Be Excellent To Each Other

My board gaming is pretty limited to Scrabble, we used to play a game called Articulate at Christmas but people started to take that too seriously as the drinking went on so it was dropped

Although I would be interested in D&D and Scifi type games my wife won't have any of that so need something outside of those genres that it easy to pick up.

Note from the cottage thread that a large amount of games are to be played, so any recommendations for a game to play over Christmas?

We're all big fans of the 'Ticket to Ride' series. The rules are pretty easy to explain but there's plenty of strategic choices to keep people interested. Start with the original USA set or the Europe one.

Ok will give that a try, will take a lot of stick from family on this one as I spend all my spare time playing with a big Thomas train set with my son, so my family are all taking the piss and sent me Thomas birthday cards this year!

There are computer (and tablet) versions of it as well if you want to practice or understand more about how it all works , I'm sure it was on a humble bundle at some point and there may be keys for the steam version in the 'free stuff' thread if you want to check there (i know i had multiple copies of it but i'm not sure if they were all used now)

If you like it then definitely get the board version but it will at least give you some ideas about also if you have the time watch 'tabletop' on youtube - here is the Ticket to Ride episode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHmf1bau9xQ

'Le Harve' - I've tried a few times over the years to play this with my Dad but it never quite clicked with us. I played it last night with two from my usual group and I'm still not sure about it. We played the long game (18 turns) , and whilst there were fun moments of 'screw you buddy' and agonising decisions about what items to grab before they go, it felt like playing patience in front of others for three hours rather than competing to win. I'll give it another go now I've got through a game, but fear it might be one for a long wet afternoon when nobody's in the mood for anything else.

Title

'Le Harve'?!

and le Harve nots.

Captain Sonar: team battleship. Most of the box is taken up with a heavy board which becomes a screen to separate and hide the two teams of submariners whilst they try to hunt down and destroy the other team. There are four roles on the boat - captain, first mate, radio officer, and engineer. As there were four of us we were in teams of two with each player doing two roles. Each role has its own custom wipeclean map, and the radio officer, tasked with tracking the direction of the opposing submarine, overlays his with a clear sheet so as the game progresses you can try to match up the route with the layout of the islands on the map to work out where the hell everyone is.

You can play the game in real-time but we were playing the turn-based version, which was nasty and confusing enough. On a turn the captain announces the direction the boat will go, and joins the dots on his sheet. The other team's radio officer will log this on his map. The first officer can then charge one energy block of either a weapons system (mines or torpedos), a navigational aid (drone - you ask the other team which of the four map sectors they are in, and they must tell the truth; sonar - the other team give two of either sector, eastings, and northings, but one must be a lie and the other a truth), or silencer (zoom up to four spaces without telling the direction). Moving makes one of the bits of the boat to break down, and the engineer chooses which and crosses it out. When certain conditions are reached that part of the boat is repaired but the first officer can't use anything that the engineer has broken.

We spent most of the hour wandering aimlessly around until the other team activated their sonar, saw through our obvious lie, and fired a direct torpedo on it. All the while, we were unable to retaliate because my engineer (I was captain and radio man, obviously) hadn't been speaking to the first mate (himself) and kept on breaking bits that would allow us to do things. Then the radio man got confused and misheard an enemy's direction and we got confused and fatally struck. Oh well.

I really liked it, and although our maps and charts were hidden by the screen, part of the fun came from overhearing the debates, arguments, and expletives from the other team and trying to elucidate what they meant. Definitely wanting to play this with a full ship's complement, possibly in a red-lit narrow room that smells of cabbage. Playing real-time sounds like a recipe for carnage.

Arboretum - this was supposed our relaxing cool down after the tense marine-based conflict but became extremely bitchy and backbiting as we tried to make the prettiest woodland walks for our visitors. Some devious scoring rules allowed for agonising decisions. Apparently as a two-player game it becomes brutal.

Hanabi - I've played this several times before and whilst I've enjoyed it I've always felt it's missing something. It's a co-op involving laying down cards in order with the twist that you hold your hand outwards so everyone but you know what you're holding. The rules prohibit hints (unless you play a 'hint' token) or really any in-game communication other than asking others to repeat what they know about their hand.

A fun night, but far more mentally taxing than I was expecting.

Captain Sonar sound like it would be great fun drunk!

You can't cross your line, so are at risk of trapping yourself, but you can surface to clear your old route and effectively start over. Of course, the enemy then know where you are and get three turns in a row to meet you for cocktails.

Sounds awesome.

For the record, i lost every game of netrunner again.

I love this game. It works really well with six players and it's funny when things go terribly wrong, which they invariably do. I like Hanabi as well although I've never won it. It's a real brain burner. I'd recommend Diamonds as a really good quick cooldown game. I got it as one of nine to take on holiday and it got played a few times each night.

I'd also recommend this excellent video from shut up and sit down. It's their review of Captain sonar and it sold me on the game.

https://youtu.be/Yjo4iXyDPtw

"Miss 100℅ of the shots you don't take" but, by fuck, variance is killing me at netrunner club!

However, after 12 rounds, my cirporation deck "Angry Murder Bank" has changed into "Mortgage not approved" and is hella slick.

Runner deck is not so good and nothing positive ti say about it.

I'd be interested in playing if I've got the time.

Similarly, I played Hero Quest with some friends last night and we had a great time. I was the DM and they completed the first quest, have bought some items and are ready for the next quest.

I have mostly been playing Tumblin' Monkeys with my wife and daughter. It's like a better version of Kerplunk.

i wouldn't recommend it unless you have a small child.

I came up with rules for "Drinking HeroQuest" - basically you have a shot in front of you for each body point, and if you lose one (or more) you drink a (or more) shot. The potion of healing would literally be a bottle of alcohol, so you can refill your glasses.

I'm struggling to come up with a rule for the Evil Wizard player, though. "Each monster killed" is far too many.

Are you playing the UK or USA HeroQuest? What house rules do you have?

Just the standard UK set I believe. The only deviation from the rules so far is the searching for traps/secret doors and treasures rule. In the the instructions it says that player must specify whether they're going to search for treasure, <b>or</b> a trap/secret door.

In the interests of speeding the game up, we've said they can just search and find whatever is in the room.

It's the first time my friends have ever played it so I'm sure we'll come up with something else when the time comes.

What about if you have a Myp?

Can it be something along the lines of:
1) Turn glass right way up.
2) Refill glass if right way up, otherwise 1.
3) Down glass and place upside-down if full, otherwise 2.

That way it's still taking a shot, but cuts down the amount by a third, with an easy to remember mechanism. Obviously adjust for the actual kill rates as I have no idea.

I've never heard of anyone changing the searching rule before, that's a new one. Don't forget that you don't put "good" treasure back in the deck!

We normally have "creatures/heroes can push through doorways", "only rooms can be searched for treasure, and only once*" and "when the wizard uses all of a spell set he gets them back". Lots of people get rid of the dice rolling when moving, too.

* This might actually be the proper rule, but the wording is ambiguous.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaas.

Whoops. I didn't know this.



This stops people from standing in a door way and having the monsters come to them one at a time, right?



I think this is a proper rule. When we played last night, when one character leaves the dungeon the other two had to carry on and work their way to the exit. Without this rule, there's nothing to stop them standing by the exit and searching every move until they get a monster, which they can then ignore and leave the dungeon.



This makes sense as the Wizard is pretty useless when it comes to fighting.



I can see why you'd do this but I also appreciate the randomness of a dice roll.

Yeah, basically the Barbarian stands in the doorway and hacks away at anything that comes close.

Well, my friends haven't figured this out yet but when they do, I'll introduce the rule! Strangely too, out of my three friends... no one picked the Barbarian. Weirdos.

Fucking Ian.

Certainly having a horde of monsters fuck Ian one at a time would take some time.

Or you can reduce their attack and defend dice to 1 to simulate the difficulty of fighting through a door (something monsters are fine with, of course). That soon puts a stop to it, and allows heroic "holding of the doors" moments.

We should probably be discussing this the the boardgame thread.

Ta-Da!

Hurrah!

Has anyone played Descent? It's like HeroQuest, but not so simple, apparently.

I haven't and I'm not sure I've heard of it. I could look into it now Hero Quest is proving a hit.

I've also got Space Crusade waiting in the wings. That'll be the next game we play.

Obviously Advanced HeroQuest is the obvious next "step", but that costs ALL THE MONEY.

I probably have that still,but would require the mother of all searches (through stuff at my mother's house)

**Quick Google**

Yeah, I've got that in my mom and dads loft. Ace. That'll be next then just before Space Crusade.

Google holds some pretty personal info these days.

I believe Descent uses very similar rule mechanics to Imperial Assault (which is an ace game - it's a little bit complicated, and requires you to remember a lot of additional effects in action, but the boys have managed to pick most of it up). I've been meaning to acquire it at some point.

Reading this thread makes me want to get Space Hulk.

I've got a copy. It's not as good as I remembered.

Finally won 'The Grizzled'. This is even better than beating 'Pandemic'.

After the "success" of making a Beex drinking game in a grown-up box, I had the genius idea of making my wife a deckbuilding game for Christmas, centred around the crap TV drama she watches (Murder, She Wrote, Monk, etc.).

Turns out that having two different card designs with some text on for the Beex game may have given me a false sense of how easy it would be.

It took fucking ages, but I finally put the order in last night. 432 cards (around 370 different designs) are winging their way to me from China (because only a Chinese company would make it, what with it smashing copyright to pieces).

She'd better fucking like it.

Where did you get the drinking game and the mafia cards printed? They were flipping great!

They came from https://www.thegamecrafter.com/ . It's fairly easy to do, but it's not cheap - Beex Drink ended up costing about £80 after shipping and VAT and fines, etc.

The latest ones are coming from http://www.artscow.com/ , who aren't board game specialists but do do playing cards that you can customise.

Flipping heck, £80!

And we were just chucking them on the floor! Well done on the game for your wife, she'll love it.

Right? Fuckers.

Title.

I do hope she likes it though, sounds like a sweet present. I'm in the process of writing an interactive story for my daughter and keep being hit with pangs of fear that she's going to find it entirely tedious and uninteresting.

I got my wife to make mine.

You could say that they were less professional than the Beex Drink game, but I would remind you that she can get violent

What's an interactive story? Like a choose your own adventure book?

Yeah, basically. Using this at the moment.

https://twinery.org/

Not managed to integrate illustrations into it yet, which I need to sort out.