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Board Gaming Era |OT| (Mostly) Unplugged Gaming
- Thread starter XShagrath
- Start date
All I've played is the start guide, but it's only with 1 player. Worth having 1 person do that 'scenario' out loud as it's an intro to the story of the game too, is pretty quick & explains the basics. You'll still need to read the rules as it doesn't cover a lot of stuff.
I really can't wait to get some people together to play through this game
I wish I could help.. we have always just used the CD In a laptop.
Also, many are probably aware but Awaken Realm's worker placement game, the Great Wall launches on KS today at 11:00 am EST. There is a 24h early bird bonus.
Yep, I'm on the fence with this one (Great Wall) after receiving my Nemesis and also pledging Tainted Grail. I already own Lords of Hellas too.
If anything, this has a fun video
I'm skipping Great Wall but am pretty interested in ISS Vanguard coming next year. After looking through the art book that came with Tainted Grail I get a Mass Effect Andromeda vibe from it. A co-op space exploration game sounds great, and I think Awakened Realms can pull it off in a neat way.
Hadn't heard of ISS Vanguard till now, and just saw some of the pics from the art book - consider my interest VERY piqued. Won't be cheap, so I've probably just gotta start budgeting for it.
I think I'm going to stick with my Great Wall pledge, but I am real bummed I somehow missed the 24 hour window. 10 bucks isn't much for that add-on though.
The real question is if myGF would be interested.
I quite like Aeon's End Legacy with 2. It also feels like a perfect introduction to the game. That being said, I've heard Clank Legacy is very good, but that having played the original makes you appreciate it more.
It's a tough one. Clank Legacy seems to be incredibly well received, but I've had my eye on Aeon's End for a while and as you noted, it's promoted as a fantastic starting point. Hence my dilemma. If I choose Aeon's End Legacy, I'll probably buy New Age just after Christmas.
I've played through Aeon's End Legacy and I'm currently about half-way through Clank Legacy. (both with 3 players) They're both good, but so far, I'm enjoying Clank Legacy a lot more. The writing is well done and actually funny, and each game has lots of things to explore, through optional missions that alter the game in different ways.
Apart from the legacy aspects, the base mechanics are quite different. Aeon's End is cooperative and quite calculated since your deck is never shuffled and there is a static market. Clank is competitive, and has some more luck involved, but not in a bad way.
The component quality in Clank Legacy is also much better than Aeon's End Legacy. In Aeon's End we had some trouble with stickers that didn't come off the sheet well, and had to cut off bits to make them fit better. Clank Legacy has great quality components and everything feels like a lot of thought was put in to it. So, I'd recommend Clank Legacy, or just get both ;)
To be honest, you just completely sold me on Clank Legacy! I've coped with skipping the last two Aeon's End Kickstarters, I think I can wait a little longer. If it's on sale this Black Friday I'll absolutely grab it though.
I'm going to be buying it on behalf of my Mum, as a Christmas gift for myself.
So I feel somewhat bad, I taught my nephew (12 years old) lost cities which he really enjoyed, but he didn't quiet understand how the scoring worked, so when he started his 5th expedition with two wagers I decided to mulligan. Instead of subtracting 20, adding your cards, then multiplying the result (for which he would have been killed) I added the cards, multiplied, then subtracted 20 at the end. I still killed him in a one round game (132 to 64), but his score would have been like negative 40 to my positive 80 had I scored it the correct way.
Used Black Friday for some good deals on games I had been coveting for a while:
- Gloomhaven
- Wingspan
- Pandemic
- Pandemic Legacy 1/2
- Mansions of Madness
It's been a while since I've gotten to play, but for a first time group I would
- Make sure almost everyone has read the basic rule book at least once and that you've got one good friend who has spent some time studying it hardcore so you're not carrying the whole game on your back
- Study combat ahead of time as it's very different from the pace and structure of the rest of the game, and stopping on the day to figure it out can be a slog.
- Make sure you're familiar with limitations on things like how much you can build in a turn. Accidentally missing that step and letting everyone do too much can double your game time (not that I or anyone else would ever do such a thing).
- If people have already picked their starter characters, the podcast Space Cats and Peace Turtles has some "how to start the game with [x]" videos that are very informative and can help folks wrap their head around how to play that character
- Make a big pot of coffee.
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Played the game, we decided to use the "basic" races to go easy, except for the totally-not-space elves who has a Real Life issue and couldn't attend. I finished second at the end, with 9 points using Sardakk N'orr, after the Emirates managed to evade my Flagship and prevented me to score a secret objective for the final 10th. Then, the space turtle guy did some wizardy to score the final points he needed to win.
On the game, I've pretty much fell in love with it. Is just amazing to see how easy is to play although you have a gazillion options and ways to play it. I've only seen two issues for now: One, the hours it requires for a full game. The other, some races are a bit "boring" on traits/initial techs (like my space cockroaches) which may lead to "force" you to go certain ways instead of a more flexible or different start. Although I admit I loved to be the bully of the galaxy, even if at the end I didn't fight that much.
On the game, I've pretty much fell in love with it. Is just amazing to see how easy is to play although you have a gazillion options and ways to play it. I've only seen two issues for now: One, the hours it requires for a full game. The other, some races are a bit "boring" on traits/initial techs (like my space cockroaches) which may lead to "force" you to go certain ways instead of a more flexible or different start. Although I admit I loved to be the bully of the galaxy, even if at the end I didn't fight that much.
Soooo, I finally got to play a P&P version of Blood on the Clocktower and really feel like I should write something up about it.
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(not my picture)
For those who dont know: BotC is a Werewolf style game that garnered a lot of buzz for being a high end version of that game with more characters/settings/combinations and some clear positive bullet points.
No full player elimination, you can continue discussing until the end of the game.
Everybody gets a power with knowledge
Player elimination during the day needs more discussion as you need a 50% majority to kick someone out, instead of throwing random people out for getting 2 votes if everyone else just gets one.
The usage of the book makes it easier to have much more complex character setups and abilities, which I feel in a normal werewolf setup would basically be impossible to handle.
Here is the sticky thing though: This game is expensive. 95$-plus-shipping expensive. I need to get this out right away: While the components are probably nice and useful, the game is not worth 95$ to me. I regularly run Werewolf rounds and while the game offers a different enough interpretation of the genre to merit its existence, it by no means improves the formula enough to be worth 75$ more than Werewolf.
For the sake of this argument: So how does the enjoyment of the game and gameplay shape up compared to Werewolf? (ignoring the price)
Well my biggest surprise was that many aspects I thought would be a net positive, actually werent. I gave my players the choice to choose player elimination if they wanted instead of being able to continue discussing and 80% preferred that. People who get kicked out in our groups often get a HUGE enjoyment out of following the characters and mischievous deeds that happen at night, which is not supposed to happen in this game. That really surprised me. People didnt enjoy the half dead rule whatsoever.
I was also expecting the fact that most people get a useful role have a more direct affect on the ability for everyone to participate in the game, to make it easier to participate, add something valuable to the conversation. It didnt. That particular group was mostly comprised of relatively inexperienced players and it didnt make any difference to the type of situation I came to expect in Werewolf. On the other hand, more experienced players had a blast with the amount of information they could get from the game and some other players to figure out who did what.
Thats also the best thing about the game, experienced players can treat every Clocktower game like a puzzle of hidden information, whereas Werewolf sometimes devolves into random guessing. That is a good thing and will be the reason why some groups will prefer Clocktower, but there is also a huge negative: Considering 10-15 very involving pieces of information to bluff as the bad guys is incredibly hard, especially because some good powers are giving so damn strong clues that validate each other that its much much harder to accomplish something compared to Werewolf where you often only need to outbluff 1 person.
I think the player elimination rules worked well for the hardcore deduction players as you have more control, but it also dragged out the game by 30-40 minutes, whereas Werewolf allows for more chaos by accidental eliminations, which in turn makes the game more unpredictable and just fun to experience.
(One other thing I forgot to mention, the setup in bigger groups is a nuisance, its much easier to get people set up with rules with less power characters obviously)
So yeah, I think my conclusion is that for 90% of Werewolf players, that game wont replace Werewolf. It is less intuitive, more unwieldy and takes a lot of the unpredictability and raw fun out of the concept, while adding more deduction variables to figure everything out. Its a thinking mans Werewolf, but unless you have 15 equally thinky people in the session, the others wont have as much of a good time with it as you are.
(not my picture)
For those who dont know: BotC is a Werewolf style game that garnered a lot of buzz for being a high end version of that game with more characters/settings/combinations and some clear positive bullet points.
No full player elimination, you can continue discussing until the end of the game.
Everybody gets a power with knowledge
Player elimination during the day needs more discussion as you need a 50% majority to kick someone out, instead of throwing random people out for getting 2 votes if everyone else just gets one.
The usage of the book makes it easier to have much more complex character setups and abilities, which I feel in a normal werewolf setup would basically be impossible to handle.
Here is the sticky thing though: This game is expensive. 95$-plus-shipping expensive. I need to get this out right away: While the components are probably nice and useful, the game is not worth 95$ to me. I regularly run Werewolf rounds and while the game offers a different enough interpretation of the genre to merit its existence, it by no means improves the formula enough to be worth 75$ more than Werewolf.
For the sake of this argument: So how does the enjoyment of the game and gameplay shape up compared to Werewolf? (ignoring the price)
Well my biggest surprise was that many aspects I thought would be a net positive, actually werent. I gave my players the choice to choose player elimination if they wanted instead of being able to continue discussing and 80% preferred that. People who get kicked out in our groups often get a HUGE enjoyment out of following the characters and mischievous deeds that happen at night, which is not supposed to happen in this game. That really surprised me. People didnt enjoy the half dead rule whatsoever.
I was also expecting the fact that most people get a useful role have a more direct affect on the ability for everyone to participate in the game, to make it easier to participate, add something valuable to the conversation. It didnt. That particular group was mostly comprised of relatively inexperienced players and it didnt make any difference to the type of situation I came to expect in Werewolf. On the other hand, more experienced players had a blast with the amount of information they could get from the game and some other players to figure out who did what.
Thats also the best thing about the game, experienced players can treat every Clocktower game like a puzzle of hidden information, whereas Werewolf sometimes devolves into random guessing. That is a good thing and will be the reason why some groups will prefer Clocktower, but there is also a huge negative: Considering 10-15 very involving pieces of information to bluff as the bad guys is incredibly hard, especially because some good powers are giving so damn strong clues that validate each other that its much much harder to accomplish something compared to Werewolf where you often only need to outbluff 1 person.
I think the player elimination rules worked well for the hardcore deduction players as you have more control, but it also dragged out the game by 30-40 minutes, whereas Werewolf allows for more chaos by accidental eliminations, which in turn makes the game more unpredictable and just fun to experience.
(One other thing I forgot to mention, the setup in bigger groups is a nuisance, its much easier to get people set up with rules with less power characters obviously)
So yeah, I think my conclusion is that for 90% of Werewolf players, that game wont replace Werewolf. It is less intuitive, more unwieldy and takes a lot of the unpredictability and raw fun out of the concept, while adding more deduction variables to figure everything out. Its a thinking mans Werewolf, but unless you have 15 equally thinky people in the session, the others wont have as much of a good time with it as you are.
So I mentioned earlier in the thread that I've been tentatively making the first steps to setting up some lunchtime gaming sessions at work (we have a policy of having extended lunchtimes on Wednesdays for anything non-worky for morale), and... it's been a bit too successful. From a few weeks where there were just two of us, we're now up to seven or eight on a regular basis.
Which is great! Except... I don't have many games in the collection that support that many. Codenames, of course. I've not yet brought Mysterium to the table, but that'd fit. And I have Captain Sonar waiting in the wings for when I'm brave enough to try to teach it. And there's a few roll-and-writes I've been buying into (Qwixx, Ganz Schon Clever, Welcome To...; haven't yet spotted Railroad Ink at a good price, though!). Beyond that, though, much of what I have is pitched at five or fewer players.
At some point I intend to encourage folks to try to split into two smaller groups, but that comes with the caveat that each group would need at least one person comfortable to teach a game, and at the moment that's mostly just me. So out of interest, what else is good for a group of 7+ players of a mix of experience levels?
Which is great! Except... I don't have many games in the collection that support that many. Codenames, of course. I've not yet brought Mysterium to the table, but that'd fit. And I have Captain Sonar waiting in the wings for when I'm brave enough to try to teach it. And there's a few roll-and-writes I've been buying into (Qwixx, Ganz Schon Clever, Welcome To...; haven't yet spotted Railroad Ink at a good price, though!). Beyond that, though, much of what I have is pitched at five or fewer players.
At some point I intend to encourage folks to try to split into two smaller groups, but that comes with the caveat that each group would need at least one person comfortable to teach a game, and at the moment that's mostly just me. So out of interest, what else is good for a group of 7+ players of a mix of experience levels?
Soooo, I finally got to play a P&P version of Blood on the Clocktower and really feel like I should write something up about it.
(not my picture)
For those who dont know: BotC is a Werewolf style game that garnered a lot of buzz for being a high end version of that game with more characters/settings/combinations and some clear positive bullet points.
No full player elimination, you can continue discussing until the end of the game.
Everybody gets a power with knowledge
Player elimination during the day needs more discussion as you need a 50% majority to kick someone out, instead of throwing random people out for getting 2 votes if everyone else just gets one.
The usage of the book makes it easier to have much more complex character setups and abilities, which I feel in a normal werewolf setup would basically be impossible to handle.
Here is the sticky thing though: This game is expensive. 95$-plus-shipping expensive. I need to get this out right away: While the components are probably nice and useful, the game is not worth 95$ to me. I regularly run Werewolf rounds and while the game offers a different enough interpretation of the genre to merit its existence, it by no means improves the formula enough to be worth 75$ more than Werewolf.
For the sake of this argument: So how does the enjoyment of the game and gameplay shape up compared to Werewolf? (ignoring the price)
Well my biggest surprise was that many aspects I thought would be a net positive, actually werent. I gave my players the choice to choose player elimination if they wanted instead of being able to continue discussing and 80% preferred that. People who get kicked out in our groups often get a HUGE enjoyment out of following the characters and mischievous deeds that happen at night, which is not supposed to happen in this game. That really surprised me. People didnt enjoy the half dead rule whatsoever.
I was also expecting the fact that most people get a useful role have a more direct affect on the ability for everyone to participate in the game, to make it easier to participate, add something valuable to the conversation. It didnt. That particular group was mostly comprised of relatively inexperienced players and it didnt make any difference to the type of situation I came to expect in Werewolf. On the other hand, more experienced players had a blast with the amount of information they could get from the game and some other players to figure out who did what.
Thats also the best thing about the game, experienced players can treat every Clocktower game like a puzzle of hidden information, whereas Werewolf sometimes devolves into random guessing. That is a good thing and will be the reason why some groups will prefer Clocktower, but there is also a huge negative: Considering 10-15 very involving pieces of information to bluff as the bad guys is incredibly hard, especially because some good powers are giving so damn strong clues that validate each other that its much much harder to accomplish something compared to Werewolf where you often only need to outbluff 1 person.
I think the player elimination rules worked well for the hardcore deduction players as you have more control, but it also dragged out the game by 30-40 minutes, whereas Werewolf allows for more chaos by accidental eliminations, which in turn makes the game more unpredictable and just fun to experience.
(One other thing I forgot to mention, the setup in bigger groups is a nuisance, its much easier to get people set up with rules with less power characters obviously)
So yeah, I think my conclusion is that for 90% of Werewolf players, that game wont replace Werewolf. It is less intuitive, more unwieldy and takes a lot of the unpredictability and raw fun out of the concept, while adding more deduction variables to figure everything out. Its a thinking mans Werewolf, but unless you have 15 equally thinky people in the session, the others wont have as much of a good time with it as you are.
Thanks for the write up. I could not see what the big deal about this game was after that infamous SUSD infomercial for it came out. I would still be willing to give this game a try some day, but the price is a bit crazy.
More importantly, I love Werewolf/Mafia and Resistance/Avalon, but I hate what it turns into when it gets processed by experts. There really is raw fun and unpredictability in those games, but I only find it when I'm playing it casually.
I have a copy of Ultimate Werewolf Legacy that I haven't been able to play yet, but I'm excited to try. I looked through the scenarios and different branches it takes, and it seems very cool, and more of a casual approach with lots of surprises.
For some social deduction games
Deception Murder In Hong Kong is a game that gets better the bigger a group you have, with the expansion it can go up to 15 players. One person plays as a forensic scientist who dm's the game, one person is the secret murder, the dm tried to give clues to help the detectives find the murder, who themselves is trying to twist the evidence to avoid getting caught. With more players you can add an accomplice, witness, and more roles that are still very simple to teach.
Depending upon your ability to use an app to hear audio one night ultimate werewolf or werewords are also great with larger player counts. For One Night you'll probably want two versions (werewolf and daybreak are good starting ones). Everyone gets a role, the app tells each person what they need to do and when they need to do it, then after everyone has secretly taken their action the table discusses for a few minutes to figure out who did what and who the werewolf is they need to lynch, if anyone.
If you can't use an app, resistance is the classic go to 5-10 player game that is very easy to teach. Everyone is either with the resistance or is an undercover spy for the corporation, the leader for the round will vote who shall go on a mission, everyone votes to agree or disagree with this vote, then everyone puts in if the mission was a success or a failure. The game ends when one side gets 3 missions to go there way.
For some party games
Just One has been a huge hit with a larger group for me. If you want more then 7 players either the person who's turn it is can hold the card (to make it 8 players) or you can buy a second copy to double to 14 players (15 with someone holding a card). This is actually a coop game where one person picks a number which corresponds to a single word on a card, then everyone else writes a one word clue to help them figure out the secret word, the catch is if there are any duplicate clues then that clue is turned face down and can't be used.
Wits and Wagers can support any number of players in teams, I personally think the party version is best for mixed crowds since it removed the odds dynamic that the base game has but keeps the ability to bet on answers. The game is a simple trivia game where all answers are numerical in nature, everyone guesses the answer, then everyone bets price is right style on which is the closest answer without going over.
It's more an activity then a game, but with the 12 player pack telestrations has always been a massive hit whenever I've pulled it out. Everyone gets a secret word, then everyone draws a picture of that word, then you pass and can only see someone's drawing, and you guess their word, repeat till you get your original book. There are some rules for scoring that you should throw out the window and just play the activity to have fun.
Then for some more that work well at higher player counts
Rolling America/Japan is a good roll & write for large groups since as long as whoever is rolling can call out the numbers you can have an infinite number of people playing since everyone plays off the same numbers. Someone rolls the dice, you fill in the states (or territories for Japan) to try and fill in as many states as possible. The trick is that any states that are touching must have the same number, or one higher/lower, or else you can't fill in the spot.
Nmbr 9 is another game that can in theory support an infinite number of players but you will need multiple copies as each copy only has enough pieces for 4 players. There are 20 tiles numbered 0-9 (two of each number), one person bingo calls out each number from a deck of cards, people try to build the tallest structure to score points, but you can't build over any gaps.
In any situation you think codenames is good then word on the street is can slide in really easily. You split into teams of two, one team reads out a category like ice cream flavor, the other team has 30 seconds to decide a word and spell it. For each letter you can pull the tile that represents that letter one space towards you. The teams alternate doing a tug of war with the letters until one team pulls 8 tiles off the board.
Hopefully this gives you a good amount of titles to start with.
Well we got the first play impressions for the warehouse 13 expansion over on bgg https://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/2321682/warehouse-13-new-expansion
Hopefully this means the Kickstarter for it launches in the next week or so. Sounds like the new characters act as rivals with their own win conditions even if they aren't traitors. This should hopefully have a super fast turnaround compared to the base game
Hopefully this means the Kickstarter for it launches in the next week or so. Sounds like the new characters act as rivals with their own win conditions even if they aren't traitors. This should hopefully have a super fast turnaround compared to the base game
Lots there, although a couple of them I still have in the office in the shrinkwrap! Just One was going to come out... and then an eighth person turned up. I'll note your tip for that one. We do also have Werewords lined up, although I wasn't sure we'd quite all be able to be within easy reach of the device on the table we play on (I'm delighted by the pun: We commandeer the boardroom!). Might need to explore the logistics of that a bit.
I did actually gift Telestrations to my nieces a few Christmasses ago, and forgot about it because I hadn't played it myself.
I'd looked at Nmbr9 before, but wasn't aware it could simply expand with more copies (in hindsight, that's obvious, I'm kicking myself!) Might well keep an eye open for that.
W&W is one I'd played before, and liked it myself, but was somewhat put off when I tried it with the family and they didn't take to it, but I could try it in the work environment instead. Thus far we've avoided quizzy things, but it's a bit more accessible than some, so that's a thought.
I have Resistance at home and haven't brought it in to work, I wasn't certain it had an immediate enough hook to grab people who weren't quite familiar with social deduction games, I think Werewords might be a more accessible entry point to it if we can figure out the logistics.
I did look at the Rolling <country> titles when I was looking into getting some more roll-and-writes in, but I think the fixation on how so many people go nuts over Railroad Ink blinded me a bit to other options!
Deception's one I was looking at before, but it was out of stock when I was looking at it. Will keep my eyes open for movement on that, it sounds like it'd be a promising fit.
I wasn't familiar with Word On The Street, and that might be one to try - and, for that matter, one I might subject my family to as well, it looks excellent.
You are welcome. I love the SUSD videos and some of my favourite game experiences came from those (I should get around to writing more about my favourite games to make others play them :P ), but in the last 1-2 years I had much more misses in those than before. I guess Paul leaving might be a big factor in that regard. It drove me a bit mad how much they would recommend a 95$ product, so I really needed to try it and I am thankful I finally did so I can cross this off.
Oh and yeah, especially if your favourite part is the unpredictability, you wont enjoy Clocktower at all. I know there are gamers who dont like the randomness, but man it sucked out so much of the charm of those games. Really disappointing.
Yeah, good call. Glad I can get the urge to NEED to play it out of my system finally.
I had a similar experience with the mafia game SUSD hyped to the high heavens. When I finally got it to the table it was a fiddly mess of a design with way to many complexities, while at the same time being very loose (ruleswise) and often the game would end in rule discussions rather than actual game.
Yeah the mafia game was another good example. I get the impression that Quinns often overemphasizes an aspect of the game that feels good while ignoring some effects of the mechanics, be that the opening of the mafia treasure box or the big book in Clocktower.
Still highly entertaining videos, but I currently prefer watching rahdos runthrough for the mechanics and a mix of his and dice towers final thoughts for the negative aspects of a game.
Yeah while I find SUSD very entertaining, every game I've bought on their recommendation has essentially bombed. Rahdo's tastes are way different from mine, so I mainly rely on Dice Tower and Co-op Shop. I had played Blood on the Clocktower for the first and only time shortly before their infamous video, and I felt they were overselling it to a degree that seemed bordering on an infomercial.
Dang you hit the nail on the head, I use to love The Resistance, but the whole expert analysis my group started doing to win just made the game really boring and an unpleasant experience. Resistance is suppose to be a 20-40 min game and some of those dragged out to over an hour. Still prefer it to Secret Hitler as the bigger mission group means more people get to play the game.
Ultimate Werewolf Legacy was a fun time in my group, I moderated the whole thing. I liked a lot of the scenarios it cooked up, I hope your group enjoys it as much as mine did.
I would recommend something, to keep the enemies, tokens, and map tiles organized. Broken token sells an an organizer, but it's fairly expensive. I've heard people use accordion folders for the map tiles, and tackle boxes or something similar for the tokens.
This is what I did with mine. It's inexpensive and works very well:
I am right there with you. They have a penchant for preferring open and sandboxy games vs. their more focused and tight counterparts (Caverna over Agricola, Birmingham over Lancashire). They are great ambassadors for new and emerging hobbyists (and really the hobby at large), but I like my games tight, cutthroat and on the heavy side.
I think Paul is dearly missed. He was a excellent counterpoint to Quins and their work together was fantastic. It feels like the balance left when Paul left.
Picked up Mixtape Massacre and by contents alone I over paid by $20. ($50 game).
Hope it's fun.
Hope it's fun.
Mostly social deduction and ameritrash. Not much of a euro fan. My current favorite is 7th Continent.
As a "old-fashioned guy with history of played with old boards games before and I want to try with new things" newcomer, do you have any recommend modern boards games for beginners like me? Oh, and I need another recommend for the groups as well. Thanks.
Can I suggest a linked document in the OP of games that regular people consider their favourite games in their collection and the reasons why? It kinda feels stupid to ask that if people already wrote that in the past 200 pages. Not even a "games you should have in your collection" and seriously just a "personal favourites" list? Maybe even limit it to Top 10?