Boardgames, Card Games and RPG Adventures (Board Games)

[Blobcat]

I got to play Santorini for the first time at an event a few weeks ago in a board game playing area. I am rubbish at many card games and more challenging board games so I loved this.

I really want a copy of it but cant find it anywhere available or for non-stupid money. If I could I'd love to get an additional one for a family member.

[QualityChimp]

[MENTION=2540]teddymeow[/MENTION] there's a new Last of Us boardgame that's been launched on Kickstarter.

I have the original "Escape The Dark Castle" game and it plays like a choose-your-own-adventure story and is really tense.
This looks like it's fleshed out a bit with multiple play areas, rather than going through one room at a time.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/themeborne/the-last-of-us-escape-the-dark

[hudson]

Not a fan of the game, but damn that looks like a visually slick board game.

I picked up D&D Dungeon Scrawlers for me and the kids to play at xmas. I have no idea if it's gonna be good or not. We'll see. Might pick up a D&D starter set in the future.

[gunrock]

Ooh let me know. Want to get my three into it a bit, so something lightweight seems ideal

[QualityChimp]

That does look a clever idea!

Roll and Write games are great, but I find they're a lot like solo games that you play at the same time.
Everybody fills in their own card, then compares at the end to see who got the most points.

This one is more of a maze than planning (Railroad Ink, Welcome to Dino World), but great for kids, I imagine.

Been a shift in people at work, so I've been introducing people to some gateway games like Codenames and King of Tokyo.
They seem to be getting a decent response.

[Asura]

Man, this OGL thing for D&D has turned out to be a real quagmire.

[QualityChimp]

Yeah, the D&D thing was a real ****show.
What a bunch of idiots.
Crit fail.

However, my son is starting his first campaign at school with the D&D club today, so we built his character together, which was lovely.

Boardgames:
A rotation of staff at work means different lunch break players, so I've been revisiting a mix of classics like King of Tokyo, Cash n' Guns, Rhino Hero, Sushi Go!, That's Pretty Clever and a few others.

Also been playing a couple of mystery games with them. I've already done "The Balthazar Stone" (created by the guy who did the "Goes Wrong Show"!) and it's brilliant and premium, coming in this wooden chest. It's funny to see people's cogs turning and going the wrong way, overcomplicating some simple ideas.



On New Year's Eve, the wife and I did "Hidden Games: Crime Scene - The Case of Little Gomersal" and on New Year's Day, "The Detective Society - The Cursed Exhibition Part 1".
The former was more like a police case, where all the evidence is simultaneously given to you and you have to work your way through it to piece together what happened and whodunit.
The latter is more like an escape room, with bits of the story being (literally) unlocked as you progress.
Working out the code for the locked wallet was absolutely brilliant and a real lightbulb moment!



Games wise, I can't stop buying games and adding them to the "to play" pile.
Sounds familiar, right?

I got Marvel Splendor for Christmas and I recently picked up 2nd-hand for pretty cheap Ghost Stories and Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. I'll tell you how they are if I ever play them. :/

[QualityChimp]

Been playing a bit of Marvel Splendor.
I want to write "Splendour", but that's its (American-spelling) name.

Anyhoo, it's great!
It's like normal Splendor, but reskinned to fit the Marvel theme and a couple of extra bits like you have to own all the infinity stones to win.

Played with my mates in a nearby café and loved how quickly we got our heads around it.
Played it with my son and wife since, but my son is annoyed I keep beating him.
I'm not massively mean or anything, but I'm aiming for the property cards with cheaper cards, and he's aiming for the better cards too early.
He didn't want to play after that.

However, we've been playing it at work and never finishing. It says 30 minutes on the box, but even flying through, it took a few attempts to get to the end(game).
Love it though - recommended!
There's a real buzz seeing your team come together and getting cards for free with existing ones in your hand without needing the tokens, which are delightfully tactile and give it the edge over virtual board games.

We also played my friend's Kickstarter game, "Mud", which took some getting used to as there are loads of rules, but it's an American politics themed game of skullduggery.

Got to say the presentation is amazing, though, with a lovely magnetic box with highlight spots and nice, quality cards.
Would play again.



A friend kindly gave me a copy of Pandemic: Iberia, which is set in the 19th Century, so a little less, y'know, closer to home.

They also gave me Agatha Christie's Death on the Cards, which looks like a delightful social deduction game like Werewolf.

[hudson]

Any recommendations for family boardgames to play at Christmas? Any thing new on the scene?

[QualityChimp]

Miles behind on this thread, but since changing jobs, the boardgames have slowed down quite a lot.

I can't remember what I have played since my last post, but I've got the Folded Space kit for Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, in a bid to make it easier and quicker to set up/tear down. Might try and play it over the bank holiday.

Got a Kickstarter through this week, Dark Tomb: Bloodthorn Island, which is a Dungeon Crawler in a playing card-sized tin, including the tiles, cubes and a D20.



I also backed a couple of Print and Play titles as they were under a fiver each to back:
One Page Monster Hunt

Roll a Coaster

[hudson]

Amiga Trumps can be backed on Kickstarter. I loved Top Trumps sa kid. Reckon I'd struggle to find someone in real life to appreciate a game of this, but I'd happily sit there flicking through a pack with a smile on my face

[Golgo]

I've waxed lyrical about the Clank games hereabouts, but we got hold of the Clank Catacombs (standalone) variant at Christmas which basically offers randomly-generated dungeons - including new prisoner-rescue mechanics and other stuff - rather than a fixed board. It's probably better than the standard version + add ons (at least we haven't been back in 6 months). Recommend it for any dungeoneers, and follow it with an upgrade to the Adventuring party add-on when you want more starting complexity/character variety.

[QualityChimp]

Yeah, I've not had chance to play Clank, but think I'd enjoy it.

I went to the UKGE (UK Games Expo) at the Birmingham NEC at the weekend with my mates and had fun.
There are loads of stalls, some are resellers like Zatu or Chaos Cards, some are publishers selling their games or demoing their new ones.
Some people are promoting their Kickstarters or their smaller businesses and there's even a playtesting area where you can help iron out the kinks.
The nearby Hyatt hotel has whole rooms put aside for gaming too.

I didn't play anything because there's so much to see, we spent the whole day wandering around looking at everything, then bought some last-hour purchases as the show was winding up.

If you went several days, you could do a mix of mooching and playing.

Highlights was meeting Henry Lewis of the Goes Wrong Show, who has a brilliant escape-room-in-a-chest series.
My friend got the newest game, The Man From Sector 6, and got him to sign it.
I also met an Instagram gamer I really like.

I bought a murder-mystery in a pack and also a historical one based in Egypt.
For the latter, we were umming-and-ahhing, then they reduced the price for the final hour and a guy walked past saying he was in a puzzlers group and they loved it, so we got it!

I got Telestrations with a slightly bashed box for £15.
This is a great party game for non-gamers where you secretly choose a word from a card, write it on your pad and pass it on.
Then the next person draws your word and passes it on. The next person draws that word, then passes it on until your pad comes back to you and you reveal what was drawn/guessed and it's pretty funny!

I also got Cora Quest, which is a kid-friendly dungeon crawler designed by a girl called Cora and her dad during Lockdown, using designs by children from around the world for the players/enemies, so it's a lovely story. I wanted something I could play with my daughter that wasn't too kiddy and it looks great, plus a passing dad said he played it with his daughter, so I had to look around several stands until I finally found a copy! My friends got it for me as a birthday treat.