/bgg/ Board Games General: Makers Edition

>Chess 2
You mean Chess960, of course.

You joke but monochrome chess is actually supposed to be good.

Not bad, but it's still symmetrical. I think multiple armies>randomized starting positions.

>Making a game?
A couple of friends and myself are actually in the process of developing a game. Still very early, so I don’t want to talk about it, but I think we have a unique idea that doesn’t have anything similar in the marketplace.

>mixed or pure mechanics
Mixed, generally. I played Calimala recently, which really only has one main mechanic, and it was great. But usually I like games with more complexity, so more mechanics are usually involved.

>best and worst mechanics?
Best: I love Worker placement games, and there are some interesting variations out there, but I’d like to see more.
Worst: roll and move. Formula D and Xia both do it ‘well’. Why can’t other games figure out a way to make this fun?

>I wish I made ______
Magic. All those autism bucks rolling in. I’d never have to work again.

I half joke, I honestly think Chess 2 is pretty good.

sauce?

I know the source but I have forgotten the name of the comic, I'll find it when I get home in about 4-5 hours
In case you can't wait that long, I know it's a hardblush comic and the character is named Marty

>snout
Back to you go!

>not liking snouts
what are you, furry?

1960 Making of a President is actually quite easy to learn and doesn't run longer than it needs too.
These are also great, some a bit more advanced
Battle Line is nice too

Hive
Inis
Battle Lines
Tigris
Onitami

have enjoyed 1v1s in all

BattleCON

As for needing an actual board, Forbidden Stars is excellent at all player counts

Ironic shitposting is still shitposting.

Learned Robinson Crusoe last night.

I'm probably not gonna survive the first scenario, but the game is super fun so far.

Never played it, but there's a "Horde of pawns" variant on lichess.org.

Get a co-op game and have each player control 2 characters. BOOM now you have millions of 2 player games to choose from.

Seconding this user, Hive and Inis have really worked for me at 2P.

Codex
Yomi
Flash Duel
Puzzle Strike

Aside from Hive, what are some physically small games that are very good?

Games with a box just a little bigger than Coup or Love Letter at most.

Are you asking about box size or table space?

Because lots of fiddly table-consuming games can be stuffed into a small box if the publisher cared enough.

Thanks for your opinion, friend. I'll hold off on buying it for now but from what I've heard here and researched elsewhere, it looks like it'd be enjoyable for me.

I'm talking about box size but I'd like a relatively small table space as well (though it doesn't have to be as small as something like Coup).

Long-term I want to fill a backpack with fun things to do and keep it in the trunk of my car to bust out when camping or if I'm just hanging out with friends and we're bored.

1. Odin's Ravens
2. Motherfucking Hive

Whoops...meant to reply to

Rhino Hero is surprising fun

Condottiere.

Fairy Tale
NeverMore
Innovation
Evolution: the beginning*

*You can ditch the bags, pond and foot chits and use gravel or bottlecaps or whatever to reduce it to literally a deck of cards.

Thus all of them are all cards, which you don't want to be losing a meeple in the dirt at your campsite at night, plus there aren't a lot of fiddly bits to mess with by lantern-light.

Hanabi didn't make the list since I haven't played, but it often goes in my mini-bag with the rest. Seems more like an uno-tier game to me, but it might fit the bill for lighter fun/normie introduction.

Stratego, great game or greatest game?

One of the better mass market games, but Thunder & Lightning, Schotten Totten, and especially LotR Confrontation all do it better

If anyone is interested, CSI is having their "Spring Sale" this week with 380 games (instead of the usual 4 or 5) on sale at deeper discount prices.

No mention of Memoir '44/BattleLore? My favorite 2p game, Twilight Struggle, has obviously been mentioned a number of times already. I'll second it, Hive and Onitama. I find the Legendary Deck Building system to work best with 2/3 players as well, pretty much equally good on both player counts.

Lost Cities
Marvel/DC Dice Masters
Arkham Horror the card game

And I honestly think Race for the Galaxy is best at 2 players. Nothing about the game gets better with more players.

Played through the first 6 scenarios, great game. You're in for a good time.

Love LotR Confrontation, especially since my youngest nephew is happy to play it as well. It's nice to see him develop his strategic thinking in it.

...

Passing up an in-shrink copy of the FFG Deluxe edition at the Gencon consignment store is one of my few purchase regrets. Still got my hands on it later, but wish I hadn't tried to get it $5 cheaper the next day. Never won that bet

Just lost to a Jaguar attack on my first playthrough on the first scenario. Everyone got hurt a little bit, finally driving the Carpenter into madness.

Found it, turns out it was purged from exhentai at some point
warning, very gay: yiffer.xyz/Cross Platform

Why was it purged? I thought exhentai allows almost anything and isn't afraid of copyrights.

>Why haven't you made that game yet user?
I made one with my brother-in-law.

Asymmetrical RPS variant with cards; the RPS cards vary in power (they still beat eachother, but if your R has a power of 4 you deal 4 damage if you play it against your opponent's S. The opponents still beats your R with P as usual even if it has a power of, say, 1.)

The players also have three block cards that each block all but one type of attack. You still take 1 chip damage.

The players also have one combo each; e.g. RRS. So if I land an R, I deal increased damage on my next attack if I play another R. Adds to the mindgame.

Taking damage or landing combo hits generates focus (generic name; you get a couple of chips or tokens). As you place your chosen card facedown before revealing simultaneously, you can play focus tokens which will increase your attack's damage by the number of tokens you placed (limited to banking 5 tokens). We felt that this might have made the game a bit too swingy, but if you correctly predict your opponent's move their focus is wasted anyway.

Ties are resolved with power; you take the difference between power values on the lower valued player takes the difference as damage.

All you need is six cards as R, P, S and the three blocks and a paper where you have the power of your moves written down, and some tokens or dice for focus and health points. We used a minimum value of 1 on each attack card, 8 hit points, and then the player could distribute an agreed upon amount of points with powerup to attacks = 1 point per power and powerup to health = 2 health per point. (E.g. R/P/S, H -> 3/4/1, 12 would be 7 points distributed over +2 R, +3 P, +2 H (=4 actual HP)).

Used to run a board game club in uni with 20-40 visitors per game night, people usually found this to be a blast.

...

I'm not sure, but I think that's where I first came across it and now I can't find it over there
Copyright is the only reason that comes to mind because hardblush likes to enforce theirs

>finally driving the Carpenter into madness

Did he lock himself in his room, making carvings that menaced with images of coconuts until his inevitable suicide by proxy.

>chess 2
>good
chess 2 is unbalanced as fuck, reaper is an overwhelming force and has been proven to have a forced win against classic and empowered. if someone had a proper engine, i guarantee you that it would pick reaper 95% of the time. even two kings, its """counter""", can be stalled if you play perfectly. nemesis and animals stand a chance against DGR strategy, elephants and nemeses are hard to capture, nemesis pawns can slip past the ghosts, but otherwise they will still get raped. reaper mirrors, don't get me started, you're better gouging your fucking eyes out.
t. someone who has played chess 2 for years, on steam and OTB

ok, is this actually good for kids?

I'll second that question.

Yes but caveats; it's a memory game with some set collection tossed in; not a worker placement. It's actually a good primer for teaching set collection strategy, but it's not quite as engaging as other choices for kids; I think it's recommended 5+ but you could do 4+ and it'll run it's course well before the kids are 10.

>but it's not quite as engaging as other choices for kids
such as?

Two friends just confirmed to show up for a Friday night of Millennium Blades.
First time playing it, what should we expect?

Obviously depends on the kid; thematically I think Ghost Fightin' or Flash Point hold interest better; and while less thinky I've had better luck with dex options. Mechanically it's pretty good, there's a lot of better options out there, but I wouldn't introduce many of them until closer to 8+. A lot of it depends on the age of the kid and their development, I've got one nephew who couldn't quite handle Rhino Hero at 4 (too hyper, not good with taking turns) but another who was ready for something like Flash Point by the time they hit 6.

gay stuff like buttsecks and cocksuck

When did this thread turn /totally gay/?

Your brain to be tired after it's all said and done, but you'll spend the next day thinking about the game and what you would have done differently next time.

see OP

We've gotten some good play out Jaipur and 7 Wonders: Duel

I've had mixed results with Flash Point. One kid who felt he didn't get to contribute (8 year old). He prefers Cosmic Encounter and King of Tokyo.

12 Realms bombed completely.

I've such mixed results with 12 Realms and the age rec seems to be way off on that one (it's not a 10+ it's 6-8 more likely). If we're talking 8+? Potion Explosion has gone over okay for me (the marble mechanic is good, planning the potions to work on next can be harder to grok for some kids) though what Horrible/CMoN charge for it I'd definitely try before buying. Colt Express is good for the take-that aspect of KoT, Diamant is good for the push your luck aspect (or Can't Stop, Celestia even). If there's a "I didn't do anything" problem I STRONGLY advise against Dungeon Fighter, which has that problem in spades (unless you're playing 2-3p only).

Afrika any good?
Trying to decide if I should suggest someone bring it tonight.

7 Wonders Duel
Codenames Duet
Onitama
Carcassone (yes, it is a 2p game and if you say otherwise you are wrong)

>Carcassone (yes, it is a 2p game and if you say otherwise you are wrong)
Carcassonne is an any player count co-op where you build the prettiest city and add up everyone's points.

Requesting the name of a fantasy themed board game released before 1995, I think it had rounded square pieces (check image to see what a rounded square is).

It also had tiles that could change positions to the left and right or up or down or something like that

Labyrinth?

So after researching the city a bit and talking with my supplier, I decided to pick up Tanto Cuore instead of Dominion for the store. I never got into dominion, so i'd been looking for a better option. Talking here and looking online, Tanto seems like a good niche to have.

>Carcassone
I'm running a tournament on that this weekend actually. We're going to be using chess clocks set to 15 minutes, 2 player matches. If we had opened before 2018 the winner actually would have been eligible to go to the Canadian Carcassonne finals, and if they won there would have been invited to the world championship in germany. Too bad THE FUCKING CITY delayed my opening so fucking long.

Labyrinth?

Agreed, sounds like The A-Maze-Ing Labyrinth.

>Labyrinth

Maybe, but I remember it having some trapdoors

Gonna need something more to go on in that case. Happy to help if you keep feeding us details.

it problably had a dragon somewhere

Well, Labyrinth has a tile with a dragon on it... the Swedish game Dungeonquest is the only thing that comes to mind right now, but that doesn't seem to fit your description.

LoTR The Confrontation

>Too bad THE FUCKING CITY delayed my opening so fucking long
Damn NIMBYs, every time

Your call but dominion has a much more accessible and less cringeworthy theme.

I can always pick it up later too.

Drakon? 4th edition came out in 2015, no idea when first came out but it could easily be dated 20 years

coins with hidden values ring a bell?

faidutti.com/blog/?p=9177

Interesting essay.

>Other publishers try to make the best of the shortest lifespan of games with selling them massively at once, and increasing their margins. This is one of the reasons why Kickstarter is so frequently used not only by small, but also by relatively big publishers, and why we now have more and more kickstarter exclusive games. Zombicide and Conan were mostly Kickstarter, Hate and Batman are only kickstarter. One shot. A cleverly managed kickstarter campaign can generate massive sales, all delivered directly and at once, and the game can then be let to die.

I do personally think you're gonna bust at some point. It's tied up in lot of things though. It's kind of like the big comic book crash of the 90s. Owning games is prestigious, it gives you social capital in the hobby, there's a keeping up with the neighbours vibe, a strong novelty push, Kickstarter itself is this horrible buy now or miss out! offer. For some people getting new board games or expacs is gonna be like getting funko pops.

I do feel like the pressures getting pushed on the hobby aren't serving it but controlling it/consuming it, and if you're really playing board games to play board games a lot of these business practices won't appeal to you. Rather, they're things you'll feel impacted by or that you have to do. For others this cycle will be a strong part of the appeal.

Even the reviewer/playthrough culture on youtube, etc. feeds into this.

Go to bed, Sirlin.

Space Empires 4x

I detest seeing the words "Kickstarter exclusive". Gamble now, get exclusive rewards that would be lovely for the consumers, but we choose to withhold them so you'll feel pressured into buying! Because screw anyone who didn't jump onboard early, right? Backers are more special! If it's stuff like painted minis or other things that would be too much of a risky investment to put on shelves, fine, but it's often stuff that feels like cut content instead.

I thought promos that contained actual, fun content that was then never publicly available was bad enough as it was. You didn't go to this con? Well, you can't expect to have this thing you would have loved. But KS takes it to the next level.

Kickstarter in general is an odd... i'm going to call it a technology. It's the democratization of patronage, but with a capitalist bent focused on product. It forces marketing incentives over content and value. It's practically a giant snake oil salesmen convention hall.

I would be more interested in paying into a patreon for a developer/company. I think it would make for a longer more engaging process for board games, and could even lead to some games essentially having "patch note" rule sets.

Kickstarter is just the evolution of the implementation of pre orders. First you could pre order things, then you had the option to pre order deluxe editions/season passes (think video games), now we have stretch goals/exclusives.

>I detest seeing the words "Kickstarter exclusive".

I don't preorder and never backed KS games. If it's good I'll get it at retail. If I miss out, oh well. I don't even play my own games often.

>It's the democratization of patronage, but with a capitalist bent focused on product. It forces marketing incentives over content and value. It's practically a giant snake oil salesmen convention hall.

Good way to put it.

Let's get a discussion going:

In your opinion, what gives a game replayability?

>replayability
Mutually exclusive win conditions that are equally valid, yet context sensitive enough to allow players to change mid game.

Camaraderie mechanics that allow the players to feel good about working together even if the tasks themselves remain reletively the same throughout multiple playthroughs.

Room for both tactical play (turn by turn decisions matter) and strategic play (being able to build over multiple turns to a goal).

Its one of the reasons I find Captain Sonar one of the best games in the last few years. Yes there are some significant and valid issues (1st mate is almost superfluous, and added mostly for book keeping purposes in real time mode), but the game itself shines when two groups go head to head and have a good match.

>Inis at 2p
>Inis at anything but 4p

No Thanks
Insider

War of the Ring 2nd edition
Colonial Twilight
1775
1960
Twilight Struggle
7 Wonders Duel
Ginkopolis

Etc, etc

Inis is fine with 2 senpai. What don't you like about it?

what's this dino island shit people are talking about, redpill me please

The card play is the best part of the game. At 2-3 players you miss out on a lot of the cards that make the game great. I’ll only ever play this at 4.

It should be spelt B-O-R-E-D

The game is way more competitive and less based on luck at 2. The draft rules in Inis make the 2 player draft really suspenseful