The emails you're getting from Valley Games/Radiant games are completely ignoring the complexities of the legal situation.
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The emails you're getting from Valley Games/Radiant games are completely ignoring the complexities of the legal situation.
That's what I figured, yeah. Here's to hoping for the best...
EDIT: also, my Love Letters order is ready for pickup, awww yiss. I'm pretty optimistic my work group is gonna love it.
RaySpencer
Member
I hope your group is more open to it than mine, haha.
My friends suddenly became a pain in the ass, because they didnt like the theme, haha. I made sure to give them a bunch of shit for it though
I hope your group is more open to it than mine, haha.
My friends suddenly became a pain in the ass, because they didnt like the theme, haha. I made sure to give them a bunch of shit for it though
TumblingHippo
Member
Got to try a 3 player game of Eclipse and really enjoyed it. It was a learning game, so everyone played super nice and didn't attack until the final turn, just to see how player versus player combat worked. We also bottlenecked everything to the center area, just due to how the space tiles worked out.
We agreed that'll change next time, but everyone had a good time learning the game, and look forward to messing with the different alien races.
We agreed that'll change next time, but everyone had a good time learning the game, and look forward to messing with the different alien races.
I hope your group is more open to it than mine, haha.
My friends suddenly became a pain in the ass, because they didnt like the theme, haha. I made sure to give them a bunch of shit for it though
Lol. Well even if they're not, the game was 10 bucks, not much money lost there.
Naw, that's just how Eclipse plays out haha.
It's a lot of the time the smartest play to not fight until the end.
platypotamus
Member
Depends on the number of players, I think. The board gets a bit more crowded and combat comes earlier with more, especially the crazy ass expansion numbers.
Hydranockz
Member
Had a great weekend of gaming.
My friend picked up the first expansion for Cosmic Encounter the other day. The hazard deck and the 20 new races are awesome. We played so many games of this. Mostly 3 player games sadly.
Played a few 6 player games of Avalon well too far into the night. This game with the right group is god tier. Love that game to bits. Still settling on setups for the number of players but sweetspots were found.
Friend got Netrunner. Conversation here on PnP RPGs leads me to say that Shadowrun fans would totally dig this. Friend and I played a few games as the base factions to learn the ropes. Made our decks today and the possibilities exploded. Really great game.
Edit: Question guys. What's Formula D like? It looks to me like a load of fun but dropping 50 isn't something I'd want to do lightly. General impressions?
My friend picked up the first expansion for Cosmic Encounter the other day. The hazard deck and the 20 new races are awesome. We played so many games of this. Mostly 3 player games sadly.
Played a few 6 player games of Avalon well too far into the night. This game with the right group is god tier. Love that game to bits. Still settling on setups for the number of players but sweetspots were found.
Friend got Netrunner. Conversation here on PnP RPGs leads me to say that Shadowrun fans would totally dig this. Friend and I played a few games as the base factions to learn the ropes. Made our decks today and the possibilities exploded. Really great game.
Edit: Question guys. What's Formula D like? It looks to me like a load of fun but dropping 50 isn't something I'd want to do lightly. General impressions?
RaySpencer
Member
Your picture doesnt work!! :'(
Lol. Well even if they're not, the game was 10 bucks, not much money lost there.
Haha, yeah cheapy cheapy! It seems pretty cool, and a really nice work break type game.
Grabbing a new board game for our group; our size has started trending upwards from 3 - 4 to now 5 - 6. They're alright with 3 hours, but that's starting to push it time wise. Depth wise, I like the meatier stuff (I still haven't found anything I like more than Power Grid) but too much complexity, rules explanation, and/or setup (RIP Agricola) definitely means the likelihood of bringing the game out again goes way down. Debating between Eclipse, Robo Rally, and King of Tokyo at this point, but I'm wondering whether or not Eclipse isn't too heavy and the latter two aren't too light. Additional recommendations are also welcome in case you can think of a good fit for what I've described above.
Edit: Cosmic Encounter sounds promising too, although it doesn't support our occasional 6 player group.
Edit: Cosmic Encounter sounds promising too, although it doesn't support our occasional 6 player group.
BattleMonkey
Member
So far everyone I've introduced it too were kinda put off by it at first but ended up loving it after actually playing it.
Hydranockz
Member
The expansions for Cosmic Encounter bring it up by one player each time. Goes up to 7 anyway. Would recommend trying with 3-5 first and seeing how you enjoy it before dropping extra for the 6th player.
It seems we are on the same page regarding this, for the most part.
The only real point of contention would be that narrativist/story/indie games aren't a good place to start for new players. I think a number of them are ideal for starting out, particularly those like Apocalypse World and its many hacks, like Dungeon World and Monsterhearts. These games are played within the fiction and only when something happens that engages a rule will the GM say, "Sounds like you're trying to do <insert move here>" and then dice are rolled to determine the outcome. Maybe these aren't the best game to start out as a GM with for some, but for players they're great.
Of course other games can be played in a similar fashion if the players have not read the rules and simply have a character sheet in front of them. They have no expectations and are playing with and reacting to the situation that their characters are in or are presented with. This is a great place to start because in the minds of the players, there aren't any limitations placed on what they can do, but the situation does have a number of ways that it can be dealt with depending on the type of game being played.
Fiasco can be overwhelming because the rules are so very loose. Structure is there to stimulate creative ideas and scenes, but those scenes are left entirely to the players. If the new people are the kind to mess around in a similar fashion already and maybe do some silly improv at a moments notice, then they would have a great time. For most, having a narrower focus is more helpful to get the ball rolling and the creative juices flowing since their actions are being somewhat guided and restricted, but not hindered.
The narrowing of a focus can be taken too far and this is where I dislike those rules-heavy games. Whether the rules have been read by the players or not, it can become apparent rather quickly what the focus and intent of the game can squash the creative potential. While it can be up to the GM to make it shine, if something like D&D is being played, unless the players get into a fight conflict then they won't be engaging any of the game mechanics and are essentially playing a free-form game with less structure than Fiasco. Once they get into that combat, then the rules emerge and it quickly turns into dice-chucking and mechanics-referencing because there is little else outside of that.
Game design is there to encourage certain kinds of behaviour, so the system choice matters. Looking at two games I mentioned, Dungeon World encourages creative thinking by looking at the many options available to you and trying something interesting, because even failure is interesting and has its own reward, in combat and out of it; D&D rewards picking fights, killing things and taking their stuff to become more powerful. I'm sure it sounds like there is some bias there, I won't deny that there is, some games are better at pulling roleplaying out of people than others are.
I don't want any potential roleplayers reading this to be turned off. There is just a wealth of choice as well as a breadth of opinion. If fun is being had at the table, that is all that matters in the end. Just like any other form of entertainment, there are many flavours to suit many people. If you think of a story you would like to see played out or would like to emulate, there will be a game, or a bunch of them, out there to make that happen at the game table. There is also the roleplaying thread for further questions and discussion; it's slow-moving but still active.
This week I played Bang and Quarriors. Bang I had of course played many times. Unfortunately this time was 8 people with Santa Claus and someone who could clone Santa Claus, so every single round had 8 cards, then 8 cards, then 1-3 general stores, then a couple of 2-3 card draws, then a deck reshuffle because all the cards were gone...
I spent half the game trying to kill Santa Claus while he would heal or other people would help him heal. Finally he died, I got killed as a deputy by the other deputy, but fortunately the sheriff won anyway.
Quarriors was kind of interesting, but either one person was very smart or very lucky. They claimed to be lucky. Both games they ended up with crazy scores and/or draws and/or rolls compared to the rest of us, stuff like half my dice being monsters but all of them coming up mana. 1/8 chance for that isn't THAT unlucky, but it was still a little sad since that sort of thing had been happening. The second game, the one that happened in, I had like 4 points, the other player had ZERO points, and the winner had 15.
*edit* The theme of Love Letters barely matters. It's such a quick and simple card game that you just play it with cards that do various abilities and ignore the theme if you like.
I spent half the game trying to kill Santa Claus while he would heal or other people would help him heal. Finally he died, I got killed as a deputy by the other deputy, but fortunately the sheriff won anyway.
Quarriors was kind of interesting, but either one person was very smart or very lucky. They claimed to be lucky. Both games they ended up with crazy scores and/or draws and/or rolls compared to the rest of us, stuff like half my dice being monsters but all of them coming up mana. 1/8 chance for that isn't THAT unlucky, but it was still a little sad since that sort of thing had been happening. The second game, the one that happened in, I had like 4 points, the other player had ZERO points, and the winner had 15.
*edit* The theme of Love Letters barely matters. It's such a quick and simple card game that you just play it with cards that do various abilities and ignore the theme if you like.
Do you have Battlestar Galactica? Best with 5, plays well with 6 with expansion items. It's got a fair amount going on, but the plus side is a ton of it is just bookkeeping. So as long as someone, say you, can keep track of ships coming out, etc etc then everyone else can have a pretty gravy time just moving and taking and action.
Might run a little long first game, but we knock 'em out in 2.5ish-3 hrs (thats with both expansions).
As for the games you mentioned: If you don't have a proper plano-esque solution, Eclipse setup can be pretty huge. There's a metric shitload of techs to sort. King of Tokyo is super light, although it is fun. Roborally is pretty easy on the setup, too.
Other 6p accommodating games:
Libertalia
Railways of the World
Rex
Game of Thrones
Dominant Species (great game but a 6 player game is likely going to blow through that 3hr time frame)
And while this one only plays 5, I'm going to take every opportunity I can to recommend Kemet.
Brought in Lords of Waterdeep to work today, was afraid the D&D theme would turn them off... The opposite happened! Everybody loved it and we had a blast. Slightly long for a lunchbreak game, but it WAS our first playthrough, so maybe we can cut down on the time a bit in the future.
Played 5P too, and I came in last LOL.
Played 5P too, and I came in last LOL.
Imho, warhammer 3rd edition core set costs about the same as a higher priced boardgame like eclipse or war of the ring. And considering the amount of stuff you get with the core box, it's kinda justified.
Thanks, I'll look into it after we finish the main descent campaign, unless we start one of the expansion and they let me play a hero.....
Good luck! I hope I'll get a group together before Christmas. But I already dread the amount of work I'll have to put in trying to GM the thing.
BattleMonkey
Member
You get alot in the WFRP box set, but you will almost surely be spending a ton more as you will likely need an extra adventurers kit to allow for an extra player in the group. The content of the box limits how many can play so you got to buy of the adventurer kits to allow another player. Dice you will want more too, but sadly those are no longer available and go on the secondary market for 40+ a pack. Much of the games expansions are available only in box format as you are forced to buy all the extras and they got for about $40 each. WFRP is pretty pricey for a RPG, and was one of the biggest mistakes they made with it and they tried to fix by releasing the book formats, but really it's a pain to play using just the books. It essentially forces players to do tons of book keeping and have pages of info in front of them.
The new Star Wars RPG Edge of the Empire, basically is the same game system but refined to be even simpler and works better to not involve tons of components.
The new Star Wars RPG Edge of the Empire, basically is the same game system but refined to be even simpler and works better to not involve tons of components.
Hmm, actually the impression I got from doing some "extensive" research on it is that wh 3rd edition actually eliminates most of bookkeeping. Mainly because most of the stuff needed is either written on the cards or has tokens and what not to mark the amount of fatigue or damage you have. Another important point is how the dice work. There is no calculating of the percentages to see if the skills go through or not, and more of interpreting the dice symbols in a "what you see is what you get" way.
All this is supposed to eliminate most of the downtime and lead to a more distilled roleplaying experience....or at least that's what the fantasy flight website says
Regarding the dice - you could just buy the gm vault which has a set of 12 dice in it, same amount as in the packs, for about 20€. According to this http://diceofdoom.com/blog/2011/03/warhammer-fantasy-roleplay-core-set-vs-guides-and-vaults/
From what i read, the amount of dice you get with the core set is enough unless you don't want to share the dice across the table as much.
Anyways, I don't think I want to kick it off with more than 3 players anyways, so I wouldn't need another player vault right from the start. And in case I would, the 4th player would be more than welcome to fund it himself/herself.
Mainly because as I've said, I have almost no experience with rpgs. I have a rough idea how it's supposed to work by watching some youtube videos of semi-famous people playing and by reading the wh3rd edition rules, but otherwise I'm a luddite. But also because 3 players would allot more play/roleplay time to each player.
EDIT: yeah, I looked a bit into the sw rpg and it seems great. Especially the beginner box would be perfect for us, but the thing is.... I'm allergic to the star wars. So there is that
BattleMonkey
Member
As I mentioned, I'm talking about the book version of whfrp. The hard back cover books feature an alternate way to play without all the components. Its much cheaper version to play and compiles several expansions worth of content in each book. Problem was that it made book keeping a pain so it didn't go over well.
As for dice, you do want each player to have their own set of dice as the creation of dice pools is a big part of a players turn. Generally player will make their pool while another player is taking their turn to speed things up, otherwise each player has to wait till another player finishes his turn.
Their is a dice app you can get though for tablets phones that a person can use in the mean time.
Didn't know the GM vault had dice in it. That's a later product which repacked some previous stuff and was a companion to the hard back books.
As for dice, you do want each player to have their own set of dice as the creation of dice pools is a big part of a players turn. Generally player will make their pool while another player is taking their turn to speed things up, otherwise each player has to wait till another player finishes his turn.
Their is a dice app you can get though for tablets phones that a person can use in the mean time.
Didn't know the GM vault had dice in it. That's a later product which repacked some previous stuff and was a companion to the hard back books.
Thanks for the recommendations! I don't have Battlestar Galactica, but we don't really enjoy coop games as much as each man for himself, even if I do love bluffing/traitor elements, so I think I'll pass on it for now. Certainly keep it in mind for the future though.
Eclipse sounds like it might not be the right fit for this particular game. I'll leave it on the wish list for the future as well.
I hear that everyone really enjoys King of Tokyo but it just looks a little too light to me. Still, that kind of universal praise merits a second look.
Group tried Game of Thrones and apparently did not like it; I wasn't there so I'm not sure why or if I'd dislike it. Always looked good to me. I think Railways and Dominant Species- which I'd personally love to try- might be a bit too Euro for them, despite my ability to get Power Grid to the board every now and then.
Kemet sounds really cool, but I can't justify picking it up when I told them I'd specifically look for a game that can accommodate 6 players. Maybe we should try and get some more people involved and start up 2 games each night?
Libertalia and Rex look interesting- any specific high points from those who've tried them? I love both bluffing and backstabbing elements and the simultaneous action of Libertalia sounds intriguing. Not the most beloved game on the geek apparently, but reads like a good experience to me.
Basically down to considering those two, Cosmic Encounter, and Robo Rally, which is sounding more and more like it might be the right balance between player interactivity, setup, rules complexity, and depth for our group.
Citadels is nice, not too complicated, and should work with a reasonably-sized group.
I got the Elder Sign expansion today, and finally Agricola. It's expensive even on sale, but I figure under $50 USD is about as good as I was going to get. Apparently it now includes animeeples, yay!
I got the Elder Sign expansion today, and finally Agricola. It's expensive even on sale, but I figure under $50 USD is about as good as I was going to get. Apparently it now includes animeeples, yay!
The animeeples are great. The vegi, resource, and people eeples stay away (I say as an owner of all).
Affeinvasion
Member
Another six player option that is worth exploring is Spartacus with the new expansion which lets you play up to six. I really can't get enough of this game. It has resource control, take that card play, auctioning, miniatures combat, dice chucking, gambling. It's a great game for interaction too because gold can change hands at any time for any reason. The expansion adds two vs two combat which is also pretty awesome.
BomberMouse
Member
Not a fan of dominion but I think the popular opinion is to get seaside and avoid alchemy.
Seconding this recommendation. Spartacus is a vicious competitive game where the rules aren't very deep, but there are awesome design choices that force you to play the people rather than the cards.
For instance, the first phase of the round is the "intrigue phase" where each player plays cards. The only requirement for the cards is that you have a minimum level of "influence" aka the number of points. Sometimes you'll receive a card that you can't play, but you can convince/bargain/threaten/bribe another player to lend their influence to your total to play the card. This works well with the other rule "money can change hands at any time" and you get some interesting exchanges.
The title for the next board game OT will be "Seaside. Always seaside"
Bought Small World today. Hoping my family likes it. Also, what's the best racing game? I want to buy Formula D, is there something better?
PitchCar!
It's more expensive than Formula D for sure, and it's a very different type of racing game; you literally flick your car around the wooden track. It's been one of the best gaming investment I've made as the kids, and their friends, love it. There's a ton of expansions available to increase the track variety too down the line. We've ended up with two copies of the base game plus expansions 1, 2 & the "cross" pieces. Very, very happy with it.
There's a smaller (and cheaper) version called PitchCar Mini available too.
Formula D is definitely best 'traditional' boardgame implementation of racing for sure though. Monza works well with young kids too.
Whoa sweet! Been trying to get a little practice in and tweaking my decks a bunch.
holy crap, this is amazing. I need this. Now that i think about it, didn't Astro post his impressions of this game and his setup included a ramp?PitchCar!
It's more expensive than Formula D for sure, and it's a very different type of racing game; you literally flick your car around the wooden track. It's been one of the best gaming investment I've made as the kids, and their friends, love it. There's a ton of expansions available to increase the track variety too down the line. We've ended up with two copies of the base game plus expansions 1, 2 & the "cross" pieces. Very, very happy with it.
There's a smaller (and cheaper) version called PitchCar Mini available too.
Formula D is definitely best 'traditional' boardgame implementation of racing for sure though. Monza works well with young kids too.
The ramp stuff is in an expansion. There's several of those.
Yeah, as Neverfade said, there's a bunch of expansions. The base set is straights + corner pieces, nothing too fancy, including the chequered flag start line.
Expansion 1 adds tighter curves/chicanes & the two ramp pieces that you can use as a small bridge over a tunnel or two separate jumps.
Expansion 2 adds 45 degree turn pieces & some more straights & pieces to make a "cross over" where the path cross overs over itself.
Then there's the special expansions - "the Cross" that saves a bunch of room on the table, "straightways" that's just two very long straights, and the "stunt race" that adds height to it, letting you do double-decker tracks.
I picked it up (gently) used in a deal in a BGG user auction, and traded for a second base set with a buddy to expand our options. A big investment for one game, but very worth it.This was our last track:
Expansion 1 adds tighter curves/chicanes & the two ramp pieces that you can use as a small bridge over a tunnel or two separate jumps.
Expansion 2 adds 45 degree turn pieces & some more straights & pieces to make a "cross over" where the path cross overs over itself.
Then there's the special expansions - "the Cross" that saves a bunch of room on the table, "straightways" that's just two very long straights, and the "stunt race" that adds height to it, letting you do double-decker tracks.
I picked it up (gently) used in a deal in a BGG user auction, and traded for a second base set with a buddy to expand our options. A big investment for one game, but very worth it.This was our last track:
Affeinvasion
Member
Dear lord that is huge. That's a deal breaker in and of itself for me.
I just finished playing the Duel of Ages II Beginner set with my wife. It took forever because the instructions that are included are ridiculously ponderous and don't include full instructions for how to play the game. Only a bunch of tutorial scenarios that I guess lead to the full game, but there is no portion that says "Do this, then do this, then do this, end." Having to flip between different scenarios that use some of the rules of the full game but don't utilize other rules of the full game is super annoying. It took us 3 hours and my wife was kind of pissy about it. I think I want to like this game, but it may take awhile for me to be able to get my wife to play it with me again (which kind of sucks because it was her anniversary present to me).
Anyone have experience with this game? It seems that there is a lot of value in the base set, and the Master set just seems like an extravagance of riches that would make everything way, way, way more complex and complicated than it already is.
I just finished playing the Duel of Ages II Beginner set with my wife. It took forever because the instructions that are included are ridiculously ponderous and don't include full instructions for how to play the game. Only a bunch of tutorial scenarios that I guess lead to the full game, but there is no portion that says "Do this, then do this, then do this, end." Having to flip between different scenarios that use some of the rules of the full game but don't utilize other rules of the full game is super annoying. It took us 3 hours and my wife was kind of pissy about it. I think I want to like this game, but it may take awhile for me to be able to get my wife to play it with me again (which kind of sucks because it was her anniversary present to me).
Anyone have experience with this game? It seems that there is a lot of value in the base set, and the Master set just seems like an extravagance of riches that would make everything way, way, way more complex and complicated than it already is.
On the recent topic of the Kickstarter failure of The Doom that Came to Atlantic City, there is some excellent news.
Cryptozoic are going to produce the board game and send it to backers... free of charge. The product page is here for those who may have backed it or are interested. There are posts about it and details of the press release by Cryptozoic on the blogs of designers Keith Baker and Lee Moyer, who were also shafted by this whole thing.
Class acts, all of them.
Cryptozoic are going to produce the board game and send it to backers... free of charge. The product page is here for those who may have backed it or are interested. There are posts about it and details of the press release by Cryptozoic on the blogs of designers Keith Baker and Lee Moyer, who were also shafted by this whole thing.
Class acts, all of them.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
Fist bump, me too. Hopefully it will be here by the weekend.
Minor bummer about Agricola: Amazon is normally good about keeping things in good condition, and I think this wasn't their fault, but one corner of the new Agricola box was banged up and split almost all the way up. Also, the top of one of the main Agricola cardboard game boards had a corner peeled a bit under the shrink wrap.
The Elder Sign expansion stuff does look like it could make the game a good bit harder if it shows up. I'm not sure people will want to try it again though.
The Elder Sign expansion stuff does look like it could make the game a good bit harder if it shows up. I'm not sure people will want to try it again though.
BomberMouse
Member
I'd say that has become pretty normal for some publishers.
Picked up Rialto yesterday and put in my first play (2p).
Game felt really light for a Feld game, at least on the mechanics side of thing. However, it does seem that it lends itself to quite a bit of strategy. I made a few dumb decisions early on and thought I was getting destroyed, but came back to only being about 5 points behind in the end. It's really hard to tell how well you're doing during the game since the majority of your points are from end-game scoring. It plays pretty quick and our "learning" game only took about 45 minutes or so, including setup. Definitely one I'd like to get back to the table soon.
Game felt really light for a Feld game, at least on the mechanics side of thing. However, it does seem that it lends itself to quite a bit of strategy. I made a few dumb decisions early on and thought I was getting destroyed, but came back to only being about 5 points behind in the end. It's really hard to tell how well you're doing during the game since the majority of your points are from end-game scoring. It plays pretty quick and our "learning" game only took about 45 minutes or so, including setup. Definitely one I'd like to get back to the table soon.
I think Brügge is the better light Feld game, but I guess that is going to take a while to get released in English.
Feld is by far my favorite designer. I'll be picking up Brugge, as well as Bora Bora and Amerigo the day they're released over here. I don't have all of his games yet. Currently I've got Macao, Castles of Burgundy, Trajan, The Speicherstadt, and of course, Rialto.
I am also VERY interested in Amerigo, but I am waiting for the final rules of that to come out. Then I can make a better decision. I also like Castles of Burgundy, but I don't think it's great with more than 2 players. I don#t think it's that complex and the playtime with more than 2 i just too much.
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