Octopus Overlords

$iljanus wrote: Tue Mar 17, 2020 5:43 pm

Lordnine wrote: Tue Mar 17, 2020 2:36 pm Starlight.

Gloomhaven in spaaaaace. Sort of anyway. Co-op campaign game with X-Wing style combat, ground missions, character leveling and ship upgrades. Seems neat.

Yeah I backed it. But I’m following it closely because they’re really trying to accomplish a lot and have no problem canceling if I think it's going to fall short. But if they pull it off it should be a fun game.

Ditto. When I first saw it I was like "A sci-fi version of Gloomhaven? Sign me up!" Then when I saw that they were trying to move away from tokens by using the 2-layered cards and cubes I was even more intrigued. Backed.

I just backed at three pack of new games by BoardGameTables; Mountain Goats, Sequoia, and GPS.
Of the three, Mountain Goats & Sequoia are the only two that immediately appeal to me, but it's $15 ea or $39 for all three. +shipping which is only $4 for me.

I did their kickstarter for the previous game Bites. It's fun and am impressed with the production values (despite two broken ant pieces that I was able to glue back together), and I enjoyed playing QE (quantitative easing) with Hepcat&Friends a few weeks (months?) ago.

Mountain Goats


Sequoia


GPS

Archinerd wrote: Mon Mar 30, 2020 3:45 pm
Of the three, Mountain Goats & Sequoia are the only two that immediately appeal to me, but it's $15 ea or $39 for all three. +shipping which is only $4 for me.

I'm in the same boat--I only wanted those 2 of the 3 offered games. I've done a good job of not ordering games during this time, but for some reason the art style appeals to me for these games and I'm tempted. Plus, the rest of my family prefers light games and these are certainly that.

Dammit.

No.

No no no.

coopasonic wrote: Tue Mar 31, 2020 11:56 am

WAIT! Isaac Childres and I live in the same town (well he is in Lafayette and I am in West Lafayette)! In fact, his picture has a blurry picture of Purdue's campus in the background!



Does backing Frosthaven count as supporting local business for me?

Fortunately the guy in our gaming group that bought Gloomhaven is kickstarting Frosthaven so I'll get to play it for free.

baelthazar wrote: Tue Mar 31, 2020 1:10 pm
Does backing Frosthaven count as supporting local business for me?

Don't see why not.

Frosthaven is a weird one for me. I enjoyed the original well enough while playing it but the setup time really killed it for my group. As such, we never got very far and I can't justify buying another when 90% of the content of the original is unplayed.

Lordnine wrote: Tue Mar 31, 2020 1:58 pm

baelthazar wrote: Tue Mar 31, 2020 1:10 pm
Does backing Frosthaven count as supporting local business for me?

Don't see why not.

Frosthaven is a weird one for me. I enjoyed the original well enough while playing it but the setup time really killed it for my group. As such, we never got very far and I can't justify buying another when 90% of the content of the original is unplayed.

We played like two scenarios and left it on the shelf after that. Just never clicked.

It clicked for me but the setup time killed it for me and my rules-lawyering killed it for my son which killed the whole thing for me. I am 100% in on the video game version when the campaign is ready, but I think I am going to pass on the kickstarter.

I am going to try anyway. I did click "Remind me"

coopasonic wrote: Tue Mar 31, 2020 3:20 pm I am going to try anyway. I did click "Remind me"

No comment.

coopasonic wrote: Tue Mar 31, 2020 3:20 pm my rules-lawyering killed it for my son which killed the whole thing for me.

Speaking of rules lawyering, I remember when the game came out a quiz for how the monsters move/behave was posted on BGG, I think the highest score that was posted was a 60/100. So, MOST people are probably not playing Gloomhaven correctly.

Another reason to wait for the PC implementation. Of course there are already lots of totally competent tactical combat games with story elements on the PC so in that arena Gloomhaven is much less special. I guess the cards = life mechanic is still interesting.

Yeah, I'm all-in on this, including the Broken Token organizer. I found that made a HUGE difference in setup time and organization. That said, my 3 person group still only got 3-4 scenarios in during a typical 10+ hour playsession. But those hours were super fun and we finished the game plus 90% of the side and solo scenarios.

Setup hasn't been too bad for me. I just had to invest ~$800 in a Board Game Tables table....

Edit: Hmmmm.... Or perhaps I invested ~$800 in a storage option for Gloomhaven....

Lordnine wrote:Speaking of rules lawyering, I remember when the game came out a quiz for how the monsters move/behave was posted on BGG, I think the highest score that was posted was a 60/100. So, MOST people are probably not playing Gloomhaven correctly.

We've been playing our Gloomhaven campaign for over a year, and just hit our 100th scenario a few weeks ago. And yet we still occasionally run across rules we got wrong.

The latest is how advantage/disadvantage works when you draw rolling modifiers. We were playing it as you basically draw two cards, and if there's a rolling modifier you keep drawing to that stack until you hit something that is not a rolling. Then you take the best or worst "stack" depending on whether you're drawing advantage or disadvantage.

How it really works is: you draw two cards. If one of them is a rolling modifier, it gets added to the value of the other card and that's your result. If both cards drawn are rolling modifiers, you keep drawing until you hit a non-rolling modifier and then add all drawn cards together to produce the result.

From a gameplay perspective we were actually making the game harder on ourselves in terms of disadvantage, and slightly better on ourselves in terms of advantage, so ultimately it probably evened out. But it's still amazing that we missed it in that many games played.

I'm on the fence with Frosthaven. I do really enjoy Gloomhaven, but find that I don't really bring it out all that often (due to the long setup, like everyone else). I also find it to be far more challenging to play without the companion apps, and I doubt those will be out in the wild for Frosthaven on day one.

I might wait on it and catch a reprint down the road at some point. Maybe by then I'll actually have a dedicated gaming space that will alleviate the setup and takedown issues.

Gotta admit though, $3.5MM (as of right now) in less than a day is awfully impressive.

I am really enjoying Thousand Year Old Vampire, a 2018 kickstarter that arrived right before the lockdown hit.

TYOV is sort a cross between a choose your own adventure and a series of journaling prompts. There are some real game systems -- you gain and lose followers and resources, and you roll dice to determine the next challenge you will face. But it's really about creating the narrative of a deathless creature across centuries.

So far, my Dark Ages woodsman was turned to undeath by a vampire Viking, killed his own mother in a fit of rage, fled across Europe and into northern Africa, hid out in Saharan ruins for centuries, and is now on the run once more. It's a blast.

Skinypupy wrote: Tue Mar 31, 2020 4:29 pm I'm on the fence with Frosthaven. I do really enjoy Gloomhaven, but find that I don't really bring it out all that often (due to the long setup, like everyone else). I also find it to be far more challenging to play without the companion apps, and I doubt those will be out in the wild for Frosthaven on day one.

Manley Irvine
about 2 hours ago
Sorry if someone has already asked this but do we know if Gloomhaven Helper will be made into Frosthaven Helper?


Reply
user avatar
Duffualuffagus
about 2 hours ago
Someone earlier today asked, and it sounds like Esoteric Games will be involved early on so that "Frosthaven Helper" is ready when Frosthaven ships.

AWS260 wrote: Tue Mar 31, 2020 5:10 pm I am really enjoying Thousand Year Old Vampire, a 2018 kickstarter that arrived right before the lockdown hit.

TYOV is sort a cross between a choose your own adventure and a series of journaling prompts. There are some real game systems -- you gain and lose followers and resources, and you roll dice to determine the next challenge you will face. But it's really about creating the narrative of a deathless creature across centuries.

So far, my Dark Ages woodsman was turned to undeath by a vampire Viking, killed his own mother in a fit of rage, fled across Europe and into northern Africa, hid out in Saharan ruins for centuries, and is now on the run once more. It's a blast.

Sounds interesting, I may need to look into this a bit more.

Archinerd wrote: Wed Apr 01, 2020 11:14 am

AWS260 wrote: Tue Mar 31, 2020 5:10 pm I am really enjoying Thousand Year Old Vampire, a 2018 kickstarter that arrived right before the lockdown hit.

TYOV is sort a cross between a choose your own adventure and a series of journaling prompts. There are some real game systems -- you gain and lose followers and resources, and you roll dice to determine the next challenge you will face. But it's really about creating the narrative of a deathless creature across centuries.

So far, my Dark Ages woodsman was turned to undeath by a vampire Viking, killed his own mother in a fit of rage, fled across Europe and into northern Africa, hid out in Saharan ruins for centuries, and is now on the run once more. It's a blast.

Sounds interesting, I may need to look into this a bit more.

I wonder if Hepcat knew about this. Him and solo play games are a huge bonus.

...especially now.

I’ll check it out.

hepcat wrote: Wed Apr 01, 2020 12:23 pm ...especially now.

I’ll check it out.

You could be in healthcare, and be at the hospital, and trying to homeschool three kids. My wife is an essential employee as well, so it is a little pain point to homeschool three kids, and work full time jobs. Sigh. But I looked and man that game looks promising.

hepcat wrote: Wed Apr 01, 2020 12:23 pm I’ll check it out.

It's great if you like writing and coming up with little stories. All of those narrative beats I mentioned above came form my own brain, prompted by the game. For example, at one point early on I had the "bloodthirsty" trait and a hunting knife that my mother had taught me to use. I came across a prompt like "You do something terrible to an acquaintance." I decided to write a little paragraph that combined a trait (bloodthirsty), an item (the knife) and a character (mother), and wrote about how, in a fit of inexplicable rage, I used my beloved mother's own knife to gut her like a fish.

That episode now a memory that my character carries with him. Because the game unfolds over centuries, you are regularly forced to cross out -- to forget -- old memories. But I am trying to hold onto this one as long as possible, because it casts a terrible shadow over everything he does.

I don't know exactly know what this thing from the high tier funding level is, but I think I could make one for myself without too much trouble.

Just grabbed the download version. Threw in a few bucks as a tip too. You can’t beat 10 smackers for a game like this.

And yes, I immediately backed Frosthaven. I still consider Gloomhaven to be one of the best games I’ve played in the last 10 years.

I think I'm going to sit out Frosthaven. I enjoyed Gloomhaven, but for whatever reason we didn't keep up with it. We only got about 5 adventures into it before it got shelved.

I backed Frosthaven but may change my mind. I loved Gloomhaven and had a really good group that played regularly. But I recently moved to a new place and, partially due to Coronavirus, haven't yet found new gaming group. I assume I'll eventually find one, but $100 is a lot to pay for a game that I don't know for certain will be played.

hentzau wrote: Thu Apr 02, 2020 10:18 am I think I'm going to sit out Frosthaven. I enjoyed Gloomhaven, but for whatever reason we didn't keep up with it. We only got about 5 adventures into it before it got shelved.

I think we’ve played about 50 scenarios easily. At about 2 hours or more a pop, I think I’ve got my money’s worth. And we’re still not done as we have a few more clean up scenarios to finish before moving on to the expansion.

I often have second thoughts about Kickstarters, but this is one I wholeheartedly backed.

I went ahead and bought Thousand Year Old Vampire, as it's just a PDF download, and somehow the 33% off sale is still going despite verbiage indicating it should have ended last week. I threw in an extra buck for the developer.

Sanctuary: The Keepers Era has popped up in my FB feed a few times over the last couple days, and has me pretty interested. It looks like a simpler version of MtG, which would be a good fit for both Little B 11.1 and me. We both enjoy playing MtG, but get utterly lost in the complexities of building effective decks. The mechanics of this one look cool, I dig the setting/aesthetic, and the artwork is beautiful.

Might be worth a look.

Skinypupy wrote: Thu Apr 02, 2020 10:21 pm Sanctuary: The Keepers Era has popped up in my FB feed a few times over the last couple days, and has me pretty interested. It looks like a simpler version of MtG, which would be a good fit for both Little B 11.1 and me. We both enjoy playing MtG, but get utterly lost in the complexities of building effective decks. The mechanics of this one look cool, I dig the setting/aesthetic, and the artwork is beautiful.

Might be worth a look.

Gaaah! I already have 3 KS games in the hopper but that looks really good and it's only $40 bucks, well $60 because I also want the sleeves. I repeat, gaah!

Also there appears to be an official playable Frosthaven Demo up on Table Top Simulator if anyone is interested. I have not had a chance to subscribe or check it out yet but did come across it.

Also also, Skinnypupy, have you looked at KeyForge? It's a card game with pre-built decks and has a fairly low cost of entry, it's also available on TTS if you wanted to check it out. It was all the rage about a year ago but I am not hearing as much buzz so not sure of the longevity.

Tao wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 9:57 am Also also, Skinnypupy, have you looked at KeyForge? It's a card game with pre-built decks and has a fairly low cost of entry, it's also available on TTS if you wanted to check it out. It was all the rage about a year ago but I am not hearing as much buzz so not sure of the longevity.

Read/watched a couple quite positive reviews, and it certainly looks interesting. I really like the idea of having self-contained decks and not needing to build a deck out of a bazillion different card choices, which is where we typically get stuck. I also tend to like FFG stuff and...dammit, off to Amazon.

Do yourself a favor if you’re looking for a solid card game and grab Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn. They’re no longer making it, but you can grab the base game off miniaturemarket.com for 25 bucks while they have stock. That’s a steal for a great game.

hepcat wrote: Fri Apr 03, 2020 8:40 pm Do yourself a favor if you’re looking for a solid card game and grab Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn. They’re no longer making it, but you can grab the base game off miniaturemarket.com for 25 bucks while they have stock. That’s a steal for a great game.

Looks neat, but after watching the SU&SD review, I think it would be way too complex for Little B 11.1. And since she's the only person I have to play with, I fear it would simply sit on the shelf.

Get it now while you can and keep it on the shelf until she’s a little older.

Saw this on my FB feed and thought of some of the folks here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/to ... -unlimited

I only skimmed it briefly. But it looks like it's software that allows you to design models that you then print with your 3D printer.

TheMix wrote: Sun Apr 12, 2020 4:31 pm Saw this on my FB feed and thought of some of the folks here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/to ... -unlimited

I only skimmed it briefly. But it looks like it's software that allows you to design models that you then print with your 3D printer.

Thanks for that. I downloaded the test building, will give it a whirl and see what it looks like.

EDIT: Sliced the bottom story of the building using my default terrain profile. 25 hour print time. Woof.

So Frosthaven has topped $8,000,000 with 10 days to go, pretty insane. So tempting.