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New Board Gaming |OT2| On Tables, Off Topic
- Thread starter Karkador
- Start date
CrudeDiatribe
Member
Er, isn't drafting where you take one and pass the remainder left, then pick one from your new selection, repeat until everyone has 7?
BomberMouse
Member
You are right. I much prefer the other method though.
BattleMonkey
Member
I used GTS for years and still get their catalog as I used to sell games on the side when our old shop closed down. As a small business, wholesale distro price we had to pay for a board game was typically 40% off retail standard.
Now you go online and stores are selling games 25-35% off and then also offer free shipping, how the hell are B&M supposed to compete with that? And marking down prices to match is not even worth the shelf space when you are making maybe only $5-10 profit on each sold. Just to UPS ground a board game the other day I sold online to someone cost me almost $15. Going online route isn't even worth B&M stores because of the further cost of shipping. Groups like CSI and MM are essentially distributors themselves with their massive warehouse inventories that they can afford to undercut anyone and focus on volume.
While the money maker games like CCG's and such take very little space and are pretty much guaranteed to sell. A place going fully board game, is pretty much being stupid frankly. Board game cafes and such I wouldn't be surprised that majority of the revenue they make is from food and drink, and very little from any actual game sales.
Occupations first. You are handed 7, you pick one and pass the remaining six to the RIGHT. You continue until all cards have been drafted.
Improvements second. You are handed 7, you pick one and pass the remaining six to the LEFT. You continue until all cards have been drafted.
Does not work well with 2 players. If playing 2 players look up "Winston" drafts.
Fruitbat Factory
Member
The problem is that they don't make money from food & drinks either since most of their clientelle are kids who spend all their money buying those games and CCGs. They can barely afford to buy a drink and a toast a day. Which nets you with have 5 tables of kids that stay in your cafe whole day, loudly playing those games they purchased from you, while only consuming the cheapest food available once and drinks twice.
My friend used to run such a joint and it was basically not worth his time. He is now making ten times more in half the time at a proper job with none of the stress. So yea, I wouldn't recommend starting a gaming cafe to anyone.
And I used to run a comics and computer games store before founding my game localization business, but that's another story for another day
BattleMonkey
Member
The problem is that they don't make money from food & drinks either since most of their clientelle are kids who spend all their money buying those games and CCGs. They can barely afford to buy a drink and a toast a day. Which nets you with have 5 tables of kids that stay in your cafe whole day, loudly playing those games they purchased from you, while only consuming the cheapest food available once and drinks twice.
My friend used to run such a joint and it was basically not worth his time. He is now making ten times more in half the time at a proper job with none of the stress. So yea, I wouldn't recommend starting a gaming cafe to anyone.
And I used to run a comics and computer games store before founding my game localization business, but that's another story for another day
I'm talking about the nice board game cafe establishments or gaming taverns which are full service cafes and restaurants. Some nice ones in Seattle and Canada had a few from what I've seen. These places do well and essentially if your not buying something, you don't get a table or place to sit. They bring in more adult clientele and typically don't cater to card games, they are focused on board games and RPG players (who do like to drink). New place in Orlando recently opened up, it's a gaming tavern and it's doing very well for itself, booze, food, adult clients. They don't even sell games, they have games for people to use and play with though.
Seen many attempts at making gaming cafes that fall flat, as they are just the same game stores with food/drink offerings. No you got to really mold the store to focus on whats important and draw in the right crowds.
Yeah Vancouver has two or three of those. The one I've been to is always packed, so it must be making good business as a boardgame pub. 19+ and drinks probably helps.
The Right Deal
Banned
Any recommendations in particular for Seattle? That's something I may be interested in.
BattleMonkey
Member
Cafe Mox I've been too, was real nice. Theres like 2 or 3 others in Seattle area from what I recall.
The Right Deal
Banned
Thanks man, appreciate it!
If you make your way a bit up the coast, Vancouver has the Stormcrow Tavern that's very popular. They don't sell games either, but it's a pub and they have free games for play.
Not sure how its supply is, but Starlit Citadel has it in stock for 50.- CAD, for us poor Canadians
Meeplemart has it for $43 and they're running a 10% off sale online tonight from 9p to Midnight EST. I'm too tempted.
Mind you, flat rate shipping for them, so if it's the only thing you plan to buy it'll probably work out to the same ballpark.
Alien Frontiers is alot of fun. And has some nice take that too it!
Troyes looks quiet amazing too though.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
Troyes is fantastic. I prefer it to both Kingsburg and Alien Frontiers.
Dragoshi1
Member
Bought the starter Star Wars X-Wing Minis set at my local hobby shop, finally bit after seeing gameplay and stuff for it, and the Decimator being an upcoming ship.
Starting to get a small backlog of board games I haven't been able to get to, I also bought Krosmaster Arena last week.
Starting to get a small backlog of board games I haven't been able to get to, I also bought Krosmaster Arena last week.
antiquegamer
Member
Small haul from PAX14 yesterday. I pick up mostly small "filler" game for us to play when we are on the road. Boss Monster I bought only because of packaging so I hope it's fun.
I try out Golem Arcana and while the presentation is top notch from the beautifully painted miniatures to the board you play them on I am still not sure why you would need to couple the game with a tablet/phones. The idea is neat but seems so cumbersome when you can just look up stats and half of the fun of playing any Miniatures is rolling the handful of dices.
I also participate in the casual X-Wings Miniatures tournament hosted by FFG. I had a good time but feel the tournament just ate away too much of the time at PAX. My list got decimated by the Fat Falcon. I heard a lot of complain about the Phantom but I find Falcon to be pretty terrible to fly against. I got a nice set of clear dices and some focus tokens and R2 pin. (I guess pin collecting is a thing at PAX).
SillyEskimo
Member
I played a great game of Survive: Escape from Atlantis! last night, and I gotta say that game deserves more love. It was the wife and I and our 2 daughters, ages 5 & 7. There are no dice other than a custom one with sea monster symbols and game play is fast and furious since there is only 4 quick steps in a turn. It's competitive, but fair. By the the time the game goes around the board a single time, the geography and strategy can change drastically. It keeps everyone involved even when it's not their turn. My kids love it in large part because of the sharks, whales, and sea monsters that they can unleash on everyone else's Meeples. They were quite happy destroying and eating everything in sight. I was more than a surprised when my youngest wanted to know if she could suicide her boat just to kill the other players on board since she was already ahead. Yes. Yes you can dear. She was ecstatic!
After we played 2 games last night, I looked up some reviews and was not surprised to find the game is pretty much universally loved. I have no doubt this will be all my kids want to play for the foreseeable future.
If anyone ever wants an introductory board game for the uninitiated, Survive: Escape from Atlantis! is a fantastic option.
After we played 2 games last night, I looked up some reviews and was not surprised to find the game is pretty much universally loved. I have no doubt this will be all my kids want to play for the foreseeable future.
If anyone ever wants an introductory board game for the uninitiated, Survive: Escape from Atlantis! is a fantastic option.
Yep, taught it to my kids (similar ages) the other weekend & they enjoyed it so much, they asked to play it again right away & got my wife involved, who rarely games. She enjoyed it too. My youngest son stayed engaged all the way through both games, which is really tough to do with anything but minecraft. Definite success with us.
ChazAshley
CharAznable's second cousin
So I posted in the DnD 5e thread - would like your thoughts as well.
I was interested in starting 5e but I think as of right now and my group - because of the potential amount of work that is required to get the mechanics of the game - we may hold off 5e for now.
But can anybody recommend a game that lets you 'save' your characters within different campaigns but has a system a la DnD board games (wrath,drizzt, ravenloft)
The closest things that I can think of is using the DND board games and using customized cards/campaigns that I find on boardgamegeek but that also seems like a decent amount of effort.
I looked up the game Arabian Nights - the story book driven game that seemed interesting.... but not sure if that's exactly what I want.
TLDR: I would like a good rpg game that lets us re-use characters in different campaigns a la DnD but without the major complexities of the game.
or should we just bite the bullet and play 5.0?
Thanks.
I was interested in starting 5e but I think as of right now and my group - because of the potential amount of work that is required to get the mechanics of the game - we may hold off 5e for now.
But can anybody recommend a game that lets you 'save' your characters within different campaigns but has a system a la DnD board games (wrath,drizzt, ravenloft)
The closest things that I can think of is using the DND board games and using customized cards/campaigns that I find on boardgamegeek but that also seems like a decent amount of effort.
I looked up the game Arabian Nights - the story book driven game that seemed interesting.... but not sure if that's exactly what I want.
TLDR: I would like a good rpg game that lets us re-use characters in different campaigns a la DnD but without the major complexities of the game.
or should we just bite the bullet and play 5.0?
Thanks.
Arabian Nights (and cousin game, Agents of SMERSH) have a sort of "choose your own adventure" feel to them, but the characters don't carry over from game to game.
You could check out Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and it's fairly popular (although I think it's a bit repetitive and ...bloated?). There's an app version coming out soon that may make it easier to swallow.
Perhaps something like Descent? IIRC that game is structured a little more competitively between the Players and the DM than DnD is supposed to be, but it does contain persistent characters and a "campaign" that you play through over multiple game sessions.
One of my friends had it for a while and it was pretty cool to play through. Very much a tactical game with not much in the way of roleplaying if that is what you're looking for.
The mechanics of D&D aren't going to be any harder to grasp than a board game.
This man speaks the truth.
Kingsburg is fun but too reliant on luck.
I don't care for the cards that you buy in Alien Frontiers as there is too much take that.
Troyes is great and has lots of interaction as everyone generally has some access to the dice. The expansion is good too, if you get it cheap.
BattleMonkey
Member
Basic mechanics aren't, but there is so much more complexity involved in the massive amounts of info involved during a game. Even with ton of experience, players are constantly having to look up info in books and it gets worse with additional sourcebooks.
And scope of DnD rules are far larger in general to any of the simple dungeon hacker style board games, which is complexity on itself when you have data overload.
The saving grace with most RPG's in the actual rules are mainly needed to be known by one person, all other players just need to know the basic basics to play the game. If you can get one person to really cram down and learn all the rules across all those books, then it's not a problem.
A D&D 5 character sheet to me is about as complex as the character sheet in Descent, but maybe that's because I've been playing pen and paper RPGs for a very long time. Plus in Descent the overlord needs to know way more rules than the characters, just like the DM does in D&D.
piratepwnsninja
Member
Played both Pandemic Contagion and Sheriff of Nottingham last night; both were hits with our group. Contagion actually has a lot of choices to make on your turn while keeping the design very elegant, and Sheriff was just hilariously fun.
Fruitbat Factory
Member
D&D is as complex as your group wants it to be. Just because they printed x amount of sourcebooks does not mean that your group has to use every one of them. If you want it to be truely simple you can just say that your game will be limited to whatever is available on the main player and dungeon master handbooks and nothing else.
Like if you planned a horror adventure along the lines of a classic Dracula story (Ravenloft?), you probably wouldn't want one of the characters to be created using whatever passes out as Ninja's Handbook these days.
I have seen D&D games where everyone had 6 pages of character sheets and miniatures battles going in the middle of the table, but I have also seen ones that had all the players have only a single blank page. Pen and paper RPGs are as flexible as you want them to be, if that is what you want.
ChazAshley
CharAznable's second cousin
Actually it's funny you suggest Descent because I was checking out some playthroughs last night. I am leaning toward this - It seems to be exactly what I'm looking for. Plus with the expansions, that will definitely satisfy us for some time.
I would agree with the fact that DnD doesn't seem too complicated in the basic sense - but the extra stuff of finding a decent DM - telling my friends to keep track of their characters etc, may seem too much at the moment. I think something like Descent is the best next stepping stone to the eventual DnD. Thanks guys!
piratepwnsninja
Member
Well, just so you know Descent does require a decent player to be the Overlord, and you're still keeping track of characters game to game. It's actually "meaner" than DnD, simply because the Overlord has a goal to win, and he does that by outright punishing the players. A DM in DnD, on the other hand, is (usually) more concerned with facilitating the narrative for the players. There is a pretty large different there.
If you are looking for something that doesn't have a really competitive aspect, but does have a dungeon crawl feel to it with lots of replayability, I'd advise you to look at Shadows of Brimstone, as it might fit the bill better. Don't get me wrong, I love Descent and own all the Descent and Descent 2.0 stuff thus far, but it's not a good analog for DnD, unless the DnD DM you'd have would always be an asshole.
yup I own it, I posted some thoughts on it a few pages back.
I have played as the player in the first scenario, as the master mind, and merely sat and watched and all 3 times enjoy it. Have any questions in particular about it? keep in mind that I can't go into detail about the story for the scenario as it would ruin that for you (you can't really replay them)
Thanks! I went back and read your impressions. I guess my only concern is replayabillity. How long do you think the core scenarios can last a group for? And based on impressions, I assume the person playing as the mastermind can't really go back to play the same scenario as a player, right? Does this feel limiting at all? Does it feel like the game encourages one player to take the mastermind role over multiple scenarios if you play with the same group of people?
BattleMonkey
Member
D&D is as complex as your group wants it to be. Just because they printed x amount of sourcebooks does not mean that your group has to use every one of them. If you want it to be truely simple you can just say that your game will be limited to whatever is available on the main player and dungeon master handbooks and nothing else.
Like if you planned a horror adventure along the lines of a classic Dracula story (Ravenloft?), you probably wouldn't want one of the characters to be created using whatever passes out as Ninja's Handbook these days.
I have seen D&D games where everyone had 6 pages of character sheets and miniatures battles going in the middle of the table, but I have also seen ones that had all the players have only a single blank page. Pen and paper RPGs are as flexible as you want them to be, if that is what you want.
For Pen and Paper RPG's I think that's more true, the problem with D&D is you are almost forced into buying supplements or you are forced to have a really hard working or creative DM. DnD has always been very bad with how they dole out it's content to keep you on a book buying trend, especially when it comes to full character building options where they keep holding back the good stuff.
As I said, for players the game isn't all that complex, the hurdle is always going to be having a good DM who is willing to teach as well as be the one to have to ingest in all the tomes of knowledge required for DnD.
For as popular as DnD is, I think as a Pen and Paper RPG it is absolutely horrible for new players with how clunky the game system is and rule heavy. I know they are changing things with 5E a bit, but really the way the game plays and how their organized events are, it really pushes for a more tabletop miniature game than a true roleplay experience. Again something that would be mitigated by players having an awesome DM who can show them a good game and proper roleplaying, and not rollplaying.
There are 10 core scenarios, thus they will last a group about 22 hours. Indeed though a mastermind can't go back and play the scenario as a player though. While I imagine it could feel limiting to some, there is a decent guide in the back of the mastermind book on how to create your own scenarios which would allow for plenty of replayability. I figure it really shouldn't be to hard to augment some scenarios to create something that the players don't know what is going on, but at the same time isn't that different from the included scenarios. Beyond that there are expansions out there (that zman says they will bring over if sales dictate that it's worth it for the base game, which from what i have seen is pretty likely) that add more characters and scenarios, beyond that i figure after a few weeks board game geek will be full of scenarios that you can just write down and play.
As for the last question about one player to take the mastermind role... I don't really feel like it does, but at the same time I imagine some players will be quite a bit better at being the mastermind then others will and some will enjoy it quite a bit more. As I said I have said I have only indeed played the first scenario so I am not sure how much more complicated ot gets, but at least through the first scenario it seems like the mastermind could get away with only playing cards that work towards them winning and not make it to easy on the players (though the mastermind will likely lose in that case). Overall it will basically come down if you enjoy being in control or trying to figure out things. I preferred playing as a player, but that doesn't mean the mastermind role wasn't fun.
The best way to me to extend the game though would be to play the game with two groups of friends... in the first group you play as the player in the second group you are the mastermind. Also I would not recommend the game with only 2 players, 3 is the min 4 is best. The best part about the player role is discussing what you think is going on (at least to me) and thus with just two players it's just you vs the mastermind and you can't talk to anyone so it's just not as fun (that is how it was when I was the mastermind I was teaching a single person) In general I love how the mastermind isn't that much more powerful than the players card wise.... but when it's one on one it's a lot more noticeable then 3 vs 1.
The scenarios dictate what characters are what roles as well as what incidents will happen on which days.
There is in fact no base story the players get at all (though there is one provided for the mastermind... they can't read it until after the fact to the players though as it's a huge spoiler lol)
the only reason you can't easily change what roles are present is because the players have a sheet giving them a little information on what plot/subplot has what type of characters (the scenarios are made up of one main plot and potentially 1 or 2 subplots). If you wanted to just rearrange what characters are what roles/incidents you could potentially do that without that much trouble, but you would also need to take into account the balance of the characters (they have different goodwill moves and different limitations/classifications) some goodwill abilities such as the school boy's only effect other students, thus changing the focus of the incident to or from a student could effect how difficult it is to deal with (since his ability is to remove a paranoia which is needed to trigger incidents)
But yeah the scenarios change what characters are in the game, what roles those characters have, what incidents are going to happen, how many days the events cover, how many loops there are, and effectively what the win conditions for the mastermind are.
Though at the start it's always the same for the players, you can see what characters are in the game, you can see what incidents will happen on which days, how many days, how many loops... but you haven't a clue what the lose conditions are or anything else, the players will likely lose the first loop horribly most of the time, but they will always be getting more info to figure out everything.
Board Gaming GAF I need some help! I've been looking for a game that fills a a little more difficult requirement than I expected. I've been looking for a board or card game that will play 6 - 8 players in the beginner to experienced range. So far everyone in the group has been pretty outgoing to try what ever I can find. So genre and setting shouldn't be a big factor, I just haven't been able to find a ton of games (apart from some mainstream ones) that will accommodate 6 - 8 players at the given skill level. I really appreciate any help / advice you can give!
SillyEskimo
Member
With so much family and friends around this weekend, my house was party game central! We spent all day out on the lake yesterday and today was a nice, indoor alternative that everyone seemed primed to take advantage of.
Liars Dice - 8 people playing, last man standing. This went 8 rounds with people rotating out between rounds. This is always a crowd pleaser. A simple, yet fun game. The last game had all the previous winners to determine the ultimate liar. (It wasn't me, that's for sure!)
King of Tokyo - Base game, 6 players + spectators every round. This got an amazing amount of play. I would say 8-10 rounds with people rotating out every now and then. Anyone that played 1 game had to play another right after. My youngest daughter of 5 had this game figured out, actually winning 2 of the games back to back. She read the cards very carefully, unlike most others, and saved energy to buy anything that would give her an edge. At one point, an older friend of the family who is in his early 20's tried to "help" her with her dice decisions, and she had to explain why she was re-rolling instead of keeping what he thought she should keep. She put him out of the game that very turn. Everyone in the room had a laugh at that! We had one game with 3 of us remaining, and after we killed the others we all healed up to full health and switched strategies to try and win by points. At the very last minute, a player landed a good card and went back to trying to kill us all. By the very end we had with 2 people with 19 points and 5 health while the third had 12 health and, like 12 points but she was in Tokyo and rolled some monster damage and wiped us out.
Survive: Escape From Atlantis! - 6 players at all times. Base game + 2 extra groups of Meeples from the original board game. This game was going all day, with the previous players explaining the rules to the new people that rotated in. My Mom and Dad and loved it so much, I actually gave them my original copy to take home and play together. (When I moved out at age 19 my parents started all over again by adopting babies every few years. So, while I am 39 with a wife and kids, my parents are 60 and have 3 kids at home, ages 19,18, and 13. They do not have very much money, so the board game was greatly appreciated).
Sequence - We played 2 massive 12 players games. This impressed my parents so much, I think they might buy a copy on the way home. It's great party game. Adults teamed up with their kids for this and it's surprising how well kids learn the strategy involved so quickly.
I had wanted to get in a round or 2 of Love Letter but time ran out
There was also Rock Band going on the upstairs TV and Mario Kart 8 in the Media room. People just flowed all over the house at will and the atmosphere was amazingly fun. It was like everyone was a kid again. We had some new friends and their kids over and they had so much fun they didn't want to leave. Their kids were telling their parents that our house was better than Disney World, lol!
I think people will expect to play board games every time they come over now!
Liars Dice - 8 people playing, last man standing. This went 8 rounds with people rotating out between rounds. This is always a crowd pleaser. A simple, yet fun game. The last game had all the previous winners to determine the ultimate liar. (It wasn't me, that's for sure!)
King of Tokyo - Base game, 6 players + spectators every round. This got an amazing amount of play. I would say 8-10 rounds with people rotating out every now and then. Anyone that played 1 game had to play another right after. My youngest daughter of 5 had this game figured out, actually winning 2 of the games back to back. She read the cards very carefully, unlike most others, and saved energy to buy anything that would give her an edge. At one point, an older friend of the family who is in his early 20's tried to "help" her with her dice decisions, and she had to explain why she was re-rolling instead of keeping what he thought she should keep. She put him out of the game that very turn. Everyone in the room had a laugh at that! We had one game with 3 of us remaining, and after we killed the others we all healed up to full health and switched strategies to try and win by points. At the very last minute, a player landed a good card and went back to trying to kill us all. By the very end we had with 2 people with 19 points and 5 health while the third had 12 health and, like 12 points but she was in Tokyo and rolled some monster damage and wiped us out.
Survive: Escape From Atlantis! - 6 players at all times. Base game + 2 extra groups of Meeples from the original board game. This game was going all day, with the previous players explaining the rules to the new people that rotated in. My Mom and Dad and loved it so much, I actually gave them my original copy to take home and play together. (When I moved out at age 19 my parents started all over again by adopting babies every few years. So, while I am 39 with a wife and kids, my parents are 60 and have 3 kids at home, ages 19,18, and 13. They do not have very much money, so the board game was greatly appreciated).
Sequence - We played 2 massive 12 players games. This impressed my parents so much, I think they might buy a copy on the way home. It's great party game. Adults teamed up with their kids for this and it's surprising how well kids learn the strategy involved so quickly.
I had wanted to get in a round or 2 of Love Letter but time ran out
There was also Rock Band going on the upstairs TV and Mario Kart 8 in the Media room. People just flowed all over the house at will and the atmosphere was amazingly fun. It was like everyone was a kid again. We had some new friends and their kids over and they had so much fun they didn't want to leave. Their kids were telling their parents that our house was better than Disney World, lol!
I think people will expect to play board games every time they come over now!
ChazAshley
CharAznable's second cousin
It might actually fit my play group a little bit more because strangely enough... we do like to troll each other in co op games. I've played Super Dungeon Explore and I do like the one vs many aspect of it. I think my playgroup would like it.
I'll check out Shadows as well. Thanks!
Thanks for all the info! My local game shop is listing it as being released tomorrow so hopefully I can pick it up soon.
EYEL1NER
Member
Good to hear about Contagion. I am very much looking forward to that, The Cure, and Legacy. I love me some Pandemic.
I had a great time at the tabletop area in PAX. More fun for me than the show floor. They had a huge-size demo set of The Duke, which I thought was a great game.
My wife and I also played in a Dominion tournament, which was the first time either of us had done anything like that (we lost fabulously).
My wife and I also played in a Dominion tournament, which was the first time either of us had done anything like that (we lost fabulously).
Check out this link (hopefully it works) to see a listing of games that meet your player and difficulty criteria.
Pretty much everything ranked in the first 500 or so are going to be easy recommendations, but don't be afraid to check out stuff from 0-2000, as there are plenty of good finds in that range.
BattleMonkey
Member
Cool find, its like a Japanese themed Risk, but also better.
Awesome thank you I will definitely look into these.