The Game

So, like I said, I unboxed Descent: Journeys in the Dark from Fantasy Flight Games. This game has a massive box for a massive amount of terrain and minis, though less minis than you might think. This is going to be a story game which has you on a tactical map, going through scenarios and locations, fighting monsters, learning their weaknesses and progressing the story.

What drew me to this game was that it was a new jumping off point for Descent. If you want to read my initial write-up on the game, you can see what they were talking about with the announcement here. But there were a number of things that interested me. The 3D terrain was cool, but a new app was really interesting. I liked the engine that they’d built the previous Mansions of Madness, Lord of the Rings: Journeys in Middle-Earth, Descent 2nd Edition, and Star Wars: Imperial Assault on. But it could have been polished, so I’m hoping that this app will have more polish to it. I haven’t played with it yet.

Board Game Value

But talking about Descent: Journeys in the Dark, led into the topic of value in board games. And I talked about this in a few ways, but one of the biggest is will a board game retain value. For example, I have a lot of campaign games. Will I play those games multiple times, I doubt it for a lot of them but maybe. I think with Gloomhaven I might play it again, but who knows. Others, I know I won’t like Sword & Sorcery. The question is can I sell it for what I paid for it?

But more than that, what games offer good value in what you are getting with them? Something like Descent: Journeys in the Dark, are you getting the “stuff” value that you might get form a Kickstarter like Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread or Chronicles of Drunagor? And what makes the value of those two better than, say, a cheaper game like Earthborne Rangers?

But also how much do you think about the value of what you are getting? Is that something you factor into a game that you buy or a crowdfunding that you back?

The Drink

So I had another Old Fashioned, not that different than normal. However, this one was made with Japanese whiskey. Also something that’s not that odd, but I talked a little bit about how Suntory Whiskey and in particular their Toki whiskey is a fairly common one in Japan. From people who have visited Japan it seems like it’s the common one used for mixed drink.

Upcoming Streams:

8/12 – Aeon’s End Legacy Game 5 8 PM Central

8/18 – Aeon’s End Legacy Game 6 8 PM Central

8/23 – A Top 10 List 8:30 PM Central

I was thinking for the Top 10 list that I might do the Top 10 games that I’m likely wrong about. These are games that either I love though they have flaws or games that I don’t like but a lot of other people do like them. What is it about them that I like better or that maybe I should like better in the games. Let me know if you think that topic sounds interesting.

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Numbers

A’s – B’s – C’s

D’s

Dead Men Tell No Tales

This one I was sold on because it is a cooperative game that has a bit more going on than Pandemic and a pirate theme. Zee Garcia sold it well on the Dice Tower, and I have to say that I’ve been pleased with it. The use of the dice in the game to track how badly the ship is burning, and everything you are trying to do works for me. From dealing with ghosts, skeleton deckhands, fires, and trying to get back with the treasure the game is a good challenge. It definitely does end up feeling like it has more going on than Pandemic but in a good way, and I like the ship that you build as you go a an added variety to the game.

Status: Played

Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game

Part of me, as a completionist, feels like I should pick up the Warring Colonies expansion and the Rodney Smith Promo card for it, but I also don’t play it a ton right now. This is a big zombie survival game that no matter what length of mission you play it always takes a while. Add in a possible traitor to the mix, you need to spend more time decided what everyone is doing. I do have the Dead of Winter: The Long Night expansion that adds in some new modules that you can play with, and I haven’t even played with all of those. This is a tough game but one that I really do enjoy quite a lot for the theme and game play.

Status: Played

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Let me start off by saying, I don’t like most social deduction games. There are some that I find as just fine, but Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is a great game. There is a social deduction aspect to it as you talk about the reports that the forensic scientist is putting out to help you figuring out who the murderer is, but there is also just a deduction aspect as you try and interpret what the forensic scientist is getting at. The game is very well done and while some people don’t love the artwork/design on it, I do because it’s very simple for a simple game. If you pull this game out, I would play it every time, other social deduction games, I might pass on those, but this gives the players something to do from the very start.

Status: Played

Deep Madness

This is one that I bought used at my local game store because I saw it played on the Rolling Solo YouTube channel. In this game you are going down into the depths of the ocean to try and figure out what has happened to the station that is down there. As normal, they dug too deep and something has been released, or maybe it was there all along. You need to fight off monsters, and complete objectives in this mission based game that can also be a campaign game, I believe, but not as progressing a one or indepth a one as some. I also got the Endless Nightmares expansion and the Uncounted Horrors expansion for it as my FLGS, All Systems Go, was selling it all as a bundle.

Status: To Be Played

Deranged

This almost wasn’t on the list. I have been waiting on this game for months at this point. It was announced probably around May that UltraPro was going to be doing the distribution and production here in the United States, so I pre-ordered it when I could in June or July, and it showed up with three other games, yesterday. So looking back at the C’s, there’s a game that could have been in there now. Deranged is a game that I love the aesthetic of, and I really enjoyed the game play of at GenCon in 2019. It is a horror themed game, but a bit less so than some out there, where you are trying to escape a cursed village however, there are monsters, and there’s a chance that you might become Deranged which turns you into a monster, but you can get back if you kill someone else, which doesn’t turn them into a deranged, but gives them another curse. Definitely a very competitive game but a lot of fun.

Status: Played (GenCon Demo only)

Descent: Journeys in the Dark (2nd Edition)

So Descent has been on my radar as a one versus all dungeon crawl sort of game. I don’t have many/any other dungeon crawls like that, most are fully cooperative that I own, but this one I had looked at but I mainly picked it up for one thing. It has a ton of minis in the game, of okay quality, and I wanted over Covid to pick up mini painting. I got a base layer down on one dragon, that’s it so far. I do want to get back to it still and really start to dive into it, I need to set aside an evening to watch something in my office and paint them. Eventually I do want to play the game as well because I think it looks interesting and Fantasy Flight generally impresses me with their games, but might not get to the table for a bit and was really gotten for the minis.

Status: To Be Played

Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game (LA Crimes & Dig Deeper)

This was a game that I was really excited about when it came out, and I ordered the base game immediately. I held off on ordering the expansions until later this year after playing the base game and loving it. In the base game you are using your own Detective skills to follow leads through an impressive and really interesting story that loops in bits of real history to create an immersive gaming experience. In some ways it’s like a procedural cop show, NCIS being a fairly closish example, but you are playing it yourself and are the detectives yourself and decide what leads to follow. Game play is really interesting and it’s so much about the experience, I highly highly highly recommend it for a deeply thematic time, and it plays really well via Zoom.

Status: Played

Detective: City of Angels

Have I said that I like deduction games, because I really do, as much as I don’t love social deduction games, deduction games are amazing. This one blends a little of both as one player, the Chisel, is kind of running the game, and they can give people the best answer or a not so good answer when they are questioning someone. If the investigator things they didn’t get the best answer, they can pressure the Chisel to give them the better answer, but do that too much or at the wrong time, it can not work out for you. This one is also different because while you are trying to solve cases, you aren’t doing it as a group like in Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game, instead you’re trying to get all of the glory for yourself.

Status: To Be Played

Dice Throne (Season 1 and Season 2)

Dice Throne is on of my most played games out there. It’s a fun Yahtzee inspired dice chucking battling game done in a duel kind of Mortal Kombat style. In this game you are using the dice and combat points to attack, upgrade attacks, and try and get your opponent to 0 health before they knock you down. The game is simple enough to play, and it seems like it could be boring just because you’re rolling dice, but it is a ton of fun as each character plays differently and thematically. The Artificer has attacks that they can do, but also building up your bots to help you do more damage throughout the game or heal up, that’s super useful, where as the Barbarian has all of it’s offensive rolls just be attack attack attack. It’s just a blast always and plays well at 2, but even plays well with a bigger number.

Status: Played

Dicecapades

This one is on my shelf still because it’s just a silly and fun party game. It has you stacking dice, rolling dice, doing a lot of things with dice. My one major knock on this game is that it has a lot of fun things with it and then it has trivia. You roll a die and that determines what trivial question you get, that’s not fun. And that part can just turn into a slog if you just aren’t great at trivia. If you’re interested in the game, or looking for that goofy family/holiday party style game, it’s better than some.

Status: Played

Draftosaurus

This game is basically a roll and write, but instead of rolling and writing, you are drafting dinosaurs and placing them on your board. It works well, and the dinosaur meeples are super cute. The game also has a really nice mechanic where the person whose turn it is to lead rolls a die and that determines where everyone else has to place their dinosaur that they will draft, but the person who is rolling the die can place anywhere. You are trying to get as many of different types as you can, or sets of dinosaurs, or as many of one type as you can and more and that’ll determine how you score. Overall, just a fun filler game that has some thought that goes into it.

Status: Played

Dragonfire

You’ll see a similar game show up later in another letter, but Dragonfire is a deck building, monster fighting game with a Dungeons and Dragons theme on it. I like that you get your class, you can play through what looks like some pretty big stories or smaller stories to make up a larger campaign and level up your characters. I also like that you can play solo in this game. I’ve played it a couple of times with the copy that Fantasy Flight had and then I picked up my own because it was enjoyable and challenging. I feel like I need to nail down a better strategy still, but overall, a lot of fun.

Status: Played

The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

This is a game based off of my favorite book series, and while it is a pretty mechanical game if you don’t know the books, it is something that we’ve made feel more thematic when I’ve played it, and I’ve played it a lot. In this game you take a team of characters, from 3 to 5 I believe, into the game. You can play solo, but you’re playing 3 characters, or you can play 2 player, but you each mix together two characters, and it works well. I like how each game is you playing through a one of the books as well, and I think that works so incredibly well.

Status: Played

Dutch Blitz

This is a classic game that I grew up playing. It’s a pretty fast and fun card game where you are putting down cards in a stack and seeing how many cards you can get out. I keep it around more because of nostalgia than anything, but it’s also one that I wouldn’t be opposed to pulling out once in a while.

Status: Played

That’s the letter D, I think compared to all the previous ones, this one has the fewest in it that I haven’t played, though, Deep Madness is a pretty big game that I haven’t played. And it has some that I’ve played a lot. I’m guessing that I’ve played over 20 games of The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game and Dice Throne each. What is your favorite game to start with the letter D, and what one do you think i should add?

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