Board Game General /bgg/

Since I don't have a stable group of people to play with, my favorite game tends to be whichever I actually get to play.

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

One player is a forensic investigator who knows the means and murder weapon, but has to communicate without talking. The other players must confer with each other based on each of their clues and the forensic investigator's clues as to which player is the murderer, meanwhile the murderer must throw everyone off their trail. Gets especially fun at higher player counts when you add accomolices and witnesses to the mix.

I have Jungle Speed and its nice, almost always hits the table for a round.

Thing is I am the only one in my group who buys games, so while I want stuff that hit the table I also want to keep it close to my taste, and I get very bored very fast from repetitive games, or playing the same short game twice.

My friends can sit around and play Resistance for 4 hours, I get tired after 2.

So I am looking for stuff that you can play once or twice and swap out, and also some refreshing stuff, because after playing 3 rounds of Resistance and screaming at each other, I can't be arsed to play Secret Hitler which is more of the same, thats where Codenames came in, its fun, fast and really easy going.

So I am looking for something to fill that spot, granted SpyFall and C&G are kind of more of the same, but they look nice enough to fit in.

I might be raped for this opinion but i will always love vanilla Kemet. Deep when you consider the power tiles but so easy to teach normies in my experience and I personally have never played with anyone who didn't like it including people who have only played up to monopoly. I will own this game until I die and I will never dislike playing it and I will never have someone say they don't want to play it. Maybe I'm just lucky but this has been used as a gateway game by me many, many times over and I could not be happier about that fact.

If you want something that's easy to swap out fast then SpyFall is prolly exactly what you're looking for. We never play to a set point limit or game, just a couple rounds til bored. I will repeat from the last thread though Say Anything also works for this kinda thing, don't worry about the score track as much as the cards and white boards. Way better than CAH or Apples to Apples and lets your friends be silly.

>Pick the one turkey in your collection that started good but is showing it's age/failings now, tell us how it'd be better.
I hope you guys enjoy steak, cause I'm about to carve up some sacred cow.

Exodus: Proxima Centauri.

I wanted to like this game. I really did. I bought into the hype hook line and sinker, the whole TI3-lite argument, etc. etc., but every time we've played it it has always ended with a resounding 'meh'. We don't hate it, I don't think it's a bad game, I can't even put my finger on why it's not hitting us, but every time we play it it feels like we're just going through the motions and then the game ends and we tally points. No real response or emotion or adulation, just bland milquetoast gaming.

I really can't say why. I've got the expansion, which helps a little bit, and now I'm staring at the KS for a new, final expansion and seriously asking myself, do I really want to throw good money after bad? And... I'm not sure I do.

>throw good money after bad
don't do it user. disregarding my opinions on the game, if your group didn't like it getting more of it won't help. there's no shame in not liking something

>I hope you guys enjoy steak, cause I'm about to carve up some sacred cow.
Love it, and while I haven't played Exodus, I know this feel. Sometimes a game just doesn't strike you right, no matter how much it ticks all the right boxes on paper.

This. If you're not over the moon, don't buy an expansion thinking it'll fix everything. I got to playtest Coup before it came out, felt like a waste of time and money so I skipped on it. Now every so often I'll have people tell me to play it with the expansion. Why should I pay double to play a game I didn't like all that much for no cost? If you've got a turkey in your collection it serves only two purposes: either remind you to do more research, or math-trade fodder.

I'm with you. I still like it better than eclipse, but it doesn't approach the satisfaction of a good TI3 game.

>sometimes a game just doesn't strike you right, no matter how much it ticks all the right boxes
well said

Conversely sometimes you find a game that has nothing you'd think interests you and it's one of the better experiences you have. I wanted nothing to do with pen and paper RPGs but my brother in law sucked me into a game with him 3 years back, it takes up a lot of our gaming time now. TM is too dry, too long, and too weighty for my usual fare, but the one game I got to play was fucking amazing. Games are visceral sometimes as much as logical

I know this is very unpopular basically everywhere but I will say I love playing munchkin. Yes, I know, it's a kingmaker game and blah blah blah but I have fun every time I play it. It's silly, it's entertaining, and me and my friends laugh at the ridiculous nonsense it creates. It is, to me, like playing Betrayal at House no the Hill. You don't play it to be competitive, you play it for the theme and to have fun. Maybe my game group is just in the right mindset but we always have a good time playing and we are able to just accept the fact that skill doesn't matter. We just want to have fun and munchkin provides that for us.

For the record it's the same group that plays hardcore euros and games like TI3 so we sometimes just want silly bullshit to entertain us while we drink and shit-talk each other.

Whilst I think Munchkin is an awful game, I respect your right to enjoy it user. You do you.

See I get everything you say, and with the right group it's riotous. My only complaint about Munchkin has been I wish it took half as long. Give me the cut down version like Bang the Dice game for original recipe Bang! and I'm all over Munchkin. Think it might be why we keep Boss Monster around.

Thanks. And ya, it's not a "good" game by any stretch but I would argue most party games are not good, they just get people having a good time. For us, munchkin does that and I will play it every once in a while. It's a good "we've been drinking all game night, none of you are driving home, let's fuck each other over" game. It always makes us laugh so why feel shame over playing it at 1am when we can barely speak?

That's the thing though. It is not meant to be a short game. It's meant to be a game that forces you all to fuck around with each other. If you can embrace that it's fun. If you want a legit tactical game obviously you play something else. If you want something that makes you fuck around why not play it? It's like any other drinking game: it's just there for something to do so you're not just drinking in the same room. That's how my group uses it anyway.

I like my drinking games to have easier breakpoints, but that's me. A 90 minute Munchkin (which is entirely possible, it's what's happened the last two times I played) starts to drag for me, a 30-45 min max one would be better. That way no fatigue and we can flit around between various fun drinky games.

I'm the guy who first responded, and I wanna say I like boss monster for the same reason. Fun theme for gamers and it's a bullshit fest "lol fuck you and your shit." If you play heavy games till you get drunk then pull out bullshit everyone is having fun constantly in my group's opinion. That's why we keep them around.

I don't have any. I have looked at detailed rundowns of them, though, and they're basically a rehauled version of the Gambits/Cosmic Gambits expansions for Star Realms, added to a new mechanic of having a slightly different opening hand.

The opening hand part is basically just that you'll get a couple Champions in with your starting deck from the beginning, as well as the money cards and slightly customized weapons, etc. This'll have you protected from turn 1 or 2, so the game will probably run longer.

Then there's the Gambits part, which is the cool bit - just like in Gambits, you'll start with 2 sideways cards at the beginning of the game. In Star Realms it was the luck of the draw which ones you got, in Hero Realms you have to choose the right class to get certain ones. Some of their abilities last all game as a persistent effect, some are trashable, allowing you to avoid a deadly situation with their ability precisely once during the game.

Personally, just like with Gambits, I feel like this would hugely muddle a very simple game for new players, and thus I would not recommend playing with them against anyone who hasn't played the game 3 or 4 times.

But, once they have, it'll be awesome. I loved Gambits, and this is that only moreso. My only possible hesitance comes from the fact that starting with Champions does, as I said, probably make the game last significantly longer, and if they snowball enough then it might become the sort of session where nobody is taking any damage til someone finally gets powerful enough to smash through someone else's massive wall of 10 Champions. But that's, like, absolute worst case scenario. It's probably fine.

I respect that, but we like the theme and we love being wasted and trying to fight over bullshit and munchkin makes it fun (in our opinion). I guess we just have found a niche where we can play munchkin for a few hours as we pass out. Lucky us, but I know better than to tell people to buy it or tell them it's a good game.

I also keep it around because I paid full retail to get it from Rothfuss' charity and it came with promo cards from his books. My geek goes into overdrive on whatever hobby I'm focused on atm so that was one I did while I was reading too much instead of gaming.

Thanks good to know if I pick it up. Never bought Star Realms but played the shit outta it on my phone til it burned me out. Time to look back into the system

Totally get that, and hey as long as you're having fun, that beats the shit outta whatever anyone on a Singaporian underwater basket weaving message board is gonna say.

Yeah, definitely. This mainly comes from genres serving such different purposes. Like, get me in a room of 10 people all ready to game and none of them particularly experienced, ask me what my favourite game is, and I'll immediately rave about how Secret Hitler is a masterpiece. But if I'm thinking about the question from a "me and my SO" standpoint, I'll suddenly probably consider Patchwork to be a beautiful work of game design. If I'm thinking about playing with 2-3 other gamers, I'll pretty automatically say Glass Road. If suddenly those 2-3 people aren't gamers, Tokaido. Etc, etc.

I think that if we went based on overall love of the game as something I love, Glass Road would beat everything, but the crowd is so extremely important, and I like crowds of every size. The people are what drive the hobby, after all.

>as long as your having fun
Ya, I feel like there are guilty pleasures in every avenue of art. Munchkin is one for us, just like Cards Against Humanity is one for plenty of people. Most people who are gamers understand they are "bad games" but don't care because they lead to lots of great experiences (especially when booze and drugs are part of the experience)

> booze and drugs
Fucking degenerates.

To add to my own post, TI3 is not fun if everyone is fucked up but is great to play tactically. Munchkin suck if everyone plays to win but is crazy fun (imo) if everyone is fucked up and we just want an activity to do while we be retarded.

But those are parts of nature, and denying that humans are natural is degenerate

>But those are parts of nature
So is rape and cannibalism.

Cannibalism is detremimentory to humans, and rape is absolutely part of nature. why deny it? stop visiting sjw sites and start embracing nature, or stop talking about natural tendencies faggot.

>give me the cut down version like Bang the Dice Game for Bang
Rock Paper Wizard.
It's a take-that game of trying to get yourself furthest ahead and pushing everyone else back like in Munchkin, but it's also a Simultaneous Action Selection game. You're all casting spells on each other at the same time, and depending on what everyone else chose and the order they resolve, you could actually end up punching yourself, getting accidentally teleported *forward* another player who was trying to put you all the way in the back, etc.

You all get pushed a bit closer toward the default center space between every barrage of spells, meaning there's no runaway leader, and first to 25 gold wins, meaning that you basically just need to be first in line five times, even tied, or second place a few more times than that. And you can try to gang up on the guy who's winning, but you might all end up killing each other in the process because of the ridiculous ways your spells interact, so there's simultaneously no runaway leader problem and no kill the leader problem.

It's also perfect while drunk, because the name of the game is Rock Paper Wizard - as in, you actually throw a hand gesture on the count of wizard, and that's what spell you do. Laughs abound when someone just has their fist twisted into a mutant ball of fingers and they insist they were trying to cast Charm Person, which looks nothing like that at all.

>Cannibalism is detremimentory to humans
So are booze and drugs.

(Also, 'mimentory'?)

Yep, spelled it wrong.

Anyway, you can argue that they bad all you want but they are natural (animals get high) but this is a /pol/ discussion so go over there and have at it. Here we talk about board games, friend.

...

I was being more metaphorical than literal but thanks for the write up, I'll look into it.

Thanks for your contribution, faggot.

Anyway, I didn't get a response last thread. Anyone have opinions on the Terminator KS? I have not and will not back it, but I think the past and future boards interacting is a cool idea.

>Anyone have opinions on the Terminator KS
I really wish if they were going to do a Terminator game they'd do a reworked Specter Ops/FoD cat/mouse game. Maybe something like Star Wars Rebellion where instead of building troops you're assembling weapons out of what you can scrounge?

Ya I know someone here said they'd rather see a "Fury of Arnold" game but I think this actually looks like an interesting concept but they are obviously charging a premium for models but their models are shit.

My favourite game is Virgin Queen. It's one of the few games of that length that really justifies its playtime. It's got a lot of subsystems, but each of them is fun, and contributes to the larger picture. Plus, once you've played around with them for a game or two they're really quick to execute: battles are really suprisingly fast. Only real criticism I have is that the first couple of games can turn out to be pretty unbalanced, usually because noone really knows how to deal with the Protestant until they've tried being France/Spain at least once.

I tend to sell my games once I feel like I won't play them anymore, and one of those was Arkham Horror. I really dug it, played the shit out of it, and it was my first heavy boardgame, which really got me into big chunky manuals and oceans of cardboard. Then my collection just kept being filled up with games in the same time-frame, which I would just much rather play. Eventually I began to realize why I stopped playing AH; I'd seen pretty much all of the events, and there were a lot of mechanics (like the whole big bad fight at the end of most games), which I got tired just thinking about. Then one of my friends got Eldritch Horror, and while I would never play that as extensively as I did AH, it just kind of took that spot.

I haven't even looked at it yet, who's the lead designer and publisher on this?

Is this the most underrated game of 2017?

It's perfect as an abstract and thematic game while providing a deeper, underlying strategy than the art would suggest. Replayability is near infinite and it trumps almost every other 2 player board game.

idk and i don't care about that shit cuz thats like caring about who produced a song, it doesn't mean it's good. you can look it all up on ks if that matters to you. i just wanna know what people think about this one specific mechanic and if they think it can/will be done better.

not shit-talking you, just saying idc about names on shit

this game didn't come out in 2017 but i'll bite on your bait. it's a cool game but not super repayable as far hours go. It is repayable as far plays go though and it looks really good so if you want a gateway game it's gold

Any good hidden role games that play 4 players?

It's the second board game Kickstarter from a company who has no prior history of running kickstarters or publishing board games, whose first board game Kickstarter, Evil Dead 2, did not have a rulebook at the time of the campaign going live, did not have the rights secured to use the license until after the Kickstarter had finished, and still lacks critical reviews even now, having not yet shipped to backers due to the project missing what was an *extremely* optimistic deadline (see my previous point about inexperience). This project also lacked any gameplay footage or a rulebook at the time of going live, providing a pretty clear demonstration of where the company's priorities lie.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that it's going to be fucking dreadful.

ya most of them. be more specific, what kind of theme do you like?

But this does have a rulebook. Also keep in mind I was more asking about the mechanics as I said in the last thread (which you might not have seen, granted) that I don't plan on backing but I I want to hear what you and others think of the dual board design

Don't really mind theme too much. Would like something with actual conflict however. I own Coup which is fun but would like something that feels like you're actually playing a specific character, maybe can get items and stuff but not really sure of any hidden role games that would let you do that

Shadow Hunters does that but it's a little RNG.

I went ahead and got Legendary Marvel as well as the Dark City expansion for 60 bucks. I figure both of the deck building games I own are pvp so it would be nice to get something that was co-op. The only thing that irks me a bit is that they went with Nick Fury's son instead of the real Nick Fury.

did I do good?

Is it good at four players? I've heard things about it but it seems like it'd be kinda jank at a low player count

Pretty much exactly one: Deception: Murder in Hong Kong.

Burke's Gambit also kinda works at that count, but it's kinda random.

How well does Millennium Blades scale?
Looking for more games good at 2-3 players

I don't have MB but if you're looking for something good at 2-3 players that's basically all not party games so MB would probably fit that role. Someone who owns MB can back this up?

user, you are in good company. My game collection is Legion, and I'd be damn hard pressed to pick 'one' favorite. It often depends on my mood and who I'm gaming with when it comes to the optimal gaming experience.

>How well does Millennium Blades scale?
Poorly, to be honest. I only play it at 4-5. Tournaments are worth too little and collections / money is worth too much in 3 players, and the 2 player game is just straight meh.

Basically that, anything that's not a party game that plays well with less people
So far all I got is Roll for the Galaxy, Small World, and Flick em Up

It's fine at 2, really good at three. There's a variant for 2 players in the rules but I'd ignore it and just play normally, without friendship cards.

I like Exodus but would never hype it as TI3-lite - just to many differences. Exodus is Space 4x and TI3 is pure 'Grand Strategy' game. As for it not clicking - some games that are otherwise good just don't grab you. I played Dominion and while I enjoy some deck-builders, that one just fell flat for me personally. There isn't any one thing I can objective define as disliking. But it had all the appeal of eating wet cardboard for me while playing.

Go neck yourself. Paying $50 for a Connect 6 game that hasn't even been playtested properly is a special brand of retard.

Has anyone else been looking at/played Gloomhaven? I had the opportunity to play the game a significant amount over the weekend and I gotta say I'm hooked. Combat went smoothly, the dungeons have some really interesting design features, there are plenty of character options in the beginning of the game, and about triple once everything becomes unlocked.

What are some of your guys' experiences? Anyone looking to buy it but got questions before they pull the trigger?

>hasn't even been playtested properly
All these flavors, and you chose to be salty.

There's a lot of things you can say about Santorini but imbalance is not one of them. If you honestly think the game is imbalanced then try actually playing by the rules. If you end up in an unbalanced matchup it's 100% your fault that you lost and your opponent won -- that's the beauty of the pie rule.

What implores someone to be so edgy about board games?

I've been marathonning it since I got it more or less and I can second everything you're saying. Six scenarios in and it's only getting better.

That said, if you're thinking about buying it and have the opportunity to then you should not hesitate. The game is sold out at the distributor level just through preorders. If you want it, and can actually buy it, do it. It's worth it.

Just don't respond to him, he's trying to shit up the thread by getting people arguing about Santorini, again.

I agree. 4 is the perfect number, 5 is good too in a Seasons at 4 is fun kinda way. Nothing about the game fundamentally falls apart but it passes into the realm of too much happening to keep track of very well and a little too long. 3 I wouldn't say is that terrible but it seriously needs to readjust the tournament point values. The spread of points you get is too narrow to make that big impact of scaring you into making a good deck hoping desperately to not get last place. 2 is boring because then you barely get any trading. 2 or 3 works well for coop though. That's a set rotation thing, but it scratches the itch if you want to play Millennium Blades in either a non competitive way or at lower player counts.

All N-in-a-row games suffer from the same problem: first player has a huge advantage and having certain openings that are solved deterministically. (If you ever played tic-tac-toe you know what I mean; the same problems exist for connect-N games on larger boards.)

People played Gomoku for hundreds of years, and it took a _shitload_ (like, decades) of playtesting to make it properly balanced. The result is called Renju. I recommend you play that instead, it's a great game and better than Santorini.

Santorini also has the same problems that plague all other connect-N variations, it's just that nobody bothered to actually playtest what's a blatant cash grab for idiots.

But whatever floats your boat, we all gotta start somewhere and not everybody had the privilege of playing non-retarded games in childhood.

As much as I find their specific brand of autism annoying I'm gonna wait for the Miami Dice spoiler free stuff on this one. The last time I got all excited over a narrative game it was Seafall, and well we all know what a shitfest that turned out to be.

>nobody bothered to actually playtest
>First iteration came out some 30 years ago

Come on, if you're going to be shitposting spastic at least put a little effort in, yeah?

Don't fall for the plastic jew. If you pledged and haven't read the rulebook, read it. If you haven't watched gameplay videos, watch some.
This game falls flat all across the board. I pledged but then pulled back after going more into it. Uninspired, bottom of the barrel dice combat based on chance, barely any replayability or variance aside from pilot swapping, all style and no substance. Why pay 100 bucks for not even 20 minis that were tossed on top of a shitty foundation? Sure, the big ones look great, but there are only 4 of them. The small ones look barely meh.
I know the name Weta Workshop is tempting, but it's also Cryptozoic.

The funny thing is my experience is that going first is a disadvantage in the game. He's making the fundamental mistake of thinking you can only win by building your own towers, but the real trick is taking advantage of the builds your opponent makes and cutting them off of their own progress.

> The funny thing is my experience is that going first is a disadvantage in the game.

That's because you're an idiot.

> He's making the fundamental mistake of thinking you can only win by building your own towers, but the real trick is taking advantage of the builds your opponent makes and cutting them off of their own progress.

This 'trick' is a standard strategy in all N-in-a-row games, even in Connect 4.

30 years playing a game with you and your dog is not playtesting. You need tournaments and math to really bring out the glaring problems. Again, look at the effort put into making Renju balanced.

>math

Lawl, good job the designer isn't a mathematician with a doctorate then. You can just stop posting now.

Dude are you serious? I just pledged today and it's my first Kickstarter pledge ever. I was already on edge because I "spent" $99 on something I won't get for almost a year, but after reading that my stomach turned and my chest tightened. Man fuck you for making so unsure now. :/

>This 'trick' is a standard strategy in all N-in-a-row games, even in Connect 4.
I see. You don't even know how the game is played.

You haven't spent shit until the KS has competed. You can cancel your pledge at any moment until the campaign closes.

I know that's why I put it in quotes. Still a big step for me especially since it's a lot of money to me.

>Seafall
>First 6 games
>Actually seemed to be enjoying it and having a good time
>Didn't see what all the hate was about
>End of the 6th game, big twist of the pirate island is revealed, makes life hell but think it's going to be in a cool kinda way
>The pirate king event all hinges on me and my ridiculous raid value to make everyone stop being miserable
>I get screwed over by random events
>Explore focused guy goes out and discovers 3 islands for a crazy huge victory right as I start to recover
>2 of those islands introduce 2 more boxes and a headache inducing amount of rules
>Games after that are all highly slanted in explore guy's favor because of the pirate king stopping everyone else from doing their shit
>Finally kill pirate king on game 9 for a pathetic amount of points
>He now has such a lead that none of us could ever hope to catch up
>He holds all the charts to get super upgrades because he's explore focused, including my raid upgrade... which is something exploration helps you get?
>The advancement of the game once again hinges on me raiding an island for everyone
>Have to do it twice, the first time is basically going to hand the merchant the win because it unlocks a super building he can buy
>Second time will actually get me the milestone for breaking the island which isn't even worth as much as discovering an island
>Everyone at this point is just playing to see what's next because our placement on the overall score charts aren't going to change much over these next few games

Basically, if any kickstarter game is leading with "LOOK AT ALL THIS SSSSSHHHHINY PLASTIC SHIT DON'T EVEN FUCKING ENGAGE THAT BRAIN GIB MONI PLOX" it is 100% going to be a 0 rules, dice chucking, delay ridden piece of garbage scam.

If it makes you feel any better, the actual game of Gloomhaven is the best part. I would still call it the best dungeon crawler on the market even if it had no legacy or campaign elements at all. I just consider that whole bit to be a happy bonus.

My brother picked it up so I drove down to his place over the weekend, played it for 16 hours over two sessions as the Cragheart. I'd defs be willing to buy it if I found one but since I have a reliable copy to play less than two hours away I might hold off.

I can't tell if this game is bad and I like it because I have some unconscious love of charts, or if it's really good and everyone I know has shit taste.
Either way, I never get to play it and it makes me sad.

Yeah it definitely ticks more boxes for me than Seafall did (and I knew next to nothing about either when they released because once I hear legacy/narrative I tune out to avoid spoilers) but my gaming budget has been historically tiny compared to most in the hobby. My purchases end up being new to me but a year on the market, which results in lots of time to research and playtest what looks good.

if it's a lot of money to you then don't spend it. the game looks like shit and they're banking on people pledging due to the name of the workshop. don't do it man

While the game does have a campaign mode and it's fun to see your city grow over time, the narrative just seems to be the bow on top of the backage. The meat of the game comes from managing to complete the dungeons. The combination of balancing the constantly changing initiative order, not being able to plan specifics with your team, planning ahead several turns, and managing your hand so you don't become exhausted are all incredibly fun. You could ignore the story and still have fun.

>ticks more boxes
holy fuck how casual are you that base your decision on how hype? seriously there is no reason to buy a game based on how many boxes it ticks, buy the game if you play it and like it. why do people not get this?

Save your breath. If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that Veeky Forums is a filthy casual and no one here gives a shit about math. Just look at this pile of wet laundry:

Assuming you're not just trying to derail another thread, I mean it has more mechanics/theme/player count/weight/etc that appeal to me in a game. Note I said I buy games a YEAR after they've been out, hype has 0 impact on my purchases, and I don't bother with kickstarter other than to say "oh I guess I'll look at that in 3 years".

On a separate note, if that user who was looking to get into X-wing is around happy to talk about a recent Mario Kart game we had.

Yeah, that sounds like a recipe for pic related...

Dark Moon (originally designed as an 'express' version of BattleStar Galactica) does fine with 3 to 7 players.

Really need to playtest this one, any anons got a detailed write up on it?

If you don't mind 'war' themed games - the Quarter Master General stuff is very good. There's also the 2 player game 'Stronghold' mentioned in the previous thread.