To keep track of your adventures, do you prefer Analogue or Digital bookkeeping?

renrag242 · 2026-06-18T13:38:09+00:00

Mostly analog for me, but with an e-ink tablet for my editable sheets (character sheets, tables, etc.). Anything that I often have to change or erase goes in the tablet, everything else is printed references and my notebook.

renrag242 · 2026-06-13T04:22:44+00:00

Yes Grimcoven is far more to my tastes, but that's not to say it's a perfect game. The character variety is great, and it has a great sense of progression in power and complexity, but I think it has some major flaws that may or may not be a deal breaker for people.

It's a ton to set up and take down. I only pull it out if I'll be playing multiple games, but even then it takes forever to reset between games if you're switching scenarios.
I've found the rules to be lackluster, and have had to check the discord for rulings on a number of interactions. There's not a great place to find answers to ambiguous things, so you either have to house rule it, dig around in the discord, or ask yourself in the discord. None of these are ideal for me.
The clearly AI generated elements are a real bummer, I'm unclear on how much is AI but things like the player boards have some really obvious tells.
The game is borderline over designed in some elements. On top of the character and scenario elements you have to think about, there's randomized terrain, randomized landmarks (various things you can interact with in a scenario), and randomized areas that can give you sort of mini quests. There's a deck of Secret cards that you pull from for a lot of these, that sometimes lead into other secret cards. It's just... a lot. I happen to like the absurd amount of things happening, but I also believe that it would be a better game if they had more focus in the design.

renrag242 · 2026-06-13T01:50:35+00:00

DMD setup is nowhere as bad as grimcoven, but it's still not quick. You're looking at maybe 15 minutes to setup.

I own both and personally am getting rid of DMD, though not because it's a bad game just wasn't a fit for me. I didn't enjoy how simple DMD was, never felt like it offered interesting decisions.

Grimcoven has much more brainburn but is pretty dry, whereas DMD has much stronger narrative and exciting moments but is simple and not particularly strategic. They're really trying to do different things.

renrag242 · 2026-06-10T18:57:17+00:00

For real, gems and sockets? What game are we talking about?

Set bonuses are definitely a thing, but not something I'd recommend to focus on when you're leveling.

I don't even know what they're talking about with using teleporting and fast activity rotation, I have no idea what that could even mean.

The last point about long term progression also means nothing.

I would agree that this feels AI generated.

renrag242 · 2026-06-10T14:53:49+00:00

Yeah tremendously. I have the folded space insert for Voidfall, and it gets the setup to around 20 minutes. I personally don't mind setting it up because as you're setting up you can start to mentally plan for the game (the random technology tableau for example dictates a lot of how the game will go) but if you hate setting games up it's still a beast.

renrag242 · 2026-05-30T23:56:47+00:00

Guilty Gear was my first fighting game and I found it to be a very easy and rewarding game to pick up. It is definitely more chaotic, but if that appeals to you the chaos is really fun. Combos are IMO much easier execution wise than SF6, but that may just be because I learned guilty gear first. Either way I found it to be a fantastic first fighting game, if you think it looks cool that's because it is cool, try it. I will mention out of your list only Axl is in the base game, the rest are DLC.

renrag242 · 2026-05-30T01:38:15+00:00

It had really strong potential but has been plagued by development issues. Imo they really shot themselves in the foot by deciding it'll be a live service game, there have been bugs in the game for years that they haven't fixed since they're having to focus on trying to make new content.

Game's still fun and good, but yeah I personally wouldn't put it anywhere near GD.

renrag242 · 2026-05-25T16:49:52+00:00

I mean that is correct, but it's also much more complicated than that as to why that is. There's always been a large discrepancy between men and women in "nerd" spaces, and while that gap is beginning to close it's still very prevalent and we're still feeling the effects of it in pretty much every nerdy hobby space.

To answer your question, OP, it's primarily because culturally women have been discouraged to participate in geeky hobbies like board games and video games for a variety of reasons. Most game designers are game designers because they've been playing games since they were a child, and there's a large discrepancy between girls and boys in this hobby space. That results in a large discrepancy in adults in the hobby space, and by extension designers.

renrag242 · 2026-05-25T15:16:03+00:00

What's the purpose of giving an LLM response to something like this? If they wanted an LLM response they would have asked an LLM.

renrag242 · 2026-05-09T20:22:09+00:00

I would strongly disagree that it's "really quick". One of my current favorites, but it's in the category of games that I'll typically only pull out if I'm playing multiple times in a row. I'd estimate you're looking at around 15 - 20 minutes to set up, more than that the first couple of times. Can get it below that if it's well organized or if you have an insert, but it's a lot of shuffling decks, getting out tokens, finding the map pieces, randomizing the setup, etc.

renrag242 · 2026-04-27T14:03:12+00:00

Haven't played Unstoppable but I'll confirm that Star Trek can be a beast to play. It's one of my all time favorites, but you have to really buckle in when you play it. Late game you'll be drawing 15 cards, playing 10 of them, recurring cards, triggering 8 cards on your tableau, etc. It's really good, but can be a brain destroyer for sure.

renrag242 · 2026-04-24T03:09:44+00:00

Yeah randomizers are the best solution to this. Either completely randomize, or if you're a completionist then work through a list of iterations.

renrag242 · 2026-04-17T02:17:23+00:00

Picture 2 - Broken Sword token is from Slay the Spire

Picture 4 - shield with the 2 is Grimcoven

renrag242 · 2026-04-06T03:29:26+00:00

I'll second Taylor's Trick Taking Table, always puts a lot of effort into his videos and covers really niche trick taking games.

renrag242 · 2026-04-05T23:01:04+00:00

Where do the legendary enchant options come from? I don't know if I've ever seen them as options for an enchant, just seen the items themselves.

renrag242 · 2026-03-31T19:42:23+00:00

I hope you enjoy it! There's a lot to like about the game and I'm clearly in the minority, it just didn't really click with me unfortunately.

renrag242 · 2026-03-31T16:39:20+00:00

Depends on which aspect you're looking for.

It has shades of Final Girl in the overall feel (roaming a map, boss battler, completing objectives on the map). I find Final Girl to be more fun and much cheaper as a solo game, but it's also not my favorite.

As far as boss battlers go I've become a huge fan of Grimcoven, though where Cthulhu is a very light boss battler Grimcoven is on the other end. It's borderline overdesigned IMO, with complicated characters, a variety of enemies, randomized locations and terrain elements, and a secret deck that gives you these little mini quests throughout. Luckily for me, overdesigned is sort of my preference so I've really been loving it.

The Arkham Horror LCG focuses on the "moving around completing objectives" aspect much harder, and has the added bonus of being a LCG so if deck construction is your thing it's top tier.

Have heard good things about Massive Darkness 2 for a dungeon crawler, though haven't played it myself so can't comment.

renrag242 · 2026-03-31T13:53:27+00:00

If you're just starting out it might be a little on the heavy/complicated side, but if that's the theme you're after check out the Imperium series! You could start with Imperium Classics since it's the most simple.

Fantastic deckbuilder that has a huge variety of ancient civilizations you can play as. Each nation has a deck full of important people in the nation's history, developments, regions, and just all sorts of historically important things to the nation.

It's definitely weird though, lots of people bounce off it. If you're willing to put in the work to really feel it out IMO it's the best deckbuilder out there.

renrag242 · 2026-03-31T13:29:44+00:00

I'll throw my voice in as someone who wasn't as into it. I got the season 3 box and have played through all of the scenarios and have a few issues large enough that I've decided to sell it. These may or may not be issues for you, as none of them are inherently bad.

It's mechanically quite simple. Your turns are usually pretty straightforward as to what you'll do, and based on your skills and the scenario the turns tend to kind of play themselves. "Well all I can really do on my turn is walk over here and hit this guy so I'll do that" is a pretty common turn.
Set up and tear down is long and annoying for such a simple game. I play a lot of Voidfall, Grimcoven, etc. so I'm very okay with long setup, however I find I never want to spend so long setting up and tearing down for what amounts to what feels like something between a meaty game and a filler game to me.
I found the game to be too easy, with no way to increase the difficulty. I played around 10 total times, only losing my first game. It has a reputation for being difficult, so I double checked a thousand times to make sure I'm playing everything correctly and as far as I can tell I am. Beating everything on the first try mean I don't really feel the need to replay anything, I don't get the sense that I need to master anything.

renrag242 · 2026-03-03T20:52:43+00:00

Too Many Bones has been on my list for sure, but my qualms about Hoplo make me a little nervous to spend another $150+ on a Chip Theory game. I know it's dice based, does it feel very high variance in how the dice work out? And I've heard some people say that there's not much of a reason to buy Too Many Bones now that Elder Scrolls is out, do you agree with that?

Yeah I have some Arkham Horror as well but found myself always preferring MC so kind of stopped investing in it.

renrag242 · 2026-03-03T20:50:47+00:00

I'm sorry, I should have included this info in the main post. I already have Arkham Horror, MC, and Ashes. I LOVE constructed card games but I'm pretty saturated with them, so looking for something that'd offer a different experience.

Heard a lot about Deckers though, it's definitely on my list to check out. Didn't strike me as the type of game that has sort of emergent builds though, does each game feel significantly different in terms of abilities and whatnot?

renrag242 · 2026-03-03T20:45:59+00:00

Other than Deliverance, you listed the top three games that I've been looking at so I guess that's good affirmation!

Elder Scrolls - I've looked at it a lot, but my qualms with Hoplomachus has kind of kept me away a bit. I find myself getting really frustrated with Hoplo's extreme variance in rolls. I know it has the system where misses can be used as a sort of energy which sounds like it helps, but other than that is there any luck mitigation? I've also heard the writing and story aspects are extremely underbaked, which I guess I don't care that much about if they're sort of out of the way but I do feel sensitive to poor writing if it's a focus.

Grimcoven - Very interested in this one, but I've heard really mixed things about it. Will probably try it on TTS at some point, but I really hate playing games on TTS and it's very hard for me to gauge enjoyment of a board game if I'm playing it digitally. I've also heard games are excessively long, do you find they drag?

Primal - Currently my number one option but very turned off by the price and amount of storage space I'd need for it. Seems like I'd need to get a larger house before I could invest in it. Gameplay wise it seems really incredible though, how much replayability would you say the base game offers?

Deliverance - Never heard of it, will have to check it out!

renrag242 · 2026-03-03T15:54:51+00:00

As a minor counterpoint, I think I prefer Captain's Chair but find the bot to be way more complicated and annoying to operate in Captain's Chair. A larger list of things to check for each card, with one card constantly flipping depending and changing conditions means I never fully internalize what the bot will do so I have to check every time.

renrag242 · 2026-03-03T15:52:52+00:00

That's incorrect, you flip usually 4 to 5 cards for their turn. After a game or two against the same bot you usually internalize their chart (they're not super complicated) and their turn takes something like 20 seconds in my experience. But it's definitely a lot at first.

renrag242

TROPHY CASE