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Redundant posted:I wouldn't get too much FOMO about Cole's stuff. They have done 2 runs of Pax Pamir as well as being able to get it as an add on in this JoCo campaign. Looking at how well it's doing I wouldn't bet against another run next year and I assume Cole will revisit An Infamous Traffic and you will probably be able to get a copy during that too. He's said he's going to redo an infamous traffic for sure, so you can absolutely wait for future efforts.
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Apr 16, 2021 22:16
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Oath is a significant step down from either Pamir or JoCo. I’d put it on par with Root when you consider the multi faction teach. In some ways Root is harder because everyone engages with components in unique ways whereas in Oath everyone is doing the same things. Oath’s actions are easier to understand and the board state is much clearer to parse than either PP or JoCo as well. Oath and Root still feel like dudes on a map games at the end of the day, and while Pamir sort of is that too, the fact that you don’t own any of the pieces and the way alignment works is hard for new players to grasp. JoCo and AiT are different beasts entirely.
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Apr 16, 2021 22:26
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Oath and JoCo seemed like the easiest games. Oath rules just aren't that hard. JoCo is mostly hard because it's not obvious what you should be doing, but you can just YOLO as a group and it's still interesting, unlike say some 4x or engine game where you start slow and basically just watch everyone else leave you behind.
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Apr 16, 2021 22:42
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Redundant posted:I wouldn't get too much FOMO about Cole's stuff. They have done 2 runs of Pax Pamir as well as being able to get it as an add on in this JoCo campaign. Looking at how well it's doing I wouldn't bet against another run next year and I assume Cole will revisit An Infamous Traffic and you will probably be able to get a copy during that too. JoCo will assuredly be back for another run, probably around AIT time. First I'm going to see how Oath and Pax Pamir play out for my group. Then I may spring for JoCo and AIT. I'm still not convinced that JoCo will actually be fun for 95% of the people I play with, possibly me included. ;-)
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Apr 16, 2021 22:50
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JoCo is honestly more of an experience simulator, than a game you can be good at, and it pretty much should be played YOLO. I’ve played 1st edition a couple of times and I dont think any game has been similar enough to provide meaningful play data (But almost always different groups of people also)
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Apr 17, 2021 00:01
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Fellis posted:JoCo is honestly more of an experience simulator, than a game you can be good at, and it pretty much should be played YOLO. I’ve played 1st edition a couple of times and I dont think any game has been similar enough to provide meaningful play data (But almost always different groups of people also) I think this poster from the TG kickstarter thread pretty much hits the nail on the head: Tarnop posted:The first edition never really tells you that the game isn't in trying to control what the company does, so if you got into it with that as a goal it's going to be super frustrating. The actual goal is to grasp and claw for all the money you can while manoeuvring your army of failsons up the corporate ladder, all while the company performs its role as a giant Unintended Consequence generator.
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Apr 17, 2021 00:13
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That's a shame, I really like obtuse satire.
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Apr 17, 2021 17:35
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Would it be correct to say that JoCo is analogous to Crusader Kings 2 and 3, in that it presents itself as a strategy game but in reality is more like a roleplaying game about a single family?
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Apr 17, 2021 18:45
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Narratively yes, mechanically no. Like all of Cole’s games the players choices and actions paint a vivid picture about what’s happening in game, but they are driven by mechanical based game design. Their are a lot of shared incentives in JoCo as well as grappling with events that pop up as a group semi-coop style specifically. I haven’t played 2e but learning the rules changes so far it seems to be more strategic broadly speaking.
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Apr 17, 2021 18:57
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pospysyl posted:Would it be correct to say that JoCo is analogous to Crusader Kings 2 and 3, in that it presents itself as a strategy game but in reality is more like a roleplaying game about a single family? I wouldn't call it roleplaying, in that I hate roleplaying and don't hate JoCo, but the level of luck needed to do things is much higher than would be acceptable in an actual strategy game. I've not kept up with JoCo2e, but winning in JoCo 1e meant retiring well. And retiring was on a roll of a 1d6. Now the game has ways to jiggle that, but it always came down to a 1d6 roll. I have seen people not able to score because their cube decided to die in office.
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Apr 17, 2021 19:01
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From the very few times I've played JoCo (and obviously not JoCo2 yet), it's also more player negotiation based. There's stuff you can negotiate in Cole's other games (citizenship in Oath is a big one), but JoCo is basically "You Scratch My Back, I'll Scratch Yours: The Game"
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Apr 17, 2021 19:12
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Jewmanji posted:I have doubts that I'll ever have a group that's interested in playing John Company 2E or Pax Pamir 2E, but between those two games is there any consensus on which is more approachable for casual gamers? My guess is that Pamir is way more approachable, if only because the board (or cloth) is way less info-dense, whereas JoCo throws a lot at you. And the theme of Pamir seems slightly more approachable than John Company. Pamir is relatively accessible IF the others players don't mind not having a perfect control, and are interested in the theme and the setting. I play with my father (with or without the AI) ; he is fascinated by the game and loves it, even though he usually doesn't like complicated games (Memoir 44 being the upper limit usually).
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Apr 17, 2021 21:17
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pospysyl posted:Would it be correct to say that JoCo is analogous to Crusader Kings 2 and 3, in that it presents itself as a strategy game but in reality is more like a roleplaying game about a single family? It's not role-playing, it models a unique social dynamic that's evocative of the real JoCo.
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Apr 17, 2021 22:24
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The strangest game of JoCo I had was when the company made all the trades on the first turn, China opened up, and the director decided to reinvest most of the revenue and the company was just insanely healthy the whole game and made tons of money for everyone.
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Apr 17, 2021 22:58
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Mr. Squishy posted:And retiring was on a roll of a 1d6. Now the game has ways to jiggle that, but it always came down to a 1d6 roll. I have seen people not able to score because their cube decided to die in office. Looks like Cole folded the optional retirement rules into JoCo2e. Now every office retires on a 5-6, but if you roll a 3-4 the office gains a fatigue, which adds +1 to the next retirement roll. Current non final rules are here if anyone is keen to see https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Y65pqk6URTeEGXA66Tjshpbas17iRcAD/view
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Apr 18, 2021 02:09
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I had never had any interest in Gloomhaven because I knew the scope and complexity were too much for our group to justify the cost to myself, but when I saw a ding and dent of Jaws of the Lion for $25, I picked it up because why not. I have questions. First, I just punched and bagged everything, it's impossible to actually close the box right? Second, how legacy-y is this game? I haven't really delved into the rulebook but it sounds like the only things that are permanent are character sheets and the stickers (which apparently track what is available to the group). If I send up playing with multiple groups, is the play to just keep a slip of paper that tracks what the stickers would otherwise be? This is a feasible and still enjoyable way to play the game, right? I know that for Pandemic Legacy parallel games was functionally impossible. Third, I'm the usual teacher for my group. Any tips for approaching this thing? Obviously there's a "how to play," and the first scenarios are functionally tutorials, but "lets read the how to play book aloud" is a bad idea. Assigning the How to Play as homework similarly seems like an unfun introduction. Apologies for questions that I'm 100% sure have been asked a million times but i recall this thread loves talking about Gloomhaven and I'm hoping it extends to Jaws of the Lion. EDIT: oh, right, there's a gloomhaven thread. I'll leave this here for now but skim over there for answers to these, maybe move the post. Boxman fucked around with this message at 14:53 on Apr 18, 2021 |
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Apr 18, 2021 14:47
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In my group, JoCo is first and foremost a shouting match. There is a narrative roller coaster that’s aided by the event deck. I’d put it about to par with sidereal wrt decibel level. I wouldn’t be opposed to calling it a narrative role playing game. There’s less player control than GM-less games that requires everyone to participate in the storytelling. I’d say the event deck and random rolls act like a bot GM but without any opinionated action like an adversarial or sympathetic GM. The designer by way of this GM analogy is definitely silently judging your actions, however. Chill la Chill fucked around with this message at 15:46 on Apr 18, 2021 |
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Apr 18, 2021 15:41
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Boxman posted:Third, I'm the usual teacher for my group. Any tips for approaching this thing? Obviously there's a "how to play," and the first scenarios are functionally tutorials, but "lets read the how to play book aloud" is a bad idea. Assigning the How to Play as homework similarly seems like an unfun introduction. Rodney did an excellent series of videos for JOTL, which cover the first 5 scenarios. The first video is a bit long but covers setting up the game for the first time and runs through the basic game mechanics. You don't have to make the other players watch it, but it should help familiarize you with the game and give you some ideas on how to teach it.
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Apr 18, 2021 17:51
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i would recommend both watching the rodney smith videos and rattling through the first 5 scenarios solo if you're going to have to teach the rules anyway
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Apr 18, 2021 17:58
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Boxman posted:EDIT: oh, right, there's a gloomhaven thread. I'll leave this here for now but skim over there for answers to these, maybe move the post. JotL (and GH) are non-destructive legacy games. While it's possible to run games in parallel with one box it's gonna be a little annoying - card and perk selections, city event decks, etc. There's nothing stopping you from doing it except that. There's stickers on the board but those are no big deal at all. And yeah the GH thread is good 
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Apr 18, 2021 17:59
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I understand not wanting to assign "homework" but if your gaming time is anything like mine was pre-pandemic - fairly limited, either due to your personal schedule or that of the group's - then you might just want to bite the bullet and ask people to watch the videos anyway. I try not to make a habit of it but for something like GH I think it's a pretty justifiable ask since the game is complex and you'll be playing it quite a bit. When my group dug into vanilla GH I told them straight up "I'd really appreciate it if you could spare 30 minutes over the course of the next week or two before we meet up to watch this" and everyone agreed it was fine.
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Apr 18, 2021 19:09
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I'm also pro-video before getting the game on the table. The biggest pro is that people will have a general idea of the game flow and big picture ideas without getting overwhelmed by new components and rules all at once. I'm a terrible rules teacher and good how-to-play videos helped my group a ton.
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Apr 18, 2021 19:17
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Beyond Baker Street is more interesting than Hanabi, but not by much.
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Apr 18, 2021 21:10
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I'm lucky to have a TV in my board game room so sometimes we watch a vid. Depends on the game really. Like yesterday I was teaching Hadrian's Wall and even though there's vids (I thought the Meeple University one was the best) I watched the vid myself and then taught because just watching the vid you're going to be given way too much information at once.
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Apr 18, 2021 21:12
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Golden Bee posted:Beyond Baker Street is more interesting have you tried Awkward Guests? And if so how would you compare the two?
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Apr 18, 2021 21:18
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Bottom Liner posted:have you tried Awkward Guests? And if so how would you compare the two? I played Awkward Guests once and I thought it was a really good deduction game, but I thought the setup time was enough of a drawback that I would still want to play Deduce or Die anytime I was in the mood for a deduction game.
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Apr 18, 2021 22:48
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Looks like there's a new edition of Galaxy Trucker coming. bgg posted:This version of Galaxy Trucker is a relaunch of the original 2007 release by Vlaada Chvátil that features new art, more ship tiles, tweaked card effects, and streamlined gameplay that consists of only a single flight through space. That said, should you want a longer, more challenging experience, you can play a three-flight campaign known as the "Transgalactic Trek". I wonder how much it will be streamlined since the very first line in the description is "In the fast and goofy family game Galaxy Trucker..." More details up on the CGE website. Radioactive Toy fucked around with this message at 15:43 on Apr 22, 2021 |
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Apr 22, 2021 15:40
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Let me share an interesting list of games I stumbled across: Not Like Anything Else I only own three games on that list and never even heard of most of them. I ended up buying a copy of Psycho Raiders, which -- between the art, general design, and the fact that you even have to cut your own cards out from a sheet -- is one of the more amazing things I have come across. It's like boardgame outsider art. 
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Apr 22, 2021 16:10
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what games are like Space Alert? I freaking love Space Alert
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Apr 22, 2021 16:31
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The Eyes Have It posted:Let me share an interesting list of games I stumbled across: Not Like Anything Else I have heard of most of them and still own Dark Cults somewhere. A few others are on my list of games that I want to remake as blinged-out versions (Gunslinger, Magic Realm). Weird games are cool.
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Apr 22, 2021 16:35
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Harold Fjord posted:what games are like Space Alert? I freaking love Space Alert The upcoming For Science by Eric Reuss (Spirit Island guy) might scratch a similar chaotic realtime co-op itch
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Apr 22, 2021 16:58
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Radioactive Toy posted:Looks like there's a new edition of Galaxy Trucker coming. Sounds great but I really don't feel like replacing three boxes of Galaxy Trucker with a new edition. I'm hoping that the streamlined new rules can be used with the existing game as well.
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Apr 22, 2021 16:59
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u brexit ukip it posted:Sounds great but I really don't feel like replacing three boxes of Galaxy Trucker with a new edition. I'm hoping that the streamlined new rules can be used with the existing game as well. Yeah, I'm hoping for an Upgrade Pack, but maybe this is just a $30 Upgrade Pack to my Anniversary Edition.
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Apr 22, 2021 17:02
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Boxman posted:Second, how legacy-y is this game? I haven't really delved into the rulebook but it sounds like the only things that are permanent are character sheets and the stickers (which apparently track what is available to the group). If I send up playing with multiple groups, is the play to just keep a slip of paper that tracks what the stickers would otherwise be? This is a feasible and still enjoyable way to play the game, right? I know that for Pandemic Legacy parallel games was functionally impossible. JotL has a lot less legacy elements to track than GH but if you are playing this in person with separate groups, keeping separate group campaigns is going to add book-keeping effort and add quite a bit to setup and breakdown time. It's not impossible, I ran two separate GH groups out of one box for a year but it added a ton of overhead to what can already be a lengthy setup since player's can't just chuck their character's current stuff into an envelope and be ready for the next game. Depending on how you do this, just be ready for players (or yourself) to have to reconstruct their character's state before each session and how you might feel after having to do this for the Xth time.
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Apr 22, 2021 17:11
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Harold Fjord posted:what games are like Space Alert? I freaking love Space Alert Nothing, really, but there are other real-time co-ops with time pressure, limited communication, and/or action programming: - Magic Maze - Kitchen Rush - Mechs vs. Minions (not fully realtime other than action selection) - A Tale of Pirates - Captain Sonar (team-based, not fully co-op) None of these reach the level of Space Alert for me, I've enjoyed them all, and they're all infinitely more accessible for new players. I've taught Space Alert to new groups probably 25+ times now, and I never want to do it again.
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Apr 22, 2021 17:18
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The Eyes Have It posted:Let me share an interesting list of games I stumbled across: Not Like Anything Else I read what he wrote and then the page on BGG and immediately went looking for it. No luck yet but I won't stop. It sounds insane. In saner news: 1848 will be showing up soon. What are peoples' thoughts on it? How heavy/chromey is it? Trying to figure out if it's worth picking up a copy of it or not but I'm worried that my 18xx collection has increased to the point that I am trying to be pickier about which ones I get if the differences aren't significant enough.
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Apr 22, 2021 17:22
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FulsomFrank posted:I read what he wrote and then the page on BGG and immediately went looking for it. No luck yet but I won't stop. It sounds insane. https://store.cave-evil.com/collections/board-games/products/psycho-raiders
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Apr 22, 2021 17:33
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Terra Mystica rules. What are your favorite factions to play in 5 player games? Base game only. So far, I’ve played as Witches, Darklings and Giants and had a lot of fun with each. Chaos Magicians seem really neat, but I’ve read they are really hard to play in 5p games.
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Apr 22, 2021 17:52
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homullus posted:I have heard of most of them and still own Dark Cults somewhere. A few others are on my list of games that I want to remake as blinged-out versions (Gunslinger, Magic Realm). Weird games are cool. Yeah, weird games are cool. It's fascinating to see what got tried before people sort of settled on the ways games are supposed to work and do stuff. Even today, I have a strong bias in favor of novel mechanics and themes in games. It's one of the reasons I think things like Kickstarter are a net positive, in that they can allow someone's niche project idea to happen, make it just the way they like, and reach people they otherwise would not. * For example, the recent Zine thing (forget the name... Zine Quest?) that Kickstarter did had all kinds of interesting sounding games get pitched and funded. Some with really novel themes and game mechanics. (*) Or crash and burn in a fiery blaze of drama before dimming from existence leaving only bitterness behind, of course
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Apr 22, 2021 19:39
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FulsomFrank posted:I read what he wrote and then the page on BGG and immediately went looking for it. No luck yet but I won't stop. It sounds insane. Vaguely makes me think of Last Frontier, which I found to be basically a space marine meat grinder simulator 
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Apr 22, 2021 19:42
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