Fury of Dracula 3rd Edition

it looks ravenlofty.

The cover image looks like a cross between Bela Lugosi (good), Cesar Romero and Eddie Munster (not so good).

I've only played FoD twice. Once was amazing, the other time pretty tedious and forgettable. I love the theme and these kind of hide-and-seek games, so I'm interested.

So. The Children of the Night make sweet music, but they can't paint for toffee. How that box got past quality control is beyond me.

I'm pretty excited about this. Detail on gameplay is sadly light, but I've long been an advocate of the idea that the game needs to go back to the framework of the original edition and pull in some minor tweaks. Win conditions ought to change to discourage turtling, and they could smooth some of the edge off the randomness. I've had one too many games of the original where Dracula dared an early attack and got staked by a hunter with a lucky chit draw and initiative roll.

FFG have got better at this as the years have gone by, which is a good thing. That said, the 2-3 hour play time doesn't sound promising. Done properly this should be a 2-hour game, tops, as the GW version is.

And if we're talking about Specter Ops, it might just be the best game I've played this year. Hoping I might have a review inbound soon.

Sold my 2nd edition for $155 just a couple months ago. Good timing, I guess. I was fine with most of the changes from the GW version, but we just weren't playing it often enough. I'm not particularly interested in a new one unless the changes are particularly compelling.

SuperflyTNT wrote: it looks ravenlofty.

It does a little bit. Ravenloft is a bit less cartoon-y than this though.

This edition features all-new art and graphic design that complement the game’s intuitive and highly thematic mechanics. Rounds have been broken into day and night: hunters take actions during both, but Dracula can only act at night. Combat is now more streamlined and decisive.

I don't like the sound of this at all. The old FFG edition had some of the most unique and thematic combat rules I'd ever seen, and they were one of my favorite parts of the game. I'm glad I have that edition still; I can still play the game that I've loved for a decade. And at least they're actually called this a "third edition," to make it clear that it is a completely new beast.

The art on the board is nice, and I'm sure we'll get the generally nice (if oftentimes generic) art that we see in most FFG games.

That cover is bad, though, no bones about it. Like Barnes said, it's a pic you'd see in an advertisement for the upcoming Halloween sale at Party City.

Yeah I think the new board looks beautiful. The game seriously needs streamlining (the 2nd edition has too much of that trademark mid-2000s FFG fiddliness), and like MattDP said, it really needs to be a 2 hour game at MOST. I've had games of Fury stretch well beyond the 4 hour mark, and that was among players who knew what they were doing.

So if you don't have any nostalgia for this or any other hidden movement game, is this the best of the bunch or has Spectre Ops claimed the throne?

I definitely prefer the 2nd edition board. I'll keep my eye on this version. The figures look the same so I can always buy it and swap them into my 2nd edition to sell that.

On the bright side the cover won't be noticed when its on a shelf with other games on top of it.

I keep thinking that maybe, just maybe, the cover will grow on me, but then I look again and realize that nope, never gonna happen.

It looks to me like they were trying to get that mid century double feature movie poster vibe, without understanding what makes those posters memorable and fantastic.

The original version had a couple of minor issues (and the whole "cheating Dracula" thing was possible), the FFG edition kind of gummed it up in an attempt to add more...FFG-ness. It was still great, but the changes were mostly unnecessary and they did that thing where they made it so that you couldn't play the original game.

With the third edition, they're getting further away from the GW edition, which means it is moving in the wrong direction. Matt is correct, this should be a two hour game. Not a three hour game. Without having played the new edition, I would be inclined to feel like the changes are there more to make buying a third edition appealing to 2nd edition owners than they are to update the game.

I actually regret selling my old GW copy, it is the version I would most want to play these days.

Good point on the box cover. I think this one is a lateral move, as I wasn't a fan of the 2nd ed cover at all. I guess 1st edition still wins.

However, 2nd's board wins hands down. It's plenty atmospheric but a lot cleaner:


3rd:

(I have no idea how any portion of the Atlantic that resides _above_ Spain could be considered 'South' Atlantic...)

And the character art? No contest. 2nd edition by a Transylvanian mile:


3rd:


Looks like the minis might be the same. However, this may be a good time to drop this idea again...
fortressat.com/forum/34-pimp-my-game/457...acula?start=30#49310

Every genre has one game that looms over the rest as its King. For the hidden movement genre Fury of Dracula is that game. It is big, meaty and just satisfying to experience. There is a reason that people clamor for this game and pay stupid money for it when it was OOP. It's just that good. Yeah, combat is a touch finicky and sometimes it's long....but fuck, when did people become allergic to a 3-4 hour boardgame? If the experience is worth it then it's not a knock against the game. Sure it's not a game you pull out week in and week out...it's more of a monthly or quarterly beast. Fury of Dracula has withstood the test of time....both editions are great in my book.

It's far too earlier to be saying Specter Ops has taken over. Come talk to me in 2020 and we will see if that game is still being played or remembered. It's a great game...but I'm not sure it is going to be a classic.

Fury of Dracula has earned that classic status. The cat and mouse style gameplay is full of trickery and moments of tension. Not all boardgames can claim to be exciting. I'd argue that in most games of Fury of Dracula it provides that edge of your seat terror and tension most games would kill for.

As for the new box art...It would have been more ominous if they went the Chaos in the old world route. Make that cover all black and then use the new logo. Maybe make it embossed....glossy and blood red against the black. Could have looked really fucking nice.

Yes, they could have done something tasteful, stylish and modern.

Oh wait, it's the games business...and it's being sold to gamers...so everything has to be tasteless, tacky and overdone.