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I've just started playing quite a bit with three college friends and as you might expect I've started looking for new games to try out. I would very much like something quite quick (Since we already have a bunch of 2+ hour games) or at least something that you can pick up quite easily so we don't have to spend the entire evening reading up on the rules.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

The games we currently have in the rotation are: Bonanzha, Settlers of Catan, Power Grid, Ticket to Ride, Game of Thrones board game 

 

The "quick" games I have as palate cleansers between more substantial fare are Love Letter (a genius design that anyone can learn in seconds), Resistance: Avalon (although I've seen groups get caught playing it for hours instead of moving on to other things), and King of Tokyo (no one dislikes King of Tokyo, people who say otherwise are lying). I'm trying to see if Fairy Tale also works in that rotation, but I've been turned off so far by its extremely mechanistic rules.

 

I have a friend who is super slow at deciding what to do in games (and in life, going to restaurants with him is a chore) and it's making playing games every week with my friends less enticing.

Edit: He killed Pandemic for all my friends. We played a single game of it and it will literally never be played again now.

 

There are plenty of guides online on how to coach your friend out of such behaviors, if you find it worth your while, but it really depends whether it's genuine analysis paralysis or a more conscious fear of looking stupid or doing the wrong thing.

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We use Tsuro as a palate cleanser and warmup/cooldown game.

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I have a friend who is super slow at deciding what to do in games (and in life, going to restaurants with him is a chore) and it's making playing games every week with my friends less enticing.

Edit: He killed Pandemic for all my friends. We played a single game of it and it will literally never be played again now.

 

Terrible behaviour, and you've all got to be brutal about it. Setting a timer, and the rest of you voicing your collective discomfort is probably the best chance of shifting it.

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Thanks for the recommendations!

 

I've ordered Dominion and will also cast an eye on King of Tokyo to see if that is something I think the others will enjoy!

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Hooooly shit, the fake card game from Adventure Time -whose entire deal was that it was needlessly complex and impossible to learn- is actually becoming a real game.

 

RzwExFJ.jpg

 

 

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I played the Firefly board game a few weeks ago, it's very good and you should play it if you are a fan of the show.

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Oh, wow! I have, or rather my father has, the original Dune boardgame somewhere. It is indeed absolutely beautiful, although something of a work for the ages to play...

 

I've got Android Netrunner sitting on my kitchen table, but a) this is a busy time and b ) after reading Leigh A's account of her relationship with Netrunner, I'm not sure I dare to open the box...

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After months of searching, I found a print-and-play publisher who's willing to make and sell me a copy of Ilya's gorgeous Dune (1979) redesign. I now begin the lengthy process of convincing myself that it's worth $120 to buy an out-of-print masterpiece that's lovingly handmade by some dude in Washington instead of a machine in China.

 

That seems kinda pricey. A friend of mine was able to acquire a copy of the original game on eBay in good shape for $70 + shipping.

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That seems kinda pricey. A friend of mine was able to acquire a copy of the original game on eBay in good shape for $70 + shipping.

 

He got extraordinarily lucky or was extraordinarily patient. After a year of watching auctions, I can say for sure that the average copy goes for at least twice that much unless it has serious wear or defects, which is fully possible since the original game's components were all thin cardboard and cardstock.

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He got extraordinarily lucky or was extraordinarily patient. After a year of watching auctions, I can say for sure that the average copy goes for at least twice that much unless it has serious wear or defects, which is fully possible since the original game's components were all thin cardboard and cardstock.

 

True enough, he was patient! At one point he almost won an auction that would have cost more for a copy of the game in considerably worse condition.

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I can make a better game out of a similar theme*.

 

* based on 1 minute of slightly drunk reading of the description.

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So I forgot to mention that I got my absurd ability to acquire rare trading cards to kick in again yesterday. I got a second full art Meloetta EX in a booster pack:

 

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...And a Shaymin full art EX in a digital booster:

 

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I wish I could get physical copies of that Shaymin and a Genesect EX, but I'm not complaining.

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Hooooly shit, the fake card game from Adventure Time -whose entire deal was that it was needlessly complex and impossible to learn- is actually becoming a real game.

 

RzwExFJ.jpg

 

 

Just noticed today that there's a iOS adaptation of that game out, is it worth playing?

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Just noticed today that there's a iOS adaptation of that game out, is it worth playing?

Based on what I've seen and also the fact that it's Cryptologic, I'm kind of wary of it.

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My girlfriend and I have been playing Tales of the Arabian Nights for the last couple days. It's an interesting hybrid, partway between a strategic board game like Arkham Horror and a story-driven RPG like FATE. You construct a narrative by encountering spaces and making choices which lead to reading paragraphs from a Book of Tales. It's main weakness is that there is really no balance or fairness. It can be hard to have fun when one player is losing dramatically. You have to retain the perspective that it's about the journey, and winning is just a way to end the game.

 

Last night, I ended up completing the game as Sultan of an undersea kingdom, though I nearly failed to make my triumphant return to Baghdad when I was ensorsceled and my girlfriend maliciously left me in a forest on the outskirts of the map. There, I was imprisoned by a Powerful Wizard, but used my powers of acting and disguise to escape.

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My girlfriend and I have been playing Tales of the Arabian Nights for the last couple days. 

 

From what I understand of the running time of Arabian Nights, this'd be one game.

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I actually quite like Tales of Arabian Nights.  I've found that our games with 4 people generally run for a reasonable 3 hours or so at the top end.  You definitely can't be in it to win, though.  A lot of times, the better course is to do what's fun.  Enter the lion?  Don't mind if I do!

 

I'm not sure I'd recommend it for any more than 4 people though.  Part of what makes that game smart is it making other players part of your turn, so people stay engaged.  That mechanism doesn't scale up well, though, so I could see a 6 player game feeling very slow and ponderous.

 

In a lot of ways it kind of feels like the board gaming equivalent of The Yawhg.

 

I've got a copy of Netrunner showing up in the mail tomorrow, as well as a copy of Vlaada Chvatil's new game Tash-Kalar and Antoine Bauza's new game Rampage.

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With two people, we've had our games run from 30 minutes to an hour in a half. I played a 5 person game on the weekend though, and that was definitely 3-4 hours. You really lose any sense of the narrative when you have that many players.

 

We have one of those cubed Ikea shelves, three cubbies of which are now filled with board games. I'm starting to think we might need to get rid of a few...

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Well, I received my print-and-play commission of the 1979 Dune board game from this guy today and my feelings are... mixed. Some components (the unit counters, the cards) are shockingly beautiful, well-made and overall of high quality. Others (the board, the combat dials, the rulebook) are something I could have done given half an hour in our media lab. I'm looking for ways to improve the latter, with proper linchpins for the dials and a cloth-tape backing for the board, but all in all it's been a very qualified success for me.

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