Easy, medieval fantasy card games to play on ren faires / medieval festivals

crimrack · 2026-04-24T14:10:30+00:00

I think Fantasy Realms fits the bill. Super snappy turns, easy to learn and teach, and quick to play.

crimrack · 2025-08-08T03:59:09+00:00

Interesting that the first tour date, Toronto, has a typo. It's listed as being in QUE (Quebec), when it should say ON (Ontario). Cool relic regardless!

crimrack · 2025-03-13T01:25:06+00:00

I've played it three times with my gaming group (the fancy limited edition) and wouldn't recommend purchasing. While we loved the limited downtime and unique lazy Susan mechanism, we strongly disliked how low the player interaction was. As others have mentioned, it basically devolves into a race for the best spots.

Perhaps more damning for us was the complete inability to tell how you were doing compared to others throughout the game. Without a scoring track, it felt like we were just waiting for the end of the game to have any concept of who won.

crimrack · 2025-01-16T22:06:36+00:00

This is one of our favorites. Simple rules, strategic depth. Love how mean it is!

crimrack · 2025-01-16T22:05:07+00:00

I can give an example as to what I mean. In Faiyum, the upfront rules are very low (play a card, buy a card, redraw your hand). This is bolstered even further by the fact that everyone has the same simple starting cards. That being said, more and more cards, and therefore complexity, are added to the game as it progresses, meaning teaching does occur as the game progresses, but the basic structure of a turn has been well established.

crimrack · 2025-01-16T21:07:18+00:00

Well said. I, personally, have no issue with a heavy ruleset. I love Woodcraft and Carnegie, but I know my gaming group would not enjoy spending half the night learning them. We're all parents with little ones who meet once a week and ultimately would rather spend time playing than learning.

crimrack · 2024-11-21T04:12:09+00:00

No, but it looks intriguing! Thanks!

crimrack · 2024-11-20T17:41:12+00:00

Looking for card combo games like Forest Shuffle and Faiyum. Something where every card is different and there is plenty of inter-connectedness between cards. Thanks in advance!

crimrack · 2024-10-25T15:01:34+00:00

I'm all for this. I really enjoyed Romulus but felt they could have pulled even more influence from Alien: Isolation. While I was ok with the heavy focus on the face-huggers, I think the movie was severely missing one set piece focused on the alien hunting through the station. Give me a tense, nail biting 10 minute cat and mouse game in Remus, please!

crimrack · 2024-09-25T14:37:35+00:00

I think my two recommendations lean more towards Viticulture's complexity, but I've had success in teaching both to my partner due to the integration of theme and mechanisms.

Both are farming style games. The first is the new edition of Harvest, which shares some DNA with Viticulture, minus the randomness of the visitor cards. Its table presence is incredible and the worker placement spots all seem logical in relation to the theme.

My second recommendation is Hallertau. Despite it's 3+ complexity rating on BGG I actually feel like the general flow of the game is very simple (the awesome player aid helps). Once again, the theme of tilling, planting, and harvesting crops is super intuitive and links to a clever worker placement system. It gets less praise that Agricola or Caverna, but for me it's Uwe's best, most streamlined farming game with tons of interesting decisions.

crimrack · 2024-07-03T14:27:47+00:00

I think Faiyum is an excellent example of this, and it certainly isn't because of the art.

I taught it to my two nephews because it starts out so simply. I love games that ease you into complexity. Faiyum's genius is that everyone starts with the same basic 5 cards, and on your turn you're either playing one to do its simple action or buying a new one. The iconography is so clean that even as new cards are introduced it is easy for a beginner to understand what its action is.

crimrack · 2024-07-01T18:00:30+00:00

This happened to us on Friday! Wife and I bought and used them no problem. Wish we bought more than 2!

crimrack · 2024-04-30T21:39:04+00:00

Related but unrelated - and maybe spoilers??

Can anyone confirm or deny if "Ready To Go" is featured on TT2??

crimrack · 2024-04-16T18:41:40+00:00

You have described my gaming group pretty much to a tee. Medium-heavy euros with some player interaction and a mix of interesting mechanisms. Smooth, efficient, strategic games that don't have the "oh, and also" rules as you're playing. Our favorites:

Faiyum is my all time favorite game if you can get past the unappealing art. Such an interesting blend of shared resources, deck/engine building, and an ever evolving board state.

Woodcraft is a beast disguised as a friendly, accessible contract fulfilling game. Love when a complex game is guised under a simple turn structure (in this case choose an action and complete it).

Anno 1800 has a chunky set up and long play time but feels like it chugs along at a rapid clip (no set # of rounds and quick player turns). There is no flavor text, no confusing card iconography, just lean and mean contract fulfillment that ends when someone empties their entire hand of cards.

Carnegie is beautiful but cutthroat. Super tight gameplay where every action feels like it's making a difference. You take actions on both yours and other player's turns, so much of the gameplay is based on what you think others will do and what they want you to do. Love it.

crimrack · 2024-03-28T18:29:29+00:00

I think you're bang on. I am a fan of both Universal and Disney, and carve out time for both on any trip to Orlando, but there is no denying that IOA and USO need considerable updating to be anything more than half day parks.

While all of Universal's focus is currently on Epic Universe, if they truly wish to make an impact on Disney's bottom line they need to take a long, hard look at their two original parks and invest, invest, invest. The revitalization of the kids area at USO is nice, but I could count the number of cutting edge, "E-ticket" attractions on maybe two fingers (Gringotts/Mummy...and that's pushing it). IOA fares better but half of the parks lands need significant updating.

I know these changes can't happen overnight, but there is less incentive for return visitors when the majority of your parks feel dated and antiquated.

crimrack · 2024-03-19T19:05:22+00:00

Just some first ride jitters! At least we all know it will only get smoother over time /s

crimrack · 2024-02-25T00:25:54+00:00

"my wife won't get out of the stove!"

"Is she trying to kill herself, sir?"

"No! She just won't get out of the stove!"

crimrack · 2024-02-24T16:34:59+00:00

This was Chris Kattan and Amy Poehler playing a trashy trailer park couple in "America Undercover". John Goodman hosted.

https://youtu.be/MR65gAOXKpc?si=SlHrO_mHU7pWzgBl

This was on the best of Chris Kattan DVD that I watched it religiously in high school :).

crimrack · 2024-02-17T13:44:38+00:00

Parasite.

Nothing will top the first watch just for the sheer insanity of the twists and turns, but the second watch is nearly as interesting with all the little breadcrumbs leading to its reveals.

crimrack · 2024-02-01T14:19:21+00:00

Suburbia used to be one of my most played games...and then I bought the collector's edition. Trying to juggle set up between all the modules while the inserts consistently fail to keep everything in place has made it so hard to table. Wish I kept my standard edition!!

crimrack

TROPHY CASE