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Infinitum posted:So anyway. Have you played Tragedy Looper?
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Aug 5, 2021 20:51
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MonsieurChoc posted:This is the game I was talking about : https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/26/age-renaissance For us it was a weakened Advanced Civ so we played it a couple of times (there's also something broken in it as well, but forgot what that was) and I sold it.
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Aug 5, 2021 20:55
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CommonShore posted:I really liked the fog spirit from the Jagged Earth expansion I played it for the first time this previous week and I found it so much better than I was anticipating. I thought that the upkeep of damage was be troublesome, but it was smooth. The game went so well (4 players with 2 new players in 2 hours) that I would have sworn I did something wrong if I did not have double digit plays.
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Aug 5, 2021 21:14
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Infinitum posted:So anyway. Others have mentioned these, but I thought I'd follow up with a bit of context: * Nuns On The Run: is a game I like, while being one that is perhaps not a good game. There's a bunch of cleverness in there, in line of sights and visibility being encoded on the board, and the hunters (matrons) having to revert to their normal patrol path if they can't see anyone. Downside is that if a prey player (novice) gets caught, they effectively can't win the game. Still, worth a look. * Spectre Ops: I think it can crumble if the prey player messes up, but it can be a lot of fun. One of the hunters has a car that they can use to move around the map fast, so there's none of that "the target must be way over there but we can't get to them". Think this is max 4 players, while Nuns & SO can handle a lot more * Aliens From Outer Space: a pen and (preprinted) paper game, it's good but pretty much a multiplayer solo experience. But it's quick, so you can forgive a lot of faults
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Aug 5, 2021 21:24
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RabidWeasel posted:On a related note are there other games which do anything even vaguely similar to what High Frontier does because it sure would be nice to indulge my boyfriend's rocket fanaticism without Eklund being involved. Hard disagree on that game being bad, but everyone to their own. There's nothing really quite like HF, but there's a certain number of other games that scratch adjacent itches: * Spacecorps is a more abstract realization of similar ideas - gradual expansion outwards, industrialisation and colonisation, technological advance. For example, the game moves in epochs that leap the game forward to a new stage, based on where you were in the previous. I liked it. * Others have mentioned Leaving Earth, which has that HF idea of joining different technologies to each other to make effective missions. It focuses on recent past / near future so the technology is fairly conservative. There's a fun failure and testing mechanism. Downside is there's a lot of sums to be done during the game, which might not be to everyone's taste. * Stellar Horizon is the new kid on the block and is supposed to be ridiculously crunchy, with absurdly long games. I've eyed it up but haven't bitten the bullet. * Rocketmen is good fun. Seems a lot more complicated at first than it actually is. It's not very crunchy, but it marries a bit of deck building to some push your luck to good effect. Like it.
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Aug 5, 2021 21:38
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Some Numbers posted:Have you played Tragedy Looper? Seconding this, it's a fun game.
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Aug 5, 2021 21:42
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nordichammer posted:I played it for the first time this previous week and I found it so much better than I was anticipating. I thought that the upkeep of damage was be troublesome, but it was smooth. We turned towns onto any side if they're damaged, and cities onto any of the sides that leave them sitting square for one damage, and onto the face that leaves them sitting diagonaly for two damage. The damage thing might get annoying with higher level adversaries that increase building health. I've almost seen every expansion spirit played now - I think there are two left that I've not at least had someone play with me (the really weird space ones). Though I don't have any of the special super secret promo pack ones.
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Aug 5, 2021 21:42
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I will add Tragedy Looper and Hunt for the Ring to my groups playlist for the weekend. I personally like the more 'traditional' point-to-point hidden movement games, like Hunt, but Looper looks fun as well.
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Aug 5, 2021 21:45
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nonathlon posted:Hard disagree on that game being bad, but everyone to their own. I just hate the way that research works, also I'm not a fan of any game with make or break "lol you rolled a 1 your spaceship explodes" moments
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Aug 5, 2021 21:57
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RabidWeasel posted:I just hate the way that research works, also I'm not a fan of any game with make or break "lol you rolled a 1 your spaceship explodes" moments Galaxy Trucker is awesome though
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Aug 5, 2021 22:20
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A moment in board gaming that really made it worth it for me: My dad, who’s not really a board gamer, being really happy at beating me for the first time at Baseball Highlights 2045 after we played 3-4 games, and being really hype about how close the matches were. I’ve tried other board games in the past but this is the first one that’s really captivated him.
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Aug 5, 2021 22:34
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nordichammer posted:I played it for the first time this previous week and I found it so much better than I was anticipating. I thought that the upkeep of damage was be troublesome, but it was smooth. For me I think part of what makes it fun is that keeping track of non-lethal damage is already a lot of fiddly bookkeeping you're supposed to do that rarely has any payoff (to the point that in solo games I rarely bother marking damaged pieces since I know what damage I have queued up and whether leftover chip damage will make any difference, but in larger games you kind of need to allocate it "just in case"), so Shroud takes this bookkeeping chore and makes it rewarding.
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Aug 5, 2021 23:05
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Mayveena posted:For us it was a weakened Advanced Civ so we played it a couple of times (there's also something broken in it as well, but forgot what that was) and I sold it. Yeah, that's why I was hoping for a second edition. I'm open to suggestions for cool similar games too.
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Aug 5, 2021 23:10
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RabidWeasel posted:I just hate the way that research works, also I'm not a fan of any game with make or break "lol you rolled a 1 your spaceship explodes" moments Granted. I feel they have game reasons or desirable effects, but they're also a bit ... incongruent? I don't mind them but they feel odd against the rest of the design. Remembered another space game: Liftoff. Last I noticed, it was only in German but reviews seemed to be positive. Anyone played it?
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Aug 5, 2021 23:18
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silvergoose posted:Century Spice Road worked, I still like the game despite it definitely being on the somewhat bland market row mild economy shelf with splendor and the like. Also well received. It's absolutely a bland resource conversion game... but I also get a ton of plays out of it and it always acquits itself well. It's super fast to teach, people are involved and jingling on their first play, rounds are over quickly, and it's very unintimidating (especially the Golem Edition). Only the mildest of confrontation, little potential for "bad feels" randomness, very little chance to misunderstand/miss rules. Unlikely that players will feel stalled/directionless/confused. I can't see anyone "loving" this game, but it fills its niche very well.
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Aug 5, 2021 23:47
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jmzero posted:It's absolutely a bland resource conversion game... but I also get a ton of plays out of it and it always acquits itself well. It's super fast to teach, people are involved and jingling on their first play, rounds are over quickly, and it's very unintimidating (especially the Golem Edition). Only the mildest of confrontation, little potential for "bad feels" randomness, very little chance to misunderstand/miss rules. Unlikely that players will feel stalled/directionless/confused. Yeah, I hadn't pulled it out in a while, but I was moderately sure it would be enjoyed and as you said, the only real interaction is "I'm going to stall taking that goal until you make a decision on whether you get into position to get it, because that forces you to make subpar moves" and personally, I love "forcing moves" as interaction, it tends to result in tempo considerations being very important.
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Aug 5, 2021 23:57
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How did Quest turn out? I back the kickstarter but I moved to a different country so its still waiting for me to pick it up.
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Aug 6, 2021 01:56
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Snooze Cruise posted:How did Quest turn out? I back the kickstarter but I moved to a different country so its still waiting for me to pick it up. Surprisingly very good. Use the directors’s cut tules right out the box. The publishers changed the creator’s original vision but compromised by keeping in the DC as a separate rule sheet. The designer said it took him 10 years of testing and fooling around to come up with something he felt was different enough from Avalon and worthy. I think he succeeded. It has an interesting logic puzzle at its core and it’s a lot faster than Avalon. Obviously I’m gonna have to play it a ton more to see if it holds up as well as Avalon but my entire Avalon loving groups initial impression is highly positive.
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Aug 6, 2021 07:37
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Infinitum posted:Yeah Captain Sonar has been on my pickup list for a while, but If it makes you feel better it can work at 6 but really shines at 8. We've been lucky and managed to get probably a half dozen so or more game nights where we were able to play it at full counts over the years I've owned it. Always a hit, especially if you've got critical mass of people who know how to play. God help you if everyone's new, although there's a lot of fun to be had there as well if you just accept people are going to make mistakes. I've heard the best way to play is with the First Mate being the one to check on all systems and let the captain know what's going on, almost like a real Navy hierarchy. I swear if they re-themed it as Star Trek it would sell so hot and fast it might rip a tear in the space-time continuum. EDIT: I've said this before but the PS1 Metal Gear Solid soundtrack is perfect music for the game too, I promise you this. FulsomFrank fucked around with this message at 16:01 on Aug 6, 2021 |
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Aug 6, 2021 15:51
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Pandemic
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Everyone talks about Captain Sonar's real-time mode and the ridiculous hilarity that ensues, but definitely don't discount the turn-based mode which turns the game into a tense, Hunt for Red October-esque experience.
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Aug 6, 2021 16:48
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Yeah I actually vastly prefer the turn based mode.
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Aug 6, 2021 17:15
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I should try turn based. I've played three games of realtime with a full 8 and every time, there was absolutely no desire to play another round. It's so chaotic and high energy that it's immediately exhausting.
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Aug 6, 2021 18:28
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Anyone played Sonar or Sonar Family for smaller play counts? Or do you think Captain Sonar 4p is still better than either of those?
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Aug 6, 2021 22:46
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The smaller sonar games work quite well, I haven't tried adapting them to real time, but I like the tense cat and mouse of turn based in Captain as well. How is My City with three players? I want to try a campaign with my parents, who are Not Gamers. It seems simple enough for them, so is the player count good? Is the eternal game effected by not having a board altered?
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Aug 7, 2021 02:38
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SmellOfPetroleum posted:Anyone played Sonar or Sonar Family for smaller play counts? Or do you think Captain Sonar 4p is still better than either of those? I haven’t tried it, but someone told me you can play Sonar with the CS components?
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Aug 7, 2021 07:33
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El Fideo posted:The smaller sonar games work quite well, I haven't tried adapting them to real time, but I like the tense cat and mouse of turn based in Captain as well. I haven't looked at the eternal rules really so I can't comment there, but 3 is a totally fine player count. The game is overwhelmingly multiplayer solitaire (it's as much a roll'n'write as Tiny Towns is, basically) so the player count really doesnt matter, to the point where the TTS mod added components for extra players and it doesn't impact the game at all.
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Aug 7, 2021 15:38
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Infinitum posted:So anyway. Tim Fowers did a 2 player game called Fugitive that uses numbered cards as the locations. https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/197443/fugitive
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Aug 7, 2021 19:47
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Infinitum posted:So anyway. Nuns on the Run
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Aug 7, 2021 19:59
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Thank you for all the Captain Sonar chat. Over the course of the pandemic my board game days have become increasingly popular to the point I wouldn't have to worry about filling all 8 slots. Hell I'll probably be able to pickup Blood on the Clocktower without much worry about bums on seats for play. Will probably wait until Sydney is on top of our current outbreak before grabbing, even though it's not slated until November (We'll still be in lockdown until Christmas at this point) Dr. Video Games 0069 posted:Tim Fowers did a 2 player game called Fugitive that uses numbered cards as the locations. I have this, and it's fantastic. It gets a bit of work out while waiting for other players to rock up. The best thing is it comes in a little briefcase with a magnetic seal so it 'clips' shut   Crackbone posted:Nuns on the Run My group couldn't get into this, but loved Clue: Great Museum Caper instead.
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Aug 7, 2021 20:07
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Countblanc posted:I haven't looked at the eternal rules really so I can't comment there, but 3 is a totally fine player count. The game is overwhelmingly multiplayer solitaire (it's as much a roll'n'write as Tiny Towns is, basically) so the player count really doesnt matter, to the point where the TTS mod added components for extra players and it doesn't impact the game at all. I just want to add that I've been in the same 3 player campaign and it works great. I was a bit sceptical going in because the starting rules are so simple, that I thought it would end up being quite dull, but it ramps up in a nice way so that after a few episodes it does become a decently challenging puzzle but there's never too much new stuff to remember. There's very little player interaction, but you do get moments where a tile comes out and you groan while someone else cheers because it's the exact one they needed, or you all commiserate over terrible draws and your ugly disjointed cities, and one game is short enough that if it does go south it doesn't really matter plus you get a boost for the next round. I've really been enjoying it so far.
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Aug 7, 2021 22:20
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I haven't seen anyone talk about Destinies and I just played a couple games this past week so here's the lowdown. Destinies is a game where players (1-3) will pass & play an ipad or whatever to do their turns. Everything that happens in the app is public knowledge, so you're intended to read your turn results out loud to the other players, then end your turn & pass to the next player. If that's not your jam, Destinies won't be for you. I'm the kind of guy that really dug Mansions of Madness 2e and I was very curious about Destinies, hoping it would do the same level of app-enabled play. It's similiar (build a map, mark points of interest) but uses fewer components overall & needs less space. This also means it's not an expensive game. It's very fast to set up & start playing. Any game that crafts a written narrative lives or dies by the quality of its writing, not just from the events themselves but especially how well they do (or don't) fit together as a whole (*) Destinies is (so far) well written! I'm happy to say that the first thing I did after reading the (private information) back of my character card was think "oh, that's interesting" and that kept up! It plays kind of like a dynamic & context-aware adventure game, but all the complexity is handled seamlessly by the app. In short, they tried something and I think it worked. (*) Narrative that is mixed with dynamic or random elements is easy to do badly because on one hand, the narrative wants to say something specific but on the other hand the "narrator" doesn't entirely control what happens where and when. As a result you can end up with awkward shifts in voice or tone, or confusing inconsistencies in narrative even if the underlying structure is sound, etc. Destinies does some clever things to get around these challenges, in addition to being written well. The Eyes Have It fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Aug 8, 2021 |
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Aug 8, 2021 20:56
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Infinitum posted:So anyway. So for a different approach to hidden movement, you could take a look at one of the Halloween Nightmares Horrorgame Magazine games put out by Emperors of Eternal Evil, the guys what made Cave Evil. Its a series of polybag games designed to give off the feeling of a direct-to-video 80s slasher film. There are four games in the series: Psycho Raiders, Freakface, Sea Evil, and Don't Let the Wolves Eat Your Baby. They're crusty, intentionally unbalanced, and dripping with 80s game design ethos, so I can't speak to their quality as like. *Good* games? But they use an interesting variant of hidden movement where any character outside LOS can spawn "fake" copies that move independently to obscure which is the "real" character. And its a design idea I liked so much it formed the backbone of one of my current in progress designs. You can order the first three games from store.cave-evil.com for $30 a pop or $75 in a bundle. Only the first two actually use the hidden movement mechanic though. (Sea Evil swaps that out for a clever but not on topic relative-movement system for ships and sea monsters.) The fourth game, Wolfbaby, is a free downloadable PNP they threw together for Fangoria magazine, and is kinda a stripped down taster menu for the other three. All that said, fair warning--the games absolutely drip with gratuitous gore and shock-fodder, and is 100% a thing you should scout ahead on and check with your players about before busting any of them out. Also, I've mentioned it before, but the game isn't the best with depictions of racial minority characters--less in an "overt bile and footnotes" way but definitely in a "we regurgitate up the 80s grindhouse/exploitation cinema aesthetic verbatim with absolutely ZERO critical lens or tactful reappraisal" way. https://twitter.com/gutterdaughter/status/1274468269865365504?s=21 Also: under absolutely no circumstance should you buy one of these games *instead of* Tragedy Looper. I don't think anyone should buy literally any other game until they have a copy of Tragedy Looper in their collection. gutterdaughter fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Aug 9, 2021 |
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Aug 9, 2021 07:31
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Psychic Pizza Deliverers Go to the Ghost Town is another twist on the hidden movement kind of idea. Very cool little unique puzzle/race game.
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Aug 9, 2021 07:39
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tragedy looper is a good board game
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Aug 9, 2021 08:04
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If you want a fun hidden movement game with a gimmick then Nyctophobia is what you want.
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Aug 9, 2021 08:32
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Aramoro posted:If you want a fun hidden movement game with a gimmick then Nyctophobia is what you want. That is a clever game. I'm not sure it needs to be played often or even more than once, but it's so different to everything else.
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Aug 9, 2021 09:50
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gutterdaughter posted:But they use an interesting variant of hidden movement where any character outside LOS can spawn "fake" copies that move independently to obscure which is the "real" character. This makes me think a bit of Lifeform, where there are multiple copies of the Lifeform for the purposes of doing hidden movement, within certain limits. If the Lifeform attacks or is otherwise spotted by crew then the wavefunction collapses and all other copies are discarded. Until the Lifeform gets out of sight, then multiple copies can spawn again.
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Aug 9, 2021 10:47
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I'm very excited because I just managed to snag Leaving Earth and both it's expansions on a facebook boardgame sale group. I know it's not out of print or anything, but the wait time can be 3+ months ordering it from the publisher and the shipping to Australia is pretty obscene so I grabbed it as soon as I saw it.
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Aug 9, 2021 13:07
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Cracked open a box of C&C: Ancients that I got in a math trade a while back and forgot about. Trip report: mostly easy to learn, and we're going to play every scenario in the box now.
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Aug 9, 2021 14:42
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Infinitum posted:So anyway. It's been a while since you asked, and you would have a harder time prototyping it, but Stop Thief! also belongs on the list.
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Aug 9, 2021 15:15
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