The Boardgames Thread / Board games

Also any recommendations for other one player games would be great.

For cheap simple one player games then Cartographers is good, though the app version is possible better for 1p as it takes out all the overhead of scoring etc and was about £3 when i got it on my ipad, if you prefer offline tactile play or may want to play with others then board game version is worth the money still.

I just received a copy of super skill pinball 4-cade which is a roll and write pinball game, not played yet but it was well received in review by shut up & sit down. only arrived in uk this week and hard to find in stock if you didn't pre-order but more should be here soon.

Fleet the dice game is also good fun solo.

for something a bit bigger I've also been playing forgotten waters, it uses a web app as a story book and to randomise things a little each time you play but you can use it on anything that has a web browser apparently no app to install. you control crew of a pirate ship looking after resources while you go through a handful of scenarios with set story points but how you get around is randomised so your adventure is unique,you visit locations and use your 4 crew members to perform actions which do various things to the story. i got it for £37 on amazon but their price has shot up to £50 now. if you can find a cheap copy might be worth a go.

I also just picked up Micro Macro: Crime City which is a giant illustrated where's wally type scene with about 15 case files to solve using the various characters on the map. it's better with two but could do it solo, another one you'd likely finish and sell on like cantaloop as replay is not really an option (someone has dibs on mine when I finish for £5 off retail). it's a fun way to kill some time though.

if you want some bigger soloable game recommendations I have plenty of those too.

Today's delivery, my first step into the murky world of "grown up" games.

MrsDeth isn't keen, so I purposefully bought a 1 player game.
Doesn't hurt that I am a Dark Souls fanboi! Hoping to get a game in over the weekend

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Anyone interested in these ,Both unplayed ?

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And

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I know not technically a board game at this point, but has anyone here tried Gloomhaven online, from Steam? I bought it yesterday and worked through the tutorial. I thought it was great. Going to start playing it with some friends in the evenings until it is easy/safe to play actual board games again in person.

Didn’t find it mentioned using search, spent the last 3 hours playing Wingspan. Such a beautiful game with great attention to detail. It’s a strategy and points game with an element of luck, and my learning curve was steep because my friends hardly explained it, but it’s a very nicely tied together game.

Wingspan is on my wishlist, I've heard nothing but good things about it. And the art is lovely!

This is interesting - I own it, have played it twice, and just haven't found it put any hooks in me. Unlike Everdell, which after first 'getting' the mechanisms involved I was thinking about it for an unreasonable amount of time each week and must have played it 15 times in a 6 week period....

If anyone wants to borrow Wingspan you're very welcome to - I'm SE23.

I was the same, it didn't help that the solo mode just wasn't very engaging for me as I'm not a big fan of beat your high score games.

I played it a few times with the GF and took it to a games night at a pub and ended up selling it months later (weirdly to one of the random people from the pub as we discovered when she was confused after opening it on purchase to find her name written in her handwriting on the top of the score pad already, heh).

The production quality is amazing (as are all stonemaier games generally) and it's a beautiful game, just not my jam. I hear the expansions improve things but not enough for me I think.

I'd love to if that's ok? I'm in Brockley, not too far.

If you fancy a go on anything I have, let me know: https://boardgamegeek.com/collection/user/Drakien

I'm sure you are but just in case, are you aware that the battlestar galactica game is somewhat sought after (with expansions) and can fetch a pretty decent price?

however FFG just announced they're releasing a reskin with cthulhu theme called unfathomable so the scarcity bump may not last forever. seeing as you rated it a 6 I thought it worth mentioning.

For sure - could scarcely be much closer! Send me a PM to arrange pick-up, for some reason that link isn't working for me so can't see what you've got but will try again in a bit... cheers!

I did not know that! I was thinking of selling my Netrunner collection, prices are crazy on eBay.

I don't actually own BSG despite it being "in my collection" - BGG displays everything I've every played and rated as "in my collection", and I have to mark a sub-set as "I own this".

ahh. yeah some of the expansions were going for hundreds of pounds in recent times.

and the vagaries of the bgg collection system are well known to me, having recently sold most of my chaff to raise some funds it's now a bit chaotic looking through things on mine as lots of stuff is now prev. owned plus I tend to always get a trade request for something I sold a couple of months previous because I forgot to update. I've taken to applying filters in specific ways and then bookmarking them in the sidebar rather than use the main collection link so I can have just owned games (no expansions), pre-orders and games split by where they're stored (my place in london or my mums place in brighton). without it arkham horror lcg takes up about 50 slots on its own,

own it, have played it twice, and just haven't found it put any hooks in me

I’ve only played it last night. My gf and I actively go wildlife-spotting including birds, so it possibly had a particular charm on us. Will try Everdell.

I’ve been enjoying Dune recently, with my small irregular gaming group of me and two mates. Took us a few games to work out at what points in the game the difference resources were important, and then it opened up the more subtle strategic stuff. The last game we played was ridiculously close in that all three of us thought we’d concocted secret little strategies to stealthily take the game last minute. My closing gambit worked out so nicely and just looked so crafty and ruthless that when at the absolute last minute I was toppled, I’ve never actually been quite that cross at not winning (but in a ‘I’m actually enjoying how infuriating this is’ way!).

I might have asked before, but are there any TRPGists here?

A new recruit to our games night means there’s 4 of us, which is enough for DM+party I reckon. I’m apprehensive about first time DMing and wondered if there was a LFGsS support group :-)

I play DnD 5e as a player at the moment but used to DM Pathfinder at Uni. Enjoy it and don't be afraid to refer to the books if you're unsure on something. It may feel like you're slowing the game down to begin with but you'll get more used to the core stuff and not need to look bits up as much. Anything you do need you will find quite quickly and then it's the more obscure stuff that your players will want to do that you'll be checking and they may even have stuff to already point out what they're planning. It's likely everyone is a bit clueless as well, so you'll all work it out together. The rules are there but it doesn't matter if there's some stuff you don't quite interpret right in my mind (especially at the beginning). As it's such a long form thing, as cheesy as it is, it's about the journey and the story more than strcitly sticking to rules, though I'm sure this is different across different gaming groups and their wants from the game. Don't make it too easy or railroad your players from the get go, then they can get the fun of checking things and working stuff out and the satisfaction from winning and enjoy the struggle.

Thanks that sounds like some good advice. I used to play a little when I was in my mid teens but haven’t played any RPGs since.
I bought Troika because i loved the sound of it and the artwork is great - I was planning on trying a Troika one shot as it’s very rules-light so I assumed there would be less chance of getting bogged down with me being slow at working stuff out or finding specific rules/tables etc.

I even wrote a setting for it! Mainly to amuse myself, but it ended up being fairly finished to the point where I think I might illustrate it and make a zine.

TRPGists

Did you mean 'FRPGists'?

Just looked that up and the art work is great. One shots are a good way to go for a start definitely. Sure you have but I found reading the one shot info a couple of times helped to know where things may go and it definitely smoothed everything out when it came to playing.

Once I had the rules down I always liked creating the setting and story when DMing. Something very satisfying about having people explore and enjoy a world you’ve made up. Doubt I’d have the time now compared to when I was doing a philosophy degree.

Tabletop RPG. Actually the straight fantasy setting is not really my bag, hence being drawn to Troika, which is much more surreal and off-kilter.

First game of Terraforming Mars tonight despite getting it at Xmas due to Covid etc.

Took a while to get going, but very fun game. Look forward to playing again without the beginner rules.

Anyone heading to the UK Games Expo this weekend?

I'll be there doing the photography, and playing as many games as possible of course...

We've got a discord for organising games here: https://discord.gg/V5YqB92X

What's this like, any good?