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Could I get some game recommendations, please? I want a game I can play with my brother. He really likes Magic, and I don't. He also has kids, so he's too poor to keep buying booster packs now. I am working to convert his family to play games that aren't the Oregon Trail Card Game, so I got them Ticket to Ride and Survive! Escape from Atlantis, and they were both hits. I want to get him into something more serious. His oldest is 16, so it would also be cool if he could play with us. I guess what we're looking for is: A fair amount of interactivity. He's my brother, we're used to destroying each other. Play time ideally an hour or less. A game that's easy to pick up, with a lot of depth you can discover. Buy it once and that's all you have to do, or at least minimal and cheap expansions. (The Tash-Kalar and Mage Wars expansion decks, for instance, think I could talk him into getting a couple, once we figure out our styles of play) High variability would be nice, multiple factions, variable setup, etc. Variable player count would be great, but not essential. He's colorblind, so friendly design is non-negotiable. Am I asking too much? Games I'm thinking of suggesting Tash-Kalar Mage Wars Doomtown Reloaded. Yes, it's an LCG, but it looks like the base game might be enough to keep us satisfied? The theme and poker aspects seem right up his alley. X Wing Miniatures. See above? I have Aeon's End, which I enjoy, and you don't get more variable than that. Anyone have any thoughts? El Fideo fucked around with this message at 05:20 on Apr 23, 2017 |
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Apr 23, 2017 04:43
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Jabor posted:Dominion sounds like what you're after. 2-4, plays quickly, variable setup, lots of depth but easy to learn the basics. I have to admit, I'm one of those people that thinks Dominion is a very respectable, and very unexciting game. Maybe I just need to play it some more.
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Apr 23, 2017 05:07
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Does Inis really work for two? Drafting with two players sort of becomes a really different game, in my experience. I'll definitely be bringing my copy of Kemet around, when we do have the youngster.
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Apr 23, 2017 06:09
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I hadn't realized battleCON had a print and play! That makes it top of the list to try out. Tash-Kalar is still a maybe, the replayability would come more from us developing skills together than from variety. X wing is out. If it's not really playable with just the starter packs(or two of them) then it's a no go. Doomtown being dead, on the other hand, might make it more suitable, if we move on it quickly, while people are dumping stock. Mage Wars Academy might be a better fit than Arena, yeah. Sometimes lighter just means streamlined. I linked my brother the SU&SD review of Inis, since, silly opinions aside, Quinns and Paul are still the best at getting people hyped up for a game. I imagine we'll go with one or two of these, and I know he's doing some research on his own. You guys are super helpful, so mahalo!
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Apr 23, 2017 10:19
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Go RV! posted:So, one of my favorite board games is Quantum. One of the main things that makes me love it so much is using the powers and ships you acquired through the game, that lead into those really big, impressive moves that make you feel really goddamn smart. What other games kind of do this? I haven't played it, but I've watched a few videos on the game, and Steampunk Rally looks like it might fit that bill.
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May 7, 2017 07:45
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My recent games played: Glux - It's an abstract area control game that really works. With the chips you're laying down on the board, it sort of feels like a way better Checkers, even though they really don't play the same at all. Simple rules, that really work together in interesting ways. Has the potential to be really mean if that's how you want to play it. The thirty minute playtime on the box seemed good, but I only played it two player. Three would probably be fine, four might be pushing it, but I'd still try that with, like, my nephews. It comes with pouches to blind-draw your playing chips from, so it's almost portable, makes me want to make my own copy of the two player board. 13 Days - I've never played Twilight Struggle, so I can't compare the two, but I really liked this one. Another area control game, but completely different. For one thing, more rules and fiddliness, which made the game less of a breeze to teach, but way more interesting to dig into. Limited options at any given time limit the AP potential, and the fact that you don't know for sure what your opponent is trying to score adds a lot of room for mindgames. Managing the defcon track is a good mechanic to keep you reined in. Roll for the Galaxy - I loving suck at this game, and I don't even care. I need to stop assuming the other players are going to pick a phase that I need(you had FOUR GOODS ON YOUR PLANETS, SAM! Why wouldn't you goddam Consume?!). Playing it feels almost like a ritual. 4 people sitting together in a circle, shaking a cup of dice until they all slam them down on the carpet at once, lifting screens when they've all allocated their dice. Yeah. Plays really quick, I love the fact that the bag apparently represents Space. Valley of the Kings:Afterlife - The whole thing just works. The entomb mechanic works really well, the pyramid market works really well, the cards combine beautifully, and I always felt like I had interesting choices to make. The scoring is just Set collection, and that's all it needs to be. A lot of game in a little tiny box, with probably the nicest quality cards in my collection. They feel really solid, and shuffling feels good. Friday - I wanted a solo game, and the Onirim app was cheap enough that I couldn't justify buying the physical game, so I gave this a try. Constantly interesting, trying to find the balance in how bold you should try to be. I'm still on the basic version of the game, and I think that might be the case for a while. Which is great, really. It means I can keep exploring the game. Last Will - It's a neat game. The theme is all over the mechanics, which I really respect. The rules aren't complicated, except for all those little exceptions that CGE seem to love, but they all work thematically, so you don't have trouble remembering them. The variety in the cards gives you lots of room to try new things, and pivot a strategy that's not working out. Picking your turn order properly seems to be key. Sitting on the shelf, waiting to be tried: Medina, Lost Cities, Cash n Guns, Alchemists, Biblios. Coming soon in the mail: Tash Kalar, Istanbul, Shogun, Escape!: Zombie City, and Broom Service.
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Jun 8, 2017 10:49
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Does anyone know anything about trick-taking and climbing games? My experience with them boils down to A) playing Spades on my dad's computer when I was like five, and not understanding how to play, so I stopped, and B) trying real hard not to just skip past the endless blow-by-blow accounts of Bridge matches in at least one Agatha Christie novel. So I'm in the market. I hear lots of names thrown around like Tichu, Nyet, Skull King, and Haggis, but what are the standouts? I'd like to get more than one, since I play with different people. A game good for drinking buddies/family gatherings without a lot to keep track of, and a meaty one that my regular game group could really dig into. Thoughts?
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Jun 12, 2017 04:43
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SU&SD has a really great writeup on CAH. People 'round here bag on them for overvaluing a game's ability to foster social interaction and create experiences, but those are literally the only things Cards Against Humanity has to offer, so I say they're a good voice on this one. https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/review-cards-against-humanity/ Matt probably says it best, that it's a way to enable people to make lovely, cruel jokes without actually taking ownership of them. Appealing to the worst parts of our nature, and then patting us on the head and saying that we're not really like that, so it's okay. We're not bad people, we just got bad cards. There are better party games. Games like Snake Oil or The Game of Things...(Things...by the way, can be played with a few sheets of paper and pencils, if your friends can handle the daunting creativity of deciding on a category). CAH is the lowest common denominator of both gaming and human nature. You don't need to be funny, skilled, or brave to play it. It doesn't require you to be good at literally anything.
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Jun 18, 2017 23:10
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Agent Rush posted:I was asking you about Kitchen Rush, I'm still on the fence about it and was wondering how it compared to other WP games. The stuff above that was about Ars Alchimia. You're asking how it compares to a wildly different game. They basically have nothing to do with each other. Kitchen Rush is a worker placement game, sure, but it's a co-operative game played in real-time. It would be more useful to ask how it compares to, say, Space Alert, or Escape: the Curse of the Temple.
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Jun 22, 2017 04:08
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cenotaph posted:If you like trick-takers Sticheln is a top-tier one. If you can't find it you can play with a Rage deck which is much cheaper and often available at places like 5 Below. Rage is an unremarkable trick-taking game, but it has six suits of cards, going from 0-15, with a few special cards, and it's dirt cheap. This makes it the best deck for proxying other card games. (some Sticheln decks go 0-18 in six suits, but not the one you can easily get.) https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/107893/1-sheet-compact-rules-40-games-playable-sticheln-r https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/1907/games-playable-rage-deck-not-ccg-please-add
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Jul 6, 2017 07:19
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Voluta even sounds like Fallout. Can we start some kind of petition?
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Aug 9, 2017 20:21
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Cards Against Humanity:still dumb and bad, check. Which of the Las Vegas games is the good one? Is it Las Vegas, or Lords of Vegas? Or, you know, other.
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Aug 13, 2017 21:10
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I had a nice gaming day for a friend's birthday party last week, and played a couple games today for Labor Day. Altogether, I got to try: Mint Works - Alright, the form factor is what puts it over the top. If it were bigger, it would just be a middling filler/gateway. With the compactness, and the ultra-portability? It's nifty. Go anywhere, play anywhere. I can't say I would ever love it if I owned it, but I would probably have it in a bag at all times. Seriously considering going for the KS of the new one and getting both. For Sale - The comparison that comes to mind is an even lighter, even quicker Biblios. Auction game that has two distinct stages, one using the resources gained in the other. I probably wouldn't bring Biblios to play with family at Christmas, but this would work great. Might pick up the travel edition some time. Samurai and Ra - I'm putting them together because I feel about the same way. Both of them have a good mixture of trying to calculate the odds while trying to figure out what your opponents need to do, and how you can stop them. Great balance of open and hidden information, too. Samurai is probably the simpler one, but I like the spatial aspect of an abstract area control game, and the special tiles everyone gets really let you alter the board state in interesting ways. Ra felt like there were more ways to play it, and more things to consider, especially with when to call an auction. None of us had played it before, and we reached the last space in the auction rack a few times. Two really cool games that made my brain buzz. Commissioned - I think it's good? Played it three player, the owner taught it to us two first-timers, and he was poo poo at explaining basically everything. I think we were playing it right by about halfway through, probably, and we won the easy setting on the final turn.The deckbuilding aspect worked pretty well, though it almost felt too easy to trash cards. Didn't feel that thematic. Buying miracles and sometimes they happen? Sacriliege! Bears vs. Babies - *Jerkoff Motion. Jerkoff motion for a thousand years.* I don't need this poo poo. The Fox in the Forest - I was curious about a two player trick-taking game, and this one is super neat. 3 suits, 1-11, with special powers on all the odd cards. For instance, playing a one lets you lead after the current trick. Trump is decided by a small deck of the cards that didn't get dealt, though there are card powers that affect that deck. Scoring is what makes the game. Basically the amount of tricks it's possible to win are divided into brackets. The lowest bracket and the second-highest bracket both score big, while the highest bracket score zero and the middling numbers award small amounts of points. So, you want to either take a lot(but not TOO MANY) or very few. Play till one player has either 16 or 21 points, depending on how long you want to be there. Definitely one to play again. Jaipur - loving A that's a good one. It feels like a Lost Cities where I get more control(I have played like three games of Lost Cities. I like it, but the last time I played I got zero contract cards in my starting hands, and my opponent had at least three each time. Luck that bad is hard to mitigate. Still gonna play it again) The different ways of affecting the market give you a lot to think about, and the balance between big scores and quick cash is great. Flooding the Market with camels when you know the other guy doesn't have anything to sell, so he has to take all of them, and getting a whole new market of shiny new goods? That's a good feeling. So, a question that came to me while playing Commissioned:Are there any games where the deckbuilding mechanic actually conveys theme? Like, drafting feels pretty abstract to me unless it's tied to a theme involving opportunity cost. Sushi Go Party! is a perfect theme for a drafting game, because you can easily imagine yourself sitting in a restaurant, watching food go by on a conveyor, and saying, "yeah, I'll have one of those, two of those, are there any more of these? You ate them? Dick!" Dominion and Valley of the Kings get praised for tight mechanics, but Dominion is famously dry, and the only thematic aspect of VotK is the entombing. What theme would the randomized recycling and fine-tuning of deckbuilding work for? Also: For Sale and Biblios got me thinking about games that happen in stages. I like a good feeling of progression in my games. Engine-builder games have a nice arc, by nature. Jaipur had a great progression to it as the initial sale prices become unavailable, and then the game gets close to ending so you're trying to make any deal you can. Biblios achieves it in a different way, because the game is first a draft session to collect resources, then an auction using those resources as currency. I like Biblios more than I think I would if it were a draft phase and an auction phase every turn. Are there any other games like that? Where play progresses in delineated stages, with a different aim in each one?
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Sep 5, 2017 10:30
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For dexterity games, I can heartily recommend Click Clack Lumberjack, in what ever title/configuration you can find it. It seems to work well at any level of sobriety. Rhino Hero looks great, and they just came out with a larger version called Rhino Hero Super Batlle that looks a bit crazier. If you want one that definitely shouldn't be taken too seriously, I like Cube Quest. You get a bunch of plastic cubes to be your soldiers, some mats made of mousepad material to be your battlefield, and you start flicking. Cubes are harder to flick properly than discs. For those interested in Junk Art, there's also a plastic version for a lot cheaper. apparently it's nice solid resin, that some people are liking better than the wood. I'm 80% of the way through building my own rough approximation of a Crokinole board, will post pics when it's finished.
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Sep 28, 2017 00:31
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I was at a library book sale and they had Wilderness Empires for two dollars and also Paths of Glory for two dollars and now I have these two new games and what have I done? I've never played any wargames before heeeeeeellllllp.
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Oct 28, 2017 03:42
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I looked them up first, obviously. Paths looked interesting, but definitely too much of a deep dive for a first Wargame. So I looked at the others to see if anything might be a good starter, hence Wilderness Empires. They also happened to be the two with the best production values of the whole table. Real boards, box not about to fall apart (though that might be the tropical humidity here) I do have a person interested in trying them with me, but I'm relatively sure he has no experience either. The worst part is buying them used, so I have no idea what the pieces do, and some of the baggies the owner had them organized into didn't seal properly, so there's a mess of tokens in that box.
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Oct 28, 2017 04:46
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What does out later this month mean in this context? In a particular country? A new edition? I bought it for $13 from Amazon back in August. I really like The Fox in the Forest. The scoring actually makes 2p trick taking work, and the different powers on the cards lend themselves well to various strategies. And it's definitely beautiful.
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Nov 10, 2017 23:50
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I have another request for recommendations. Two, actually, though they could definitely overlap. First, what are the good pirate games? I want a couple. I have way too many space games, so I'm trying to diversify settings. Merchants and Marauders looks neat, but way too long, and being able to lose absolutely everything and start over sounds like hell. Libertalia looks awesome, and pretty quick, and I already have and love Dogs of War by the same guy. Black Fleet looks just plain fun and interesting, but might be one I just play with my nephews and not the main game group. Any others? Second, What pick up and deliver games should I look at? I got to play Istanbul last night, and I realized that it's the only game like that in my collection, unless you count Escape: Zombie City. BGG's Weight meter is unreliable, but my sweet spot for game complexity seems to be right around 2.8, give or take.
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Nov 16, 2017 03:39
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Is Ghost Stories still a good hard co-op, or is it showing its age?
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Nov 23, 2017 21:47
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Mr. Squishy posted:
Your decision.
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Mar 4, 2018 09:33
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I'm starting an RPG group. I have three players, each of whom has played a few sessions of D&D. I've never DMed, but played a good amount of D&D. We are all Theater People. Is Mouse Guard a good pick for us if we want a system that is not poo poo? I hear good things, and the setting appeals. Am I fine with a pdf of the core book, or do I need to spring for the box set with all the cards and whatnot?
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Apr 22, 2018 21:04
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https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/192735/broom-service-card-game Do you mean this one from two years ago, or is there another one coming?
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May 9, 2018 21:08
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Southern Heel posted:OK Roll for the Galaxy has arrived, I would appreciate any advice for making the first game/s as painless as possible - any tips? Make sure you have the rules for shipping down pat. The color-matching is the hardest thing for me to get people to understand. Don't be afraid to Abandon tiles that you don't want to build, or that have a better one under them in the stack. In my experience, you should have at most three or four in each stack at any given time. Taking a Stock action on an Explore die is way better than only having one die in the cup next round. Development powers that have an income connected to a phase(e.g. "Develop:Gain $2") happen whenever the phase happens. whether or not it's you, whether or not you participate in the phase. Really know what you want to do this turn. Don't count on anyone else to activate a phase you need. When playing two player, keep in mind that the die you roll for the extra phase has two explores, and one of each other phase.
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May 14, 2018 01:14
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Anyone know about board gaming in Oslo? I'm going to be there a couple weeks. I see there's a gaming night on Meetup, but the timing on that looks like a problem.
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May 24, 2018 03:56
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Never played Cthulhu Wars, or done any PBF, but I'd be up for giving it a try.
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Jun 22, 2018 20:15
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I'm going to throw in a recommendation for Gaslands. It's a quick miniatures game, based around Mad Max-style vehicular mayhem. It has various game modes, from Death Race to Arena. The wrinkle is that the miniatures in this case are Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars, which you can either modify however much you like, or play right out of the box. You can get the rulebook in pdf form for thirteen bucks right now, and if you somehow don't have any toy cars sitting around, they cost about a dollar each. The barrier for entry is as low as a minis game possibly can be, and the designer is putting out new content every month or two for free.
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Jun 29, 2018 17:24
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Stan Taylor posted:First heard about this from So Very Wrong About Games and it sounds awesome. I love game designs reusing other toys/games as pieces. This and Dread make me very happy. I am very much into that too, so what's this Dread thing you mentioned?
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Jun 29, 2018 18:32
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Bottom Liner posted:Hell yeah, I bought a few old hot rods and trucks (and a tank) today. $20 and I have the pdf and a bunch of cars to muck up. Not gonna bother painting, but I will file them down and beat them up a bit and make them dirty. Any idea where to get weapon bits? There are a ton of sites making accessories for the game, under the Friends of Gaslands Banner. There's a facebook group called Gaslands Sale or Trade where people are posting weapon bits, too. Honestly, I refuse to spend much in the way of money on this, since part of the whole appeal is the low barrier of entry. So I'm not bothering with the custom movement templates etc that you can get online. (Might get some dice, though. Way easier.) For weapons I've been going to thrift shops and getting action figures with weapons and cutting those up, as well as using spare electronic components I've had lying around. I've always kept away from minis games, due to not wanting to have to learn the skills on an expensive model. Futzing around with 99 cent cars has been very freeing.   
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Jun 30, 2018 02:14
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Magnetic North posted:This image owns, expecially the Power Grid bits in the background. "4 hour long math puzzles are nice, but sometimes you just want to reduce good old fashioned American automobiles down to their component smithereens." I came in a close second in that Power Grid game, while farting around with my car m)ans, which I'd brought along to show the other guy in the group that plays Gaslands. Get the pdf, that and a few cars are the cheapest starter set you ever saw. Now my shaky-rear end hands need to learn the rudiments of painting. That base coat on those cars isn't even proper spray primer, just regular spray paint. EDIT: There's a Gaslands thread! poo poo! We should probably talk about this in there! FUUUUCK https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3860130 El Fideo fucked around with this message at 06:40 on Jul 1, 2018 |
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Jul 1, 2018 05:28
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Ok, but do the rules allow for homophones? Because that clue still applies to 'knows,' not 'nose.' "The Clues must refer to the meaning of the Keywords," says the manual, and I think it excludes that sort of thing
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Jul 18, 2018 03:48
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I can't speak to either's quality, but Dice Forge just got added to BoardGameArena, so you can give it a try.
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Jul 23, 2018 16:37
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Bottom Liner posted:I said it 5 times, but my external mic wasn't working and didn't pick up audio correctly That was the one thing I was going to mention. Other than that, nice first video!
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Jul 24, 2018 10:55
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So I've sort of had a vague idea, and I just wanted to run it up the flagpole here. Have there been any games that combine deckbuilding with action programming? Most programmable action games that I can think of have identical fixed decks, or everyone draws from a single deck. Everyone starting with a set of basic actions, but being able to specialize and upgrade sounds interesting to me. The rub is probably luck mitigation, right?
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Aug 1, 2018 19:55
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homullus posted:In an abstract way, you could think of Paperback and Hardback as deckbuilding action programming, and (most importantly) look at them for how they handle luck mitigation. Ooh, I hadn't considered them. And yeah, Hardback makes sense as the inspiration. Make any card able to be the basic form of whatever action you need, instead of what's written. I'm going to have to think of what sort of theme would work for this, and see if that gives me any idea for mechanisms.
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Aug 2, 2018 08:00
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I'll second The Castles of Mad King Ludwig. That game owns, and everyone gets a castle at the end. Sometimes I'll take a picture of people's castles, and use them as the layout for an rpg dungeon. Another good one to look at is Steampunk Rally. It's really thematic, since the engine you're building is literally your car's engine.
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Aug 28, 2018 22:56
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While we're getting all these great reprints of classic Euros, can we get an updated look for El Grande? And preferably one that's not a $90 Big Box?
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Sep 6, 2018 09:40
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Shut Up and Sit Down love Dead of Winter by the same guy, but you can hear them trashing it on a podcast. https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/podcastle/podcast-80-until-the-sheep-goes-berp/ About the twenty eight minute mark.
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Sep 11, 2018 01:34
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Had a game night last night, got to play Castles of Mad King Ludwig, and Can't Stop, which I've decided I really like with two or even three, but 4 is too crowded. A friend brought Unstable Unicorns, which is like Exploding Kittens or Bears vs Babies but slightly better. Put another way, it's like Guillotine but way worse. We utterly failed to apprehend Mr. X in Scotland Yard, and had a couple rounds of Sticheln, which I'm convinced is the best trick-taking game. While I was playing these, the table in the other room had a game of Concordia going on. I understand that two of the players were new to the game, but even so, HOW THE gently caress DO YOU MAKE CONCORDIA TAKE THREE HOURS?
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Sep 11, 2018 19:47
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I pretty much manage to keep my buying under control through three laws: Sturgeon's Law: "Ninety per cent of everything is crap." Vasel's Law(Though in fairness, he doesn't actually call it that): "Good games get reprinted." And every gamer's sad inner truth: "poo poo, man, I don't even have time to play the games I already own." It helps that my buying channels are extremely limited. I live in rural Hawaii. My island has two games stores on it, each fifty miles away from me, and in opposite directions, and they are expensive, because shipping things here is expensive. BGG lists about ten other people with accounts admitting to living here, so the local market is definitely not strong, let alone math trades. All the websites you like have exorbitant shipping to here, and they don't get cheaper if you spend more money. I'm basically limited to Amazon and Ebay. Enough people on Ebay forget that Hawaii is part of the US when they offer cheap shipping that it works out. Kickstarter usually lumps us in with the mainland US too, but every game I've ever gotten through them that was any good eventually made it to Amazon for cheaper. There are literally too many good games for me to play them all, anyway. Once I internalized that, it got easy.
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Sep 28, 2018 06:10
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I am also on board for the anime trash adorableness, if there is space.
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Nov 2, 2018 08:32
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