The Board Game Thread

Fed up talking videogames? Why?

Do you play board games?

Hells yeah! I'm a board game geek!
53
46%
I don't but would like to get into them...
36
32%
You mean, like Snakes & Ladders? :shifty:
20
18%
No way! They're for nerds!
5
4%
 
Total votes: 114
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smurphy
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by smurphy » Wed Jul 05, 2017 4:41 pm

We just did The House Always Wins and I'd have to say it's perhaps the worst designed one we've played so far.

After the first monster appeared we killed it right away, then slowly the doom crept up without us drawing any more enemies besides rats. Then the place collapsed around us for no reason. :|


And Taf, Tales from the Loop looks awesome. I really want to play but I'm not 100% on my DMing ability and I don't know who I'd play it with.

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Hexx » Wed Jul 05, 2017 4:43 pm

I don't remember any problems with the house always wins (I went there second and searched the back).

I liked it, and the use of "aloof/hunter" as you were watched in the main casino and had to avoid detection.

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by smurphy » Wed Jul 05, 2017 4:55 pm

Yeah it started off really cool. It seemed like we just got a pretty 'bad' run of encounter cards, which kind of jarred with what was happening according to the agenda deck. Was a shame because the other scenario was great and we did really well.

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Tragic Magic
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Tragic Magic » Wed Jul 05, 2017 4:56 pm

I'm new to DMing myself, with only 4 sessions under my belt, but I would say to let go of any inhibitions. Not sure how comfortable you are performing in front of your friends but I would absolutely insist that you get into the character of your NPCs and really make them unique from each other, using your voice and body language. It'll engage the players much more and also encourage any shy players to also try roleplaying their characters more.

If like me, the idea of that scares you at first, you may, also like me, find that just giving it a go and rolling with it feels really liberating and gives you a massive confidence boost when you see everyone around the table smiling, laughing and hanging on to every word.

Fingers crossed your players also show you the same respect you'll show them. In our last session, one of the players who isn't very good, kept talking over me about gooseberry fool that had nothing to do with the game. Which kept breaking the flow. They're obviously a friend so it's kind of awkward telling them to stop acting the dick but gooseberry fool like that needs cutting out. Especially when it damages the other players fun.

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Tafdolphin » Wed Jul 05, 2017 7:58 pm

smurphy wrote:We just did The House Always Wins and I'd have to say it's perhaps the worst designed one we've played so far.

After the first monster appeared we killed it right away, then slowly the doom crept up without us drawing any more enemies besides rats. Then the place collapsed around us for no reason. :|


And Taf, Tales from the Loop looks awesome. I really want to play but I'm not 100% on my DMing ability and I don't know who I'd play it with.


That's super odd as House was far and away my favourite scenario. The mechanic of the Pit Boss following you around all suspicious until all hell breaks loose was great, and as far as I remember after the monster was taken care of we made good our escape with the Professor.


Tragic Magic wrote:I'm new to DMing myself, with only 4 sessions under my belt, but I would say to let go of any inhibitions. Not sure how comfortable you are performing in front of your friends but I would absolutely insist that you get into the character of your NPCs and really make them unique from each other, using your voice and body language. It'll engage the players much more and also encourage any shy players to also try roleplaying their characters more.

If like me, the idea of that scares you at first, you may, also like me, find that just giving it a go and rolling with it feels really liberating and gives you a massive confidence boost when you see everyone around the table smiling, laughing and hanging on to every word.

Fingers crossed your players also show you the same respect you'll show them. In our last session, one of the players who isn't very good, kept talking over me about gooseberry fool that had nothing to do with the game. Which kept breaking the flow. They're obviously a friend so it's kind of awkward telling them to stop acting the dick but gooseberry fool like that needs cutting out. Especially when it damages the other players fun.


Yeah, had that in my first ever game as a player: the DMs cat kept wandering in so people would break off to pet it. Ruined the mood somewhat. Still, I'm looking forward to it; got my basic story planned, just need to flesh it out now!


EDIT: Urgh, spent all night planning stuff. It's strawberry floating hard. Got one scene and associated clues done but having problems linking the general narrative together. Hum.

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Hexx » Sun Jul 09, 2017 7:25 pm

The Dunwich Legacy 6/6 : Lost in Time and Space

So the journey ends....7 months and many reaches into the mythos bag.

The story still doesn't feel particularly satisfying (some of the pay offs for early choices are "take a horror" style) but the mechanics in this are solid.

It's effectively a race against time - both doom and horror - which given you're beyond time and space is appropriate.

It's all about spawning locations, despawning as needed. Keeping track of doom (on mythos cards, locations and creatures), horror and creatures. There's a lot going on here as you rush to make sense of the strange dimension you're in - and the gameplay managed to reflect that. It's still all about clues - but here you're charting the unknown.

Ending spoilers

Managed to win after battled to get to the edge of the universe - but could make a way to the path home. Locations coming and going and trying to keep the routes you need connected was an interesting choice. I couldn't make a path to tear in time with horror/doom stacking up (and Yog-soroth entering play)

Feels like a solid ending. The world didn't die


Really liked this and interested to see where to go from here. Tempted to build a new deck and replay. Not sure I can see any other investigator being as solid as PEte for solo

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Tragic Magic » Fri Jul 14, 2017 10:37 pm

Played my second game of Jolly Rodger tonight and it's really very fun. I like how everyone just naturally ends up playing the character of a pirate on a ship, trying to gain favour with the captain (or with other crew mates in order to call a successful mutiny). I was doing so well at about the half way point. I'd just been made the quarter master and was in the running to win, having the most gold, but then a mutiny was called and I picked the wrong side. All my gold and the captain's gold was collected and re-distributed. I ended up coming last with no gold but a keg of rum to drown my sorrows. Like I say, good fun.

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Hexx » Mon Jul 17, 2017 12:46 pm

Pre-ordered Rebellion Expansion for next month :D

Also a wee bit tempted by this

https://www.chaoscards.co.uk/accessorie ... ox-p138105

But things won't fit with xpac! wooo money saved

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Tafdolphin » Tue Jul 18, 2017 11:43 am

Had our first session of Tales from the Loop last week:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/11 ... 0s-that-ne

It was my first time as a GM, but the whole session was pretty much just character creation so I didn't have to do too much. All the guys chose their types (all based on 80s movie stereotypes, basically the Breakfast Club + sci-fi) as well as their backstories, some NPCs for me to sprinkle into the plot and their signature item.

It was fun! I'd done a load of planning beforehand, most of which remained intact but will require some re-wiring. Two of the NPCs the players came up with were almost exactly the same as ones I'd planned, so I just need to change the names around and add some flavour.

I'm still not really sure what I'm doing. I've got one scene planned out, with a load of clues and hooks, but that's it really. I'm really struggling with how to introduce the mystery naturally, especially as the game is split between Mystery scenes and Everyday Life scenes, as all 80s teen movies are.

Below is my outline, so anyone who's run a game can feel free to give me pointers (Tragic, I'm looking at you, being a fellow newbies to this sort of thing!)

I'm planning for the opening scene to take place in detention a la, yes, The Breakfast Club. This'll allow me to ask the players why their characters are there, whether it's a group punishment or if they did individual stuf. The plan is to hint at two exits here: they can either wait out the clock, or they can try and sneak out. If they do the former, I'll pop in stuff like "It's like the clock is going backwards" and "this is taking forever"

At some point they hear of a murder of a classmate. Hopefully they'll want to investigate, so the murder scene will be the first Mystery scene. Depending on whether they waited out detention or snuck out, the police presence (and associated sneaking tasks) will be harder or easier. Inside the scene (a suburban home) will be a variety of clues pointing towards a missing packing crate, a sharp metal murder weapon, and the identity of the killer (a metal man). Hopefully this will lead them to believe the killer is a robot. When they leave it's night time, even though it didn't feel like they were in there all that long...

This, after various Everyday Life encounters involving girlfriends, parents etc, should lead them to The Loop, the quasi-military science facility and particle accelerator, in town which will in turn reveal The Truth: a mysterious machine was brought through from...somewhere following an experiment. This machine was activated and is slowly starting to tear apart time and space. The clock going backwards in detention, the early night fall (plus a load of other foreshadowing) is actually the effects of the machine. The longer they players take, and the more fails they roll, the worse the effects will get. They will eventually confront the murderer who is not a robot, but a scared 15th century knight displaced in time and space. They they have to shut off or destroy the machine


This gooseberry fool is hard.

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Hexx » Tue Jul 18, 2017 11:49 am

Arkham LCG. Here's my solo Agnes Deck. Pretty hard with 1 core (so many single cards I'd want to double up on e.g. shriveling)

Basically taken a load of cards that will be discarded/upgraded (e.g. Knife to Upgraded Blinding Light...keeping the lesser version in play)

Asset (15)

Hand
2x Flashlight
2x Knife
Arcane
2x Rite of Seeking
1x Shrivelling
Accessory
1x Holy Rosary
1x Rabbit's Foot
Body
1x Leather Coat
Ally
2x Peter Sylvestre
Other
1x Arcane Studies
1x Dig Deep
1x Scavenging
Event (9)

1x "Look what I found!"
1x Blinding Light
1x Cunning Distraction
2x Emergency Cache
2x Hypnotic Gaze
1x Lucky!
1x Ward of Protection
Skill (6)

1x Fearless
2x Overpower
1x Survival Instinct
2x Unexpected Courage

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smurphy
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by smurphy » Tue Jul 18, 2017 6:09 pm

Tafdolphin wrote:Tales from the Loop stuff


Sounds really cool. How much of the story to get your from the book, or have you pretty much made it all up? I really want to play it, but I honest have no idea what 'playing' it involves.

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Tafdolphin » Wed Jul 19, 2017 10:01 am

smurphy wrote:
Tafdolphin wrote:Tales from the Loop stuff


Sounds really cool. How much of the story to get your from the book, or have you pretty much made it all up? I really want to play it, but I honest have no idea what 'playing' it involves.


Ta! I came up with the plot myself, and the scenes outlined above. The book provides a universe for you to set stories, and other more rigid stuff like and character types for the players and rules for combat/encounters.

A tabletop RPG is essentially a guided conversation. As a player you move through the story with your fellow players, and as a GM I create the outline of that story and try and make it as interesting as possible.

This is my first ever go as a GM so I'm not 100% sure how things will work out. For example, for the murder scene I have an actual map of the house in my mind, including where various clues are and what ideas/impressions the players should leave that location with. However, it's possible they could breeze in and out of there in 5 minutes, leaving me to improv new scenes that contain the clues and hooks they missed.

It's both exciting, and terrifying!

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Trelliz » Wed Jul 19, 2017 7:42 pm

Speaking of tabletop rpgs, humble bundle are doing what appears to be the complete doctor who rpg pdf book collection for about £11. I always get these because they are stonking good value, infinitely portable and more legit than pirating them.

jawa2 wrote:Tl;dr Trelliz isn't a miserable git; he's right.
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Tafdolphin » Mon Jul 24, 2017 10:26 am

strawberry float. I really should be concentrating on the opening stages of my RPG but I really wanted to get the final encounter down. So,

Listen to this:



and read this:

You step through the last portal and emerge into a room. Dark, concrete. The record shop basement. Home. Somehow you know this is it. This is the end.

Your target was not a robot, but a catastrophe. The man’s plate armour scrapes as he rises at your entrance and unsheathes a huge greatsword, his face half ancient, half infant. His arms wither and regenerate, his armour rusts, decays and is reforged before your eyes. Half of his body disappears and he cries out to you, his face laughing and screaming, smiling and crying all at once. His torso flickers and reappears, his flesh knitting itself together before your eyes. Through the static and distortion you hear fragments of French. You do not understand him, but his mismatched eyes tell you all you need to know. His image buzzes and stirs, like a torn VHS and with a scream of incomparable rage and anguish, he launches himself towards you.

What do you do?

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Yoshimi » Mon Jul 24, 2017 11:03 pm

:shock: that is awesome Tafdolphin! I'd loved to play Tales from the Loop. Your story sounds excellent. Big Stranger Things vibe!

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Tafdolphin » Tue Jul 25, 2017 9:14 am

Yoshimi wrote::shock: that is awesome Tafdolphin! I'd loved to play Tales from the Loop. Your story sounds excellent. Big Stranger Things vibe!


Thanks man! Yeah, the sourcebook iterates that the game should be a love letter to 80s films, and nostalgia is a big part of that.

Had a brainwave last night: I was stuggling for a method to get a clue to the players. It's a note, leading to another location. Having it hanging around din't seem too fun. Thinking about the nostalgia aspect I finally thought of an idea: a text adventure! An RPG within an RPG! So I downloaded a text adventure creator (Quest http://textadventures.co.uk/quest) and made a small, 5 minute text adventure! It's even got a Screamer at the end, so I'm pretty excited for them to find it. It's also medieval themed, which will act as foreshadowing for the antagonist actually being a knight.

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Tafdolphin » Thu Jul 27, 2017 8:38 am

First proper session of Tales from the Loop last night

It went pretty well! The players did something completely unexpected within the first 5 minutes but I was able to roll with it and they ended up getting at least the first clue as to what they should be doing. My main fear was that I didn't have enough stuff prepped but we played for 4 hours and didn't get near half the stuff I'd written down. The session ended with the troublemaker character ransacking the principle's office as half the school watched through the windows, then skating off listening to The Smiths.

A good start.

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Tragic Magic
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Tragic Magic » Sat Aug 05, 2017 6:46 pm

Had a blast at the Ludorati Café in Nottingham today and I think we'll be going tomorrow for another few hours. Played the below games:

Tsuro - A nice, really easy game to open with. Would play again.
Formula D - Had a lot of fun, crashed and burned towards the end in a desperate attempt to gain a lead but not sure if I'd play again. Feels like there's room for learning tactics and optimal routes, especially with the advanced rules (which we didn't use), but I'm not sure how much I'd wanna play it again. It was kinda just a fun distraction for a good one time play.
Dixit - Really liked this even though I played terribly. And the option to mix Mysterium cards into it is a good one. A possible purchase at a later date.
Deception Murder in Hong Kong - Absolutely loved this and had no idea what it was before playing. As it was our first time playing, the people who got turns as the murderer went with pretty generic weapons/evidence and got caught every time but I really want to play it again. It was so cool.
Cash and Guns - Just a dumb party game. Had a laugh but nothing more than that.
Colt Express - Ordered from Amazon immediately after playing. Nuff said.

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Hypes
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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by Hypes » Sat Aug 05, 2017 7:03 pm

Tragic Magic wrote:Dixit - Really liked this even though I played terribly. And the option to mix Mysterium cards into it is a good one. A possible purchase at a later date.


What's this then?

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PostRe: The Board Game Thread
by DML » Sat Aug 05, 2017 9:16 pm

I am now up to about 80 indie board games on my collection after adding One Night Ultimate Alien, 7 Wonders Duel, Say Anything and Aladdìn and the Magic Lamp.


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