There's really not a lot of theme that goes along with Descent.
So, like, the heroes are sort of generic and configurable? That sort of thing?
I mean, the game looks like it has a theme going.
What I mean to say is that these games are almost always scenario based, and of the whole lot, I'm least likely to give a damn what the story is when we are playing Descent.
That makes three of us. As much as I love roleplaying games with actual serious roleplaying, there is still massive love for those bastardy trap dungeons. The more they make you want to actually leap from your chair, across the table, and throttle the life out of your devious, cunning bastard of a GM, the better they are. Extra points if she or he can achieve it without using monsters as anything but NPCs or non-damage causing parts of more complex traps - the monsters that pretend to be floors, walls and ceilings are just boring after a while. But a Fake Chest monster that doesn't cause damage to you, but does leap at you to attack you, thus taking it's weight off a pressure plate in the floor, thus setting off a trap, that's a little more interesting.
People REALLY LOVE Dixit Apparently this card is a very limited edition promo item. Still, it is one single Dixit card and selling for over $20 with over an hour left to go in the auction.
Ok guys. The one game I can't stop hearing about is Yomi. Everyone keeps talking about it and praising it. The problem is, as you can see, the full edition is $100. That's a lot of fucking money for a board game. Granted, it contains many decks of cards, but still that's a lot. I could buy just two decks for $20, but that's a problem. If the game is actually good, I'll regret not buying the full set which comes with other stuff!
Here's what I'm thinking. I'll buy one of the $20 sets to see if the game is good. If I hate it, I'll sell it, if someone will buy it off of me. If I like it, I'll still sell it, I'll just replace it with the $100 full set. Who wants to buy two Yomi decks off of me? Which character set do you want?
I've also heard good things about Puzzle Strike from the same company, Sirlin Games.
Edit: You better order soon if you can find decks at a distributor online, Sirlin Games themselves are totally sold out of Yomi, so whatever stores have still in stock is it until a new printing can be run off.
I've also heard good things about Puzzle Strike from the same company, Sirlin Games.
Edit: You better order soon if you can find decks at a distributor online, Sirlin Games themselves are totally sold out of Yomi, so whatever stores have still in stock is it until a new printing can be run off.
People played Puzzle Strike at Zenkaikon. I got a look at it, but I didn't play it. Yomi decks are available on Amazon no problem. Just bought the blue/red one, since I figure that's standard.
Actually, I really want to play Descent. I wonder if that will really scratch my dungeon-delving itch.
As far as I can tell Descent is all combat all the time. Just a more complicated version of HeroQuest or HeroScape.
If you play Descent where all you do is combat, against a good Overlord, you will LOSE, hands down. Descent might look like a vanilla hack 'n slash, but it is really more about getting through the dungeon, collecting the loot, and getting to the end-point as quickly and as efficiently as possible. If that means you have to kill the Kobold, then you kill the Kobold. If that means you run through the entire room avoiding all the monsters to get to the treasure chest, then you run like a little bitch. The longer you take, the stronger the Overlord gets. The Overlord LOVES it when the heroes stop and kill every little monster that is thrown at them. That just lets the Overlord build up his or her strength to really screw with the heroes later on.
The later expansions to Descent let the Overlord modify what monsters and traps he or she wants to populate the dungeon with. I've played a Descent scenario where the Overlord created a trap nightmare. It can be done. Also, in the expansions, they've added all kinds of dangerous traps like wall and floor razors, a HUGE "Indiana Jones" style boulder that will kill you if it rolls over you, lava, acid, poison dart walls, etc.
Also, while Descent is scenario based, there is definitely plot and theme to later quests. While the early scenarios are pretty vanilla "get to the end and kill the boss" type dungeons, later dungeons have real puzzle elements requiring the heroes to active statues in a certain order, position themselves to open doors, etc.
Does Descent require players to make the same type of analytical decisions like in Power Grid or other types of Eurogames? No, of course not. Like other posters have said, there are different types of games. Sometimes, my group wants to play a cut-throat game of Imperial 2030 where each decision effects the outcome of the game, and sometimes we just want to relax and enjoy a more social game like Descent, or I recently played Dixit and Jungle Speed. The experience of playing Alhabra can't be compared to Jungle Speed. They're completely different. That's like trying to compare the enjoyment of going to a hockey game compared to trivia night.
By the way, here's a list of all the various traps in Descent: Alarm Animate Weapons Cloud of Gas Crushing Block Curse of the Monkey God Cursed Treasure Dark Charm Dark Relic Drugged Darts Explosive Door Explosive Rune Fire Runes Frozen Path Killer Chest Lightning Runes Mimic Chest Paralyzing Gas Poison Spikes Rolling Stones Scything Blades Spiked Pit Welcome Mat
Additionally, there's nothing stopping someone from simply creating their own Dungeon and filling it with more traps instead of monsters. While Descent has ready-made scenarios, it's also a a dungeon-building kit that you can use to create any type of scenario you want.
People REALLY LOVE Dixit Apparently this card is a very limited edition promo item. Still, it is one single Dixit card and selling for over $20 with over an hour left to go in the auction.
Even though that card is cool, I wouldn't pay over $5 for it.
I got Yomi maybe a week or two ago. So far, I like it, but I definitely want to play it more. I don't know if it's worth $100.00, but I bought it for about $65 and at that price, I think it's great. It comes with 10 character decks, two playmats, and tokens to keep track of your health (the mats and tokens aren't really necessary). My biggest problem, and not really related to the game itself, is that I keep teaching new people how to play and haven't played against other experienced players. This is definitely a game where the better your opponent is, and the more you and the other player know your own and each other characters,the deeper and more enjoyable the battles are.
On the surface, Yomi looks like just another rock-paper-scissors game, but because each character has real strengths and weaknesses, and because there are multiple choices to make every round, it really is a much deeper game. Sure, from an outside perspective, and with unskilled players, it's just two people playing a card, hoping to beat their opponent's, but once you get to know the characters, as well as the person you're playing against, it becomes much more like poker where you're trying to "read" the other player (and this is where the game gets its name because Yomi or Yomeru in Japanese means to read or to predict).
The artwork is absolutely gorgeous. I would have liked more variation of poses and attacks, but quality definitely outweighs quantity, and the publisher is small, so the budget on the game probably wasn't that much. Yomi actually got many of the artists from Udon to do the artwork which gives the game a very "Street Fighter" feel, which, is really what this game is. Yomi is Street Fighter the card game. The creator actually works for Capcom and wanted to use the Street Fighter license, but couldn't get it, so he created his own characters.
Overall, I like the game a lot, it's fun, fast, and deep. I only wish I could play it more.
I found out that I am the grand fucking master of 7th Wonder (I've won like 5 of the last 6 games I played.)
Also I played Puzzle Strike and it is indeed a combination of Dominion and Puzzle Fighter. It's freaking werid. You will be eliminating the other players. I got eliminated quick because I didn't have a fing clue what I was doing (it's one of those games where you can't get lucky and win the first time). It seems fun. I thought it was going to be a stupid dominion clone when I was learning it but it ended up being interesting and new. Not many games we play actually eliminate people from play...
On the topic of "how much is a promo card worth?" there is actually an alternative way to get some of this stuff. I was not aware until very recently, but BoardGameGeek runs raffles that require you to only spend their site currency, Geek Gold. I've got a few hundred coins from submitting my reviews, images, links, etc. over the past two years. You basically get rewarded a few coins for every contribution you make towards the site.
People put up games for raffle, collect a ton of geek gold from people buying entries in the contest, pick one winner and send them the game. As relates to this topic, there is actually another Dixit promo card out there, and it's up for raffle at the moment: http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/64739/item/1605136#item1605136. Sure, there's almost 2,500 entries in the raffle so far, but I wasn't doing squat with that in-site currency as it was.
"There's one problem with the board game: it's too easy to disturb the small wooden pieces on the board with a clumsy throw of the dice. After about the third time my seven-year-old daughter did this, I downloaded a free dice rolling application for my iPhone and now we use that instead of rolling physical dice. Problem solved."
Sure, he'll write about the "quality" of raw milk and the zen of carving your own wooden spoons (the latter slightly less woo woo, I'll admit), but he considers dice to clumsy to use physically. Fuck that fucker.
I know right. It's like if I made a post "Akira, the only cartoon I can stand." Then made another post "Spirited Away, the only other cartoon I can stand." It's like hello! Are you a moron? Did you not even bother to even use the Google for two seconds to realize there is an entire world of animes out there? Herp Derp DERP.
I know right. It's like if I made a post "Akira, the only cartoon I can stand." Then made another post "Spirited Away, the only other cartoon I can stand." It's like hello! Are you a moron? Did you not even bother to even use the Google for two seconds to realize there is an entire world of animes out there? Herp Derp DERP.
"There's one problem with the board game: it's too easy to disturb the small wooden pieces on the board with a clumsy throw of the dice. After about the third time my seven-year-old daughter did this, I downloaded a free dice rolling application for my iPhone and now we use that instead of rolling physical dice. Problem solved."
Sure, he'll write about the "quality" of raw milk and the zen of carving your own wooden spoons (the latter slightly less woo woo, I'll admit), but he considers dice to clumsy to use physically. Fuck that fucker.
I'm going to take a ethically sourced, hand-carved by local disenfranchised natives recyclable and reusable bat to his knees.
"There's one problem with the board game: it's too easy to disturb the small wooden pieces on the board with a clumsy throw of the dice. After about the third time my seven-year-old daughter did this, I downloaded a free dice rolling application for my iPhone and now we use that instead of rolling physical dice. Problem solved."
Where were they rolling the dice? This game is not Monopoly, you probably shouldn't drop the dice in the middle of the board.
Where were they rolling the dice? This game is not Monopoly, you probably shouldn't drop the dice in the middle of the board.
You seem to forget, this is Mark Frauenfelder. You're wrong, because he's fucking stupid. It's entirely your fault that this inbred platypus rapist is doing something stupid, because it's not his job to think of the little things, like Not rolling the fucking dice onto the board like some shit-eating fucking stain on humanity doing a bloody good imitation of a moron.
I got Yomi. Read the rules. Based on that, and the cards, it seems like people were not lying in their description of this game. You basically get all of the mind-game parts of a fighting game like Street Fighter without any of the manual dexterity parts. Of course, in the end it boils down to rock-paper-scissors, but that doesn't mean it's not worth playing. I'll report back after playing it a bunch of times.
Has anyone ever played Neuroshima Hex? It looks like a good Eurogame/Wargame mash-up without all randomness and money expenditure of certain other games that meet those criteria.
Also, it has a hex board, and lord, do I loves me some hex board.
I actually just played that. I had purchased the iPhone version of the game to keep me busy while I was traveling last week. I'm still not sure how I felt about it. There definitely was some randomness, as the units you place are pulled three at a time from a shuffled stack, but it wasn't heavy randomness and combat is resolved without dice. I'm still not sure how I feel about it entirely, but I can confidently state that it did not suck.
Has anyone ever played Neuroshima Hex? It looks like a good Eurogame/Wargame mash-up without all randomness and money expenditure of certain other games that meet those criteria.
Also, it has a hex board, and lord, do I loves me some hex board.
I have Neuroshima and both expansions and I love the game. Like gundabad said, there is some randomness in the tiles you draw, but there are plenty of rule variants that can mitigate that if you want. Overall, I think it's a great game. You can play with up to 4 players, but the game really shines as just a 2 player game. The armies are very unique and different, the artwork is top-notch, and the strategy is pretty deep.
Anyone here have experience with Twilight Imperium? (not to be confused with Twilight Struggle)
Twilight Imperium Third Edition is an epic empire-building game of interstellar conflict, trade, and struggle for power. Players take the roles of ancient galactic civilizations, each seeking to seize the imperial throne via warfare, diplomacy, and technological progression. With geomorphic board tiles, exquisite plastic miniatures, hundreds of cards, and introducing a rich set of strategic dimensions that allows each player to refocus their game-plan, the original designer Christian T. Petersen has seamlessly incorporated the better qualities of other recently popular games to improve on the game-play of the original TI, making it at once perfectly well-rounded and pleasantly familiar to experienced gamers.
TI3 is played by at least three players who belong to ten possible alien races, each with their own advantages and quirks. The 'designer notes' in the rulebook candidly and humbly acknowledge the inspiration for some of the improvements to the original game. The strategic game-play borrows the governing element from 'Puerto Rico' to involve players in an iteratively complex and yet fast-paced game experience with very little downtime. The game map, basic player progress and overall victory are dynamically determined in almost exactly the same way as they are by imaginative players of 'Settlers of Catan', while the "Command" system cleverly improves on the 'oil' logistical mechanism of 'Attack' to both manage turn-based activity and limit the size of armies, uniquely enabling weakened players to bounce back if they play their cards right.
Comments
I mean, the game looks like it has a theme going.
Apparently this card is a very limited edition promo item. Still, it is one single Dixit card and selling for over $20 with over an hour left to go in the auction.
Here's what I'm thinking. I'll buy one of the $20 sets to see if the game is good. If I hate it, I'll sell it, if someone will buy it off of me. If I like it, I'll still sell it, I'll just replace it with the $100 full set. Who wants to buy two Yomi decks off of me? Which character set do you want?
Edit: You better order soon if you can find decks at a distributor online, Sirlin Games themselves are totally sold out of Yomi, so whatever stores have still in stock is it until a new printing can be run off.
http://www.fantasystrike.com/dev/
The later expansions to Descent let the Overlord modify what monsters and traps he or she wants to populate the dungeon with. I've played a Descent scenario where the Overlord created a trap nightmare. It can be done. Also, in the expansions, they've added all kinds of dangerous traps like wall and floor razors, a HUGE "Indiana Jones" style boulder that will kill you if it rolls over you, lava, acid, poison dart walls, etc.
Also, while Descent is scenario based, there is definitely plot and theme to later quests. While the early scenarios are pretty vanilla "get to the end and kill the boss" type dungeons, later dungeons have real puzzle elements requiring the heroes to active statues in a certain order, position themselves to open doors, etc.
Does Descent require players to make the same type of analytical decisions like in Power Grid or other types of Eurogames? No, of course not. Like other posters have said, there are different types of games. Sometimes, my group wants to play a cut-throat game of Imperial 2030 where each decision effects the outcome of the game, and sometimes we just want to relax and enjoy a more social game like Descent, or I recently played Dixit and Jungle Speed. The experience of playing Alhabra can't be compared to Jungle Speed. They're completely different. That's like trying to compare the enjoyment of going to a hockey game compared to trivia night.
By the way, here's a list of all the various traps in Descent:
Alarm
Animate Weapons
Cloud of Gas
Crushing Block
Curse of the Monkey God
Cursed Treasure
Dark Charm
Dark Relic
Drugged Darts
Explosive Door
Explosive Rune
Fire Runes
Frozen Path
Killer Chest
Lightning Runes
Mimic Chest
Paralyzing Gas
Poison Spikes
Rolling Stones
Scything Blades
Spiked Pit
Welcome Mat
Additionally, there's nothing stopping someone from simply creating their own Dungeon and filling it with more traps instead of monsters. While Descent has ready-made scenarios, it's also a a dungeon-building kit that you can use to create any type of scenario you want.
I forget how much were the promo cards for Dominion?
On the surface, Yomi looks like just another rock-paper-scissors game, but because each character has real strengths and weaknesses, and because there are multiple choices to make every round, it really is a much deeper game. Sure, from an outside perspective, and with unskilled players, it's just two people playing a card, hoping to beat their opponent's, but once you get to know the characters, as well as the person you're playing against, it becomes much more like poker where you're trying to "read" the other player (and this is where the game gets its name because Yomi or Yomeru in Japanese means to read or to predict).
The artwork is absolutely gorgeous. I would have liked more variation of poses and attacks, but quality definitely outweighs quantity, and the publisher is small, so the budget on the game probably wasn't that much. Yomi actually got many of the artists from Udon to do the artwork which gives the game a very "Street Fighter" feel, which, is really what this game is. Yomi is Street Fighter the card game. The creator actually works for Capcom and wanted to use the Street Fighter license, but couldn't get it, so he created his own characters.
Overall, I like the game a lot, it's fun, fast, and deep. I only wish I could play it more.
Also I played Puzzle Strike and it is indeed a combination of Dominion and Puzzle Fighter. It's freaking werid. You will be eliminating the other players. I got eliminated quick because I didn't have a fing clue what I was doing (it's one of those games where you can't get lucky and win the first time). It seems fun. I thought it was going to be a stupid dominion clone when I was learning it but it ended up being interesting and new. Not many games we play actually eliminate people from play...
People put up games for raffle, collect a ton of geek gold from people buying entries in the contest, pick one winner and send them the game. As relates to this topic, there is actually another Dixit promo card out there, and it's up for raffle at the moment: http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/64739/item/1605136#item1605136. Sure, there's almost 2,500 entries in the raffle so far, but I wasn't doing squat with that in-site currency as it was.
In true BoardGameGeek fashion, their system for organizing this crap is completely disorganized. There is some cool stuff to be had, though. If you dare, follow the links:
March raffles
April raffles
Massive "track changes" thread for all of the individual monthly auctions threads. Scroll way to bottom for newest changes.
"There's one problem with the board game: it's too easy to disturb the small wooden pieces on the board with a clumsy throw of the dice. After about the third time my seven-year-old daughter did this, I downloaded a free dice rolling application for my iPhone and now we use that instead of rolling physical dice. Problem solved."
Sure, he'll write about the "quality" of raw milk and the zen of carving your own wooden spoons (the latter slightly less woo woo, I'll admit), but he considers dice to clumsy to use physically. Fuck that fucker.
Also, it has a hex board, and lord, do I loves me some hex board.