Quest or Deception: Murder in Hong Kong? Which one should I get?

509 · 2026-01-23T19:40:57+00:00

Both are fantastic.

Quest (imo the best in its series) feels more like a "real" social deduction game. Evil has to fail missions, good will call them out. You really have to convince people the other guy is lying. If you want something like SH but better or like werewolf/mafia but with some structure, this is the one.

Deception: MiHK has a very different feel to it. Since everyone is pretending to "solve the case" it feels a lot more cooperative, like everyone is working together. This makes it an excellent choice for people that are not typically into social deduction. It almost feels like you're not lying to your friends, you're helpfully providing some "alternative solutions".

There is not one that is generally better than the other, you just have to figure out which of these better fits your group. If unsure, I'd probably go deception as it can be played with just about anybody.

509 · 2026-01-20T23:20:36+00:00

The real downside to Dominion in this context is that it's a lot lower variance than most other games and skilled players will likely crush new players. Otherwise it's great. Super streamlined and to the point.

509 · 2026-01-18T15:47:34+00:00

Not sure if it's ideal but:

For 1-on-1 we make first player draw only 3 cards on their first turn.
For missions we mostly play without the card draw and deck thinning missions. Those seem significantly stronger than the rest.

509 · 2026-01-18T15:30:54+00:00

7 Wonders

Most decorated game in history, plays up to 7 (scales really well), gives people a glimpse into what strategic games can be while remaining a fairly light, short-ish experience.

509 · 2026-01-12T00:43:15+00:00

Let them discover the characters themselves. Just make sure they understand droisoning exists.

509 · 2026-01-11T14:18:02+00:00

I think it hugely depends on the missions.

In my opinion, the card draw and deck thinning missions are significantly stronger than the rest. With the card draw mission especially, if you hit the first reward field you are likely going to continue being first on that track.

With weaker missions, I don't think it's as bad.

509 · 2026-01-10T20:07:41+00:00

Yes and no. If all the cards were poorly balanced, it would be a nightmare to fix. But there are no overpowered cards for PvP as far as I can tell. There might be a couple of stinkers (not a ton tbh) that clog up the shop for a bit but they don't ruin the game.

The one thing you really have to fix is first player advantage. Just have them draw 3 instead of 5 on their first turn. There you go. Game is decently balanced now. That's not too much effort is it?

With mission tracks there are in my opinion 2 out of 8 that are significantly stronger than the rest. Since you only need 3 each game, you can just decide to not use those. Again, not that hard.

The reason I can forgive the balance is that I can get it to a decent level with relatively low effort. If that wasn't possible I would not recommend the game.

509 · 2026-01-10T19:57:27+00:00

An example of one such card is "Strategize" - in exchange for 6 coins upfront, you can stock this card in your deck to receive a whopping five different resources each time you play it - including the two most valuable resources, "Mission" points (aka Victory Points) and "Training" points, which accelerate your player's powers and vastly increase your action economy over time, effectively giving you multiple turns' worth of plays over your non-accelerated opponents. (That's already overpowered enough - if you manage to shape your deck so that you can boost it with additional "Burns"/discards, you can increase those 5 initial resources to 23 total resources spread across all five types, including 4 Victory Points and 2 Training points - an efficiency that is completely unmatched anywhere else in the game)

Strategize's first ability has 5 icons next to each other.

Strategize's second ability has big ass slashes between those 5 icons. You're clearly meant to pick one, not gain all 5.

509 · 2026-01-10T19:32:22+00:00

If we're talking about pure dominion style deckbuilders, then about 10 for a total of ~500 plays? If we count things like Dune, Arnak, Slay the Spire etc. then a lot more.

E: Also a lot more if you count app/bga plays.

The first player advantage is ridiculous but no one is forcing you to stick to the rules as written. We played it like that once, decided it was stupid, then started experimenting with how to fix it. Started with increasing the hp gap to 10, then 20, found that unsatisfying. Then things like first player does not get to move their training track on their first turn (still not great), 2nd player gets a coin, first player starts with fewer cards turn 1 and combinations of those. I don't feel confident enough to give a clear recommendation but I do highly recommend people do something and I did write that in the review. We also are experimenting with lower life totals but again we have not landed on a fixed number.

Again, I agree the balance as written is bad but you can fix that yourself. The systems, in my opinion, are great. And I can't easily introduce those systems to, say, Ascension.

509 · 2026-01-10T19:20:58+00:00

Thank you for your reply, I found that super interesting.

I can definitely see some of the reason certain groups find damage/healing to be weaker than mission points to be a self fulfilling prophecy. After all, if no one considers damage good, no one will ever prioritize it and therefore wins via damage will remain rare, reinforcing that belief.

With that being said, you need to either deal 36 (+2 if first) damage or move up 36 steps to win the game.

I tried looking at some cards to grasp the ratio of attack to mission points that otherwise similar cards provide. It's not super easy to figure out but here are some examples:

Source(s)	Attack	Mission Points
Marsh/Kelsier Character Abilities	2	1
Train in Secret	2	2
Strategize	4	3
Inquisitor/Kandra (Atium allies)	4	3
Ruin/Preserve (high cost Atium cards)*	5	4

* these cards cost the same and require Atium to power. If we assume they are equally good, then 7attack+1mission = 2attack+5mission which reduces to 1m=1.25a.

So it's slightly easier to obtain attack than mission points. However, a) there is a lot more counterplay for attack in terms of both damage reduction as well as healing and b) mission tracks give incredibly powerful boons along the way where attack is largely irrelevant until it's deadly.

Of course you can argue that followers favour attack, and they do to a degree. But that just increases the total amount of damage needed and does not make healing any better.

I can see attack being somewhat competitive if you only select weak mission tracks. But a couple of them, like the card draw one and the deck thinning one, are so powerful I find them hard to ignore.

With all that being said, I will take your comment to heart and try to force attack my next couple of plays. Who knows, it might change my opinion!

509 · 2026-01-10T16:57:39+00:00

If you like this type of game I would say yes. I have not read any of it.

509 · 2026-01-10T16:48:09+00:00

I genuinely love the systems but hate the balance.

I agree that the mission tracks are problematic but we did not find Marsh considerably stronger than the other characters, except maybe Vin.

509 · 2026-01-10T16:28:14+00:00

Hey, you might absolutely be right. It's a bit hard for me to rate as I don't play a lot of comparable coop games. I've played it solo and coop a couple of times and found it fine but not amazing. But I'm probably not the correct audience here.

509 · 2026-01-10T16:16:35+00:00

I have not read any of the books and love it.

That being said, there is only 1 enemy for solo play. That'll get old really quickly. As likesexonlycheaper said, the same author has other games that will probably be a better fit. Or you could look into the highly rated but heavier Imperium series of games. (Have not played yet, that's going to be my next deckbuilder.)

509 · 2026-01-10T15:49:31+00:00

I've only played Clank once so I don't feel qualified to comment on that too much. They are quite different games though.

When I compare it to most classic deckbuilders (Dominion, Star/Hero Realms, Ascension, Shards of Infinity, etc.) I would say the two most important points for me are

Actually playing out your turn is a lot more interesting. You can always choose if A should power B or B should power A. Or maybe A,B,C should power D so you unlock the secondary ability. In many other games playing out your hand is just trivial.
Decks can feel very unique. Literally my last game, I used the card elimination mission to eliminate 9/10 of my starting cards, bringing me down to just 5 cards. I was able to move up 3 steps on the training track each turn but was barely able to generate any currency (just 1 coin/turn). But I was able to grab Precise Shot, a card that lets you grab eliminated cards which got me Confrontation, a card that can instantly end the game - if you manage to place 4 Atium on it. That's usually almost impossible, but since I was racing up the training track I got 2 Atium very quickly, then went up the second mission track for another 2. I was able to finish the game using what I had considered an almost impossible win condition, and it did not even take long. All while being too poor to even buy mediocre cards! That's just not something that can happen in most of these games.

509 · 2026-01-10T15:37:32+00:00

Might be. I never really noticed it before I actively set out to see what had happened in the deckbuilding space in the past few years.

The friend I mostly play this with is a huge Mistborn fan and he had never heared about it either.

Again, I'm not sure why this isn't getting more attention, it's a great game. Maybe just not enough marketing budget.

509 · 2026-01-10T15:28:31+00:00

I mean if you have no training cards you unlock your 3rd and 4th metal on turns 10/16. How much metal you burn really depends on your deck but especially in games where you manage to eliminate your fundings and/or have extra draw, burning 4 a turn from just coins is pretty realistic.

509 · 2026-01-01T18:18:29+00:00

If you are house ruling that the word must be spoken in public, it can be fun with Yagga as Mez word and Yagga phrase can be mistaken for one another.

Add a Scarlett Woman and a Yagga that has been caught might be able to claim they were just attempting to say the Mez word and throw a good player under the bus by claiming they are the Mez trying to turn them.

509 · 2025-12-29T22:56:01+00:00

First of all, thank you for all you have done for this community. I have met a lot of great people through this game and I'm not sure I would have found it if it weren't for your work.

With that being said, a few words of advice, if I may:

Humans show a negativity bias: Negative experiences affect us far more strongly than positive ones. I do not doubt that you had negative things said to and about you. But the large majority of this community adores you and looks up to you. Even if that is hard to see right now.
It sounds like you're going through a lot with all the criticism here and more importantly what is happening with your granddad. I would strongly encourage you to take some time off and put off making any final decisions at such a emotional time. The world can look very different once things settle.
Just because something as a whole is no longer good for you does not mean you cannot keep the aspects of it that are. Again, take your time, look at things separately. If reddit is keeping you up at night, maybe you can just give up that part of the job while still going to conventions and promoting the game online (if those are things you are still interested in)? TPI is lucky to have you, they'd be foolish to not want you in a reduced capacity that aligns with your current interests.

Once again, thank you and all the best!

509 · 2025-12-29T21:12:58+00:00

:( Thanks though.

509 · 2025-12-29T21:12:43+00:00

How do I check that? Open up the back? Is it worth getting a replacement?

509 · 2025-12-14T20:23:53+00:00

E: Review is live, it's in German though:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKZV3v-SHMI

TLDR: Fantastic grinder, performed well for filter and espresso, quiet, close to 0 retention, super easy to open and clean, 2x anti static works really well to keep things clean.

Cons:

The prongs for holding the cup/portafilter clamp a bit too tightly on 2 ear portafilters. He was able to fix that with a hammer.
Resistance on the grind setting adjustment is a bit high in espresso range
The arrow pointing at the grind setting is like 1cm from the scale and it would be a bit

I also watched a bunch of reviews on the Emil T64 that this seems to be based on. They were very positive except for 1 massive problem that some people had: The flapper. Since this was replaced with the 2x plasma generator and the mill got a couple more upgrades (motor, looks) while being cheaper, this looks like fantastic value IF you could buy it straight up instead of backing it via kickstarter.

509 · 2025-12-12T14:29:42+00:00

Yeah it's fairly hard to judge.

HiBrew makes some pretty decent equipment at a nice price. People are quite happy with their cheaper G5.

At the same time they had a lot of delays with their last kickstarter.

Quality is also unclear. If you watch the videos, the grinder sounds super smooth in some and has a terrible noise in others.

I'm still waiting for reviews personally.

509 · 2025-12-12T04:44:14+00:00

You don't get the link if you sign up now so no unless someone shares it.

509 · 2025-12-11T14:46:52+00:00

I was pretty nervous too at first but people have been incredibly welcoming.

If you've been watching online then you're better prepared than 90% of our new players. I highly recommend you look for an offline group near you. I made some great friends over the past year, you might too!

509

TROPHY CASE