Rune Age vs Star Realms

Hey guys,

I recently sold off my Dominion collection and am looking to get into another deck builder, hopefully one with a bit more player interaction. Are either of these any good, especially after expansions?

I've found Rune Age to be the best pure deckbuilder I've played. I say "pure" because it functions more like Dominion than, say, Blood Bowl: Team Manager (which is also excellent.) The cool thing about Rune Age is that you can actually interact with your opponents on a regular basis. When you're competing, you're directly attacking their position. It also has multiple game modes, so you can play co-op, directly attacking each other, or competing for the same goal. The expansion isn't necessary, but it does add two new factions, a higher level unit for all six factions, and another game mode, so I think it's worthwhile.

I wish there were more discussion on this as I'm curious on the result myself.

I still play BB:TM so have yet to fully embrace the idea of a second deckbuilder. Been leaning toward Star Realms due to the size and I wonder if it's easier than Rune Age. that is easy enough my son could teach it to his friends.

I just played my first game of Star Realms, having purchased it for $11 at my FLGS on free comic book day. I made my 16-year-old learn it and teach me, and after playing once I think it would be easy to teach.

1. Draw five cards
2. Spend your space gold to buy more cards that do things
3. Use your combat cards to blow up the other guy
4. Play cards with persistent effects, like shields or income generation
5. Rinse and repeat until someone dies.

Star Realms is not nearly as complex as Dominion but I love it; it's practically all player interaction. There are some faction-specific combos (i.e., Blob Faction ships synergize best with other Blob ships, etc.) but the combos don't get much more complicated than that. It's a very beer-and-pretzels deckbuilder and it's a great one to introduce to new players. That being said, I don't think it's deep enough for two players and I'd say the sweet spot is four. You can usually get several games in per session so if you have four players you can play free-for-all (which is nasty, chaotic fun), 2 vs. 2 and Emperor Mode (or whatever it's called) where it's 1 vs. All.

I'm going to disagree. I've always enjoyed Star Realms much more as a pure dueling game with two players. The alternative is Cthulhu Realms which, for all its cartoony art, has a lot going on in terms of stringing together combinations of card plays. Both are great, and both are really cheap.

I've never played Rune Age, but have all the Star Realms stuff. I am glad I own it because I find it to fit a needed slot in my collection. It plays fast... Like half hourish. It's easy to teach because it's not too deep. It's probably great as a gateway game to deeper deck builders, but has enough going on that I don't get bored with it. And it's cheap. Easy to get on the table waiting for more players to arrive, between heavier games, or a capper to the night. I have gotten more games of this than anything else I own in last 6 months.