Bustin' Makes Me Feel Good - Ghostbusters Boardgame?

DC Deckbuilder rules. Yup, it's a dumb game, unthematic as hell, but it's fun and goddamn can you not argue with results.

Colorcrayons wrote: Sure, the licensing has made them a lot of quick money from consumers seeing a big name on a board game and buying it.

So what? Ever heard of success not exactly equating to merit? Or in this case, quality?
We are asked to trust them and the word of people saying it is "good" and "fun".

But if your prior experience with them is anything but that description, then how is what you just wrote supposed to make me change my mind or invalidate my opinion? What's your point besides fervent defense of an unknown quantity where you don't know anything more than the rest of us?

Let me make it clear to you: I don't give a rats ass about changing your mind. Contrary to what you may believe, I do like hearing your opinion and why you're not backing - Don't like the company, not a fan of their product...Great! What I am telling you though, is you can take this whole concept of an "informed public" and cram it. They don't need to change your mind. They don't need to sell you anything. You aren't the person they're making the game for.

The BGG mindset, that was in part a catalyst to this site's formation, was the wrong assumption that all games need to reflect certain desired traits and characteristics. That if only the general population knew what was out there that the world would be a better place. That lesser games will be the ruination of the hobby.

That's what yours, and other's, posts smack of. That you (and they) know better. That what you (and they) desire is better. That people who back this are idiots.

The game is not for you. Fine. Good. Tip o'the cap to ye. That's not something I care about. I'll tell you one thing though I know I'm part of the "informed public" and I'm stoked as all get out for the game and I know I'm not alone.

Also, let me clarify that by no means will I ever argue that this will be a great game by any critical standards. It won't. It'll be a light dice chucker. And that's what I want and that's what I expect.

EDIT: $350k was just passed and Zuul was unlocked! Hopefully around noon or so tomorrow we'll get her companion Vinz Clortho

VonTush, did you back Zombicide also?

I'm in VonTush's camp of being pretty excited-- will probably back it for a Mass Hysteria for myself and a Paranormal for my brother. I am irritated that they aren't going through Amazon, but I suppose I can live with that.

For all the bitching about Cryptozoic, there are less red flags than with Conan. At least CZE has experience with making games (Conan is Monollith's first game), CZE has good experience handling IPs, there will probably be delays with Conan due to the ridiculous amount of minis, etc. The broad spacing of stretch goals is likely protecting against people backing out later on and covering what is more likely a steeper lP -- it seems being very competently managed in terms of pacing the kickstarter.

I can't be happier with the Vince Clortho stretch goal. Now we just need a Louis and a Dana and some kind of in game mechanism that transforms them into Zuul and Clortho. Also hoping for a Samhain, Ivo Shandor, Boogieman (tied to Egon of course). There is a lot of possibilities for some cool stuff. And, having played all of the Ghostbusters boardgames, I can assure you this will be the best one.

There are some neat little mechanics -- like ghosts of the same level morphing up to a ghost of the next level. The ghost AI responds to whether they are hit or missed by the Ghostbusters (a nice little twist on the usual coop AI). And, this game should truly be coop.

Sevej wrote: VonTush, did you back Zombicide also?

Nope, but found a trade for a base set copy later and the Toxic City Mall Expansion. Never paid attention to the Zombicide campaigns.

What I'm kind of chuckling at is how a lot of people jumped directly to: "Looks like Zombicide in Ghostbuster's clothing".
Both games use tiles, both use all vs undead swarm, both use dice. Beyond that I don't see much else.
First the tiles look pretty sparse (and squares rather than zones). I'll admit that one thing that could cause me to drop my pledge is if scenery isn't a factor. Not much tactics when the only limit is where you can drive Ecto-1. The game looks to use an action point mechanic which is different from Zombicide. No upgrade cards or searching for equipment or gear. The ghosts will have different traits beyond needing more hits to kill or moving faster. Campaigns are played over four episodes and characters maintain EXP throughout.

Just waiting on some details on how the PKE Meter is going to work as well as combat and how to hold ghosts in the streams.

Game's got some buzz going for it though. Doesn't even have a contest up at BGG and it's already at the top of The Hotness (as well as another one of my anticipated KS projects which is supposed to launch in another two weeks or so Thunderbirds).

VonTush wrote: What I'm kind of chuckling at is how a lot of people jumped directly to: "Looks like Zombicide in Ghostbuster's clothing".
Both games use tiles, both use all vs undead swarm, both use dice. Beyond that I don't see much else.
First the tiles look pretty sparse (and squares rather than zones). I'll admit that one thing that could cause me to drop my pledge is if scenery isn't a factor. Not much tactics when the only limit is where you can drive Ecto-1. The game looks to use an action point mechanic which is different from Zombicide. No upgrade cards or searching for equipment or gear. The ghosts will have different traits beyond needing more hits to kill or moving faster. Campaigns are played over four episodes and characters maintain EXP throughout.

Just waiting on some details on how the PKE Meter is going to work as well as combat and how to hold ghosts in the streams.

They aren't exactly the same, but for me they occupy the same slot. Except if I really like the IP, which I don't. But this is not a knock on Ghostbusters. It's just me as a kid never knew the movie Ghostbusters. The first Ghostbusters I saw was the cartoon series, and while I liked it it simply doesn't leave a mark with me.

I'm also baffled by the map tiles (no buildings). It's possible the PKE meter will be used with d8 to determine random direction and/or spawns.

There's a handful of games that occupy that same design style though: Zombies, All Things Zombie, Space Hulk, Space Crusade, Mutant Chronicles...There are a lot of games are an All vs Many Tactical Miniatures Game. Funny that so many went Zombicide first though. I think it is because of the skill slider for EXP. But yeah, they occupy the same slot for sure.

I hope the PKE Meter does something more, but a randomizer would make sense to have an aid like that is in this style of game. I also figure there has to be an end game trigger for mass loss and that's what I was figuring the PKE did.

For me there's a *huge* gap between one vs all and full co-op games.

That's why the DDAS made quite a big splash back then. It filled the gap left by Warhammer Quest, and Gears of War never really took off. But it's Zombicide that blows the genre through the roof thanks to its mass appeal and awesome KS campaign. Later you have Myth, Brimstone, Mercs Recon, Galaxy Defenders and SC:AM.

Space Ghost wrote: there will probably be delays with Conan due to the ridiculous amount of minis, etc.

16K units of that complexity (how many different sculpts are there - 50? 60? more?), you can be sure of it. And don't expect the expansions any time soon. I'm sure we won't see anything before 2016, and most likely some of what they've been showing only in 2017.

Edit : I went and counted the different sculpts - that's 74 different ones in the King Pledge, + another 40 or so with all the expansion material. Insane. I understand a lot of the base set sculpts are done already, but still, that's a massive quantity of work to be done.

From a completely cynical point of view, if I was a gamer who was hopelessly emotionally invested in the Ghostbusters IP then backing this game is relatively low-risk. Even if the gameplay is mediocre-to-bad, there will be several backers who will be willing to spend their time hammering the game into shape rather than giving up on it altogether. Look at Myth. Those rules were a tire fire but people were going above and beyond to try and get that game playable because they spent $100+ on it.

That's the flipside of the "Kickstarter games cost too much!" argument: the backers have more money invested so they're far less likely to abandon the game at the first sign of rules/gameplay trouble. With these miniature games people need to realize that not only is the funding crowd-sourced, but so is the playtesting, and that part happens after the backers get their games. They just have to consider whether or not they like the theme/setting enough to stomach the possibility of tweaking the game with house rules and variants.

kicktraq has this esimated at 3.8 million

www.kicktraq.com/projects/cze/ghostbusters-the-board-game/

Even if it "only" hits 1/2 that at 1.9 million, I imagine that it will be by and far away the best Ghostbusters boardgame on the market (which isn't necessarily saying much). But, it will also hopefully get the "right" add-ons.

I'd argue that saying "red flags" exist with Conan is horse shit. We're talking about Fred Henry here, one of the top designers at AEG for years, who delivered what are arguably some of the coolest games of his "prime", Rush n' Crush and Adventurers: Temple of Chac. Those games are fun as fuck. He has plenty experience.

I don't think that the design are red flags -- I do think that the delivery and execution has potential problems. Sandy Peterson ran into with Cthulhu Wars, Steve Jackson ran into with OGRE, and Flying Frog ran into with Shadows of Brimstone.

This is the first game Monolith is making -- so they are effectively using their partners for the first time (even though they may be connected to the principals). Do you think that it will be all wrapped up by October 2015?

I backed it on the last day -- too much included to pass up for only $135. And, I love Adventurers and Rush N' Crush -- so there you have it.