Mistborn Solo vs Multiplayer

I won’t be doing a full review on Mistborn Deckbuilding Game yet, I need to play it more. Mainly, I want to play a couple more times solo, a time or two cooperatively, and of course some more competitive games as well. But let’s talk a little bit about it and how the cooperative/solo works.

Added Solo Mode

First off, it is more thematic for it to be a cooperative game. I found it odd that it was a competitive game to start. Kind of like Call to Adventure with the Stormlight Archives, though that one makes more sense. But with Mistborn and the characters you play, it always made sense to me that it should be a cooperative game.

The risk, of course, is that it is designed as a competitive game. So I worry about a game that has something tacked onto it. Is it still a good mode? Or is it something to get people who wouldn’t buy it to buy it? I feel like this solo mode is well thought out. As you watch the play through, I am sure you see that I was worried about if I would win or not. It wasn’t until very late in the game that I felt comfortable. And I like that about the game, it feels like an intended way to play it.

Combat

Now, I think that both ways are pretty different. The combat as a multiplayer game is part of the game. And I think in a two player game, the combat is going to be a key element to it. In higher player counts, you might lose the game because of combat, I’m not sure you win the game with combat. But the combat against the Lord Ruler is interesting mainly because he heals so much.

In fact, I feel like the game is almost split into two parts. The first part of the game is a race up the tracks to stop the Lord Ruler from healing. Next you want to deal out damage once the healing is gone. The constant part between that is that you need to heal a ton as well.

I think that it is possible to beat the Lord Ruler with just two of the tracks done. In my play, I believe I could get out damage quickly enough end game to make that work. If he is only healing ten, and not every turn I like my chances. But you definitely need to complete two of those tracks.

Variability

So is the solo mode going to be variable enough. I think there are elements that make me believe it will be. Firstly, the characters that you play are asymmetric. So Vin is different than Marsh who is different than Kel. But I think that difference is minor.

Next is the variable market. That element is going to change up the game each time you play. You might ramp slower to the big cards because of what is available. Or you might find that going up the tracks is harder because of the cards you are able to buy.

I also think those tracks provide variability to the game as well. I picked some with pretty consistent leveling up. The game is going to be different with the other ones. Some give you fewer bonuses. And things like less damage than I had, I think that would make the game a lot harder.

Finally is the Lord Rulers deck. Yes, the composition of that deck is not going to change. But when you draw cards, that is going to be an element that changes. I got lucky with the Kadra and House Lords at the end of the game. If I find an obligator or inquisitor that late, no chance that I win the game. So it is balanced on an edge there.

Upcoming Streams

Just a reminder on my streaming schedule. It’s not just all my Top 100 Games (of all time).

• Monday night, time varies, I play different small solo games, though I might be looking to start up a campaign again. And generally the streams do start between 8 and 8:30 PM central time.
• Wednesday at 9 PM central is going to continue my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition. There is one week left, which is going to be two Wednesdays out. After that I’m planning on doing some look back and look ahead videos and smaller solo games or things like Balatro and Slay the Spire.
• Friday at 9 PM central my wife and I are streaming a playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3. Join us for the adventure of Nina and Kaerok and see what choices we make. We will skip this Friday because of the Holidays.

The best way to know when we go live, though is to subscribe and click that notification bell. I can’t promise, and in fact it’s pretty unlikely, that I’ll have events to click on ahead of time. Though I do want to get better at it. I hope that you can join a stream and hop into the chat..

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Top 10 Wish List Board Games

The list of board games is 1 through 10 instead of the other way around. This is a mistake, but how I wrote it, so I didn’t want to redo it.

1. Violet and the Grumpy Nisse

This one just sounds fun. It’s a two player trick taking game. I really love the sound of this as the two players kind of fight against each other for the tricks and each of them has some unique things for it. Right now it’s hard to get. I believe it was on crowdfunding, but I’m not sure it’s ever gotten a wide release.

One of the people is playing Violet, a girl who is on a journey to meet a friendly troll. Unfortunately she is going through the woods of the nisse, Torech who is not happy with that idea. He wants to stop her and get her light to go out and make her travel as hard as possible. I just love the idea and sound of that as a thematic trick taking game.

2. Nova Aetas Renaissance

This one I get to blame on Meet Me At the Table. I think that’s the only one that I can blame on them. There are others that will definitely get blamed on other YouTube channels. This one looks like a blast as you take a team of characters up against the enemies. I get a real Assassin’s Creed vibe to it, but it’s not that, there is an Assassin’s Creed Game. I like the story of the game and I like the “fun” that it looks like.

One thing that I really dig is how the action point system works. You move your characters along a rondel determining how many of their actions that they use. Some of it might be used on movement and some on fighting. They have to go up to the point where the next enemy is. But you can potentially work it to get a couple of turns pretty quickly. For me that’s a really fun concept and twist on a dungeon crawler. But it’s also still a dungeon crawler, tactical game, when it comes down to it.

3. Rove

This one I won’t be able to write much on. It’s still coming to crowdfunding and I’m very curious about it. What I know , and I don’t know much about the game play, is that it’s from a designer who made The Crimson Scales, a fan made expansion for Gloomhaven. They then built out something much bigger, their own epic campaign and fantasy game. How it is going to work mechanically, I’m not sure. But I think that this was supposed to fund on Crowdfunding last year, now it’s supposed to be this year. But I like it when companies are fine delaying to get it right.

4. Euthia: Torment of Resurrection

I passed this one by twice on crowdfunding, I kind of regret it. But Euthia looks like a lot of fun. It’s a competitive, cooperative or solo sandbox RPG style game. Competitive I don’t care that much about. But cooperative and solo, I care about those. Plus it’s now been picked up by Steamforge so that increase the chances that I might pick it up. It’s not a cheap game, but then again how many campaign games are. For me this would go onto a list of campaign games that need to be played.

5. Aeon Trespass: Odyssey

Aeon Trespass: Odyssey is another campaign game and another huge game. I want to find this one, but like Euthia, I’ve passed on it twice. It’s again one that I really want to play. From what I can tell it’s an epic boss battling style of game more than a dungeon crawler. Do I need another huge game like this, I don’t. But it’s one of those that if I find it used, I’ll pick it up. Right now I want to just get Kingdom: Death Monster started up or Oathsworn in that boss battler area.

6. Mind Up!

I watched this one played on The Dice Tower, so another one that I can blame on a YouTube channel. Mind Up! Looked like a lot of fun because it’s just a little card game that does some simple things. All your doing is playing out cards to get other cards. Which one you get depends on where your number falls into the order of cards played. After that it’s all about set collection and seeing how many points you get for getting cards of the same color.

I really want to get this one because I see it as a small and fun filler game. I love to find games like that, and it doesn’t eat up too much space on my shelf which is a good thing. As I’ve talked about before with Sea Salt & Paper, if a game is a small box filler game, it tends to stick around in my collection.

7. Café Baras

A coffee shop with capybara’s, I’m in. It is super cute sounding and from KTBG (Kid’s Table Board Games) it is going to look very nice. See everything I said about Mind Up being a small filler game, that is the same with Café Baras. From what I can tell, this is a hand management game about fulfilling orders. Cards are multiuse, which is fun and offers some solid tension, and well, did I mention that there are capybaras in the game?

8. Witchcraft!

This is a successor to a game Resist. Resist is not one that I’ve played, but one that looked interesting as a solid experience. Witchcraft, however, just sounds more interesting to me. And it is a solo only game, which I like as well. This one I can also blame on The Dice Tower for me being interested.

The mechanisms also sound interesting. I like the sound of doing some deck building and hand management in the game. But also with push your luck elements to it. I want to know more about how this one plays. Because how it looks, both mechanisms and aesthetically look intriguing.

9. Ancient Knowledge

Another one for the list of blame it on the Dice Tower is Ancient Knowledge.  Ancient Knowledge is a civilization building game. That’s an area of board gaming that I’d love to play around in more. Ones where you are building up tech trees and advancing what you are doing. And how Zee and others on the Dice Tower talk about Ancient Knowledge it just sounds really good.

A lot of these types of games you build to doing more and more and more. That’s the case here, but as time passes, some knowledge is going to be lost to the past. So the engine that you are building is always changing and you need to plan for those changes as the knowledge disappears. I like the sound of that so much, because it requires a good adaptive strategy and things move on.

10. Hoplomachus: Remastered

Finally, a Chip Theory Game, and I debated if this one would be my #10 on the list. Hoplomachus: Victorum is a game that I own. And it’s a solo only game, I need to learn the rules and play it. It’s kind of a campaign like experience from Chip Theory Games. And generally, I like the other Chip Theory Games that I’ve played. I really like Burncycle. And I think that Too Many Bones offers a ton of fun and is one that I want to dig into more.

Hoplomachus is more of a battling game and a battling arena for head to head combat. And on Board Game Geek, most people do prefer it at two. But it offers solo play and I want to try it. Unlike the others, because I own Hoplomachus: Victorum, it’s less likely that I’ll pick this one.

Final Thoughts

Right now, who knows when I might buy one of these board games. It isn’t high on my list to add in new games to my collection. Some of the small ones, or Rove which is yet to go to crowdfunding, are the most likely. But I want the chance to checkout any and all of these if I can over the next few years. For some of them, though, that might be a little bit.

Of these board games, which is the most interesting to you? Which is the one that you’d buy first and add to your collection?

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What Is A Cozy Board Game?

Now, this is probably where we can get into a debate right away. Some people will have some idea, other people will think it means another thing. But I think cozy can encompass a lot of different things. But for a board game to be cozy, I think it needs a few different things to be true, or at least a combination of some of them.

1. Not Overly Complex
2. Aesthetically Pleasing
3. Short Length
4. Not Too Competitive

Not Overly Complex

This I think is the first point of contention. I think there are games out there that are more activities. Even one I enjoy, A Gentle Rain, is more of an activity because the decision space and rules space is so limited. It doesn’t have to be taken to that level. But it is a game where you can hold all the rules of the game in your head without that much trouble. Even if you don’t learn rules all that well, a time sitting down and playing a round or a hand, you know the game.

Aesthetically Pleasing

I think looks, generally, are a key part to this. A pretty game is easier to sit down and play. And a prettier game feels less mean. It actually surprises me when a pretty game is mean because I don’t expect it to be that. For example would be Calico which is so tight in how it plays and missing out on a tile can cause you to miss out on a lot of points. But a pretty looking game is definitely another element that is important.

Short Length

I also think it’s important that the game isn’t too long. A long game is going to feel like it drags. Especially if it hits on the first part, simple rules. Simple games generally do not provide the depth in strategy that a heavier game does. And because of this play time matters. But less that they are less interesting to play, but more that the longer they go, the less interesting they are. I enjoy a game like Criss Cross, but if that game was twice as long, it loses it’s charm. So short or at least the right amount of time for the amount of rules.

Not Too Competitive

By this, I don’t mean that it shouldn’t be competitive. I think that often times competitive games make better cozy games. Why, because the game trying to beat you generally is done in such a way to give good tension. In a competitive game you can lean towards competitive but solitaire or minimal player interaction. If I can focus on what I am doing and I do not end up in direct conflict with you, I think that makes a good relaxing experience.

5 Cozy Games

5. Ohanami

This is probably the first game that comes to my mind when I think of a cozy game, or at least high on the list. The game is simple, you draft two cards and you put them in three columns. You are picking cards to score points. And scoring is interesting, blues score every round but fewer points. Greys score the last round but more points. There is strategy, but it is all easy to keep in your head. And nothing I take is going to really mess you up too badly. I will leave cards you can use, most likely. Plus the artwork is good and play time is shrot.

4. Kohaku

Kohaku is another very pretty game, probably the prettiest on my list. It is a game about building out a koi pond and scoring points. You pick two tiles and decide where to place them in your pond. One is going to be a fish and one is going to be a scoring tile. Picking and placement rules are very simple but you end up with a very pretty game. Especially with the Kickstarter edition, or first print, where it has double layer acrylic tiles.

3. A Gentle Rain

A Gentle Rain, I already mentioned this one and how it borders on an activity. But in Gentle Rain, you are picking up a tile and placing it into a big pond where it is raining. A pretty look for the game. You are trying to complete groups of four completely getting the four corners to touch. You do that by matching the flowers on the tiles. When you do you put in a disc and the goal is to play as many of those discs as you can. The draw a tile, singular, limits your options, but there is strategy to how you place. And it’s a very fast game.

2. Sagrada

The biggest game on the list and some might disagree with me on this one, is Sagrada. To me, this maybe isn’t the coziest game, no real order to this list. But it is a cozy game. Building out your stained glass window is pretty. The dice, windows, everything about the game is pretty. And the rules are a bit heavier, which is okay the game is a bit longer. But the basics are pretty simple. You draft a die and place it so it isn’t adjacent to the same number of color. At the end it can be tricky to play, but it never feels stressful. Even if someone drafts what you want.

1. Canvas

Finally, we have Canvas. Canvas is a simple game of picking pieces of artwork, overlaying them, and creating the best image to score points. And I know the point scoring is what gets some people and probably takes it off the list. Mainly because Canvas can feel like there is a balance between trying to score points and wanting to make pretty artwork.

It becomes a cozier game when you realize that you can just create the pretty artwork. Sure, points do matter, but it isn’t everything in the game. Even if you just layer the artwork for yourself or to show it off and then go to the good scoring combination, it is fun. And it is fun to see what you create and at the end of the game to judge which is prettiest, even if that isn’t the point of the game.

Final Thoughts

Cozy games are fun. But like anything, a cozy video game or a cozy movie or TV show, I don’t want that all of the time. But I do want to have some games like that in my collection. If it was all I had, I wouldn’t feel challenged and stimulated. If I didn’t have any, I wouldn’t have games to play when I just want to relax and clear my brain.

But, your mileage might vary as to how cozy a game can be for you. I put it this way for myself, I try and win games but I don’t need to win a game. For other people without winning a game or trying so hard to optimize to win a game a game isn’t fun. So if a game is too simple, which a lot of cozy games are simpler, they aren’t as fun for them. So know how competitive you are in a game.

What are some of your favorite cozy games?

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So let’s talk about the different options that I am considering. I think that there are a few interesting ways that you can improve or change as a game goes on.

Possible Campaign Elements

Character Progression

The first one is character progression. I think that is fairly important if you have characters in your game. I don’t find it a major knock against Paper Dungeons because it’s so loosely a campaign. But you start with your heroes as level one in every game and level them up as you go.

For my idea, I want to have a separate character sheet, much like in an RPG, that you level up your stats. You get bonuses based off of how many bubbles you fill in, in a row. And you fill in a certain number, always, at the end of the a scenario.

If this is a competitive game, the person who wins gets a bonus. But if it is cooperative, there might be a bonus if you do the best in a scenario, like first pick of gear. For cooperative, though, you’d not see as much character development and splitting off.

Skill Tree

Building off of that character progression, skill progression is a great way to cause differences to happen. But the idea of a tree is that you can split off what you are doing. If you are a Gunslinger class, or something like that, you might unlock your first ability at level 1, but then at level two, you have three options. The one that you pick will limit what you can do further down.

Now, while I like this idea, it really causes things to become different and gives progression, I am worried that it’d make the game a bit more complex. I think a lot of the abilities would just need to be things that bump up health or statistics.

Items and Gear

Items and Gear would likely be one time use things, or maybe something like a pack mule to eventually being able to get up to a wagon. Something that can carry more items. Maybe skills are going to be more abilities that’d be used in every game since you are unlocked.

So things like health potions (or alcohol), magic scrolls, dynamite, things that you’d use once. Or maybe some gear like “armor” whatever that might look like. Basically wearable items or weapons. I don’t think I would ever add in ammo because I don’t want to track that type of thing. Plus I like giving more things versus losing things in a campaign game.

Story Progression

Finally, story is going to be an important element to the game. Right now that is what makes Paper Dungeons a campaign game. A tiny bit of story that you read in between games. And while I do enjoy that, I wish there was more. Or more so, I wish the story felt like it mattered a bit more.

I can pull out any card, read the story and play, and it doesn’t matter. I’d love to add in more story to the game. Maybe even give it some choices. Like, make a decision and that unlocks certain items, gives a stats bump, or maybe causes you to lose some money. But all based off of choices that players make. I even, at least once, maybe twice, would want to change up what the players interact with on a map because of a decision that they make.

That makes it feel more like a fun experience to me. The decisions that we make, for example, in Roll Player Adventures or Tainted Grail, change up what can happen in the game later. And that is very cool to have as part of the experience. It takes it from being told a story to character story.

How Much Should Their Be?

That is the question that I’m asking myself, because with enough campaign elements and campaign progression elements, the game can get large. Part of the fun of a roll and write, even Paper Dungeons which has a lot to look at on the sheet, is that it is a sheet.

I want there to be enough decisions that it makes the game feel cool. On the flip side, I don’t want there to be so many decisions that it makes the game hard to play. Looking, again, at Paper Dungeons, now that I’ve played it a few times, I know what to do every time I come back to it. I looked up one rule last time, but I mainly know what I need to do.

A campaign is going to be bigger. It is going to offer more challenges of remembering how to play. But with a nice little sheet of what to do on the turn, or even printing on the sheet the round actions, I hope to make it simple enough that it’s a fast refresher. Which means, things like skills, those are a bit harder to implement, potentially. But that comes down to being clever with how I design the game and work with that idea.

What campaign element would you want most?

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How To Play Quacks of Quedlinburg

Quacks of Quedlinburg is a bag building push your luck game. You are a quack doctor who is putting together a potion. But if you get too much of the wrong ingredient in there, it is going to explode. You start out with mainly the wrong ingredient and then as rounds progress, you buy more ingredients to add to your bag. You decide, though, when you want to stop pulling out more ingredients.

The game really shines in the different books that you have. Basically books that determine what different ingredients do. So as you buy different ingredients you can start coming up with a lot of different strategies. Some of them are static, orange pumpkins are always just 1, purple and black scale with players but are consistent cross games. The rest of them, they can be different and you play certain sets of them.

In the end, it is the person who gets the most points that is the winner. And I’ll talk about some more specifics in things that work or don’t work as well.

What Doesn’t Work?

This is a pretty straightforward game. I don’t think that I’ve figured out a combination yet on anything yet, though. But for some gamers, this is going to be a little bit too straight forward. So I wonder with the combinations that I have if I’m going to want more of them? Or less so will I want to play more, I likely will, but will I want to play them over and over again? Is it solvable even with the push your luck element?

But I really don’t have much that I don’t see messing up this game. The push your luck, if you’re risk adverse might be a turn off for some people as well. But the basics of it, and how you bust, make the whole thing quite easy to understand what you have left and what you might pull.

What Does Work?

I really like the different powers of the different ingredients and the different combinations that you can have. Now they do come in groups, which makes sense, I’m sure that it is balanced per each group. But in the base box, that is three different groups. And some of the reason why I’m not doing a full review yet, is that I’ve only played with one of those groups thus far in my two plays. And I know that they’ve released bigger expansions, but it’d be easy enough to just release another set of these tiles to play with and add those in.

I also like how the incentivize the push your luck element. It’d be easy enough to just play it safe and stop early each time. But only the person who goes the furthest without having their pot explode rolls the bonus die. And not all things on the die are equal. Two points is objectively better than a pumpkin, but depending on your strategy, it might be similar. But it really does make a difference if you get that roll.

The rat tails are also a clever idea in the game. Basically, if someone drops behind in score, there are rat tails on the scoring track. However many they are behind the leader, they get to put a rat into their pot ahead that many spaces. It’s a nice catch-up mechanic that means even if you pull poorly and bust, next round you have a way to catch back up.

Finally, I like the fortune teller cards. When we pulled, they were basically all positive. Now, I can see some people not loving them, because some of them are a bit random. You draw out tokens and the high or low total gets one bonus, everyone else gets another. But it generally felt like they were good no matter what I got, which I appreciated. It’d have been a chance to do mean stuff to the players, and they didn’t seem to do that much.

Who Is This For?

When I played it, and some other games recently that I’ve gotten, it felt like a gateway game. And that isn’t a bad thing. But it did ask the question of myself, what gateway games might get replaced because of this? So I do think that if you have a lot of gateway games but play heavier, this might not be the game for you.

However, The Quacks of Quedlinburg is going to be a game for a lot of people. I think that just in the ingredients that you can buy there is enough variety for a more seasoned gamer to mess around with strategies. But the game play itself is simple enough that a new player will be able to pick it up.

What Do I Want To See in Quacks of Quedlinburg

Going forward, I want to play around with the other collections of books in there. There are three that I haven’t played with, so that’s a lot of variety. Plus, I want to see if it feels different with more players. The game play is generally solitaire. What I buy doesn’t change what you buy. But some of the ingredients, black actually, changes a bit on different players. And how does the rat mechanic feel with more players.

I also want to see how well it works for my game group. I have a few gateway games that I might put it over for myself. But is it going to be a game that my group likes. I could see a couple of players potentially being a bit more risk adverse and the game not working as well for them.

What are your thoughts, do you like The Quacks of Quedlinburg, do the expansions add stuff that’s worth getting?

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I thought about doing a list for the Dungeon Master and one for the Players, but I am putting them all together, because, well, there is a lot of overlap. So let’s dive into the first one.

Players Versus Dungeon Master

The first thing new players (and Dungeon Masters0 do is they try and win Dungeons and Dragons. Dungeons and Dragons is not a game that can be won. It is a cooperative story telling game. The Dungeon Master guides the story and the players fill in the details of the story through their actions.

But, for a lot of new players and Dungeon Masters, they see Dungeons and Dragons as any other game. In chess there is a winner and a loser, in most games there are. So people think that is the same for Dungeons and Dragons. If as a player you try and win or break what the Dungeon Master is doing. The game will lose it’s fun for the Dungeon Master. For the Dungeon Master, an ancient black dragon on level 1 characters isn’t a fair fight.

The RPG Academy, a podcast on D&D that I recommend highly, puts it something like this. No matter what rules you get right or get wrong, if you are having fun, you are doing it right. And for a cooperative game that means that there are no losers to the game and that everyone at the table is having a good time. No one is trying to win Dungeons and Dragons.

Knowing Too Little or Too Much

This one might seem confusing. It makes sense that you don’t want to know too little. You need to know how to play your character. For a Dungeon Master, you need to know how to create an encounter. Plus you want to know what the other characters are doing as well.

But you also don’t want to know too much. That one sounds a whole lot weirder because it’s good to know a lot. Except that there is a ton of information. If you’ve been reading my tips for creating NPC’s, building out your first homebrew campaign, and more, you know I am always going to tell you to keep it simple. As the Dungeon Masters, know the players classes but don’t know all of them. As a player, know your class, but you don’t need to know all the other players perfectly or all the monsters.

Knowing too much can at times be worse because it means you don’t get to the table. There is always more to learn, review, and read in Dungeons and Dragons. So just know what you need to know. Oh, and if you are spell caster, know your spells. You don’t need to write them down in detail, but when you add a spell, add the page number so that you know how to find them fast.

Hogging the Spotlight

Now, this one isn’t as universal, but it does affect all players at the table and happens more in games with mainly new players. The Dungeon Master will spend 15 minutes talking without the players interacting. A player will jump in before anyone else at the table every time. This goes back to everyone at the table having fun and that it’s job of everyone at the table to police this.

The Dungeon Master helps guide the story, they don’t tell the whole story. And as tempting as it might be, they don’t have an NPC in the party to be a character they play. And players, give other players chances, in character ask other characters for advice. If someone isn’t getting a word in, pause, or ask them what they were going to say. Make it so that everyone feels engaged when what is going on.

This isn’t an Exhaustive List

That should be pretty obvious that there are more things that can trip people up. I keep on going back to that RPG Academy motto, if you’re having fun you’re doing it right. For a lot of players and Dungeon Masters, you need to make sure everyone at the table, including yourself is having fun.

What have you found that has tripped you up in Dungeons and Dragons? Was there something, if you’re a more experienced player, that you wish you knew when you started?

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Pros

• Legacy Game
• App Integration
• Endlessly replayable
• Tile Placement
• Theme
• Price

Cons

• Short Legacy Campaign
• Possibly Light on Story

The Page

Lucky Duck, known for Chronicles of Crime, Destinies, Kingdom Rush and more board games, has done a lot of crowdfunding before. And that really shows because this is a well put together page. Though, as a legacy game, it can only really show so much. And while that isn’t a knock on if I’m going to back this game or not, it is something to know. The game is going to change in ways that they cannot tell without spoiling the game itself.

I will say for a legacy game the idea of as many stretch goals as there are is odd to me. It must come from the replayable mode after you are done with the legacy campaign. But in some ways I’d prefer to have had that locked in stone, or more of that content added into the legacy campaign itself.

The Game

The game itself looks interesting. They have released the first two scenarios to some content creators to show what is going on. The one that I have watched from Tablenauts, which I’ll have the video right below.

I like how the math works in this game. It’s rare for me to say that I like math, but this one makes sense as an interesting choice in the game. You use any combination of the dice and with addition and subtraction you use that to get tiles to put into your tableau. That piece of the game seems really simple.

And that’s one concern I have about the game. This is a Lucky Duck game so there will be story on the stuff that you scan, but is the game too simple by itself, and is there enough game in the box? I have to ask myself, will I play this after the legacy campaign. Because if not and with how light and fast the game seems to be, are 12 30-45 minute games worth it? Is there enough story and enough game for the price point.

Back or Brick

So is this a back or a brick for me? Right now it’s a back, but I’m a little bit on the fence. I think that the game play looks fun, but I worry about how much game play there is in the box and if I’ll play it after the legacy portion is done. The theme and the potential story that they can tell, I’m very interested in that. Do I think it’s going to be the best legacy game, I’m not sure about that, but I think it should be a very accessible one and should be a lot of fun. But I’m still a little on the fence.

Is this a Back or Brick for you?

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Cooperative

A cooperative board game is where everyone is working together. You have a singular objective that you are all working to complete. This could be something like killing monsters in Gloomhaven to curing diseases in Pandemic. But whatever it is, you are working together to complete that goal.

This is done in two different ways. The first one has open information and the second is hidden information. However, with both of them, you still are trying to complete an objective together. A few games do put a little twist on this. Uprising, a 4x fantasy game coming from Kickstarter, has each of you building your own group and playing them. You all need to beat two AI enemies though for the game to be won. But let’s talk about open versus hidden information.

Open Information

Open information means what it says. All the information that each player has is out in the open. Everyone can see what cards everyone else has. This allows the group of players to make decisions more optimally and cooperatively. Pandemic is an example of that. You can see who has what city cards and what colors so you can work most effectively to cure a disease.

The upside and when this works really well is when the group can collaborate as you go. Now, there is the downside because it can also lead to more of an alpha player problem. If everyone can see everything, that means that one person can have an opinion on everyone’s turn. So when playing a cooperative game with open information it’s something to be aware of.

However, with that said, I do still really enjoy open information. It really does lead to more of a collaborative nature of the cooperative game. If I, and others, can keep from stepping on other players toes on their turns and we work together, it is a very different experience. I think that Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game is a great example of this working well for me.

Hidden Information

Hidden information is the opposite. I have cards or information that I have and I can’t share. Gloomhaven is an example of this where I can give an idea of what my plans are, but I can’t tell you how fast I’m going or exactly what I’m going to be doing. Other games like Lost Expedition and Say Bye to the Villains as well do this.

The idea behind this is to keep the choices more in the hands of the player on their turn. You can’t see what I am doing or what my options are, so that means that you can’t tell me what to do. This is meant to alleviate some of the alpha player problem and I would say that it does to some extent. An alpha player will likely still have their own ideas to add, but it should help reduce that tendency.

Semi-Cooperative

This one is a bit trickier to define because it some ways it is competitive and in some ways it isn’t. I’ll give Dead of Winter as an example. All the players have one main objective that needs to be completed, finding a cure for zombies is one on of them. However, each player also has their own objective, and if you don’t complete that by the end of the main objective you don’t win. And there can be a traitor. That traitor might not need that main objective to be completed for them to win.

So you can see how it could be confusing. I think the main thing to note is the main objective and the player objectives. The main objective is really going to be cooperative in nature. All of the players, unless there is a traitor, will want to get that one done. But they will then be acting selfishly to complete their own objective as well. It really throws a different mix into how the game is played.

Also, a lot of these games will have a traitor in them, but not all of them. Dead of Winter might have a traitor but it might not. Something like Nemesis is going to not have a traitor, but everyone’s objectives might be at odds with each other to mean that if one person wins another person might not be able to win.

Competitive

Finally we end on competitive. This is really where most board games lie. Everyone is out for themselves and the winner is the person who has the most points, takes over all the areas, whatever it might be for that particular game. No one will work together for a long period of time because you want to win yourself. Some competitive games an alliance might be useful for a little bit but for a lot of them it’s always about yourself.

There are two different types of games that I could qualify under competitive. Some competitive games fall into a solitaire competitive game and more of a cutthroat competitive game. Each has it’s place and some people will gravitate more towards one or another. When I was just getting into gaming I probably preferred more cutthroat competitive games, but now I don’t mind that, but I don’t want a game to be only that.

Cutthroat

So cutthroat sounds very aggressive and it is. It can be something like Risk where you will get attacked if you are weak. Or Munchkin which as a lot of take that in it where you can make an opponents character worse or the monsters harder to beat. Those are extremely confrontational games.

But it can be simpler than that. I can just take the last worker placement spot or a card that might be better for you in a deck building game. Those are still mean or hurt you, but it is less of a direct take that element to the game. But it is a bit more than the solitaire which I’ll be talking about now.

Solitaire

It is often called multi-player solitaire as well. Because I am not talking about playing games solo. That is a separate thing. This is when you are playing against other players but what you do won’t affect them that much. This can be that deck building where you pick cards that mainly help your self. That might mean that you hurt someone else but it isn’t the goal. It is to improve what you are doing.

Something like Dominion or Ascension are generally this sort of game. You don’t want to bloat your own deck with cards that are bad for you, but some cards that might be better for someone else are also just good for you as well. So there is almost no interaction between players, especially in base Ascension, but a card that allows you to draw another two cards, that is good for everyone.

What is the Best Or Do I Prefer?

I probably prefer cooperative of any type. I don’t think that there is a best type of game. I enjoy a quick cutthroat competitive game, but I used to like longer ones, like Munchkin. Now I don’t like them as much anymore. And I think I like cooperative the most because I can help control that alpha player issue and because working together is just a lot of fun.

But what do you prefer? Do you like competitive games of a certain type of cooperative games? Let me know in the comments below.

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Pros

• Quality of pieces
• Aesthetic and Art
• Theme
• Two Game Modes
• Player Count
• Play Time

Cons

• Arena Style Game
• Play Time
• Price

The Page

This is a gorgeous page, Druid City Games has done other Kickstarter games, Wonderlands War for example, and they know how to create a great page. The artwork is so vibrant it’s hard not to get sucked into the page. Add in the amazing mini renders on that page, and this is a game that should do well on Kickstarter.

I, as almost always, wish that there was more in the terms of game play higher up on the page. But they do a solid job of explaining what game play is going to be. I’ll get back to that later.

I should talk about price. It is in the cons, but it’s less of a con than it might seem. The price for this game is very fair because there is a ton in the game. Not only that but with other games that they have done, Wonderlands War and Tidal Blades, the components are always amazing. I like that the game already feels like a deluxe Kickstarter pledge even at the base level. However, with that comes a naturally higher price point for the game and higher shipping because it’s more expensive to ship these nicer pieces.

The Game

This game is definitely an interesting one. I have a card based arena style game with Super Fantasy Brawl. Bloodstone appears to be focused more on dice. Which, I mean, I like dice and think they work pretty well as combat.

I also really like how the characters are different. An area style game, one of the most important things is that you need it to feel like you’re playing different characters. Even something like Dice Throne that is just pure dice chucking fun, the characters feel like they are different. I hope that this is more like that than like Sword & Sorcery where the dice and what you do are pretty much just straight forward and it’s obvious what to do. I want there to feel like it’s more choices with the characters.

I am curious about the negative dice. That is actually one thing that I don’t love about the game, I wish it explained more how those work. What I don’t want is for those dice to be a sort of take that, but I’m guessing it’s more likely that you’ll place effect on a character, like giving them bleed, and then they get the negative die. But I need to check that out more.

The time, however, is a bigger concern for them. It says 1 to 8 players, and 20 minutes per player. So an 8 player game would take two hours and forty minutes. That’s way to long for an arena style game, in my opinion. So while you might be able to play this with 8 people, my guess is that most people will want to play it at that 1 to 4 range and even at 4, that is fairly long.

Back or Brick

Right now I’m right at the edge for this one. I think for me, I might end up saying this is a Brick, but it really looks like a good game. This is one where I need to watch through a playthrough of it, because the page gives me some teases as how the game works, but I feel like I don’t get the whole picture. The minis are amazing looking and I’m really curious about the game play, but I also am asking myself what this game would add to my collection. I don’t think anyone who backs this one will be disappointed with it though, it looks like an extremely solid game, might just not quite be for me.

How about for you, is this game a Back or a Brick?

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So I today we’re breaking down the whole process of teaching a board game.

1 – The Prep

Step one is before people even show up at at your game night or to play the game, you need to know the game. The most important part in this is to know and have read the rules. I don’t mean having skimmed over them but really dived into them recently so that you’re ready to go. If you want to take it one step further, play a few practice turns for the number of people you’ll have as that’ll help you get a real idea of how the game works. Now, I rarely do that last step unless it’s a game that I can play solo, then I will play through it solo. But reading the rules before you play is important. This also doesn’t happen all the time, so have read the rules at some point in time prior. Pretty often I’ll get a game, bust it open and read the rules right away just so that I have a base for it, but ideally I refresh myself on the rules later.

2 – Start with the Theme

Even if the game doesn’t have a ton of theme, start with that the theme is and use that to sell the game. When I talk about Welcome To, I say that it’s a roll and write game about building your perfect Stepford neighborhood. Now, obviously the Stepford part is added, but it gives the game more flair. Overall, people will get into a game if they can get into the theme, even games without theme try to act like they have theme, so sell the theme. Even Euro games that have you trading in the Mediterranean technically have some theme that the designer is trying to claim is there. Sell that theme. This won’t be a large part of your teach, but it’s the hook, that sales pitch that you start with to get people into the game and get their attention. To go back to to my Welcome To example, I put Stepford in my pitch because that catches people’s attention. Talk about theme and hook the players.

3 – Talk About How You Win or Lose

Really another quick part of the teach, talk about how you win the game, generally. I wouldn’t, at this point in time go into details of how you get the victory points or how you defeat the bad guy, this is building up to really teaching the game. In a cooperative game, I would point out how you win the game or how you lose the game and try and keep it as thematic as possible while you’re doing this. For example: In Pandemic we’re members of the CDC who are fighting diseases (that’s the hook). Our goal is to cure all four diseases before time runs out, there are too many outbreaks, or a disease has spread too far (that’s the win/lose).

4 – The Game Play

So after that little bit of an intro, we’re now into game play. Ideally you give the pitch before you open anything up, and if people are still interested, you start setting things up. Unless, you know you are for sure going to play the game, then set it up ahead of time. When teaching the game play, show and tell is your friend. Telling a player they can go to the store and spend gold to get a card, that makes sense and is easy, but showing a card and demonstrating the whole process makes it clearer. Especially when you can also go to the Saloon, the Temple, the Fair, and 12 other spots. Another example of this, from an actual game, would be with Gloomhaven, show how you use the top and bottom halves of the cards and how you can and might change what you’re doing off of your cards. Go through everything you need to know to play the game. Now, for Gloomhaven, keeping it as my example, I might not explain what the poison, wound, stun, etc. tokens do at this point in time. They are important to playing the game, but not to starting to play the game. So only teach what needs to be taught to start the game. Also teach only important exceptions to the rules. A lot of games might have a lot of exceptions, but if they are small, don’t dwell on them. Teach the important ones so there aren’t any gotcha’s in the game.

5 – Reinforce How to Win

Get into how you win the game now. While teaching the core mechanics you should talk about how they impact how you win the game. But this is going to be the third time you talk about how to win and the time where you just focus on the mechanical aspect of the game. In Pandemic: “As a group, we need to get sets of five cards of each color and turn them in at a research station. We have to do that before we have too many outbreaks from the epidemics in the player pile, before the player pile runs out, or we can lose if there are ever all of the disease cubes for a disease out on the board and we need to play one more.” Then go into more detail on those lose conditions again. Again, show and tell is your friend here. Demonstrate what an outbreak looks like again. Point out the cubes and the player deck again. This is really about reinforcing how to win or lose the game. Obviously this is a cooperative example, and it’s even more important to point it out in a competitive game. With a competitive game if you don’t reinforce how to win (or lose) people will sometimes get upset because they feel like they could have or would have won had they remembered how to score points or what the victory conditions were.

6 – Play One Round

Some people might say to play this open so that everyone can see what everyone is doing and then restart the game. I don’t personally love playing open handed for two reasons. The first being that it can allow someone to quarterback everything. Players need to make their own decisions, so let them. The other being that at the end of round one, you can see if people want to reset. If you play with everything out in the open, you need to reset everything, because as the person who knows the game you’ll know what players might be planning. If you play it normally, and you can still give advice, players can choose if they want to continue or restart now that they know the rules better or have a better feel for the game. If the first round of the game takes a little bit, or if the game doesn’t have that many rounds, I think a lot of players will want to continue, but give the option or reinforce the win conditions or rules again if you decide to continue. This step isn’t always needed, sometimes you can just continue with the game, especially in a cooperative game where you might be already sharing information openly.

7 – Play the Game

Simple as that, play the game. Now, teaching doesn’t stop when you start playing the game. Especially if you know how to play the game and have played it before. Talk about what you do on your turn. Point out when an exception happens, why exceptions happen. Teach what conditions are in Gloomhaven when they come up, for example, or things along those lines. People wouldn’t have remembered them from the start, but once they show up and are put into practice immediately people will remember. And try to win but maybe hold back from destroying. Some games allow you to completely crush a new player, Ascension is kind of an example of that with the Construct strategy, so either try a new strategy to see if you can win that way, or point out the really good strategy in the teach, to avoid the gotcha moment.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully that helps you know how to teach a board game. One important rule that I don’t mention is don’t read straight from the rulebook, because I wanted to focus more on the teaching process. There are some exceptions to that, TIME Stories has a great hook at the start of the rule book, so use that hook. Some games will bullet point out all the actions you can do on your turn, you can use that and demonstrate them at the same time. But if you’re explaining beyond the bullet point, you are explaining it, not reading from the book. Rule books tend to be very dry and boring, so try and keep it more interesting with how you describe and demonstrate things. But I talk about a lot of those things in the article linked at the top of the post.

What are some tips or tricks you have for teaching a game?

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