Non-video games

[lobotomy42]

Just played a game of Tales of the Arabian Nights. It's a sort of competitive choose-your-own-adventure board game that can be weird and hilarious, though some of the systems in it seem unnecessarily complex at times. One of my friends had an encounter with a talkative barber who kept pursuing him after his haircut was finished, and eventually drove him clothes-tearingly crazy.

 

Oh man I have played that too many times.  It's not even a "game" really, as much as it is "read from this random list of stuff that has happened to you."  It can be hilarious, but I've never even finished a game, I don't think, because after a few hours it's usually clear that none of us is any closer to completion.

[melmer]

Bioshock Infinite board game: http://www.polygon.com/features/2013/7/24/4507808/bioshock-infinite-board-game-siege-of-columbia

 

it looks pretty

[elmuerte]

the bigger question is, is it fun to play, or just a quick cash-in.

[Erkki]

I also saw a Walking Dead board game, or even three different ones. And an Uncharted one. BGG ratings weren't very high, so I ignored them.

[Apelsin]

the bigger question is, is it fun to play, or just a quick cash-in.

Based on the article on Polygon it would appear not to be a quick cash-in at least.

Work has been ongoing on it for some time. Company behind it seem to be fairly well-liked as well.

 

Doesn't necessarily mean that it actually is fun though!

 

I was looking at Android Infiltration the other day. I like how it seems to be slightly reminiscent of Drakborgen (Dungeonquest for those of you who have not had the pleasure of playing the original Swedish version).

 

On the other hand, it doesn't have the highest of scores on BGG. Has anyone here had the chance to try it out?

[Korax]

I've played a few games of Infiltration, but I haven't played Drakbork-bork-bork (sorry), so I have no point of comparison. I think it's pretty fun, and things can get quite manic towards the end of a game when you know that the en-route mercenary force will end the game in two or three turns and you're trying to fuck over everyone else as you escape. It's also on the component-light side of Fantasy Flight games, with a couple small decks of cards and a handful or two of tokens, as opposed to the half hour+ it took me to punch out the the nonsense that came with Arkham Horror or Android.

[Gormongous]

I was looking at Android Infiltration the other day. I like how it seems to be slightly reminiscent of Drakborgen (Dungeonquest for those of you who have not had the pleasure of playing the original Swedish version).

 

On the other hand, it doesn't have the highest of scores on BGG. Has anyone here had the chance to try it out?

 

I played a few games of Infiltration and a few of DungeonQuest. They're pretty close to each other in that they're competitive loot-'em-ups in dangerous settings, but I don't think they play identical at all. There's so more player-on-player friction in Infiltration because you're all progressing along the same path, which changes a lot of the dynamics, especially in the early game.

 

Still, I'd say DungeonQuest is the better design. There is virtually no character differentiation in Infiltration besides the starting item, plus there is a sure-win strategy that takes all the other players noticing and reacting to counter (hang back, pick up people's scraps, and drive up the alarm level). Then again, it's a lot lighter and shorter than DungeonQuest, which might be important for you.

[miffy495]

I finally bought my own copy of Puerto Rico yesterday after having loved it in high school and not playing since the friend who owned it moved away. Played a 3 player round tonight. Damn, that is an awesome game. Everyone should play it if they haven't.

 

Also, I ordered a copy of Tammany Hall off of the internet and am excited for when it arrives and I can bring it to my weekly games night. Stoked for things!

[dibs]

I miss my board game nights, but everyone lives in different cities now:/ every time I see a doctor otker pizza I remember the old times dropping pizza onto carcassone.

Edit: Puerto Rico and San juan are fixtures on my ipad. They are both so good.

[Apelsin]

I played a few games of Infiltration and a few of DungeonQuest. They're pretty close to each other in that they're competitive loot-'em-ups in dangerous settings, but I don't think they play identical at all. There's so more player-on-player friction in Infiltration because you're all progressing along the same path, which changes a lot of the dynamics, especially in the early game.

 

Still, I'd say DungeonQuest is the better design. There is virtually no character differentiation in Infiltration besides the starting item, plus there is a sure-win strategy that takes all the other players noticing and reacting to counter (hang back, pick up people's scraps, and drive up the alarm level). Then again, it's a lot lighter and shorter than DungeonQuest, which might be important for you.

 

Yeah, it would be nice to have a shorter, lighter game to play with my workmates. All other board games we play soak up at least two hours of time which, while fun, sometimes feels a bit much. It having such a dominant strategy in it sounds kind of bad though :/

 

 

I've played a few games of Infiltration, but I haven't played Drakbork-bork-bork (sorry), so I have no point of comparison. I think it's pretty fun, and things can get quite manic towards the end of a game when you know that the en-route mercenary force will end the game in two or three turns and you're trying to fuck over everyone else as you escape. It's also on the component-light side of Fantasy Flight games, with a couple small decks of cards and a handful or two of tokens, as opposed to the half hour+ it took me to punch out the the nonsense that came with Arkham Horror or Android.

 

Yeah, that's sort of the best part of Drakbork-bork-borken as well. You are basically entering a dragon's castle, trying to get to the treasure chamber and grab as much loot as you can before the sun sets upon which everyone still in the castle dies. Combine that with the fact that the layout of the castle is randomly generated, full of traps and hilariously hard monsters and you've got a game where just surviving is a feat. 

[osmosisch]

That's pretty much the same as Infiltration except in Infiltration there's no direct risk from the dungeon because Donald X hates player elimination. I like it a lot.

[Apelsin]

So. I bought the Game of Thrones boardgame.

[tberton]

Whoa, I never noticed this thread before. Sweet! I love board/card/party games!

 

I played Matt Leacock's new game, Forbidden Desert, last night. It's really cool! If you like Pandemic and Forbidden Island, you'll love this. And unlike Forbidden Island, it actually feels like more than just "Pandemic Lite."

[tberton]

I've started a new blog about these things. It's called Analysis Paralysis. Check it out if you're interested!

[Erkki]

So I got myself a Galaxy Trucking Simulator after seeing the recommendations here. It's fun! We played without time limit at first, as one player had played it before and complained about it. Didn't have to wait too long for last guys to finish (except in the second two-player game where the other guy was just taking all the time in the world to build a perfect ship -- and of course he won too). So I think the time limit is appropriate, but I don't know if the standard rules for it have the right balance.

 

The rules of this game are written really confusingly. Nice idea to let you start with reading only parts of the rules, but in practice you end up looking through the whole rulebook to find what the hell does it mean that "ships with more engines are faster" and then you read that when the Open Space card comes up, you can actually move forward on the track instead of "nothing happens".

 

I also got The Big Expansion because I'd like to have more variance than in the base game. Any recommendations which parts of the expansion to start with?

[Gormongous]

I also got The Big Expansion because I'd like to have more variance than in the base game. Any recommendations which parts of the expansion to start with?

 

I don't bother with the increased difficulty bits. Just mix in the cards right away and add in the extra ship parts when your crew feels comfortable adding a bit more to the table.

[Erkki]

Just mix in the cards right away

You mean the evil machinations?

[Gormongous]

You mean the evil machinations?

 

I mean the I, II, and III cards. The evil machinations are fun, but they're really only for groups that either 1) are experienced enough that they need the challenge, or 2) love horrific failures and player elimination a lot.

[Irishjohn]

For any table-top wargamer types hanging around, this is pretty good:

 

http://imgur.com/gallery/V0gND

[osmosisch]

Haha yeah, that's a classic.

[Dewar]

So, I think I'm going to start up a Shadowrun 5 campaign despite my customer service nightmare with Catalyst Games. What's the go-to dice rolling and white board type program these days? I don't really need minatures and maps since I like to describe the scene rather than play D&D style minature warfare.

[TheLastBaron]

This is kind of late but I think Roll20 is really popular.

 

 

Anyways, so Ticket to Ride is part of the current Humble Android Bundle both on Android and Steam.  Would anyone be interested in playing?

[miffy495]

Just bought it, pretty much solely for Ticket. I'd be down, but have no idea how to friend a person in that way.

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[Patters]

I've gotten back into Warhammer 40k this year and my housemate also plays. We've been building a table top for this (and X Wing Miniatures). We (Me) have decides to go with a black base of 3 2x4' pieces of MDF which have been primed with Plastikote black. I've bought 4kg of black sand used reptile tanks as the base. It looks pretty good on 1/3 that has been fully surfaced. For hills and so forth we are getting some high density foam and modelling it with the same surface. We played for the first time on it on Saturday (I won losing about 6 of my Grey Knight Purifiers). 

 

I might paint the parts with missing sand red as the surface looks quite volcanic. I'll get pics this evening for you guys. 

 

EDIT:

 

I also added to my X Wing collection:

 

 

[TheLastBaron]

The B-Wing is my all time favorite star wars ship.