What BOARD GAME(s) have you been playing?

I would be very interested in hearing how it compares to the second edition...my copy is quite...elderly...so if it were a reasonable way to have a copy I don't mind my friends putting their mitts all over (and possibly even my kids), I would maybe check it out.

Should be playing Imperial Assault tonight, provided my copy gets here and my friends don't flake out (highly likely).

So jealous. Hope it's good! Curious to know what you think about it as you've been a Descent pooper for years. =P

Yeah, I dunno...I'm actually more interested in the skirmish game, I do like the Doom dice system and it could be fun for a head-to-head battle. My buddies that are coming over, I don't know if they'll really go for a campaign thing. They're pretty casual players. So we may just put some guys out and shoot at each other.

You should give the campaign a try though. At least solo, if possible. Knowing you're meh about the (old) system just makes me more interested in your opinion on this one. I skipped D2 so I'm also curious about the evolution here.

My regular gang of guys actually likes Descent (we did most of a RTL campaign years ago), so I will likely bust that out with them at our next get together, maybe next weekend. Guess who will, once again, have to be the bad guys...

Yeah, but now the bad guys are stormtroopers, Darth Vader and an AT-ST. That's gotta make a difference.

Imperial Assault is really interesting to me as well. I don't know what it is about Star Wars but even though I don't love the movies I think it makes an outstanding game world to play in.

Really this is like Decent version 5 at this point. Doom, Decent 1, Decent RTL, Decent 2 ... if you add in all the fixes and additions from the expansions it may even be like Descent version 8 by now.

The point is... they really don't have a good reason to fuck this up. So even though I don't buy many games anymore this one has me very curious and I think it would get some good table time in the new year if it's worth the admittedly high cost.

Yeah, but now the bad guys are stormtroopers, Darth Vader and an AT-ST. That's gotta make a difference.

Oh yes, absolutely. Much more invested in that stuff than Beastmen and Razorwings.

I'm in the same boat as you, Michael: I've no interest in Descent but it's hard to resist the siren song of that John Williams score.

We started off an infrequent Shadows of Brimstone campaign last night. I'm rolling with an Outlaw (Lee Crowder), also have a Preacher and Bandido in our group.

We finished the first mission so fast and had so little money that we got in two missions in one night (both the basic For A Few Darkstone More scenario).

The game is dumb fun but it's definitely fun. I was surprised by how fast and briskly it moved. It never bogged down (even with a lot of enemies) and player turns were quick.

The combat isn't exactly clunky but it's definitely not streamlined. Having to roll for an enemy attack, then roll your defense, then roll armor if you have it seems a bit contrived. Fun though despite mounds of dice.

The levelling up system is the best part of the game as you have plenty of choices and flavor. Great stuff. We didn't stay in the first town long because I opened up a portal at the Outpost which sucked it inside and then had to high tail it out of town due to lack of money. We need to do our second town visit next time in which I plan on holding up the bank. Bastards won't know what hit 'em.

In terms of characters I'm getting left behind somewhat. The Preacher is a machine, generating around 50-70XP a turn from just Sermons (healing and combat) plus XP for killing enemies. I'm not sure how other classes are supposed to keep up as the dude is almost level 3 and I just hit level 2.

The Bandido lucked into a great starting item (spectacles which let him re-roll a to-Hit die) and found some good Dark Stone gloves and Knife due to his kind of ridiculous Loot ability (re-draw if he wants). He's a beast in combat and can do a whirlwind attack where he basically kills everything adjacent to him.

I'm curious to see how all of this randomness plays out in the long term (random items/loot, dice rolls leading to kills/XP). Seems like there's potential for some very overpowered characters if they find the right items.

I liked my first plays of it a lot, but I'm also concerned with repitition as you don't do a whole lot during the game but move and attack. The Encounters are the best part and that deck will eventually get cycled through and lose its charm. I think this will be a play a couple times and then let it sit for another couple months type of game due to those reasons. Keeping it fresh and the content discovery alive is important I think.

I also wish the enemies were more dynamic. There's no real AI or even attack priority besides spreading them out. I wish it worked a bit more like Myth in that regard. I really wish I could combine elements of this with Myth for the perfect game. Great things about each but also flaws IMO.

Anyway, had a great time and we three were excited.

I played a quick party game called Skulls the other day... just a simple little bluffing game you could make with coasters at a bar. But it was packaged up nicely with really amazing art work... beautiful package and a really fun game. I am totally interested in picking up a copy now.

JonJacob wrote: I played a quick party game called Skulls the other day... just a simple little bluffing game you could make with coasters at a bar. But it was packaged up nicely with really amazing art work... beautiful package and a really fun game. I am totally interested in picking up a copy now.

Do you mean Skull & Roses? That's a fun game, though for bluffing games it basically got killed with me after Coup came out.

San Il Defanso wrote:

JonJacob wrote: I played a quick party game called Skulls the other day... just a simple little bluffing game you could make with coasters at a bar. But it was packaged up nicely with really amazing art work... beautiful package and a really fun game. I am totally interested in picking up a copy now.

Do you mean Skull & Roses? That's a fun game, though for bluffing games it basically got killed with me after Coup came out.

It was retitled to Skulls with the newest printing, same game though. I actually like it a bit better than Coup as it doesn't suffer that awkward end game where you know who won and it feels much less random/arbitrary.

San Il Defanso wrote:

JonJacob wrote: I played a quick party game called Skulls the other day... just a simple little bluffing game you could make with coasters at a bar. But it was packaged up nicely with really amazing art work... beautiful package and a really fun game. I am totally interested in picking up a copy now.

Do you mean Skull & Roses? That's a fun game, though for bluffing games it basically got killed with me after Coup came out.

Hmm, yes it turns out that is what I mean...

Is coup better as a light drinking game? Or just better from a geek perspective? I trust you know what I mean, I'm in the market for something really light to play over beers.

I'd rather play Cockroach Poker than Coup, personally.