Board Games (Reviews, Rules, Regulations, Random)

[The Gnat]

6 minutes ago, domepatrol91 said:

You’ve piqued my interest 

It's basically a choose your own adventure sort of game, so a light RPG feel. You get to create your own characters and traits and things like that, but then you work  your way through a story. The first story for it, I'm assuming they'll come out with more, does probably last about 12-20 hours of game play and likely will have expansions. There are a number of different races and backgrounds you can use, and in those you can really tweak your character. My half-cat-folk was very focused on sneaking and dealing with situations passively, which didn't work out so well in the first part of the story. 

It's interesting as well because you get story points in the game, so if you've successfully done one thing or asked about another thing, you end up marking down different number/letter combos which will influence your game as you go on. I like that as it seems like it'll set-up nicely to offer some replayability. Though, I was playing it solo, but I think it would be better with a group, probably three people.

[Dome]

1 minute ago, The Gnat said:

My half-cat-folk was very focused on sneaking and dealing with situations passively, which didn't work out so well in the first part of the story. 

 

This just reminds me of starting a stealth khajit character in Skyrim. Stealthy and passive characters were tough in that game pretty early and OP later on. Hopefully you have the same luck with your character later in the game 

Im definitely gonna look into the game, it’s right in my wheelhouse. Thanks for mentioning it.

[The Gnat]

Finally got back to some more Pandemic Legacy Season 2. That game is really good and is a great experience playing it story-wise.

Also got the Dresden Files Cooperative Card game played more yesterday by myself. That's a game that I really do enjoy both solo and with people. The concept is simple, but the game is challenging. It's rare that you can win it without some luck at the end, but you can do a lot of things to mitigate that if you plan it out well.

And I read through the rules this weekend for Cry Havoc, Clank! In! Space! and 7th Continent. The first two the rules were pretty simple, I think I'm going to have to watch a rules video for 7th Continent. I think I understand it for the most part, but a rules video would likely make it clearer as sometimes the wording/ordering of stuff didn't make perfect sense. I'm going to start playing that one solo once Dresden Files is wrapped up.

[The Gnat]

Was in LA for International Table Top Day. My wife and I went to a board game cafe, got the last two tickets and played a couple of games. Takenoko was the first one we played and then we played Sagrada. They were also giving away games in a raffle since it was a ticketed event. Sagrada was the game that we were hoping to win, and sure enough, while we were playing our second game of Sagrada from the story copy my wife won the raffle copy of the game.

[The Gnat]

I'll be wrapping up Risk Legacy soon. It's been a fun time, we have a really good group for it, with a lot of us being really chill and goofy about it. And we'll be playing Charterstone as a group soon. I think that's going to be an interesting one. It's less my type of game, but I'm still very interested in trying it and with that group, it's going to be fun no matter what.

[titansNvolsR#1]

Just bought Qwixx, Time Stories, Think 'N Sync, and Drinking Fluxx. Debated on Favelas and 7 wonders but hard to drop that much at once. Can't wait to get to the states and pick up Fluxx and Time Stories.

[The Gnat]

TIME stories is one that I have sitting on my shelf that I need to play. I'm not sure when as the two groups I'd probably play with, one we are playing Risk: Legacy and then going to play Charterstone, the other I'm playing Gloomhaven with. Time to expand and find a group to play TIME Stories with. I have Cthulhu Fluxx, Fluxx games are generally enjoyable and hopefully fast. 7 Wonders is a ton of fun for a future purchase. Haven't played Qwixx,a nd haven't heard of Think 'N Sync.

 

Has anyone played any of the Discworld board games? I got Guards! Guards! cheap. I'm curious to try it as it's some area control, but haven't had a chance to yet.

[titansNvolsR#1]

12 hours ago, The Gnat said:

TIME stories is one that I have sitting on my shelf that I need to play. I'm not sure when as the two groups I'd probably play with, one we are playing Risk: Legacy and then going to play Charterstone, the other I'm playing Gloomhaven with. Time to expand and find a group to play TIME Stories with. I have Cthulhu Fluxx, Fluxx games are generally enjoyable and hopefully fast. 7 Wonders is a ton of fun for a future purchase. Haven't played Qwixx,a nd haven't heard of Think 'N Sync.

Qwixx is more of a quick family game. Roll 2 white dice and 1 red, blue, green, and yellow and try to match up numbers for the highest score. I like the Fluxx games. Always good for a quick round or two with friends that aren't super into board games.

We've heard great things about TIME stories and all of its expansions. Some others I want but haven't pulled the trigger on are Gloomhaven (mother of god it's so expensive!), Azul, Scythe, Charterstone, Photosynthesis, and Terraforming Mars.

[The Gnat]

11 hours ago, titansNvolsR#1 said:

Gloomhaven

Have it, played it last night. I've maybe played it ten times now with a couple of friends and it's very much worth it. The story is fun, you have a lot of choices to make, and the combat system is really cool.

11 hours ago, titansNvolsR#1 said:

Charterstone, Photosynthesis

Have both of these but haven't played htem yet. I'll be playing Charterstone soon and looking forward to it.

11 hours ago, titansNvolsR#1 said:

Scythe

I want to play, and I have a friend who has it, just need to find a time when we aren't playing Gloomhaven instead.

11 hours ago, titansNvolsR#1 said:

Azul

I'm not super interested in it, I have Sagrada which I like the stained glass theme better than "blue" as the theme.

 

11 hours ago, titansNvolsR#1 said:

Terraforming Mars

I'd play it, but for some reason, it hasn't been a game that's jumped out at me too much. It's getting a ton of love though, so I'd definitely try it.

[The Gnat]

Took Sagrada up to parents place for Mother's Day weekend. Both parents enjoyed it quite well, it's fun to find games that are a bit more challenging but we can still get to the table and play with them. I grew up playing a lot of card games with them. Uno, Skip-Bo, Dutch Blitz, Phase 10, and more and a few board games like Scrabble and Rummikub. Now we generally play Yahtzee, Qwirkle, and Ticket to Ride with them. So we've improved the games played in my opinion.

[titansNvolsR#1]

Our group went in halfsies on Gloomhaven. 7,700 pesos later, we're starting our first round this week! Sweet Mary that box is big.

[bucsfan333]

On 4/12/2018 at 3:10 PM, domepatrol91 said:

This just reminds me of starting a stealth khajit character in Skyrim. Stealthy and passive characters were tough in that game pretty early and OP later on. Hopefully you have the same luck with your character later in the game 

Im definitely gonna look into the game, it’s right in my wheelhouse. Thanks for mentioning it.

The worst part about trying to make stealthy, passive characters was some of the quests in the Thieves Guild. There were a few quests where you either HAD to kill or you had to be a crazy high level (with expensive/rare potions and some luck) to be able to do it. The Meadery quest immediately comes to mind.

[Dome]

4 minutes ago, bucsfan333 said:

The Meadery quest immediately comes to mind.

Yeah that one was much harder than some of the later quests. Them damned poisonous skeevers 

[bucsfan333]

I recently started writing my own D&D campaign. I've got my map (mostly) drawn up. And I've named most of the cities/areas. I've got the intro figured out. I'm avoiding the typical "met at a tavern" approach. I've got a bunch of minis purchased and I've started painting them. I've got a solid list of monsters I like and I've got a few encounters drawn up. But there's still a ton of stuff I wanna do before I'm ready.

I think I wanna start with each character knowing (or being somewhat familiar) with certain parts of the map, based on their character. That way I can throw them in blindly and they have enough to try and figure things out as they go. I like my map but I don't wanna just give it all away from the start. So I figure giving everyone bits of it and letting them piece it together when it's necessary will be fun.

[The Gnat]

11 hours ago, titansNvolsR#1 said:

Our group went in halfsies on Gloomhaven. 7,700 pesos later, we're starting our first round this week! Sweet Mary that box is big.

The box is giant and the game is a lot of fun.

 

11 hours ago, bucsfan333 said:

I recently started writing my own D&D campaign. I've got my map (mostly) drawn up. And I've named most of the cities/areas. I've got the intro figured out. I'm avoiding the typical "met at a tavern" approach. I've got a bunch of minis purchased and I've started painting them. I've got a solid list of monsters I like and I've got a few encounters drawn up. But there's still a ton of stuff I wanna do before I'm ready.

I think I wanna start with each character knowing (or being somewhat familiar) with certain parts of the map, based on their character. That way I can throw them in blindly and they have enough to try and figure things out as they go. I like my map but I don't wanna just give it all away from the start. So I figure giving everyone bits of it and letting them piece it together when it's necessary will be fun.

Rule #1 when playing D&D, everyone at the table should be having fun.

Rule #2: If you've planned it, the players will do the opposite.

I'd recommend not giving away any of the map at the start, even the areas of the map that the players know. This allows you to keep the map as a reference, but change it up as you need based on what the players do. When the players ask "What do we know about this area?" at that point in time is when you just tell them what they know. Also, if you give the players each a piece of they map, they are going to piece it together quickly and by quickly, I mean literally. 
 

My guess is that you have plenty planned for the game to be able to start it now. Mini's are optional, so try some combats with and some without (assuming you're not playing 4th Edition) and figure out what works best for your group. You might find that they don't want minis. In the games I run, we never use minis with the exception of big arc ending battles. The easy way around using minis with ranges and things like that is place things in "ranges". If you're next to a guy you're "next to", within 30 feet of a guy you're "close", 90 feet is "Medium", 120 is "Long", and anything more is "far away". 

Finally, what I should have asked before all of that, how much have you run/played D&D before? If you've played and run a lot before, take what I just wrote with a grain of salt as you know what is best for you. If you haven't, I highly recommend stopping planning and starting playing/running your game and see what works well for your group before you get too into the weeds while planning. And if you feel like you absolutely need to do more planning, plan small. Just focus in on the area that you are starting the game in and fleshing out that area, the rest of the world can wait.