Board Games!

[ChannelDelibird]

I played

Wheedle

tonight, which is a servicable game of real-time negotiation and set-collecting. Mostly, though, I was very, very sad that nobody at the table understood my Kakuna joke.

[Narninian]

Won Dungeon Fighter at game night last night (Iello is local and sponsors it)..

I am pretty terrible at it, but seems like it could be fun.

[diginova]

I'll also throw in my thumbs-up for

Bohnanza

, which doesn't get nearly enough play or love. It's one of the quintessential trading games.

I played

Dead of Winter

for the first time last night. Not since

Five Tribes

have I encountered a game with so much hype and so little to show for it. [/incendiary] I love the Crossroads mechanic, and I am fascinated with the "cooperative, but" element of the game, but

the entire rest of the game

is clunky and not nearly as good as almost every other co-op I can think of.

Did you play the base scenario (roll a die on every kill)? It's by far the weakest and most luck-based. There's luck involved, but there's enough to do even if you roll poorly or to balance out the luck (using food for +1 or building barricades / using fuel to move / getting weapons) that I've found it strikes a decent balance... moreso than

Battlestar

with bad rolls or

Pandemic

with bad Epidemic draws.

[Narninian]

I've found battlestar to be less luck based than dead of winter in my admittedly small sample size. (of dead of winter - played lots of battlestar)
Battlestar has a lot of random elements, but because there are a lot more events/rolls it averages out

In my first game of dead of winter, I think it would have been literally impossible for me to win even if I knew exactly what cards and dice rolls where coming up. I rolled for exposure a total of 3 times in the game, got frostbite twice and regular bite once no regular damage or blanks. I did use and ask for medicine (I had a secret objective to collect medicine so I didn't use any of my own) and gas to travel, I picked characters specifically so I would have an excuse to go searching in places with a good amount of medicine. I spent most of my actions searching for medicine, while using what I needed to to make sure the crisis didn't kill us. The last turn before we would have lost from morale we finished our objective (samples) so I spent all my actions searching, even making lots of noise which risked making us lose the main objective (I managed to put extra food into the crisis so that morale loss wouldn't) still didn't get the medicine I needed for my secret objective. The other 3 players (including the traitor) all needed to have the most followers so obviously only one person won.

Second game was a last 5 rounds objective and the traitor just happen to have gotten the double turn on the second to last and last round. This made it trivial to tank our morale (like 3 or something) without us having any way to respond. This is like a 25% chance of happening with 4 players so its not like its an uncommon occurance.


EDIT: I think I already ranted about this on this thread ---- oh well.

[Brandi]

imo Dead of Winter is pretty great. But I think the most fun Co-Op game I've played is Myth.

[quadz08]

Smash Up is pretty fun!

[xRECKONERx]

The lack of stock on DoW has cooled me off to the idea that I need it. I'll wait to play it when someone else has it and make my decision. It also feels very similar to City of Horrors, which the Commune just picked up... so between us having CoH and BSG, DoW might be redundant.

[Porochaz]

If I can work out a way to take it, I may do. But it will be one of the last things put in my case.

[Sudo_Nym]

I've been looking at Tabletop Simulator. Any interest in putting a group together for it?

[xRECKONERx]

CDB might be bringing it already, Poro.

I don't see why we'd use Tabletop Simulator when Vassal is better supported and free.

[Porochaz]

We use VASSAL for BSG, DoW wasnt on there last I checked.

[Narninian]

I have Tabletop simulator and its nice because its supports are larger number of games, and its very cheap.
My 2 games of Dead of winter were on there - I played with my friends from the other coast that actually own the game.

I think I bought like 12 copies for friends during the steam winter sale

[Sudo_Nym]

CDB might be bringing it already, Poro.

I don't see why we'd use Tabletop Simulator when Vassal is better supported and free.

VASSAL is free, but I don't know about better supported. Its great for games that are already on there, but I don't know if people are still making stuff for it. See above about Dead of Winter as an example.

That said, I don't know anything about Tabletop Simulator, only that the idea is one I liked. If people enjoy it and it has the games people want on it, it might be worth it. Maybe it's not. Somebody needs to bring it up, though.

[sthar8]

imo Dead of Winter is pretty great. But I think the most fun Co-Op game I've played is Myth.

I love myth but nobody will play it with me!

[Narninian]

Tabletop simulator is basically a physics simulation.
Unlike Vassal, it doesn't have any enforcement of rules.
It does look prettier though.

It has good tools for playing with cards, boards, tables and dice.

The downsides are
A) in order to play well you need to learn some basic controls --- trying to play without knowing some of the good shortcuts makes it not a good experience ----once you learn those, though, it plays pretty smoothly.
B) No built-in rules encforcement like vassal -you have to make sure the game is played properly - just like in real life. (it has all the tools to shuffle, keep cards secret, etc.. though)
c) of course it costs money --- its well worth the $10 though, imo. Cheaper than a digital versions of Sentinels of the Multiverse, Catan, Talisman, etc..
D) Some Games are taken down from the Steam workshop. you can still play them, whoever is hosting has to get the files -- either by contacting somebody who got it from the workshop before it was taken down or by scanning in art yourself.

[ChannelDelibird]

I'm actually starting to regret splashing the money on Dead of Winter. I like it, but I'm starting to get frustrated with some of the random elements in terms of the impact of dice rolls and the distribution of cards, and it also seems like, despite stock being low, a lot of people I know already have it so I'd probably still be able to play it if I really wanted to, and I'd definitely play BSG over it any day (even though I still don't feel like they're such direct comparisons to each other).

That being said, and I know it sounds nothing like an advert, if you haven't gone completely off it as well, Reck, I could maybe bring it with me and then just leave it with you guys if you try it and like it.

[ChannelDelibird]

Re: Tabletop Simulator, I'd probably need a look at the library available for it but I'm pretty sure I'd be in if we gathered some scummers to play together.

[Narninian]

I'd play with scummers.

Some of the games I've played on it:
Dead of Winter,
Battlestar galactica,
Eldritch horror,
Cards against humanity,
Lords of Waterdeep,
Sentinels of the Multiverse
Legendary Encounters
Pandemic: The Cure


My library is much larger. Considering that content is user submitted and can be used even if they've been taken down, the library of games is pretty vast.

[Porochaz]

I tried to find the library but failed. Is there a link?

[Narninian]

Not sure this link will work:

http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse?appid=286160

It uses the steam workshop which is user generated so the content is constantly changing -- I'm sure I have several games thare are no longer available, but I could share the files or host.

[xRECKONERx]

$15 seems absurd

[Narninian]

yeah, the ability to play hundreds of board games for a lower price than a digital version of just one of them is pretty absurd.

[xRECKONERx]

again, Vassal exists, and paying $15 to use a platform that has IP-infringement-inviting mods that does the same thing as Vassal barely makes sense at all

You're paying $15 for...nothing. It's a blank slate.

[Porochaz]

I have to say I agree, I can't see when I would use it outwith of mafiascum games, especially when VASSAL does an adequate job.

[Sudo_Nym]

For starters, there are a lot of games like Smash Up or Dead of Winter that I'd like to play and are on Tabletop Simulator and aren't on VASSAL. So if I want to play them on VASSAL for free, first I have to figure out how to program a VASSAL Module, then I have to make the VASSAL Module, then I have to host it and wait for a bunch of people to download it. Or, I could just play them on Tabletop Simulator where they already exist.