|
I played a game of betrayal a little while back and was the traitor. It was very lopsided in my favor and I basically ran around killing everyone. Towards the very end I attacked someone with 7 dice and rolled 7 blanks. It was a hilarious moment, but still not enough to turn the tide for the others. I am pretty much always willing to play that game, but I try to make sure people know what they're getting into because I've seen some people bounce off it really hard.
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 04:56
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 09:40 |
|
|
I'm stuck in the limbo of trying to get a board game night going and ngl it's makin me think "why bother" lol
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 07:05
|
|
|
armorer posted:I am pretty much always willing to play that game, but I try to make sure people know what they're getting into because I've seen some people bounce off it really hard. BatHotH (pronounced "Bat Hoth" and you can't stop me) is in the 'experience generator' genre of board games, alongside ones like Cosmic Encounters and Tales of the Arabian Nights, and I think that they, more than basically any other genre, have the greatest correlation between "personal first impressions" and "general feeling about the relative quality of the genre". Edit:I guess what I'm saying here is that if you really like Bat Hoth, try Tote Ann, and if you really hate Bat Hoth, definitely do not try Tote Ann. girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 08:28 on Oct 5, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 08:25
|
|
|
I dunno, because I dislike BatHotH mostly due to its competitive nature (and by the same extent, dislike Cosmic Encounters for the same reason), but I have a soft spot for TotAN because the competitive aspects are mostly a race and are barely there, and there is an understanding that people are playing it primarily for the silly hijinks and weird stories that are created by it. I generally feel that co-op and non-competitive games can generally do a lot more with having so-called "bad" mechanisms because they don't have to worry unduly about creating feel-bad situations that naturally can occur in any competitive board game, even ones that aren't random at all.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 08:33
|
|
|
the scenario where you have to escape in a tiny RC airplane is amazing
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 11:40
|
|
|
I have had a soft spot for Tales since a sequence of events happened where my partner's character was forced to rob a dying hunchback with unpredictable results
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 11:57
|
|
|
Some health scares came and went but now the wife and I are feeling good, testing negative, and ready for SPIEL
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 12:09
|
|
|
I don't like the storytelling of Betrayal - flipping cards and reading out a snippet of some horror movie cliche does nothing for me. The fact that there's no objective at all in the first half of the game also annoys me. And the game depends on sending a random player away to read and internalize a private rule-set is pretty fraught in my experience. Not everyone who likes boardgames likes, or is competent at, reading and understanding rules, and the rulebook is not perfectly written. None of these are particularly insightful or original critiques, but the thread was just far too kind to Betrayal.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 12:33
|
|
|
Finally got a play of Undaunted Normandy in. I've had it in my collection for over 2 years, but never got it to the table. The in-play deck building aspect of the game is really interesting. Trying to juggle your effectiveness and durability in the face of enemy action is a good puzzle to be faced with every turn of the game. There's enough randomness in the dice and card draw to keep things unpredictable, but there's definitely a tipping point in each game where one side's changes become skewed towards failure - unfortunately we didn't see that in our first game until several fruitless turns later. We played the first two scenarios from the book. Scenario one felt very limited in tactical options as you only have scouts and riflemen on the board. It devolved into a war of attrition that felt unsatisfying. Scenario two had more asymmetry in deck construction and map layout. It was a lot more fun. I'm very interested to see how the game develops once all the unit cards are in play in some of the later scenarios.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 13:39
|
|
|
FirstAidKite posted:I'm stuck in the limbo of trying to get a board game night going and ngl it's makin me think "why bother" lol Maybe this isn't helpful because you're already doing it, but something that massively helped me was shifting my perspective to never, ever trying to run 'board game night' again, and instead running "Dune Night" or "Azul and Root Night" or whatever. It means that you're recruiting for a specific game, so you don't end up with a bunch of people going "what can we play with 5?" and playing something sub-optimal (or just having trouble choosing what to play). I find people tend to respond better. It also helped me realise which games in my collection I wanted to get people together to play, so I could cull a bunch. Good luck, I hope you sort it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 13:49
|
|
|
!Klams posted:Maybe this isn't helpful because you're already doing it, but something that massively helped me was shifting my perspective to never, ever trying to run 'board game night' again, and instead running "Dune Night" or "Azul and Root Night" or whatever. I have been making this shift myself.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 14:30
|
|
|
I just beat my first game of Under Falling Skies. Easy game for babies, can't believe anyone has trouble with this. Ignore the starting city, easy mode, and the fact that I was one turn away from a total loss, this is irrelevant to my godly abilities. !Klams posted:Maybe this isn't helpful because you're already doing it, but something that massively helped me was shifting my perspective to never, ever trying to run 'board game night' again, and instead running "Dune Night" or "Azul and Root Night" or whatever. I've only run one board game night (it was meant to be a monthly thing) but I found what helped was to ask everyone beforehand if they had anything they were interested in, then build a curated list of games to put out beforehand. My plan was to transition to doing more 'focused' nights like you recommended, but, well, this was in February 2020 so...yeah Morpheus fucked around with this message at 14:34 on Oct 5, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 14:32
|
|
|
Afriscipio posted:Finally got a play of Undaunted Normandy in. I've had it in my collection for over 2 years, but never got it to the table. Just skip the first few scenarios, they are just a slow introduction to the different unit types. Once more unit types are available, it becomes great. Just shooting each other with riflemen is not what the game is about.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 14:33
|
|
|
Mr. Squishy posted:I don't like the storytelling of Betrayal - flipping cards and reading out a snippet of some horror movie cliche does nothing for me. The fact that there's no objective at all in the first half of the game also annoys me. And the game depends on sending a random player away to read and internalize a private rule-set is pretty fraught in my experience. Not everyone who likes boardgames likes, or is competent at, reading and understanding rules, and the rulebook is not perfectly written. Yeah, my group tried Betrayal a couple times, and then Betrayal Legacy a couple times.. and probably never again. Very early on, people mostly gave up on "trying to win" a game so random. While that maybe avoided frustration, it likely also made the result feel more tedious. If you're just sort of sitting around together, fiddling with bits while waiting for a game to tell you a story... Betrayal doesn't actually do that much storytelling. We didn't really go for Tales or Cosmic Encounter either - just a few games of each before it felt like a pointless random grind. Our games of Avalon quite often made for better stories than any of these because, while there's no magic trombones, "the game narrative" and the "trying to win" parts worked together.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 15:51
|
|
|
I still want to try scooby doo betrayal given the understanding and in spite of all the awful mechanics and criticisms, because the wacky theme will help. I still wish it was faster than it is, and I try to implement a limited rule reading time after the haunt starts. Telling a single player not to participate for even 5 minutes is too much, and I've had groups who liked to plan everything perfectly beforehand which took 10-15 min.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 16:02
|
|
|
Morpheus posted:Important question, as I've recently moved and am taking the opportunity to reorganize my Kallax (gently caress me I've got too many game swhy did I buy more shiiiit): when putting your board games on the shelf, so you orient them so that 'up' is to the left or right? That is, do you cock your head to the left or to the right to read the labels? Left to right! I have recently hit the limits of my sprawling Kallaxs and now have shamefully started stacking the weirder, less popular ones on top until I can offload them. There is also another shame stack that has formed in a narrow gap between two Kallax's as well. In my defense a friend of mine donated a bunch of games that I just haven't had time to trade/give away yet.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 17:27
|
|
|
Just put a book on the shelf and see what direction the text faces, and then match it.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 18:42
|
|
|
Morpheus posted:. Up is the left of the box, I. E. Reading downwards. if you do anything else you should be on a register.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 18:56
|
|
|
I'm torn on my board game stacking because I put my games in like a bookshelf but then the pieces all fall out of their organizers and I hate it but a lot of my games look better that way and I also don't want to crush the boxes
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 19:21
|
|
|
A quick Spirit Island question. How useful are the power progression cards? I'm having a game day with some friends and making the game easier to access by reducing some decisions would be pretty nice.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 19:32
|
|
|
!Klams posted:Good luck, I hope you sort it. Thanks. Main issue isn't gathering interest but rather in being the only one trying to set something up combined with finding a good time everyone is free during. I have it easy scheduling-wise because I'm on disability. Fiancee is second easiest to schedule for because she works from home with her shift being whenever she feels like it so long as she meets her deadlines. The other 3 players all have jobs they can't do from home and 2 of the 3 have kids. In the end it's just a combination of issues with the potential players (except my fiancee): 1. They express interest and want to play but don't actually contact me about when they'd be able to. 2. I'm the only one doing the contacting, I barely ever get an unprompted message from them so there's pressure on me to be the one always initiating contact and scheduling. 3. I know they all have other real life stuff that needs taken care of, responsibilities I do not have, so I completely understand that they just aren't going to have a point of time where they finally get some freedom to relax and decide "I know what to do with this free time, I'm gonna play a tabletop game with kite." lol so it's all just scheduling conflicts and lack of any driving force besides my own to try to make it happen.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 19:44
|
|
|
Only a few more days until 3000 Scoundrels is out...
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 19:57
|
|
|
That's way too many scoundrels
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 20:01
|
|
|
Redundant posted:A quick Spirit Island question. How useful are the power progression cards? I'm having a game day with some friends and making the game easier to access by reducing some decisions would be pretty nice. How game-savvy are your friends? SI is a pretty complex game and power progression cards are a good lever for reducing complexity on a first game, if they don't play a lot of heavy games or they have serious analysis paralysis. OTOH, if you all play Brass Birmingham or Age of Steam and the like regularly, then I think you could skip them. Definitely don't use them for the second game unless people were still super-confused coming out of the first game. One thing I like to do when teaching new people is: when they draw a new power, say that minor powers cost 0-1, majors usually cost 3-5, and they can pull the next major or minor, their choice, from the power progression deck, so Earth doesn't have to wrestle with minors or Lightning/Ocean get majors they may not be able to afford. eta: I'm always terrible at reminding people they have to forget a power if they draw a major, and often forget to mention that if they want they can forget the power they just drew, don't know if other people always forget to remind new players of those things Admiralty Flag fucked around with this message at 20:04 on Oct 5, 2022 |
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 20:01
|
|
|
Hot Diggity! posted:Only a few more days until 3000 Scoundrels is out... Why is that exciting? The debut game from that studio was a wet fart from most reports. They clearly have good marketing going on though because it's getting mass media coverage in a way that singular board game releases don't really.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 20:01
|
|
|
I'd rather have 3000 Andrés
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 20:06
|
|
|
Redundant posted:A quick Spirit Island question. How useful are the power progression cards? I'm having a game day with some friends and making the game easier to access by reducing some decisions would be pretty nice. Admiralty Flag is absolutely correct in that it depends on how much board game scaffolding people have. They do reduce the decision space as you say so that's probably a good stab if you think that's valuable. Definitely not needed for game 2. People can use them while people are using the regular deck too.
|
|
#
?
Oct 5, 2022 21:33
|
|
|
Admiralty Flag posted:eta: I'm always terrible at reminding people they have to forget a power if they draw a major, and often forget to mention that if they want they can forget the power they just drew, don't know if other people always forget to remind new players of those things I would deliberately omit the latter rule. I do find people expect they have to forget a card before seeing the new cards though, so worth being explicit about the ordering - and much easier to take an early major that way!
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2022 03:45
|
|
|
My Horizons of Spirit Island arrived today! I really like the layout. Board seems a little tight for all the tokens that go on it, but it's workable since there are no adversaries or scenarios complicating things. All the new Spirits are great, I love the cat and the Studio Ghibli-looking eyes in the trees. It all fits right in with the main game, just a bit friendlier. I want to see how they play and combo with each other, because it looks like they were designed that way on purpose. I don't even mind the lower quality components.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2022 04:55
|
|
|
LifeLynx posted:My Horizons of Spirit Island arrived today! I really like the layout. Board seems a little tight for all the tokens that go on it, but it's workable since there are no adversaries or scenarios complicating things. Yeah, mine showed up today too. Looks great! I can't wait to get it to the table. Sounds like you will be coming at this from the very experienced with Spirit Island direction. I will be approaching it from the I played a demo of it finally at Gen Con this year and haven't played a full game yet direction.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2022 05:00
|
|
|
How does it track damage on towns and cities with the token?
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2022 05:11
|
|
|
Bottom Liner posted:How does it track damage on towns and cities with the token? The flip side of the tokens is an on-fire version. For cities if they take 2 damage you put an energy marker down next to them to represent the second damage.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2022 05:30
|
|
|
By the way, quote:Hi Kazzah,
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2022 09:23
|
|
|
Still sitting by, waiting for the day they announce some sort of Spirit Island Big Box.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2022 13:33
|
|
|
Morpheus posted:Still sitting by, waiting for the day they announce some sort of Spirit Island Big Box. It'll be at retail right next to the Feast for Odin Mega Chest™.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2022 15:25
|
|
|
Horizons of Spirit Island and Under Falling Skies successfully snagged at 33% off. Horizons will arrive this weekend and Skies next weekend!
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2022 15:57
|
|
|
I like how in Horizons of Spirit Island's ~lore~ the graboid spirit is said to have been really small and mostly insignificant until it managed to eat a small piece of some other larger, more powerful spirit and evolved into a much more threatening thing. The spirit it ate a piece of ended up being one of the new spirits for the Nature Incarnate expansion. I'm surprised they had enough restraint to only namedrop one upcoming spirit lol
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2022 16:02
|
|
|
I played the graboid before and it was a lot of fun to play it: it's passive can appear minor at first, but it's pretty significant in the long term, and I liked how its mechanisms and growth options allowed for a "spread out and snag them" gameplay. Overall I was impressed how they still managed to pack so much conveyance of theme even in relatively simple packages, although for some veterans of Spirit Island the spirits in question will be a tad too much on the simple side to be interesting in the long term.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2022 16:04
|
|
|
FulsomFrank posted:It'll be at retail right next to the Feast for Odin Mega Chest™. Spirit Island seems to actually be delivering expansions and not just designer diaries about ideas for expansions, though.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2022 16:06
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 31, 2024 09:40 |
|
|
Tekopo posted:I played the graboid before and it was a lot of fun to play it: it's passive can appear minor at first, but it's pretty significant in the long term, and I liked how its mechanisms and growth options allowed for a "spread out and snag them" gameplay. Overall I was impressed how they still managed to pack so much conveyance of theme even in relatively simple packages, although for some veterans of Spirit Island the spirits in question will be a tad too much on the simple side to be interesting in the long term. Sounds perfect then. It sounds like a great way to get the game to the table before moving up to the main box. I'm curious to see how well the Horizons spirits work with the main and expansion spirits. Also curious to see if Nature Incarnate will include any of the previously named/described but not yet playable spirits like Voice of the Deepest Gorge.
|
|
#
?
Oct 6, 2022 16:23
|
|