I just mean mechanics of carrying onward. Like, I want to play Gloomhaven but think that it's slightly beyond the reach of time and rules commitment I can get people together for.
Do you count LCGs as boardgames? Arkham LCG's campaigns area really fun. Other campaign/legacy games I've enjoyed recently are Scythe: Rise of Fenris, and Aeon's End Legacy.
I just mean mechanics of carrying onward. Like, I want to play Gloomhaven but think that it's slightly beyond the reach of time and rules commitment I can get people together for.
I am still sad that I haven't been able to put together a regular group for Imperial Assault - it was amazing the few times I managed to get it to the table. Though that game is One vs Many out of the box.
hmm, that reminds me, it's been a few years since they put out an official app companion that was supposed to enable a pure co-op version. I should try that out at some point.
What is currently regarded as the best living board game with a primarily co-op function? I know there's been a ton of deckbuilder/miniature driven co-op dungeon crawly type games for awhile.
I don't know about "best" but Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle is a good 7-episode run.
Failing that you can easily legacy up Spirit Island by adding more complications (most likely just dialing up the Adversary's level) each time.
I just mean mechanics of carrying onward. Like, I want to play Gloomhaven but think that it's slightly beyond the reach of time and rules commitment I can get people together for.
I am still sad that I haven't been able to put together a regular group for Imperial Assault - it was amazing the few times I managed to get it to the table. Though that game is One vs Many out of the box.
hmm, that reminds me, it's been a few years since they put out an official app companion that was supposed to enable a pure co-op version. I should try that out at some point.
It's pretty solid! It will also teach you how to play, so it's great for onboarding newbies.
I've only done a few scenarios for it, but it's on many platforms now too. I should really find some folks to play IA with.
Is 878 Vikings not so good? Please convince me it is. I don't need to buy any more games.
Definitely fun with four. Need a couple more plays to figure out if it has any kind of broken stuff that makes the game feel bad (unlikely?).
It's the kind of game where both sides feel like they get to do unfair things, but that sort of makes it fair. The English are definitely just trying to survive and hold out for the win, whereas the Vikings just go on a warpath every turn to try and decimate the English as much as possible.
Last night we sat down and finished the case of the Munitions Magnate.
Sherlock is bullshit, as promised.
we totally did miss the handwriting deduction indicating that the note was copied, and we spent the whole time assuming that it was a note for scheduling a sting operation, not the motivator for that sting
We caught the culprit and answered all but one question correctly, though
Played my copy of Manhattan Project: Energy Empire for the first time last night. It went well! 4 players in a first play took about 2.5 hours with rules and finishing food before the game. In the end I lost the tiebreaker at 105 VP, which was great. My friend that rarely wins on first plays of things beat me. The other 2 were close behind too. We took pretty different tacks. He relied a lot on having a clean board and scoring often for low pollution. I had a bunch of radioactive waste all over France but had a mighty industry worth a lot of building points. We were tied on the UN track. You score for almost everything, and mostly at the end of the game, so it's pretty hard to tell who's leading.
ArcticLancerBest served chilled.Registered Userregular
We got Brass: Birmingham to the table last night. While I wasn't the most up for playing it, it went fine and was still fun. Genuinely, I like the mechanical shifts A LOT, and think it's absolutely superior to Lancashire, though don't think it replaces it (similar arrangement to TM/GP).
Beer is just fantastic overall. It's a crazy resource to wrap your mind around if you're used to the flow of the original. The new way markets and selling works is excellent and makes the whole process more consistent, while the bonuses keep competition important. Diversifying the industries makes the game more daunting, but how that compliments the revised markets is perfect. Pottery is better than shipyards, and Manufacturing is ... well, I find it hard to evaluate considering I built more of them than anyone else. I think Manufacturing kinda comes into its own because it tends to break the rules the other industries play by (sometimes not needing beer to sell, sometimes being worth 0 links), which makes it a lot more nuanced. And topically, things being worth 0 or 1 or 2 links is a HUGE difference, and made rails a lot more interesting. The increased cost of beer for a double-rail felt justified since they were often worth more points compared to Lancashire. The only thing I didn't like about this is that building rail is kind of boring VS building industries, but often industries just aren't worth nearly as many points. More a personal disappointment than a problem, obviously.
Anyway, yeah, I cannot stress how good it feels. You can see the evolution of the original game here, and it's so well done it's crazy to consider we basically only got it because of a diehard fan. :P
I just mean mechanics of carrying onward. Like, I want to play Gloomhaven but think that it's slightly beyond the reach of time and rules commitment I can get people together for.
I am still sad that I haven't been able to put together a regular group for Imperial Assault - it was amazing the few times I managed to get it to the table. Though that game is One vs Many out of the box.
hmm, that reminds me, it's been a few years since they put out an official app companion that was supposed to enable a pure co-op version. I should try that out at some point.
It's pretty solid! It will also teach you how to play, so it's great for onboarding newbies.
I've only done a few scenarios for it, but it's on many platforms now too. I should really find some folks to play IA with.
Yeah I picked up mansions of madness 2e and haven't played it yet but started up a scenario in the app and it seemed pretty painless in telling you how to set up and do things so if their other games have the same amount of basic work in them it's probably solid
We got Brass: Birmingham to the table last night. While I wasn't the most up for playing it, it went fine and was still fun. Genuinely, I like the mechanical shifts A LOT, and think it's absolutely superior to Lancashire, though don't think it replaces it (similar arrangement to TM/GP).
Beer is just fantastic overall. It's a crazy resource to wrap your mind around if you're used to the flow of the original. The new way markets and selling works is excellent and makes the whole process more consistent, while the bonuses keep competition important. Diversifying the industries makes the game more daunting, but how that compliments the revised markets is perfect. Pottery is better than shipyards, and Manufacturing is ... well, I find it hard to evaluate considering I built more of them than anyone else. I think Manufacturing kinda comes into its own because it tends to break the rules the other industries play by (sometimes not needing beer to sell, sometimes being worth 0 links), which makes it a lot more nuanced. And topically, things being worth 0 or 1 or 2 links is a HUGE difference, and made rails a lot more interesting. The increased cost of beer for a double-rail felt justified since they were often worth more points compared to Lancashire. The only thing I didn't like about this is that building rail is kind of boring VS building industries, but often industries just aren't worth nearly as many points. More a personal disappointment than a problem, obviously.
Anyway, yeah, I cannot stress how good it feels. You can see the evolution of the original game here, and it's so well done it's crazy to consider we basically only got it because of a diehard fan. :P
As a complete novice to the Brass world, I *really* enjoyed my first play of Brass:Birmingham, even though we got a bunch of rules wrong.
Very tight economic game, with tons of options. I think one of the big keys to make manufacturing worth investing in is using the 0-link tiles to reduce the value of your opponents' links. In our game, the winner was the person who was most able to capitalize on expanding their link network. I came in close second, trying to figure out how to increase the value on some of my sales, without realizing that the first half of the game is when you should focus on flipping your industry tiles (so that they score twice) and the second half of the game you should focus on trying to maximize links and networking before really doing anything else.
Diagnosed with AML on 6/1/12. Read about it: www.effleukemia.com
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
Import / Export is back on Kickstarter
$75 is steep but not outrageous, I suppose. Hmm. It does feel like it would fill a niche in my collection
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
I found a copy of Uno at the store for like $4, so I bought it because I really like it. When my kids get a bit older I’ll teach them the despair of Draw 4.
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I found a copy of Uno at the store for like $4, so I bought it because I really like it. When my kids get a bit older I’ll teach them the despair of Draw 4.
My cousins in South Carolina growing up played "Fast Uno" where if you have the exact card someone else put down, you can play it out of turn. You could do the same with Draw 2s and Draw 4s, adding to the number of cards drawn. It was ridiculous.
So, the old Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Starship Battles game is not, by any real criteria, a good game.
However ...
It's damn good game to play on a Daddy-and-kids game night with your 7- and newly-minted-4-year-old. Each team (me and 4-year-old who did all the rolling! vs. older brother) got their class 1s (Executor vs. Viscount), a class 2 (ImpStar vs. MC80), a class 3 (Lambda-class vs. "Rebel Cruiser" (NebB)), and three randomly-picked class 4s (TIE/sa, TIE/sa, TIE/in vs. Luke Skywalker, B-Wing, Y-Wing).
Lots of dice-rolling, lots of near misses, lots of sneaky math practice, and the game ended when the remaining TIE/sa and TIE/in blew up the Rebel Cruiser while it simultaneously blew them up, meaning everyone won / lost.
So, the old Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Starship Battles game is not, by any real criteria, a good game.
However ...
It's damn good game to play on a Daddy-and-kids game night with your 7- and newly-minted-4-year-old. Each team (me and 4-year-old who did all the rolling! vs. older brother) got their class 1s (Executor vs. Viscount), a class 2 (ImpStar vs. MC80), a class 3 (Lambda-class vs. "Rebel Cruiser" (NebB)), and three randomly-picked class 4s (TIE/sa, TIE/sa, TIE/in vs. Luke Skywalker, B-Wing, Y-Wing).
Lots of dice-rolling, lots of near misses, lots of sneaky math practice, and the game ended when the remaining TIE/sa and TIE/in blew up the Rebel Cruiser while it simultaneously blew them up, meaning everyone won / lost.
The wife and I had our weekly date night and went to see an outdoor showing of Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse. While waiting for it to get dark out, we played a game of 7 Wonders: Duel. That is such a wonderfully crafted game. I've never beaten the wife at it, but always had a lot of fun.
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
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So is 7th continent really and it does amazing things with them.
i have nothing against games that are just decks of cards, but i dont know that import/export ie glory to rome but shipping containers warrants a $75 buy in is all.
So is 7th continent really and it does amazing things with them.
i have nothing against games that are just decks of cards, but i dont know that import/export ie glory to rome but shipping containers warrants a $75 buy in is all.
It's certainly steep but one of the stretch goals is enough little shipping containers to play Container if you PNP a few cards
Given the fuckup that the last Container release was (low component quality and art in favour of poor quality ships that are the size of a shoe) it's very attractive
Homogeneous distribution of your varieties of amuse-gueule
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jergarmarhollow man crewgoes pew pew pewRegistered Userregular
So, the old Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Starship Battles game is not, by any real criteria, a good game.
However ...
It's damn good game to play on a Daddy-and-kids game night with your 7- and newly-minted-4-year-old...
This is way after the fact, but this reminds me that I've been meaning to mention a couple of "non-standard" family games, and just compelling games in general:
We've got a 7, 6, and 5-year-old, who all want to play games together. The 7-year-old loves games like Arcadia Quest, so some of the straightforward "children's games" (like the very good Gulo Gulo) are a bit boring for him right now. But the two younger ones really want to play "for real". So we have two games that are often requested:
* Adventure Land: In my house this is the "fog monster" game. This HABA family game has a very clever abstracty type of movement: as far as you want in a straight line, twice, but you can never move BACK. That is, you start in the upper left and can only move down and/or right. You start with a bunch of "adventurers", and you pick up stuff that's randomly placed during the game, which help you defeat the monsters, which again are placed randomly as the game progresses. There's a couple of elements that have some risk/reward, but a kid can avoid them completely if they're especially risk-averse. But I've found that even the most risk-averse will usually loosen up as they play, seeing that there's not a terrible result if a monster knocks out one of your adventurers.
* Lost Valley: This is one of those games that Tom Vasel had in his top 50 since way back. It's a weird kind of game. It has a TON of different kinds of equipment, goods, rewards, treasures... way more than a little kid can keep track of. But the core "exploration" action has you building the board as you go, and the goal of gathering gold is intuitive and super fun for everybody. But it needs an adult. "I want to cross the river and get that gold!" "Well, you can't, but you DO have enough gold to buy a canoe back at the store." "Ooh, a canoe! I want a canoe!" So with small kids you're sort of pseudo-DM'ing, as you point them towards the things that help them do the things they want to do. Oh, and as an aside, the new version's "standard" rules has a more complicated "treasure from clues" mini-game, but has the instructions for the original, simpler game, and has you leaving out some of the more complicated tiles. Best for littles.
Both of these games have a specific mechanism to get kids, even very young kids, really invested in the game: continual item placement. Maintaining the board state is a central entertaining aspect of these games, and kids just eat it up. They also have simple, intuitive, and meaningful decisions, and quick turns, which is probably not a very surprising way to capture kids' attention.
This also highlights a type of game more generally that I'm really drawn to recently: No personal board or tableau, everybody interacts on a central shared board/space. You win or lose on that board. They tend to be surprisingly easy to teach. Oh, look at that, right now Food Chain Magnate is my #1 game. There is a "tableau" of sorts in that game, true, but it's deliberately torn down and rebuilt every round. The most "thinky" part of the round, choosing your employees, is done with no personal tableaus on the table.
In a similar vein, have I mentioned how good Chinatown is? And Tigris & Euphrates? Concordia? Another good one: the venerable Steam. The game Azul is the exception that kind of proves the rule, because you have individual boards, but the information on other players' boards can be processed in just a glance, so most of the "action" stays in the center where you pick up tiles. And this preference isn't just mine: it took me a while to figure out that Root, while having a more difficult "on-ramp" in asymmetric factions, fits into this category beautifully. I'm excited to see these directions in game design.
It also reminds me why I ended up NOT liking Power Grid and Dominant Species as much as I would have thought: the personal tableaus and endgame scoring often deemphasize the parts I like best: the action on the central board. Keyflower I only played once, loved its take on worker-placement, but got frustrated with how the endgame scoring kind of undermined "winning on the board". I might have had a bad game, though.
So what's your favorite game where the action is all on a central board? Bonus points if there's simple-to-no personal tableaus, and where hidden personal information (e.g. a hand of cards) is not disruptive (e.g. "take that" cards). 2-player games probably shouldn't count, because a game with 2 tableaus is often functionally indistinguishable from a central board. Thinking of Netrunner here. But would love to hear what other people like.
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The newer Lost Valley printing is great, but the rulebook leaves a lot to be desired. I ended up creating some player aids that I find crucial for just answering the "what can I do?" question: https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/102371/lost-valley-player-aid
I also think the "ability" tiles should have been cards, to give room to describe what the ability does right on the card instead of looking it up in the rules. That should have been obvious. I have meant to knock some up myself, but the game hasn't seen table time in a while.
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jergarmarhollow man crewgoes pew pew pewRegistered Userregular
The newer Lost Valley printing is great, but the rulebook leaves a lot to be desired. I ended up creating some player aids that I find crucial for just answering the "what can I do?" question: https://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/102371/lost-valley-player-aid
I also think the "ability" tiles should have been cards, to give room to describe what the ability does right on the card instead of looking it up in the rules. That should have been obvious. I have meant to knock some up myself, but the game hasn't seen table time in a while.
Grrrreat googly moogly, that rulebook. Yeah, you can call them "player aids", or you can call them "essential components left out of the box". It boils down to a nice simple game, especially with the original rules, but the rulebook does an excellent job at obfuscating it.
I also haven't even tried to introduce the ability tiles. I forgot about them completely until you mentioned it.
When I was a child, I had a fever... My BoardGameGeek profile
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CaptainPeacockBoard Game HoarderTop o' the LakeRegistered Userregular
The ones mentioned are big for me. Also, I suppose maybe Archipelago as long as you're not counting too heavily against the few cards people buy.
Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
The ones mentioned are big for me. Also, I suppose maybe Archipelago as long as you're not counting too heavily against the few cards people buy.
Oh my gosh, good call, how did I forget one of my favorite games? It subverts the "personal tableau" in two ways, by the pseudo-cooperative peer pressure of using an advantage for the good of the group, and the significant number of cards usable by anyone at the table.
When I was a child, I had a fever... My BoardGameGeek profile
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CaptainPeacockBoard Game HoarderTop o' the LakeRegistered Userregular
878 Vikings is pretty dang great. No regrets from this buy. Easy to get right into, even for those that don't like wargames. Choices each turn are limited so AP really doesn't have a chance to sink its teeth in. But there is enough choice that very little feels forced or min-maxed.
Plus the dice rolling is savory in a way that Risk only wishes it was.
Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
Is anyone going to Gen Con? If so, I’ll need you to stop by booth #1907 (Fowers Games) and tell Jeff Beck that Ben sent you. My current record is 3 folks at PAX East last year, surely we can do better this year.
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
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Is anyone going to Gen Con? If so, I’ll need you to stop by booth #1907 (Fowers Games) and tell Jeff Beck that Ben sent you. My current record is 3 folks at PAX East last year, surely we can do better this year.
I was going to ask since I did this for you with Tim at PAX South :P
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AthenorBattle Hardened OptimistThe Skies of HiigaraRegistered Userregular
I've had a night to sleep on FFG's In-flight report.
Up-front I admit that I've always been a huge FFG shill. You can tell from my posts around here (when I make them) that I love the company, going back as far as the BSG board game, which introduced me to board games as a hobby.
I don't think I am going to go as doom and gloom as many people I saw (though news of the continued loss of many prominent developers is troubling). But I will say, it was their weakest showing in a while.
1 new board game (a "quick" version of Arkham Horror)
2 X-wing minis
2 Armada "minis"
2 Legion army sets & 2 terrain pieces
1 RPG Sourcebook & GM screen (though the Genesys Forge stuff sounds cool)
1 new Keyforge expansion that we knew we were getting
1 new LCG (admittedly quite excited about this; I love She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel).
and 2 big ads for other Asmodee companies in the form of their new supplies company (that looks like a carbon copy of Ultimate Guard) and a minis company.
It's felt for a while that FFG is kinda getting out of the board game space, and is instead becoming the board game arm of Disney. Last night didn't really help those feelings. The utter lack of acknowledgement of L5R and the briefest of mentions of the Android universe didn't help.
I was actually surprised they revealed the Crab pack the night before. But I was generally cool with what they showed? Maybe they’re taking a bit more measured method to releases.
The bit with the Lesser of the Wills was weird though.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
Fast Arkham Horror sounds maybe alright, but seems like why did they bother making Arkham Horror 3rd edition at that point.
Having gotten to demo it at Connecticon, although 3rd is a lot simpler flow-wise than older editions I don't think it can fairly ve described as fast, so there's sone incentive anyway.
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Do you count LCGs as boardgames? Arkham LCG's campaigns area really fun. Other campaign/legacy games I've enjoyed recently are Scythe: Rise of Fenris, and Aeon's End Legacy.
I am still sad that I haven't been able to put together a regular group for Imperial Assault - it was amazing the few times I managed to get it to the table. Though that game is One vs Many out of the box.
hmm, that reminds me, it's been a few years since they put out an official app companion that was supposed to enable a pure co-op version. I should try that out at some point.
I don't know about "best" but Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle is a good 7-episode run.
Failing that you can easily legacy up Spirit Island by adding more complications (most likely just dialing up the Adversary's level) each time.
It's pretty solid! It will also teach you how to play, so it's great for onboarding newbies.
I've only done a few scenarios for it, but it's on many platforms now too. I should really find some folks to play IA with.
Definitely fun with four. Need a couple more plays to figure out if it has any kind of broken stuff that makes the game feel bad (unlikely?).
It's the kind of game where both sides feel like they get to do unfair things, but that sort of makes it fair. The English are definitely just trying to survive and hold out for the win, whereas the Vikings just go on a warpath every turn to try and decimate the English as much as possible.
Sherlock is bullshit, as promised.
We caught the culprit and answered all but one question correctly, though
Beer is just fantastic overall. It's a crazy resource to wrap your mind around if you're used to the flow of the original. The new way markets and selling works is excellent and makes the whole process more consistent, while the bonuses keep competition important. Diversifying the industries makes the game more daunting, but how that compliments the revised markets is perfect. Pottery is better than shipyards, and Manufacturing is ... well, I find it hard to evaluate considering I built more of them than anyone else. I think Manufacturing kinda comes into its own because it tends to break the rules the other industries play by (sometimes not needing beer to sell, sometimes being worth 0 links), which makes it a lot more nuanced. And topically, things being worth 0 or 1 or 2 links is a HUGE difference, and made rails a lot more interesting. The increased cost of beer for a double-rail felt justified since they were often worth more points compared to Lancashire. The only thing I didn't like about this is that building rail is kind of boring VS building industries, but often industries just aren't worth nearly as many points. More a personal disappointment than a problem, obviously.
Anyway, yeah, I cannot stress how good it feels. You can see the evolution of the original game here, and it's so well done it's crazy to consider we basically only got it because of a diehard fan. :P
Perhaps I can interest you in my meager selection of pins?
Yeah I picked up mansions of madness 2e and haven't played it yet but started up a scenario in the app and it seemed pretty painless in telling you how to set up and do things so if their other games have the same amount of basic work in them it's probably solid
As a complete novice to the Brass world, I *really* enjoyed my first play of Brass:Birmingham, even though we got a bunch of rules wrong.
Very tight economic game, with tons of options. I think one of the big keys to make manufacturing worth investing in is using the 0-link tiles to reduce the value of your opponents' links. In our game, the winner was the person who was most able to capitalize on expanding their link network. I came in close second, trying to figure out how to increase the value on some of my sales, without realizing that the first half of the game is when you should focus on flipping your industry tiles (so that they score twice) and the second half of the game you should focus on trying to maximize links and networking before really doing anything else.
$75 is steep but not outrageous, I suppose. Hmm. It does feel like it would fill a niche in my collection
That is kinda steep for what it is. The metal bits are unnecessary, but it is the "definitive" version so it's going for opulance I guess.
I played it at PAXU and frankly wasn't too impressed. Neat, but not something I enjoyed playing.
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It can be, but they're including ships and crates to make it more interesting.
My cousins in South Carolina growing up played "Fast Uno" where if you have the exact card someone else put down, you can play it out of turn. You could do the same with Draw 2s and Draw 4s, adding to the number of cards drawn. It was ridiculous.
However ...
It's damn good game to play on a Daddy-and-kids game night with your 7- and newly-minted-4-year-old. Each team (me and 4-year-old who did all the rolling! vs. older brother) got their class 1s (Executor vs. Viscount), a class 2 (ImpStar vs. MC80), a class 3 (Lambda-class vs. "Rebel Cruiser" (NebB)), and three randomly-picked class 4s (TIE/sa, TIE/sa, TIE/in vs. Luke Skywalker, B-Wing, Y-Wing).
Lots of dice-rolling, lots of near misses, lots of sneaky math practice, and the game ended when the remaining TIE/sa and TIE/in blew up the Rebel Cruiser while it simultaneously blew them up, meaning everyone won / lost.
Good times.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
The best part is I bet that it was all adorable
So is 7th continent really and it does amazing things with them.
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i have nothing against games that are just decks of cards, but i dont know that import/export ie glory to rome but shipping containers warrants a $75 buy in is all.
It's certainly steep but one of the stretch goals is enough little shipping containers to play Container if you PNP a few cards
Given the fuckup that the last Container release was (low component quality and art in favour of poor quality ships that are the size of a shoe) it's very attractive
This is way after the fact, but this reminds me that I've been meaning to mention a couple of "non-standard" family games, and just compelling games in general:
We've got a 7, 6, and 5-year-old, who all want to play games together. The 7-year-old loves games like Arcadia Quest, so some of the straightforward "children's games" (like the very good Gulo Gulo) are a bit boring for him right now. But the two younger ones really want to play "for real". So we have two games that are often requested:
* Adventure Land: In my house this is the "fog monster" game. This HABA family game has a very clever abstracty type of movement: as far as you want in a straight line, twice, but you can never move BACK. That is, you start in the upper left and can only move down and/or right. You start with a bunch of "adventurers", and you pick up stuff that's randomly placed during the game, which help you defeat the monsters, which again are placed randomly as the game progresses. There's a couple of elements that have some risk/reward, but a kid can avoid them completely if they're especially risk-averse. But I've found that even the most risk-averse will usually loosen up as they play, seeing that there's not a terrible result if a monster knocks out one of your adventurers.
* Lost Valley: This is one of those games that Tom Vasel had in his top 50 since way back. It's a weird kind of game. It has a TON of different kinds of equipment, goods, rewards, treasures... way more than a little kid can keep track of. But the core "exploration" action has you building the board as you go, and the goal of gathering gold is intuitive and super fun for everybody. But it needs an adult. "I want to cross the river and get that gold!" "Well, you can't, but you DO have enough gold to buy a canoe back at the store." "Ooh, a canoe! I want a canoe!" So with small kids you're sort of pseudo-DM'ing, as you point them towards the things that help them do the things they want to do. Oh, and as an aside, the new version's "standard" rules has a more complicated "treasure from clues" mini-game, but has the instructions for the original, simpler game, and has you leaving out some of the more complicated tiles. Best for littles.
Both of these games have a specific mechanism to get kids, even very young kids, really invested in the game: continual item placement. Maintaining the board state is a central entertaining aspect of these games, and kids just eat it up. They also have simple, intuitive, and meaningful decisions, and quick turns, which is probably not a very surprising way to capture kids' attention.
This also highlights a type of game more generally that I'm really drawn to recently: No personal board or tableau, everybody interacts on a central shared board/space. You win or lose on that board. They tend to be surprisingly easy to teach. Oh, look at that, right now Food Chain Magnate is my #1 game. There is a "tableau" of sorts in that game, true, but it's deliberately torn down and rebuilt every round. The most "thinky" part of the round, choosing your employees, is done with no personal tableaus on the table.
In a similar vein, have I mentioned how good Chinatown is? And Tigris & Euphrates? Concordia? Another good one: the venerable Steam. The game Azul is the exception that kind of proves the rule, because you have individual boards, but the information on other players' boards can be processed in just a glance, so most of the "action" stays in the center where you pick up tiles. And this preference isn't just mine: it took me a while to figure out that Root, while having a more difficult "on-ramp" in asymmetric factions, fits into this category beautifully. I'm excited to see these directions in game design.
It also reminds me why I ended up NOT liking Power Grid and Dominant Species as much as I would have thought: the personal tableaus and endgame scoring often deemphasize the parts I like best: the action on the central board. Keyflower I only played once, loved its take on worker-placement, but got frustrated with how the endgame scoring kind of undermined "winning on the board". I might have had a bad game, though.
So what's your favorite game where the action is all on a central board? Bonus points if there's simple-to-no personal tableaus, and where hidden personal information (e.g. a hand of cards) is not disruptive (e.g. "take that" cards). 2-player games probably shouldn't count, because a game with 2 tableaus is often functionally indistinguishable from a central board. Thinking of Netrunner here. But would love to hear what other people like.
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I also think the "ability" tiles should have been cards, to give room to describe what the ability does right on the card instead of looking it up in the rules. That should have been obvious. I have meant to knock some up myself, but the game hasn't seen table time in a while.
Grrrreat googly moogly, that rulebook. Yeah, you can call them "player aids", or you can call them "essential components left out of the box". It boils down to a nice simple game, especially with the original rules, but the rulebook does an excellent job at obfuscating it.
I also haven't even tried to introduce the ability tiles. I forgot about them completely until you mentioned it.
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Oh my gosh, good call, how did I forget one of my favorite games? It subverts the "personal tableau" in two ways, by the pseudo-cooperative peer pressure of using an advantage for the good of the group, and the significant number of cards usable by anyone at the table.
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Plus the dice rolling is savory in a way that Risk only wishes it was.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
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Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
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You can find me at Grand Gamers Guild (#2108) or Green Couch Games (#2110) in the Family Fun Pavilion.
I was going to ask since I did this for you with Tim at PAX South :P
Up-front I admit that I've always been a huge FFG shill. You can tell from my posts around here (when I make them) that I love the company, going back as far as the BSG board game, which introduced me to board games as a hobby.
I don't think I am going to go as doom and gloom as many people I saw (though news of the continued loss of many prominent developers is troubling). But I will say, it was their weakest showing in a while.
1 new board game (a "quick" version of Arkham Horror)
2 X-wing minis
2 Armada "minis"
2 Legion army sets & 2 terrain pieces
1 RPG Sourcebook & GM screen (though the Genesys Forge stuff sounds cool)
1 new Keyforge expansion that we knew we were getting
1 new LCG (admittedly quite excited about this; I love She-Hulk and Ms. Marvel).
and 2 big ads for other Asmodee companies in the form of their new supplies company (that looks like a carbon copy of Ultimate Guard) and a minis company.
It's felt for a while that FFG is kinda getting out of the board game space, and is instead becoming the board game arm of Disney. Last night didn't really help those feelings. The utter lack of acknowledgement of L5R and the briefest of mentions of the Android universe didn't help.
The bit with the Lesser of the Wills was weird though.
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Having gotten to demo it at Connecticon, although 3rd is a lot simpler flow-wise than older editions I don't think it can fairly ve described as fast, so there's sone incentive anyway.