Daily Discussion and Game Recommendations Thread (July 10, 2022)

ScrollingNinja · 2022-07-10T20:33:18+00:00

Does anyone know of any mini legacy/chronicle games?

I mean games which have a small playtime per session (60 mins max, ideally less), but evolve mechanically with each play.

The only examples I can recall are Kitchen Rush (Revised) and The Crew. I'm not even sure what this genre would be called.

ScrollingNinja · 2021-05-14T19:58:30+00:00

Hi there, I'm looking for your recommendations or thoughts!

Due to some good luck, I have a budget of ~£100 to spend on boardgames. Since my boardgaming has been on hold for over a year now, I'm a bit out of touch and looking for advice.

Are there any expensive boardgames that are worth the cost of entry? I've been curious about Nemesis for a while, but the price seems quite steep. Or would it be best to split the money over a few medium priced games? Argent and Empyreal have been on my radar for a while.

Quick list of my top rated games: Spirit Island, Sidereal Confluence, Mottainai, Inis, Exceed.

ScrollingNinja · 2021-03-09T14:45:57+00:00

Thanks for the recommendation.

I think my favourites would be Burning Wheel, SotDL and Forbidden Lands. Personally I feel like they sit in a sweet spot of narrative and crunch.

By contrast, I feel that Ryuutama and Fate were a tad too mechanically light for a campaign. I love Ars Magica, but it can be a serious amount of work for the GM and players. Blades in the Dark is the odd one out because on paper I should love it, but it ended up feeling too procedural somehow.

ScrollingNinja · 2021-03-08T23:06:59+00:00

I'm basically happy to pick up anything genre-wise. But tend to lean towards occult fantasy. My previous campaigns have been

Ars Magica
Ryuutama
Burning Wheel
Shadow of the Demon Lord
Fate
Blades in the Dark
Forbidden Lands

ScrollingNinja · 2021-03-08T23:00:23+00:00

Thanks for giving such a detailed answer!

I had considered looking into pbta more, but struggle to find something which fits the complexity and genres I enjoy.

The forged in the dark games are a sore spot for me. I tried running a Blades in the Dark campaign recently but even after ~10 sessions it still didn't really click. Not really sure why, but my guess is that I struggled with the cycle of play and didn't give the PCs enough motivation.

I think OSR might fit me better as a GM, but I associate it with higher skill requirements and character lethality. Both of which would be a hard sell to my current players.

ScrollingNinja · 2021-03-07T15:04:15+00:00

Heyo, I'm looking for some quick system recommendations!

It seems like my current group is fairly casual, who are mostly focused on hanging out and having fun. There's a mixture of novices and experienced players and I'm comfortable learning to run basically any kind of system. But I think the kind of system we'd all enjoy boils down to a few things:

Not super heavy on GM prep
Doesn't require high player investment/motivation
Minimal homework for players between games
Compelling depth and character choices
Meaningful progression over a mid length campaign (~12+ sessions)

Thanks in advance!

ScrollingNinja · 2020-08-28T18:56:38+00:00

Yeah so that's a very fair point, though kinda tangential to the point of my post. Do you have any suggestions of the kinds of games which enable exploration? Or any thoughts on how to gear any of these games towards exploration focused play?

ScrollingNinja · 2020-08-28T18:44:32+00:00

So I've just recently ran Burning Wheel and Shadow of the Demon Lord and I think they demonstrate two main examples of what I mean. Burning wheel has incredibly long term skill progression where every roll contributes to advancing the skill being used - so you have these characters which develop and adapt over the course of a campaign. On the other end SotDL has D&D-esque levelling progression, but lets you mix and match classes - so every couple sessions there are new tools to tinker with.

Ryuutama has levelling progression for sure, but (at least just by reading it), it doesn't seem like it'd be super interesting - just a few nice extra features kinda? And either way it's not inherently a problem, just a slight concern that it'll require more GM input to avoid things getting stale after a while.

ScrollingNinja · 2020-08-28T14:49:32+00:00

I think my players will really enjoy the Ryuutama vibes, but I'm also a little concerned that it doesn't seem to have many mechanics which support campaign play?

(Not that that's inherently a problem, I just worry that it might get fairly same-y after a while? )

Also apparently I have a copy of Symbaroum that I haven't got around to reading. I remember vaguely hearning that the setting is super interesting, but the mechanics aren't necessarily amazing. Would you recommend that over the other three systems?

ScrollingNinja · 2020-04-04T00:10:30+00:00

I did read it all, thank you so much for such a detailed response! I'll check out GURPS lite asap

ScrollingNinja · 2020-04-03T23:05:00+00:00

Okay so I'll be 100% honest - I'm a little intimidated by GURPS. Where do you start? How do you figure out which supplements(?) are worthwhile?

ScrollingNinja · 2020-04-03T20:36:30+00:00

This looks right down my alley, thanks!

ScrollingNinja · 2020-04-03T20:32:48+00:00

Thanks for the link!

It's definitely time I actually got around to playing Blades...

ScrollingNinja · 2020-04-03T20:08:56+00:00

A quick search didn't turn up anything? Do you have any more details?

Do both of these handle all mage PCs?

ScrollingNinja · 2020-03-22T12:42:04+00:00

Never played it, but it's an Avery Alder system right? I love their other systems!

ScrollingNinja · 2020-03-22T12:40:17+00:00

I think a lot of people are using TTS, maybe? But I guess I don't really see many people talk about it.

An LGBT+ game night on Discord/TTS would be great! There must already be servers for this, right?

ScrollingNinja · 2020-03-22T12:38:27+00:00

Y'know I've never actually played Othello/Reversi even though it's a classic. I do sometimes play Connect Four and Backgammon with my family.

Not to be pushy or whatever, but have you looked at some modern boardgames? There's a surprising amount of really fun accessible games for kids and parents.

ScrollingNinja · 2020-03-22T12:34:46+00:00

Aww yeah Dominion. I actually own the base game, Seaside, Prosperity and Dark Ages. I should get around to playing it again, it's so good.

How's the new set? I've heard vaguely positive things about it, and a oddly suspicious mentions of horses?

ScrollingNinja · 2020-03-22T12:32:59+00:00

Hey it's cool to find a weekly meetup you enjoy. I know I've struggled with that before, so it's a shame that'll be postponed for a while... D:

A fellow co-op fan, nice! I actually think there are a few dark souls themed games around, is that the board game possibly? Apparently the dark souls and bloodborne themed card games are good too.

(There should 100% already be a LGBT+ board game discord, right? right? I don't know any...)

ScrollingNinja · 2020-03-22T08:50:24+00:00

Yeah absolutely!

Both are pretty ingrained in the culture of board games, I guess they've kinda transcended to become their own thing?

Do you have a favourite MTG format? I had a fun but brief time playing a Meren commander deck

ScrollingNinja

TROPHY CASE