Catch up on my Top 100 Games (of all Time) 2023 Edition:

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41
40 through 31
30 through 21
20 through 11

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2023 Edition – 10 through 1

10. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

Let’s start off with Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game at #10 this year. Detective is deduction game where you and your teammates are trying to solve cases. The base box comes with five cases that take about 2-3 hours each. And you’re up against the clock, in the game, to solve everything and figure out what answers you need as you get quizzed on what happened and the who, what, and why of the case at the end. Plus little details that you might have missed or you can piece together.

This is like a crime television drama. I don’t love watching those, but playing in one is amazing. You actually get to put together deduction skills and piece together what happened. Sometimes it’s easy, and other times it is hard, but it’s always worth it.

And this game does a good job using technology as you play. Part of how you get information is interacting with a computer and a database to pull up details that might already exist on the case. Or it might be details that already exist on people in the case. It really helps make Detective into a great immersive experience.

Buy Detective

9. The Great Split

Next up we have The Great Split, a new game to the list and one that does a single thing well. In The Great Split, it is primarily an “I split, you choose” game. What does that mean? It means that I have a group of cards and I put them into two groups. You pick one of those groups and I get the other one back. Then we both use them for scoring, which is what everyone is doing at the same time. So, I love the simplicity and simultaneous nature of the game play.

Plus the scoring is nice in the game as well as it isn’t too difficult or too easy. What it mainly is, is pushing up on on tracks for artwork, literature, gems, and money. And each of them is going to score in a different way. Some of them score with how well you are doing against a market or against a scoring track. Others score, the gems, with your lowest of the two gem tracks. So it’s figuring out what you want to go for, because that’s not all the scoring.

There is also contracts in the game. Those are on the tracks as well, but you have other tracks that you want to push up on. Because they make the contracts you have, loaning your art pieces out to museums and stuff like that, worth more. But if you’re pushing up on those tracks, you aren’t on the main scoring tracks, so it’s a really good balance. And all of that with very simple rules teach and very simple game play.

Buy The Great Split

8. Floriferous

Now we have Floriferous, a game that has made it’s way higher up on the list from last year. And some of that is what I redid how I thought about the list, some. I now put more stock into the games that I want to play all the time and do play often, as well as the ones that give me a great experience when I play them. Which is why there are fewer campaign games in the Top 10, though, don’t worry, their are still several.

But Floriferous is a drafting game of building up your best bouquet of flowers. But how you draft and how you know what you are scoring is what I love about the game. You lay out the cards to be drafted from at the start of the round. And then players take turns drafting from the first column of cards. Where you draft in that column then determines your drafting order for the next column. It makes for great decisions as decide to take a less ideal card to make sure you get the perfect card next column.

And then there is the scoring. A little of the scoring just exists at the start of the game. Most of what you score you need to draft. So I need to draft a card that says “2 points for all purple flowers”, for example. And I can do that, but the scoring cards are always at the bottom of the column. That means when I take a scoring card I’m going to be going last next round which is a choice, as I said above, that I really love.

Buy Floriferous

7. Planet Unknown

Next up we have Planet Unknown a terraforming, polyomino laying game. And it’s one that is not that hard to teach, if you have the game in front of you. But it does some very cool things, which I’ll get to in a second here. But the game is about filling up your planet with tiles, clearing out meteors that have hit your planet, and building up on various tracks of nature, water, technology, rover mobility, and civilization.

The game is able to be played in two ways. The first way is a simple generic way where everyone has the exact same thing. I think it is a solid system if everyone is learning the game, and you have new to gaming people in there. But once people know the system at all, flip over the boards and the groups going to the planets. That is when the fun begins as everyone is working a little bit differently and has their own ways and timings as they go up the tracks while still playing the same game.

And the one thing I haven’t touched on yet is how you pick your tiles. There is a lazy susan in the middle with all of the tiles on it. And on your turn, you turn the lazy susan to the side you want facing you so you get the tile that you want. It’s a tough decision, and then everyone else takes from the side facing them. Or at least kind of facing them, because they’ll have a marker, placed at the start of the game, that determines where they take from. I love that mechanism as I can get what I want, or I might choose to mess with you.

Late Pledge Planet Unknown

6. Lost Ruins of Arnak

Then we have Lost Ruins of Arnak. And this one I do want to specify that it is a top 10 game for me with the first expansion. The second expansion definitely keeps it up this high as well, but the first one is needed, in my opinion. It takes Lost Ruins of Arnak from a fun game to one of my top games of all time.

So how does it play, and why do I like the expansion so much. Well, at it’s heart, The Lost Ruins of Arnak is a resource management game of going out, collecting resources and turning them in to move up a research track. But there are a number of twists with it as well. Because I also am building up a deck of cards that let me do more actions or power up the actions that I do take. And I love that aspect to it.

So let’s talk about what the expansion adds and why I think Expedition Leaders is very important to the game. In Lost Ruins of Arnak, base game, everyone has the same camp, same workers, and same starting deck of cards. And there are two tracks which you can go up on. It’s fun. But Expedition Leaders says your camp, your cards, how many workers you have, all of that can be unique now. Because you have a leader that makes you unique and I really love that.

Buy The Lost Ruins of Arnak

5. Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition is the next game on the list coming in at #5. And it is one that I haven’t played in probably eight months. I really need to get it back to the the table. But I love this engine building game and another game about terraforming a planet, but this time, I’d say, it’s way more about building up that engine to generate more resources and points.

The game, like I said, is about building up that engine and determining when to activate everything, and when to pick an action to do based off of what you think your opponent is going to do. How does that work? Well, the game has five actions and the actions that are played out by the players that round are the ones that are going to happen.

The actions also fire off in a particular order. So if I pick research it’s action #5, so it’ll go last. Someone else might pick activating actions, and that’s #3, so it goes in that order. Which ever one you pick, you get a special bonus for it, while your opponents get whatever the basic action is (which you do as well). So it’s about trying to not match with your opponents to get more actions done and to figure out what benefits you the most. Of course, if everyone is doing that, well, then no one might pick that one action everyone wants.

Buy Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

4. Stars of Akarios

Now we’re onto one of the big campaign games. And you can see game play for this one on Malts and Meeples. Stars of Akarios is a game that I absolutely enjoyed all that I did. Some parts are better than others, but as a whole, I think the game is a ton of fun. It’s a big space adventure that gives me vibes from Enders Game and Space Dandy, two really different things, but it works for this game.

The game is split into three parts, but we’re going to talk about two of them. First part is planetary exploration. This has a 7th Continent type feel to it with flipping over locations and interacting with places. Plus there is a lot of story that you can find as well for the different planets. There are skill checks and things like that, but a lot of it is story and the choices you make in that story unlocks new things that you can do.

The main part of the game is tactical space combat. It’s about using your dice to flank and out maneuver the enemies so that you are in the right spot for a big hit and they can’t hit you back. I adore the puzzle that this game provides in this space combat. It is good enough to just be a game by itself, but the story and the world/universe that is being built in the game is just amazing. I can’t wait to get back to it, and maybe it’ll be a campaign game that I come back to and try and play through solo sometime.

Buy Stars of Akarios

Note the 1.5 version of Stars of Akarios is coming out. There should be a late pledge available soon.

3. Dice Throne

Next up is Dice Throne. I believe that my #2 and #3 flipped spots from last year. Dice Throne is a battling game of taking characters up against each other and rolling dice, Yahtzee style, to deal damage. You get a better roll, like a large straight or all sixes and you get to do more damage.

The game really shines in two areas. The first is how they manage to make all of the characters feel different. I have Marvel Dice Throne pictured here, but in the video I have Dice Throne Season 1 and I figured out coming soon there will be 35 different characters. And all of the characters do feel different. They come with different tokens that change up how they interact with the enemies or how they ramp up to deal more damage themselves.

And then there is the card play in this game. What doesn’t make it just pure dice chucking are these cards. Some of them are upgrades to your attacks that offer better results and more damage when you roll them. Other times, and I’d say most often this, it’s about getting better results on your dice. You don’t want to end up being stuck doing nothing if you try and shoot the moon and go for all sixes. So you keep cards to manipulate the dice. It’s a great system that offers more depth than you’d think from the initial description.

Buy Dice Throne

2. Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon

Now we have Tainted Grail at #2. This one moved up, I think, because I made it through all three campaigns, wrapping up the third one this year. And all of them offer something unique and fun that is really enjoyable to play. I love how you start in the middle with the first campaign and then the second takes place 500 years later and the first 500 years before it. It offers a lot of interesting storytelling, which the writer really takes advantage of.

The game play is also pretty slick once you get into it. The combat and diplomacy checks are done through card play. And while that is an important part of the game, it’s not too hard to build up something that is powerful enough. Or players with specialize in different areas. One element about the combat that I really like is that you need to pay attention is to the enemies attack. How much damage you deal determines the enemies attack. If you aren’t careful, you’re going to take a lot of damage.

But the game really shines around the exploration and survival aspects of the game. I think it’s best on story mode because the story is so good. But you always need to be keeping track of the menhir that you have lit. Because if they go out, then you start to lose parts of the map as the wyrdness takes over. And that limits where you can explore. And as I said, exploration is the best part of the game. It is a chance to dive into that story. So it’s a balance of story, resource gathering, and then just surviving that makes Tainted Grail work so well.

Buy Tainted Grail

1. Gloomhaven

My #1 hasn’t changed, it’s still Gloomhaven. Though, you can say that it is Gloomhaven, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, and Frosthaven all rolled into one. Jaws of the Lion might be a game that I show off here on Malts and Meeples. And I’m now playing through a campaign of Frosthaven.

This is a classic dungeon crawling game where you go into a scenario and need to tactically move around and kill all the bad guys. Or at least that’s the objective in a lot of base Gloomhaven’s scenarios. The other ones offer more variety. But it’s also a game of leveling up your characters, unlocking more abilities, and then eventually retiring and getting a whole new character to play with.

And getting those abilities and playing them out is where the game is amazing. You play out two cards from your hand each turn. They have abilities on the top and bottom. And you’ll activate one of the top abilities and one of the bottom ones. Plus you need to figure out where in initiative that you want to go as well.

And the variety in them and how different the characters are is impressive. It’s like a lot of the games in my Top 10, I like the variable player powers and variability in what you are doing. Gloomhaven and all the following games offer a ton of that. And it’s sad to lose a character to retirement that you’ve spent time with, but exciting to unlock something new. This is just an amazing game that deserves the love it gets.

Buy Gloomhaven

Thanks for Joining Me

Thank you for joining me as I went through all of the games on this list. I really have fun doing this every year. And I hope that you have fun watching along. I appreciate everyone who has been in the chats and watched the videos. It means a lot to me to see that people are enjoying it. Let me know what some of your favorite games are.

Upcoming Streaming

And join me for future upcoming streams. I made a comment that my Monday streams might be changing. We’ll have to see on that, it might just be less often, or it might move to a different night, it depends on some variables as I look at the new year. Right now, though, that it’s changing. I plan on streaming Monday nights at 9 PM Central. I won’t have some on the 25th of December, I will be around next week.

Then on Wednesday, I generally stream a campaign game. I won’t be doing that this upcoming week. And I’ll be missing the following week. But as I start 2024, I plan to stream Rogue Angels. A game that I think will be in my Top 100 starting next year. One of my rules was that I needed to have played a physical copy. And thus far I only have played it digitally. Now I’ll be able to play it in person, which I’m really excited for. So join me for that starting in 2024. And Wednesday streams start at 8 PM Central time.

But the best way, if you want to know when I go live or a new video goes up (it’s basically always live), please consider subscribing. You can do that here. And click that notification bell on the channel and you’ll always know when I go live.

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Level Up

Story Based

The first one, and I have an example for each, is what you get in Stars of Akarios. In Stars of Akarios there are prescribed spots where you get things. So when you get a new pilot skill or a co-pilot, when you can upgrade the Sparrow, things like that. It is at a specific interval based on the story.

Now this might not sound like it gives you much choice. But it is not as strict as I made it sound. Sometimes it is fairly specific, like with the co-pilot, the option is limited to what you’ve done. Or the attack and flight patterns you start picking from are limited. But you select from those groups. And you have specific tracks that let you modify your draw deck or ship stats which does give you choice.

But the whole idea is that you don’t gain experience (XP) or anything like that. That is not what determines when you level up. It is in the story that determines when you level up and no matter how you’ve done, when whether you snuck by or succeeded no problem, you get that level up.

XP Based

The next way I consider to be XP based leveling. Though, I break that down into two areas. This one is just about gaining XP to unlock specific skills. And the example I think of for XP based leveling is Gloomhaven.

In Gloomhaven you play cards and complete missions to gain XP. Once you obtain a specific amount of XP you move up to the next level. For Gloomhaven you get new cards and potentially more health. But those are doled out when you gain a specific amount of energy. You unlock it only then and you keep adding to that pool to unlock future levels.

This is common in other games as well. Sword & Sorcery offered a similar system, so tweaked slightly. And for something like Dungeons and Dragons, this is the normal way to level up. So it is the closest to that RPG like experience. But it is less dynamic. You unlock specific things, in Gloomhaven it’s a choice between cards. There are other ways that you can use XP that are more freeing which we will get to next.

XP Spending

The final way is through spending your experience points. And my example for this one is Roll Player Adventures. But there are other games, Arkham Horror LCG for example, which do this as well. This is the idea that as you gain XP, instead of having a specific number you hit to gain stuff, you gain stuff at specific points. Not based on story, but on how you spend your experience points.

Let’s look more at Roll Player Adventures to see how it works there. Throughout each story section you gain experience points. Those experience points don’t do anything for you throughout that story. You collect them and that is it. It is only at the end of the story that you use them. But it isn’t a standard, use them and get a new level and the bonuses that come with that.

In Roll Player Adventures what you spend your XP on can vary. You use it to level up character stats, increase the dice pool for combat, increase card play, or level up health. Each of those cost an amount of experience points. So you reduce how many you have in order to get new things which offers a more specific choice in the game. And can create a more widely branching path.

What do I mean? I play a sorcerer character in Roll Player Adventure. I start with no strength and I still have no strength. My charisma is amazing, however. Or, if I had wanted, I could build in the complete opposite direction. Another example is that we could have put all are points in health to make sure the party never dies. Leave our stats and dice pool lower, but just make sure we can survive, that’s a choice you can make.

Final Thoughts

Now, some of the systems might sound better to you. Maybe you want that freedom and flexibility that a XP spending based system gives you. Maybe you prefer to have fewer times where you level up, but possibly bigger shifts from a story based or XP based system. And maybe you don’t want to track XP at all and a story based system would be perfect for you.

Each of them offers it’s own benefit. In Gloomhaven you might level up after being soundly defeated in a scenario. In Stars of Akarios that won’t happen as likely. But each of them offers their own flavor to do really the same thing. And that is get you better at what you do in the game as you go. It is about what flavor you prefer.

Which way do you like best for a board game or an RPG system?

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The Plot – Solo Leveling

Sung Jinwoo is a hunter. But he isn’t a good hunter, in fact, he is the weakest hunter out there. He needs to do it because he got the power, but also to help support his mother in the hospital and his sister. But, every time he comes back from a hunt, he is always beat up.

This all started when weird portals or gateways started to show up around the world. He and some lucky others were given powers to be hunters. This might mean great at combat or it might mean that they can heal others. Jinwoo just isn’t good at any of them. But when things go wrong in a dungeon, he finds that his life is going to change forever.

What Doesn’t Work?

While this does some different things, I’ll talk about them later, it does feel somewhat derivative of other manga that I’ve read. Technically without it being manga, I believe, since it is South Korean. But the elements there match what I’ve read before. I would say that Lit RPG might even be a better example of what it is doing. And I also compare it to Isekai that I’ve read.

And secondly, what I don’t consider to be a major knock, is that this is violent, at least to more of a level than a lot of manga. Solo Leveling is full color, so blood looks like blood. And there is a lot of violence. More, to me, this is something that if you don’t know it’s going to be there might be a surprise. For the story it is telling it works though.

What Works?

I think that the main character is interesting. His motivations for being in the dungeons, we get to see it in flashbacks, are meaningful. This is the real world, minus the portals and hunters, and he’s doing what he needs to to take care of his family. That feels more real than a lot of characters randomly thrust into another world.

The characters also do real world type things in non-real world type situations. The conversations that they have when they go into the dungeon that kickoff the story aren’t in awe of the dungeon. It is something that is common place in their world. And going on a hunt to clear a dungeon is a job. Conversations around it are normal conversations as people talk about life, love, family, things that normal people talk about.

And I like that it is in color. I’m not sure if this should go here or be in my final thoughts, but it is something that works. The color on the page is nice. It gives it more of that comic feel and I think makes the story that much more immersive. And it isn’t like a page full of color but is used with the blank space on the page, to convey the story really well.

How Does It Compare?

I want to talk about what I compare this to, because it is my normal comic or manga that I read and write about. But it is also different. Thinking about it, I compare it in some ways to something like Blood, Blockade, Battlefront. But the monsters and creatures aren’t coming through. I also compare it to LitRPG’s that I’ve read. There is one where towers appear in the world and now monsters and magic are a thing.

But in terms of manga that I’ve read, I think it does feel different. There is a game like element to it. It does have some of that DNA that you see in things like Sword Art Online. This fantasy element and dungeon clearing element. And there are real life consequences to failure, But they are different. In Sword Art Online, someone dies, and we see them disappear in a game. here, characters address it to the real world immediately. That just adds weight to what the characters are doing.

At the same time, it is about a character leveling up. So while it does feel like there is a bit more weight to it, the basics of it are familiar. Going into a dungeon, fighting, and trying to make a living, survive, and level up, it is what we’ve seen before in a lot of anime or manga. Solo Leveling doesn’t stray too far from the expected tropes.

Final Thoughts on Solo Leveling

Solo Leveling is definitely a comic that I want to keep reading. And it is getting an anime adaptation. I want to read more of the comic and I might even want to read the light novels or LitRPG novels that the comics are based off of.

Like I said in the last section, I think that Solo Leveling, while it is familiar, does feel different. Blood Blockade Battlefront is one that it really does compare to for me. Placing a character into a world where there are real consequences and consequences to the real world feels different.

That does, I do want to see how the main character continues to progress. I think what they’ve done so far makes a lot of sense. I don’t see them leading the character down a dark path, but if they do, it would mess with my enjoyment of the series. The characters reasoning wouldn’t lead that way, but it is hard to tell. And the covers make it feel like it might, at times.

I also hope that it doesn’t just become another, here’s a boss monster, let’s level up this character and make them really powerful. That doesn’t fit with what the story has been thus far either. It should be a struggle for Jinwoo throughout. But because of who he is, and what he needs to do, he can level up and overcome.

Let me know if you’ve read this comic? Is it something that you’re interested in reading or watching the anime of when it comes out? Supposedly coming out in 2023, or is it one you’ll pass on?

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So you’ll notice a bit of a different format. This is more my review style format, but breaking down the page and game from what I can tell on the crowdfunding page.

RoboMon Quick Overview

RoboMon from Barrett Publishing probably seems familiar. It definitely builds on the ideas and themes that you get in Pokemon and Digimon. You are exploring a world, getting into robot battles, leveling up your robots until you can become a fully licensed RoboMon Ranger.

This game is trying to do a bit of everything, but in a way that looks like it could work. You go around maps which lead to fights, getting items, comic book style cut scenes and more in the game. But the core two pieces, from what I can tell are using that map book exploration and then the tactical combat.

Of course there are robots as well. And they are probably going to be the main part of the game. Getting and building up your team of robots and then leveling them up. So it appears to have either some resource gathering, or more likely, fighting, getting money from those fights, buying stuff to level up your robots and then doing that.

What Doesn’t Work?

Obviously this is just speculation, but I have two areas of concern for this game. Firstly is that there is no rulebook. There are rules reference cards and as you play through the game, and open the box, it is supposed to teach you. That is always a concern because if I need to reference something later, how is that handled. Yes, rules reference, but what if it’s not on that. I know it was covered but how can I find it again.

I also wonder a little bit about the open world and freedom of the game. You can do anything in any order, but generally that means that there is probably kind of an order that you want to follow. Sleeping Gods did make this work, though. In that, there are easy areas, and as you go other further in the book of maps from the center, you find harder things. So if it gives that sort of open feel to it, I like that. Plus, as a solo game, it can work better as well. It’s open and free and no turn order, well, it is just me, so that works.

What Works?

Firstly what draws me in is the theme. I don’t have a ton of connection to Pokemon or Digimon. I watched a little Digimon growing up, and I thought the show was entertaining. But I never played any of the Pokemon games, though I am tempted regularly to pick one up. This might push that over the edge. But I’ve always liked this idea of exploring, leveling up, getting new robots (monsters) and doing that some more.

I really like the aesthetic of the game as well. I think that the work is nice. And it gives a 16-bit vibe to it with being much cleaner and clearer. I think I’d be less interested in this if it was actually 16-bit or 8-bit artwork. But this just gives a little bit of that feel to the artwork which gives it a bit of a 90’s vibe.

The solo nature of the game also works for me. It looks like two player is just splitting up control of things, which is something that’s easy enough to do in any true solo game. This is one that I could see getting and having fun streaming because of the solo play. And I think that I gravitate towards games that give that balance between story and tactics in the game. It’s nice to be able to change it up every now and again.

Who Is This For?

I think someone who likes the video games for Pokemon and wants to get some of that experience in a board game. This to me is that perfect thing, or maybe if your significant other or a close friend who maybe doesn’t board game. Get this if they like Pokemon and play it two players to have that shared gaming experience in a world that is going to feel familiar.

But I also think it’s for gamers who like adventure games. And for people who don’t mind playing a solo game. My guess is that this will be easier to setup than a Sleeping Gods, or Stars of Akarios. But if you can leave it setup, even better. I really think this will give that lighter adventure gaming itch a good scratch.

Back or Brick

Final Thoughts on RoboMon

This is where I’m going to take about a few things with this game. Firstly the price of the game, because it doesn’t really fit into what works or doesn’t work. It’s unique and probably should always be talked about anyways. This is a solid price for this game. 300+ page adventure book, 70+ maps, 300+ cards, all of that is great. It even comes with a pencil for the character sheet. $80+shipping is a solid price. I also wonder how likely it’ll show up in retail so this might be your best chance to get it.

For me, though, I am torn on the game. I think I’d likely enjoy this game a lot. I like the artwork, I like the theme, and I love games with fun adventure, story, combat, everything that this game is offering. The question I am asking myself is do I need another game like this? Especially since I just got in Oathsworn, Stars of Akarios, and Etherfields with Chronicles of Drunagor not too far behind and ISS Vanguard not far behind that. But with some of those, Oathsworn and ISS Vanguard, I probably want to do in a group. This is one that is made for me to play solo.

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Pros

• Theme/known IP
• Entry Level Pledge Price
• Known company
• Great Minis

Cons

• Entry Level Pledge Contents
• Previous video game adaptations from the company
• Stretch Goal structure

The Page

You are going to see one comparison made pretty often and that’s going to be with with Primal: The Awakening, which is another monster hunting game. But looking at this page, I think that it looks pretty solid. I like how they have everything laid out in terms of explaining what is in the different pledge levels.

But I am going to knock the pledge levels some. It looks like it could be solid with the entry level pledge, but you get zero daily unlocks. I get that they are trying to keep the price point low, but it is 4 monsters and 4 heroes. Not every campaign needs to have a million different options to play, but that isn’t much. And that is one of my cons, their previous video game adaptation, Horizon Zero Dawn, might be a great game, but you need stretch goals. The basic box provides way to little content, and from the looks of that entry level pledge, it will again.

Otherwise, I like the page layout and they spend a fair amount of time on the game play. I’ll get into that in more detail in the next section. They definitely highlight the size of the minis on the page as well, but this, like Primal: The Awakening, is always going to have giant minis. The only thing look wise that I don’t like is the board. In one picture you see it close-up with a bunch of a white circles on it, and it just doesn’t look as put together as it should.

The Game

Game play seems interesting. You level up your characters and characters are unique which I really like. The monsters even level up as well. Three different levels per monster to the point when you defeat any of the monsters as four star monsters you win the campaign. Or you can play one-shot arena battles against a monster. I like the fact that it has those combos.

I also like that much like Primal: The Awakening, the game play seems to be based around cards. In fact, looking at everything, I’m not sure I see any dice. And a game like this could easily have just been a dice chucker. That gives me more faith, like I was saying about Horizon Zero Dawn, that this will be a solid game mechanically.

The leveling up system looks interesting as well. It appears to give you some options as to how you can do that and how you can branch. When you have the option to level up, I don’t want it to be just one fixed path. I don’t believe that Monster Hunter World will give you that.

Back or Brick

So let’s dive into this. Is this a Back or Brick for me? Right now, this looks like a Brick for me. If the daily unlocks were coming to the entry level pledge, I’d probably be in on it. But it feels like this is a limited pledge level that is mainly just going to make you wish you’d gotten more and then pay larger numbers over on Ebay later. Also, if I hadn’t already backed Primal: The Awakening, I’d be more apt to back this as well. I think that Primal: The Awakening might be a simpler game to play and easier to get to the table. Will this be a bad game, probably not, but I wouldn’t get the Entry Pledge.

How about for you, is this a back or a brick?

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The Premise

The Characters

The Bosses

The Guilds

The Levels

The Boards

Cards vs Dice

Character Leveling

Skills, Weapons and More

Quests

Quests are going to be one of the more interesting things to do in town or on a level when playing in this game. Not to say that the others won’t be interesting or important, but quests are going to delve into the story of the game and the world more than other things might. I do want to tie story into as many elements as possible, but quests are an obvious area to do it.

So, first thing that we need to consider is how do you find a quest?

There are a few ways that you can do this, but I want them to be something you have to “find” by doing other actions. If you go shopping a weapon crafter might have a quest for a rare metal or crystal, same with an armorer or an apothecary. If you talk to an NPC, they might have a quest for you, if you talk to a PC, they might have a quest that they can’t do but that they know about if you want to try your hand at it. Or it might be a level event that triggers that you can do as a quest. Some of the quests might even have multiple ways to get to them, a PC and an NPC might give you the same information, but it might branch slightly depending on who you got it from.

Now, with having to “find” quests, does that mean that the first time frame or potentially multiple ones on a level there won’t be any quests available to go on? No, there will always be a level quest. Something that will give you a more generic thing, mainly money and XP. Those can be great because if you are getting an interesting skill or weapon, that’s going to be the bigger reward, and you might get some money along the way, and you will for sure get XP, but it won’t be as much money and might not be as much XP. Of course, that won’t always be the case, it might be possible that the level quest will branch and you might find something unexpected at the end, so you can’t always just pass on that quest, or send guild members to do it. Again, as I’ve said so many times, I want every choice in the game to be hard and meaningful in an interesting way.

So, how will quests work?

So quests, are going to generally be multiple part things, though, some might be pretty simple. They can also be evolving or chaining things. For example, rescue the farmer’s daughter could be a very simple quest that will then find out about a troll invasion that is going to happen and will unlock that quest from an earlier point that it would have if you hadn’t done the rescue the farmer’s daughter quest.

But that’s again pretty general as to how these will work. I’ve talked about it a bit before with the modifier cards, but each part of the quest is going to be a little bit of story, something will happen, it could be that you need to track the trolls through the forest, or avoid an ambush while looking for the trolls. I’m thinking that this’ll almost be a Near and Far like thing where in that you are trying to reach a certain threshold but you can go higher and hit a second threshold. So let’s take the farmer’s daughter quest, tracking the trolls should be pretty easy for a PC in the game, so that’s just a check of a five, as the player you know that you’ll pass that, but you’ll also know that there is a higher mark you can try and make it to, but the PC won’t know what that means, so the player shouldn’t know what that means either. So if they spend, now they are paying enough attention to spot the ambush up ahead as well as the tracks, that’ll give them a branching path for the next part of the quest where they can either spring the ambush and fight, or go around it. That’s what that player would then be doing on the next time period on that level.

Now, let’s quickly talk about skills. I’ve talked about them a lot as of late. Just a refresher, on some quests you’ll be able to get a skill. That skill will modify the end challenge for that quest. To also talk about weapons or armor, if it makes sense, so an example of when it wouldn’t, a dragon isn’t going to wield a sword, those will be attached and modify as well. When thinking about loot drops, why would something that drops a legendary or an interesting item, weapon, armor, or otherwise, not be using it themselves? So I want those to attach and modify for a monster as well.

And finally, what happens once you complete a quest or part of a quest?

So if you’ve done part of it, you’ll have the option to continue in the next time period. Any XP you’ve gained can cause you to level up and you can allocate the points you get for your character from that.

If you reach the end of the quest, you are going to get more of an XP bump, plus any rewards at that point in time and you’ll be transported back to the town. I’m not a fan of games where you have to fight your way into the dungeon and then run back through the whole cleared out dungeon to get back to the closest fast travel point to then go to the town and turn it in. Screw that noise, you get teleported to the town and to the person who gave you the quest. The next time period, you can, if you want, complete that quest at that location as well as do whatever action is attributed to that location. The player doing the quest will have already spent a lot of time on that potentially.

How long could a quest be? I mentioned it above, but I think it’s worth mentioning again. Quests will vary in length. If something sounds like a short quest, it probably is, it might chain another quest, but the first will be done. To go back to what I just said above, a chained quest, you’ll have the option to continue into that quest immediately instead of getting teleported back. If you do, you’ll still get the reward at that point in time from the one that you’ve just completed so that you don’t miss out on it. But back to my question, a single quest might be as long as 6-7 time units, which would be most of what one player does on the floor. Most won’t last that long, but each part of the quest will have one challenge decision point, might be conversation that wouldn’t require a card, and quests might vary in length depending on choices. To go back to my example of rescuing the farmers daughter, if you sneak around the troll ambush you’ll miss out on some XP, but that’ll make the whole quest faster, so you’ll have time to do more. I want it to be fairly logical like that where you can guess when it’d be faster.

So what do you think of quests, does it start to make sense as to how they are going to work?

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According to the Kickstarter page, Down to Hell is a faithful reproduction of hack and slash video games put into board game form.

Pros

• It’s not just standees, so they aren’t trying to make $2 million just on that
• Skill tree
• Feels like Diablo the board game
• Scenario based

Cons

• Cooperative and competitive
• Claims to have new mechanics
• Feels like Diablo the board game

Thoughts on the Page
For a first time Kickstarter company, they are doing a good job of laying out the page in a way that makes sense. fairly often being a first time company is a red flag for me, but they’ve clearly put time into doing this and have made it looked polished and professional. That’s why I didn’t put the first time company as either a pro or a con, because they seem like they know Kickstarter fairly well. And they’ve clearly planned it out well in terms of what they can afford and by not making everything minis shows good restraint on their behalf.

However, I do want to address some issues that I see with how they present the game. First, this is clearly a Diablo ripoff, and that’s fine, if they make it unique enough. But I feel like they haven’t, not just from Diablo, but from board games like Gloomhaven and others as well. Nothing I read through remotely suggests that they have new mechanics in the game and that’s a problem. It makes me wonder how much they’ve played board games or if they are video game fans who wanted to try and make a video game a board game.

Back or Brick
For me, this is a brick. I think the concept of the game sounds interesting, but I am very worried about it being derivative of a number of games both board and video. And a claim that it has new mechanics, that makes me worried that they’ve played maybe 10-15 different games, few of them dungeon crawlers and so they think they’re doing something really new, when in reality they are doing something that is going to feel old. Now, I don’t want to assume to much, but that was the feel of the game for me, it could be good, but this screams of a risky back to me, not of it coming out, but that you’re going to end up with a good and balanced game that doesn’t feel like it’s been done a ton before and better.

Is this a game that you’d back or is it a brick?

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In the Players Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master’s Guide, there is one primary way that the game is built for you getting experience, and that’s through combat encounters (and encounters of other types), but in combat, each monster has a certain number of experience points that they give you to divide between the party. This is the standard way, then comparing your total experience to that of the level chart, when you hit a certain amount of experience you go up a level.

While this is the classic method, I’m not a huge fan of it. First, it adds to me doing more math as the Dungeon Master when building an encounter and as players then when dividing up and adding in experience. Now, it doesn’t have to be difficult math, but if someone misses a session, does their character still get experience for it? If they don’t, that causes even more of a mess because now characters will not in sync level wise and since the game tends to be more combat focused when you are using encounter/combat based experience, that means that a character might be lagging behind with that. On the other hand, this is the classic way to do it, and for video game players, it’s how almost all RPG’s work there, so it is something that they might enjoy.

My preferred method of leveling up and experience is to actually not track experience and go with something called, event or milestone leveling. When you hit a certain point in your characters story or in the over-arching story, you get to level up. The advantages of this come from leveling up in those moments where the story becomes more epic, you become more epic with it. You also don’t need to track everything and keep count of kills and what was killed, instead it levels you at proper thematic points. The downside is that if there is a point in the game where you are grinding through a dungeon and things aren’t changing, there might not be that character milestone or story event launches you to the next level. Instead you are stuck at a lower level for a while, while you’re waiting to go up and take off into a new ability for your character. That’s something, as a Dungeon Master, when using this method, that you need to be aware of, not to let the levels sit too long and instead focus on creating those epic moments every few sessions.

But, a friend, introduced me to an interesting idea from a video he’d watched on Professor Dungeon Master Youtube Channel. This concept is that you get a few points that you are tracking for experience, if things go really well in a session, you get 3 XP or maybe 4 XP. If things go awry, you get 1 XP, if it’s just okay 2 XP. And when you hit 10 XP, you “level up”. But, instead of just getting the level up, you need to do something in game or in downtime between sessions to get your character leveled up. This could be a little mini quest, such as a paladin destroying a cults temple and building up one to their god, Professor Dungeon Master’s example, or it could be something that is more tied into the main quests of the campaign. So you’re tracking experience, but at a limited level. And then to actually gain that level, you need that epic quest/story moment for your character so that they have a reason to gain new skills.

Now, I think that is an interesting option that I’m going to want to try at some point in time. What’s interesting about it to me is that it gives the players something to track in terms of experience points, they can see how close they are getting to leveling up at the end of a session, but they and I don’t need to do a lot of math and figuring for the game. It’s just adding together single digit numbers until you hit 10, and then you start again. I also like, and this is something that’s bugged me with Dungeons and Dragons leveling, is that you could, theoretically, just because of a random encounter on a travel somewhere level up, and now the Wizard knows more spells, the fighter is better with their sword, and the Druid can change into more animals. So, while it can delay leveling a little bit, I like how a character needs to complete some sort of quest or mission for that character or the story overall. So we’ve talked about a Paladin, but a Druid planting a small grove and getting that started in an area, that could give you a level up, a fighter going and defeating some low life thug on their own to stop them from going after other people, that’s something that would work as well. But I think it gives a chance for players and the DM to be more creative in storytelling, and you can decide how much you want to spend in game on this, but you could also go between sessions as well for leveling up.

If you’re playing, do you have a preferred method? I don’t think that any of them are bad, I just don’t want to do the math, so I haven’t done the more combat focused gaining for experience. Would you try out another method other than your preferred one? Let me know in the comments below.

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