Board Games

I don't have a first hand experience of this, but don't game stores in the US hold open tables every now and again that would be perfectly suited for D&D initiation?

Szlia_sl said:

I don't have a first hand experience of this, but don't game stores in the US hold open tables every now and again that would be perfectly suited for D&D initiation?

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Wednesday nights at your local game store they should be running D&D Encounters which is pretty much the Learn To Play experience. If anyone is interested in getting into tabletop RPG I would recommend that. Another option would be to join your local Pathfinder Society game. But first, yeah, check your Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS).

Goldenmean_sl said:

Haven't played The Resistance: Avalon (never been a huge fan of the Werewolf/Mafia style games), but if you like LoW and Tzolk'in, I expect you will *love* Terra Mystica. I have been playing that game like mad. Probably my favorite game to come out in years. Pure strategy (the game has a semi randomized setup, but after that, there's no randomness or hidden information), resource management, multiple factions with distinct strategies for winning, good theme, potential to play relatively quickly once you have it down (depending on group) It hits all the right notes for me.

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Terra Mystica is available again (for less than the $150 people were charging). Just preordered my copy from Cool Stuff Inc. It's suppose to ship between now and Nov 8th.

This might have been suggested already (don't feel like combing through all 10 pages) but if it hasn't, 7 Wonders is a great game. Just enough luck involved to add some randomness to the game by mostly about strategic play. Great game for 4+ people.

Anyone have much experience with Smash Up? I've been looking for a good 2-player game, and this was recommended by the internet.

Teddite_sl said:

Anyone have much experience with Smash Up? I've been looking for a good 2-player game, and this was recommended by the internet.

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It's not explicitly a 2 person game, but it works well enough as one. It's a pretty light beer and pretzels game. The deck construction (such as it is) make for some fun replayability. There's a fair amount of opportunity for cross faction synergy, so when you're new to it there's lots of "Oh, hey, this card would work well with zombies. I should try that combo next time"

Anyway, it's quick and simple, and there's definitely a niche for that. I break it out sometimes to play with my girlfriend, or early on at a game day while we're waiting for everyone to show up.

Its a fun, quick, enjoyable little game. Not overly complicated and not much to deck construction besides slapping two factions together. Plenty of expansions as well if you want to get some more factions going. The only complaint I have is that the base game did not come with any life counters so you will have to use dice or pen and paper to keep track of life totals. I believe the first expansion took care of this by adding life counters.

Elder Sign: Omens on SteamOMG WOO! and then I noticed single player only Why....so mean.
BUT
Small World ² on Steamwill be multiplayer, woo!

And totally have the opposite opinion then Hateyou. Dominion I found to be incredibly boring. More of a deck/engine building game. They arent similar in the least outside of using cards. Smash up a much more fun party style game, though I would only recommend it with 3-4 players. Not really sure its great for a 2 player game.

I introduced Ticket to Ride to some friends and family and I am like the messiah of board games. People asking me how I discovered this game and when can I get more like it, etc. My mother in law cleared the dining room table while people were practically still eating so we could start playing on Thanksgiving.

Thanks for the opinions on Smash Up. I'm still trying to decide between it and King of Tokyo.
Ticket to Ride is also a game I use to introduce people to board games (that aren't Monopoly). Over the summer I work in an isolated camp, and managed to get a crowd there hooked on the iPad version of the game.

I didnt find King of Tokyo that good for 2 player. I hit you, you hit me. At least with 3+ sitting in Tokyo has more of a risk.

For those who are fans of King of Tokyo they are working on King of New York and its not an expansion but a new game based on the same theme. From what I recall reading you will be able to use the old monsters but not the old cards as the game is different. There will be different districts in the city for monsters to be in and supposedly the humans will be fighting back. Sounds pretty interesting.

Got Eldritch Horror in yesterday (with the PS4) - Definitely something for any Arkham fans, its a lighter time commitment with tons of streamlining without losing the overall feel.

Only negatives I can say are a small lack of variety with just the base set but expansions are clearly planned and will flesh out the low amount of GOOs and such.

Eyashusa_sl said:

I introduced Ticket to Ride to some friends and family and I am like the messiah of board games. People asking me how I discovered this game and when can I get more like it, etc. My mother in law cleared the dining room table while people were practically still eating so we could start playing on Thanksgiving.

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Grab Dixit next, so awesome for everyone.

We played a game ofRex: Final Days of an Empirethe other day, which is a re-skinning in the Twilight Imperium universe of the classicDuneboard game. The meat of the game is different factions trying to control a number of key zones on a map through movement and combat. Nothing very special here, but each player has special abilities, some have personal victory conditions and some have specificities regarding core mechanisms (for instance, the money spent to deploy some troops or to bid on combat cards does not go to a bank but to some players instead). The combat is also particular as the number of troop you commit, the leader you pick and the equipment you use are decided in secret and then revealed simultaneously. Add some racial abilities and some traitors and there is a lot of mind games going on.

A fun element of the original game (or not so fun if there are poor players around the table) is that from the get go some people are close to victory and will win if the others don't do anything about it. Our game of Rex really reproduced this frantic feeling of urgency... because our host wrongly remembered the winning condition! In this extremely fun custom version of Rex we played, any of the 6 players had to control 2 (instead of 3) out of the 5 key zones to win and three players start with one... We still managed to last until the 5th round (out of a maximum of 8) and 4 players had a shot at winning before the resolution of the combat phase! Custom Rex was a great success, but I suspect regular Rex might be fun too!

Anyone have a good recommendation for a digital Board Game? Im basically looking for a PC! game that I can play with a few friends, that gives a similar board game experience. We always have a group of people in mumble chatting, bullshitting, whatever. Think it would be fun to play something during those times. The 3 that I could come up with so far are - Catan, Small World, and Talismen, though Talismen is early access, so there are reports of plenty of bugs still. Any others?