Who do you have to suck off at FFG to get a non-coop, non scenario driven Lovecraftian boardgame game?
Non-related: Libertalia is fun, but whoever wrote the rules should be hung for war crimes.
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Who do you have to suck off at FFG to get a non-coop, non scenario driven Lovecraftian boardgame game?
Non-related: Libertalia is fun, but whoever wrote the rules should be hung for war crimes.
From what I can gather, yes. The website and video mention shared mechanics from AH.
:lol my gaming group tends to prefer coop games so a streamlined Arkham Horror is welcome. But something more competitive would be nice as well though. I guess being the keeper in Mansions would be as close as to competitive as you can get at the moment.
I didn't have too much trouble with the Libertalia rules I don't think. I do remember that it lacked sort of giving you a proper overall context of the game flow. Game is pretty simple but quite fun -- actually more distinct from Citadels than I thought at first. They definitely both have a spot on my shelf.
The flow is pretty simple, but if you take a peek at the rules section on BGG, you'll see the same questions asked over and over. Simple shit that should be in the rulebook. To make matters worse, the french and italian FAQs give opposite answers on some of the questions.
Topman: Fewest characters -- counts on tie? Here's conflicting answers for you!
Preacher: Discard all booty tokens but one? From where? Little Billy's den? The moon? Fuck you, father!
And some other conceptually weird shit. Like the Gunner: Apparently you have to pay the 3 doubloons even if there's no target to discard. Fair enough, do as much as you can on the card -- except wait! Mutineer: Discard lowest rank in your den and gain two doubloons. But THAT'S ruled that you have to make the discard to get the money.
It's still fun, just the minor stuff that's frustrating.
I'm thinking about ignoring the tiebreaker numbers and throwing a few extra d10s in the box, too.
Captain_Spanky
Member
Those guys are amazing. Quinns is a great writer, does some good work on Eurogamer and the only good stuff on Kotaku too. Second only to (or maybe even surpassing) Rab Florence for board game writing in my opinion. The few who actually realise that a review is not just a rules summery/components dump and a "I liked it" at the end. Boardgame reviews need to step up their game so badly.
In both cases, they're obviously people comfortable with being in front of a camera & writing for that environment, and the quality compared to 'gamers making a podcast' shows IMO.
NuffDREW4two
Member
In case there are any Canadians out there (Smiley90, since it was a hit with the co-workers) looking for a cheap Lords of Waterdeep Scoundrels of Skullport expansion pre-order, Chapters Indigo has it online for $26. Use the promo GETONEFOR25OFF before Aug 4th and have it shipped free to a local store for about $19 total.
Promo is only good for one item, so I suppose you could find some other game if it interested you more.
Promo is only good for one item, so I suppose you could find some other game if it interested you more.
Jables Swan
Member
They put into words a lot of the feelings I had when I played it after PAX. My mates enjoy the hell out of it though.
Yeah I totally appreciate what they're saying in that video. Still interested in picking up the base game + giant cards + the first expansion in my next order - not interested in buying all the expansions etc at once.
Finally played a game of the Game of Thrones card game last night. Two of my buddies have been heavily invested in buying the game + expansions but I don't think they've actually /played/ much (the lure of the completionist with money to spare...). I got given a deck to round out (dragons!) & they taught me the game. We called it after three hours where two of us had been at 14 (out of 15 to win) before the table got wiped of characters twice... In the end, a tie between me & the host at 10 each, with the other player /way/ behind. Interesting LCG compared to CoC & LotR - definitely more rule variance (*every* card seemed to be a special case) & I think it would have been better balanced with 4 instead of 3, but still fun.
I enjoyed CoC & LotR more so far though.
TumblingHippo
Member
I enjoy Sentinels of the Multiverse, but mostly because it's a game I can sort of turn my brain off mostly to. The character I choose depends on how involved I wanna feel.
If I want to make some actual choices and try to plan out stuff, I go with either Unity or Absolute Zero.
However, if I just want to turn my brain completely off, I go with the superman clone Legacy, who truly does boil down to "play the best card and take your action".
If I want to make some actual choices and try to plan out stuff, I go with either Unity or Absolute Zero.
However, if I just want to turn my brain completely off, I go with the superman clone Legacy, who truly does boil down to "play the best card and take your action".
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
I love SU&SD but I feel they missed the mark with Sentinels. The fun with the game is not only what you can do personally but how you work within a team. They focus on Wraith and Ra saying they are mostly there just to do damage, and they are but they are ignoring other characters that are in more if a support role. Argent Adept is a Bard who's main role is to heal the crew. They also don't mention how varied the other villains are, for instance Miss Information. Her story is she's your secretary but she's secretly trying to sabotage your group. You can't attack her until you reveal he plot, so the game becomes a survival game until you can finally attack. It's a really fun game that does have its flaws but its not nearly as complex or monotonous as they make it seem.
Jables Swan
Member
The back story for all the characters is amazing though. The whole universe is great, as if it's been ripped right from years and years of comic history. The art is fantastic too.
Oh haha -- yep I noticed that about Topman. Such a huge impact on the strength of the card too. I played it ultimately that it's no good on ties because that ruling came from the Italian rules and the other ruling came from some random person giving a demo. Preacher I get and thematically it sort of makes sense -- he's giving away all his earthly possessions (though initially my reading of it was the other way). Mutineer I don't think I've played with yet but I'll have to remember. I do agree that for a simple and fun game it has some weird rules situations. King of Tokyo is like that x100 with all its card interactions.
Not sure if already posted, but that failed Doom That Came to Atlantic City Kickstarter is having its backers scooped up by Cryptozoic, who had no affiliation with the whole thing but are going to fulfill people's orders anyway. Really awesome of them.
There was a thread this morning, but I think fewer people are interested in rescued Kickstarters than failed Kickstarters.
Yeah, really classy.
But you like it? I've been eyeing it for a long time now. Any good game that does over 5 players gets my attention.
Yeah, it's otherwise good quick fun.
Hey, buddy! Be sensitive! There's Americans here who can't play Bruges and you gotta rub our nose In it?
I'm looking at it... mhmmmmm. Just not sure how often we'll actually get to play it at work, since it's pretty long. We've had time this week and probably will for the next 2 weeks since our boss isn't around much, but we'll see.
Are there any other boardgames on sale on chapters, do you know by any chance? I can't see any
TumblingHippo
Member
Libertalia is the finest in unintentional dickery. As long as everyone understands that it all ends in chaos, that even the best-laid plans will backfire horribly, I think they'll have a good time playing it.
NuffDREW4two
Member
Other than the base Lords of Waterdeep and its expansion, I didn't see anything worthwhile either.I'm looking at it... mhmmmmm. Just not sure how often we'll actually get to play it at work, since it's pretty long. We've had time this week and probably will for the next 2 weeks since our boss isn't around much, but we'll see.
Are there any other boardgames on sale on chapters, do you know by any chance? I can't see any
Hey, buddy! Be sensitive! There's Americans here who can't play Bruges and you gotta rub our nose In it?
Nah, I'll enjoy that as long as I can.
I picked up the only copy of Libertalia a local game store had, and played it at games night, and it was a surprising success. With 6 players, one of whom had to leave after 2 campaigns and missed the final one, I think everyone either thought it was fun, or at the very least didn't dislike it.
We were trying to decide which new game to play, and considering Libertalia had like 6 pages of rules compared to 20 on the other, some political game (Ideologies?), the short rules were nice.
I do agree that there seem to be several little details that I will want to be OCD and dig for boardgamegeeks forum arguments about, however. For instance, when the cook draws extra booty, is it from the bag (we did that) or from the ship (so someone else doesn't get booty that day)? Or, for the merchant, are they REQUIRED to discard 2 or 3 matching booty if they are able? What if they turn out only to have two matching gold booty and they don't want to discard those? I decided to treat it as optional, though I suspect the final decision may be otherwise. I don't know if this company is one that provides official rulings on such fan questions.
About unintentionally screwing people over, the funniest moment was probably when one player went with a low card (an 11?), presumably not intending to be the highest player. But there were THREE beggars that round, and he was like "Oh come on, I'm the highest with 11?!" His language was very impolite paying out the gold that round.
From the ship. Someone gets fucked.
One of the rules that actually made it into the book is all actions are mandatory except when noted, which I think is just the ...waitress? something like that.
Mandatory. Discard 'em, buddy.
Yesterday I tried to introduce a couple of video gamers to board games, thought Gears of War: The Board Game would be a good candidate since they're familiar with that universe and the game's quite thematic.
Well, I think I've turned them off from board games for good. Two of them died on their first turn and it only took three more turns before two Boomers and a couple of Drones mauled the rest of us. I did warn them not to play recklessly and run ahead...
Well, I think I've turned them off from board games for good. Two of them died on their first turn and it only took three more turns before two Boomers and a couple of Drones mauled the rest of us. I did warn them not to play recklessly and run ahead...
Hehe. It's Gears of War, dummies. Use cover!
Thanks, that is on another page about actions being mandatory so I guess it makes sense. It would also mean you could mess yourself up if you ended up with one good booty and one bad booty, since you would be forced to draw the second one anyway.
Oh and another stupid question. The parrot says to play another card in the space corresponding to its rank, I think. I'm assuming that means the NEW card's rank, not the parrot's rank, right?
In other words, you get to go early in the day phase, and potentially pick the minimum card necessary to outrank everyone for the booty-grabbing phase. Nice. And if I'm understanding correctly, that means using the parrot results in you only carrying 2 cards over to next campaign, compared to the recruiter, who results in carrying 4 cards over to next campaign.
We didn't have a parrot in our game. That was one of the things I liked, that 9 of the 30 cards are unused each game so there's some variety.
We didn't have a parrot in our game. That was one of the things I liked, that 9 of the 30 cards are unused each game so there's some variety.
Well you get to go early in the day phase only in that you get to see everyone else's cards before picking another. Whatever card you replace parrot with's ability will resolve in ascending order as normal.
.just spent yesterday playing board and card games...awesome freaking day, going to do it every saturday if I can...
Games we played:
Pirate Fluxx - Winner of the day, played maybe 4 rounds of this, ranging from a 2 person to a 6 person game. Highly recommended. There are a bunch of differently themed Fluxx games, Pirate, Cthulu, Monty Python, Space, etc...any of them are great...from what I understand, Space, Pirate and Cthulu are the stand-outs.
Risk, Onyx Edition - Full 5-player game, took a long time to complete, but was very satisfying. I won, which usually doesn't happen in Risk for me...just aquired both Australasia and South America early on and never gave them up
Lost Cities - This worked as a 2-player side game while Risk was going on. A good one to have if you need a 2-player competitive game.
The Resistance - Similar to werewolf, played a six-player round of this. Had a very tricky spy (didn't sabotage a 3-person mission) so ended up losing (well, the spies won). As long as you can get 5-10 people to actually play the game and not sit around constantly asking "wait, what's going on?" then it's a great game.
Pandemic - Fantastic 1-4 player co-operative game where you try to cure diseases before they overwhelm the world and where you usually lose. We did lose this time, but then backed up two plays and would have been able to win. We did mess up three key times, but never allowed ourselves to fix the mistake (that is, redo a choice in a turn once that turn was over). Still, one of our new favorites
Games we played:
Pirate Fluxx - Winner of the day, played maybe 4 rounds of this, ranging from a 2 person to a 6 person game. Highly recommended. There are a bunch of differently themed Fluxx games, Pirate, Cthulu, Monty Python, Space, etc...any of them are great...from what I understand, Space, Pirate and Cthulu are the stand-outs.
Risk, Onyx Edition - Full 5-player game, took a long time to complete, but was very satisfying. I won, which usually doesn't happen in Risk for me...just aquired both Australasia and South America early on and never gave them up
Lost Cities - This worked as a 2-player side game while Risk was going on. A good one to have if you need a 2-player competitive game.
The Resistance - Similar to werewolf, played a six-player round of this. Had a very tricky spy (didn't sabotage a 3-person mission) so ended up losing (well, the spies won). As long as you can get 5-10 people to actually play the game and not sit around constantly asking "wait, what's going on?" then it's a great game.
Pandemic - Fantastic 1-4 player co-operative game where you try to cure diseases before they overwhelm the world and where you usually lose. We did lose this time, but then backed up two plays and would have been able to win. We did mess up three key times, but never allowed ourselves to fix the mistake (that is, redo a choice in a turn once that turn was over). Still, one of our new favorites
Affeinvasion
Member
They don't call it the slow boat from China for nothing.
joeyjoejoeshabadoo
Member
I take it you are going to take the hit for everyone and get it? I'll be interested to hear what you think of it, I'm still on the fence.
Oh I'm most definitely there. Sounds like the best expansion yet IMO. Mutineer sounds eons better than sympathizer and I'll actually dig out the Cylon leaders from storage with the revised rules for them. Updated Colonial One: awesome.
My only complaint is that Roslin and Saul should have been two of the revised characters. Roslin's drawback is just terrible even though her OPT is good, and Saul is just lacking -- a shame, he's by far my favorite character on the show.
I'm there too, new leadership cards should be enough to break our current go-to strategy which is nice. Mutineer seems exciting, new Cylon Baseship remains to be seen but I expect that it allows both sides to do some serious damage. For me it'll be tough to beat the Exodus expansion but I'm optimistic.
I liked the addition of trauma, which captured the way the third season played out nicely IMO. My group always wants to play the Ionian Nebula ending even though there's player elimination involved, some of my most memorable BSG moments come from trying to get another player to draw more negative trauma tokens. It's almost as frantic as trying to get a resource in the red when playing with a Sympathizer.
Pegasus had New Caprica which we've played two times and didn't like, it also came with the Pegasus Board which we only found useful as a damage sponge and to increase the FTL Prep marker. Hmm... now that I think of it, maybe we're just really bad as Cylons because humans win 9/10 times when we play BSG.
That's a good idea, we've got our share of house rules too. We remove 4 'Executive Order' cards from the game and resources start at 1 less (fuel, morale, population) and 2 less (food) than normal. Also every player gets either an Agenda or Final Five card, there are no blank Loyalty cards; we really need to nerf the game for the human side. Hopefully Daybreak will add interesting options too.
Executive Orders are the most interesting part of the game!
Edit: I managed to humiliate the humans last game as a Cylon thanks to an executive order. Locked all three in the damn brig and put it on autopilot into the sun (Had the political card that lets you auto select a skill check result [on admirals quarters] and the reveal card that lets you brig someone - last one was already in there). It was glorious.
When are your Cylons generally revealing?
Well all players make sure they can get Leadership cards and every turn is basically giving your turn away to someone else, most of the time to the one player standing on the FTL Prep space on Pegasus and otherwise to someone who can move Civilian Ships around to lure enemy AI into desirable patterns.
Unless revealed by humans, Cylons typically reveal themselves a number of turns into the second half of the game in our games.
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