Highlights of Kingdom Legacy

Let’s talk about what stands out about Kingdom Legacy. This game by Fryxgames and Jonathan Fryxelius is not a big game. In fact, it is a quite small game that is just about 140 total cards. And in that, you don’t see all of the cards in the game. Because some of them you are going to unlock.

Ease to the Table

So that is the first element that works so well in this game. It is extremely simple to pick-up and play and to put down and put away. You just put the cards you’ve unlocked in one part of the box and use something as a divider, there is a first card that I use, to keep the deck separate from what you are already using. It’s just really easy to get to the table. So easy that I actually grabbed a second copy. I know what I’ll want to play it again.

Simple Game Play

The mechanisms work really nicely as well. When you play you are upgrading cards. So you draw four cards, and you can push to draw more, but the more you draw, the less you do in the game. Because, when you upgrade a card you get rid of the rest of the cards. So the more you push the faster you get through your deck and faster that you unlock more cards. So it’s this great push and pull of asking the question, can I do anything, if yes, is it worth it to do that and not push the game along further.

Legacy Elements

And I like the legacy elements of the game a ton as well. The first element is simply unlocking the cards. That is simple, you unlock two more each time through your play deck of cards. Sometimes it is more, and sometimes it gives you choices. And these will shape how you play the game. In particular with the end scoring of the game, when you pick those, it’ll shape what you want to upgrade.

But beyond that, you upgrade cards and keep track of extra goods to improve towers or sell trade goods. As well as then some stickers to add to different cards. That can increase your production of goods, or your attack and push you forward in the game that way. I think that each element is just enough to add a bit of flavor to what you are doing.

Upcoming Streams

So let’s just run through a reminder of the streaming schedule every week.

• Monday – Board Game Streaming around 8 PM Central
• Wednesday – Board Game Streaming around 9 PM Central
• Friday – Baldur’s Gate 3 Streaming around 9 PM Central

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Top 15 Campaign Games I Still Need to Play

15. Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West

I know that I’m going to like this game. So why is Ticket to Ride Legacy lower on the list? Some of it is because it is a legacy game. The two “legacy” games that I have on the list are the bottom two. But also because while I like Ticket to Ride a lot, it’s not a game that I play all that often. I think that the legacy version will likely breath new life into the game for me. But it’s more of a comfort food pick than a really exciting new bite to try. And for that reason it’s lower on the list.

14. Clank Legacy 1 & 2

The other legacy game is actually two legacy games. So did I cheat, I’ll let you decide. But this one is lower on the list because I know that I love Clank! already. And I really like the Acquisitions Inc guys as well, so that is a great theme for me. But it’s like I said for Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West, this is more comfort food. I already know that I will like both of the games. But it’s higher on the list because I like Clank better than I like Ticket to Ride, and because I think the writing is just going to be a great time that’s a ton of fun.

13. Tales from the Red Dragon Inn

Speaking of fun writing, I expect that Tales from the Red Dragon Inn is going to be another game with fun writing. This one is supposed to be a simpler, or less in depth dungeon crawler game and there are some good playthroughs of it. I’d recommend checking otu the playthrough that was done done on Meet me at the Table. They’re one of my favorite channels, and it shows how fast it is to get the game to the table and get playing.

12. Kinfire Chronicles

Speaking of another campaign game that I’ve heard a lot of good things about, we have Kinfire Chronicles. This is again supposed to be a friendlier and easier to get into campaign game than some. I like the look of the aesthetic of the game. And it’s not a mini heavy experience which might make it easier to get to the table. But it’s probably easier to see what it’s like at the table. I really do like how the cast of characters looks like a ton of fun and familiar fantasy but not the completely normal fantasy.

11. Tidal Blades 2

For this one I’ll add a video from Man vs Meeples. But I know more about this one. Some of the previous ones I just went on theme. This one is a dungeon crawler or adventure style game with scenarios where you are in this beautiful world dealing with monsters who attacked a festival and more in the story.

But the mechanisms got me to pick up this game. I like how you add in cards to a grid and then you activate a row or a column. But once every spot in a row or column is filled and you activate it, it wipes. And you have basic actions on spots without cards, but it’s a rising and falling action as you try and play through the scenario and defeat the monsters.

10. Etherfields

Now we’re onto Etherfields. The only campaign game from Awaken Realms that I haven’t gotten to the table. And this one actually left my collection for a very short time. But as I said, I love campaign games so I got it back. I put this one where because I love the theme of it. I have heard that it is rough around the edges but the theme gets me.

You are exploring dreams and each dream is going to be a little bit different. Some of them might be more dream like, but the fun of dreams, at least in a board game is that they can be nightmares as well. And that means that the game is going to have twisted and crazy and surreal scenarios and that sounds amazing to me. I know one element was a bit of a grind, but I believe that there are rules out there now that help fix that.

9. Kingdom: Death Monster

Then we get to one that maybe should be higher on the list. Kingdom: Death Monster is not the grand daddy of all campaign games, that’s Gloomhaven in a lot of ways. But this one is one of the games that really showed what you could do and create a massive game with a ton of expansions and a ton of minis in it. I only have the core box and there is a ton in there.

In this game it’s a boss battler campaign. You start at no one, really you don’t even have language yet. But as you play, you grow you tribe, figure out new things, like ways to make weapons and armor, develop language and more. All that while sending out your hunters to try and defeat boss monsters who are sometimes going to take out your hunters. And that’s why you need to keep growing your village. But Meet Me At The Table has great videos on this as well.

8. Divinity Original Sin

This is a game that I need to play through both as a video game but also as the board game. I had fun watching Felicia Day an Ryan Day play through it on their streams back in the day. So it is a game that I have played some, in the video game. But the board game sounds great for it as well. The theme definitely helps with that as does the fact that this isn’t a grid movement map but more of an area movement game. And I really like how there’s that campaign element and adventure element to it without purely being a dungeon crawler game.

7. Dragon Eclipse

Alright, I kind of lied about having played all of the Awaken Realms campaign games. This is one that might actually get to the table sooner because I think it might be easier to get to the table. I didn’t think of it though, because it just got in. In this game you are collecting dragons and battling dragons. Does that sound a bit like Pokemon, that makes sense. But it’s a game with a fun theme and compared to some campaign games, it’s a campaign game that you can play true solo which is great for me.

6. Nova Aetas Renaissance

You’ll notice and probably already have noticed a trend of the videos that I share here. A ton of them are from Meet Me At the Table. A lot of these games I had already backed before they played them. But this is one that I tracked down because of the channel. I love the 3D nature of the experience for this game. And how, in one of the scenarios a house that is 3D can be taken apart and flattened. But there is more than that as well.

The story of the game is fun. It feels like it mixes up a few things from historical to make fantastical. And then it uses a fun mechanism for whose turn it is. You spend you action points and move around a time track. Whomever is at the end of the track is going to be who activates next. There are some other rules for it as well. So you can’t just stack up turn after turn after turn before the bad guys go, but it’s a fun element to the game.

5. Agemonia

Then we have Agemonia. This is a rare campaign game that I didn’t back right off the bat on crowdfunding. Or I should say a rare one that I looked into a lot and didn’t end up backing. This game seems to have a fun world and setting to play in and that’s some of what drew me in right away for it. But there were other elements that kept me coming back for it as well.

I liked how the maps were in books and that felt different. But also beyond that, as more places are doing that now, the world would change. You draw out a card after interacting with a point and cover it up. That might create a different point of interaction or it might be nothing to do there anymore. And the game play just seems simple enough to be easy to learn and play, but offer some solid choices in combat as well.

4. The Elder Scrolls

Next is another new one to come in. But it’s a fun theme that a lot of people are going to be drawn to. For me it’s less the theme and more that it’s a shorter campaign based off of the Too Many Bones system that I really am excited for.

If you’re not familiar with the system, you level up after missions. Or you can anyways. And as you spend your points to try and level up you get better or unlock new abilities. You can add to base stats, which can be good, or you can add to the specialty dice that you roll. And while this streamlines it a bit from what it was with Too Many Bones, I’m excited for it and the world that the game is set in certainly helps.

3. Middara

Now the top 4 are going to be ones that I really would love to play. Yes, you read that correctly, we’re on #3 and we have four games to go including this one. How is that, I couldn’t pick between my top two. But Middara is very safely into that group. And soon I’m going to be having more Middara come in. I say soon, I expect maybe this time next year.

But Middara is going to be a classic dungeon crawler with a ton of story and a ton of dice chucking. But I really like the theme and look of the game. You go to another world, chosen to go there kind of it’s weird to explain. But you are chucking dice to defeat monsters, level up and become awesome. But the whole aesthetic of the game gives me a really strong anime feel. I’ve heard that sometimes trips up the writing, but overall people really enjoy it. And to me that sounds exciting.

1c. Oathsworn

Next we have Oathsworn. And this, this is the three way tie for first place. Why did I not just remove the last game from the list, because I wanted to mention it too. Oathsworn is another boss battler game. But it is a game that is split into two parts. And that excites me about the game. You get a mystery or exploration phase where you experience a lot of story. And then you go beat up that boss. But if you do well on the story the boss maybe is easier.

And I really like the mechanisms in the game. I kept games that I’d really played off of the list. I did a short demo of this one two years ago at Gen Con and I adored it. There is this great card system where cards have to cool down before you can use them again. And then you decide how many dice you are going to roll, some are required, but the more you roll the more chances you to bust and miss, but the greater a hit could be. Or you could play it safer and draw cards, but eventually that deck of cards will run cold and do you switch to dice then?

1b. Primal: The Awakening

Next tied at the top is Primal: The Awakening. This one is another boss battler game. And this one I should probably get to the table sooner than some. A nice thing about Primal is that it doesn’t need to be a campaign, you can also play it as a one off. And that would definitely make it easier for me to get it to the table.

But this is a game that is all about the boss battle. There is a little story between scenarios and a chance to upgrade, but it’s not going to be nearly as much other stuff as just a pure battle. And the battle is different as well. You play on a tiny board with just four sides of the monster that you can be on. And depending the stance the monster is in, you need to be in specific spots to do damage. Add in card play for this which you can pull of powerful combos, that’s great. Of course, depending on what cards you play, you might trigger a lot of monster reactions.

1a. Arydia

And finally the most recent game to the campaign game collection. This one barely beat out Elder Scrolls for that title, we have Arydia. Arydia is another game that I passed on originally when it was on crowdfunding but then I went back and late pledged it. I just kept on being drawn into one part of the game.

The game is at three different levels. Now I don’t mean that you build stuff up on the table. I mean that you explore the world at three different levels. You explore at a high level where you get general encounters and interactions. Then you can dive down deeper and start to interact with specific characters or explore a location in more detail. Finally, you might then drop into combat which is tactical movement on a map. And that massiveness of the world really drew me to the game.

Final Thoughts

You might think that is enough. But there is going to be another list, probably tomorrow for games that I want to come back to or that are new editions or versions of games that I’ve already played as campaign games. I expect that is only going to make it to ten, but that’s a lot. And this list even didn’t include everything. The campaign in Solomon Kane could have made the list. And I know that I just didn’t see some games on the shelf that would have made sense for the list as well. And there are games that I likely missed too because I don’t think of them as campaign games.

What campaign games do you want to get played? And how do you find time to play them all? Or are you like me where you have more campaign games than you can play?

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Checkout 100 through 91 first here.

Checkout 90 through 81 here.

Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 80-71

80 – Star Wars: Rebellion

Star Wars: Rebellion is a big Star Wars game with lots of fighting, dice chucking, but is really a game of cat and mouse. The empire is trying to find out where the rebel base is. The rebels are trying to complete missions and get the support of the people and undermine the empire. It really is a big game of cat and mouse which feels like the original trilogy.

The one downside to this game is how long it is. I do not mind that it’s two player only, you can play on teams but it’s two player only. But it’s a three hour game, now, that can be awesome a lot of the time. But you need to plan when you want to play Star Wars Rebellion.

Buy from Cool Stuff Inc

79 – Say Bye to the Villains

Say Bye to the Villains is an extremely tricky cooperative game. Players take on the roles of different Samurai who are preparing to takeout Yakuza. The plan is simple, but the game is tricky. It’s all about optimizing your character so that you can be the villain that you end up with. But you only have a limited amount of time and everything you do takes up time. Can you balance it building up your character, supporting the other players, and figuring out what the villains are up to. It almost comes down to the last villain and samurai being a coin flip as you just don’t know.

Buy from Amazon

78 – The Quacks of Quedlinburg

I like deck building and The Quacks of Quedlinburg gives some of that feel. But it is really a push your luck bag building game. You start out with your potion that you’re trying to make and it’s mainly lousy ingredients. You can’t push too far because you’ll bust. Of course, busting isn’t the end of the world, it gives you either money or points, you just can’t get both. As you get money you spend it to get even more ingredients to your bag which means that you can push even farther.

The strategy in this game is surprisingly good. And I really appreciate that about it because there is a lot of luck. But you can build up your bag so that it combos off each other. Where you can score more points if you don’t push your luck, just in case you bust.

Buy from Cool Stuff Inc

77 – Point Salad

Point Salad is another game that is pretty simple, you either take two veggies or a scoring card, but has good strategy. You need to pay attention to what everyone else is doing around you. Because as vegetables are taken, that flips cards off the decks. But on the back of those cards are scoring cards. It’s easy to play, but gives you that good decision of not knowing if you should risk leaving a scoring card, or will get get flipped. A nice filler length game at lower player counts. I think I prefer it at 2-4 and less often 4 because it makes the game longer and more random.

Buy from Miniature Market

76 – Metro X

I actually stayed at the table, after my stream last night, and played some Metro X. This is a roll and write game where you are filling in bus routes. But the bus routes cross each other, and that can be great. It means that you might fill in multiple spots on a route. Or it can be lousy, because you might want to put a big number onto a route, but you can’t as it’s been split.

Metro X is a good example of a puzzle roll and write. You need to figure out the optimal way to fill in everything. But also a roll and write that limits the complexity. You just fill in spots on the routes. Each bus can have a limited number of numbers used on that route. Because of the randomness it can be frustrating sometimes, but everyone is dealing with that.

Not Available

75 – Kohaku

Kohaku is a relaxing game of building out your Koi pond to score as many points as possible. You draft or select tiles form a pool of koi and scoring tiles taking adjacent ones. And then you add them anywhere to your koi pond. The only thing is koi can’t be by koi and scoring can’t be by scoring. I find this game to be relaxing. The tiles are beautiful dual layer that gives it that watery depth. And while I try and win, it isn’t a game that is so intense that it feels like everything is pressure filled each decision.

Buy on Miniature Market

74 – Calico

Another pretty game, Calico is not as calm as Kohaku. In fact, the puzzle of trying to play everything in is stressful. You need to think about scoring for buttons, cats, and your own objectives. And you really want whatever patch you’re adding to your calico quilt to help you in multiple ways. But as you play down and fill in your quilt, your options become less and less. And I like that tension of can you get the right tile to complete maybe two of your scoring objectives. Or will you need to settle or less?

The game is simple though. You play one of two tiles to your quilt. Then you replenish with one of three tiles, that is it. But each decision you make matters a ton in the scoring of the game.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

73 – My City

We’ll see how long My City sticks on this list, mainly because it’s a legacy game. And legacy games slowly drift down over time, I’ve found, the further I get away from playing them. But right now, I’m still in the midst of My City and it is great.

My City is a tile laying game where everyone is putting down the same shaped tile every turn. But there are new rules each time that come up. And you want to cover up open areas the best you can, but also build up groups of buildings that are the same type. And it adds more and more to the game without making it longer than a 15-20 minute game. Highly recommend this one as a light legacy experience.

Buy on GameNerdz

72 – Roll Player

Roll Player is another drafting game on the list. This one is dice drafting. And you are picking the dice to get them for your RPG character. The concept of the game takes one fun part of role playing games, building a character, and really focuses in on that.

Each attribute, standard ones for Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder, has a power that goes with it. It might make it cheaper to buy equipment. Or it might let you flip a die in order to push your stats higher. It’s a really fun game that I need to get around to building my insert for it. Because once you have everything, it is a bit difficult to get it to the table.

Buy on GameNerdz

71 – Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game

Wrapping up this section is technically two games. I went with my favorite/harder to find of the two in Battlestar Galactica, but this is also Unfathomable. Both of them are big hidden traitor, social deduction games of trying to get to some final location.

I do not like social deduction. In fact, I’d say with high confidence that there is only one other one on the list. But BSG and Unfathomable work because there is so much more game going on. You are fighting off monsters, whether it’s deep ones or Cylons. And there is just a lot going on with a lot of challenges that happen in the game. All the while trying to figure out who might be the one(s) who are traitors. And at the start of the game, it might be someone, but by the end, there will be for sure.

Buy Unfathomable on Miniature Market

Upcoming Streams

First off, reminder that there is no stream tomorrow. I am out of town so no stream happening. I think the following Wednesday will be the finale of my Stars of Akarios live streaming. With likely Chronicles of Drunagor hitting the table next.

And next Monday, the Top 100 games are going to continue. 70 through 61 in my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2022 Edition. You can find the link to that video below. Join me live, chat about the games hitting the list, which are your favorites, or which you want to try.

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Top 10 Campaign Games

10 – Marvel Champions: The Mad Titan’s Shadow

I had to put one of the campaign boxes onto this list for Marvel Champions. There are a number of them, a Spider-Man one, a Red Skull one, Guardians of the Galaxy, soon to be Mutants as well. But I went with The Mad Titan’s Shadow just because that box feels the most epic. And I can take anyone into that one and it makes sense thematically.

I’ve heard that these are lighter campaigns which is not a bad thing. It means that I could and maybe will, set it up sometime and just play it over a few evenings. And you know I’m going to be running Thor up against them, or maybe Doctor Strange. There are enough characters know that it might actually be a tricky decision.

9 – Massive Darkness 2

I picked this one up because it did have a campaign. And I want to get it to the table, at least for scenarios fairly soon. I like that you level up a lot in this game, and the minis are cool, the classes are cool, the weapons are cool.

Plus, this is also a lighter game. You don’t need to know nearly as much how to play it as some of the other games on the list. That means that even if I don’t play it as a campaign soon, it’s probably one I can sit down and knock out a scenario with some friends easily in an evening.

8 – Reichbusters: Projekt Vril

One that I also need to sort some more, which is why I haven’t played it yet. Reichbusters came out with an errata pack for improved card wording and rules. But because that was coming, I waited on playing it. Now I own it and, well, I need to sort the cards in.

This is going to be a game of sneaking into enemy base and trying to stop their experiments. Think kind of Howling Commandos vs Hydra, if I were to take it over to Marvel. There are crazy experiments going on, and monsters you need to fight. But every mission has an objective and if you’re too noisy, well, things are going to go sideways for you fast and you’ll get swarmed. So it’s not a guns blazing game, which I think sounds interesting.

7 – Betrayal Legacy

I did put a few legacy games on the list. Legacy games are campaign games too, and it surprised me a little bit, but the one at the bottom of that is Betrayal Legacy. I love Betrayal at House on the Hill, even with it’s wonky scenarios and problems with sometimes the traitor being too strong, sometimes the other characters. And I want to see what the legacy one has to offer.

I am really curious about the legacy aspect of it. You play as a family versus a character coming back generation after generation. I want to know how that plays out in the game. I think it could offer some cool game options and ways to progress and tell a bit story.

6 – Descent: Legends of the Dark

Moving back to just a campaign game, we have Descent: Legends of the Dark from Fantasy Flight Games. This is going to be their Descent, but not third edition, game, of exploring tiles, fighting monsters, and interacting on the map.

Like a lot of bigger Fantasy Flight games in recent history, Mansions of Madness, Journeys in Middle-Earth, and Star Wars: Imperial Assault, there is an app piece. I like it for this game, it was a bit much in Journeys in Middle-Earth, but in Descent it offers some fog of war. It is in that category of games like Massive Darkness 2 for me. It looks like a blast to play as a fun dice chucking game.

5 – Folklore: The Affliction

Now moving into another bigger game, and I think the top 5, with the exception of the legacy ones, are the heaviest of the campaign games that I own, at least right now. Of course there are more coming in. But Folklore: The Affliction is going to be a game that borrows a lot from pen and paper RPG’s. You roll more than a standard six sided die. And that is intriguing to me.

Plus, I like that it’s a darker setting. I don’t need all my fantasy to be grim and dark, but sometimes that is what I want. And since I always am the Dungeon Master for D&D, I believe that it’ll give me that RPG feel without me needing to be in charge of everything. Though, if I paly it solo, I will be, but I’ll be doing the same thing as the players.

4 – Aeon’s End: Legacy of Gravehold

Another Legacy game and this one just came in from Indie Boards & Cards. I played through the first Aeon’s End Legacy on stream. And I had a blast with that game. Plus, just in general I really like Aeon’s End, so much so that I keep on backing and tracking down everything for it.

Legacy of Gravehold is going to be another legacy campaign. Where I knew a little bit of the campaign for the original Aeon’s End Legacy, I know nothing about the story this time. I just know that the box is bigger and heavier. That probably means more cards, but I’m hoping for more story as well.

3 – Clank! Legacy

And the other legacy game is Clank! Legacy. This one is higher for me just because I want to play it with some friends. I love the Acquisitions Inc theme on it as their game play is hilarious. And I suspect that the humor in the game will be great as well. Plus, I like the system that it is built upon. I prefer Clank! In! Space! to Clank I think, but the legacy version with the fantasy theme, I’m still there for it.

This is a deck building push your luck game. You are going into it trying to complete missions and get treasures. And it’s competitive in that you are trying to be the best so that you can end up with the franchise within Acquisitions Inc. I have to imagine that the whole of the story is going to be goofy, and it sounds like there is a lot to unlock so that is exciting as well.

2 -Middara: Unintentional Malum

A huge box with two more huge boxes on the way. I give that as my excuse for not getting it to the table sooner, I want Acts II and III to show up as well. But really, it’s just such a table hog and such a big game, I am not sure that I want to play it solo, but I really do want to play it.

Middara has more of an anime style to it’s game look. The artwork, and from what I can tell, the world building and story look fairly anime. It is going to be a leveling up, dice chunking, monster fighting, dungeon crawling game. And I think it’s going to be one that I find to be a lot of fun to get to the table and play. But like I said, I suspect the game would work best with four players, or two players controlling two characters each.

1 – Stars of Akarios

Call me cult of the new if you want, and it’d be fair in this case. But I am excited to plays Stars of Akarios. This is a big space exploration and adventure game. What really intrigues me is how it is split into two parts. There is that space exploration and then you can be down on an planet as well. That is intriguing.

It also looks like it uses a combination of cards for modifying your attacks and things but also uses dice. And just the production quality on the game is great. While it is a big game, compared to some of the others, it looks like it should be easier to play solo. And I want to get it to the table and play it on Malts and Meeples.

Final Thoughts

I say this almost any time I talk about a campaign game. And I feel like I can redo this list in different ways pretty often. But I have a lot of them coming in. 15 more campaign games in fact, which is a lot. Now some can be played as more of a one off situation such as Primal: The Awakening. Otherwise might be smaller sit down and play a campaign of it in a sitting, Spire’s End: Hildegard. But most of them are going to be much much bigger than that.

Just to show everything that is coming, and there is a lot, in alphabetical order, we have:

1. The 7th Citadel
2. Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread
3. Chronicles of Drunagor
4. Divinus
5. Ehterfields
6. Frosthaven
7. HEL: The Last Saga
8. ISS Vanguard
9. Mythwind
10. Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood
11. Primal: The Awakening
12. Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies
13. Spire’s End: Hildegard
14. Valor & Villainy: Lludwik’s Labyrinth
15. Vampire: The Masquerade – Chapters

What campaign games do you own, if any, that you want to get played?

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For example, when I first got into board games and figured out that I loved deck building games, for example, I would get really excited about every new one that came out. Or the same thing with campaign games on Kickstarter, when I started on Kickstarter, I wanted to back all of them. Now, I try and be more discerning.

What Changed?

When you first get into the board game hobby, everything looks exciting and new. And this is generally the case for any hobby. But you buy a game, whether it’s Cards Against Humanity or Gloomhaven. You fall in love with the game. Then, any game that comes out that says it’s like that favorite game, you buy.

And then, over time, you look at your collection. You realize that you have six campaign games. You play two of them, and the other four are just sitting there. And you know on Kickstarter that you already have another four coming. When will you get to them?

Then, you play more games. You find more that you like, and you realize that even though a game compares itself to Cards Against Humanity or Gloomhaven, it isn’t as fun. This is the change that happens. You start to realize that you don’t need every game of a given genre.

Is This A Bad Thing?

For your wallet and for you, the answer is no. You don’t need every game that is like Gloomhaven. No one has the time for that. Even if you are a content creator who just does campaign games, and that is your full time job, it’ll take ages to get through all the games.

I look at the campaign game that I’ve played, between the four I’ve gotten through, not counting legacy games like Pandemic Legacy Season 1 (twice) and 2, Charterstone, Seafall, Aeon’s End, and Risk Legacy. But between Tainted Grail, Gloomhaven, and Sword & Sorcery, I probably have 300-350 hours into campaign games. Which is a ton of time. So being pickier with a campaign game is not a bad thing.

But Does That Hurt My Excitement for Board Games?

Yes, it does hurt it. But not in a bad way. A worse way to hurt ones excitement for board games would be to end up with such a daunting pile of games that you no longer want to play them. That it becomes too intimidating to pull anything off of the shelf. Or that it feels like work trying to keep up with everything new and exciting that is coming out.

I’m in a unique spot that I want to get in more new games to cover for Nerdologists.com and Malts and Meeples. But if I were just a normal person playing games, not doing this coverage, I don’t need to do that. And even for myself, I want to take more of a “just in time” approach with new games.

Doesn’t always work, sometimes I order something like Massive Darkness 2 with no plans for when I’ll play it. But generally I am trying to order games or buy them, right before I’ll play them. Crowdfunding is a clear exception to this. Generally you can’t get those right before you want it. But for retail games, I think to help stop burnout or even to help with being pickier, buying on demand can be the best plan.

Final Thoughts Excitement with Board Games

I think it’s easy to get burned out in a bad way. Especially if you are reading this. Why, because often times it means that you are following a lot of content. I know I watch The Dice Tower, Foster the Meeple, Tablenauts, BoardGameCo, Quackalope, GloryHoundd, and others. And I don’t watch all their stuff. But it can be a lot to keep up on and so many new games that you can learn about.

So, play more games. Have fun playing games, because that is the key. If it feels like there are too many, start becoming more selective on what you buy. Buy just in time. And limit how much content you consume. I recommend mine, obviously, but don’t just watch everything. Especially when it comes to previews. Maybe that’ll be a topic for the future, reviews versus previews.

But do you ever find yourself losing excitement over all of the new games coming out?

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What’s A Legacy Game?

A Legacy game is a non-replayable campaign game. Basically you are possibly unlocking rules, changing the state of the game board, character boards, or components of the game as you play through a series of games. The experience of the game is mainly going to be contained in those plays of the game. Some are not playable after the fact and some are playable. And a lot of them have you destroy game components.

So, for some examples, Pandemic Legacy unlocks new rules as you play through up to 24 games, once you are done, there are no rules to continue playing because it wouldn’t be easy to play base Pandemic on that board. Charterstone on the other hand you can play after the fact. As you unlock rules, you end up with a game that is customized on the board but that you can play again. Gloomhaven is not really a legacy game because while you put stickers on the board, the game is completely resettable with minimal effort or you can easily ignore what is on the board.

What Do I Look For In A Legacy Game?

1. Good Mechanics
2. Evolving Mechanics
3. Story
4. Unlocking New Content/Story
5. Unlocking or changing state mid game session
6. Unique Characters

Good Mechanics

This basically means that I want a fun game. If the game doesn’t work, isn’t balanced or isn’t fun, I don’t want play it. While I pay attention whenever anyone puts the word Legacy on a board game, I still want it to be a good game. This will obviously differ for people depending on taste, I might not like a euro legacy game as well, for example, but you might be. So good overall game play that is fun.

Evolving Mechanics

I also want the game play to change over time. If I start with the game and nothing changes except adding a few stickers to the board, I’d be less interested in it. As much as I want story in a game, for a legacy game, how I play needs to change as well. This can be different objectives, but I like it when they add in rules.

Story

So, I just mentioned story, I want an interesting story in the game. Both Pandemic Legacy and Aeon’s End Legacy might not have a ton of story to read, but you get it from the game and from the cards in the legacy deck. But the story also needs to make sense. For Seafall the story is too scattered and in Chartertone, it is less story more just random text with tiny choices on them. So give me a story that makes sense, and just enough to keep things moving.

Unlocking New Content/Story

Obviously, I want to unlock new things as well. I like it when I can unlock new pieces for the game. Pandemic Legacy has some great moments across all the games where it just says, here is something new. Aeon’s End Legacy gives you story and moments where things change, you open up something new and there are different cardboard tiles that you use. But also just additional story, stopping and reading a card, or discarding a card you won’t read are a lot of fun.

Unlocking Or Changing Mid Game Session

I also really like when that story happens during the game. This isn’t something that I need, but something I prefer. I like when I stop and open a box or read some story cards during the middle of the game. There is just something exciting knowing you unlock something new. The idea that when you start a session the story might be different or how you play might be different by the time you end.

Unique Characters

Finally, I like feeling as if I am unique in a game. This is generally true, but I think it helps out a lot with legacy games. It is one spot where you can add in stickers, powers, give new or more options and you feel like you are different. I generally want this in a game though. If I am playing a character, give me something unique to do. And I appreciate it when I can become more unique as I go.

Are All Criteria Equally as Important?

No, I don’t know that all of them are. For me the story, the game play being fun, and the progression of the mechanics are what is most important to me. I think the unique character gives it a cooler factor to what is going on. Also, stopping mid game to unlock something is really cool as well. But I don’t think that is a requirement for a good legacy game. Aeon’s End Legacy is a good legacy game but doesn’t unlock anything during the middle of a game.

Let’s Do An Example

We’re actually flipping the script from sometimes, and I’m going to go with Seafall, a legacy game that I thought was okay at best and sometimes just bad. Let’s see what that one got wrong from my list, or got right.

Good Mechanics

To start off, we are going to go with a negative here. The base mechanics of the game are fine. They are fairly luck dependent on rolling dice, and really too much so. The level of mitigation just wasn’t there. So things that took a while to work towards could just be destroyed really quickly. And other things, that you developed throughout the game could just be there for points and you’d never use their ability.

Evolving Mechanics

Now, they did add mechanics throughout the game. But I’m not sure that the ones they added in were that great. The base mechanics of the game stayed the same. So as the board became bigger and you pushed out further in your exploration, everything just took longer. So while we got new advisors, new decks of cards to use, and new islands to go to with new symbols and spots on them, they didn’t evolve in an interesting way.

Story

This is also a negative. The story was supposed to be an interesting pirate story. And I think that it could have been. However, the story was all over the place. You would explore a location and get random story. It was only the few times when you opened up something big that you’d get a big chunk of new story.

Unlocking New Story/Mechanics

That actually brings me to the next one here, how it unlocked. We got a major piece of story and then got the hints of that major piece of story after the fact. Because you could pick the passage for the type of spot you explored, story was not really in order. And because of that, unlocking story was weird. It was also weird how you could unlock three things in one game and then nothing for the next five. There was no progression between games really.

Unlocking or Changing Mid Game Session

This it got right, actually. You unlocked a lot of big stuff during the game. In fact, sometimes you could unlock a lot of it, which made already long games go even that much longer. That wouldn’t have been that big a deal, if the game had been very interesting. But you had a chance to progress story and find out cool things as you played.

Unique Characters

Finally, I think they did a solid job with this. Everyone started out with their own ability. You got to keep an advisor as well. But unlike something like Aeon’s End Legacy or even Pandemic Legacy, you never really built it that much further. It was basically how you built out your ships, which could have been interesting, but it wasn’t. I wanted to upgrade my town as well, not by just giving me an extra point, but letting me keep a building. Make the buildings harder to get but when you get them, you get to keep them.

Seafall almost was a great game. There were just too many things that got in the way of it. And it was also a game that said it was for a lot of players and honestly, might have been best at two or three. Though, you’d get through the story way slower. I think there is a good game potentially hidden in there, but it needed more focus overall.

Will This Work For You?

I think, like the campaign one, that this actually works pretty well. Keep in mind that all parts aren’t made equally. If the game is good and engaging then it’s more interesting and I’m willing to put up with less in other areas. But generally, I want to feel a consistent sense of progression throughout the game.

What is your favorite legacy game? Or do you not play legacy games?

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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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Formula D

Formula D, if my last Malts and Meeples video had audio, you’d know is a racing game that I want to see a legacy version of. It is based off of a Formula 1 style racing and has a ton of different tracks. I think I have six different tracks for it right now. I can almost do a campaign right now. Right now, I can race all the tracks and assign points for how people finish. The better you do or more consistently you do, then you’ll win it all.

How I’d Make It Work

The legacy element is generally the most challenging for a game. How do you add in new things to make the game change and grow? While it doesn’t have to be a major player in the game, I feel like there are interesting things that could be added. There are a few things that come to mind:

• Adding in weather for changing track conditions
• Fighting over sponsorships
• Crew and driver upgrades

Really only the upgrades to crew and driver would give it a legacy feel to it. I think that you’d be able to use it as a campaign style game as well. You can play the legacy version learning and unlocking the new things as you go. But once you are done, all the drivers and crew have a generic non-upgraded side that you can use for a campaign, so you can race season after season.

Homebrewers

This one might seem a little bit odd because it’s a small and light game about brewing beer. The main mechanic, however, is engine building. And I think that it could lead to some clever legacy elements as you play, more in the style of Charterstone where the story is less important than the mechanics. The unique character powers and ingredients that you use would be the focal point of the legacy element.

How I’d Make It Work

I hinted at it already, it is all about the player boards and ingredient cards. You would be brewing through several years worth of competitions and there’d be basic stuff, like much equipment for brewing you had or what your basic special power is that are there from the beginning. Then there would be a few legacy elements to drive it.

• Ingredients
• Brew Set-up
• Special Power
• Judging

So the big three are those upgrading of cards or player boards. You could unlock better scoring for further into your brews by upgrading the cleanliness of your set-up. Or you could improve how your special power works so it is even better. And upgrading ingredients would give them a more powerful affect like giving you more money, moving up on a different track better or further, something like that.

But the game would be driven by the judging. Think of it as following the current beer trends. The judges one year would want all IPA’s, that would give you the most points, and maybe savory ingredients to add to the beer. But you’d get that one judge, the one who has their finger on the future pulse, who is also interested in stouts or fruit. That way you know what might be coming up for what to keep or plan for the next year.

Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade

Of course I found a way to put a roll and write game in here. I love roll and write games, but it was harder than it might seem. A lot of roll and write games are very abstract. Super-Skill Pinball is one of the roll and writes that is least abstracted. For that reason, it is easier to see how it could become a legacy game.

How I’d Make It Work

It is going to have to be completely about scoring the most on each board. And in the base game there are four boards, so would it just be a four game legacy game? I don’t think it would be. You likely won’t get your best score the first time around. So instead, I would make it 8 to 12 total games.

• Trick Shots
• Special Powers

The idea behind trick shots is that you can unlock shots that you are better at. Shots you do one time per game and generally will get you out of a stick situation. Think of hitting the same bumper twice. Something like that would build upon how you can play and score. But a one time power isn’t going to break the game completely, it’ll just enhance a ball.

The special powers, those are going to be a bigger deal. You unlock them as you play and then upgrade them. These are the unique player powers that will give you more options in what you can do. An ability might be something like “The Tilter” where you can avoid a tilt more times. Or someone could get a small tilt and they never have to worry about a tilt of a difference of 1, which allows them to micromanage their game more.

Eventually, the best combined score on all four boards is the winner, but if you win on a board you can still feel good about being the best there.

Zona: The Secret of Chernobyl

This game pits you against other players as you fight monsters, race against the game, and try to be first to unlock the secret of Chernobyl. And I think it’d be a cool legacy game. Mainly because there can be a number of things, story objectives, that you can play around with. This is like Pandemic Legacy in that way, instead of going for points, it is the first person to kill seven monsters at first, keeping it very simple. Then the story unfolds about what has happened and changed the lands until you are diving into the depth of Chernobyl, trying not to die, and eventually save the lands. Of course, keeping the competitive nature of the game.

How I’d Make It Work,

I gave some hints up above, but I like this one as an objective story driven experience. Whereas the rest might create story and moments as you play, they aren’t going to be as story driven. This one is going to have you doing more and more as you try and survive the harsh lands game after game after game. Of course, there are other legacy elements as well.

• Character Upgrades
• Changing Objectives
• Items You Can Keep
• Emerging Story

I definitely see there being a ton of story potential. But there is more than that. I always go back to making unique characters or character powers. In this case you choose the area to upgrade in. You upgrade stats, health, and of course give yourself more unique powers. You can be a better killing machine or ignore that to get better at delving into the ruins. To add in with that, you can upgrade how much you can carry between games, so can keep more items or different items that you find along the way.

Galaxy Trucker

This one is an odd one, but one that I think would be awesome to have as a legacy game. In this game you are building ships in real time to fly through space, pick up cargo, and sell it. All the while, your ship is being bombarded by meteorites, attacked by pirates and generally falling apart. The whole feel of the game is that you slap the ship together and see what happens and then repeat the process. Which sounds odd for legacy, but I think could work.

How I’d Make It Work

Like I said, this one is an odd one. But there do seem to be a few areas that you could turn this into a legacy game, one of the biggest is adding in captains. Captains are going to be your main way to upgrade your ship. You upgrade them, get extra energy for your engines, shields or guns, or maybe you can fit more aliens or people onto your ship. That’s the first big way.

• Unique Captains
• Unlock new ship tech/tiles
• New Threats

The basics of the game would stay the same, but it would just add in complexity as you go along. That is the hallmark for most legacy games. Since you are grabbing tiles as fast as you can, this would just unlock new tiles as you go. It’d almost do unlocks more like Risk Legacy you could go a couple of games without having something unlock but when certain conditions are met, like half the ship falling off or delivering 30 credits worth of stuff, new threats and tiles would get unlocked. Also like Risk Legacy, I’d just track winners, not points, so the person who wins the most wins the game.

Which Would You Want To Play?

I need to ask myself that question as well. Which one would I like to play the most as a legacy game. I think it is going to be Formula D, that game you could pretty easily turn into a campaign game already and I’ve had that thought for a while that it could work that way. But Zona: The Secret of Chernobyl is super high as well. I think from a story perspective that would be the best one from them all. I am mainly just shocked there isn’t a legacy racing game out there.

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Why You Wouldn’t

There are obviously some reasons that you’d be unlikely to play campaign games again. A lot of them tell a story that is important to the game play as you go along. Once you know the story, it won’t be fresh or new again. You will see parts of the story over again even if the story does have some branching narrative paths. And that removes some of the fun of the game knowing what is coming up.

You also might have more campaign games to play. Honestly, this is what will keep me from revisiting something like Gloomhaven with another group soon. I have a lot of other campaign games to get through from Tainted Grail that I’m playing now to Reichbusters and Apocrpyha on the shelf now, and games like Middara, Frosthaven, and Oathsworn coming in probably this year. So it isn’t like I’ll be running out of games to play in the genre.

Why You Would

Now, there are reasons to again. I talk about how you might have seen a lot of the story, but you won’t have seen all of it. For example, I have played the first chapter of Tainted Grail 5 times now, twice solo, and then two different groups three times. I know I haven’t seen everything. I know that the group that I have played it twice with, I’ve done different things than before. So if the story is highly engaging and offers a wide variety, then there is reason to go back through it.

Mechanically if the game is interesting I’m more tempted to go back through it as well. For example, Gloomhaven, I love how that game works mechanically. I love the card play in it. I see going back to it eventually if my kid grows up to like board games. It is a big game, but it’d be something to share experience over, or if I have another group of players who really want to play it. I won’t get bored, even though I’ve seen a lot of story, playing through it again, because there are still classes I haven’t played.

Finally, bonding, board games are something that bring people together. And a campaign game can bring a group of people together more consistently. It is like Dungeons and Dragons that way, you can set-up a standing time where you play. It grows friendships and gives people a reason to get out and see people, which in Minnesota in the winter, you sometimes need. That is why I tried to keep it going, and we did a solid job of it, throughout the pandemic playing on TableTop Simulator or games via Zoom.

What Games Would I Wouldn’t I Play Again?

I think it might be useful to talk about the campaign games that I have played, the two I’ve finished and the one I’m going through now and see if I’d play them again and why. It is easy to explain that there are cool things about them, or I really like them, but is that enough to keep them around.

Tainted Grail

Let us start with the one that I’m playing. Mechanically the game is solid, but that isn’t the reason I have played it so many times. Some of it, thus far, is because it is hard. But the story is the element that really draws me back to it. I know, like I said, that there is more yet to find in that game. We finally made it to chapter four last night, and I’m seeing all sorts of new things that I didn’t know about before. I am going to new locations on the island of Avalon and fighting new monsters. For Tainted Grail that openness of the world and story is what keep me coming back to it.

Sword & Sorcery

Now, I sold this game, it might give you a hint. There are two things that kept me from wanting to come back to it. The story itself is fun, but it doesn’t branch much. So you play the story once, you know what will happen. And mechanically, it is a bit lacking at times as well. I love leveling up, getting new abilities, and fighting in new ways. But that doesn’t happen that often. So it ends up being the same thing, find a monster, use an ability, aim, and attack. You roll dice, and it’s just the same combos over and over. It is just missing that umph that Tainted Grail has.

Gloomhaven

Finally, Gloomhaven, that one is my #1 game of all time. It is staying in my collection, and I would gladly play it again. It doesn’t have the most in depth and branching story. But what it does well is give you enough story to keep it interesting. And it gives you a ton in it’s game play. Mechanically with all the different classes you can play, it is so much fun. We saw all of them in my play through, but I haven’t played all of them. So Gloomhaven gives you a lot to go back to, and you can just play randomly generated scenarios as well, which is cool.

Would you go back to a campaign game? What has made you go back if you have before? What do you look for in one that you think you might go back to?

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• These are my favorite, you want what people consider best, see the Board Game Geek Top 100
• If a game you love isn’t on the list, it might be be coming, I might not have played it, and if I have, it’s 101
• If a game looks cool, I have links to buy it from CoolStuffInc or Amazon, or you can grab most at your FLGS
• There are a few games, Destiny 2 Player versus regular Destiny where if they are basically the same thing, I only do one of them

80. Lift Off! Get me off this Planet!

This game has the honor of being the first game that I backed on Kickstarter. When I backed it, I did so without really having the gaming collection that I have no or the experience gaming, I just thought that the game looked fun, and, well, I was right. This game is pretty simple, you move around aliens to get them off the planet, but there is some challenge, because you need the right stuff to get them off the planet, and you need the moon to be in the right phase to get them off the planet at certain locations. So while the game is simple and very cute, there is some strategy, there is some timing, because if you don’t have enough resources placed at the right time for the launch, you might have to wait for the moon to travel around again. The game looks great on the table, and while it’s not one that I pull out and play a ton, it is a fun one to play.

Last Year: Not Ranked

79. Codenames: Pictures

Now, you will not see Codenames on the list, I’ve come around on it a little bit, but I don’t enjoy Codenames that much. Linking the words can be done, but there are some issues with it, people need to know all the words and all the possible meanings/slang for the words to really make it work. With Codenames: Pictures, there are just a whole lot more interesting ways to connect the pictures. It makes the game faster, a bit easier, but also has more memorable moments and memorable clues where you can get a lot of answers. Codenames: Pictures just has more of the party feel to the game for the weight that it’s at and I like it for that.

Last Year: 75

78. Dead Men Tell No Tales

I’m a big fan of cooperative games, and Dead Men Tell No Tales is a fun pirate themed one where you are going onto a cursed and burning pirate ship to try and grab all the treasure and leave before the ship burns and you get cut off from either the treasure or your escape. The game can get to you in a lot of ways with the fire, the guardians, the skeletal crew and just a nice challenging feel that has a bit more going on than base Pandemic, so is a bit less of a gateway game. But if you have someone in your life who likes games and pirates, and is even just familiar with modern gaming, this is a really enjoyable game. Not one of the cooperative games that gets played most often, but one I like quite well.

Last Year: 81

77. King of Tokyo

When we talk about gateway games, King of Tokyo has to be one of them that comes up. It uses a Yahtzee style dice rolling in a fun way as you all take on the roll of monsters who are battling it out over Tokyo. The game plays fast and you can either win by knocking out all the other monsters (the most fun way), or by getting points (also fun, but less punching). You can improve what you do by getting power and buying cards. And you can go into Tokyo where you can punch everyone, but the issue is everyone can then punch you. The game is fast, it’s pretty silly, and while there is player elimination, that rarely happens and then the game continues for a long time. Overall, just a fun gateway game that works best at the higher player counts.

Last Year: 37

76. Sword & Sorcery

I promise you this isn’t the only dungeon crawler on the list. It’s the first just because compared to some of the others on the list, the story isn’t as interesting. But there are some parts of the game that I really like. I like the leveling up mechanic and I like that you have two sides to each character. It makes the game feel like I could play it again with the same characters and it would play differently. And this is a true Amerithrash game where you have a big handful of dice for an attack or defense and you better roll well or you might be in trouble. And while the game has a massive rulebook and a few trickier rule things, like who a boss monster might target and how that changes, the game is actually pretty easy, you just move, explore, and fight basically, and fighting is done with the dice. I wish the story felt like it had more choices to it, but that’s about my only knock on it.

Last Year: 25

75. Skull

A very different type of game than most on my list, this is a push your luck bluffing game. Each player has a hand full of cards, a bunch of roses and a skull. Players take turns putting down a card in their own stack, face down, until someone bids on how many cards they can flip over without hitting a skull. The trick to it is that you have to flip over all of your own cards first. So if you’ve placed your skull in your stack, can you bid, just to push someone else’s bid higher so that they’ll hit yours and bust, or will you bust yourself because you’ll be stuck flipping over your own skull. There’s some interesting strategy in how you play and how you bid, but really it’s about reading the other players at the table to figure out what they’ve done.

Last Year: 99

74. Risk Legacy

First Legacy game on the list and just first overall legacy game in the hobby. While this game doesn’t have the story that the more modern ones do or try to have, the game play is still a lot of fun. It’s risk, but there’s more, you aren’t just fighting over the world, you’re fighting over bases and you’re trying to complete missions and if you can pull them off, you get victory points and the first person to hit the victory point threshold wins. Plus, all of the factions are different. And you get to decide how they are different as you add stickers to them, so you can make them better at attacking or better at defending, or maybe you get more troops to start. There’s all sorts of different strategies that you can take, but it still feels like classic Risk for the most part, it just goes much faster. Overall a fun time especially if you like Risk but can’t play it too often because it lasts too long.

Last Year: 79

73. Pandemic Legacy Season 2

Back to back legacy games, Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 is a bit further down on my list than Pandemic Legacy Season 1. I think that it tries to do a lot of new and different things, and while I think it does most of them well, it bogs down a little bit with all the new things you need to learn. That said, for being quite different than Season 1 and base Pandemic in what you’re trying to do, the mechanics seem really familiar and can get going on the base game quickly, there’s just a twist on to everything. So if you haven’t just gone from one type of Pandemic to the other, you’ll probably be able to pick up on those changes quickly. The story is very interesting, and there is a lot of legacy content in the game.

Last Year: 84

72. Betrayal at Baldur’s Gate

I like all of the Betrayal games, this one is just a bit further down on the list, because while I like the D&D theme to the game, it just doesn’t seem as epic and as good a thematic fit as horror does. This one does have some cool features though, class powers are awesome. I like that about 1/5 of the scenarios have no betrayer, there is just some monster or something that you have to do as a group, that makes it easier to keep track off since some of the haunts (betrayals) can be a bit tricky to understand and if you’re the betrayer you don’t have anyone to ask. They also fix an issue that can arise in the regular game where the haunt happens too fast. It’s still swingy and tricky to understand all the haunts, but I like it a lot and I like the silly random moments that you can have in the game, and the great rolls or the horrible rolls you can have.

Last Year: 35

71. Magic: The Gathering

By far the biggest game on the list, and actually a game that I have sold most of what I have for it, because I don’t have a consistent group to play with for the past few years. But I still really like the game. I especially like playing EDH (Commander). I never got into the competitive magic scene, but for more casual play and people not busting the bank buying stuff, I think it’s a lot of fun. I really can get into the deck building because you can come up with all sorts of odd and interesting combos and for me coming up with something odd and seeing if it can work is a blast. I like to try strange strategies and see if they’ll work or build a whole deck off of the concept of flipping and coin and see what happens with that and how well that’ll work. A few years ago this would have been higher, it’s just not one that I’m sure I’ll get to play that often anymore.

Last Year: 60

A whole lot of moving and shaking on my list. I think some of that is because, or the ones that are dropping, I like another game that does something similar that much better so it takes a bit of a hit. At least that is what I’m guessing. Still, I was a bit surprised to see a few of the games having dropped as far as they did from the 20’s and 30’s. Still really enjoy those games, just might not be the ones I pull off the shelf to scratch that game playing itch.

What is your favorite from this part of the list?

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