/r/boardgames
The #1 Reddit source for news, information, and discussion about modern board games and board game culture. Join the community and come discuss games like Codenames, Wingspan, Brass, and all your other favorite games!
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Welcome to /r/boardgames! The #1 reddit source for news, information, and discussion about modern board games. Join our community! Come discuss games like Codenames, Arkham Horror, Terra Mystica, and all your other favorite games!
Please see the Rules-page for a full list of the rules. See Also:
You'll see people using bold to highlight games, that gives the opportunity to interact with /u/r2d8, a bot that can be used to grab data from BGG on games included in a post. The simplest use is to bold game names in your comment and add "/u/r2d8 getinfo" at the end of the post, but this post/sub has other features identified.
Daily | Daily Discussion and Game Recs |
Mon | What Did You Play This Week? |
Tue | Train Tuesday |
Tue | Two-Player Twosday |
Wed | One-Player Wednesday |
Wed | Game of the Week |
Thu | Midweek Mingle (rotating) |
Thu | Forgotten Favorites (rotating) |
Thu | Thursdays at War (rotating) |
Fri | BGIF |
Sun | Kickstarter Roundup |
/r/boardgames
I kind of want to dive in but it didn't look that intriguing in a YouTube playthrough I watched. Kind of boring actually.
New community to share your favorite board game articles
Hi guys, I basically have fully designed a board game. I’ve been working on for seven years now and I’m trying to get into the stage of producing my own pieces, but I’m kind of at a loss and how to do the plastic pieces that are similar to RISK pieces, do you know a good AI software that can do 3-D modeling so that I could eventually print them or send them to a factory to do injection molds?
Hello! I have heard that lots of board gamers enjoying playing boardgames throughout the day on their mobile phones through some sort of asynchronous gameplay where if its your turn you can take your turn whenever it's convenient for you and you might get through a game every few days or so and just start up the next one. Or play multiple at the same time!
Personally I have only done this with terraforming mars and their mobile app.
I have a question for how you guys might think a board game with real time elements could be played in an asynchronous fashion -- is it even possible?
For instance, if it is required that all players play at the same time for a brief 5 minutes or so due to game rules, but the rest of the game can be played asynchronously / whenever they'd like - how would you most easily make that happen.
Is it easiest for the players to agree on a set time the 4+ of them can be there live for 5 minutes?
I haven't thought up any alternatives if any of you have input on how you'd want it done!
Hi everyone, I've played Two Rooms and a Boom a few times and im looking to lead a large group(15-30) and have a feeling we may benefit from having me run point as a facilitator for some initial rounds. I've found a lot about suggested card setup and some house rules, but I haven't found any tips for running the game as a facilitator since it doesn't need one. Anyone have any advice?
Do you have a game that stays in the car? Great for entertainment for those in the back seat? Maybe one you play in the hotel or cabin at night during trips? Maybe it's your comfort on business travels? Maybe it's a frequent one to take to a buddy's place? A favorite on picnics or café outings? Some games encourage you to play outdoors! Some games (particularly card games) are very portable - some games have a pocket edition! Maybe the size doesn't even matter and you bring a 200 piecer anywhere your wheels go? Which board or card game has a permanent residence in your car? And why? Thanks!
My cousin insists that The Boardroom is the only place to buy games in Halifax. I don't live there but I find that hard to believe. Where are the hidden FLGSes in the HRM?
My boyfriend and I have played the new expansion a few times, but yesterday an interesting thing happened. He got the 10ft pole card very early, which allows you to put the dungeon tile on the bottom of the stack to draw a new one. So a purple tile ended up on the bottom beneath the depth tiles. At the end of the game he was able to then draw that tile being far away from the purples to then play it in the middle of the depths. This felt kind of bad as it was then easy for him to get safe. Is that really how that card should have been played? Have there been any clarifications?
I've recently had delivered a Geek N Son table, and felt it would be useful to post my feedback on this. I have tried contacting Geek N Son to deliver this feedback directly and engage in dialogue with them, but they've not responded or acknowledged communications.
SPECCING AND ORDERING
I dealt with Terry Brooks for this phase, and he was most helpful. He suggested sensible options for speccing and delivery, and was generally very good through this process.
BUILD TIME
This is where things started to go awry.I placed my order on 20 February 2024 and received it on 3^(rd) August 2024.I had previously been quoted a delivery window of late May / mid June.Terry passed me on to Anna Modlinska. Anna's communication was ok, however when the delivery dates started to slip Anna was not initially forthcoming with an explanation, and after several notifications of delays (or rather, lack of progress - the word "delayed" was never used) I eventually forced the issue and asked for an explanation. I was very understanding in this request, as I appreciate that in a manufacturing industry (particularly one relying on good quality raw material supplies), things don't always go to plan.I got an explanation, but this should have been communicated early on, as its far easier for a customer to accept than just "not yet".
SHIPPING
I am afraid this is where things completely fell over. The order was shipped to the UK, and then there seemed to be some further planning required by the team on that end. Given the order had been in the system for quite some time, I was confused about why it then took a week to send it on. When the order did finally arrive in Jersey, it arrived on a pallet and was securely attached to this.This was good from one perspective, but the logistics team had given absolutely no instructions or information about what to expect when it arrived. To remove the order from the pallet required tools, which had not been communicated would be required (fortunately I had them). The delivery company also would only leave the pallet outside the house, so I was left with ;
This made for a very stressful and disappointing process, and could have been avoided with simple information to set expectations to the customer, such as ;
Aside from the above, I am now left with a pallet to dispose of, how am I meant to do this? And why is this my cost? I understand disposal of normal packing material (cardboard, packing foam, etc), that is reasonable. But an entire pallet that will not fit in a normal household vehicle is a problem, and will likely incur cost to remove. Any suggestions on this?
ASSEMBLY
This is also where things did not go well. The item was securely packaged, and everything wrapped well, which was great to see. I read through the instructions before beginning, and once removing all packaging went to place the table upside down to attached the legs as instructed. The instructions did not highlight that the wooden board forming the surface of the vaulted area was not secured to the table frame, and would fall out when inverted.This fell out, and scraped down my shin and foot, and I can assure you was very painful. The attachment of the legs looks very simple on paper, but due to the vaulted area restricting the space to work in it became very tricky. Its almost impossible to fit your hands down to put the washer and nut on in the first place, and then the table leg itself interferes with the spanner turning. The instructions don't highlight this at all, and look very generic and not really suited to this table.
THE FINISHED ITEM
This is where I can once again say something positive, the table is exceptionally well made, and has the level of quality I had hoped it would. The leaves fit perfectly, and the rubber gaskets in between the leaves allow for a tight fit and minimise damage and rubbing. The metal rail is solid and secure, and the attachment for it have a very satisfying feel.
EXPERIENCE
Overall, this is a mixed experience. On the one hard, the order process was smooth, and the product at the end great.But the bits in between really soured the experience, and made it in some cases one that I regretted. I'm also left with the disposal of a pallet, which at present is propped against a wall outside my property (because it does not fit in the door). With some really simple tweaks to the process as I have suggested, and some thought around the shipping materials, you really could improve things, and this customer would have been left with no regrets.
Basically if it is worth buying today, or did some other similar games surpassed it. Thanks!
Chip Theory Games is partnering with Joe Klipfel to publish Dragons of Etchinstone (very small solo game, inspired by Mage Knight) with expansion in 2025. They have announced the GameFound campaign.
Game will receive deluxe treatment by Chip Theory Games.
More info from comments section:
"We do plan to up the MSRP to a whopping $12, yes. Hopefully that extra $2 covers giving the game gorgeous new art (as seen by the Glaum example on the preview), adding an extra dragon card so we can showcase every dragon with a full card art (2 dragons per card rather than 4), a much improved, sturdy, spot varnished/foiled deck box, completely revised UX (that ideally will allow the cards to be read holding them side by side and makes the game more colorblind friendly), a full rulebook/proper reference included, PVC cards that will hold up forever and never need sleeving, and gorgeous foil/holographic/cold stamp treatment on said PVC cards (not positive what we're going with on that just yet). And if $2.00 doesn't cover that...? Well, we'll add it anyway because that's how we roll.
Also, though we've already tested feasibility with existing PVC cards and the game plays great, there are treatments/types of PVC which are not as slippery. We're already looking into that concern and whether a different treatment is needed.
TL:DR - Publishing this game is one of many ways we're trying to communicate to the market that we don't simply make games more expensive for the sake of making them more expensive. We intentionally make the cool thing we want to make and then charge appropriately for it. We saw this game, loved it, and knew we could make it one of the coolest $12 artifacts in all of solo gaming. And that's what we intend to do. Oh...and the campaign will have it for below MSRP if you grab the expansion (and possible second expansion we're testing but not ready to announce) to boot."
What I'm thinking is a game where you don't know the results of exploration or combat until game time years after you initiate actions. E.g. You send a ship or fleet to a distant planetary system but it takes maybe 50 game years to get there and any results take the same amount of time to get back to you. Something multi player.
I've no idea how that would be implemented. Just seems like an interesting concept. Maybe it'd need to have a computer involved to handle things happening in the background invisibly.
Several years ago I really liked games on heavier side. Like Mage Knight, Spirit Island, Sword and Sorcery, Descent 1st edition, etc. But slowly I grew tired of long setup, fiddliness, heavy rules, overall complexity. So now I prefer lighter (still a bit thinky though) games like Claustrophobia, Marvel United, One Deck Dungeon.
Curious what is your experience?
TLDR: How would you go about making Martell playable with only 5 players?
// I recently got the game and my group consists of 5 people, so we'll always play at most the standard 5-player game. The issue is a friend of mine really loves Martell (yes, she's a girl, yes she likes them for the reason you are thinking) and Martell is the 6th house in the order. How would you go about including them? Which house would have to go out?
* Starks can't go, they are too important
* Lannisters are too important as well
* Greyjoys keep Lannisters in check
* Baratheons, maybe, but that really hurts the Greyjoys and benefits Martell and Stark
* Possibly take out the Tyrells, put all the local garrisons plus an extra footman?
* Really unorthodox, but make a hybrid Lannister-Tyrell, mixing house cards and choosing a new starting area
I LOVE Sagrada and am looking to buy the Passions expansion trilogy. It was however not published in Dutch, but my Sagrada base game is the Dutch/French edition.
Can you easily mix the English cards in with those of another language edition? Are they the same size? If you have to shuffle the cards together, would you be able to tell the difference? Or am I just better off getting an English base game?
I'm sat here, preparing something that I've thought of, and I would like to share it here. I am unsure if it is a common thing that many people might already be doing, but I hadn't heard of it before and am having a lot of fun with it!
Me and my fiancee like boardgames and I got my particular idea when we decided to play all our boardgames once, one after another, in sequence. Of course, spread out over multiple weeks. When it was time to decide what would create the sequence (alphabet? Card games first, then board games?), I thought; why not make it into a story? Have a few D&D influences to help me to create a story for a character that will link all of our games together in an order that would make sense for the story. And that is what we did.
She created her character, a little witch, with a backstory of having read a forbidden book in the school of magic. The book came to life and became the main antagonist, while she was expelled and had to flee through all sorts of worlds and dimensions (that'd explain breaking theme from magic (HP Duel) to Sci fi (Star Realms) to get away from the evil book. Along her way, if she won a game, she would get allies. If she lost, the antagonist would get allies. All leading up to the final game where her forces and the antagonist would fight (Smash Up and Heroscape)
We're a creative couple so we customized the entire experience further. We used 2 evenings in preparation, creating her character and the main villain out of clay and then painting them. Sometimes I made a custom card for her character at games where this would make sense, like have her start with her character's card along with an ability that'd fit with Port Royal for instance. Or have her use her clay character as a pawn in all games that had pawns, like El Dorado, Witchstone, and Heroscape.
We're about to set out on another adventure. This time with one or two D&D sessions between every 5 games or so. If it's going to be anything like last time, we're going to have some quality evenings together and plenty of things to do this autumn and winter!
No idea if you've heard of this before or if others have done similar things, but I wanted to share it here for those of you who like to use it. To make things a bit more extra or who enjoy creating custom things. It's a lot of fun recreating cards from games to fit your characters, let alone to then play with them and watch the story progress.
If you do pick this up: Have fun! And let me know if you can how things are going :)
I recently scored a copy of Noria on r/boardgameexchange as a cheap throw-in with a game I actually wanted. While researching it, I was surprised at how little info there was on reddit about it. I picked it up anyway, just cos I thought the aesthetic looked cool, and I have been thoroughly pleased with the purchase! It's a solid middleweight steampunk engine-builder for 2-4, playable in 1-2h.
Art, Theme, and Table Presence: I love the art in this game, and the theme ties the mechanics together nicely. It takes place on the floating island of Noria, a city-state on the cusp of a bright new future, and it feels totally appropriate to collect swarms of little sailships to gather various resources from the surrounding smaller islands. The central action selection mechanism (which I will fangirl about later) is highly thematic and very fun. The resources have cool names (energy, obsidian, and mycelium). The iconography is mostly really clear and easy to understand, and the components (my copy was published by Stronghold) are high quality. I also love a game with good Table Presence, and Noria looks great when it's midgame and you take a minute to stop and look over the table, with the main board surrounded by islands and ships and factories; it gives that sense of a little world, teeming with activity.
The theme does break down in one critical spot, which is the victory point tracks. You must both influence politician-cubes to adjust the value of the four tracks, and spend resources to... improve your standing on those tracks? Convince the politicians you're the best person for the job? Mechanically it makes sense, but I have trouble explaining it thematically.
Mechanics and Player Interaction: In most ways, Noria is a very straightforward engine-builder. You collect ships and build factories, use the ships to gather resources, turn in the resources directly for points or use them to produce goods in your factories, turn in the produced goods for more points. However, ships and factory spots are very limited, and it's a race to get the good spots early. Furthermore, the influence system that I mentioned above means that any player can boost or block any given victory point track, so you must stay nimble and watch what your opponents are doing.
There are six action types; three generate resources, and three have other functions around the board. Two of these have different utility early- and late-game, which I thought was very elegantly done. The rules for these appeared very fiddly at a first glance through the rulebook, but immediately made sense on a first playthrough with only one fiddly bit remaining. The actions you can do on your turn are determined by your action discs, which fit into my favorite single part of the game.
The Flagship Piece: I have discovered that I am a sucker for a gimmicky part. Think of the Tower in El Grande, or the Pyramid in Camel Up; a piece that is not only big and chunky and cool but inseparably functional to the game. This is the Action Wheel in Noria, a three-tiered set of rotating cogs which you must populate with your action discs, and which will change the actions available to you every turn. I love that you have control over how to build your set of actions. I love the choice of whether to spend extra resources adjusting your wheel on the fly, and the satisfaction of setting it up so you don't have to. I love that the same action disc that loads up your wheel in the early game is useful for advancing on tracks in the late game. I love that it looks like a set of brass cogs that keep your engine turning, and that's exactly what it does.
Replayability and Final Thoughts: I've played three times so far, all at 3-players. There is a little bit of randomness in the setup game-to-game, mostly in terms of how many of which goods you'll be able to produce and how much it costs to load up on various action discs. Most of the variability, though, comes from how the players choose to set up their action wheels, and how they influence the victory tracks; this gives the game a very dynamic feel that I think will entertain me for a good number of plays. Definitely not forever, since the strategy is basically "get resources and convert them to points" either way, but I think this one will be hitting the table for a while yet.
Noria is relatively easy to teach for regular gamers, but might be a little heavy for non-gamers. I called it a solid middleweight, but you may find it on the heavy side; everyone I've taught it to has picked it up quickly, but they also play Twilight Imperium, so ymmv. Probably the only significant gripe I have with Noria is that setup is a little tedious; I will probably design and print an insert for it, because my (used) copy came packed in a dozen little baggies, and it probably takes a full 10+ minutes to get everyone their starting discs and ships and get little bowls for the resources etc. That said, I have been enjoying Noria very much, and so I thought I'd post a review for posterity. Looks like it's currently $10-25ish on Noble Knight and Geekmarket, which I think is a great value for what comes in the box, both in terms of the components and the mechanics. I hope you enjoy it as much as I am!
I'm sat here, preparing something that I've thought of, and I would like to share it here. I am unsure if it is a common thing that many people might already be doing, but I hadn't heard of it before and am having a lot of fun with it!
Me and my fiancee like boardgames and I got my particular idea when we decided to play all our boardgames once, one after another, in sequence. Of course, spread out over multiple weeks. When it was time to decide what would create the sequence (alphabet? Card games first, then board games?), I thought; why not make it into a story? Have a few D&D influences to help me to create a story for a character that will link all of our games together in an order that would make sense for the story. And that is what we did.
She created her character, a little witch, with a backstory of having read a forbidden book in the school of magic. The book came to life and became the main antagonist, while she was expelled and had to flee through all sorts of worlds and dimensions (that'd explain breaking theme from magic (HP Duel) to Sci fi (Star Realms) to get away from the evil book. Along her way, if she won a game, she would get allies. If she lost, the antagonist would get allies. All leading up to the final game where her forces and the antagonist would fight (Smash Up and Heroscape)
We're a creative couple so we customized the entire experience further. We used 2 evenings in preparation, creating her character and the main villain out of clay and then painting them. Sometimes I made a custom card for her character at games where this would make sense, like have her start with her character's card along with an ability that'd fit with Port Royal for instance. Or have her use her clay character as a pawn in all games that had pawns, like El Dorado, Witchstone, and Heroscape.
We're about to set out on another adventure. This time with one or two D&D sessions between every 5 games or so. If it's going to be anything like last time, we're going to have some quality evenings together and plenty of things to do this autumn and winter!
No idea if you've heard of this before or if others have done similar things, but I wanted to share it here for those of you who like to use it. To make things a bit more extra or who enjoy creating custom things. It's a lot of fun recreating cards from games to fit your characters, let alone to then play with them and watch the story progress.
If you do pick this up: Have fun! And let me know if you can how things are going :)
I love games that have light to medium heavy complexity and my favourites include TTR, TFM, Brass Birmingham, Catan cities n knights, and many more.
I’ve only played TTR Europe n USA mostly in two players.
There’s a chance for me to buy a used TTR 1901 that’s in good condition. I just don’t know if I should.
It’s actually the game u get at the end of Legends of the west campaign of TTR legacy.
Not another TTR 1901 game
With the Game Nerdz annual sale approaching, this past weekend my partner and I attended the local board game club's meetup for the first time to try out a couple games before potentially buying. The club has a massive game library. We are well aware of the "hobbyist gamer stereotypes" from attending cons but we've mostly had okay experiences.
We enter the meetup and notice we are the only late 20s/early 30s couple there. The only other women were 40 plus. We told the greeter that we are comfortable and experienced with games across all weights and mechanics. After selecting the game we wished to learn, the greeter approaches us while we were finding a table and asks my partner if she really wants to play that game. He goes on the overstate the rules difficulty and how long it would take to teach. He asks if we've played any games by the designer, ignoring that I stated that we have played several worker placement games of similar difficulty with greater rules/iconography overhead, and that we prepared to learn the game by watching rules overviews and playthroughs. He would not relent with his discouraging until we put the game back. The whole experience was deflating, and we felt talked down to/gatekept and that sexism may have been at play. With how he was directing his discouraging statements at my partner, it felt that clearly young women can't play complex Eurogames. We left frustrated and don't really want to ever go back, despite the fantastic and appealing game library.
Just wanted to rant a bit. Commiserate with me by sharing your stories/frustrations, or how you found an inclusive space in this hobby or took on being gatekept/discriminated/misogenized!
Edit: We did not need a teacher, there was plenty of room for us to do our thing and play, other groups and duos were playing more heavy weighted games.
Unfortunately my ten year old got so excited by opening the envelope he insisted on reading the contents first and I think he's ADHD'd off with some of them. Can someone confirm it should have contain scar cards and how many?
I know Quacks of Quedlinburg's rulebook is generally recognized as a real stinker but I know there are worse ones out there for similarly popular games. I've heard that Robinson Crusoe and even Ark Nova's aren't great but I haven't played either of those.
For me, the rulebooks for Happy Little Dinosaurs and Bohnanza stand out because, in spite of how simple those games are, there are a few scenarios that can occur in both games that aren't covered in the rulebooks. I'm always an advocate for the "appendix" treatment to games that can have uncommon, albeit unique, situations occur where the resolution isn't abundantly clear or isn't covered in the rulebook. Wingspan's appendix is a good example here.
Hi everyone, I need your help. I'm thinking about buying a new game, but I'm torn between 'Revive' and 'Age Of Innovation'. Most of the time, we play with two players. What are your experiences with these two games?
Cheers & thank you!
I have been hearing some good things about clank and as someone who loves mtg, slay the spire, dominion and ascension makes me feel I will enjoy this game.
But since there are some versions out there and I think expansions, I am not sure where to start, and I was hoping for some advice
what is this meeple from?
Is Bishop useless in P-5000 Power loader without aim?
If a player upgrades their actions skill, do they get to use their newly gained action that turn?