Such a good game for that. I think there is more fun just chatting and having a good time than what Talisman really provides even though I really enjoy it.
I do the same with video games sometimes. The game may be ok but its boosted by playing with friends and having a good time.
This is why I love beer and pretzels board games. Easy to get into and easy to play with friends chatting, drinking a cold drink and all having a good time
I got ahold of Riftbreakers 2nd Ed by Blackoath Games and yea I am into this. I started reading (And writing about it) yesterday and I hopefully will be able to start playing, maybe tonight.
We’ve been messing with Pandora Celeste this week. It’s kind of like if Nemesis was more focused on creating thematic stories/events. You need to work together to stop whatever random ship protocols are triggered before they kill you (they all take extreme measures to save company property without regard to employee safety) while fighting off various sci-fi space monsters and trying to achieve your own personal goal and escape the ship. It’s got a wide assortment of enemies, emergency protocols, and personal agendas to keep each game feeling fresh. There’s both a solo and true solo mode in addition to the main semi-coop mode, though I assume you give up a lot of the agendas pitting you against other players’ interests in regular solo (playing multi-handed), unless you’re just going to orchestrate the characters stories and play them out backstabbing one another when appropriate. Honestly, solo modes are probably even more undercooked than the rest of the game.
And unfortunately after 4 learn-to-play scenarios, rules explanations from the designer, and a full game played it still feels like we’re constantly just guessing with a lot of the rules. It’s not a very mechanically tight game and does have a lot of rules that often don’t seem to have enough explanation regarding the various fringe circumstances they come up in. And the fringe circumstances seem to occur quite frequently as various game elements collide. When things are questionable the rules and designer will tell you to do whatever makes for a more cinematic outcome, but I’m not convinced that’s always a great choice for a semi-coop… Where you feel like you might be fudging rules while screwing over other players.
Ultimately we are having a fun time. But a I’m not sure this is the game we’d go for to teach a 3rd how to play. Maybe if the rules got some more refinement passes? And in the long run it’s not going to be able to compete for table time with our other games.
But here’s a pic of the board (which is also the game’s box unfolded). In this game we triggered an enemy much like Star Trek’s tribbles after stopping the ship from venting all the ships oxygen into space (presumably to kill off said tribbles), while simultaneously trying to stop the ship’s AI from attacking us in an attempt keep us from rebooting its computer. All the little pink tokens are the aforementioned ‘tribbles’ that this game calls “fluffies”. There are acrylic standees for most of the other big bads, but not this one. And we hadn’t gotten into the back of the ship yet so that section is pretty undisturbed (if you never go there things don’t really occur). Later in this game we also triggered an enemy based on the predator to hunt us down. And there’s always an assortment of xenomorph-like bug monsters around. The various enemies will attack each other too though. So that’s nice. We did both die in this game, but I managed to make the ship self-destruct so everything died with us. Half-win!
EDIT: Played another game tonight and it went a bit smoother. I think if you were dedicated to playing this frequently enough that you hit a point where you’ve chosen what to do at all the ambiguous points already then it would be a decent game. But I’m not sure that we’ll end up putting in enough time for that. A 2nd edition with more refined rules would be nice.
Just replying to my own take on Pandora Celeste.
The more we play the more I’m moving past its faults and enjoying the stories it makes. Games vary quite a bit in difficulty. But it’s all just part of the story for that session.
Yeah, the rules don’t always feel fully fleshed out, but we’re getting better at quickly determining how they should be played.
Certainly not one of our top tier games, but I’m growing an appreciation for it.
A couple of after dinner games of Paperbag Dungeon. I think I’ll need to print out the errata rules for this one.
We are at the point with AI generation that any board game can come alive. Point your phone at a card, prompt it with the scenerio and bam… Testing it while playing Vantage. First card onl5 so no spoilers…
(Can’t upload videos so here is a YouTube link)
Playing Fate: Defenders of Grimheim.
It’s like a turn-based MOBA game where you pick a hero and try to defend a village from incoming hordes. Each faction of enemies has 3 tiers of monsters and a couple potential Legendaries that can come in. And heroes have a slew of ways to upgrade by spending experience/gold. The art’s a bit on the cartoonish side but I quite like it. And humor abounds.
There’s only a 12 page rulebook and a small FAQ/Errata document (translated to English on BGG). But the game is quite variable and more importantly, really fun. We played a handful of games on the longer length and died every time. There’s a shorter timer you can play on where we actually have a hope of winning. But maybe if we have a bit more experience we’ll start winning the harder one.
It also plays real quick so every loss just rolls into us wanting to immediately set it back up for another try.
EDIT: We did win on the longer track last night. And it felt so satisfying! Love this game.
I ordered this but sadly USPS lost it and kinds bummed. Will have to reorder a KS copy
I am now currently playing Ruthless Heavens, Boundless Fate by Blackoath Games and having a grand time.
Looks pretty at least Daniel!
OK. So I kind of like Trudvang Legends! It’s not nearly the train wreck I heard that it was. I’ve employed two simple house rules that make the game a bit easier and more fun, and I had a really fun time playing through the first mission. I only unlocked 6 of the 12 points of interest, so there also seems to be a bit of replay value. For the next game, I can now choose to go onto a main story, or I can choose to do a sidequest.
I also like that the missions are relatively short, especially for solo play.
That’s really interesting!
Oh, that’s terrible. I didn’t even know anything about it until it came in, because my wife backed it. Was a surprise hit for me!
How did you like it over the original Talisman, if you have played that?
I recently played the prologue of Earthborne Rangers and I agree with the reviewers that pointed out the difficulty of getting into it at first. I also agree that getting past the initial difficulty to the game itself is absolutely worth it!
Also played a little bit of Vantage, although time limits interfered with completing our initial run. I have since begun a solo run and have enjoyed it!
I’d easily recommend both games to anyone (well, I’d recommend they check out reviews and playthroughs anyway)
Talisman (of all flavors) is a favorite among my crew. In the past 3 years, we’ve played 44 games of Talisman 4th edition, 20 games of 5th edition and 15 games of 3rd edition plus various offshoots & IP-reskins.
My personal favorite will always be 3rd edition because it’s dripping with 90’s Games Workshop campiness. My group’s favorite is 4th because it’s what we started with and we love the variety the various expansions provide.
When it comes to to the IP-reskins. They are 100% Talisman, so it’s difficult to say we like any of the IP-reskins more than the original. We play the reskins like we play the expansions for 4th edition - when we are looking for some variety. We try to play Star Wars Talisman every May 4th. We try to play Harry Potter Talisman around X-Mas time.
So, do we like Talisman? Yes. The reskins though, while fun, are a step below the original.
That’s awesome ha. I need to join your group! Yeah I love Talisman and always hard finding a group that will play it quite a bit.
