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Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – Top 10

10. Aeon’s End

• Published by Indie Boards & Cards in 2016
• Defend the town of Gravehold against a Nemesis and their minions by slinging spells around

To kick off the Top 10, let’s talk about one that has been in my Top 10 for a while and one that I have basically everything for. I’m guessing I’m missing a few promo cards, but Aeon’s End is one of my favorite deck building games.

This is a deck building game, tower defense, and boss battler all wrapped into one. The name of the game in this one is variety. There are other elements I like too, but variety is huge. Each mage is unique, each nemesis is unique and the market of cards that you create is unique. Everything about the game can be mixed and matched and give endless replayability. I also like that this is a cooperative game.

And, finally, I like this game best as a solo or two player. I know that it can play more, but with the turn system, it works better at lower counts. You draw to see whose turn it is. In the deck there are two nemesis cards, and one per player at four players, or two at two players. So you get these fun moments where it swings from the players getting four turns in a row to the nemesis getting three and now things look dangerous. It makes the game feel more exciting, it just works best at two players though because of that.

Buy Aeon’s End

9. Roll Player Adventures

• Published by Thunderworks Games in 2021
• Explore the lands, beat monsters and complete skill challenges in a world that remembers what you did

Now to a really big game we have Roll Player Adventures. They took the Roll Player system, tweaked it and gave us a story and adventure game. And I think that it works really well as a game, clearly, as it’s my #9. Though, like Aeon’s End, I’ll give a caveat that difficulty changes based on player count, which, isn’t a bad thing, but it something worth noting.

In this game you play through chapters of an adventure. To do that you are fighting monsters, doing skill checks, and reading story. Whenever it’s a right or a skill check you are spending cards and resources, your health, in different stats to try and complete a dice puzzle. You need to get dice of certain colors and certain numbers into specific locations. But, the game is smart and it limits you in how much you can do that, and it is what they try and use to scale, but like I said, I think that it’s easier with more.

The story is also a lot of fun. There are games on my list that have a bigger and darker story. And I like dark stories, dark fantasy can be a lot of fun, but it’s also fun to have stories that are maybe a bit sillier at times. And, I will say, they manage to create a story where it feels like it matters and continues along with the choices that you make.

Buy Roll Player Adventures

8. Dice Throne

• Published by Dice Throne Inc. in 2018
• Fight in a Mortal Combat style tournament by chucking dice and leveling up attacks

My #8 is “Battle Yahtzee”. By that, I mean that it is Dice Throne. This is a game that is played either as a head to head battle or as king of the hill. You get a hero, or character, that you play as. And they have specific abilities that you can activate by rolling dice Yahtzee style. By that I mean you get three roles, you keep some dice each time, and you see what you get at the end.

But Dice Throne is more than just a lucky game. Yes, there is an element of luck with rolling the dice. But the game often comes down to how well you can mitigate that luck. If you manage to get off your ultimate attack, well there isn’t much your opponent can do, of course that does mean that you roll all sixes. That’s very unlikely to just happen. But with cards and your combat points you spend to play them, you are able to manipulate dice, turn them to different sides, or get rerolls to try and land those attacks.

Plus the game offers a ton of variety. The first set is more standard fantasy. But then you get into other characters like a Tactician or an Artificer who do different things. And I own the Marvel set and am waiting on the Marvel X-Men set to come as well. You pick your favorites to get, or if you’re like me, you get them all.

Buy Dice Throne

7. Rogue Angels: Legacy of the Burning Suns

• Published by SunTzuGames in 2025
• Change the galaxy with a unlikely group of heroes in an epic sci-fi adventure

Now for a game that isn’t even out yet. Why do I have it on the list, because I have in my collection a prototype of the game. And I’ve even played it on Malts and Meeples. The game is basically set, through there are elements of the game that will change, but that’s mainly around components not around actual game play.

I love Rogue Angels. You know that by now because it’s on every list of Crowdfunding game that I’m waiting for. And yes, it will be again at the end of this year, most likely. This is another story, adventure, and combat game. And I really enjoy the story in it. I like having some campaign games that aren’t just another fantasy setting, and Rogue Angels gives you a good sci-fi setting. And I love how the combat, or mission element of the game works.

I want to say that this isn’t a game where every scenario is a go and beat someone up. No, this is a game where you might want to dive into combat. Or you might want to sneak through, and it all depends on the scenario. I love that for a game because I don’t always want to beat up the bad guys. And with how the game activates the bad guys, well, getting rid of the wrong bad guys at the wrong time just means you’ll be dealing with the other ones all the time.

Late Pledge Rogue Angels

6. Floriferous

• Published by Pencil First Games in 2021
• Create the best scoring group of flowers in this drafting game

Now we have the smallest game in my Top 10 list. But Floriferous was there last year and it is staying there again this year because I love what the game does. I enjoy a good drafting game, and I think that drafting makes sense in a lot of different games. But how Floriferous does it works for me because it combines drafting with building out your own scoring.

And the drafting itself is clever. You either draft a flower or you draft a scoring card from a column. The scoring cards are always at the bottom of the column, though, which matters for drafting the next column. Because the turn order for that next column is determined by the previous column you drafted from, aka, the higher you are up in the column the sooner you draft again. So yes, you need scoring cards, but that means you draft later next time.

I also want to call out drafting the scoring. I like it when a game does that because it offers a great decision point. When I draft, I might want that scoring card, but if you don’t have enough flowers, it won’t do much for me. And on the flip side, if I draft too many flowers I’m not going to be scoring anything.

Buy Floriferous

5. Slay the Spire

• Published by Contention Games in 2024
• Climb the spire, fight monsters and can you defeat them all in this cooperative deck building game

Next up is a new one to the list and it’s debuting all the way up at #5. Now it’s not the last new one to the list, there is one higher, though just barely higher. Slay the Spire is a video game that I love to play. In fact I’ve been on a kick of playing it recently. It’s a rogue like deck building game where you climb a tower.

The board game is the exact same thing. But it takes a solo video game experience and makes it multiplayer. In fact, while the solo is fun, I think that it’s even better two player or two handed. And I want to play it with more. Because you figure out a strategy of who wants to attack which enemies. Because each player has their own enemies that will attack them, but you can attack the other person’s enemies. So you might have more defense and handle it as well.

With all of that said, the game does change one thing. How some things activate is changed, so you’re not needing to keep track of “every seven turns” or “every three times you shuffle” but it makes it easy to keep track of. And they scale down everything. I like that because I don’t want to be keeping track of six enemies with 50 health each. So while the math is very much the same, the numbers are just lower.

Buy Slay the Spire

4. The 7th Citadel

• Published by Serious Poulp Games in 2024
• The Citadels are in ruins. How can you rebuild society and deal with the threats?

The other new to the list game and debuting at #4 is The 7th Citadel. I should have put it at #7 just to make it a bit more fitting. But I love this game and you can see me playing it for some sessions on Malts and Meeples YouTube.

This is an adventure game. These Citadels have fallen and now in a dangerous and post apocalyptic feeling world, though uniquely so, you need to survive. You play as leaders of a settlement has has formed out of the 7th Citadel. And now you need to deal with some threat that is coming.

The main mechanism is the same as The 7th Continent. You spend cards to try and complete checks, fight monsters, and deal with challenges. And the cards are going to be your life. Plus you are flipping over cards and exploring areas of the map and dealing with encounters that happen. But the game gives you more direction than the 7th Continent does as the threat gives you missions to go on as you build up your settlement for whatever that coming threat might be.

Late Pledge The 7th Citadel

3. Stars of Akarios

• Published by OOMM/Open Owl Studios in 2022
• Explore space, fight battles, and unravel the story of why you were attacked

This is the one that launched into the Top 10 last year and it’s sticking around. I love this game, clearly, but it’s another one of those big campaign games, and it’s one that’s set in space. But this game feels different than so many others. I don’t know why, but it gives me the feeling of stories like Ender’s Game and Space Dandy all wrapped into one with obvious nods to other sci-fi stories as well.

I really enjoy how they created a game that is split into three different element. The one, space exploration, is a bit weaker. There is some randomness to it, and I feel like I never found anything major on it. But I love the other two element. You get to have a 7th Citadel/7th Continent style exploration on planets. But instead of playing cards for checks you roll dice. And it’s a really fun time, but the biggest part of the game is space combat.

And I wasn’t sure how much I’d love the space combat. But I really enjoy it, it’s this great tactical puzzle as you use special abilities that you can only use so much. And then you spend dice to maneuver and you need to figure out how to even get into range to shoot the enemy and ideally in a flanking position. I love sitting there looking at the dice and trying to figure out how to make it work.

Late Pledge Stars of Akarios

2. Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon

• Published by Awaken Realms in 2019
• The lands are returning to Wyrdness, you’ve been sent out to help Avalon survive, if you can

Now or one of a few campaign games that I’ve completed, at #2 we have Tainted Grail. And this is the base game and the two expansion campaigns. I love them all. I need to play Kings of Ruin as well, but I’m not sure when I’ll get to that because of, well, my #1 on the list.

But this game, let’s start off with the highest praise, has the best writing of any board game I’ve ever played. The story that it tells is amazing and for that reason we did play in story mode to be able to experience as much of that story as possible. I’ll talk about why in a little bit. This is a grim dark game, but it manages not to dwell on the darkness to the point where it’s overbearing but creates this amazing fantastical and dangerous world to deal with.

And let’s talk about that story mode and why we played that way. One of the criticisms of the game is that it’s too hard. There is too much grind and too much survival. That is what the game was advertised as, so why people thought it was bad, and not just not for me, when they got what they knew they were going to get, I don’t know. But story mode makes it easier, but not too easy. So you do need to engage with that survival aspect of the game, but you can delve into the story more so. If you find the game, get it, and I do recommend playing on story mode.

Buy Tainted Grail

1. Gloomhaven/Frosthaven

• Published by Cephalofair Games in 2022
• Battle monsters, explore lands, and build up the town in this epic campaign

Finally the number one stays the same. The #1 on the list is really Frosthaven, Gloomhaven and Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. I don’t think it’s fair for them to be separate on the list. While Frosthaven does build on Gloomhaven and add in some elements like the town management, the core loop of the game is the same. I do think the added element of the town management would push it even a little bit higher than Gloomhaven for me though.

But the main part of the game is going into scenarios and trying to complete their objectives. This almost always includes killing some bad guys, and often times the win condition is kill all the enemies. Though in Frosthaven that is less often, though still the most common scenario goal.

The element that is the best about the game is the characters though. I love how every character is unique. And from the cards that you get to play, it feels that way. Sometimes you want to be that tanking character, or a fast damage dealer, or a support or healer character. And the games offer all of those.

And then the card play where you might want to go fast, so you can get in and out dealing damage quickly, or maybe you want to go slow to draw the enemies towards you, there is a lot of great strategy. I love picking cards, too, where I might plan to use the bottom and top halves in one way but then give myself the flexibility to change it. Needless to say, I love my #1 game.

Buy Frosthaven

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 be my 200 through 101 next week. After that I’m going to do some videos looking back on 2024. So expect to see my Top 10 Games of 2024 and probably Top 10 crowdfunding games I backed in 2024 as well.
• 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.

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. And let me know what games in this list are your favorite or that you want to try.

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Campaign games are board games where it remembers or something persists throughout it. Probably an easier example of this would be Dungeons and Dragons. You play as character and that character levels up and gets better. Or in video games, Baldur’s Gate 3, Dragon Age: Origins, or even games like Halo campaign demonstrates what that is. It’s a story where it remembers where you are in a story and you continue playing through that story.

Campaign Games

Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion

Let’s start off with the small version of one of the biggest and well known campaign games. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion has you leveling up your characters and fighting through a twenty mission campaign of Gloomhaven. It uses the same mechanisms, but it gives you a nice five scenario tutorial and then lets you explore the rest of the story and game with unique characters.

The game is a dungeon crawler as well as a campaign game. That means that you’re moving around a dungeon and fighting monsters, or moving around a location and fighting monsters tactically on a board. And it uses Gloomhaven’s great card mechanism of using two cards to activate your character. Top of one card and bottom of the other for movement and attack and how you play around with that is great.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Next up we’re going to go with a card game. Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a great cooperative game, as are all of these campaigns, but it’s just cards. So no minis, standees really anything like that. In this game you’re trying to solve cases and figure out what is going on through several scenarios.

This game is great because there is a ton of content for it. And because there is interesting deck construction and hand and resource management going on. But let’s talk about the content. You can buy the main box and have a short campaign to play. If you like the game there are more campaigns, more investigators, and more cards to play with. So you find that you can dive deep into what Arkham Horror: The Card Game has to offer.

Aeon’s End Legacy

Another card game for the campaign games. I wanted to try and do a few different types. Plus I wanted them to be available. The next one is maybe the hardest to get. But Aeon’s Legacy builds on the Aeon’s End system, and really is a great spot to jump in and learn the system.

You are breach mages who are protecting the town of Gravehold against a nemesis. In the Legacy version you don’t start with a character, you build that character throughout the game. You get new cards and you make choices to unlock some cards and not others and add some abilities and not others to characters.

Plus you get a new nemesis to face off against each time. And that is a great element of the game. Because not only are your mages unique, the nemesis is going to give you a different experience each time. And they give you a lot of fun options to deck build as you play.

Sleeping Gods

Sleeping Gods might be the hardest of the campaign games to find. But there are a few different versions out there, so hopefully it won’t be too bad. This is a game of exploring a new world that was created, written, and illustrated by Ryan Laukat, mainly, and his wife.

So you find as a crew that you’re dropped into a new world. It is a world where the gods are sleeping, and you are tasked with waking them, or at least finding totems, so you can get back home. But it’s not an easy task and you are only given some vague leads to go on.

This one is less of a campaign than some of the others because as players you have more freedom in what you are doing. You explore the world and decide which direction you want to go. But there are stories and quests that will persist between times playing the game. Because the game is too big to play over just one sitting.

Finally, I know you play as nine different members as the crew. And that is intimidating to play with all of that in front of you, or in front of multiple people. But I think of it as you have a whole team of people. They work and act as one. You need to know what they do, but it’s not like one crew members takes a turn and then another. The ship, and the crew as a whole are what take the turn.

Paper Dungeons

And now for a finale one that is really different. This one is just in the campaign games category because of the story that it has. But I really think that Paper Dungeons is a fun game. So I want to get it into this group for your consideration.

This is a roll and write game. That means that you roll dice and use those dice to fill in spots, the write part, on your sheet. Paper Dungeons is about leveling up your heroes, delving through a dungeon, crafting loot, and beating the boss monsters. All of this is done through die rolls which is a simple mechanism.

I like how this game makes you think on your feet. And how you can get combos and really explode with some great exciting turns to level up quickly, fight a lot of little monsters, or whatever it might be. The campaign part is lacking, though. It’s just a loose story that holds it into a campaign. But the game itself is fun, and it’d be a nice one to play a game every once in a while without needing to remember as much from other campaign games.

Final Thoughts

I kept the campaign games on this list smaller rather than larger. I love campaign games, and a lot of them are very large. That isn’t something that is reasonable for everyone to ask for or give. So what I put on the list is much more reasonable and sometimes even budget friendly.

If you want bigger games, tracking down things like Tainted Grail, Gloomhaven, or ISS Vanguard are going to provide those big box options. And there are a ton more I could mention as well. Those games are going to provide a much longer and more in depth campaign. So if you want to jump in at that point, or you know you already love campaign games, than those will be great options for you.

Do you have a favorite game in the campaign games genre? And are you putting any on your holiday list this year?

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How To Play Frosthaven?

Scenarios

Frosthaven is very much like Gloomhaven with a few things added to it. Mainly around one phase of the game. In Frosthaven you are going out and exploring scenarios, dungeon crawls, where you are fighting enemies, looting treasures, and sometimes completing goals as well.

This is done through a card play system where you play out two cards. The cards are split into two halves, the top and bottom action. You can do the top or bottom action on either card you play, but you must do one of each. These actions are going to be how you move about the board or attack an enemy, primarily. There are other actions but they are less common and dependent upon what character you are playing. The most common one is that some characters will also have healing abilities.

Town

After a scenario you head back into town where a number of things happen. You activate buildings that you’ve gotten up and running in town. They might have an ability that triggers before anything else. The goal, is, as I talk about this, to not spoil anything.

Then you shop, level up, retire characters, craft potions, and more in town. This might not all be available immediately, but it will come available as time goes on in the game. Each of these actions can be done in any order by the players, so you complete a lot as you go.

Finally, as a group, you spend resources if you want and if you can to build a new building. Building up buildings or leveling them up is how Frosthaven is going to grow as a town. But once you do that, you complete the town phase and are ready to head out on your next scenario.

Frosthaven or Gloomhaven?

This is an interesting question. Mainly, do you need both Frosthaven or Gloomhaven. Or is either game that much better than the other one? I think that thus far there is one that I prefer, slightly. I think that Frosthaven is slightly better. But if you own Gloomhaven, it isn’t enough of a difference to go out and buy Frosthaven and not play Gloomhaven.

Frosthaven gets the slightly nod for me in a few areas. Firstly, the town phase adds to the game. I like what you do in town and I like that you get to decide how you grow your town. That means that how I play Frosthaven and how you go through it are going to be different.

The other areas are around the writing and scenarios. The scenarios are better written. But it is more than just that. There are more scenarios with other objectives. In Gloomhaven I kill everything and the scenario is done. In Frosthaven, that is still often the case. But there is more going on, often times, it is kill everything and complete this objective. Or I guard a location or attack a location in order to win. The main mechanisms are similar all the time, but there are more that provide more than just kill everything.

Is It That Much Better?

But what if you find Gloomhaven to just be okay. Is Frosthaven that much better that you need to get that?

No, Frosthaven, at the core, uses the same mechanisms. The card play and action system is the same for your characters. You find that is most of what you do in a game. The scenarios are still the major part. But now the world offers more choices in what you do. So as you play through, you develop more of a specific path for your group versus the game leading the way.

I think that is a major enough difference for me so that I can say that I like it better. But if you don’t like Gloomhaven and the mechanisms, it isn’t enough for the game. It is an extra 10% on top of the game. That isn’t going to cause the game to switch up on how it feels. 100% of the game of the Gloomhaven system is still in the Frosthaven system.

The New Stuff

I already wrote an article on the new stuff. And I even did a review just focused on that. If you want to see all about the new stuff, check that article out here.

Improving Old Stuff

I find that Isaac Childres and team also have improved on some of the old stuff. Mainly around the characters in the game. The balance feels better. And the mechanisms even on the starting characters is more. I remember Gloomhaven out of the box, characters feeling less interesting than the ones that we are playing now.

I think that some of that is there is an expectation that people know the system. Frosthaven doesn’t feel like it needs to teach everything in the game. It just needs to add in a little bit more and provide a different experience. It goes back to the question, do you need both. I think that Frosthaven, even with the characters, wants you to have both.

I appreciate, though, that the game is mix and match. So if I want to bring in a character from Jaws of the Lions, that is possible. If I want to play a character from Gloomhaven, I can do that. Will I do that, unlikely, but it is possible. Mainly from Jaws of the Lions, if we find that we’ve retired most to all of the characters, I think it could happen. But that is not that likely, nor are we close to doing that.

Final Thoughts on Frosthaven

I love Frosthaven. Clearly from what I’ve written about it, I think that it is just as strong as Gloomhaven. However, you won’t ever see it separate from Gloomhaven on my Top 100 Games (of all time) lists. Why, because the core of the game is the same. So there isn’t enough for me to say that what I do changes or that one game is massively better than the other one. Frosthaven feels like a continuation and iteration on Gloomhaven. And I think that is just fine.

For some, that might not be enough to come back to Frosthaven. If you like Gloomhaven but just beat it, or want to try a majorly different campaign, or maybe are burnt out on campaigns, Frosthaven is unlikely to be what you want next. It is, as I said, mainly still Gloomhaven. But if you love Gloomhaven, beat that campaign and you want a game that does more, but not so much that it feels harder or fundamentally a different experience, Frosthaven is for you.

My Grade: A+
Gamer Grade: A+
Casual Grade: C

Note, this is not a game that if you are a casual gamer you should jump into. I think once you understand the core loop and system of Gloomhaven and Frosthaven it isn’t bad to get going or continue in. There is a learning curve to that, though. If you play with someone who knows and likes the system, they’ll be able to ease that transition along. Or, grab Gloomhaven Jaws of the Lion which has a tutorial built into the game to teach you how to play.

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There is more thought into this list than what’s my Top 10. My Top 10 games of all time, some of them might make the list, but others not because it might seem overwhelming to me as a teenager. Or it might be a theme that I like more now as compared to what I did back then. So there’s taking all of that, or even complexity of rules, into consideration.

Top 5 Board Games I Wish I Had As A Teenager

5. Betrayal at House on the Hill

This just missed me being a teenager and I definitely played it later. But I think that younger me, like older me, would have enjoyed this game a lot. The whole idea of exploring a board that is always changing would have been cool. I was used to playing weird giant games of Catan, so the modular element as you build as you go I think I’d have liked.

Plus I’d have liked the competitive switch of the game. You are working together but really you want to get what is best for you. So how can you do that quickly for when the haunt comes. And while the haunts themselves likely would cause debate, I’d have been cool with the not well written haunt directions.

4. Pandemic Legacy

Pandemic Legacy probably would have blown my mind. A cooperative game would have done that but also then with it being a legacy game. Being able to adjust the board as we go and that changing the game, that’d have blown my mind. It kind of still did when Pandemic Legacy came out as that was my first legacy game.

And I’d have liked the story that went along with the game. I didn’t have games that really had story with them. But I was a teenager who read a lot. Authors like Robert Ludlum were part of what I was reading with all of these crazy political plots and others as well and Pandemic Legacy would have been a lighter version of that with a game and I always loved games.

3. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion/Gloomhaven/Frosthaven

This isn’t my final three games. But I do have all of them on the list. I think as a 15 year old getting Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, I’d have loved it. And then Gloomhaven and Frosthaven are games I’d have saved up money for. But I don’t think I could have jumped into either of the bigger boxes. Instead Jaws of the Lions with it’s tutorial would be an amazing starting place. And I would then want more, which I think would have kept me busy for a long time.

And I’d have played Gloomhaven solo but also, likely at the same time, gone through it with friends. I wouldn’t have had the consistent schedule on the calendar as an adult who can drive. But one Saturday a month have a friend over and my brother as well we’d play probably 4 scenarios in a day and go late into the night. And then more often as I got a drivers license.

2. Ice Cool

Completely different end of the spectrum here, Ice Cool would have been amazing. I’d have messed around with it more to come up with my own builds. I definitely would have wanted to get Ice Cool 2 as well. But this is just a simple flicking game, but that toy factor and fun factor would have made it great for holidays, still does, and playing with my cousins. It’s really the toy factor on this one that would make it great.

1. Dice Throne

Finally we have Dice Throne, so only my Top 2 games out of my Top 10 made it onto the list. And one even with the caveat that it’s only going through the tutorial. Dice Throne would have been amazing, though, it’s battle Yahtzee. I could have put King of Tokyo onto that list as well. But I think I’d have really loved, and clearly still do, that idea that I pick my own unique hero that I get to play with. That’s not something that shows up in a ton of other games, otherwise.

And the one versus one is nice with the game, or bigger groups. I don’t think that I’d have used this as a family game, play 5 people, but it’d have been three player battles a lot. Or I think I’d have played it solo, not as Dice Throne Adventures, but just running two characters to learn them and their strategies really well, because, well, I had time to do that more than I do now.

What Would You Have Wanted To Play?

It’s a fun question to ask. There are so many more board games out there now than when I was a teenager. And I think I could come up with a huge list for it. I only had two campaign games, one pretty standard and one much more complex. But I think if I got into Gloomhaven young enough I’d have started learning and looking at other more complex games.

When I was growing up as a teenager though, the games I played were Catan, Ticket to Ride, and then more classic games like Phase 10, Yahtzee, Skip-Bo, Rummikub and more like that. What games do you think you’d have loved as a teenager?

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Simpler Mode vs Tutorial in Board Games

While the simpler mode does offer that feeling of an easy way to play, it is not a tutorial. It is the main game just with a few rules stripped away. A game that I think of is Calico. It is the exact same game but you are balancing less. You only keep track of getting cats and buttons, not of getting the mid quilt scoring objectives. So same game but easier to keep track of everything.

A tutorials goal is to get you up to speed with the whole game. Often times that is going to be walking you through things, but other times it might not. I think of Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. It adds in rules each time that you play. Or ISS Vanguard, Tainted Grail or Sleeping Gods, they walk you through each action that you’ll do so you learn the game that way. It’s much more guided.

Why Simpler Modes are Nice

The easy reason is that it makes a game more accessible for more players. By limiting what you need to keep track of, it is going to make the game easier to teach and learn. And that makes it easier for anyone to pick up.

The goal, I think for most, is to be treated like a tutorial. You learn the game and play it and then you advance to the more advanced rules. Though, unlike a tutorial that brings you threw that easier play into more complex game play, you don’t ever need to advance beyond the simpler mode.

Where It Can Fall Down

However, as I’ve played games with simpler modes, I do think they fall down at times. In particular the common way to handle it is to make the game simpler by removing objectives or goals. That sometimes helps, but other times it opens up things too much.

An example of this is Planet Unknown or I would say Railroad Ink as well. In the simplified versions you have limited but general objectives. Fill up your planet and move up your tracks in Planet Unknown. Which track do you go up, which one is the best, who knows, probably the one giving you the most points. But when you play on the more complex side you get different powers and abilities. And each thing you build and what track you go up on, that is all about your specific planet and corporation.

So it goes from a basically, do whatever you want, to a focused game. Now that might sound restricting, but for a newer player to the game, it can be freeing. It gives them a specific thing to focus on. It might be get as much water as you can, or build up as much biomass in Planet Unknown. They get a specific track to move on and a specific goal to face.

Is This Mode Good for Board Games?

So that lands us on if this is good? Because I think it depends on some of the games. Because it depends on what the game is trying to do with it or how the game works really.

Calico is intentionally trying to make the game hard when you play with the quilt scoring objectives. No long does it break up the quilt for a minor annoyance, now you need to perfectly plan where everything goes. So for a new gamer, it is better with the simplified rules.

On the flip side with Planet Unknown or Railroad Ink (vs Railroad Ink Challenge), it leaves it so open that it doesn’t give you great options. Everything is a good option so you want to dabble a bit in it all. It isn’t opening up that really tight board game. It is instead making it too open and directionless.

Another example is Isle of Cats where you can just try and collect and rescue cats into groups. But a lot of the fun of the game is getting your scoring objectives and seeing who can get cats first. Now, for this one, I want a happy medium, actually. I think some of the elements, like getting baskets and feet, that isn’t needed. But the scoring objectives, private and global, make for a more interesting and focused game.

Do you have a game that you really like the simpler mode, either for play or teaching?

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Options for my Next Campaign Game

Oathsworn: Into the Deepwoods

This one has been one of the more popular games of 2020. And from my experience with it, there is good reason for it. Oathsworn is a game split into two parts. A narrative adventure of your characters investigating as it leads into a big boss battle. The boss battle is the second part. So can your characters survive the adventures and all of the things that happen in the Deepwoods.

ISS Vanguard

ISS Vanguard is another game split into two parts. But it is without the combat, it is massive space exploration and adventure game. And to me that sounds interesting because a lot of campaign games have combat in them, but ISS Vanguard is more about that exploration. That doesn’t mean there won’t be combat, but it’s less of the focus.

ISS Vanguard, like I was saying, is split into two parts. That exploration part and then maintaining your ship. Going through your decision making as to where you want to adventure next, what upgrades you want to do and more. So that would give a natural breaking point between sessions at times.

Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion

Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is small box Gloomhaven. What does that mean, it’s the same game just with a much smaller box for the adventure. Fewer monsters, fewer characters, and no tiles, just a book to create the maps.

This one would work well because of that smaller size and ease of setup, but it’s also one that more people have covered. I already know that I love the game because I played and beat all of Gloomhaven. And soon I’ll be starting up Frosthaven. So that is a reason for it and against it. It’ll be less work to get to the table but one that people have played or seen more content on.

Etherfields

New up, like ISS Vanguard from Awaken Realms, we have Etherfields. This is a game where you dive into dreams and see what all you are exploring, how to escape them, or what adventure and wnder they might hold. Honestly, I’ve forgotten a lot about how this game works. I got it for one wave shipping only which means it’s been a long time since the campaign. I want to explore the adventure with updated and improved rules.

S.H.E.O.L.

Finally, we have S.H.E.O.L. a world that has fallen into darkness and only lux can luminate your paths. But that is a limited resource and there are monsters and things that go bump in the dark. Can you explore, find the points of story you need and safely travel through this dark world.

The story sounds amazing. The game play is where I am worried because it’s going to require, I believe, controlling four characters and that is going to be more work. Also that board looks massive so might be a little bit of a table hog.

Which Game To Play?

With wanting to get feedback, I want to setup a poll for this. Please vote and let me know which game I should play next.

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What You To Pay Attention To When Picking a Campaign Game

This list isn’t in a particular order. Each of these things can matter, and a lot of them matter less than you’d think. I’ll explain as I go, but all of them are things to consider when picking out a campaign game.

Ideal Player Count

We’ll start with the player count. I think that this can often be an overlooked part of the game. The reason for that is that some games play at four. And then if you play with less, you have dumbed down versions of characters available. This might be a well implemented system, or it could be clunky. The main reason to find that ideal player count is that you don’t want to play four handed solo, unless you want to play four handed solo. Some campaigns will give you true solo, others will require you to play two or four handed.

Theme

This one is probably already in your consideration. Theme often is the first thing you can kind of tell from the box. But it is worth digging into further. Sometimes a game will be lighter or darker in theme than the cover looks. The easiest way is to use examples. Sword & Sorcery has a somewhat dark looking cover, for the most part that is a lighter and simpler story. Tainted Grail has a dark cover, that is a dark game. Know what sort of theme you are getting into.

Set-up and Tear Down

Now we’re onto one that is harder to find. How easy is the game to set-up and tear own. The simplest way to know is if there are inserts for the game. Now, some games just get inserts to get everything into one box. But if there are third party inserts to make the game easier to table, it’s probably heavy to get the table.

Now, this isn’t always an issue. I have a co-worker who has room at the end of a table to keep a game set-up. That speeds it up a ton. Or I own a gaming table so that means I keep a campaign set-up on the bottom player and put on the topper to play other games. But those are specific situations. If you can’t do that, then this is a bigger question.

Tutorial System

Next up is one that will depend on you again. But I appreciate that more games are coming with tutorial systems to get you up and playing the game. Sleeping Gods walks you through a few turns, Tainted Grail has a tutorial and same with ISS Vanguard and Jaws of the Lion teaches you Gloomhaven in five scenarios.

Is this needed, not always, but it depends on the complexity of the game. And campaign games are often more complex. That means that tutorials really do help get the game to the table. When you learn the game by playing the game it sticks better. And when you use the rule book only as a reference, it reduces the barrier to entry.

Game Length

To go with set-up and tear down, the question is, how long does a game take to play. In Gloomhaven, for example, it took about an hour or so per scenario when we knew what we were doing. We would get two done in an night and be done prior to 10 PM. Others it’s whole night, generally at a relaxed pace, from 7:30-7:45 until 11:30 for the game.

So know how long you have, this one is subjective again because you might have kids and need to check on them or have a babysitter so until 11:30 might not work as well as 10 PM. Know your situation when picking a game. And factor in that set-up and tear down time because if it’s a two hour session and thirty minutes to set-up and thirty to tear down, you really have a three hour session.

Campaign Length

This is different than the game length, and maybe what you thought I was going to talk about when I said game length. But this is how long is the overall campaign? Is it 12-24 sessions like Pandemic Legacy, or 50+ sessions like Gloomhaven?

This one is again one that will depend on your needs. There is no hard and fast rule, really with any of these, only things to think about and figure out what matters to you. But if you can’t commit to a very long game, don’t do so. Gloomhaven might be too long, but does Jaws of the Lion work for you as a shorter smaller box version? Know what sort of commitment you have from yourself and if playing with others, the group.

Complexity

Finally, and that again doesn’t mean least important, know the complexity of the game. I would recommend using Board Game Geek to get the weight of a game, but know that it is not always the most consistent. Meaning that a war game that is a 3 is probably much heavier than a board game that is a 3, and a campaign game that is a 3 is probably more complex than a regular board game that is a 3.

The reason for this is that people who rate those games, the war or campaign games, are used to that type of game. The difference between a campaign game and a regular game will be less though. I recommend using that number in comparing within the style of game. Figure out how complex you want to go for the game.

And know that a campaign game is likely going to be more complex. Something like Legacy of Dragonholt is pretty simple because it’s basically choose your own adventure. But that is an outlier when you look up campaign games. Most are going to be a bit more complex, just decide how complex you want to go. And know if there is a tutorial because that can help make it simpler to learn.

So What Game Do You Pick?

That’s such a good question. And while I gave you a lot of things to look into, that won’t always make it easier to pick. There are a ton of campaign games to look at out there. And some of them might be for you, others might not work out for various reasons.

I think the last piece of advice or two pieces are less around about the game, and more about researching. So with my list it is looking at the specifics of a game. Here is about your picking or starting that digging in process.

Firstly, narrow your scope. All of them might look great. But ask yourself some basic questions, how many do I play with and filter the results to match your player count. What theme do I want? Filter your results even further. Get it down to 3-5 that look really good and dig into those.

Secondly, while Board Game Geek and Nerdologists.com will give you some advice, it is words, generally. Or video reviews on Board Game Geek, and that doesn’t show you the game as much. So I recommend tracking down game plays. Malts and Meeples and Meet Me At The Table are two I recommend for actual game plays.

Hopefully this will help with picking a campaign game. There are a ton of them out there and I’ve played a number. So if you are curious about one, leave a comment or question one of the ways below. I tend to respond quickest to Facebook or Twitter.

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Gloomhaven

Gloomhaven, and I’ll include Jaws of the Lion, is going to be a campaign game for the person who wants a lot of control over what they are doing. The card play in Gloomhaven is great and really smart. I love picking two cards, one to use the top of and the other to use the bottom. But if I’m slower than other players or the enemies, now I need to put flexibility into what I’m doing. Gloomhaven also provides great character progression. It isn’t too fast so you learn and can use and enjoy the new cards but then be gaining XP for the next new card.

I also think that Gloomhaven, the big box, works well for players who like the change it up. You retire a character after some time. You’ll hit your secret goal and it’ll be time to retire them and move on. If you get really attached to a character or a way to play the game, Gloomhaven won’t be for you. It is better for a game that changes everything up as you get new characters with how you play them.

Sword & Sorcery

As compared to Gloomhaven, Sword and Sorcery is light and small. Now it’s still a big box with a lot of minis in the box. But Sword and Sorcery is all about the dice chucking. The story is pretty light, the decision making space in where the story goes really doesn’t exist. But when it comes to optimizing how many dice you can have and roll, Sword & Sorcery does that.

Stars of Akarios

Stars of Akarios is an interesting hybrid. I would say that this game is for people who want something like Gloomhaven, though the game is very different, but set in space. You can watch game play here. But this is going to be your big space epic game, and probably the biggest space campaign game, at least until ISS Vanguard comes out soon.

But this is also the game for the person who wants a little bit of everything. There is some choose your own adventure. Tactical space combat and then space and planet exploration. So really a little bit of everything that you could do. And they manage to make all of them work, though you need to be in for the space combat because that is the biggest piece.

Pandemic Legacy

This is one I’d say three introductory campaign games. And Pandemic Legacy is a legacy game on top of that. This one, though, might be the best, because in Pandemic Legacy Season 1, if you’ve played Pandemic, you can basically jump in and play the game. If not, it’s an easy teach and a cooperative game.

This is really just a story driven version of Pandemic. It does introduce rules as you go along. But it ramps up players slowly. So if you know someone who is interested at all in gaming, this is a great option to start.

Tainted Grail

Moving to the other extreme, this is not introductory friendly. There are rules you kind of need to look up to figure out what is going on. And there will be situations where the rules maybe don’t explain everything. But Tainted Grail offers some of the best story experience I’ve had in a game.

The story is dark, the story is adult. And the game has a strong survival element as well. I really recommend this one on story mode. The game is still very hard at times. There are going to be combats where you just look at it and run away. But when you dive into the story, it is just so good. So much depth to the world and every expansion gives even more story that is just amazing.

Charterstone

Charterstone is a euro campaign game. It’s one that I think euro players will like, it is a campaign game, and it adds in things. I also think that Charterstone is also a good one for a budding euro player. It’s pretty simple to start and definitely adds in a lot as you go along.

The story for me on Charterstone is very weak, and I honestly thing it pretends too much with it. But the game play is solid. It is a good euro game. And for a legacy game, you can still it after. They even offer a recharge pack, as does the next one on the list as well. But I don’t know what I’d want it.

Aeon’s End Legacy

Aeon’s End Legacy is another one with a weaker story to it. But a story that I sound fun. You can watch the whole of the game over on Malts and Meeples, I’ll put the first part down below. But if you like deck building or are interested, this is a great spot to start.

I also think that this is a great game for players who want to make their own character. As a legacy game it allows you to build up your breach mage with the cards you want the way you want. Other games allow you to customize somewhat, here you really get so much choice over that. Deck building helps provide some of that, but also with the powers you get, it works nicely as well.

My City

Another legacy game on the list and another one that is really easy to get to the table. It is a tile laying game where everyone has their own set of tiles and a card if flipped over to determine which one to put down. There are additional rules that are added as you play further into the game, but it is never too much.

This is also a great campaign or legacy game for people who don’t have that much time. Or don’t have a big block of time. It’s easy to pull out and play a game that takes maybe 30 minutes. Then you do that again two nights later, and so on and it’ll never take you that long to be back up and running.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

Another one that I played on Malts and Meeples. This one is kind of like Aeon’s End Legacy, but instead of deck building through game play, this offers deck construction. So if you like optimizing your character to be good at some things, Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is good for that.

I also think that this works well for maybe the person who doesn’t have time to play Pathfinder. If you’ve played Pathfinder and done the adventures, you’ll get more into the story, recognize characters and places. But it’s less of a commitment than jumping into another campaign and planning out 3 hours every week or two to play, at least.

Paper Dungeons

Paper Dungeons is an odd one on the list. It is technically a campaign game, you play through cards with monsters to fight. But it doesn’t need to be, it can be a one off. Nor do I think the campaign is all that great. But if you really like roll and write games, and Paper Dungeons is a very good roll and write game, this is going to give you a heftier roll and write to play. And also one that I played on Malts and Meeples.

Sleeping Gods

Alright, one more that is on Malts and Meeples. Sleeping Gods is for the player who wants a weird fantasy world but also wants to be able to do whatever they want. All the other campaigns on the list give you a general order of doing things. Some might have side missions but generally they’re about the main story that is going through.

Sleeping Gods gives you fun card play and a lot of interesting powers and decisions. Now, I’d recommend that you get the sequel one, it’s coming out sometime probably next year. It’ll make a few things cleaner, like not having to control as many characters. But the one you can get now is great as well and the story tends to be one of the lighter ones and more fun. And the story works as well which is impressive with no real direction.

Risk Legacy

Another legacy game on the list and only one more after this one before the list is finished off. But Risk Legacy is going to be for the person who likes that in your face game. But whereas Risk can be annoying and take forever. In Risk Legacy the games are much faster, so it’s also for the person who likes that in your face but finds Risk way to long. I’m one of those people, so this one is a lot of fun when you want something very competitive.

Seafall

Finally, I had to put it on the list because I technically did play probably half of it or a bit more. This one I don’t really recommend. I think that there are elements of the game that work but most don’t. If you go back to Sleeping Gods where I talk about open world, that one tells a great story in spite of that. Seafall is also open world but it doesn’t tell a good story.

Also the games are just too long, so I really don’t recommend it for that. The longer you play the higher the points get, plus you unlock things so that means there is even more to think about. I want this to be so much better than it is, it had potential and it just falls flat.

Final Thoughts

13 campaign games on the list. And I thought about adding in Arkham Horror the Card Game, and when I get around to a campaign box for Marvel Champions. So clearly I love campaign games, but like I said, not all of them are for everyone.

If you are looking to dive into a campaign game, I really recommend probably three games as my top choices. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is a great small box version of Gloomhaven. And it’ll give you the exact same game just with less stuff and less cost. Pandemic Legacy is a good one to jump into as well because a lot of people know Pandemic. Start with Season 1 and it’ll be an easy way to see how much you like legacy games and campaign games. And finally, I think that if you want something bigger and maybe a bit more challenging, I recommend Sleeping Gods. I like it solo, but I think most people will like it at three players.

But let me know what your favorite campaign games are? And how do you play them?

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Miniature Market Orders

Yes, it is plural. Though two of them are closely tied together. And the latest one was because they had a very nice sale for the 4th of July week, or the week leading into it.

Massive Darkness and Expansions

This one you’ve already seen on the website because I did an unboxing of it on Malts and Meeples. You can checkout that video below. I didn’t get this one on Kickstarter but I was very interested in it. Any game with a campaign mode is going to interest me. Plus this is generally a pretty well rated game, even the original version. So it is one that has been on my radar for a little while. And I want everything for it, but I know I don’t need it. So I got two character expansions and then the core box and the campaign box because of course I want a campaign game.

Fireball Island: Wreck of the Crimson Cutlass and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bees

This is part of the sale. I want to say that they were 33-50% off so a good amount. And this is just going to add in more content for Fireball Island. The Wreck of the Crimson Cutlass actually adds to the board this ship wreck area that is cool. And the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bees is an expansion that adds a tiger that you launch as well as then a lot of bee marbles.

Once it is in, I am going to make it a priority to table Fireball Island. I think it’s going to be a fun one for a number of groups. Plus it looks great on the table and is a simple enough game for almost any group. That combination is always a good way to get a game played.

The Quacks of Quedlinburg: Herb Witches

I enjoy The Quacks of Quedlinburg a good amount, I think that the game play is simple and fun. And while you can plan, you are really just pushing your luck, which is fun. I do think that out of the box, since they want you to play specific combinations, it might end up being a bit limited. That is where the Herb Witches expansion comes in.

The Herb Witches is going to be an expansion that adds in two more ingredients, I believe, that you can use, plus more scoring combinations. And while the new ingredients will change up the game play. I don’t know how much I really need more of those. But more ways to score is interesting to me.

All Systems Go

All Systems Go, as a reminder, is my preferred FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) though not the only one that I go to, as you’ll see. But I currently have had a bunch of store credit there, so it is a good spot to get some games.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

You know that I am playing the 2nd edition over on Malts and Meeples. But while I am getting into that, I bought up the first edition stuff. Someone had traded in the Mummy core box and the Wrath core box, including the Wrath with all the story expansions for it. So I grabbed that to go along with my Skulls and Shackles core box. Now I have basically all of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game that is out there. There is a 2nd Edition expansion that I kind of want to get.

Ra

Ra is a game that flirts with my Top 100 often. Why, because it’s such a simple game but with a good auctioning mechanic. I really like how there is a closed market and a loop to it. I bid, I win the bid, I get the bid token in the middle, mine goes into the middle. So if I bid with the 16, I think that’s the highest, now the next person to win a big will end up with a 16 to use the next round. It’s clever and it works well.

Zoo-ography

This is one that I don’t know too much about. It plays from 1-4 players and 15 minutes per player. So the game is going to be on the lighter end of things. But it looks like it comes with a lot of cool animal meeples, always a good thing. And it is a drafting game. I really enjoy drafting, see games like Draftosaurus, Sushi Go! Party, or drafting in Blood Rage. So this one with a lot of cute components really interested me.

New York Zoo

And sticking to the zoo theme and animal meeples, we have New York Zoo. This is a polyominal game where you are getting tiles to put into your zoo. Then getting animals and breeding more animals until you get enough to put in attractions. It seems like a pretty straightforward game like Zoo-ography, but one that will also get played. Plus much like drafting, I enjoy tile placement, and New York Zoo seems like a fun theme for that mechanic.

Target

So, every July, at some point in the month, Target rolls out some Target exclusive games. Most notably in that was Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion a few years ago and then Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition last year. I don’t know when that is happening this year or what the games are. But I do know that they often do clearance on games right before. So I picked up one new, and one clearance.

My Hero Academia: Plus Ultra!

I don’t actually know anything about this game. My Hero Academia is an anime that I enjoy but I struggle to watch consistently. Mainly the main character gets way to emotional way to often. But when they have action sequences it is good. Plus there is a really good story with it. I don’t know if this board game is going to be good. It looks like it just came out, but I figured I’d give it a whirl just for the theme.

Summer Camp

And from the clearance side of things there is Summer Camp. This is a deck building game about Summer Camp, oddly enough. You are trying to go up on three different tracks. From what I know of this game, it is a pretty light game but I figured I’d give it a go. Plus it was 50% off, so the price wasn’t bad at all.

The Source

This is the other local game store. But really it’s games, comics, manga, nerdy things store. And I mainly go there to pick up manga, which I’ll be writing sometime soon about the ones that I’m reading.

Dungeon Party: Starter Pack

This is a dungeon questing, monster fighting board game where you are bouncing a quarter onto a coaster. It is purely silly but I am down for that. I might even work it into my Thursday D&D game. Make that be part of what we are doing for fighting a monster this week. Bring the characters to another dimension or something like that. I haven’t worked it all out.

But this is a game that I want to own just for the goofy nature. You probably know by now that I like my dexterity games. And I’d love to find an evening to just have some beers and play this game coming up here. I think it’ll provide a lot of laughs and a good time.

Half Priced Books

HPB is a book store mainly for used books. I’ve picked up some fun series there. And they have a game section. That is where I’ve gotten games like Tannhauser before. This time only one game caught my eye.

Periodic

This is going to be a game about the Periodic table. I know of someone who might like the game better, they have Genotype as well from Genius Games. I’ve heard good things about Periodic, so when was used there, I figured that I’d grab it. I’m not sure it’s a game for me, but we’ll see. And like I said, I think I know someone who would like the game if it isn’t for me.

eBay

Stars of Akarios

I blame the GloryHoundd discord server for this. You can join me on that discord server here. But one of their members found it on eBay with a listing that had a number of the game as a slightly better price than going through the store.

But Stars of Akarios is going to be a game of fighting and exploring on the fringes of space. But it hits so many of the words that I look for in a game. This is a narrative-driven, cooperative, campaign game that can be plays solo. I don’t know why I missed this one on Kickstarter, but I’m glad to have grabbed it now.

Amazon

Yup, Amazon has gotten a little love too. Mainly I’ll toss on a cheap game from time to time. Or sometimes Amazon is the only spot I can find something.

Skull and Shackles Expansions

This is again more Pathfinder Adventure Card game stuff. The story expansions and I think two character expansions for Skulls and Shackles. The name might not imply it, but this is the pirate base game for Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. And that is a theme that I really like. So I am curious to see how they will make that game and story work. I always want to run a pirate D&D campaign, maybe this will inspire me.

Crowdfunding

Marvel Dice Throne

This is one that came in. And it’s already gotten to the table 3 times. The downside of it being 3 times is that I still have two characters I need to play. Black Panther and Captain Marvel are waiting for their shot in the sun. I’ll have a whole lot more on this probably around the end of the week.

Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread

This is one that I just late pledged. My curiosity for the game got the better of me. I again, am a sucker for a cooperative, solo playable, narrative-driven campaign game. And Arydia promises that for me, plus some cool minis that you can customize.

Overall, this is just one of those big box games that I’m going to have to start playing as a campaign. I really want to figure out some game to play as a campaign on my own, not stream. Or maybe one that my wife is interested in, and do that once a week just for a little time. I have half of the gaming table that should be free to play on a lot of the time.

Aeon’s End: Past and Future

More Aeon’s End, I am of course going to back this. It is an interesting project though, and it is available for late pledge. But Aeon’s End Past and Future is not a big box expansion like they normally do. Normally it is the next part of the story that they are going through. This actually goes back to the past and looks to the future and you need specific sets already to be able to play it. Of course it’s mainly just more content, so I am down for that.

Deathly Thrones

Deathly Thrones is the only print and play game on the list. This one is interesting, though because it’s not a roll and write game. It’s a solo print and play roguelike game where you use a deck of cards. I didn’t look into it too much, again it is one that was shared to me via the GloryHoundd Discord server. But I think it looks really interesting and unique. If it can pull off a fun game, I could see having this a smaller sized game to pull out and play.

GameNerdz

I said it was a big list and a lot of it is that it has been a while since I’ve done one of these. I don’t believe that I’ve written about this one.

Vampire the Masquerade – Chapters

This is another one of those games where I wish that I’d backed it on Kickstarter. The Kickstarter hasn’t even fulfilled yet and the regret got me, especially since I found it too late to late pledge. Or found it again too late to late pledge. This is going to be another one of those big story driven cooperative solo campaign games set in the world of Vampire the Masquerade.

What intrigues me so much about this one is that it has story and the story from Vampire the Masquerade where it isn’t just vampires chomping necks and sucking blood. But there’s this whole code of what you do. And then you get down to a tactical level map where you can interactions with people and battles that happen which is really interesting. I like that variety in what it does.

GameZenter

Another LGS (local game store) to go along with All Systems Go and The Source. All of them are very nice, I am lucky to have so many around me. And I like to buy something every time I go somewhere and play. And the GameZenter is my favorite spot to play out of the two that you can play at, GameZenter and The Source.

Spirit Island

Spirit Island is a game that I should have played sooner. And in all fairness I have yet to play it now. But it is a cooperative or solo game that has great puzzle elements to it. And it’s complex enough in what your spirit is doing to fight off the colonizers that are coming to the island. So I really want to give it a go and see how it plays. I suspect it’s going to be a game that is bigger that I really like to play solo or at two players.

Final Thoughts

That’s it, I think, that I haven’t talked about. It’s been a busy time getting in games, or getting them in soon. I need to start playing them. But I am close, still to that 100 game total which I wanted to get under for unplayed games. Granted, that number will go up a bit again soon with a few more big box games coming in. I know that Oathsworn is getting close, so I’m sure I’ll write about that in the next Point of Order.

And then other Kickstarters and Gamefound games are starting to get produced. There is a production copy that was unboxed for ISS Vanguard, so I expect that to show up October or November. And Grove is getting close as well as Tiny Turbo Cars. And I think even Spire’s End Hildegard just locked in it’s shipping addresses, though I might be off on that one. Oh, and Chronicles of Drunagor. So expect another big one coming, likely post GenCon.

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No, to go into more than that, why do I need Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion when I have Gloomhaven and Frosthaven?

First part of it is being a completionist for that game. I have everything else, or it’ll be coming, so I want that, but there’s more to it. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is like Gloomhaven lite. Or maybe Gloomhaven introduction. What is cool about the game is that it’s all new content, but it’s not as big a thing on the table. You have new playable classes, that you can bring into the main game of Gloomhaven. But you can also use them in the introductory scenarios for Jaws of the Lions.

That’s another really cool thing, there are twenty five different scenarios in Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. Three of those are an introduction to the game, where you start with really basic things and then you eventually build into playing Gloomhaven as I’ve been playing it. So for a new player you can get into it gradually. Which is one of the barriers of entry for Gloomhaven.

Another barrier for entry that Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion improves upon greatly is set-up and teardown. Because it’s a smaller game, there’s just way less stuff. But, one way there’s less stuff is that you’re playing on smaller maps in the scenario book itself. You aren’t finding tiles, putting them together and doing all of that before the scenario, you can flip it down, put some items and monsters on the map and be ready to go.

So besides being a completionist, that’s why I’m getting Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion. And if Gloomhaven seem like it’s too big for you, this might be a good starting point.

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