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A boardgame called Ark Nova that isn't in a Sci-fi setting?! I don't know what the name means, exactly, but without any extra context I would've definitely assumed it to be spacefaring-related. Reminds me of how I kept thinking that Food Chain Magnate would be themed something akin to Dominant Species due to "food chain". EDIT: For better content, I recently tried Railroad Ink for the first time and it was very cool! The gameplay seems simple but a lot of fun, although I wonder how much longevity the concept has. The lake expansion seemed like a really cool addition, too!
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May 18, 2022 06:21
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The Eyes Have It posted:I also got to get Furnace to the table and really enjoyed it. Looking forward to playing this one some more. Don't think I have played such a "pure" engine builder before. The bidding and auction phase is pretty interesting and unexpectedly thinky; you have fixed bid tokens (a bit like Ra) but those who don't win a bid get a consolation multiplied by their bid amount. This can be surprisingly lucrative, and the order in which things are resolved can be especially important as well.
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May 18, 2022 09:48
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I just saw my local game store just got copies of the new Arkham-themed Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective-style game, Bureau of Investigation. It's supposed to be built on the SHCD system, with tweaks developed from the Baker's Street Irregulars box. Has anyone played it yet? I'll probably pick up a copy just to play with my brother in law who's into Cthulu stuff.
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May 18, 2022 11:44
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Glad to see Furnace is getting an expansion. I'd really love to add it to my collection at some point, it just looks nice and simple; and I love the tiered bidding system for how easy it is to grok. -------------- Azul is getting a limited edition.  tl;dr exact same game, but Chocolate themed.
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May 18, 2022 11:58
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That’s stupid as hell. It obviously should’ve been starburst themed. Edit: Did anyone read Cole Wehrle’s latest designer diary about splitting Arc into two different products? It was an interesting read, but definitely left me a bit worried.
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May 18, 2022 12:37
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Wow, that might be even stupider than the Kingdom Builder Deluxe with the 200 miniature buildings. There just isn’t enough visually distinct on that Azul to even warrant a limited edition. It’s literally just a palette swap. What the hell.
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May 18, 2022 14:03
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Jewmanji posted:That’s stupid as hell. It obviously should’ve been starburst themed. I wasn’t following closely during Root’s development, but Oath underwent significant changes during and after the Kickstarter. I’m sure the Leder team can put out a competent game. And, separating out the campaign elements is probably for the best. I love the idea of Oath, but it’s way too hard to get the committed group it required between life and the pandemic.
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May 18, 2022 14:11
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Jewmanji posted:Did anyone read Cole Wehrle’s latest designer diary about splitting Arc into two different products? It was an interesting read, but definitely left me a bit worried. What's got you worried? Just last minute changes before the Kickstarter? Prairie Bus posted:I wasn’t following closely during Root’s development, but Oath underwent significant changes during and after the Kickstarter. I’m sure the Leder team can put out a competent game. These are my thoughts. I love Oath, and I played the early versions (from the Kickstarter, not, like, with Wehrle), and it changed a lot from my first game. If a game is undergoing significant changes close to a Kickstarter and it's a new designer, I would get worried. But Wehrle's pedigree is pretty rock solid, and while any veteran designer will eventually make a dud, I'm not concerned about Wehrle's ability to get from here to there.
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May 18, 2022 14:50
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Viper915 posted:I just saw my local game store just got copies of the new Arkham-themed Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective-style game, Bureau of Investigation. It's supposed to be built on the SHCD system, with tweaks developed from the Baker's Street Irregulars box. Has anyone played it yet? I'll probably pick up a copy just to play with my brother in law who's into Cthulu stuff. Here is a stunning recreation of me when I read this. There is apparently a demo case to try as well. The only thing is that this demo case doesn't appear to contain the 'statefulness' from in BSI, where information can be locked until you discover something. For the unfamiliar, the process was described by me here in last year's Draft thread. That might be a dealbreaker for me, since that is such a critical and amazing innovation on the old formula I could never go back.
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May 18, 2022 15:53
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Hempuli posted:A boardgame called Ark Nova that isn't in a Sci-fi setting?! I don't know what the name means, exactly, but without any extra context I would've definitely assumed it to be spacefaring-related. Reminds me of how I kept thinking that Food Chain Magnate would be themed something akin to Dominant Species due to "food chain". Nova is Latin for "new." A zoo is a new ark, as in Noah's Ark (Latin arca just means "box," whence also Ark of the Covenant and classic Doctor Who episode "The Ark in Space"). But also, yes, even though I know all that, I totally assumed it was at least space-adjacent.
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May 18, 2022 17:46
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I’m skeptical of ARCS having a compelling one off that seemingly requires pulling out key systems in the game and this amount of dev work not impacting the full game. He said himself he completely stopped working on the campaign to redesign and make the one off box work. I also think that’s pressure from Patrick to make a more palatable and approachable game. There’s also a real sense of this thing spiraling out of control from being billed as “Oath-lite” for months to “most ambitious design I’ve ever done” now. I’m sure it’ll come together as something interesting but these diaries aren’t as insightful as much as raising some red flags for me.
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May 18, 2022 17:51
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Bottom Liner posted:I’m skeptical of ARCS having a compelling one off that seemingly requires pulling out key systems in the game and this amount of dev work not impacting the full game. He said himself he completely stopped working on the campaign to redesign and make the one off box work. I also think that’s pressure from Patrick to make a more palatable and approachable game. Maybe Cole just considers it ambitious to make an approachable game.
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May 18, 2022 18:03
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Lawlicaust posted:Wow, that might be even stupider than the Kingdom Builder Deluxe with the 200 miniature buildings. Kingdom Builder Deluxe is a much more optimistic proposition. Kingdom Builder is a dry, basically themeless, old Euro. The type of gamer who's excited for that reprint is unlikely to get a rush from a box full of plastic figs and a price tag to match*. On the other hand, as shown by the three or four games in the series, there's a healthy market of people who are happy to buy Azul again if it looks a little different. *I'm sure there are some who are excited, but I'm sure not one of them.
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May 18, 2022 18:12
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Origins reinstates mask requirement Good to hear
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May 18, 2022 18:49
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Good good.
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May 18, 2022 18:57
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Don't scroll down to the responses
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May 18, 2022 19:03
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homullus posted:Nova is Latin for "new." A zoo is a new ark, as in Noah's Ark (Latin arca just means "box," whence also Ark of the Covenant and classic Doctor Who episode "The Ark in Space"). But also, yes, even though I know all that, I totally assumed it was at least space-adjacent. After writing that post I pondered on the name and was like "oh yeahhh, I saw that it's about zookeeping; so it's a New (Noah's) Ark. Makes sense!" But both "nova" and "ark" have been used a lot in spacey settings too, haha.
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May 18, 2022 19:04
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Neon Genesis Zoovangelion
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May 18, 2022 19:16
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Some of my boardgame friends are only interested in animal themes, and I'm glad there are a lot of good animal boardgames around now. Ark Nova, Cascadia, Calico, Isle of Cats. All good!
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May 18, 2022 19:22
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well, I just experienced the worst thing to ever happen to anybody in board gaming Mr. Squishy posted:Some of my boardgame friends are only interested in animal themes, and I'm glad there are a lot of good animal boardgames around now. Ark Nova, Cascadia, Calico, Isle of Cats. All good! try Everdell
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May 18, 2022 19:25
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They called it Ark Nova after their bid to get a merchandising license for hit 2011 film "We Bought a Zoo" fell through. An official digital version of Nemesis Lockdown started its closed beta on Steam yesterday and my group's resident Nemesis nerd who bought into all the kickstarters got an invite and is really enjoying it. His major complaint is you have to zoom out to check the full map to see what the noise situation in the next room is. He says its a pretty good adaption of the board game. It's not related to their other steam game, Nemesis: Distress, which is a first person pov version of the first Nemesis game and needed a lot of work when I tried it a few months ago. Also if you missed it and play that version, Gloomhaven's Jaws of the Lion expansion came out on steam for the digital game, there is some commentary over in the Gloomhaven thread.
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May 18, 2022 19:26
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Mayveena posted:Origins reinstates mask requirement It was so loving hard for me to not cross-post that into the BGG Spring con thread on BGG and be like, "GEE it sure seems like masking might be prudent you loving ASSWIPES"
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May 18, 2022 19:39
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Magnetic North posted:Here is a stunning recreation of me when I read this. I just printed the demo case to try, but I'm probably going to pick up the full box and see how it is. This quote from bgg makes me think that the statefulness, or something similar, might be in the full game? I'm having a hard time finding good info yet. quote:As much as we loved the first 3 Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective boxes, our favourite was the The Baker Street Irregulars box done by Dave Neale because of the innovations it made with the format. Case 3 feels like a similar amazing tweak to the format and is now one of our favourites out of all 45 cases if the Consulting Detective line of games.
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May 18, 2022 20:06
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Bottom Liner posted:I’m sure it’ll come together as something interesting but these diaries aren’t as insightful as much as raising some red flags for me. Just let the vagabond go, man.
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May 19, 2022 00:39
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hoiyes posted:For me it's the "option to abandon your empire and become a single ship with special rules" mentioned. Vagabond was from Patrick and I wouldn't be surprised if this was too, he really seems to love that concept from his own designs and his hand in Cole's
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May 19, 2022 01:01
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I think Oath is a cool game but its obvious Leder games are looking for another Root not another Oath with ARCS. Oath was definitely a Wehrle passion project and I'm not sure Cole will get another crack at one of those unless he publishes it himself like JoCo 2e.
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May 19, 2022 02:00
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If Arcs shapes up to be Root when it needs to be and Oath when it can be I’ll be delighted.
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May 19, 2022 02:12
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i do kind of blame everything i don't like in root on leder and I try not to let those get in the way of, like, recommending the game to people because a lot of people LOVE the little vagabond bastard and don't play competitively enough that it is an Issue. But. I would love to have seen a version of root that was just Wehrle's furry fantasy themed asymmetric warfare simulator without a bunch of "wackiness" sprinkled across it. Like the Vagabond is such a novelty figure. very "And you don't even have to be a faction! You can just be a guy!" that is maybe the perfect kind of thing to snag a certain kind of Gamer but it's just very frustrating. I see the same sort of shallowness in how the crows operate, although I think they fit better than the vagabond does.
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May 19, 2022 02:13
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I'm keen to see what Arcs is all about cause 'Trick Taking Campaign' sounds great, and Brian Boru is still at the top of my pickup list. Like man.. just drop some previews on top of the dev diaries, cause he's getting all Peter Molyneux up in here.
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May 19, 2022 02:54
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Yeah, compared to Oath, these dev diaries have felt a little sparse.
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May 19, 2022 03:31
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Impermanent posted:Like the Vagabond is such a novelty figure. very "And you don't even have to be a faction! You can just be a guy!" that is maybe the perfect kind of thing to snag a certain kind of Gamer but it's just very frustrating. I see the same sort of shallowness in how the crows operate, although I think they fit better than the vagabond does. I mean you can just don't play with the vagabond. Wasn't a big part of the vagabond existing the need for a 4th player with a low piece count? Swap in an expansion faction. As a solution for how to get 4players on the base box the vagabond is pretty clever imho if I also don't like it.
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May 19, 2022 04:22
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CitizenKeen posted:Yeah, compared to Oath, these dev diaries have felt a little sparse. I enjoy his writing on and about games. As actual dev diaries, they're not very informative about the game itself. For instance, what does the map look like? Is it a board or built out of hexes or what? That feels like a question I should be able to answer after reading several thousand words about said game.
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May 19, 2022 04:33
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Cthulhu Dreams posted:I mean you can just don't play with the vagabond. Wasn't a big part of the vagabond existing the need for a 4th player with a low piece count? Swap in an expansion faction. I’m the vagabond defender and think it’s the most fun base faction to play but also understand why so many people dislike playing against it, even aside from balance issues. And yeah, it does have an important role in 4p base game because the ruins really need to be cleared out for the cats (others benefit from it as well but cats need it).
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May 19, 2022 04:50
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CitizenKeen posted:If Arcs shapes up to be Root when it needs to be and Oath when it can be I’ll be delighted. For what it's worth, having played through a few sessions of both the 1-game and campaign modes, I think it's managing to pull this off so far. There's plenty of development work left, but the core systems are as straightforward as Root's while potentially enabling Oath levels of absurd interaction. Bottom Liner posted:I’m skeptical of ARCS having a compelling one off that seemingly requires pulling out key systems in the game and this amount of dev work not impacting the full game. He said himself he completely stopped working on the campaign to redesign and make the one off box work. I also think that’s pressure from Patrick to make a more palatable and approachable game. I don't really perceive Arcs as being an attempt at a more "palatable" game. The short version is easily the Wehrle game with the least rules overhead, making it easier to bring to the table, but the people who dislike the fundamental character of his work probably won't be changing their minds for this one.
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May 19, 2022 04:54
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Cthulhu Dreams posted:I mean you can just don't play with the vagabond. Wasn't a big part of the vagabond existing the need for a 4th player with a low piece count? Swap in an expansion faction. Yea I mean I prefer not to play with the vagabond. But also part of the game's appeal is wrapped around its assymetry, and players who are often uncomfortable in conflict heavy war games gravitate to the vagabond pretty heavily. I do appreciate that the Marauder seems to be an attempt at replacing the vagabond with a much more interesting character.
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May 19, 2022 05:11
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Looking for recommendations on a new game. Have been playing coop games with the spouse, leaving them out on a table and take turns here and there between work/kids/meals/etc. It gives us something challenging to collectively work on and talk about. Most recently we did this with Aeon's End: Legacy of Gravehold which was great due to the lengthy connective campaign format with lots of room for optimization talk. So we are are looking for another medium to heavy fully coop game with lots of strategy that we can play asynchronously. We have already played Gloomhaven, Mage Knight, and Spirit Island to death. So is there anything else that can scratch this itch?
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May 19, 2022 06:31
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iceyman posted:Looking for recommendations on a new game. Have been playing coop games with the spouse, leaving them out on a table and take turns here and there between work/kids/meals/etc. It gives us something challenging to collectively work on and talk about. Most recently we did this with Aeon's End: Legacy of Gravehold which was great due to the lengthy connective campaign format with lots of room for optimization talk. So we are are looking for another medium to heavy fully coop game with lots of strategy that we can play asynchronously. We have already played Gloomhaven, Mage Knight, and Spirit Island to death. So is there anything else that can scratch this itch? The City of Kings. "Mage Knight without the crushing weight" would be my description. If you're leaving it out, though, you'll want to invest in the cube holders. There's a far few cubes used to track stats on the character sheets and you don't want them knocking.
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May 19, 2022 09:41
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Impermanent posted:Yea I mean I prefer not to play with the vagabond. But also part of the game's appeal is wrapped around its assymetry, and players who are often uncomfortable in conflict heavy war games gravitate to the vagabond pretty heavily. I do appreciate that the Marauder seems to be an attempt at replacing the vagabond with a much more interesting character. Speaking of, I wanted to cross post an analysis of the Lord of the Hundreds I did over in the “Tabletop games have weird politics” thread Triskelli posted:It’s been a minute since I’ve written about Root, and since fascism has been mentioned I may as well bring up the faction that best depicts the ideology, The Lord of the Hundreds.
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May 19, 2022 11:50
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If you want to go down the rabbit hole, there's also the Arkham Horror LCG, Marvel Champions and potentially Lord of the Rings LCG, which is getting reprints of old cycles with an added connecting campaign structure. I personally enjoyed Tainted Grail but the combat is definitely lighter and less polished than Gloomhaven and there are some questionable design choices for the survival aspects. If you don't mind houseruling or changing difficulty if you don't like the balance, it's a fun CYOA-style romp with a lot of interacting story vignettes. Roll Player Adventures has a crunchy dice-placement puzzle at it's core, but unfortunately it gives you so many additional tools as you progress that it trivializes itself by the end of the campaign. I've heard good things about Dice Throne Adventures, but the buy-in is pretty high since you also need Dice Throne character sets and I haven't tried it myself yet. On the plus side Dice Throne is supposed to be a pretty good two-player competitive game, too! If you like Legacy of Gravehold enough that you'd be willing to play more Aeon's End Outcasts has a mini-campaign structure ("expeditions") designed to be reset and replayed, and the original Legacy is good, if not quite as balanced as LoG.
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May 19, 2022 11:55
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Hempuli posted:EDIT: For better content, I recently tried Railroad Ink for the first time and it was very cool! The gameplay seems simple but a lot of fun, although I wonder how much longevity the concept has. The lake expansion seemed like a really cool addition, too! Railroad Ink, much as I like it (even with the "pay full price for something that could be an expansion" colour range), but it really is a triumph of production quality over price in a world where 13 Rails exists.
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