Board Games

Noodleface · Jan 9, 2014

Thanks for the suggestions. My concern is that they aren't really tabletop players, but we're all going to try it out together and if they don't like it I'm just stuck with a game and down a few bucks. I'm interested in playing one way or another; either with them or at some game night somewhere (30 year olds still allowed?). Something easy and cheap yet engaging is what I'm really looking for.

Vaclav · Jan 9, 2014

Cheap and engaging and easy to pick up? If you don't want to tell your own story Descent 2E is a GREAT investment for tactical level dice mashing against people, even has a "GM" element in the Overlord player etc.

Hatorade · Jan 9, 2014

Yeah.I second/third Descent as well, if they can get really into that pathfinders is the next step.

Noodleface · Jan 9, 2014

You guys are true bros, thanks for the suggestions! I will have to look over them pretty thoroughly and see what will work best for these tards.

Vaclav · Jan 9, 2014

All you'd need to start on Descent for the first ~2-3 months or so (assuming weekly sessions) would be the starter box and MAYBE the character expansion box - anything else adds campaign length and 1-2 more classes, nice but absolutely not necessary. (Original comes with 8 classes and 8 characters - so buying all the addons to date doesn't even double classes yet)

[Character Expansion is actually called the "Conversion Kit" since it's intended to tie into all the old 1E models - but it's basically a character and monster expansion. characters are easy to fudge with the base models except for the riders, monsters less so]

Hateyou · Jan 9, 2014

Is descent playable with 2 people? It doesn't seem like it would be very fun. My dad has had this game for months and we haven't tried it yet due to not having another dork around to play with.

Seananigans · Jan 9, 2014

+1 for Descent 2E. A couple of points:

1) Descent is playable with 2-5people, but I would highly recommend using 4heroesat all times

2) The number of classes actually has doubled to 16, contrary to what Vaclav posted

Noodleface · Jan 9, 2014

Seananigans_sl said:
+1 for Descent 2E. A couple of points:

1) Descent is playable with 2-5people, but I would highly recommend using 4heroesat all times

2) The number of classes actually has doubled to 16, contrary to what Vaclav posted

You'll have to clarify point 1

Vaclav · Jan 9, 2014

Seananigans_sl said:
+1 for Descent 2E. A couple of points:

1) Descent is playable with 2-5people, but I would highly recommend using 4heroesat all times

2) The number of classes actually has doubled to 16, contrary to what Vaclav posted

On 2 - it has?

Ruins +1 class
Trollfens +1 class
Other Xpac +2 classes

I thought?

Or did the small boxes have 2 and the big had 4? Been a while since I've cracked mine open.

And it is absolutely playable with 2 people, it's at its funnest with at least 3 though - I don't recommend multiple charactering though personally.

Noodle: He's referencing players with multiple characters at a time. (And minus one player for the Overlord/GM that plays the baddies - so one good player with 4 characters, 2 with 2 each, etc - I'd disagree, but it's clear as another person who's played)

Hateyou · Jan 9, 2014

Vaclav_sl said:
On 2 - it has?

Ruins +1 class
Trollfens +1 class
Other Xpac +2 classes

I thought?

Or did the small boxes have 2 and the big had 4? Been a while since I've cracked mine open.

And it is absolutely playable with 2 people, it's at its funnest with at least 3 though - I don't recommend multiple charactering though personally.

Noodle: He's referencing players with multiple characters at a time. (And minus one player for the Overlord/GM that plays the baddies - so one good player with 4 characters, 2 with 2 each, etc - I'd disagree, but it's clear as another person who's played)

So if Just my dad and I end up playing, he'd be a GM and I'd be going through a dungeon with one character?

Szlia · Jan 9, 2014

The dungeons in Decent have variations depending on the number of characters, so *in theory* it should be balanced no matter how you choose to play. In practice, I suspect playing with a single character must require additional balancing to counter a number of little things that pile up (less synergy, less versatility, more dead angles where monsters can spawn, all the traps hitting the one character, etc). Balancing can easily be done with extra skills/item at the start or simply by having the character tailored for the adventure by the GM (instead of having the player select a character and get random skills).

Seananigans · Jan 9, 2014

There are never fewer than 2 hero characters, so in a 2 player game, one player plays the Overlord, the other player runs 2 hero characters.

The reason I suggest no fewer than 4 heroes is because while it does scale, 2 heroes favors the OL quite a bit, and 3 heroes favors the heroes quite a bit. 4 heroes is the most balanced way to play it, and since it's not a Game-Master game (the OL wants to win too), unless the entire group is up for a non-competitive run-through, you're going to have balance issues with 2 or 3 heroes.

Astral Projection_sl · Jan 9, 2014

Hateyou_sl said:
So if Just my dad and I end up playing, he'd be a GM and I'd be going through a dungeon with one character?

In Descent if you have less than 4 players, it is generally a good idea to have someone play more than 1 character. If just 2 players, then one player would run the full party of 4 characters. The other player would be the Overlord and run the monsters and scenario. Like most board games it is way more fun with 3+.

Basically Descent is:

- 1 overlord who outlines the pre-written scenario and controls the monsters/traps
- 1-4 other players who each run characters attempting to conquer the dungeon

Thus Descent is a coop game but with an Overlord trying to kill you with monsters and traps. It has a way shallower learning curve than Pathfinder/D&D but still gives a similar fun factor and sense of progression. Of course it is way more on rails than real D&D/Pathfinder.

icarr757_sl · Jan 10, 2014

Descent 2 is a great game, but one thing people tend to forget. In Descent, the GM IS ACTIVLY TRYING TO KILL YOU/MESS YOU UP/MAKE YOU FAIL. It is NOT a 2 person game. All the missions have a "... if the players win this happens..." or "if the gm wins, this happens..." I have heard that many folks feel the game is angled for the players to win, but our GM has gods own luck rolling defense and getting cards that wreck our group. Our group has a 50% win rate, and our wins have only ever been on the side and optional quests, and I am a shitty looser...

Again, its a great tactical game. Everything you will need in one box, and if you like it, I think the 3rd big expansion just hit and the materials are awesome high quality, and it even has high replayability. Missions branch in different ways, you have 2 of each type of class. But it is also a definate, killer gm game =P

Pikifou · Jan 10, 2014

Anybody tried Krosmaster Arena ?

I play it and love it, really fun and quick to learn (my 9yo son play it too) and the miniatures are cute.
I don't know if it's known in USA but here it grows quite popular.

Delicateflower_sl · Jan 13, 2014

Seems to me a no brainer to release board games like that on the PC with online multiplayer. I saw talisman on early release on steam, are there any other good ones? I vaguely remember a clone of risk 2210

I know you can play chinese chess (go) online, never got into it

Szlia · Jan 13, 2014

Delicateflower_sl said:
I know you can play chinese chess (go) online, never got into it

Technically, chinese chess isXiangqi(with chariots and canons!). Go is just go.

Golgotha_sl · Jan 13, 2014

pikifou_sl said:
Anybody tried Krosmaster Arena ?

I own it. But have only managed to get 2 games played of it. Im a huge Final Fantasy Tactics fan, and was looking for a board game with a similar feel. This comes close, but not quite as engaging as I would like. But a solid game for sure. You are definitely paying a high price for high quality/detailed miniatures. So if you arent a huge fan of mini's, this might not be a game for you.

Noodleface · Jan 20, 2014

Ended up grabbing pathfinder. Our group started out as 6 but now we have about 10-12 people interested, so I'm thinking at least a few will want to play this. Also a local game shop does Pathfinder groups 1pm-5pm on Saturdays and I'm thinking about going.

As a 30 year old man that has a job and doesn't live in the basement will I be the norm or the exception when it comes to other people?

Vaclav · Jan 20, 2014

In my area that's about the norm - think the wife and I are the only retired/unemployed folks at our gaming store - and for those that do tabletop RPGing it's all the 25-35 age bracket. (And heavily those that work as programmers for some reason, oddly...)

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