This new Daggerheart RPG from the Critical Role crew overall doesn’t sound like a game I’m eager to get into due to its similarity to D&D. However, the character sheet is the type of revelation I need. I’d be surprised if it were an original concept and welcome people to point me to its predecessors. But I want to incorporate it into every game I run. Especially since my 10 year-old seems to be along for the ride.
It’s not the card-based system I’m interested in. That seems cumbersome. What I like is how some directions are provided on the character sheets. Sure, that was probably one reason they had to make them these oversized kids menu-like things, but character sheets in many games already require printing out multiple sheets and taking up additional space on the table anyway. Might as well make them multifunctional.
I’m working on a player’s aid for the game I’m running. It’ll be finished in time for the next game, probably. After that, though, I think I should build up my design skills by taking the character sheet and incorporating my guide into it. I like cheat sheets for board games because I’m in favor of anything that improves ease of use. There should be more of that for all kinds of games.
There was a small local board game convention over the weekend, and I had the pleasure of being able to attend it Friday night through Sunday early evening (which was the whole run of the event). My 10 year old also tagged along and spent the majority of the time playing RPGs. Someone ran a 4-part Dungeons & Dragons campaign that turned out great for her.
Managing food for her and being on the schedule to run my own games unfortunately got in the way of my trying many new things, but one hand did manage to catch my eye.
Planted is basically Wingspan meets 7 Wonders with a plant theme. Simple game play with a reasonable amount of strategy is always up my alley, but more importantly my daughter was really into it. She usually avoids board games because she’s easily frustrated by the prospect of losing. Playing with strangers instead of just with her family may have solved that.
My wife wanted to try Wingspan again, now that she’s become a birder in real life. It’s a game that hasn’t really hit the table often for me despite how good it is, so of course I said we should play.
It’s such a clever game. It looks like it’s a set collection game of sorts, but you may accidentally end up building an engine on your tableau while trying to collect as many birds as possible with bowl-shaped nests. There’s a lot going on with this game. Every time I play I’m reminded of why it was so hard to find in the store within its first couple years of release.
My girls love birds, collecting and taxonomies. I need to check this out. Birthdays are coming (though I’m already getting King of Tokyo for the youngest)
Also, tangentially: I’ve been listening to Kinobe lately as drawing/coding music, and the song Wingspan is pretty chill:
Next time I play, I should have that song playing in the background. Fits the mood of an overall chill game.
That’s definitely on my list. I picked up the Asia expansion, which came afterward, and noticed it came with extra player boards that are double-sided to accommodate the Oceania expansion. I was not expecting changes that needed new boards, but I’m open to it.
Do you have any other expansions? And if you do, do you keep them all in their individual boxes or have you found a good way to store them all together?
ETA: There is an official solution for storage, and I hope it’s regular in stock by the time I actually need it.
A game about space-faring bees? Ok, sure. Worker placement is generally a hard sell for me, but it really depends on implementation. Stonemaier makes pretty solid games. They’re usually at least worth giving a shot.
I’m fairly green when it comes to understanding the taxonomy of game mechanics. Is the board game geek wiki a pretty good start, or do you have a source you like for examples and definitions?
The link you provided isn’t working for some reason, but if it’s pointing to this article: Worker Placement | Board Game Mechanic | BoardGameGeek
…then yes, that’s about right. Each player has a limited number of worker pieces to place on action spaces each round, and action spaces are usually limited in number of pieces allowed and/or pieces placed after the first result in a lesser form of the action.
Star Trek: Five-Year Mission has been on my wishlist ever since I played it 7 or 8 years ago. It looks like it only ever got one printing. Despite that, it’s not a game that demands a high price. I’ve been holding off on getting it because I’m trying not to jump into games when I may not get a chance to play them.
Well, a new game shop opened in town, and an unopened copy of the game (along with promotional characters only available at cons) was sitting on the shelf at its original MSRP. My wife has been doing a complete watch through of all of Star Trek, making this the perfect time to pick it up.
I’m not gonna lie, it’s not the most ambitious game and Star Trek is not a well integrated theme. But it is fun! It’s a cooperative dice-rolling game. Draw a card to the table representing an issue to be overcome by committing dice of specific colors and values, grab up to five dice of whatever colors you need, roll, and use your character-specific ability where you can. Plays up to 7 players. It’ll be hard for me to get a full crew going in the game outside of a convention, but it’s always nice to have that option.
I forgot it was on TT, but I’m not surprised because it came out during that time period. The game was a completely lucky find for me. The guy who owns the store told me he was a content creator, and the older games on the shelves are from his personal collection. No way I’ll find it out in the wild, unopened no less, anywhere else. The prices on eBay aren’t bad, though.
Ticket to Ride as a legacy game sounds so intriguing, especially since it promises gameplay beyond the base game. TtR grew quickly out of favor with me when we picked it up. It just seemed to lack something. I’m not sure if I’ll discover whether this game has that missing piece or not due to that $120 price tag.
My answer to the OP title question is, literally, a chunk of the Necromundan underhive.
Today, I finished a project I started just before Christmas 2022, when I bought a box of Dark Uprising scenery from eBay.
The lids of four of the six containers in the market are removable, and individually lit with LEDs powered by watch batteries. There’s a doctor, bar, food stall and gun shop.
Plus there’s dozens of crates and barrels and other bits and pieces for scatter scenery.
I’ve wanted to build a “proper” game table since I was a kid - dream achieved!!
I may make a separate thread to document it properly, but maybe we could do with a thread to show off our models and stuff? I bet there’s a lot of tinkering and painting by users around here…
