Tabletop Games

[Vandall]

Been playing alot of a game called Zombicide which has been super fun, it's an expensive board game however and I feel the "end game" portion is too easy if you've got forethought.

Personally I'm a huge fan of Pen and Paper roleplaying games, pretty much the foreverDM for a few groups. Interested in running a game of DnD 5th Ed since I hear good things and maybe a game of All Flesh Must be Eaten and oWoD Hunter.

[Psychotime]

Found an excellent gaming store in Pasadena, and I now have a place to try out and buy from a great selection of games. I really like the owner of the store, as well.

Off the top of my head, I've played King of Tokyo (I found it boring, but then again, I died really early without activating any of my powers. I need to try it again), The Builders: Middle Ages (simple game, but gets interesting near the end), Walk the Plank (very simple game, but very fast paced and fun), and Sentinels of the Multiverse (I don't like it. Painfully tedious gameplay and very weak artwork to boot).

Khans of Tarkir had it's prerelease this weekend, as well. Picked up the Jeskai intro pack. Pre-ordered a bunch of stuff, so I'll be building a casual Jeskai/Prowess deck once the set releases.

I got sick this weekend, so I didn't feel up to participating in the sealed tournament. Plus I personally have no affection for sealed anymore, now that I've come to love drafting.

But I do need to get a promo as a souvenir. Maybe I'll just buy one after the fact.

[Psychotime]

Beh. Got the release day promo, I guess that's something.

In other news, I finally played 7 Wonders, a popular award winning (over 30 awards worldwide) European game from a few years ago, and it's AWESOME. Like, wow. I totally see why people like it so much. It's a blast. And the expansions sound great as well.

It's a civilization building card game where the principal mechanic is drafting. If you've ever drafted in a card game, like Magic, just imagine the drafting part as the actual game itself! I get the feeling that Conspiracy got inspiration from it.

[Pookaball]

I played 7 wonders once on a 'party' and really liked it's simple but fun gameplay

[Psychotime]

Tired out two games last night: Boss Monster, which was solid. And Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards, which I honestly didn't like much. I enjoy the game's artist, Nick Edwards, but not the game.

Boss Monster is a "Dungeon Builder" where you play the role of a boss to an old school video game, and compete with the other bosses to kill the most heroes by building dungeons and luring heroes into them. All of the illustrations are sprites, and it's FULL of references and shout outs all over the place.

Epic Spell Wars is a party game where players try to kill each other as quick as possible with mix and match spells. As I said, I enjoy the artwork, but not much past that. I was told that the game is better once everyone has experience and gameplay becomes faster.

[StardustLarva]

I've recently gotten into the Pokemon card game. I'm already a huge fan of the Pokemon video games (particularly Mystery Dungeon), so I thought I'd give it a go. It's fun, though maybe a bit imbalanced in places and lacking the depth that other card games like Yu-Gi-Oh have to some extent. Still very enjoyable though, in my opinion, even though I'm probably out of the target demographic for it, heh. Also, the illustrations are lovely, take a look at them if you haven't already.

[Psychotime]

The Pokemon game suffers from the same fundamental problem that Yugioh has when it comes to balance, and of the biggest tcgs it's probably the most shallow, but I will say that they're one of the few games where I see them go out of their way to make their special cards look like they're really special. As a default, not as a promo or anything like that.

Holofoils don't cut it anymore.






One year they made a thing of giant double card monsters, where you literally stacked two cards on top of each other. Stupid idea or not, it looks cool.

[Psychotime]

Played Elder Sign last night. I enjoyed it.

We fought Yog-Sothoth, and I played the Professor. We managed to seal him before he awakened, but I kinda like the fact that once an evil one awakens, the game doesn't just end, you can fight it back! It's hard, but it's doable! I think the next game I play I'll be the guy who'll just let it happen so I can attempt to fight.

From what I've heard, it's a lite version of Arkham Horror, which is a 4 hour game. Eh...I think I'll stick with the lite version for now.

Elder Sign is a simple co-operative game where you take turns completing missions to gain items and stop an ancient evil from awakening. And you complete tasks by rolling dice.

I don't play many dice rolling games, but this one is genuinely fun. A big step up from Space Cadets Dice Duel, which is AWFUL.

[Psychotime]

Played three games last night. Cash n' Guns (2nd Edition), Resistance, and Coup. All of them simple bluffing games from Europe, all of them fun. They're all pretty quick, too. Though Cash n' Guns is the longest.

Cash n' Guns involves players pointing foam guns at each other, while the other two only use cards as components.

In Cash n' Guns, the players are mobsters doing a bank heist every round and betraying each other for loot. When everyone chooses their target, they secretly load one of their eight bullets for the round. Only three of your bullets are live ammo, the rest are blanks. Afterward there's a courage phase where players can bow out of the challenge and dodge the bullet, but doing so means you can't take any money. Players have three health. The living player with the most money at the end wins the game.

Resistance is about freedom fighters nominating members to take on missions to overthrow the government. It's very simple and abstract.The gameplay comes down to the fact that there's at least one spy among the group who can secretly cause missions to fail, and the conflict comes from players trying to veto nominations because they think that the spy is there.

Coup is a spin-off of Resistance, where you play as government officials taking taxes and performing actions to be the last one standing. However, your role is hidden from the players, so you can take an action that your role doesn't allow, and the players have to call you out on it. However, doing so is a risky thing to do, because if they're telling the truth, you lose health. You only have two health, and gameplay has your hidden roles swap constantly. It's great!

Bluffing games are only good with a varied enough group, and I played with a pretty decent one. Personally, I think Coup was the highlight.

[Psychotime]

Played Machi Koro last night, and it's just as fun as I had hoped!

It's a land purchasing game with dice rolling to trigger effects. You buy lands, roll dice, and trigger effects from your lands based on the number rolled. And the trigger doesn't have to be on your turn! There are lands that steal money from players that roll certain numbers, and there are those that gain money whenever anyone rolls a number. Early on you can buy the option to roll two dice instead of one on you turn, and that leads to different decisions.

A simple to learn and balanced game with legitimate strategy. A VERY good game I had been hoping to try out, and it did not disappoint.

Also played the Pathfinder card game. Set up is a pain in the ass, but other than that, the game is pretty fun once it gets started! Just like in the actual RPG it's about characters co-operating and using their strengths to succeed where they couldn't alone.

The game tries to adapt the RPG into a purelly card-based system, and I honestly think it works very well. Players level up and the game can be played as a campaign that you return to!

If I were to describe it's mechanics, it's half deck building game and half LCG. Your characters have starting equipment (all cards) and as you gain loot those just go into your deck.

Certain concepts are abstracted and there's of course random element due to decks being shuffled, but all in all it's a solid game that's not hard to get the hang of once you finish a turn or two.

I played as Amiri and just beat the shit out of everything in sight.

[Psychotime]

Jaipur is an enjoyable two-player game. A simple card game where you try to get rich from selling and trading goods, and disrupting each other with camels, which is always funny.

I think my favorite mechanic is the declining value most goods have as the game goes on, simulating supply exceeding demand.

Simple to learn, decent decision-making and luck-pressing elements. Fun game worth checking out.

[Psychotime]

Played three games today:

Zombicide. I don't buy minis games on principle, but I could easily describe it as Left 4 Dead, the board game. You're a team escaping a zombie hoard, jumping from area to area finding weapons and items, and the game gets harder the more zombies you kill. Lots of cooperation and group planning.

I played as Jack Nicholson's character from The Shining. There was a kickstarter bonus set of characters based on movies, so they had stuff like Hannibal, The Dude, and Dana Scully as playable characters.

It's pretty fun, but my problems with minis games kinda prevents me from ever buying it for myself. Also kinda stinks that the joke characters are only available on eBay at this point.

Management Material is an old card game that seriously deserves a reprint.

The players are corporate slackers constantly try to get out of work by giving excuses to pass assignments to the next guy. It's simple and hilarious.

If you find it, buy it then and there. You won't regret it.

And the last game I played was Kittens in a Blender. Very dull. Very boring.

Each player has a pool of kitten cards, and the object of the game is to kill the other player's kittens while rescuing your own, scoring points from the ones you rescue. Not a game worth anyone's time. I have no problem with the concept, it's just really boring.


In other news, I'm very interested in trying out Doomtown. It's mechanics seem a little complicated, but very intriguing. It's a western themed card game where players fight for control of the town. Like Netrunner, it was originally a dead TCG with a very loyal fanbase, but this year it was rebooted into the LCG format and has been flying off the shelves.

What makes the game very unique is that part of it's gameplay utilizes poker mechanics. Every card in the game has a suit and rank (Ace of Spades, Queen of Hearts, ect) and during certain parts of gameplay you'll use them to play poker. It's very interesting. Does anyone here have an opinion on it?