If I had five bucks and five minutes I'd grab a pint at The Wicked Wort.
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I think there's something up with the KickStarter funding level on this one. It's hardly moved an inch in a week. I know I was something like backer number 300 or something and it was saying 250 backers for a few days after that. And I also find it hard to believe that they didn't get at least a couple dozen bites at GenCon.
A number of reasons - it's a very expensive KS. They should have stuck with cardboard standees rather than switching to minis. They're asking for a lot to get everything. Even as the world's biggest Lost Tomb fan, I find the price on this one hard to justify. Especially because the game doesn't LOOK expensive. This is important to many potential backers.
Secret of the Lost Tomb is getting harder to find, and the two major expansions for it are completely out of print. The company doesn't have any other games out at retail right now, so it's hard to attract new people.
Lost Tomb is very, very niche game right now. It's totally out of its time. People don't really like these kinds of super random games right now - more and more gamers are moving more and more towards perfect information / strategy games. Games with lots of dice and random cards/events are becoming more niche, and don't appeal to younger gamers raised on Euro games.
Finally tracked down a copy of Machina Arcana, a Kickstarter from a few years ago. It's somewhat rare in that it has never been released outside of the original KS. It's a steampunk, Lovecraftian, co-op dungeon crawl. Totally up my alley for a number of reasons.
http://todayinboardgames.com/wp-cont...3/11/game1.jpg
I really like the look of the game, and the writing on the story cards and in the included book of fiction is actually quite good. This is surprising because all too often the prose writing in board games is sub-par.
Going to get it to the table this coming weekend, and really looking forward to it.
Mad jealous on that one, D. Looks great. Was it a brand new copy?
Just received my copy of Alien Frontiers - a KS from earlier this year, which was actually a reprint/relaunch of a popular-but-OOP game from 2010.
Used copy. Never played, though.
Cost a pretty penny, but it seems worth it. Rumors of a second edition with some expansions hitting next year have been circulating.
Alien Frontiers is one of my favorite games. So clean and elegant, with a great SF theme. Played it many dozens of times when it first came out.
I honestly cannot grow tired of games with Lovecraft themes.
If you were to ask me how many Lovecraft games I want, my answer would be "all of them. All the games."
Lovecraft's greatest gift to the world was his liberal view of copyright.
Speaking of which: a Mountains of Madness boardgame is coming out.
You guys playing Mansions of Madness 2nd edition?
So good!
I've had my eye on that game for a while, but man alive, it's 'spensive!
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Totally and completely worth it. Best new gaming experience I've had in years.
Nothing else like it. The app adds so much to the feel and atmosphere.
But yes. It is expensive.
Five times played, five times it was totally awesome. Mansions of Madness 2ed continues to be one of the very best board games I've ever experienced. So totally overflowing with tension and atmosphere.
In this last game, my character was inflicted with a crippling fear of the dark, and every time I ended my turn in a dark space, I'd go more insane. The next turn, the lights went out in the house, and every space became dark! We finally got the lights back on, but not before I became insane. The insanity effect I drew said that I had to always agree with the player to my left. Well, it just so happens that the player to my left, Matt, also became insane, but I had no idea what his insanity effect was. In the scenario we were playing, there was a special antique sword hung like a trophy on the wall. We figured it was needed to take down one of the baddies. Matt started his turn and asked me if he could get the sword for his character - I had to say yes. He then moved into my spot. Turns out, his insanity effect stated that if he had a bladed weapon, and ended his turn in a space containing only one other character, he would use the weapon to decapitate that character and would instantly be declared the winner of the game.
Every time we've played the game, something awesome like that has happened.
So much variety in those games. I'm a complete and total sucker for fantasy adventure games with random encounters.
I'm actually in the beginning stages of designing my own game. I am going to make the ultimate hex/dungeon crawl game, with all of the things I like in fantasy adventure games. There will be a great focus on exploration and mystery. Utilizing different decks of cards to represent different kinds of environments and areas, along with a narrative book containing choose your own adventure style paragraph descriptions, and other cards representing loot, encounters, quests and effects, the players will explore and create a massive world. It will be up to them to determine how the areas of their world are connected, and they will have to create a world map as they play. There will be main and side quests to tackle and conquer. The main goal of the game will be more focused on world creation and story telling than trying to achieve victory or a win/lose condition. It's more of a GMless RPG, with cards and books to be used as tools for creating a world to adventure in.
My goal is to have a playable prototype by this time next year.
Good news for Lost Station - KS canceled, to relaunch later, without minis, so the price will be lower! Lost Tomb only had standees, and it fits so much more with the old school theme. They will offer plastic as stretch goals in Lost Station, but honestly I prefer cardboard standees. I have WAY TOO MANY minis right now to assemble and paint.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...osts?ref=email
I'm actually very happy with that decision.
Yep. I'm in 100% if it comes back at a more reasonable price.
Tales from the Loop (2017) - RPG
https://designstudiopress.com/wp-con...0_001_iart.jpg
Do you like the following things:
Stranger Things
Half Life
Stand By Me
Duran Duran
Robotech
VHS stores
Sony Walkmans
The Cure
First girlfriends/boyfriends
Long summers off with nothing to do
Solving SF mysteries
If yes, and you also like RPGs, then check out Tales from the Loop. A SF mystery game in a 1980s that never was. As a player, you will create a kid, with classes such as Bookworm, Weirdo Rocker, or Computer Geek, and together you will have to survive the mundane aspects of school, chores, and homelife, while also solving strange mysteries that arise when the newly-invented particle-acceleration technology creates and opens portals to other dimensions and exotic energy.
https://www.shutupandsitdown.com/wp-...lenhag_M01.jpg
Based on the Mutant Year Zero system, Loop is a surprisingly easy game to learn and play, for both the players and the DM. It uses a simple D6 dice pool system in which you roll a number of dice determined by the skill used, and treat all sixes as a success. Most checks require only a single success, and if you roll multiples you get to do something really great. If you don't roll any you can push yourself and roll again, but subsequent failures will inflict mental and physical harm.
https://theawesomer.com/photos/2015/...the_loop_8.jpg
The system is brilliant in the way that it encourages the players and GM to work together to create the world and story. When a player rolls a success, they get to describe exactly what happens. When a player fails a roll, they work with the GM to create an interesting outcome, creating an interesting challenge that will be fun to overcome. It's less about binary successes and failure than it is about working together to tell a cool story.
https://i0.wp.com/geekireland.com/wp...80%2C640&ssl=1
As you can tell by the pictures here, the game book is absolutely fucking gorgeous. The game was actually created to supplement the art. The artist, Simon Stålenhag, first created the world in a book of paintings, and then used the existing RPG system to bring his images and creations to life. His original art books, Tales from the Loop and Things From the Flood, are also available for purchase.
https://laspirale.org/dossier/simons.../photos/01.jpg
If you're looking for an RPG that's a little different, something to augment your wait for the next Stranger Things, or something to scratch that nostalgia itch, check this out. Get a group of friends, throw on some vaporwave, grab your fictional bikes and to the arcade in the mall of your mind and get lost in a 1980s that never was.
I have never played a pen and paper RPG.
Have no idea what is a pod inteoductory game. DnD holds little interest. And the number of people in my gaming group who would be interested in tackling one is probably 3 or less.
If you have any interest at all, I highly recommend playing one, face-to-face, at some point.
Some of the best times I've had in my life were during RPG sessions.