The Gaming thread - anything but video games

[Carbomb]

Was looking for some solo RPGs, and have found one called Ex Novo, where you build a city and "witness" its history from founding to present day. Looks good, so bought a copy ($12 download PDF). Will let you guys know how I get on.

I'd like to find a classic solo RPG dungeon crawler though, that's more advanced than Fighting Fantasy or Lone Wolf books (I love those, but they're sadly too limited for me now).

[FLips]

Made a stop at Travelling Man while we’re away for our anniversary and picked a few games up. Was looking for Sobek and Lawyer Up but unfortunately they were sold out.

We got five smaller games that we’re likely to play 2 Player. First up is Cryptid Cafe which is the biggest of the ones we got. The aim of the game is to strategically place your three servers into queues for different food types in the kitchen and then distribute food to the customers in line before they get mad and leave. The person at the end of the food queue can tip the chef to push in line and collect more resources, so trying to take the most food every time doesn’t always work.

The faster you serve food to your patrons, the more coins you get. Once the allocated rounds have passed then the person with the most coins win, with bonuses for the types of customers you served.

The game works brilliantly in two player as you place a 3rd AI player into the game who doesn’t take food or coins but can push you out of line and spoil your strategy, and the flow of the game is heavily improved by it.

There is also a Solo Mode where you play a different AI deck who does compete with you, but honestly the type of game it is likely doesn’t lend itself well to Solo as it’s not very deep and there’s no lore to keep you hooked alone without that local competition. Great game for two or more though.

Next was Dungeon Drop in which you messily chuck different coloured cubes onto the table and then create “dungeons” between three pillar cubes and then send your character in to loot it, collecting treasure and fighting monsters.

Each player has a random Class and Skill that gives them unique abilities for their turn such as flicking gems across the table and a random quest that gives them different scores for different colours so you can secretly strategise and plan your moves.

The games are quick and fairly easy to understand, however the design of the game feels fun in concept and poor in execution. Splashing your cubes everywhere is fun but you need a large play area, preferably with raised edges or cubes go flying off the table. If you don’t have that you can pay them for the benefit of a Walls expansion which feels like a bit of a con. 

If you’re stuck playing on a smaller but not tiny table then expect either cubes off the edge or like in our case, small cramped dungeons where the cubes aren’t spaced far apart because you didn’t want them to fly everywhere and lose them.

We also got Dice Hospital ER which is a smaller, quicker paced version of the brilliant Dice Hospital. Played with pencil and paper on 50 includes pads, I can’t say much about this one yet. The setup for the size of the game and the rules in general are very complicated and even compared to the original Dice Hospital make very little sense. As with a few board games we’ve found, playing with just two of us comes across as an afterthought and a poorly written rulebook had us give up so we can watch a Youtube explanation at a later date. A shame as we picked up the original with no issues.

We also got Turbo Sleuth which is a small and very fast paced Cleudo X Snap style game in which various cards from a shuffled deck are placed in front of everyone alongside an objective, e.g Find the Murder Weapon. Players then race simultaneously to complete the objective on the card, snatch the coins in the center and declare your findings.

Completing the objective can be things like seeing on the revealed cards which murder weapon appears the most, which suspect has a shaky alibi or what clues are connected. Get the answer right and you earn 1 coin, if anyone claimed a coin and got it wrong they return the coin to the pile flipped over and it’s worth double on the next turn. Claim a double coin and get that wrong, you start losing coins. This means you have to be fast but you have to be right and overzealous players can derail their lead trying to race through it.

Once all the coins have been claimed by players the game is over and the highest score wins. Very fun game that’s easy to learn even the advanced variations. I imagine it’s even more fun for kids due to the basic objectives and snap-style declarations.

Lastly we got Schotten Totten which is a strictly two player dueling card game in which you make 3-card Poker style hands on 9 stones in the center. Best hand wins that stone, and if you get 3 in a row or 5 total then you win.

Very easy to understand the basics and start playing but there’s a lot of strategy there and bluffing due to the open play of hands. You can see what you think the opponent is setting up but if you get it wrong you end up placing a dud hand and losing the stone. Trying to guess whether your opponent has the card you need to complete a set or if it’s still in the deck adds a nice bit of luck and tension too.

There are advanced rules with added cards excluded from the base game we haven’t tried adding yet which don’t seem too tricky to add in. The core game is so faultless though they don’t really need them.

Great two player game that is easy to play but gets very competitive and after a few games has you thinking moves ahead.

All in all not a bad haul. Dice is the only one that let us down but once we figure it out it could be a winner. Sadly it looks complicated and even worse, boring. Especially compared to the proper base game.

[Hannibal Scorch]

3 hours ago, Onyx2 said:

I fucking HATE Santorini! Such an unbalanced pile of nonsense. If you liked Tsuro try Carcassonne which has a pleasingly simple pick up - place mechanic which is easy to understand and gradually can get more sophisticated as you appreciate the strategy. 

We had a laugh playing Santorini but I didn’t feel the urge to pick up a copy. Thanks for the recommendation 

[Merzbow]

Has anyone played Mörk Borg? It's very aesthetically pleasing to my eyes, being a doom/black metal inspired RPG and being grimmer than D&D without falling into total edgelord territory.

[Onyx2]

4 hours ago, Carbomb said:

I'd like to find a classic solo RPG dungeon crawler though, that's more advanced than Fighting Fantasy or Lone Wolf books (I love those, but they're sadly too limited for me now).

Assuming you are talking about board games, try Massive Darkness which supports solo play. You're bound to find a local game club that has a copy.

[Carbomb]

1 hour ago, Onyx2 said:

Assuming you are talking about board games, try Massive Darkness which supports solo play. You're bound to find a local game club that has a copy.

Ah, thanks man - will hunt down a game club. There used to be one near me, but Covid put paid to that.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

My in laws just found out all my wife's old pokemon cards. Even a shiny charizard from 1999.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[cobra_gordo]

2 minutes ago, ReturnOfTheMack said:

My in laws just found out all my wife's old pokemon cards. Even a shiny charizard from 1999.

My brother sold a load recently and made a fortune so get them properly valued.

[ReturnOfTheMack]

I think I mentioned before I'm getting back into 40k (always loved the fluff and novels around it), but for Christmas my wife got me a Redemptor Dreadnought, Jesus that's a big ass model. When I played in the 90s a Dread was about 4 or 5 parts, this was over 100. And I loved every irritating, frustrating, moment.

[Just Some Guy]

I got the Asia expansion for Wingspan for Christmas, so that hit the table last night. Over 300 beautifully illustrated cards with all the other sets.

Just Some Girl also got me SOS (Save our Species). A 15 minute card game about environmentalism. The card passing mechanic wad a bit repetitive, but pleasant enough.

[Onyx2]

1 hour ago, Just Some Guy said:

I got the Asia expansion for Wingspan for Christmas, so that hit the table last night. Over 300 beautifully illustrated cards with all the other sets.

What does Asia add? We got Europe this Christmas which adds more familiar birds and good round scoring tasks. 

[Just Some Guy]

1 hour ago, Onyx2 said:

What does Asia add? We got Europe this Christmas which adds more familiar birds and good round scoring tasks. 

For my group just new birds.

If you play two handed the duet mode soups up the experience for 2 players.

There is also a new flock mode which ups the player count to 6-7.

[Thunderplex]

I got Wingspan Asia too, along with Pandemic: Cthulhu and Destinies.

[cobra_gordo]

I got Ticket To Ride: Europe and, whilst less fancy than a lot of modern board games but I've wanted an updated copy for ages, Cluedo.

I've also spent way too much money on Pokemon cards since Christmas as my youngest son is really in to the TCG so I'm investing in some so he has someone to play against.

Edited January 1, 2023 by cobra_gordo

[Onyx2]

32 minutes ago, cobra_gordo said:

Cluedo

I played Awkward Guests last night, which is a kind of update to Cluedo.  I sort of enjoyed it but played with a group of 8 which made it unbearably slow. And requires a lot of short term memory when it comes to how moving between rooms works. Needs another go.

My big discovery of Christmas is Phantom Ink. A pair of spirit players take it in turn to answer questions from their team off cards. You write out the letter one at a time and your team asks you to stop when they're convinced they know the answer. It's far more hilarious than it sounds, we must have played about ten rounds. If you see it cheap or are offered it at a game night, give it a try. It's a great party game.