Hey all, looking for recommendations again.I want a co-operative game to play with my SO. Kind of want something that can be played in more than one sitting, if it's a long game, possibly with a campaign or something. We don't know much about tabletop RPGs, so I've looked into some board games with RPG mechanics that might be more accessible for us like the Dungeons & Dragons series of games.
Some games that I have thrown on my list (some of which don't have RPG mechanics)
- Flash Point Fire Rescue
- Ghost Stories
- Lord of the Rings: The Board Game
- Mage Knight Board Game
- Dungeons and Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game
- Dungeons & Drag​ons: The Legend of Drizzt Board Game
- Rune Age
- Arkham Horror
- Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game
My SO is less willing than I to invest into a game, so something shorter and with less of a learning curve is probably best. I watched a video with them on Arkham Horror and they seemed intimidated so probably not a good choice. Also showed them a video of The Legend of Drizzt and they seemed more receptive.
if Arkham insterested you but seemed crazy maybe look at Eldrich (or how ever you spell it) it's basically a newer version of the game but a bit more streamlined and I found it much easier to learn. There are a number of bosses to play with that change things decently. play time can be around 3 hours though depending on how things go.
mage knight is a huge no no if arkham looked bad though, it's stupid complicated to teach yourself, if you know someone who plays it it might not be bad, but my wife and I are used to learning games and have struggled twice to play it even with new guides and what not.
Flash point is fun, easy to learn, but it does lack any sort of real story. only usually takes around an hour though.
ghost stories isn't bad to learn, but even on easy it will knock you over and stomp on you until you cry yourself asleep at night. I tend to play with slightly altered rules that make things even just a touch easier (we still lose though, but the main rule changes we make to easy are that tao tokens can be given up for the global effect, that the push back tile allows you to affect 3 haunters instead of just one side, and that Buddhas can be placed where ever you want the turn you get them.) replayability is based on just randomization of the tiles and decks. this one takes about an hour when you know what you are doing.
the D&D games aren't bad, they aren't that complicated and are fine to play with two players, though with a two player game I recommend both players play two characters as some of the scenarios are quite unbalanced with just two players. but there are multiple scenarios to play thus can be done in multiple sittings. this one varies, typically around 2 hours though.
Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game solid co op game and plays well with two players this one takes about 90 min to play on average but until you get it down set up and clean up can take a bit since there are so many decks. there are many villians and cases so there is decent replayability there.
edit: as someone else said before me I have heard people prefer the later legendary games to marvel, but I haven't personally played them.
stuff not on your list to check out.
Pathfinder card game. This is a co op card game that has multiple chapters that you progress through and slowly alter your character deck. It has a slight story, but mostly is just exploring decks to do stuff. This game wasn't to bad to learn (big thing is keeping track the difference between discard, bury, recharge, and destroy.) but can take a bit to get used to everything. There are currently 3 different sets to this game so you can pick your theme to go through (though the two not named rise of the runelords seem to have a better design with the items and what not) this one takes about 90 min to play with two players.
Sentinals of the multiverse.
Super hero card game where you are trying to take down a boss, not to much story but all of the cards have flavor text on the bottom. With the different bosses it has a good amount of replayability especially since the heroes feel decently different. The best part, there is an app for this (ios, android, steam) thus you can give this one a go for like $10 if it interests you (the app is pretty good) takes about 90 min to play if you know what you are doing.
Mice and Mystics. this one is odd. calling it a good intro to table top rpgs isn't a bad thing (it has a decent story, teaches you the mechanics and isn't all that complicated) but at the same time despite seemingly being designed for people new to these games, the game isn't all that easy. I'd still say it's easier and better to learn than the D&D games, but some of the scenarios can be oddly difficult for a game that feels like it is aimed at a bit younger age group.
Dead of winter.
I'll start off by saying I don't like zombies, they are boring, and I tend to avoid stuff with them. That being said I decided to give this a try given the rave reviews I saw and I am glad I did. It's got plenty going for it, and with all of the different goals, and crossroads cards the game feels decently different each time. The zombie theme is well done with what is going on and thus while I stil find zombies meh, I don't feel like the game could easily be changed to not have them (I am curious what they will do for future crossroads games) This one wasn't to bad to learn, but there is a decent amount of stuff to keep track of. This one takes about 2 hours.
there might be more, such as maybe something like defenders of the realm, but alas I was in heat all day and my brain isn't working so well so I will leave it at this which I already spent way more time on than I expected lol.
