Several years ago I was introduced to German style boardgames. The first game I played was at a the home of a friend to my wife. Carcassonne a tile laying game. It took about 20 minutes and we played a couple times, it was very fun. Some time later we visited their home and we played again, but with an expansion pack that added some new rules and extended the game playing time.
Then there was a family gathering where we played the Ever popular Settlers of Catan. I was so intrigued that I looked into it more and found that there was a whole new world of board gaming that had nothing to do with Milton Bradley or Parker Brothers (Both owned by Hasbro these days apparently).
We bought Settlers of Catan and it became the game of choice at parties. When we were introduced to the game we were also introduced to a house rule. The house rule says you can buy, sell, or trade at any time. With our college friends this made for a Fast paced trading game that rarely lasted more than half an hour. We bought all the Expansion Sets for it (except the difficult to obtain German releases) and I enjoyed it very much, in fact it was my game of choice for a long time.
We then started obtaining all the Carcassonne expansions. It is no longer a quick game. With all the expansions Carcassonne now averages 3 hours. While this is very enjoyable for me, it does not get out of the box as much as a result.
After finding that there are specialty game shops we tried a number of games including, but not limited to Bang! (and Expansions), Zombies!!! (and Expansions), Ticket to Ride (and Expansions), Fluxx (and Zombie Fluxx), Munchkin (and Expansions), Guillotine, Battle Cattle, Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot (and expansions), Colosseum, Cranium, Cleopatra and the Society of Architects, The Dread Pirate Games, Loot, Mystery of the Abbey, Pirate's Cove, Shadows over Camelot, The Haunting House, MidEVIL (and Expansions), Zombietown, Cartagena, Puerto Rico, Descent, Arkham Horror, Heroscape.
Anyway, the point is I recently had an experience playing Settlers of Catan with a group that insisted we play with the actual rules. I do not see what people like about that game when playing with the actual rules it takes Sooooooooo Looooooooooooong, and Frankly is quite boring. Then I got to thinking about the last few games of Settlers that I had played, and I realized that I now hate Settlers of Catan, with or without the house rule. I just don't enjoy playing it anymore.
My current favorite game. Hard to say, but almost anything is better than Settlers of Catan.
i haven't played ANYTHING for LONG time. 3 kids pretty much take the fun out of everything since they want to be in the middle of everything. I've played a lot of candy land lately.....it's way dull. we also play a lot of Thomas dominoes.
ReplyDeleteCartagena is a lot like Candyland in spirit. Instead of moving one Pawn, you're moving six. (The scenario is the 1672 pirate led jailbreak out of the fortress of Cartagena)The game-board is built like puzzle pieces and therefore can be built a number of different ways. You hold several cards in your hands with different pictures on them. To move forward, you play a card and move to the closest square with that picture on it. If there is no card with that picture, you move to the end of the board. To get more cards you have to move backward to a space with 1 or 2 pawns (pirates)on it, and take cards corresponding to the number of pawns on the space.
ReplyDeleteIt's not my favorite, but far ahead of Candyland.
I still like Settlers, but the others are fun too!
ReplyDeleteArkham Horror and Zombies!!! are cool, but I still love RPGs better
ReplyDeleteRPG's are definitely the most superior of games. But it's tricky to get a group together. For a while we had a standing D&D game almost every Friday, but our DM's Wife had a premature child and we've only had a couple games since.
ReplyDeleteOkay, Okay
ReplyDeleteI understand. I will have to get in gear and get D&D organized again.
It's okay Brandon. We understand life is busy. We can't play as often anymore. Maybe once a month would work.
ReplyDeleteI'm in for once a month D&D!
ReplyDeleteRight now I'm playing once a month in a d20 modern Zombie game. It's been great fun. it's nice to play a little more consistently. for the longest time I was only lucky enogh to play about twice a year. and that was GURPS, not my favorite but better then nothing.I'm stoked for 4E, even though I'll have to buy all new books. I bought Savage Worlds, and have yet to play it but looks fun.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure how I fell about 4e. I am not sure that I am willing to pay $200+ to buy new books. That about how much I have spent on 3 and 3.5. I not sure that the new stuff is that much better. Course I have not really looked at it to much.
ReplyDeleteI like idea of the Online tools available for 4E. The Geek in me likes using the computer to create a character. I like that the Character creation tools can be used to create RPGA legal or "the crazy-DM-wants-it-to-be-this-way-for-a-reason" characters. But I like everything else to be "analog." I like that the basic tools will be free for use. I can't see paying 15 a month for extra support content.
ReplyDeleteIn truth I think all you really need for 4E is the core rulebooks. (Preorder: $66.12 at Amazon) It seems Everything else can be adjusted from 3(.5)E or created out of thin air by a creative DM. We don't play RPGA legal games anyway.
66 bucks isn't that bad for the core books, and I reckon I'll pay it. I have mixed feelings about the online and computer involvement. I like to be old school mostly. I'm sure 4E will be good. I've loved every edition of the game since AD&D and it's only gotten better. #.5 has been my favorite, which is funny since it's the version I've played the lest.
ReplyDeleteSo do you guy geek out to the point where you're listening to Podcasts about gaming and RPGs?
I don't have time to geek out that much. Of course I am enough of a geek that I am currently writing a SI FI novel. And have been working on a Fantasy novel. Does 4e still use the d20 rules or have they revamped the core rules as well.
ReplyDeleteIt's the next generation of D20. They've just adjusted things that needed help. They've defined character roles better, so everyone will know what they are supposed to do and won't be sitting around while everyone else is playing. They Fixed Grapple.
ReplyDeleteBasically they tried to fix anything that made the game screech to a halt. So that everyone always has something to do. Not just the power players.
I did watch the Horrible Horrible announcement of 4th Edition at (Dragon Con?) on Youtube. It was painful, the presenters were horrible. They kept pausing for anticipated applause from a gracious audience and were simply not getting it. The information was interesting, but the presentation was painfully dull, although I think the two guys presenting it thought they were announcing the most exciting thing since space travel.
I feel bad that We've hijacked this post and turned it into Geek Corner, but I'm having a good time doing it. Sorry... Anyway I spend a ton of time listening to podcasts about gaming, some are good, some are bad. My favorite is called Fear the Boot. The hosts are good and it was pretty much my only gaming fix for awhile. check it out, you might enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteYour right about 4E it's basically about streamlining gamepaly and defining roles in a group. apparently Star Wars Saga edition is sort of a teaser of how 4E will run. I personally think that 4E sounds a bit different from it but Saga ed is pretty cool. Thanks for letting us hijack your post.
Frankly, I'm having a great time with this as well. I listened to an episode of Fear the Boot, I really enjoyed the way they delve into the minutiae of Roll Play Gaming. And they have a Web-comic. Thankfully there were only 51 installments. When I come across a web-comic I enjoy, I have this innate need to read the entire thing. Even if they have a 5 year Archive. I liked the little comments they make after the comic, they often were funnier than the comic itself.
ReplyDeleteP, I have to know. Does S game with you?
S does game when we play at our place. Her experience is only with GURPS(that what we play when we get together with her brothers) I've been trying to teach her some of the basics of d20 using the d&d minis game. It's going ok, I'm a little rusty since I have run a d20/D&D game before.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, I've known people that have played Paper and Pencil RPG's since I was in Elementary school. But I never played. I heard all about how games went, but I was just not part of the group that actually got together to play.
ReplyDeleteI've had a set of gaming dice since Junior High. I bought them because I found a Free to download RPG called Ringwielder. I never really got to play a proper game with anyone.
The next game I thought I would be interested in was Gurps. I liked that it was Universal and encompassed any Genre, I didn't like that it was all D6's. I don't know what it is, but I sure like unique dice, then I learned that it's crazy complicated - Ive never played a game.
So about four years ago our ward had a game night, I introduced them to Carcassonne and Settlers. Somehow it came up in conversation that I had never played D&D. The 2nd counselor in the Bishopric invited us over to his house and that is when I actually played for the first time.
Then shortly after that I met some people at work that were looking for a new group to play with. I played with them and found it to be more fun than my previous experience, because they were a little more loose with the mechanics.
My wife plays as well.
Her inner geek has been released being married to me.
I'm glad that playing games has become something that we do together. I've heard that for some relationships it becomes a point of contention.
Gurps can be fun but it can also drag. I started with 1st ed D&D but I don't think we played it right. when I look at it now it seems like another language. During Jr High we played a lot of Palladium games, Heros unlimited, TMNT, Rifts, Robotech, all fun, but clunky. we started to play gurps but never really got into it at about the same time. When I married S was went I got back into gaming. Her brother play Gurps and it's fun at times. at other time I wish I wasn't playing. Then I remember even bad gaming is better then no gaming. For the last couple of years I've been trying to get my friends into in, with very little luck. but finally a few months ago I finally got something started and it'd great.
ReplyDeleteI think thst it's rad that someone in your bishopric plays. very very cool. nosuch luck in our ward. we actually had a discussion in Elders qourm about the evils of gaming once. there might be one of 2 guys that would game but since then I haven't talked about it
Yes my dear, you do bring out the geek in me!
ReplyDeleteI once got a group together to play Gurps. We took FOREVER to create characters. And then played the "Adventure" for maybe an hour. We had no clue what we were doing, and I having never really played had no Idea what a GM was supposed to really do.
ReplyDeleteIt was an older version of Gurps that I found in a used book store on a P-day on my mission. Is 4th edition Gurps any easier. I guess what makes it seem complicated was the character creation process. And I was so overwhelmed with that, that I never even really got into the game mechanics.
Having played a game with people that know how to play RPG's, I would probably have a different experience now. But I'm kindof fond of D20 rules. After listening to Fear the boot, I would like to try the Savage Worlds they are always referring to.
We're still playing 3e Gurps with S's Brothers, but will hopefully be changing to 4e in the new year. or as soon as everyone has a copy of the basic 4e book.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you're digging FtB. sounds like we need to get together and play something.
As far as I can tell, looking at my copy of the book, I think it's the 1st Printing of the 3rd Edition.
ReplyDeleteWe've been playing 3e 6th revision. We like it ok. you can donwload the basic rules for 4e gurps off of their website. Savage Worlds is pretty cool, the best part is the price. $10 bucks for the basic book.
ReplyDeleteI have another Core rulebook that frankly I'm embarrassed to own (Theatrix). I bought it a long time ago when I was wanting to get into gaming, but I didn't have any gaming friends. I kind of thought of it as a Storytelling system, but looking at it now - It's a total LARP!!
ReplyDeleteHave any of you played a storytelling system? I've heard bad and good things.