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The New Board Game Thread (Newcomer Friendly)

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Dreavus

Member
Played some Betrayal at House on the Hill the other night, and I can't say I'm sold on it. The whole thing comes across as very random, with the entire first half of the game before the traitor is revealed feeling pointless.

The whole mechanic where the traitor leaves the room to read the rules for the encounter is kinda cool, but it also slows the game waaay down. And in our scenario our traitor player basically couldn't win from the minute she was revealed based on the current board layout. (even after being able to instantly kill the player who triggered the betrayal.)

It probably warrants a few more plays to try different encounters but at this point I'd rather play something else!
 
The randomness makes the game awesome sometimes, and sometimes you do get stuck with a crappy reveal situations where either the players or the bad guy can't win.
 

Dreavus

Member
The randomness makes the game awesome sometimes, and sometimes you do get stuck with a crappy reveal situations where either the players or the bad guy can't win.

Yeah, I don't think it's fair to be too harsh after only 1 play since all the different scenarios is part of the appeal. I guess we just hit a bit of a dud this time.
 

fallout

Member
My favorite Betrayal story:

My girlfriend pops an omen card on the first turn. Buddy says: "there's never a haunt on the first roll." Sure enough, she rolls a 0. What's the scenario? She's a fucking elder god. Kills us all in one round. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at my own downfall.
 

AcridMeat

Banned
My favorite Betrayal story:

My girlfriend pops an omen card on the first turn. Buddy says: "there's never a haunt on the first roll." Sure enough, she rolls a 0. What's the scenario? She's a fucking elder god. Kills us all in one round. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard at my own downfall.
That is pretty fucking awesome, haha.

I've only played it once, but when the haunt happened it was early on and we only had a couple items out on each character. Fortunately in our scenario I had the exact two items needed to kill the traitor (would have to have been traded for I think otherwise). The traitor chased me not knowing I could kill him but I couldn't kill him in time before dying to some of the zombie spawns with him.

I've been watching Table Top today with Wil Wheaton and found it to be darn entertaining, along with Day 9's Spellslingers.

I linked the Small World episode because I have been interested in it but didn't know how it played, and after watching that it looks awesome! I also saw there's a Small World 2 on steam coming out relatively soon.
 

d1rtn4p

Member
Ordered Eldritch Horror.

Hoping this isn't a huge mistake -- Arkham Horror doesn't really light my Carhartt's on fire.

I'm in the same boat. I picked it up from CSI along with Pathfinder and Bora Bora. Looking forward to all three. Huge Arkham fan, its just my gaming group hates playing it cause it takes forever. Hoping this new version is more streamlined.
 

joelseph

Member
Either Trains or Sentinels of the Universe for a guy who's mostly into Magic the Gathering (he didn't enjoy Netrunner though), BattleStar Galactica and King of Tokyo. We've never collectively played a deck building game but I know he's interested in the concept and Trains seemed like a good fit from BattleMonkey's description. Sentinels of the Multiverse almost certainly wouldn't disappoint either but I'm not sure how much playtime it would get if the current hotness is Pathfinder the Card Game. Maybe it's a totally different experience..

Mtg dudes enjoy Smash Up!
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
I'm in the same boat. I picked it up from CSI along with Pathfinder and Bora Bora. Looking forward to all three. Huge Arkham fan, its just my gaming group hates playing it cause it takes forever. Hoping this new version is more streamlined.

I haven't read any reviews but isn't the playtime roughly the same? BGG says 180m. I have the same issue with Arkham re time, but I can get in most of my 4p Arkham games in under that time so not sure what the benefit is if that time is accurate. Will probably just keep Arkham and Elder Sign and be happy with those two extremes.
 

AcridMeat

Banned
Did Fortune and Glory please you? Because it's a mix of AH and Fortune and Glory basically
Yes! Okay, I was trying to figure out what game it looked like when I saw a demonstration of it. You nailed it. I don't think I know anyone with the patience to set up a game like that but it seems like it could be interesting.
 
My sister-in-law asked me if she should get Cards Against Humanity for us all to play after Thanksgiving dinner. I replied with "It might be too offensive for grandparents..."

I will now spend the rest of my life debating whether that was a wise decision, or I've made a huge mistake.
 

joelseph

Member
My sister-in-law asked me if she should get Cards Against Humanity for us all to play after Thanksgiving dinner. I replied with "It might be too offensive for grandparents..."

I will now spend the rest of my life debating whether that was a wise decision, or I've made a huge mistake.

So many better party games, why CAH caught on in the mainstream I will never know.

Get Wits and Wager or if you like funny answer style games get Say Anything.
 

Yaboosh

Super Sleuth
So many better party games, why CAH caught on in the mainstream I will never know.

Get Wits and Wager or if you like funny answer style games get Say Anything.


Apples to Apples was a massive success and CAH is a better version of it. Not really surprising.
 

besada

Banned
So many better party games, why CAH caught on in the mainstream I will never know.

Because people love to say horrible, offensive things where they can blame a game or a set of cards.

Neither Wits and Wagers or Say anything has cards with content like "Making the penises kiss" or "A cooler full of organs" or "Kids with ass cancer".

It's a transgressive Apples to Apples, so it was guaranteed to be a hit.
 

AcridMeat

Banned
Because people dont play CAH to play a game, they play it to say funny shit
It's also incredibly good for getting to know people.

I just picked up King of Tokyo! thanks to the TableTop episode of it. Now I need to find at least 2 other people to play with.
I picked it up knowing some people will be in town for Thanksgiving and they may play games with me.

Oh oh I also got a quick demo of Cube Quest! Game is surprisingly fun for what it is. It's back on my list. :D
 

fenners

Member
Any talk about the Hero Quest remake in here yet? I've never joined the kickstarter craze but this is really tempting as it was one of my favourite games as a kid. I'm worried about the shipping though as I live in Sweden.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2113976860/heroquest-25th-anniversary

edit: I just realized it's manufactured in Europe, should be no problem with customs then. Oh noes decisions... maybe i'll back it as a Christmas gift to myself.

There's a damn good chance this might get caught up in legal hell like Up Front. The people making it claim to have the right to publish & distribute it in Spain - the legal rights for Hero Quest have been locked away for years & years, and they seem to have found this loophole they negotiated for. They've said they believe they can distribute personally outside of Spain, but not to retail...

They've also never made a game of this scope/size before...

Back at your own risk. Not my cuppa personally.
 
There's a damn good chance this might get caught up in legal hell like Up Front. The people making it claim to have the right to publish & distribute it in Spain - the legal rights for Hero Quest have been locked away for years & years, and they seem to have found this loophole they negotiated for. They've said they believe they can distribute personally outside of Spain, but not to retail...

They've also never made a game of this scope/size before...

Back at your own risk. Not my cuppa personally.
The entire thing seems shady as hell, a Spanish company who acquired rights to distribute in Europe, creates a Canadian kickstarter and is open about shipping worldwide despite whatever their initial deal was for, I can't imagine this kickstarter going well at all.

Plus I like my Heroscape looking as 80's cheese as possible. I'm not interested in a modern reboot.
 

hat_hair

Member
Because people dont play CAH to play a game, they play it to say funny shit

I still think Apples is better because it uses a bunch of innocuous words, which leads to funnier outcomes. I find CAH a poor experience not because it's offensive, but because it only knows how to be offensive.

CAH has its place, but there are very few situations where Apples is not as good or better.
 
I still think Apples is better because it uses a bunch of innocuous words, which leads to funnier outcomes. I find CAH a poor experience not because it's offensive, but because it only knows how to be offensive.

CAH has its place, but there are very few situations where Apples is not as good or better.

I find that CAH is not meant for people wanting to play a game, and want to just say and hear offensive funny stuff. Pull out Apples, and everyone turns away, but you get them to try CAH, and they will sit there and play all night...... and most people don't bother with any of the extra rules or any type of score keeping. CAH is just a drinking goofball activity.
 

Angst

Member
Maybe Netrunner needs its own thread? 100 % of the posts about Netrunner is 100 % incomprehensible :p

I think I'd probably like it, but don't have the time to get a PhD in Netrunner just to play a game.

Well if you think you'd like it...it's not hard at all to learn. Unless you mean you want to be a top-level tournament player. The game takes maybe 30m to learn, 60m if you want to know literally all the rules corner cases that will probably never come up for you (99% of which are documented in the FAQ).

When you see all the lingo and deckbuilding discussion, what you're seeing is people who just enjoy the tournament and meta aspect of the game, but it's very far from a requirement (otherwise it wouldn't be 10% as popular as it is on BGG).

Netrunner is definitely an LCG that more "traditional" gamers have gravitated toward more so than probably any other CCG/LCG in large part I think because it is fairly simple in terms of core gameplay and also because of the fact that even doing decently at tournaments does not require you to be a deckbuilding wizard like Magic does (not saying this as a knock btw -- many would consider the infinitely greater depth of deckbuilding in Magic to be a pro not a con).

Quoting myself from august because I find it amazing how my opinion has changed since then.

Since then I have:

played Netrunner, got the core set, bought 6 datapacks and bought Create & Control.

I'm so glad that AstroLad made me interested in Netrunner so I jumped at the opportunity to get it for free. So, what I'm trying to say is "Thanks AstroLad and GAF for making me spend more money play more games" :)
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
Quoting myself from august because I find it amazing how my opinion has changed since then.

Since then I have:

played Netrunner, got the core set, bought 6 datapacks and bought Create & Control.

I'm so glad that AstroLad made me interested in Netrunner so I jumped at the opportunity to get it for free. So, what I'm trying to say is "Thanks AstroLad and GAF for making me spend more money play more games" :)
That's fantastic! And the entire point of the thread! ;)

I forget if you saw but we did make a separate Netrunner thread that I think has been quite useful. Right now looking forward to the drafting when that comes out -- just for fun. Also looking forward to all the cool Corp cards coming up this Cycle.
 
When I first heard about it, I thought Tash-Kalar was going to be the most derivative "mages fight in an arena summoning monsters" game. I forgot about the Vlaada touch though, and after seeing gameplay, I'm kinda hyped.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
When I first heard about it, I thought Tash-Kalar was going to be the most derivative "mages fight in an arena summoning monsters" game. I forgot about the Vlaada touch though, and after seeing gameplay, I'm kinda hyped.

I have not played Tash but I have realized that I think the only Vlaada game I like is Galaxy Trucker. And I LOVE Galaxy Trucker.
 

yamo

Member
There's a damn good chance this might get caught up in legal hell like Up Front. The people making it claim to have the right to publish & distribute it in Spain - the legal rights for Hero Quest have been locked away for years & years, and they seem to have found this loophole they negotiated for. They've said they believe they can distribute personally outside of Spain, but not to retail...

They've also never made a game of this scope/size before...

Back at your own risk. Not my cuppa personally.

The entire thing seems shady as hell, a Spanish company who acquired rights to distribute in Europe, creates a Canadian kickstarter and is open about shipping worldwide despite whatever their initial deal was for, I can't imagine this kickstarter going well at all.

Plus I like my Heroscape looking as 80's cheese as possible. I'm not interested in a modern reboot.

Thanks for your opinions, i'll probably sit this one out then. Guess I might pick it up if it ever goes retail.
 
Them's fighting words there. Not so much the second sentence, mind, but that first one's trouble.

I don't understand why people have such huge things for individual designers. Generally in things like novels or music I care who the creator is because I want there to be some resemblance between the works. My game collection is so small, however, that I want vastly different experiences in there. Sometimes I'm surprised by who the designer of a game is, like Richard Garfield and king of Tokyo, but I don't make it a purchasing point. For example I've never played a Feld game that I've enjoyed, but I would absolutely play another one by him (especially if I didn't know he designed it). I know a lot of people don't agree, but I think the best designers are ones that you can't tell who designed it right away. Ironically I think vlada it's one of those. Sorry for the long, weird ramblings. I'm trying to avoid my drunken in-laws.
 
I dunno. I think it's easy to tell a Vlaada game. It'll be fiddly, have a ton of systems and sub-systems, and no one will ever want to actually learn his games.

But for those that do, you can find some deep and engaging stuff. I adore Mage Knight and Space Alert. Though, I fell out of love with Galaxy Trucker.

I like Vlaada games because each of his games is such a different experience. I like Feld games because each of his games is such a similar experience.
 

fenners

Member
So BGG.Con has came & passed. This year's was funky as I had to leave early on Saturday (and of course, this is the year I won a giftcard in the prize draw Saturday evening). I got to play all the hot games I wanted to play, I got to play games with my usual gaming buddies, I got to eat dinner at Babe's far too much but in a good way, I had a /great/ "unoffical Beer Trade", and I had a straightforward virtual flea market/math trade swap. Everything went swimmingly well. But I didn't feel as engaged as in other years, and it felt a little "big" at times - there was a *ton* of faces I didn't recognise & still a *ton* of "first timer" badges.

I had a blast, for sure, but I'm not sure if it's sustainable; the friends from Austin I went up with, who have been mostly going since the first year or two, all seem to be souring a little on the experience. They're not /not/ going to stop going for sure, but the enjoyment level for them was lower than in the past few years for sure. I *think* it's the size/scale of the Con & the new layout that pushed them out of the main ballroom for large parts of the con.
 
I loved mage knight until I played it with four people. The hand management is brilliant but the board management and movement is horrendous. I would enjoy seeing what the expansion did for the game but, it was a game that felt kind of epic as you were playing and then you go, "you beat the final evil castle but I have the most xp. I win." I agree that Mage knight fits your characterization of vlada games, but I'm not sure about galaxy trucker.
 
I'm pretty sure cooperative is the only way I'd play Mage Knight. The expansion adds an automated "boss" that you can either have advance toward a city, advance toward the portal, or be waiting to be conquered by you. With some tweaks and balancing included, I gotta recommend it 100x.

Though, I'd also never, ever play it with 4 people. 3 at most. When it's purely co-op, everyone becomes a part of everyone's turn, but you're not bossed around, because only you know what you have in your hand.

I loved mage knight until I played it with four people. The hand management is brilliant but the board management and movement is horrendous. I would enjoy seeing what the expansion did for the game but, it was a game that felt kind of epic as you were playing and then you go, "you beat the final evil castle but I have the most xp. I win." I agree that Mage knight fits your characterization of vlada games, but I'm not sure about galaxy trucker.
 

Karkador

Banned
I played Escape the Curse of the Temple last night and it was pretty damn awesome. It's the most action-packed 10 minutes I've ever had with a board game.
 

AcridMeat

Banned
I played Escape the Curse of the Temple last night and it was pretty damn awesome. It's the most action-packed 10 minutes I've ever had with a board game.
It's insane isn't it? I played it with one of my good friends who doesn't play a ton of games and he was so darn chaotic with his dice throws that they would be flying everywhere which made it even more hectic and funny. One of the guys who we met just 30 minutes earlier was giving him some crap for it. :"D
 

Angst

Member
That's fantastic! And the entire point of the thread! ;)

I forget if you saw but we did make a separate Netrunner thread that I think has been quite useful. Right now looking forward to the drafting when that comes out -- just for fun. Also looking forward to all the cool Corp cards coming up this Cycle.
Yeah I've seen the other thread (and posted there). Thanks for all the good work and keep it up! :)

I'm looking forward to playing Power Grid for the first time on monday - hopefully things will go well (I have to teach it to our group).
 
I played Escape the Curse of the Temple last night and it was pretty damn awesome. It's the most action-packed 10 minutes I've ever had with a board game.

Yea its fun as heck, but we kept having trouble with hearing the gong sound that you have to pay attention too because of everyone talking and all the dice rolling crazyness. They do have on their website a version of the soundtrack that has no sound effects or music, it just plays the gong at set times. Course there is always the sand timer....
 
I don't understand why people have such huge things for individual designers. Generally in things like novels or music I care who the creator is because I want there to be some resemblance between the works. My game collection is so small, however, that I want vastly different experiences in there. Sometimes I'm surprised by who the designer of a game is, like Richard Garfield and king of Tokyo, but I don't make it a purchasing point. For example I've never played a Feld game that I've enjoyed, but I would absolutely play another one by him (especially if I didn't know he designed it). I know a lot of people don't agree, but I think the best designers are ones that you can't tell who designed it right away. Ironically I think vlada it's one of those. Sorry for the long, weird ramblings. I'm trying to avoid my drunken in-laws.

I've literally not played a Vlaada game that I didn't love. There are some other designers who I generally have enjoyed most of their games (Uwe Rosenberg, Donald X Vaccarino, Richard Garfield, Carl Chudyk), but all of them have either a dud for me (Louyang, Nefarious, King of Tokyo), or I just haven't seen enough of their games to become a fanboy yet (Chudyk). Vlaada is at 5/5 awesome for me (Galaxy Trucker, Dungeon Lords, Dungeon Petz, Through the Ages (still my #1 game!), and Mage Knight).
 

Ledsen

Member
Damn I'm still going back and forth on the AvP Kickstarter... I guess I can always sell it to get my money back if I decide that I don't want it later? Those KS-only resin minis could perhaps make it worth something down the line. Hmmmmmm so difficult...

Does anyone know how it plays?
 

Apenheul

Member
Guess which game arrived in the mail this morning.. oh and also Sentinels of the Universe (present for a friend) which SU&SD also didn't appreciate. Paul and Quinns always talk about the things that matter most to me (gameplay, tactical / strategic decisions) so I should be alarmed, however, I almost don't see the 'game' in Escape and they praised that one to heaven. I hope to play Pathfinder TGC some time next week and we'll see whether the experience makes up for its mechanical shortcomings.
 
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