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The Eyes Have It posted:Let me share an interesting list of games I stumbled across: Not Like Anything Else Weird poo poo is very much my jam so this list is amazing; thanks! (I also just ordered a copy of Psycho Raiders.)
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Apr 22, 2021 19:48
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Thanks! $22 USD shipping on a $29 game causes deep pain to me.
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Apr 22, 2021 20:05
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FulsomFrank posted:Thanks! $22 USD shipping on a $29 game causes deep pain to me. Same, same  I kind of considered two copies, but in the end didn't. (I should have done two copies)
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Apr 22, 2021 20:20
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The Eyes Have It posted: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. I agree enthusiastically. While I generally want my games to be balanced, non-player-elimination, non-quarterbacking, and respectful of my time and choices, I also really appreciate games that try to create certain experiences and/or create a model at the expense of those aforementioned qualities of a good game. The "weird" and "model" games get played far less, but they're still close to half of my collection.
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Apr 22, 2021 20:38
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Nate Hayden makes sweet games, glad he’s getting some love
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Apr 22, 2021 20:58
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FulsomFrank posted:Thanks! $22 USD shipping on a $29 game causes deep pain to me. Is this international shipping or something? I paid $7 for shipping
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Apr 22, 2021 21:03
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Slimy Hog posted:Is this international shipping or something? I paid $7 for shipping Shipping over the border into Canada. I had a feeling it'd be ugly but sometimes you just don't know.
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Apr 22, 2021 21:50
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Also a Calandale review! Gods be priased! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXHRPasZJRw
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Apr 22, 2021 22:19
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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. 48 isn't too bad. Dutch auction start, some bonuses for running between big cities, minor track gague stuff, and the Bank of England handing out loans and nationalising companies. Otherwise it's standard 30-style rules.
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Apr 23, 2021 00:32
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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. Gloomhaven isn't really a legacy game, just a campaign game. There won't be any new rules added to the system over time. In the regular game, you can add stickers to player cards to evolve your character, but that's not present in JotL (though the cards do allow for it, if you import those characters into Gloomhaven proper). Still, you can do that over card sleeves if you want to separate the two groups. The biggest thing to juggle if you're running multiple groups is paradoxically the thing people care the least about; the road/event decks. If you're running multiple groups, the easiest thing to do rather than track both parties road/event decks, is just have your slower party just pull the events that your faster party has done, and you keep quiet as to the outcomes. The store is also a bit of a pain, as different groups find different items, but that's a very minor issue in JotL, because the story is pretty linear. Gloomhaven is much more open world, and different groups will get lots of different items. There are tracker apps for that though.
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Apr 23, 2021 03:18
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Ubik_Lives posted:Gloomhaven isn't really a legacy game, just a campaign game. There won't be any new rules added to the system over time. In the regular game, you can add stickers to player cards to evolve your character Why does the sticker thing, which is both a new rule added to the system well into your campaign and a permanent alteration of the game, not make Gloomhaven a legacy game?
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Apr 23, 2021 03:26
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I played an Arthurian flavored board game recently with some friends called Tournament at Avalon, and I loved it quite a bit. The aesthetics made it clear that the developers had a lot of love for the mythology, and the character choices were all uniquely flavored and put a fun spin on the general gameplay without being super alienating. Plus, each character has the potential to do powerful, somewhat jank strategies and card combinations if things fall in place, and--in a real match--the way each player's gameplans would stumble and collide with one-another allowed for a fun amount of chaos, and meant that each individual game felt different depending on who was playing at the time. I'd definitely recommend it.
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Apr 23, 2021 03:34
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Enchantments are in the main rulebook. You know about it from the start of the game. It's not something that changes a core gameplay mechanic halfway through. I guess it comes down to me viewing legacy games not as those that use stickers or destroy components, but games that evolve their core ruleset over time. You can't drop a person who has played one game of Pandemic Legacy cold into the final mission without explaining a whole ton of new rules, but you absolutely can do that with Gloomhaven. Dungeon crawlers all have rules for gaining levels and improving gear and abilities, and Gloomhaven has more options than most dungeon crawlers because of enchantments, but tracking an upgrade with a sticker over a stat sheet doesn't warrant the legacy title in my opinion. It just makes it a campaign game.
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Apr 23, 2021 03:46
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Hayden and EEE make some cool poo poo and i won't fault anyone for liking them, but i really hope they someday grow out of some gross-rear end backwards aspects of their love for old horror comix and grindhouse flicks. https://twitter.com/gutterowl/status/1274468269865365504
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Apr 23, 2021 07:49
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CAVE EVIL is a game I'm glad I own, but very rarely actually play.
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Apr 23, 2021 08:19
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Hey, are there any good (but possibly less long) board games like Nemesis? I played it at a friend's house recently with a bunch of others. I really quite liked it! The Alien-like atmosphere, but especially the fact that you CAN work together to succeed (to an extent, depending on which objectives you draw) but you could easily go off and do your own thing. Since for instance, in the game we played I went off on my own for my objective to grab a body (to bring them home) and trigger the distress beacon, sorted it, then was about to escape in a pod...but then I agreed to help a friend (he needed the whole ship explored/revealed) and then when that happened another friend was like "oh wait up, I'll totally escape with you!" (Only one pod on that side, due to an event busting the other) ...except he ended up being hopeless and called in two big aliens accidentally, then used all of his ammo missing the drat things. So whatever, I tried helping, but I've got a mission to complete. So I laid down some suppressive fire, pulled the gently caress out of that death alley and legged it for the other escape pod bay, right when the others were starting to think about bailing on the ship after drawing out the alien queen and triggering the self-destruct sequence. (Long story. A string of baffling betrayals and redemptions led to the sequence being triggered, but not able to be switched off...) But yeah, so in the end I was the only one to get off the ship, the turn the ship exploded. I had hoped some others would get off too, but they botched their attempt, so they went down with the ship. Pretty good, in the end! Definitely taught me that I should be more cut-throat. I could've been gone risk-free in under an hour, but nearly died due to trying to ~do the right thing~ 
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Apr 23, 2021 14:00
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Ubik_Lives posted:The biggest thing to juggle if you're running multiple groups is paradoxically the thing people care the least about; the road/event decks. If you're running multiple groups, the easiest thing to do rather than track both parties road/event decks, is just have your slower party just pull the events that your faster party has done, and you keep quiet as to the outcomes. The store is also a bit of a pain, as different groups find different items, but that's a very minor issue in JotL, because the story is pretty linear. Gloomhaven is much more open world, and different groups will get lots of different items. There are tracker apps for that though. Event deck pulls can just be handled via app. Gloomhaven Campaign Helper has the card images and lets you add/remove/shuffle as needed although don't think there's a JOTL version. Store you could just print duplicates per player. Modifier decks is the more intensive one with potentially quite a number of cards to add/remove each setup. darnon fucked around with this message at 14:11 on Apr 23, 2021 |
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Apr 23, 2021 14:07
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Harold Fjord posted:what games are like Space Alert? I freaking love Space Alert Depends what you're after? In terms of, Programming a turn, then doing a reveal where you quickly go 'OH poo poo!' and laughing at some small fly in the ointment totally hosed your plans, there's Robo Rally, which is about as close to competitive Space Alert as it gets. I find most people hate this game because they couldn't actually program a turn with a time limit even if it WASN'T competitive, but maybe your crew would be more competent, when it's fun and everyone's on board, it can be amazing, but there's a lot of RNG, it's certainly not for everyone. In terms of 'Real time frantic co-op with an audio track dictating problems', Escape the Curse of the Temple is AMAZING. You all simultaneously keep rolling dice, as fast as you can, with the different faces allowing you to do different things like move or solve a puzzle in the room you're in. Some rooms require multiple people to pool their results to pass. The difficulty is that one of the die faces, when rolled, becomes locked. You no longer roll that die until you roll an 'unlock' face on another dice. You can collaborate if you're in the same room to unlock each other's dice. I find most people hate this game because they can't bear the stress of it. Maybe your crew wouldn't get intimidated by a game asking them to roll dice quickly. In terms of 'Coming together with a group of friends to competently complete a very difficult task, while listening to and following complex instructions, Captain Sonar can't be beat. It's loving incredible, you and a team of 3 others compete against a team of 4 to play a real time game of battleships against each other, with one person navigating around and issuing orders, one person trying to listen to the other teams orders and work out where they are, one person bringing various systems online with a puzzle, and one person trying to stop the ship exploding with a puzzle. I find most people hate this game because every aspect of it terrifies them and highlights their inability to multitask or cope with pressure. Your mileage may vary if you can get two teams of 4 together who can find joy while under pressure. I hope your group is less pissy about this sort of thing than mine, because I LOVE all these games and can't ever play them because my board gaming friends are all literally too scared to have fun pretending for a bit.
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Apr 23, 2021 15:15
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I can barely get my groups to play space alert but I was half expecting it to be in that list because it's fairly stand out unique if games I've played. Thanks for all the recommendations everyone I'm gonna try and get more of this chaos going!
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Apr 23, 2021 15:57
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Sonar is top notch stuff but takes a good group and people willing to just have fun with it and not take it too seriously. Like most party games, a two drink minimum goes a long way. Also the first Metal Gear Solid soundtrack fits perfectly for some game music if anyone was curious.
FulsomFrank fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Apr 23, 2021 |
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Apr 23, 2021 16:07
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Major Isoor posted:Hey, are there any good (but possibly less long) board games like Nemesis? I played it at a friend's house recently with a bunch of others. I really quite liked it! The Alien-like atmosphere, but especially the fact that you CAN work together to succeed (to an extent, depending on which objectives you draw) but you could easily go off and do your own thing. Lifeform. more Alien than Aliens, one player plays the alien and the others play the crew. notable that there's no player elimination - when one crew member dies they take over the ship's cat, and when the second dies they play as the ship's computer. both have unique ways of running interference for the surviving players working together is more critical than in Nemesis though Buck Wildman fucked around with this message at 17:44 on Apr 23, 2021 |
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Apr 23, 2021 17:41
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Buck Wildman posted:Lifeform. more Alien than Aliens, one player plays the alien and the others play the crew. notable that there's no player elimination - when one crew member dies they take over the ship's cat, and when the second dies they play as the ship's computer. both have unique ways of running interference for the surviving players Interesting, I've never heard of this game. I only played Nemesis once but it felt like an early 2010s Fantasy Flight game, where there was just too much random bloat and too many rules to fully enjoy. I would have loved it 10 years ago. If Lifeform has a similar feel but in a tighter package I might have to check it out.
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Apr 23, 2021 20:26
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!Klams posted:
On a similar note, my group has found Spaceteam a lot of fun. Everyone gets a hand of cards to represent tools and a stack of things to fix. You'll have to pass cards to each other to complete tasks, but you can only hand them to the person next to you, so everyone has to pay attention in case they need to pass something, while also racing the clock to get their stuff fixed. Meanwhile, you may draw random events that gum everything up. I really enjoy it.
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Apr 23, 2021 20:36
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I haven't played Nemesis but Menace Among Us seems to be the best in that genre/theme.
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Apr 23, 2021 21:38
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Funzo posted:On a similar note, my group has found Spaceteam a lot of fun. Everyone gets a hand of cards to represent tools and a stack of things to fix. You'll have to pass cards to each other to complete tasks, but you can only hand them to the person next to you, so everyone has to pay attention in case they need to pass something, while also racing the clock to get their stuff fixed. Meanwhile, you may draw random events that gum everything up. I really enjoy it.
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Apr 23, 2021 21:45
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Radioactive Toy posted:Interesting, I've never heard of this game. I only played Nemesis once but it felt like an early 2010s Fantasy Flight game, where there was just too much random bloat and too many rules to fully enjoy. I would have loved it 10 years ago. If Lifeform has a similar feel but in a tighter package I might have to check it out. Hoo boy. That game bugged me. I own Lifeform and it truly does have some interesting ideas, and it's clearly a labour of love, but I sure wish that more of that labour went into making a better rulebook, or better yet, editing on the game itself as a whole. The rulebook and design elements at least desperately need a round of editing. Poor layout and content choices (no meaningful diagrams in the rules, and one gameplay example made ZERO sense until you notice a tiny tiny '5' less than a millimeter tall amongst all the '1's), inconsistent references, back page -- which should be a turn reference or something -- is a useless "index" (it's actually a table of contents. not an index, and therefore useless for looking up terms or specific things e.g. "mission tokens") and stuff of that nature abounds. Here's a typical layout problem: an important rule related to an action is mentioned once on the page BEFORE the action reference list, but the action list itself doesn't contain or mention it. Since the related rule is on the previous page turn, that means you'll never see it when looking it up in the middle of a game. There are two distinct places this happens. And so on. It would truly benefit from a good round of editing and some better layout work. Actually, the rulebook could probably use being implemented as a flowchart IMO because there are lots of exceptions and modifiers to various things. Although the rules are complete, the various exceptions & modifiers are not comprehensively listed anywhere, so there's always a feeling of missing something. Not a great situation for a game of direct opposition that depends on painting your opponent into corners. Fundamentally the core gameplay is actually pretty straightforward (do an action or play a card every round) but there are many IFs, BUTs, and EXCEPT FORs attached to everything and it is not well handled. As a result of this, the rulebook is 40+ pages(!!!) and the game has over 20 unique counter types, if my notes are correct. Even the Order of Gamers rules reference/summary is just walls of fine print crammed on a page, because what else can one do to summarize effectively? I haven't looked in a long while but I remember the BGG page had a lot of rules-related concerns and complaints, to which the developer is more than happy to call people rear end in a top hat ingrates for making GBS threads on all the hard work and blood and tears people put into creating something for you and this is how you repay them? So there's that going, at least  I mean, I own the game, and I'm a huge nerd for the theme. But god just thinking of it exhausts me.
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Apr 23, 2021 21:47
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the rulebook is very bad, I agree. the core gameplay loop is p straightforward once you get a game or two under your belt, though more frustrating was that there were discrepancies between the rules on the player boards and the rulebook. it definitely needed a second pass through. if you like the theme though I think it has a lot to offer
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Apr 23, 2021 22:21
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Wife and I did the first case in Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, Baker Street Irregulars. It's really good! We've tried to get into other board games before and have never had much luck, so I'm glad we're into this one. Especially considering what I paid for it.
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Apr 25, 2021 22:52
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Funzo posted:On a similar note, my group has found Spaceteam a lot of fun. Everyone gets a hand of cards to represent tools and a stack of things to fix. You'll have to pass cards to each other to complete tasks, but you can only hand them to the person next to you, so everyone has to pay attention in case they need to pass something, while also racing the clock to get their stuff fixed. Meanwhile, you may draw random events that gum everything up. I really enjoy it. I get that the whole point of Board Game Thread is frequently to get people to look at things that aren't screens, but the Spaceteam app is really quite amazing. Also thanks for everyone's words about JotL. I gave a quick read through of the how to play guide and between it and the posts here, I think we just start one campaign and hope to god it doesn't go to pieces like our Pandemic Legacy group did.
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Apr 26, 2021 01:46
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Boxman posted:I get that the whole point of Board Game Thread is frequently to get people to look at things that aren't screens, but the Spaceteam app is really quite amazing. 
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Apr 26, 2021 02:03
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Wife and I did the first case in Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, Baker Street Irregulars. It's really good! We've tried to get into other board games before and have never had much luck, so I'm glad we're into this one. Especially considering what I paid for it. I am very happy to hear you got on well with it. We're still working through it, but continue to have an excellent time as well.
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Apr 26, 2021 10:31
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Magnetic North posted:I am very happy to hear you got on well with it. We're still working through it, but continue to have an excellent time as well. Do you know anything about the other boxes? If I understand correctly the Irregulars one is fairly new? How do the older ones hold up?
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Apr 26, 2021 11:14
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Do you know anything about the other boxes? If I understand correctly the Irregulars one is fairly new? How do the older ones hold up? The rereleases are all great except for Carlton House which lacks the polish of the others.
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Apr 26, 2021 11:20
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Anyone know anything about Cthulhu: Death May Die?
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Apr 26, 2021 12:26
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Jedit posted:Anyone know anything about Cthulhu: Death May Die? Throw pools of dice at Lovecraftian Horrors. Supposedly it is a cleaner version of The Others which was pleasant enough for most scenarios.
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Apr 26, 2021 13:12
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Boxman posted:I get that the whole point of Board Game Thread is frequently to get people to look at things that aren't screens, but the Spaceteam app is really quite amazing. You are aware they are talking about the boardgame version? It is also excellent and translated the app into a physical game very well. They also made the cards plastic so you can’t destroy it with the drinks that are undoubtedly on the table
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Apr 26, 2021 14:24
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Jedit posted:Anyone know anything about Cthulhu: Death May Die? Cthulhu: Death May Die is a cooperative dice rolling game by CMON Inc. It's got a really cool system where for each game you play, you pick a Great Old One and an episode and mix them together, as well as picking the characters you play as, so there's lot of variety there. I found that the game has a really satisfying arc where your characters get more and more powerful as they get closer and closer to death, which you'll need as you'll be fighting the Great Old One after a while, who has multiple stages. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I do, but it's just a really fun, satisfying game. Unfortunately, it's CMON, so there's lots of kickstarter exclusive bullshit if you're a completist.
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Apr 26, 2021 15:42
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A Proper Uppercut posted:Do you know anything about the other boxes? If I understand correctly the Irregulars one is fairly new? How do the older ones hold up? I have only played the first box: Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & Other Cases. It was good but if you're playing it after BSI, then there is something to note: this and all the previous cases lack the 'content-gating innovations' ("Write down the letter A." and "Do you have a Z written down? If no, you learn nothing etc"). This means the game must give you information even if you accidentally go to a place under mistaken pretenses at a time when it it may not narratively or logically make sense. ("I wasn't even thinking about Beanie Babies, but clearly that was meant to be a clue.") It feels much closer a spoked-wheel-shaped multi-path-adventure book than this slowly unfolding narrative. Me and my SO both did enjoy it enough to try the follow up (especially after hearing glowing things, possibly from youtuber Paul Grogan if I recall correctly) . Overall, I think we disliked maybe 2 of the cases? Take all that under advisement, but if you like this, you will probably still like the original well enough. I have not played any others. I skipped Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Jack the Ripper & West End Adventures because I heard it can be quite graphic about the violence, and some are put off by some of its references to real crimes. I skipped Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: Carlton House & Queen's Park because I heard it had some editing problems. (There are allegedly issues in early printings of the SHDC: The Thames Murders earlier printings but those seems to have been fixed.) It's the same reason I have not tried the game Mythos Tales which is in the same spirit from a different publisher except it's Lovecraft instead of Doyle. I also heard it had editing problems.
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Apr 26, 2021 17:33
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Oath is very intimidating
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Apr 26, 2021 17:37
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Have any Canadian backers seen their copy of it yet? I feel like lately we're far behind on fulfillment between this and Pax Viking etc. unless they aren't even really out yet and I'm just being greedy.
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Apr 26, 2021 17:56
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