Try Joel Eddy's Drive Thru reviews. He is very good at presenting the games and examines them in good detail.
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New Board Gaming |OT2| On Tables, Off Topic
- Thread starter Karkador
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Try Joel Eddy's Drive Thru reviews. He is very good at presenting the games and examines them in good detail.
Played Village today, it was fun. The idea of killing your workers, sometimes on purpose, is fascinating.
I unexpectedly won. I got 10 VPs from the market on one turn, had a worker on the highest track of the council, and had 2 workers on the highest 2 tracks of the church.
I personally prefer watching playthroughs of the game to judge whether it seems fun or not.
I unexpectedly won. I got 10 VPs from the market on one turn, had a worker on the highest track of the council, and had 2 workers on the highest 2 tracks of the church.
I feel like most reviews try to explain the game rather than critique it. Maybe try reading user reviews on BGG?
I personally prefer watching playthroughs of the game to judge whether it seems fun or not.
Femmeworth
Banned
Heads up, Amazon is having a sale for International TableTop Day. http://www.amazon.com/b/ref=lp_1116...-games,n:11161423011&ie=UTF8&node=11161423011 The prices might not be final since it hasn't been up that long.
antiquegamer
Member
Thanks for the head up. I picked up Mice and Mystics $42 is a great price plus I have $10 credit to use (due to Amazon miss the shipment date on 2 of the last 3 items I ordered). I always want the game.
I am debating if I should pick up Zombicide season 2. 50% off is pretty tempting.
there is also a cardhaus sale as talked about on board game geek
my pick ups from that as dead of winter and the baseball game are near the top of my list of games I want to try.
mice and mystics feels like a great intro to dungeon crawl games. only played the first two chapters so far but it is well designed.
Femmeworth
Banned
Oof, their shipping is brutal.
BomberMouse
Member
They have free shipping at 125. Always cheaper than CSI and their international shipping is also usually the best. Great packaging too, never a damaged box.
most shipping from board game sites is brutal if you don't hit the free shipping threshold. it's why I am getting some of those as I was at $110 with $17 in shipping anyways lol.
Dice Tower's more critical in their Top Ten games. However the issue with board games in general is the same with video games, tastes just differ too much and people just appreciate different stuff.
Jest Chillin
Member
Bummed that I missed out on the two games I was interested in from the Amazon sale, Batman Love Letter and Mice and Mystics. Saw them up there this morning but had a full day of events for my kiddo and by the time I got back home to order, they were sold out (from Amazon as a seller anyhow). These were going to be our first foray into non-mass market games but I'm going to have to wait a bit for that I suppose.
Since I'm going to wait on pulling the trigger I was hoping to get some suggestions from the thread on some good games for a family? I'm really interested in something with RPG mechanics. Co-op is a must. I'd prefer something with a simpler ruleset (or a ruleset that can be easily homebrewed for a simple feel). Having mini's would be a plus but not necessary and zombies (or anything with similarly gory type imagery) is a no go.
I'm really looking for something fun that could introduce my wife to the world of RPGs and that my six year old son could be interested in as well. This is why I was leaning towards Mice and Mystics. I had also considered a DnD dungeon crawler but thought my wife may not be into the aesthetics.
I feel like all the caveats kind of limit my options but I'm also completely new to this area of gaming so maybe I've missed some games in my own search?
Since I'm going to wait on pulling the trigger I was hoping to get some suggestions from the thread on some good games for a family? I'm really interested in something with RPG mechanics. Co-op is a must. I'd prefer something with a simpler ruleset (or a ruleset that can be easily homebrewed for a simple feel). Having mini's would be a plus but not necessary and zombies (or anything with similarly gory type imagery) is a no go.
I'm really looking for something fun that could introduce my wife to the world of RPGs and that my six year old son could be interested in as well. This is why I was leaning towards Mice and Mystics. I had also considered a DnD dungeon crawler but thought my wife may not be into the aesthetics.
I feel like all the caveats kind of limit my options but I'm also completely new to this area of gaming so maybe I've missed some games in my own search?
antiquegamer
Member
Mice and Mystics would certainly fit that. Pathfinders card game is also a good option.
the pathfinder game isn't so bad if you have someone who knows all of the rules, but it's a pain to learn from scratch as it can easily get confusing with all the different little things especially with stuff like the 3 different ways you remove cards from your deck.
it's fine once you get it down, but that initial learn is kind of hard. granted it isn't arkham horror hard
antiquegamer
Member
the pathfinder game isn't so bad if you have someone who knows all of the rules, but it's a pain to learn from scratch as it can easily get confusing with all the different little things especially with stuff like the 3 different ways you remove cards from your deck.
it's fine once you get it down, but that initial learn is kind of hard. granted it isn't arkham horror hard
The first game my son and I play was pretty confusing and I think that what might turn him off to it. My brother in law and I played it at ComicCon couple weeks ago and it seems simple (actually so simple we beat the game in two turns, not round, turn. The first two players went and found the boss and since we all able to close locations and the mage beat the snot out of him with all the blessing bonus (another confusing rule, first time we though we all have to be at the same location to use any cards). I think part of the problem was the terminology they used for cards cycling, playing and card removal. The game is fun but I think I like the idea of the game more than the game itself. The idea of RPG with cards and story progression and rolling tons of dices.
To me Arkham Horror is not hard it's the monster movements and unclear rules on encounters that make it confusing than need be. I see why they make Eldritch Horror the way it is but after several games of Arkham, I rather prefer it more than Eldritch as far as solo gaming. Eldritch is a lot more like Pandemic and more enjoyable with more players.
Now I sort of regret not getting more games during Amazon sale especially those that are 40%. I should have pick up King of New York, Dixit and Forbidden Desert.
I don't think you played it correctly the first time. I am pretty sure there is always at least one more location than there is player, meaning until you close at least one location it would be impossible to beat the game as the boss would just run to the one location you couldn't cover. which then it would be possible to beat the game, but aside from the location you closed after beating the boss all the others would be open still. Alas that is part of the reason I don't find the pathfinder game so simple is because of all the little rules.
as for arkham, once you know what you are doing it's not hard, trying to figure out what you are doing is damn near impossible with that garbage manual they give you though. It's like the perfect guide on how to not make a manual to a game. Though even with using internet resources there are just so many things that are hard to tell how they work unless you are watching videos and what not that it's really hard to get a game of arkham going for the first time.
King of New York, Dixit and Forbidden Desert are all solid and fairly easy to pick up games though, so I agree you should have picked them up
antiquegamer
Member
I don't think you played it correctly the first time. I am pretty sure there is always at least one more location than there is player, meaning until you close at least one location it would be impossible to beat the game as the boss would just run to the one location you couldn't cover. which then it would be possible to beat the game, but aside from the location you closed after beating the boss all the others would be open still. Alas that is part of the reason I don't find the pathfinder game so simple is because of all the little rules.
as for arkham, once you know what you are doing it's not hard, trying to figure out what you are doing is damn near impossible with that garbage manual they give you though. It's like the perfect guide on how to not make a manual to a game. Though even with using internet resources there are just so many things that are hard to tell how they work unless you are watching videos and what not that it's really hard to get a game of arkham going for the first time.
King of New York, Dixit and Forbidden Desert are all solid and fairly easy to pick up games though, so I agree you should have picked them up
Well we (my son and I) played it wrong for sure the first time when I first got the game, but the game where we finished in two turns, we played it with the rep from Pathfinders (Paizo) and he was showing us the game (at ComiCon). I hope he knew the rule well enough. But yeah if there was suppose to be one more locations than players then we did play it wrong with the Paizo guy at the Con. (but I don't think so)
Well confusing rule books seems to be the norm for board games, that said, FFG really make a big improvement of late on the rule books.
My hang up on those games I didn't pick up from Amazon was that we only usually play board game heavily in the summer (ironic) but this is because we get together more often for family events in the summer (with kids out of school and vacation time at the cabin). My son is going off to military school in a few months and my wife doesn't like anything more complicate than Ticket to Rides, and my daughter rather play LOL with her friends so I ended up solo gaming most of the time and find multiplayer games to be a poor investment but then I thought more about it and for the price even if we played it once or twice a year it's still a bargain for entertainment.
edit: just went to check the rule on their site and locations are depends on the scenario set up and number of players. I don't have the game with me (my brother in law actually like that super short game we played at ComicCon and ask to borrow the game to try with his friends, he used to be my gaming partner we used to play SWCCG and MechWarrior Dark Age back in the days then we moved far apart from one another).
Played a couple of cases of Witness last night. We just did the first two easiest ones but only scored a 9 and 7 respectively.
Really cool little "social experiement" type game with the broken telephone mechanic. Recommended for some laughs, finger pointing and ribbing those who got it so, so, wrong!
Really cool little "social experiement" type game with the broken telephone mechanic. Recommended for some laughs, finger pointing and ribbing those who got it so, so, wrong!
Jest Chillin
Member
Ok so Mice and Mystics probably does hit all the aspects I was looking for. I'm kind of hesitant with card games because they tend to have a lot of situational rules. Looking at the Starlit Citadel review for Pathfinder... it's no exception. I'm sure I can learn the game but the situational aspect to the rules combined with the wide range of player choice (which is usually a good thing) would probably end up being confusing for a first RPG experience for my family. Card management, forced discards, optional discards, temporary location closing versus permanent location closing on top of the standard rpg mechanics of fighting, looting, etc.. just seems like a lot to take in at once.
I'll definitely keep it in mind for the future though. Really appreciate you taking the time to offer the suggestions.
locations are indeed based off scenarios and players. I think all the ones I have though have at least 1 more location than player, though it's possible for the case of demoing the game they were using a unique setting where that wasn't the case, and thus you could have it end in two actions with some placement luck.
I am to lazy to pull out my box and fully check as it's heavy and buried @_@
Got to play Descent with the GF last night. I was the Overlord and she commanded 2 heroes. It was alot of fun. I still wish we could do it co-op, but this will do for now until I figure out the automated overlord variant.
I have been painiting the miniatures that came with the base game, this is my first time painting minis and I wanted to post them here to see what you guys think!
Sorry for bogging down the thread with these pictures, but I just wanted to share these with someone to get some opinions!
Anyways, Descent is great! And I cant wait to play more!
I have been painiting the miniatures that came with the base game, this is my first time painting minis and I wanted to post them here to see what you guys think!
Sorry for bogging down the thread with these pictures, but I just wanted to share these with someone to get some opinions!
Anyways, Descent is great! And I cant wait to play more!
SillyEskimo
Member
Pics like yours bring these board games to life. Play areas, game groups, and more can show people's passion for specific games.
Now my miniature advice.
You are simply base coating your miniatures. You have no highlights or details at all. That is absolutely fine. For a beginner like yourself, a can of Army Painter Quickshade will go an amazingly long way. A simple dip and shake in quickshade will bring out all those details you are not highlighting as well as hide the spots were some of your colors overlap. Every single miniature you posted will look much better simply by giving them a dip. You will be amazed at the results.
Everyone who paints minis has to start somewhere. You're at the very first step. Next up are things like dry brushing, washes, inking, layering, highlighting, detailing, and much more. Creating a decorative base always ties things together a great deal and makes your minis really pop. Experienced painters often make the mistake of trying to explain to beginners all these advanced techniques at once. I feel you just need the next step.
A painted board game is just so much better to play! If I have 5 people playing a game and 3 painted minis, the 3 painted will be the first adventurers to get chosen. If 3 monsters pop in a room, the single painted mini of the monster group will be the first on the table and the last one to leave.
Keep posting your minis. It's always fun to watch beginners progress over time.
Has anyone played the Lost Legion expansion for Mage Knight? We are currently in the middle of a round and one player got attacked by General Volkare and ended the fight getting 44 wound cards (which even the game doesnt have enough to support). Luckily we realized he could flee from the battle afterwards. Still, this presented a horrifying situation, Volkare can potentially deal a shitton of damage while haveing a ton of damage absorbing troops. How is it possible to fight him even as a group and not end up with 10 or so wound cards on hand that completely paralyzes you?
Thank you for the input! Im pretty happy with my results so far. Even if its just a painted mini without all the details. I did buy some shade and some medium to make my own washes. So that will be the next step once i get all of them painted.
I did put some of the shader on the Ettin that I posted and it really does do wonders. I need to do that for the other figures, but I reallllly like how some of them turned out and im affraid ill fuck them up if I get too crazy with the shading/washing/etc.
As I get more comfortable though, I will definately start shading and working on making them pop more.
And youre def right. Playing with painted minis makes it so much more fun. I cant wait to start making bases for them as well!
YOu will just have to hit him a few times. WIttle him down. Dude knocked my ass around the first time, but I did some good damage to him. As I was limping away, I had just started to clean out the wounds from my hand and he was close to attacking again. The wife was near him, and we just went balls out and engaged him together. Took a lot of hits, but killed the bastard. You won't be able to one shot him.
They are kickstarting a One Night-esque Resistance, literally called One Night Resistance.
I love The Resistance but I'm not sure how I feel about this, although I'm intrigued for sure.
I love The Resistance but I'm not sure how I feel about this, although I'm intrigued for sure.
It has minor differences. But I think I ONUW roles/theme works better anyway.
I'd give it a try, but not for $25 as I wasn't impressed with one night warewolf at all.
Well, it's two things -
1) the Bezier original games (Suburbia, Ludwig, etc.), while pretty good as games, are woefully underproduced and overpriced. I mean, for being a guy that is also known for graphic design books, those games tend to look like touched-up programmer art, the components skew on the flimsy side, and there aren't even baggies or an insert - yet they charge a pretty high price.
2) Ted Alspach plasters his name on all things Werewolf like they're his own creations, and they wont even post a basic rulebook for something that's practically public domain.
The rulebook (which has an obvious omission in it) for One Night Resistance is the first time I've ever seen an IB&C game's rulebook get posted as well.
Edit: It looks like Flashpoint and Gauntlet of Fools actually do have their rulebooks posted. The Resistance line is for the most part missing though.
We managed to (absolutely barely) beat him in the end since he had just started to go frenzy. It was extremely tough but in the end a lot of fun. Bow of Starsdawn to take out 8-10 green troops immediatly in Ranged phase helped a lot.
Well, I'm not going to kickstart something with this nice big disclaimer:
Big fan of Coup here, and other IBC games... But the bigger they get, the lower the quality seems to be.
The biggest difference appears to be the separation of team loyalty and roles, along with the clockwise activation of abilities, which should simplify the night phase and narration duties significantly.
I really enjoy ONUW and The Resistance: Avalon, but I rarely kickstart anything. I'll wait for the retail release and reviews (or hopefully being able to play someone else's copy).
I remember the exact thread that was responsible for that disclaimer. Fuck that dude for real.
I guess I somewhat appreciate that he's totally honest about the fact that he's using Kickstarter just to remove most of the risk of having to pay money to produce a thing before you sell a thing. It's like "I could take a little risk on the relatively safe bet of combining two successful properties, but this is much more convenient."
My wife is treading on dangerous ground. Together with a friend, we've been idly discussing an idea for a board game based on a video game she liked. It was just a joke at first, but we've gotten into more concrete concepts and rules lately. This weekend, she joked that we probably have enough money to quit our jobs and develop a game full time.
Why did she plant this seed in my head!? I don't know anything about normal business stuff(she does), let alone the specific manufacturing or distribution of a board game.
Why did she plant this seed in my head!? I don't know anything about normal business stuff(she does), let alone the specific manufacturing or distribution of a board game.
I'm not sure how much the landscape has changed recently, but a few short years ago the general consensus was that a boardgame designer's pay is.... not what you'd call a livable income unless your name was Klaus Teuber or Alan Moon, etc. I can't see it being any easier today as, from my perspective, it seems to be an even more competitive market.
As first time designers, you might have enough money to quit your jobs and design a game, but I'd imagine it better be made out of food, shelter and love.
As first time designers, you might have enough money to quit your jobs and design a game, but I'd imagine it better be made out of food, shelter and love.
BattleMonkey
Member
Unless you hit it big time with game success, you are not quitting your day job. Also sound like you want to self publish, which is a whole other animal to deal with. Game design is one thing, publishing is another beast to contend with. The publishing aspect is also the one part that most people who jump into the game seem to stumble on. Even with success of a game, the publishing aspect catches people off guard and often eats up much of your profits.
But yea it's not something to quit your day job over, and really unless you are making games constantly non stop (not happening), your going to be doing a whole lot of nothing for long periods of times.
Not to be rude, but I would question her actual business knowledge if shes being serious about this, or she doesn't really know the gaming industry well.
But yea it's not something to quit your day job over, and really unless you are making games constantly non stop (not happening), your going to be doing a whole lot of nothing for long periods of times.
Not to be rude, but I would question her actual business knowledge if shes being serious about this, or she doesn't really know the gaming industry well.
Probably not self publish, but how to get one to pick up your product is one of many questions I have no answer for. I meant to imply that while neither of us has board gaming business experience, she has at least run/managed other businesses. I know this will never actually happen as a full-time gig. If we were that impulsive, we'd never have been in a position to even consider this now.
I still keep thinking about it though.
The TL;DR version is a board game version of Ape Escape, cause why the hell aren't they still making these games? Also tell me the closest existing board game to this idea.
2-4 players.
Probably competitive but without much direct attacking of fellow players. At worst, a way to steal gadgets from each other. Wife does not like direct confrontation in games.
Randomized board via tiles. Some combination of Betrayal at House on the Hill, other exploration games.
Movement and actions for players controlled by individual decks of cards, with some always being available(i.e. basic movement and the generic net capture). Other, better actions/gadgets found when capturing the primates, or exploring a new room. Draw 5 of your cards, but can only play 2 or 3 in a turn. Some go back into your deck, some are 1 shot, some are passive and stay in play, like a speed upgrade, or a net trap in a room.
Primates themselves are revealed as you explore, will have basic type that decides AI movement/actions, with semi-random upgrades. I.e. chimps are fast and tend to run away. An upgrade might be dropping a banana peel when they leave a room, or extra speed. A large gorilla might pursue players aggressively and be immune to the basic net.
The general idea is not every primate will always be capturable with your current equipment, so if you see there's a few particularly fast monkies, you'll go out of your way to get an upgrade to help you catch them. There are only so many rooms and primates available, so games should play relatively fast, but offer a lot of replayability via the random layouts and upgrades.
The overall tone is meant to be silly, slap-stick style fun. If you've played the ape escape games, it's exactly that.
Edit:
Now is when I need everyone to tell me I'm an idiot, and that doesn't sound fun at all, so I can stop thinking about this.
Unless you know publishers personally, you would normally demo your game to them at a convention. They usually set aside time for this purpose specifically to find interesting titles. They would then give you critique and an assessment on how ready it is. When I was really into board games I helped playtest many games such as Dominion.
So at TumblingHippo's suggestion, I picked up Galaxy Defenders. For those unaware (I can't tell how big this game is), it is a 1-5 player X-Com style hex-based board game where you have different missions strung together for a comprehensive campaign. While you can play with up to 5 people, I wanted a game I could play for myself, so essentially I played as all 5 character classes.
This is easily the most complicated board-game I've purchased! It has taken me restarting the 1st mission three times as well as about two hours of reading and re-reading the Rulebook to start understanding the nuances of the game. However, I finally was able to get a good enough grasp on it to play my first mission yesterday:
Damn is this game hard! I was thinking I could get away with expending extra ammo and trying to kill as much on the field as possible, however, the game's deck-based AI continues to spawn in signals/enemies until the very end of the mission. Once my characters started dying, I had to gradually begin retreating from the mission objectives to try to take home a partial victory, but eventually I was overrun. Three hours later and three party members dead, I had to take the L and go home.
Regardless, now that I have gotten a round in, Galaxy Defenders is a pretty engrossing experience. I've played video games my entire life but now that I have a 9-5 job where I am on a laptop all day, I like having a reason to get away from screens. This has filled that niche nicely when other folks aren't around to game with me.
Anyone else give this game a try? I know Mage Knight is a popular single player game, and I was torn between the two choices, but I am pretty pleased with GD thus far.
This is easily the most complicated board-game I've purchased! It has taken me restarting the 1st mission three times as well as about two hours of reading and re-reading the Rulebook to start understanding the nuances of the game. However, I finally was able to get a good enough grasp on it to play my first mission yesterday:
Damn is this game hard! I was thinking I could get away with expending extra ammo and trying to kill as much on the field as possible, however, the game's deck-based AI continues to spawn in signals/enemies until the very end of the mission. Once my characters started dying, I had to gradually begin retreating from the mission objectives to try to take home a partial victory, but eventually I was overrun. Three hours later and three party members dead, I had to take the L and go home.
Regardless, now that I have gotten a round in, Galaxy Defenders is a pretty engrossing experience. I've played video games my entire life but now that I have a 9-5 job where I am on a laptop all day, I like having a reason to get away from screens. This has filled that niche nicely when other folks aren't around to game with me.
Anyone else give this game a try? I know Mage Knight is a popular single player game, and I was torn between the two choices, but I am pretty pleased with GD thus far.