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[Board Games] Pandemic in a Pandemic

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  • PMAversPMAvers Registered User regular
    Also, in case anyone's interested, apparently a Betrayal 3e is dropping this summer.

    A couple of interesting points is that there's rules to let someone opt-out of being the traitor in case they're not comfortable being it, all the haunts are new, and apparently they're actually going to be treating it like a game line and have expansions come out for it.

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  • ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
    Betrayal has a lot of problems, but my experience is that 95% of them are a direct result of how incredibly badly the rules are written for every part of the game - from the core rules of play to each side of every haunt. They leave so much up in the air, and often at the moment where it also pits players against each other and then suddenly demands you collectively agree on how to play the game.
    Hopefully the 3rd edition gets a decent rules rewrite that makes the game actually enjoyable most of the time. <_<

  • MagellMagell Detroit Machine Guns Fort MyersRegistered User regular
    The item cards are probably the most confusing part of the rules currently so they could definitely use an upgrade.

    Some of the scenarios are just brutally in favor of the traitor that it just felt wrong. Generally I've had fun playing the game except in the brutally one sided games, but even those have some fun moments when a player struggles against the traitor minions.

  • CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    Betrayal has a lot of problems, but my experience is that 95% of them are a direct result of how incredibly badly the rules are written for every part of the game - from the core rules of play to each side of every haunt. They leave so much up in the air, and often at the moment where it also pits players against each other and then suddenly demands you collectively agree on how to play the game.
    Hopefully the 3rd edition gets a decent rules rewrite that makes the game actually enjoyable most of the time. <_<

    They Legacy version (so far, we're like 7 or something games in) seems to be a good deal better-thought-out. One or two of the haunts came out feeling lopsided just due to board state but none of them have been outright busted and we've had relatively few instances of not understanding how a rule was supposed to work or be applied. I wouldn't call the rules tight but they feel much less of a mess than any game of the 1st edition I've played. There are also a number of small but impactful changes to the base gameplay in the Legacy version I can see them carrying through to a 3rd edition.

    Unrelated: We played a game of Palace of Mad King Ludwig last night. It's different enough from Castles to feel like its own game while also sharing enough elements to feel familiar. If you like Castles or Between Two Castles and just want more Mad King Ludwig I'd generally recommend it...
    Except the component quality is just awful. The game is mostly square cardboard tiles and chits. The thickness of the sheets wasn't consistent (to the point where some tiles looked like they were two tiles stuck together, they were so much thicker). The print color varies enough between sheets it wasn't always obvious whether a given room was orange, yellow, or brown from across the table. And the perforation was pretty bad. A number of tiles didn't punch out cleanly so have torn art on one the back side and some of the smaller shaped token chits aren't quite shaped correctly. One of the other gamers in my group commented that he thought they spent all their budget on the box art, which kinda feels accurate.

    PSN,Steam,Live | CptHamiltonian
  • VyolynceVyolynce Registered User regular
    Weird. My friend owns Palace and I don't recall any of those issues. Although TBF it's been a while since we last played.

  • CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    Vyolynce wrote: »
    Weird. My friend owns Palace and I don't recall any of those issues. Although TBF it's been a while since we last played.

    Maybe I just got a bad copy? Or a second production run or something.

    PSN,Steam,Live | CptHamiltonian
  • FryFry Registered User regular
    One of my "favorite" memories of Betrayal is getting a haunt where the goal is to defeat the demon lord, but there are no stats for the demon lord or indeed any mention of how to defeat the demon lord in either book

  • CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    Fry wrote: »
    One of my "favorite" memories of Betrayal is getting a haunt where the goal is to defeat the demon lord, but there are no stats for the demon lord or indeed any mention of how to defeat the demon lord in either book

    The Legacy haunt books are so much better organized. It tells you "This is what both the traitor and the survivors know", has a box that explicitly tells you "This is how you win", then breaks down each special action you need to (or optionally can) take into its own little box. I think there's only been two haunts where it was "Kill everybody" and even then every non-player character has a printed stat-block so the specific haunts don't have to.

    PSN,Steam,Live | CptHamiltonian
  • ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
    Fry wrote: »
    One of my "favorite" memories of Betrayal is getting a haunt where the goal is to defeat the demon lord, but there are no stats for the demon lord or indeed any mention of how to defeat the demon lord in either book
    I really wish this was the game being subtly clever and hinting that "You can't defeat the demon lord. You are going to die in this house." but that'd definitely be giving it too much credit. :P

  • webguy20webguy20 I spend too much time on the Internet Registered User regular
    edited March 2022
    We're playing Betrayal Legacy and finding it has some of the same issues that core betrayal has. Unclear rules, the haunt start mechanic is still too random. We've had two haunts in our 6 games so far where there were just a handful of tiles, and goddamn it on the numbers tokens they didn't think to put lines under the 9 and 6. That messed up one of our games at the end.

    Overall its Betrayal, and the Legacy stuff is kinda fun, but Our king of Legacy games so far is still King's Dilemma, with Pandemic season 1 and Risk Legacy vying for 2nd. Though to be fair, King's Dilemma is INCREDIBLY dependent on having the right group of folks to play, and we lucked into that.

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  • CptHamiltonCptHamilton Registered User regular
    webguy20 wrote: »
    We're playing Betrayal Legacy and finding it has some of the same issues that core betrayal has. Unclear rules, the haunt start mechanic is still too random. We've had two haunts in our 6 games so far where there were just a handful of tiles, and goddamn it on the numbers tokens they didn't think to put lines under the 9 and 6. That messed up one of our games at the end.

    Overall its Betrayal, and the Legacy stuff is kinda fun, but Our king of Legacy games so far is still King's Dilemma, with Pandemic season 1 and Risk Legacy vying for 2nd. Though to be fair, King's Dilemma is INCREDIBLY dependent on having the right group of folks to play, and we lucked into that.

    It's certainly possible to get unlucky on the haunts but it does at least make it harder for the haunt to start super early. Regular Betrayal is, I think, "Roll 5(?) dice and get below the number of omens - haunt starts". Legacy replaces that with "Roll 1 die per omen, get above a fixed number (seems to be 5 now that we have more than 5 total omens). Or, draw an omen and there are no more to draw." It's impossible to start the haunt on the first 2 omens and only starts to get likely after the 4th or 5th, so the haunt only starts super early if you just bad-luck into drawing a bunch of omens all at once.

    I'm not really sure how I'd go about fixing that, from an armchair game dev standpoint, given the constraints of the existing exploration system and tying the haunt selection to the tile where it starts.

    PSN,Steam,Live | CptHamiltonian
  • KandenKanden Registered User regular
    I got some sleeves for my Marvel United pledge coming later this month, I went all in all in, I'm not sure I fully realized exactly what I was getting into lol, the box arrived, and the sleeves ALONE are over 10 pounds if this packing label is to be believed.

  • AthenorAthenor Battle Hardened Optimist The Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
    Kanden wrote: »
    I got some sleeves for my Marvel United pledge coming later this month, I went all in all in, I'm not sure I fully realized exactly what I was getting into lol, the box arrived, and the sleeves ALONE are over 10 pounds if this packing label is to be believed.

    ... I should do a rough estimate on how much I've spent on sleeves in the last decade.

    Hell, I used to think Arkham 2nd was my most sleeved game, but I'm pretty sure that Mansions of Madness, Arkham LCG, Red Dragon Inn, and Power Rangers have all eclipsed it.

    afZPzCjl.jpg

    (I haven't looked at this game in a long time...)

    He/Him | "We who believe in freedom cannot rest." - Dr. Johnetta Cole, 7/22/2024
  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    I have never not had fun playing Betrayal, bugs and all. It's a wonderful game and Legacy is the bomb diggity.

  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    no YOU shut up!

  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    We played At The Gates Of Loyang last night and it was really fun.





    thats it thats the post

  • DoctorArchDoctorArch Curmudgeon Registered User regular
    Magic Pink wrote: »
    We played At The Gates Of Loyang last night and it was really fun.





    thats it thats the post

    Uwe Rosenberg is a treasure.

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  • Magic PinkMagic Pink Tur-Boner-Fed Registered User regular
    DoctorArch wrote: »
    Magic Pink wrote: »
    We played At The Gates Of Loyang last night and it was really fun.





    thats it thats the post

    Uwe Rosenberg is a treasure.

    he wasn't there

  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    Anyone in the loop on how digital Game of Thrones and Blood Rage are doing? Were they ever fixed?

  • CaptainPeacockCaptainPeacock Board Game Hoarder Top o' the LakeRegistered User regular
    Just grinded out two 90 minutes games of Netrunner and I'm ready for a 3rd.

    Send help.

    Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
  • CaptainPeacockCaptainPeacock Board Game Hoarder Top o' the LakeRegistered User regular
    edited March 2022
    I deed it and won!

    2/3 games taken tonight. This last one was my NBN deck that focuses on tags. My opponent had 14 tags by the end of it, running HQ (an empty pond) and R&D to no avail. I had Colossus protecting both and at that point he had nothing installed and didn't care anymore.

    CaptainPeacock on
    Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
  • AmarylAmaryl Registered User regular
    MrBody wrote: »
    Anyone in the loop on how digital Game of Thrones and Blood Rage are doing? Were they ever fixed?

    Blood rage was a mess a month ago. you can't even play a single player game without it bugging out.

    Game of Thrones is "playable", but it still has the supply movement bug, but i haven't seen a game where someone didn't rage quit in the first two turns.

  • Ah_PookAh_Pook Registered User regular
    edited March 2022
    If any of y'all are looking to get into Marvel Champions I'm looking to get out. Have everything released through War Machine (so everything minus Vision and Valkyrie as of right now), in a storage box i customized, with dividers and sleeves. Looking for $475 shipped, message me if you're interested.

    Edit: also includes a promo playmat and the first 4 full art promo hero cards

    Ah_Pook on
  • ChiselphaneChiselphane Registered User regular
    I actually played a board game! Got a decent deal on Everdell + Bellfaire expansion. Played a game of plain Everdell with fiancee and youngest son and it went over really well. Looking forward to more, I think we'll stick with plain for a while before expanding in order to really get a handle on good strategies etc.

    Printed up some walnut shell holders for the excellent resource components, too.

  • ArcSynArcSyn Registered User regular
    Got to play Alchemists for the first time tonight.

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    At first this game was pretty well destined for the trade pile. I was enjoying it but most were struggling with the concepts.

    By the second to last and last round everyone understood it a lot more and during final scoring they were pretty good with the idea of replaying again another night to use their understanding and try again.

    We then played Forbidden Sky three times. We hadn't played it together before, but each played at least once prior. Lost the first two times very quickly to lightning strikes, then tried the third time to stay off electrified areas and did a mad dash of wires at the end and won!

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  • Virgil_Leads_YouVirgil_Leads_You Proud Father House GardenerRegistered User regular
    Magic Pink wrote: »
    I have never not had fun playing Betrayal, bugs and all. It's a wonderful game and Legacy is the bomb diggity.

    That's awesome. I'm glad you had such a rad experience with it. Would agree that Legacy is probably the most fun I've had with it.

    I think it really matters who you play this one with. Spoilers for 4 am Betrayal thoughts.
    I've had as many extremely miserable times playing as I have had a good time, but that's in part being a local boardgame ambassador.
    As the friendly one who plays the games a newcomer brings to a group, I won't deny a cursing deep in my heart as I see it pulled out of a bag.
    I do like to make my own fun using the pre-haunt as a moment to roleplay and have a shared experience exploring a weird house, but that's not gonna be everyone's bag. So I quickly take my turn and comment on the weird dagger found in the chapel, next to the kitchen with a spooky ghost and make the best of it.

    Some folk are gonna just use the ambiguous of the rules to cheat, or to rules lawyer, or mansplain and quarterback, etc...
    Some players are going to come up with a surefire strategy to "win" that will involve everyone else dead and bored while 2 remaining players shuffle around the map collecting items and avoiding any conflict for 3 hours.

    Legacy is remarkably better, and for me half of it was because the players weren't from a pickup game, but a planned thing with specific people.
    Would say the odds of running into a poorly designed haunt went from 5/10 from the original game, to about 2/10, and they generally at least had some useful timer to end the stinkers of a haunt.
    Lots of help too for building a story in that legacy game for pulling out new tiles, items, etc, and aiding the roleplay side of things.

    That said, there are people you can have a terrible time playing betrayal with, who are great fun at a different game. Don't wanna imply that the people in various groups might suck. They might just suck for betrayal because of the inherent problems with the game.

    VayBJ4e.png
  • Virgil_Leads_YouVirgil_Leads_You Proud Father House GardenerRegistered User regular
    Amaryl wrote: »
    MrBody wrote: »
    Anyone in the loop on how digital Game of Thrones and Blood Rage are doing? Were they ever fixed?

    Blood rage was a mess a month ago. you can't even play a single player game without it bugging out.

    Game of Thrones is "playable", but it still has the supply movement bug, but i haven't seen a game where someone didn't rage quit in the first two turns.

    I played Game of Thrones somewhat recently and we had an incredible bug where me and another player kept co-control of a castle territory. It counted for both of our totals and our units were placed in the same area. Our orders in the region would alternate. Was kind of hilarious not gonna lie, but it meant about halfway through, the game went from a semi-serious endeavor to "how can we continue to break this, what even is going on here, laughing" .

    VayBJ4e.png
  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    Amaryl wrote: »
    MrBody wrote: »
    Anyone in the loop on how digital Game of Thrones and Blood Rage are doing? Were they ever fixed?

    Blood rage was a mess a month ago. you can't even play a single player game without it bugging out.

    Game of Thrones is "playable", but it still has the supply movement bug, but i haven't seen a game where someone didn't rage quit in the first two turns.

    I played Game of Thrones somewhat recently and we had an incredible bug where me and another player kept co-control of a castle territory. It counted for both of our totals and our units were placed in the same area. Our orders in the region would alternate. Was kind of hilarious not gonna lie, but it meant about halfway through, the game went from a semi-serious endeavor to "how can we continue to break this, what even is going on here, laughing" .

    Had a game last night of "Ancient Terrors" (the copyright be damned Android version of Eldritch Horror) and we had a hilarious bug. My friend was lost in time and space, for which they show your investigator floating around a space backdrop on an asteroid. Some bug hit where not only did that background continue for all their future encounters, but they showed up floating around the globe board. Not only that, but every turn another copy of them appeared. Near the end of the game, there were a dozen copies of him on asteroids flying all around the board. It became a game of dexterity as we'd try to click on locations without hitting one of the swarm of space Trish Scarboroughs flying around everywhere.

  • Virgil_Leads_YouVirgil_Leads_You Proud Father House GardenerRegistered User regular
    haha thats amazing

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  • WitchsightWitchsight Registered User regular
    edited March 2022
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    Played our first game of Radlands this weekend! It looks rad, was easy to set up, and we always had options to screw each others plans. I got a sudden win when my opponent tried to wipe the board and left her camps unattended.
    We tried the sample set up with recommended camps, it was a nice way to get used to the abilities. Eager to try again with random camps.

    Witchsight on
    Witchsight.png
  • MrBodyMrBody Registered User regular
    Whatever happened to Keyforge? Is that still a thing that people care about?

  • VyolynceVyolynce Registered User regular
    MrBody wrote: »
    Whatever happened to Keyforge? Is that still a thing that people care about?

    IIRC they hit major production problems, and not (just) due to Covid. The program to make it needs to be completely rebuilt.

    https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2021/9/10/down-but-not-out/

  • ArcticLancerArcticLancer Best served chilled. Registered User regular
    edited March 2022
    Vyolynce wrote: »
    MrBody wrote: »
    Whatever happened to Keyforge? Is that still a thing that people care about?

    IIRC they hit major production problems, and not (just) due to Covid. The program to make it needs to be completely rebuilt.

    https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2021/9/10/down-but-not-out/
    This feels absurd and I wish we could have more details. I care not for Keyforge, but declaring "Algorithm broken and will take a long time to fix" is absolute madness coming from a tech background. Like, how is that something a decent engineer couldn't solve within a month? Also, had it always been broken or what? :|

    ArcticLancer on
  • JonBobJonBob Registered User regular
    Yeah, an algorithm isn’t something that becomes broken. The statement always struck me as marketing half-translating a real issue, and/or making techy words up.

    Not unlike everything Kickstarter has said about blockchain technology, really.

    jswidget.php?username=JonBob&numitems=10&header=1&text=none&images=small&show=recentplays&imagesonly=1&imagepos=right&inline=1&domains%5B%5D=boardgame&imagewidget=1
  • AthenorAthenor Battle Hardened Optimist The Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
    Vyolynce wrote: »
    MrBody wrote: »
    Whatever happened to Keyforge? Is that still a thing that people care about?

    IIRC they hit major production problems, and not (just) due to Covid. The program to make it needs to be completely rebuilt.

    https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2021/9/10/down-but-not-out/
    This feels absurd and I wish we could have more details. I care not for Keyforge, but declaring "Algorithm broken and will take a long time to fix" is absolute madness coming from a tech background. Like, how is that something a decent engineer couldn't solve within a month? Also, had it always been broken or what? :|

    First off, and I really need to stress that this is nothing against the programmers they hire, but FFG/Asmodee has always been REALLY bad at tech. It's just such an afterthought for them, from their website to how they make their apps and games, to how much they charge for such things. I have to imagine it is due to not funding the process enough, because more often than not the fanbase is able to make better product. I mean, hell.. during the height of their competitive LCG days, they did nothing to capitalize on playing online to spread the games.

    With Keyforge itself, I have to assume the issue is with reprinting. I assume they either had some kind of a seed or database or something that prevented them from reprinting decks, and either they lost that info and can't reliably do it, or the way they kept adding to its complexity with newer sets made it impossible. Who knows if it would just be like "use these cards only" and then break when for whatever reason a maverick card was introduced that was in a newer set.

    It further didn't help that FFG had absolutely no clue how to do organized play support for the game. After all, it's kind of hard to toss out alt arts of cards that are unique. Frankly, Keyforge would be PERFECT as a digital game... but... see above.

    He/Him | "We who believe in freedom cannot rest." - Dr. Johnetta Cole, 7/22/2024
  • Ah_PookAh_Pook Registered User regular
    Any of y'all that liked Keyforge check out Solforge Fusion. It's super fun. Basically you get 2 procedurally generated half decks per pack, and you can mash any two half decks together to play with. Team Covenant has been doing some good streams if it lately.

    Full disclosure, one of my friends is one of the main people behind it so I might not be fully objective. But! I do think it's a really fun game of you like that kind of dueling card game :)

  • AthenorAthenor Battle Hardened Optimist The Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
    Ah_Pook wrote: »
    Any of y'all that liked Keyforge check out Solforge Fusion. It's super fun. Basically you get 2 procedurally generated half decks per pack, and you can mash any two half decks together to play with. Team Covenant has been doing some good streams if it lately.

    Full disclosure, one of my friends is one of the main people behind it so I might not be fully objective. But! I do think it's a really fun game of you like that kind of dueling card game :)

    Not gonna lie, I keep looking at the stuff Covenant's been backing/supporting and going... do I dare? Luckily I've been kept away by not having any kind of local card scene for the last few years, despite my best attempts.


    .. Well, I guess that isn't true. Magic, Digimon, Pokemon, and Force of Will are big around here.

    He/Him | "We who believe in freedom cannot rest." - Dr. Johnetta Cole, 7/22/2024
  • VyolynceVyolynce Registered User regular
    JonBob wrote: »
    Yeah, an algorithm isn’t something that becomes broken. The statement always struck me as marketing half-translating a real issue, and/or making techy words up.

    Well there's also this comment on Reddit:
    At the risk of spreading rumors, I've heard that 'broken' actually means, "deliberately erased and saved over by a disgruntled employee that got laid off."

    FFG has a history of doing really shitty layoffs for bad reasons and doing them poorly, and there have been rumors supposedly from people who used to work there that someone deliberately whacked the algorithm as a parting gift to management who fired them.

  • AthenorAthenor Battle Hardened Optimist The Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
    Okay, I would 100% believe that.

    He/Him | "We who believe in freedom cannot rest." - Dr. Johnetta Cole, 7/22/2024
  • AthenorAthenor Battle Hardened Optimist The Skies of HiigaraRegistered User regular
    Speaking of the rise and fall of FFG...

    I just picked up Dark Horse's "The Art of the Android Universe." Which... well, might as well be "The Art of Netrunner," but that's okay. There are some things from Android, Infiltration, Mainframe, and the novels... but not a ton. It really is just a gorgeous gallery of the card game's art.

    I miss that game. I keep saying I should get into Nisei, but I don't really have anyone to play with. L5R is getting a similar treatment, as the Emerald Legacy project seems to be picking up steam.

    He/Him | "We who believe in freedom cannot rest." - Dr. Johnetta Cole, 7/22/2024
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