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board games | |
May 29th, 2019 | |
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cat just dropped a nice phlog [0] about board and card games that | |
he loves. He wrapped up by asking others what they enjoy. | |
[0] cat - top 3 board & card games | |
I'll try to keep this to just 3 games as well (with an honorable | |
mention or two). Unlike cat, who favors the solo or two player | |
games, I'm a fan of the epic. | |
1. The Republic of Rome (Avalon Hill) | |
Avalon Hill is famous for making complex war simulation board | |
games that take hours to set up, let alone play. It is a company | |
at the forefront of destroying friendships. Diplomacy is probably | |
the game responsible for the most gamer-feuds in history, which | |
makes Republic of Rome remarkable in that it was created | |
specifically for gamers who thought it too tame. Avalon Hill had | |
a rating system for complexity in their games and at the time of | |
its release, RoR was the first game to max it out. These days we | |
can enjoy a few that have since jumped the shark in terms of | |
complexity [1]. | |
[1] The Campaign for North Africa | |
For all its ridiculous complexity and legal-code rulebook, it's | |
a brilliantly fun game to tackle with a group of friends. The | |
players control factions of senators in either the early, middle, | |
or late republic time periods of Roman history. They struggle | |
against one another for money, influence, popularity, and military | |
might until one comes out dominant enough to meet one of several | |
victory conditions. But they must be careful! If the factions | |
don't cooperate, Rome itself can fall and everyone loses. | |
This has been responsible for so many amazing nights of board game | |
fun I can't sing its praises enough. As I'm gearing up to leave | |
the country, my friends here planned one last get together to say | |
farewell and what better way could they have done so than with | |
a game of RoR. | |
2. Carcassonne (Hans im Glück) | |
This tile-laying game is fast (20-30 min), easy-to-learn, and | |
endlessly amusing. It's a great lunch-time game if you work with | |
another board game geek. You are building a sprawling city and | |
trying to occupy the buildings you create to score points when | |
they are completed. You farm the lands servicing these buildings | |
and set up monestaries. Oh, and don't forget to build roads! All | |
of this is done with puzzle-like square tiles that connect and | |
extend the existing city into a new crazy puzzle of awesome. Score | |
keeping is a little tricky at first, but it becomes second nature. | |
3. Once Upon a Time: The Storytelling Card Game (AMIGO) | |
I adore storytelling and this game really scratches that itch. | |
It's a card-game with fantastic creatures and items all fantasy | |
themed. You will find character types like the witch, or princess, | |
and items like magic swords. You'll also find story elements like | |
a broken promise. With these building blocks you and your friends | |
will create an epic tale. Together. Entirely improv style. | |
The way it works is really cool. Someone starts telling the story. | |
As they tell their story they will begin to play cards in their | |
hand that match the story they're telling. If they introduce | |
a swarthy princess who runs an illegal footwear consortium, then | |
they may lay down the princess card. If that princess discovers | |
a way to hide switch blades in the magical Air Jordans she's | |
creating, then the player may play the magical sword card. But | |
it's not as simple as just making up gibberish and laying down | |
your cards! | |
If the story fails to make sense, contradicts itself, or if the | |
player pauses too long (as determined by the other players) then | |
the story moves to the next clockwise player and the previous | |
storyteller must draw a new card to their hand for having "lost" | |
the story. There's also a tricky way to steal a story from | |
a storyteller. If the storyteller mentions a story element that | |
matches a card in your hand, you can play that card and take over | |
the story. But you better be ready to start right away or you may | |
pause too long and lose it. | |
All of this storytelling and card playing/drawing is leading | |
toward and ending that's unique to each player. You draw secret | |
ending cards at the start of the game. Your ending is different | |
from the other players and you need to steer the narative in the | |
right direction to get there. If your story ends with "The twins | |
were cooked in the pie." and the story doesn't even have twins | |
introduced, you have some catching up to do. | |
This game requires outgoing friends and benefits from some | |
moderate drinking. It also has a special place in my game | |
collection because of our house rule on "who goes first." | |
No matter what game we're playing, the choice of who goes first | |
comes down to the Once Upon a Time deck. Everyone cuts the deck | |
and takes out one card. Whichever card is "Closest to Unicorn" | |
goes first. We love the ambiguity and determining whether the | |
Princess or the Magic Sword is closer to unicorn (magic sword, | |
obviously). It starts every game out with a smile. | |
Honorable Mentions: | |
A. Chess | |
A classic, and I'm totally addicted, but it didn't feel right to | |
include in this list. | |
B. Tabletop RPGs | |
Pathfinder, D&D, Fate, The Riddle of Steel, Alternity, Fiasco, and | |
all the rest are the very best games in the world. As much as | |
I love a board game, a D&D campaign has no equal. I guess I'll | |
probably have to write more about that soon. | |
Okay, people... what's your top 3? |