I didn't see either a thread for abstracts nor a thread for homebrew boardgames on the first two pages of this subforum, so I thought it'd be safe to post here: I designed a small, simple 2-player abstract boardgame after reading about their history a bit! It's called Cylinders of the Wise, mostly due to the silly Lore I wrote for the game to spice up the rulebook. It's basically about moving 4 units and throwing other units around in order to get your Stone Cylinder to the other end of the board. A bit Hnetatafl-ish, except symmetric? If anyone's interested, you can download the rules for free here: https://hempuli.itch.io/cylinders-of-the-wise Playtested it a bit on playingcards.io and it seemed to actually work fairly ok? The game balance didn't seem broken and I had good fun. Anyway, a big reason why I wanted an excuse to post it here is because I'm quite happy with the physical pieces: I cut the board from an acrylic canvas and painted it; the hinge was made from an old sock.
|
|
# ? May 5, 2023 20:41 |
|
|
# ? Jun 6, 2024 07:21 |
|
Hempuli posted:I didn't see either a thread for abstracts nor a thread for homebrew boardgames on the first two pages of this subforum, so I thought it'd be safe to post here: We actually do have a board game design thread! It doesn't see a wild amount of traffic, but it's active from time to time and always welcoming of new games.
|
# ? May 5, 2023 20:47 |
|
CodfishCartographer posted:Any recommendations for games that, in rough order of importance: Depending on your definition of mech themed, Ricochet Robots.
|
# ? May 6, 2023 05:06 |
|
garthoneeye posted:Depending on your definition of mech themed, Ricochet Robots. hahaha outrageous stretch but I'm not even mad
|
# ? May 6, 2023 05:24 |
|
Earth Reborn
|
# ? May 6, 2023 08:59 |
|
Nobody's recommended AEGIS: Super Combining Robot Tactics yet? For Shame!
|
# ? May 6, 2023 10:49 |
|
El Fideo posted:Nobody's recommended AEGIS: Super Combining Robot Tactics yet? For Shame! Is this game fun? I like the idea of a Voltron game but it looked like it was kinda all over the place.
|
# ? May 6, 2023 15:20 |
CodfishCartographer posted:We actually do have a board game design thread! It doesn't see a wild amount of traffic, but it's active from time to time and always welcoming of new games. Ah, thanks! I had seen that thread a couple years ago but since it didn't seem to be on the first 2 pages, it seemed likely that it had died out since.
|
|
# ? May 6, 2023 16:22 |
|
Finished the Oathsworn campaign this week! Really enjoyed the encounter gameplay, and I found the story interesting enough in a beat-by-beat, scenario-by-scenario sense, but came away from the ending with I think a bit more of an understanding of why people who played Mass Effect 3 were bummed out back in the day.
|
# ? May 6, 2023 16:41 |
|
Some Strange Flea posted:Finished the Oathsworn campaign this week! Oathsworn is so good. We haven't finished it yet, but we're around chapter 12 or 13? I really like how the developers have a thread per chapter on board game geek where they answer questions. It helped us figure out a few rules gotchas we would have been stuck on.
|
# ? May 6, 2023 16:53 |
|
Thanks for all the robo-recommendations! I've done a bit of googling and some of them definitely look appropriate, but happy to take more recommendations.El Fideo posted:Nobody's recommended AEGIS: Super Combining Robot Tactics yet? For Shame! This actually seems like it might be the best bet, though I haven't played it - so I'm happy to hear other opinions on it. The theme and combining mechanics are rad and seem like a lot of fun, but the combat itself seems like it might be a bit shallow?
|
# ? May 6, 2023 18:56 |
|
CodfishCartographer posted:Any recommendations for games that, in rough order of importance: Voltron my guy! Built on a solid system that is expandable into a non-IP world if you care to. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/67426/monsterpocalypse-voltron-defender-universe-battle
|
# ? May 6, 2023 19:04 |
|
taser rates posted:Earth Reborn If your definition of 'mech themed' is 'contains one mech', sure! And it's great for inexperienced players because the first 20 scenarios are the tutorial!
|
# ? May 7, 2023 00:23 |
|
6 long years in the making, and it's finally doggo delivery day!
|
# ? May 7, 2023 01:32 |
|
Hell yeah congrats!
|
# ? May 7, 2023 01:41 |
|
Anyone had a chance to try the Star Wars take on Star Realms put out by FFG? Everything about it makes me leery but reviews have been super positive.
|
# ? May 7, 2023 03:36 |
|
Frozen Peach posted:6 long years in the making, and it's finally doggo delivery day! Gratz!
|
# ? May 7, 2023 10:25 |
|
Man, the digital implementations of Andean Abyss and Pax Pamir 2e on https://www.rally-the-troops.com/ are so good, but I am just not built for async games.
|
# ? May 8, 2023 10:24 |
|
Their implementation of PP2E annoyed me because it made you click through a lot of non decisions. If you play a card that put down troops it would make you click the right troop and the right map section, even though neither has any choice at all.
|
# ? May 8, 2023 10:35 |
|
We just played Iberian guage tonight aa our first delve into trainy economic games and it was fun! Is this like paddling pool level similar to 18xx or are they completely different ballparks?
|
# ? May 8, 2023 11:17 |
Frozen Peach posted:6 long years in the making, and it's finally doggo delivery day!
|
|
# ? May 8, 2023 11:27 |
|
Iberian Gauge is a member of the Cube rail family, a term dating back from when the prodution budget didn't stretch to little wooden trains. There's similarities between those and 18XXs: theme, obviously; no (or minimal) luck; few safety rails to ensure everyone has a good time; and most of the gameplay is a mix of auctions and route-building; the need to own a good set of poker chips. They share a lot of the same fans, and designers, but it's a richer genre than just "baby 18XX". IbGauge's track leasing is utterly absent from 18XX games, for instance. There are also many, many central rules in 18XX games that are not included in Cube Rail games, so it's not like one is training you for the other. I would say if you enjoyed it, and would like the experience to go on for 4 hours plus, then it might be worth checking out an 18XX - probably 1889, as a good starter game with a new swish production coming soon.
|
# ? May 8, 2023 11:32 |
The big fish in the cube rails pond, by the way, is Chicago Express, if you want a very representative sample of the genre. It's on bga, even!
|
|
# ? May 8, 2023 13:16 |
|
I always thought Wabash Cannonball was better. Though the new edition looks like a total dogs breakfast. Can't believe RGG got the rights to that one instead of Capstone.
|
# ? May 8, 2023 13:21 |
|
silvergoose posted:The big fish in the cube rails pond, by the way, is Chicago Express dishwasherlove posted:I always thought Wabash Cannonball was better. Is there any difference between the two besides the name?
|
# ? May 8, 2023 13:43 |
|
Eclipse question: friends of mine played the 2nd edition on the weekend and loved it but I have vanilla first edition. I recall there are issues with the base game with regard to degenerate missile envy strategies but I guess I'm asking what are the biggest differences aside from the cosmetics between the base 1st edition and 2nd and if there are any issues that would make it a problem to play instead of the one? Or could any issues be proxied away?
|
# ? May 8, 2023 13:47 |
|
Mr. Squishy posted:Is there any difference between the two besides the name? They have the same BGG page: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/31730/wabash-cannonball Which now doesn't show the quite charming Queen Games version, but shows the "dog's breakfast" as dishwasherlove put it. It's notably bad even for RGG. Don't get me wrong; it's a perfectly nice analog drawing of a train, but the title and logo just look so cut-rate. It looks like I made it in Microsoft Word. Also, big typo: they left off the legendary designer Harry Wu.
|
# ? May 8, 2023 13:53 |
They are the same game mechanically yeah.
|
|
# ? May 8, 2023 14:06 |
|
Magnetic North posted:Also, big typo: they left off the legendary designer Harry Wu. For anyone who does not get the joke Mag's making, notable Cube Rails designer and publisher John Bohrer is a big fan of pseudonyms, including names from other ethnicities. Honestly, I think the funnier story is him using the name of fellow designer Martin Wallace for a pseudonym, which is what happened with Age of Steam. At least that's what Bohrer says. Wallace claims the real Wallace designed it and then got ripped off by an unscrupulous publisher (Bohrer). I take no stance on the facts, but I like the story.
|
# ? May 8, 2023 14:09 |
|
RGG train component quality can be quite interesting https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3019231/cosmetic-errors
|
# ? May 8, 2023 14:57 |
|
The really bad thing about the RGG T&P print is that one of the key components is too large for the spaces on the board it's supposed to go into. While we're on the topic of Winsomes, I finally managed to acquire a copy of the 1830 cardgame which I've been trying to get for a while, hopefully will get a chance to play it in the near future. Seems quite interesting, really more like a Lokomotive Werks cardgame that happens to be themed after 1830.
|
# ? May 8, 2023 15:18 |
|
How is Teotihuacan: City of Gods? There is a nice looking Deluxe reprint with all expansions. I like Tzolkien, but never picked up any of the designers other games. I've heard on release Teotihuacan had some issues with useless actions (worship, I think), but that expansions have fixed it over time.
|
# ? May 8, 2023 15:42 |
|
FulsomFrank posted:Eclipse question: friends of mine played the 2nd edition on the weekend and loved it but I have vanilla first edition. I recall there are issues with the base game with regard to degenerate missile envy strategies but I guess I'm asking what are the biggest differences aside from the cosmetics between the base 1st edition and 2nd and if there are any issues that would make it a problem to play instead of the one? Or could any issues be proxied away? The designer talks through the rule and component changes in detail here: https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2024547/designer-notes-second-edition It's possible to proxy but it will be a huge amount of work.
|
# ? May 8, 2023 15:46 |
|
Mr. Squishy posted:Iberian Gauge is a member of the Cube rail family, a term dating back from when the prodution budget didn't stretch to little wooden trains. There's similarities between those and 18XXs: theme, obviously; no (or minimal) luck; few safety rails to ensure everyone has a good time; and most of the gameplay is a mix of auctions and route-building; the need to own a good set of poker chips. They share a lot of the same fans, and designers, but it's a richer genre than just "baby 18XX". IbGauge's track leasing is utterly absent from 18XX games, for instance. There are also many, many central rules in 18XX games that are not included in Cube Rail games, so it's not like one is training you for the other. I would say if you enjoyed it, and would like the experience to go on for 4 hours plus, then it might be worth checking out an 18XX - probably 1889, as a good starter game with a new swish production coming soon. silvergoose posted:The big fish in the cube rails pond, by the way, is Chicago Express, if you want a very representative sample of the genre. It's on bga, even! Awesome thanks for those replies. I'll definitely check out Chicago Express on BGA and then work on convincing some friends to try an 18xx game on TTS before spending any real dubloons. 4 hours MIGHT be a tough sell, but we've done War of the Ring, Tomesaga in one go, and are planning Dune soon which is also a multi hour marathon commitment (potentially)
|
# ? May 8, 2023 23:30 |
There's also 18xx.games, which takes care of the rules enforcement. Whooooole lotta titles on there!
|
|
# ? May 8, 2023 23:36 |
|
Alright I just read through the rules for Sidereal Confluence and now I'm really hyped to get this to the table. It wasn't nearly as complex as I thought it would be. Any teaching tips for this one, for a player count of 5-6?
|
# ? May 9, 2023 06:22 |
|
million dollar mack posted:Alright I just read through the rules for Sidereal Confluence and now I'm really hyped to get this to the table. It wasn't nearly as complex as I thought it would be. Any teaching tips for this one, for a player count of 5-6? Encourage everyone to just get trades done instead of nickel and diming each other for more favorable trades. The game is more about volume of trades than getting a good deal and a good player makes everyone more productive by acting early and often. A table full of players with this approach makes the game really sing. Get creative with circular trades, future promises for something now (remind everyone that all deals are binding), etc.
|
# ? May 9, 2023 06:29 |
|
million dollar mack posted:Alright I just read through the rules for Sidereal Confluence and now I'm really hyped to get this to the table. It wasn't nearly as complex as I thought it would be. Any teaching tips for this one, for a player count of 5-6? Make sure to mention that every trade is going to benefit both people to some extent, and it's better to mostly focus on getting your game going even if it slightly helps the other player. As long as you're not doing incredibly lopsided trades then you're going to have a good shot at winning. Otherwise the game is going to grind to a halt.
|
# ? May 9, 2023 07:38 |
|
silvergoose posted:There's also 18xx.games, which takes care of the rules enforcement. Whooooole lotta titles on there! 18xx.games is such a treat. Incredible website. Toby is a mensch.
|
# ? May 9, 2023 13:38 |
|
|
# ? Jun 6, 2024 07:21 |
|
million dollar mack posted:Alright I just read through the rules for Sidereal Confluence and now I'm really hyped to get this to the table. It wasn't nearly as complex as I thought it would be. Any teaching tips for this one, for a player count of 5-6? We sent this video to everyone to watch before the first time we played and it worked out very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqfgV9xE7t8 Our only hang up was that one guy refused to do anything that didn't line up with the Conversion chart and it was maddening. He changed that after a couple rounds when nobody wanted to work with him.
|
# ? May 9, 2023 18:05 |