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Free Talk Live => General => Topic started by: John Shaw on September 04, 2011, 02:47:21 PM
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1. Do you like them?
2. Which one/s?
We have a bunch. We bought Arkham Horror recently. Haven't even played it yet. I've spent more time making a custom carrying case for the game than even reading the rules to be honest.
Here's a pic of the game in it's WIP carrying case.
(http://chattypics.com/download.php?file=AHcase_9p2xjz9704.jpg)
I've always had this infatuation with the idea of a really nice, really high quality board game. Like, an ultimate board game made of pure awesome. Something you'd get together with people over wine and cheese to play.
But not some crappy old parlor type game. I mean, I first expressed this desire by making a custom chess set. (It was pretty cool) But I'm not talking chess here.
A game that people would pay $200+ for. Metal and wood. Brass and stained cherry. But something interesting subject wise, like horror or science fiction. A journey to the Center of the Earth or 20,000 Leagues or The Lost World (Not the movie) or something like that. A board with mechanical parts that changed while you played. Something AWESOME.
Been thinking about it for years. *Sigh* I'll probably just have to design one and build it some time.
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Back in my early war-monger days, I used to like to play the Avalon Hill games............ Panzer Blitz, Diplomacy, ect ect. I still think they are well though out and put together games, but my aversion to that type of shit kinda made me lose interest in playing them.
Pretty cool setup on your stuff though. I might play more intricate games, but I dont really have a large group of friends that I hang out with to even make it feasable. *sad face*
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Only board games that stick with me are Monopoly and Connect 4. I would (and have) spend money on a fancy Monopoly set. My current favorite is the electronic bank card version to play. I like the Star Wars one for the visuals. I also have a normal one and the Junior. I like to read tarot cards so I have, of course, a affinity for card games. My Tarot cards are fairly fancy and I have a brief case type poker set. The only other game I play regularly is one called sound safari which is for small children. I like a game called Mouse Trap, but I lost the last one I had in my divorce.
In other words I think you are really on to something. I think that sort of high quality stuff is cool, it looks so much better on display and people respect the object itself more so it lasts longer.
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I have Arkham Horror and I really like it! The rules are EXTREMELY elaborate so brace yourself. It takes playing a few times and you get into the rhythm. I have played it all by myself where I move all the characters. It's a team game where you're working together to beat the evil god so that's fine. It's a great way to get accustomed to the rules and the rhythm. There's a series of things that needs to happen each turn and it's easy to forget parts, and the order matters a lot to maintain game balance.
It's hard to find people willing to play it because it's so elaborate. It actually can go faster with more people because you actually have a better chance of winning with more players and you can stay ahead of the challenges that tend to accumulate if you start lagging behind. The difficulty can vary a lot depending on which ancient one you're up against as each one changes the environment but unless you have a really tough ancient one, you can usually win with 3 or 4 players. At 5 the game gets a little bit harder but not enough that it isn't still really helpful to have that many players.
I will probably get expansions for it eventually.
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Bunch of great information.
Good to know. We'll get around to playing when we have a clean kitchen table and the cats aren't acting like asses.
Cats being asses + table full of little board game pieces = Fucking mess.
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Q: Cats being asses
A: Squirt Bottles
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Q: Cats being asses
A: Squirt Bottles
Unfortunately the problem child (New babycat Mortimer) fucking loves water. Loves it as in sticks his head under faucets and dips his paws in it then licks them.
He's a bit odd.
Doesn't help that generally speaking there's no rule against cat on counter/table. That was a war long lost.
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Risk. I have yet to lose a game of Risk. ever. to anybody. Maybe someone in NH will beat me...
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(http://chattypics.com/download.php?file=IMG_4735_rc8yhj6wjx.jpg)
Some extra gameplay manuals Melissa put together from the PDF. I'm fucking fussy and OCD and the nice four color one that came with the game is delicate.
She did it all up so we could use the saddle stapler and bind the pages properly. The math involved in printing that shit out four to a page with all the reversals and shit so when you fold and staple it the pages come out right hurts my brain so she does that sort of work.
Printed on legal size linen eggshell for that extra American Psycho flavor.
Another action shot. Notice all the badass.
(http://chattypics.com/download.php?file=IMG_4736_oj62g3agl3.jpg)
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Quit fartin' around and play it!
BTW, it's nigh impossible to beat with 2 players. If you and Melissa play, you may want to play 2 characters each.
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Quit fartin' around and play it!
BTW, it's nigh impossible to beat with 2 players. If you and Melissa play, you may want to play 2 characters each.
Good to know. We're gonna try tomorrow maybe.
Can't help but fart around tho. I'm a closet boardgame designer of the worst sort, mang. Been trying to find tiny plastic brains and tiny plastic magnifying glasses to replace the cardboard shit. You'd think some cheap Chinese plastic brain tokens would be floating around out there.
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Printed on legal size linen eggshell for that extra American Psycho flavor.
Impressive, but I'd have gone with the Pale Nimbus font, in Bone, myself.
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Printed on legal size linen eggshell for that extra American Psycho flavor.
Impressive, but I'd have gone with the Pale Nimbus font, in Bone, myself.
Sounds classier than it is. It was what we had lying around. Melissa is a paper hoarder and has an insane selection of awesome stuff just kinda piled up around the house.
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Lots of gamers in NH. We even started a Gamey Porcupine group on yahoogroups way way back and then FB.
Carcassonne has a large number of folks who like to play it.
Pandemic got popular enough with the crowd that we played it 'life-sized' at PF last year (and set it up but barely played it this year)
Dominion, Agricola, and many other games get played regularly.
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Gotta go with Talisman 2nd Edition from Games Workshop myself...
(http://cf.geekdo-images.com/images/pic385054_md.jpg)
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I still haven't been able to break in the new expansions I got for Talisman yet. I don't have 2nd though. Whatever the recent one is. Seems decent. I've played the really old Talisman all through my late teens and 20s.
We're hopefully getting a game of Arkham Horror or Talisman going tonight here in Manchester.
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I have Arkham Horror and I really like it! The rules are EXTREMELY elaborate so brace yourself. It takes playing a few times and you get into the rhythm. I have played it all by myself where I move all the characters. It's a team game where you're working together to beat the evil god so that's fine. It's a great way to get accustomed to the rules and the rhythm. There's a series of things that needs to happen each turn and it's easy to forget parts, and the order matters a lot to maintain game balance.
This is great to know, Dale. I read the back of the game and some of the expansions at Dragon*Con this weekend - was wondering about it. The kids are getting into more complicated games now, but I wasn't quite sure if this might still be a bit beyond the attention/cooperation of the youngest.
John - that game case is beautiful!
For board games we have going around here on a pretty regular basis:
Munchkin Quest
Tiki Mountain
Cosmic Encounter (Can get very complicated on days when everybody's in lawyer mode)
Blokus
Scrabble
Risk
Munchkin and Munchkin Call of Cthulhu (Card games that rock!)
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(http://www.wizards.com/global/images/ah_prod_houseonthehill_pic1_en.jpg)
Got to play this twice last year at NecronomiCon in Tampa. Incredibly fun and challenging 'throw your buddy under the bus' game.
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If you want angry, possibly violent confrontations and arguments over minutia, then no game will ever be as good as Monopoly . Among the guys I hang around, it gets competitive. We have a game room in the university decked out in Monopoly memorabilia, and a few different sets. A few guys looked up abstracts and spreadsheets to assess true trade values of properties, and posted them.
Another game no one mentioned yet is Settlers of Cattan. Awesome, fun game.
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John - that game case is beautiful!
Thanks! We just got done trying to play.
It's... pretty complicated.
We spent two hours and got through four turns. Unfortunately the way the manual is set up, the description of the progression of play is VERY messed up.
Imagine following the step by step of what you're supposed to be doing and having something come up that isn't in the step by step. Then having to refer to the index and shuffle around looking for what just happened.
Example -
"If THIS happens, refer to page 22 and read up on FOO."
So you go to read page FOO and you get the details you needed, but you didn't finish the paragraph BELOW the cited sentence because you were distracted with reading FOO. So you miss BAR, TOTO, TATA and FOOPLE.
Makes for serious confusion. We gave up after four turns as the kitchen table chairs hurt my bum and we're hoping to find a Youtube tutorial.
Mind you, Melissa is... Pretty damned smart, and I'm not a complete moron myself.
There are like (est) 18 decks of cards, some easily color coded, four of which we didn't even get around to figuring out. Skill checks were "Dungeons and Dragons Hard" (Meaning you once you get them they're not hard at all, but you can sit and read through the description ten times without getting it at first.)
I think we'll enjoy the game once we figure it out, but so far it was frustrating. I kept getting huffy with my wife because she kept wanting to DO THINGS while I was reading. Wasn't a recipe for awesome and I feel like a heel for bickering.
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Link to my collection on BGG
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/theodorelogan
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Link to my collection on BGG
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/theodorelogan
Holy crap.
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I think we'll enjoy the game once we figure it out, but so far it was frustrating. I kept getting huffy with my wife because she kept wanting to DO THINGS while I was reading. Wasn't a recipe for awesome and I feel like a heel for bickering.
I think that's the universal first-time experience of that game. It really isn't explained well in the book. A lot of the game is "D&D hard" as you put it in that it will not seem so complicated once you've figured it out. Again, playing 3 or 4 characters all by yourself is a great way to figure things out.
Once one person knows and can walk people through it, they'll pick it up in one game. It's the instructions that suck, not the actual game.
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Had a small game night in Manchester, NH last night. The Osborne, a couple others, and myself played Talisman. That's another one that can get lawyery because there are so many potentially interactive special exceptions to rules. I find it's a good rule of thumb that if some combination just seems way too awesome, it's best to rule on the side of conservative for game balance.
Osborne pointed out something like that last night in which I had the most crazy combination of awesome, and while as a rules lawyer I think I was technically right, I conceded it because it was just ridiculous.
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I have Arkham Horror and I really like it! The rules are EXTREMELY elaborate so brace yourself. It takes playing a few times and you get into the rhythm. I have played it all by myself where I move all the characters. It's a team game where you're working together to beat the evil god so that's fine. It's a great way to get accustomed to the rules and the rhythm. There's a series of things that needs to happen each turn and it's easy to forget parts, and the order matters a lot to maintain game balance.
This is great to know, Dale. I read the back of the game and some of the expansions at Dragon*Con this weekend - was wondering about it. The kids are getting into more complicated games now, but I wasn't quite sure if this might still be a bit beyond the attention/cooperation of the youngest.
John - that game case is beautiful!
For board games we have going around here on a pretty regular basis:
Munchkin Quest
Tiki Mountain
Cosmic Encounter (Can get very complicated on days when everybody's in lawyer mode)
Blokus
Scrabble
Risk
Munchkin and Munchkin Call of Cthulhu (Card games that rock!)
You have good taste. Blokus is one hell of a game. Surprised though that battleship, and stratego aren't on that list, seeing as how you have small kids.
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You have good taste. Blokus is one hell of a game. Surprised though that battleship, and stratego aren't on that list, seeing as how you have small kids.
We have both, along with Connect 4 and Clue, but they've stopped playing the games for the most part. We'll pull them out to play, along with Tsuro when friends with younger children are over. I think they've all gotten to the point they want something more complicated.
We have a grudge match game night every few weeks. For those, we tend to grab Monopoly, Scrabble, Bananagrams or Mille Bornes. There is lots of yelling and popcorn throwing on those evenings.
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My flavor of the months are Innovation and 7 Wonders. I prefer Innovation, but 7 wonders is an easier game with lots of great strategy that you can get gaming newbies into. Plus, it works with 3-7 players...there aren't a ton of good games that can play that many people.
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Osborne pointed out something like that last night in which I had the most crazy combination of awesome, and while as a rules lawyer I think I was technically right, I conceded it because it was just ridiculous.
Sorry, Shaw has ruled in my favor in this matter. Your win has been negated. Rematch is required.
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Sorry, Shaw has ruled in my favor in this matter. Your win has been negated. Rematch is required.
Fair enough. It was quite ridiculous. FWIW, I had no idea going in how awesome it would be. I didn't expect to get the two perfect things to compliment that power and I think we should go with your house rule if/when that combo comes up again in the future.