchase/receiving it?
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Jan 26, 2016 21:40
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Gumdrop Larry posted:So not too long ago there was talk about replacement components being issued for Mage Knight's Shades of Tezla expansion. I purposefully avoided it because of how lovely it sounded back when it released, but ultimately would like to have it to complete my copy of the game. I'm assuming Wizkids being a dogshit company haven't actually reprinted the expansion, and the proper way of going about getting an unfucked version of it is to buy an existing misprinted copy and immediately request replacement parts upon getting proof of purchase/receiving it? I dunno, I submitted my replacement request whenever they first went live and haven't received anything or heard back from them. I mean, there are ways to get around the fuckery of the misprints though (sleeving cards, drawing monsters from a bag or other hidden source, etc.).
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Jan 26, 2016 22:36
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golden bubble posted:I actually like their implementation of that theme. Bay Area Regional Planner is a semi-coop. The players need to keep rents and commute times down while building enough housing to avoid losing. But to win the game, each player needs to accomplish all but one of their secret goal cards. Of course, all the secret goals are NIMBY bullshit, and players can only take actions by unanimous consent. So the whole game boils down to trying to obscure your NIMBY bullshit while blocking other players NIMBY bullshit. So it's basically a mashup of Clans and City of Horror. The mechanics could use some serious work, but it's a lot better than most educational games I've seen. Huh. I didn't expect to be remotely right. I'm torn, that might work, but I'd have to be convinced to play it.
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Jan 26, 2016 22:37
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Help me Board Game Thread! Okay, so over the winter break my friend bought, as a joke, Trump: The Game. It was awful, and we all agreed it was so, and I'll do a more detailed writeup later because it was amusingly awful. However! We had fun yelling at each other about bidding four, then five, then six million dollars for things. And so the serious gamers in the group realized we had no auction/bidding games because we had fun with that sort of thing despite the game's awfulness. As it so happens we have need to fill out an online order for free shipping at CardHaus in the 35-40 dollars range. Do you all have any recommendations? Weighty rulesness isn't an issue; just let me know the best.
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Jan 26, 2016 23:02
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One of the very best bidding games is Modern Art but it's out of print. I picked one up from a goon on these very forums and even my friends who prefer more casual games love it because it doesn't feel complex, even though it is. Try finding it from someone here or on BGG. There's a UFBRT on it if you want more info.
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Jan 26, 2016 23:07
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Hauki posted:I dunno, I submitted my replacement request whenever they first went live and haven't received anything or heard back from them. I mean, there are ways to get around the fuckery of the misprints though (sleeving cards, drawing monsters from a bag or other hidden source, etc.). Hmm, I just ordered myself a copy of the Shades of Tezla from CoolStuffInc, what do I need to know?
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Jan 26, 2016 23:11
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disperse posted:Hmm, I just ordered myself a copy of the Shades of Tezla from CoolStuffInc, what do I need to know?  Go to http://wizkidsreplacementsystem.com, sign up and ask for a replacement for nothing but the rulebook. Then they'll send the complete replacement set.
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Jan 26, 2016 23:17
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Electric Hobo posted:Everything is the wrong size! Wow, that's a king-size f-up! The cards too? I'm most interested in having a sixth character to mess around with.
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Jan 27, 2016 00:01
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My WIP of Magic Realm is over, and includes grown men being eaten alive by an eagle and narcolepsy: you can read it here. Also, I have a recruitment thread for a (possibly massive, definitely insane) game of Magic Realm up here.
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Jan 27, 2016 00:05
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Yep, even the cards. It's a huge screw-up. Do not buy from wizkids they are terrible. But they make one very good game 
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Jan 27, 2016 00:07
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thespaceinvader posted:Yep, even the cards. It's a huge screw-up. Do not buy from wizkids they are terrible.
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Jan 27, 2016 00:13
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Minus1Minus1 posted:Ok, I'm looking to scoop up some more light games- Things that don't have too big a footprint, not-too fiddly, and can be explained and gotten into asap. These are for play with non-gamers and people who are not native speakers of English. Language independent fillers I recommend are Dodekka and Kobayakawa. Dodekka is set collection from a deck of five suits with cards numbered 0 to 4. A row of three cards is dealt, players take it in turns to either add one to the end or take one from the front. If you add a card and the total of the row is above 12, you pick up the entire row unless you paired the last card. Your final score is the value of the cards in your best suit minus 1 for each card not in that suit. Kobayakawa is a betting game for 3-6. There is a deck of 15 cards numbered 1 to 15. Each player is dealt a card face down, and one card is dealt face up in the middle. Players take it in turns to either draw a card and discard a card, or to replace the card in the middle with the top card of the deck. Once each player has done that, a coin is put into the pot and each player can choose to bet one of their four coins or fold. Anyone who didn't fold has a showdown for the pot; highest card wins, but the person with the lowest card gets to add the centre card to their own. Ties are won by the first player to act. Winner of each hand becomes first player in the next hand. The game plays for six hands normally, then a final hand for double stakes (though you can still play if you only have one coin). Winner is the person with the most coins after the last hand.
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Jan 27, 2016 00:17
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Gumdrop Larry posted:So not too long ago there was talk about replacement components being issued for Mage Knight's Shades of Tezla expansion. ... buy an existing misprinted copy and immediately request replacement parts upon getting proof of purchase/receiving it? That's correct. I got mine to Canada in a couple of weeks, even submitted the request Christmas Eve I think. Their system mentions 'within 90 days from purchase' but they weren't actually caring about that, my copy was from around release time. And in wonderful Wizkids fashion, the replacements are themselves erroneous (Vampiric Dragons are missing the Vampiric symbol).
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Jan 27, 2016 00:19
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rchandra posted:That's correct. I got mine to Canada in a couple of weeks, even submitted the request Christmas Eve I think. Their system mentions 'within 90 days from purchase' but they weren't actually caring about that, my copy was from around release time. To be perfectly honest, I'm not too concerned about the physical copy. I mostly use the Vassal module and bought it because I believe in supporting games I love.
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Jan 27, 2016 00:26
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rchandra posted:And in wonderful Wizkids fashion, the replacements are themselves erroneous (Vampiric Dragons are missing the Vampiric symbol).  At that point I really think I'd just say gently caress it. Not worth it. Wow that's bad.
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Jan 27, 2016 01:03
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Minus1Minus1 posted:Ok, I'm looking to scoop up some more light games- Things that don't have too big a footprint, not-too fiddly, and can be explained and gotten into asap. These are for play with non-gamers and people who are not native speakers of English. I thought of two more that would fit: Jungle Speed (essentially the game slap jack or egyptian rat screw with better mechanics) and Bohnanza (a fast paced economy game with around ~100 cards and not much else - seems a little complicated at first, but has a simple gameplay loop and core mechanics). Love Letter is good because it's 12 cards, cheap, and plays in about 15 minutes. Also not very language dependent at all once you understand what each card does. If you wanted to try it out, then you could easily proxy it with a deck of playing cards and some pennies. For what it's worth, the people in my group who love Sushi Go also enjoy Love Letter. I don't particularly like it, but Splendor is a light deck building game with almost no language dependency. Guillotine has some problems, but it's a light card game with a darkly funny theme (beheading French nobles) and very little language dependency. Carcassonne is one of the grandaddies of gateway games, and has almost no language dependency. It might be the upper limit of complexity for your group, but I've had good luck introducing it to all sorts of people. Lots of expansions too if they end up liking it. Loopin' Louie / Chewie is a dexterity game that seats 3, is really humorous and fun, and easy to learn while having elements of skill. You might also look at Click Clack Lumberjack, although a big complaint is that the game pieces go everywhere as you play.
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Jan 27, 2016 01:08
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Trasson posted:Help me Board Game Thread! Ra is my #1 fav auction game. It's got great tense auctions, some elements of push-your-luck, good mix of long and shortterm strategy, and is surprisingly elegant. Might be out of print now, unforunately.
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Jan 27, 2016 01:13
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My favorite auction game is Pizarro & Company, but it is also out of print. Middle Kingdom is good but has blind auctions, so it might not give you the same feel. High Society is really good. Taj Mahal is also really good, but has a highly unusual auction system. Other games use auctions but have more going on including, Power Grid, Homesteaders, Princes of Florence, and Age of Steam.
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Jan 27, 2016 01:39
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KEYFLOWER! I'm also partial to Tinner's Trail.
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Jan 27, 2016 01:53
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rchandra posted:That's correct. I got mine to Canada in a couple of weeks, even submitted the request Christmas Eve I think. Their system mentions 'within 90 days from purchase' but they weren't actually caring about that, my copy was from around release time. Hmm. It's been at least 5 or 6 weeks for mine, I just tried to check on it and logging in to their replacement portal keeps dumping me to a 404 error. edit: after several tries, I got in and my ticket just says "Received" under status. edit: wait, is that "received" supposed to indicate that I've received it? Because I sure as gently caress haven't.
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Jan 27, 2016 02:19
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Food Chain Magnate is still considered to be all that right? I don't have any Splotter games mostly due to the OOP prices but I wouldn't mind picking one up and FCM seems to be doing a lot of things right, I like the sound of the worker pool building and that player interaction factors into it a lot rather than being a mostly solitaire efficiency exercise which I already have a bunch of.
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Jan 27, 2016 02:51
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Couldnt find Keyflowers in store locally so I pulled the trigger and ordered it online. So many loving meeples.
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Jan 27, 2016 03:04
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EBag posted:Food Chain Magnate is still considered to be all that right? I don't have any Splotter games mostly due to the OOP prices but I wouldn't mind picking one up and FCM seems to be doing a lot of things right, I like the sound of the worker pool building and that player interaction factors into it a lot rather than being a mostly solitaire efficiency exercise which I already have a bunch of. Yeah, the online negative I've heard is that it can be a really brutal game if that bothers you at all. That and the map design is really dull and doesn't fit the otherwise really well done aesthetics.
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Jan 27, 2016 03:07
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It's a game where it is possible to put yourself into an unwinnable / screwed position. However there is a training wheels version in the rules that makes the impact of bad decisions less punishing. I actually like the plain design, it makes it easier to take in the game state - but that's just my take on it. It's still plain, no refuting that. What I don't like is the enormous footprint of all the laid out cards. Sure if you get familiar enough with the game you can do without most of it but uh until then it's just unwieldy. Happily I have some card stands I am looking into using that cut down on area as well as holding cards up in a way that's easier for all players to see.
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Jan 27, 2016 04:43
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The newer versions seem to come with the cards and milestones printed on the player aid so maybe you don't necessarily need to lay out every card? What are the biggest ways that players can end up screwing themselves? I watched Rahdo's runthrough and it looked like it's pretty important to get some +hire cards early.
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Jan 27, 2016 05:31
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Trasson posted:Help me Board Game Thread! Impermanent posted:One of the very best bidding games is Modern Art but it's out of print. I picked one up from a goon on these very forums and even my friends who prefer more casual games love it because it doesn't feel complex, even though it is. Try finding it from someone here or on BGG. There's a UFBRT on it if you want more info.
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Jan 27, 2016 07:24
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I had the exquisite honor of playing the second T.I.M.E. Stories adventure yesterday, The Marcy Case. It has all of rolling dice to waste arbitrary time units, bullshit red herring dead ends, and almost zero exposition or explanation of the plot that you've come to expect from the franchise, but this time they've managed to poo poo up the few things the first adventure, Asylum, actually did right. Asylum started off with a somewhat interesting and unique setting; it takes a very rapid turn into a wall of cliches, but it starts off mostly good. TMC, on the other hand, is as generic a zombie outbreak setting as you can imagine from the word go. They even put umbrella symbols everywhere. Seriously. In Asylum the playable characters were a colorful bunch, as patients from a mental hospital they all had interesting rules quirks and you had a good number of them to choose between. In TMC you get exactly four characters and they are painfully generic: the FBI Agent, the Spunky Reporter, the Tattooed Ex-Con, and the Vietnam Vet (named Will, no less). Only one of them has a special ability, and it's not very interesting. The Asylum had one, maybe two, good puzzles; legitimate diamonds in the rough among a sea of dung. They used the card system in interesting ways to create something unique and challenging. In TMC, the main puzzle is little more than "find the hints that tell you which option is the correct one" AND the clues are written so poorly that the whole thing only makes any kind of sense if you go off of some bullshit "the correct answer must be among the choices we've found" video game logic. ~spoilers~ Seriously, I'm gonna spoil everything because this games makes me so god drat irrationally angry. ~spoilers~ The main puzzle is figuring out who Marcy is. You find four test subjects from the evil lab, they're all young women with red hair, they've been drugged so they can't just tell you their name. You find notes and cassette tapes that talk about the subjects and can use the few pieces of information you know about Marcy to eliminate two of them. One of the clues just states that one of the test subjects isn't progressing as she should and is going to be transferred out of the area; you're supposed to assume this means she can't be Marcy and that, therefore, the fourth girl has to be. Plothole Roundup Jamboree: -The city has been quarantined and is totally overrun with zombies, but somehow nobody knows about it; the Spunky Reporter is there to get her big scoop. -The mission starts with a crashed cop car, they were taking a shortcut through the quarantined town. -The four test subjects are all in different parts of the city. Most of them are chained or handcuffed to something. No explanation is given for this. -At the end of the mission a chopper picks up the girl. They are implied to be time-assholes too, and have a DNA scanner (what looks like a colored pattern on the card's border is used to check if you have the right girl). Why didn't they just send the main team with the drat DNA scanner? It would have made everything a hell of a lot easier. Stupid loving rear end in a top hat Dead-Ends -In the very first scene you can rescue a prisoner from the zombies. Two different areas have "If the prisoner is with you, you must flip this card, you can't flip this card otherwise" cards. Both of them are bad and get you nothing. -In the police station is an Abort Button. If you'd called the chopper to pick you up it stops them from coming. -A priest asks you to donate medkits. If you do he throws you into a room with a zombie giant. -The hotel has both stairs and an elevator. The stairs cost either a life or a time unit. The elevator has no downside. -From the very start of the game you can go to the river. Once there you can't leave, you can only try to go down the river. Trying to go down it without the fisherman or gas can is suicide. If you get to the end you get nothing unless you've done literally everything else in the game.
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Jan 27, 2016 07:25
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Fenn the Fool! posted:
If you don't mind, I'm going to share this with a board game Facebook group full of 8,000 members that won't shut up about how great the game is and collect their responses. Bottom Liner fucked around with this message at 08:57 on Jan 27, 2016 |
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Jan 27, 2016 07:53
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Bottom Liner posted:If you don't mind, I'm going to share this with a board game Facebook group full of 8,000 members that won't shut up about how great the game is and collect their responses. Don't use spoiler space, please.
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Jan 27, 2016 08:52
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Do a lot of deck builders devolve into long turns with compound operations? I seem to wind up in that mode because I like the moving parts, but it makes my wife want to kill me. Today's example was Dominion--just the base game. I wound up spamming villages so I could use the foundry to cycle my cards. I ended up losing 49 to 51 to her strategy of rarely cycling. It was not bad for my first time while I blindly searched for my groove, but it drove her nuts. I had something like 13 cards out at once, and I had to struggle to keep straight how many actions I had left to spend.
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Jan 27, 2016 09:43
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Everyone does that at first but usually not more than once or twice because it's just ineffective. You cycled through a dozen villages but usually to little net gain that couldn't have been got from one village and appropriate terminal actions. Turns are also a resource, and you're wasting them when buying redundant villages.
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Jan 27, 2016 09:49
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Rocko Bonaparte posted:Do a lot of deck builders devolve into long turns with compound operations? I seem to wind up in that mode because I like the moving parts, but it makes my wife want to kill me. If your buying heavily into villages your not playing the game well full stop.
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Jan 27, 2016 09:50
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Pulled the trigger on Keyflower. I'll put that next to Dungeon Lords on the section of my shelf dedicated to games I'll probably never actually get to the table. I even bought it despite Kemet and Tash Kalar being on my wishlist for over a year 
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Jan 27, 2016 10:01
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Hauki posted:edit: wait, is that "received" supposed to indicate that I've received it? "Received" just means they got your ticket - unsure if it changes before/after you upload a receipt or picture of your pieces etc. When they send it it would be "Shipped".
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Jan 27, 2016 11:18
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Bottom Liner posted:If you don't mind, I'm going to share this with a board game Facebook group full of 8,000 members that won't shut up about how great the game is and collect their responses. Please do, I'll hit "Like" Rocko Bonaparte posted:Do a lot of deck builders devolve into long turns with compound operations? I seem to wind up in that mode because I like the moving parts, but it makes my wife want to kill me. I don't know what Foundry is, did you mean Smithy? Village/Smithy is a simple early engine that most people discover, but it sounds like your ratio of villages to smithies is too far in favor of Villages. Also I'm just noticing 51-49 is really high for a 2 player game. Did you have Gardens in play? Otherwise that score should not be possible in 2 player base dominion, as there are only 8 of each VP card in the stack. Scyther fucked around with this message at 14:33 on Jan 27, 2016 |
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Jan 27, 2016 13:31
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Scyther posted:Otherwise that score should not be possible in 2 player base dominion, as there are only 8 of each VP card in the stack. If they used all 12 it's not too difficult. Kind of a trivial mistake to make for your first game.
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Jan 27, 2016 15:24
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Rocko Bonaparte posted:Do a lot of deck builders devolve into long turns with compound operations? I seem to wind up in that mode because I like the moving parts, but it makes my wife want to kill me. There are a couple strategies with heavy cycling that seem effective (my experience is largely playing against the Androminion AI, so I'm not sure how good these would be against a good human player): 1. Buying an army of Minions: if you draw one Minion only discard and draw 4, if you draw more than one Minion play for +2 gold/+1 action and play the last Minion to discard and draw 4. 2. Alchemists: 5 alchemists and 1-2 potions pretty much guarantees that you'll draw 10 cards at the start of every round.
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Jan 27, 2016 15:54
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