Doesn't sound like a bad decision. The games occupy very different spots because of playing time.
-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Board Gaming Era |OT| (Mostly) Unplugged Gaming
- Thread starter XShagrath
- Start date
Doesn't sound like a bad decision. The games occupy very different spots because of playing time.
The latest update on Bloodborne, they've announced that even the enemies and bosses in the expansions will now have cards for them to be used in the Chalice Dungeon. This is a pretty big deal, they were clear before that it wouldn't be so. Whether this was planned or not, this is great news. It adds a lot more value into the add ons. I'm pretty excited about it.
And of course that means the announcement worked ;) I'm so burned out on CMON Kickstarters. I've moved on game wise, I've moved on emotionally. If the game/content is a success, CMON will provide you ways to get at it down the line, it's in their best interests.
XShagrath speaks the truth ;)
Can I get some opinions on this game? Someone offered me a unopened Mansions of Madness 2nd edition for my second copy of TI4 and I'm thinking about it.
I like mansions of madness 2.0 a lot, it's just a very hard game depending upon the scenario. One of the best solo games out there and still a ton of fun with friends.
Yay. Even more stuff you miss out on if you don't buy everything in this very limited window. Better hurry, it will never be available in retail. Who cares about actually trying the game out before you decide to pay for all these expansions? You don't want to miss out, do you?
Damn, they're good at manipulating their backers. I'd prefer if they focused on making games rather than exploiting their customers.
I love Eldritch Horror and Spirit Island so I have no problem with a hard game. Do you have any more insight you can give? What makes you like it a lot?
The app essentially serves as a dungeon master, providing tons of story, unique puzzles, and variable options for how combat plays out. The app also randomized the scenarios so each play is slightly different. It gives it a very unique experience from other dungeon crawl games on the market. It's probably the best use of an app in any board game I've ever played. As an added positive the app won't yell at you for cheating, so if you feel the game is too hard and want to house rule the app lets you do that easily.
If you ignore the app it's still a mechanically strong dungeon crawl that has a bigger focus on exploration and puzzle solving compared to other games that are largely focused on killing people. That's not to say there is no combat, but the game has a nice balance between intense combat and slower moments which can't really happen in other dungeon crawls of it's style.
Awesome, just checking out some reviews and gameplay of it. I do have Imperial Assault already and I love the app integration.
$280 for everything. Yikes.
I considered Clinic yesterday because I'd like a Sim Hospital type game. But after watching Rahdo's runthrough, it looks like a nice game, but not an amazing one. Back it if you're worried about FOMO, but I think I'm going to pass. I prefer more setup variation so that every game feels different. The urban design cards help a bit. I'm also iffy on the isometric look and tiles. Also as its a small studio, there might be delays or quality production. And I already backed On Mars this month. That said it is going to be tough to get down the line.
The campaign isn't even done yet. Expect it to rise even more.
I'm still on the fence about Bloodborne. I'm sure the base game already has more than enough content with all those stretch goals, so no need for me to go all in. The mechanics look solid, but I've never played the video game, so the theme doesn't do much for me.
Yea this is just another tactic for them to entice people to buy add ons. Oh there is content for your dungeon runs that is in these add ons now! Better buy.
CMON campaigns are built on squeezing every dime out of ppl with FOMO.
Breaking out of the FOMO loop is honestly one of the best things you can do for yourself in this hobby.
FWIW Rahdo's video is the old edition, though it seems like most of the variety is in the expansion box.
I've had no delays or significant production issues with this studio so far. Viaard has gone out of his way to make things right, like shipping me a new outer box when Tramways arrived with a busted corner.
It is becomming more difficult as games are becoming more refined in their mechanics, component quality is the best it has ever been, and failure to get in on the ground floor is now more expensive, with lower quality components. I hate seeing retail versions stripped of kickstarter components while being sold at a higher cost.
I am still in for the base pledge of Bloodborne. There seems to be decent value there to me. Plus I got an early bird too. I did the same with Batman and there is tons to play for that with just the base pledge too.
I agree that FOMO is an awful tactic but I see more and more KS pushing it these days by exclusives or not selling even the games at retail. It really is a sad state of things.
I agree that FOMO is an awful tactic but I see more and more KS pushing it these days by exclusives or not selling even the games at retail. It really is a sad state of things.
I broke the FOMO cycle by asking my self, realistically, when will I get this to the table? If it's not going to be a game that frequently gets to the table will I take the time to create a group where as I can make that happen?
Due to this I've passed up on a fair few games Clinic included- if I've got the time I'd rather do something like 18XX, Food Chain Magnate or Great Western Trail. I think it goes past being a purchase and instead in to the realm of being a habit, you need to find the next purchase that will 'complete your collection'. In doing so you end up passing over getting the most out of what you already own.
Due to this I've passed up on a fair few games Clinic included- if I've got the time I'd rather do something like 18XX, Food Chain Magnate or Great Western Trail. I think it goes past being a purchase and instead in to the realm of being a habit, you need to find the next purchase that will 'complete your collection'. In doing so you end up passing over getting the most out of what you already own.
I just don't even go on Kickstarter anymore. There's so many good games out there that are just straight up available at retail.
Yeah I ask myself this too (the first part, the second is unlikely to happen). Furthermore, I also ponder whether there isn't already something in my collection that I should be playing more of (the answer is usually yes).
Tell me about it! :-/
Introducing Better BGG Collection
Introduction
I've developed a web app that will display your BoardGameGeek (BGG) collection to you in a much nicer way then BGG does by default. It also displays information like rank, number of players, and game time which is also not displayed in the default BGG collection page.
Details
To check it out go here https://gamerkingfaiz.github.io/bgg-collection/
In addition to inputting your BGG username onto the webpage you can also directly go to your collection by appending ?username=<insert username here> to the end of the URL.
For example: https://gamerkingfaiz.github.io/bgg-collection/?username=gamerkingfaiz
You can also control the default number or rows returned with &rows=<insert number here>.
For example: https://gamerkingfaiz.github.io/bgg-collection/?username=gamerkingfaiz&rows=1000
I only have ~30 games, so it doesn't look different, but try with a bigger collection and see the difference!
Geeky Details:
The page is built in React.It's responsive, meaning it will play nice on mobile.
I'm using the official BGG XML API then the xml2js library to convert the XML to JSON.
Finally, I'm using cors-anywhere to add a CORS header to the BGG API.
I'm still new to this and learning so please feel free to give me any critique!Github can be found here: https://github.com/GamerKingFaiz/bgg-collection
Introduction
I've developed a web app that will display your BoardGameGeek (BGG) collection to you in a much nicer way then BGG does by default. It also displays information like rank, number of players, and game time which is also not displayed in the default BGG collection page.
Details
To check it out go here https://gamerkingfaiz.github.io/bgg-collection/
In addition to inputting your BGG username onto the webpage you can also directly go to your collection by appending ?username=<insert username here> to the end of the URL.
For example: https://gamerkingfaiz.github.io/bgg-collection/?username=gamerkingfaiz
You can also control the default number or rows returned with &rows=<insert number here>.
For example: https://gamerkingfaiz.github.io/bgg-collection/?username=gamerkingfaiz&rows=1000
I only have ~30 games, so it doesn't look different, but try with a bigger collection and see the difference!
Geeky Details:
The page is built in React.It's responsive, meaning it will play nice on mobile.
I'm using the official BGG XML API then the xml2js library to convert the XML to JSON.
Finally, I'm using cors-anywhere to add a CORS header to the BGG API.
I'm still new to this and learning so please feel free to give me any critique!Github can be found here: https://github.com/GamerKingFaiz/bgg-collection
Last edited:
oh look Bloodborne added another addon expansion to buy! Oh how nice it's going to be at stores and not exclusive... oh wait, they are including 4 exclusive figures in it if you buy it in the KS. Fucks sake they are disgusting
Lot of kickstarters are out there that aren't pushing KS exclusives heavily. A unique figure here or there, but many aren't locking majority of expansion content behind exclusivity. You can get some good deals, but many don't lock everything behind the KS paywalls.
You put a ton of shit in as KS exclusive, then to hell with your KS.
I had an Early bird pledge, decent deal, but if I want more complete game I have no choice but to buy the exclusives during the campaign which are mostly all over priced.
Lot of kickstarters are out there that aren't pushing KS exclusives heavily. A unique figure here or there, but many aren't locking majority of expansion content behind exclusivity. You can get some good deals, but many don't lock everything behind the KS paywalls.
You put a ton of shit in as KS exclusive, then to hell with your KS.
I had an Early bird pledge, decent deal, but if I want more complete game I have no choice but to buy the exclusives during the campaign which are mostly all over priced.
This is pretty cool. Are you open to working on this more?
Yeah, definitely. I'm gonna let this sit for a little bit as I move onto another project for now, but do plan on getting back into it and implementing more stuff.
Things to add so far include:
- More info columns (user rating, best player number, weight, and maybe number of plays(?))
- Adding a page for wishlist games
- Filtering on different stats
Anything you'd like to see?
Indeed, indeed. But this is my FIRST CMON game (I avoided all the others for precisely the reasons you all discuss, but bloodborne is a true favorite, if they can make a decent game out of it, and I have much more confidence in CMON to do at least that than Steamforged in the Dark Souls fiasco, I'm down for it, just this once) so I don't feel too bad getting wound up in it. I know, it's totally anti consumer, but I expect this crap will blow up in their faces sooner or later. If you read the comments, there's a hell of a lot of cynicism.
Well, CMON has a big dumb kickstarter every month. If you're going to indulge may as well wait till it's something that really appeals to you.
There is another CMON game on my radar, Night of the Living Dead, they announced last year. But after going all in on bloodborne, I don't think I'd dive in another kickstarter. Hope it's just straight retail, a one off.
Oh, I know. That's why i'm only considering the base pledge level. I went nearly all-in on Zombicide: Invader last year, and I love my kickstarter edition of Rising Sun.
Yeah, this has always been a big problem with CMON games. They've basically taken to using Kickstarter to milk the whales, and it's a gross practice. I'm just lucky that the mini-heavy games that CMON makes don't interest me so the choice is simple.
Tabletop Simulator can work. I usually just start with plain paper. Cards are easy to do by just writing whatever you need on paper, then putting that in a sleeve, with a spare card for support. Simple boards can also be drawn on paper and other components like cubes and meeples can come from other games.
For later stage prototyping, I like using print on demand boardgame manufacturers, like http://thegamecrafter.com, http://printplaygames.com and http://makemygame.com
Even the games and expansions they take to retail, often will go out of print quick, and never get reprinted. Even if it's not KS exclusive, it can be difficult to acquire the extra content for their games. CMON pumps out multi million dollar games almost monthly, can afford to run it's own convention, giant elaborate con booths at major game events, buying up licenses left and right, and essentially is a preorder system machine, they can't bring themselves to reprint stuff for their big games.
I can't help but think that this kind of business model is unsustainable. At some point even the whales are going to get cold feet about putting in hundreds of dollars on CMON game #531, and they'll have to come up with new ideas on how to sell their products.
We know they made less money in 2018 than years previous, so we're already starting to see the effects of it.
OP
OP
Continuing the CMON topic, I've heard from a couple of different sources (podcasts, bgg, etc.) that CMON is going to be adapting more of a "one and done" approach to their games. This is pretty much how they do a lot of their games anyways, but it might go further to their retail stuff as well, with only doing a single print run, and then not supporting the game after that.
I guess this all goes to the "cult of the new" that many board gamers fall trap to. It also means that CMON doesn't have to have the best designs in place, because they don't plan on keeping the games alive forever. Once they've got your money, why should they care anymore?
I'm definitely not a big fan of their approach. I have two CMON games (Lorenzo il Magnifico, and Rise of Moloch). Moloch was given to me as a gift, so I didn't get into the craziness that their KS campaigns entail. I was pretty hyped for their Cthulhu game, and got in on that pledge, even with the stupidity involving the giant statue. Then, as they started doing the paid expansions, and even some of the stretch goals, I saw that they really didn't know/care about the material. They were misnaming well-known Lovecraft characters, and that was enough for me to drop my pledge. They just produced that game because a bunch of people love Cthulhu/Lovecraft, and wanted to make something "cool."
I guess this all goes to the "cult of the new" that many board gamers fall trap to. It also means that CMON doesn't have to have the best designs in place, because they don't plan on keeping the games alive forever. Once they've got your money, why should they care anymore?
I'm definitely not a big fan of their approach. I have two CMON games (Lorenzo il Magnifico, and Rise of Moloch). Moloch was given to me as a gift, so I didn't get into the craziness that their KS campaigns entail. I was pretty hyped for their Cthulhu game, and got in on that pledge, even with the stupidity involving the giant statue. Then, as they started doing the paid expansions, and even some of the stretch goals, I saw that they really didn't know/care about the material. They were misnaming well-known Lovecraft characters, and that was enough for me to drop my pledge. They just produced that game because a bunch of people love Cthulhu/Lovecraft, and wanted to make something "cool."
If you're wanting to build a physical prototype you can buy items like blank cards, and dice, blank game boards, player pieces, and even full "make your own board game kits" off of Amazon.
I'm currently working on two prototypes, and this is how I built them.
Just an FYI Lorenzo isn't theirs but Cranio Creations an Italian team. They are just publishing it at the moment so rights can be given to another company. :)
OP
OP
I definitely knew they were just the publishers, and it's not a "CMON Production." But it does have CMON on the box, so I'm going to call it a CMON game for simplicity's sake, just like I would call Orleans a TMG game, even though it's published by dlg in other countries.
Outside of a handful of key designers, I don't think many people (outside of the heavily invested) know many names. I definitely couldn't name the designer of a good portion of my games.
Still going to be a while. I've seen it several times already in the comments for BB KS and before in their other ones: "who cares if the game ends up not being good, you are getting tons of cool miniatures!" If that's all it takes for these folks to toss money at them....
Yea to me CMON already reached that point a while ago. Most of their to retail product tends to just go out of print quick and we never see reprints. Even if it wasn't KS exclusive, good chance that you have to buy it right away cause otherwise you have a high chance of never getting it.
Seems like a pretty terrible way to do business. You'll burn your customer's trust pretty fast, I'd imagine.
Yeah, for wargamers and painters, those CMON Kickstarters are a fantastic source of cheap miniatures. Regular plastic minis often cost about $3-4 per mini, and with a CMON Kickstarter, they often end up costing $1 or less per mini. One of the reasons why Kickstarters with tons of minis often do well.
To be fair, different people have different needs, and it's legitimate to placing value on a game's components as opposed to the game itself. It sucks for those of us who are interested in the games and in the way they're designed though. Right now, it looks like Kickstarter has become a major distribution channel for board games and Kickstarter strongly rewards these component-heavy games. And heck, there are interesting games out there like Cthulhu Wars which I will never get because of its bloated production.
Last few days left for Bloodborne. They showed the final add on and added an all in discount, if anyone is interested.
Curious what the stretch goals are yet hiding.
Curious what the stretch goals are yet hiding.
If I were bigger into dnd/table top rpgs I'd probably do the all in bloodborne pledge for the minis. I'll probably end up going for the deluxe version of cleopatra and the society of architecs instead with my ks money this month.
There are definitely some characters that should not be played by first time players.
My mom did queen of hearts. Problem is they are the jump into it and have me be quiet because I they think it try to take over types. I mean I intentionally used Jafar. Also 5 was too many to start with