This game, I’ll say, caught my eye because of the artwork and because I know one of the designers. With that said, as I look at what might not work and what might, I’ll try and be fair and balanced. I do want people to know, when reading this, that I have more of a connection to the game than sometimes. On the flip side, I’ve played it as part of OOMM Games playtesting, so I have experience with it. You can checkout the campaign here.

How To Play Stonesaga

Stonesaga is a legacy game where the decision you make about how to build up your society will affect the game. I will talk more about legacy aspects later. But the game play is pretty simple, you have a limited number of action points to take actions with each round and players can take their action(s) in any order.

The actions are things like gather resources, craft, hunt, fish, explore new areas and more. All of these things, or most, are done through there little game. For fishing, you are trying to complete fishing tracks to get fish as a reward and any other bonus, like more water. For hunting or foraging, you explore a tableau trying to avoid the monster and collet resources. And then you can craft using resources that you’ve found to invent or build new things.

Each of these actions is going to help you find and build towards different goals that you have. Each goal is going to lead to another though some of them are going to lead to another and to the end of that game session. And as you find stuff, your story will progress.

Why You Don’t Need This Game

Firstly, it is a legacy game. I did say that I was going to talk about that. I understand the risks of a legacy game. However, it is a legacy game that you can reset and play again, finding the story you missed maybe 2-4 times, depending on player count. But it will limit how many times you can play the game.

Also the price point of this game. It is not a cheap game, again for a legacy game as well. If you go all in, it’s a fair amount and is that worth it for a limited number of plays. To OOMM’s defense on this one I have Stars of Akarios and the products they put out are high quality. But for a game that isn’t minis filled, it is expensive, though the other content is what makes the price go up. Shipping, on the other hand, is very reasonable.

Finally, and this ties into the first one, it is a legacy game and the best legacy games for me have good story to them. I say that, but I also enjoyed Risk Legacy which is light on the story. But Pandemic Legacy seasons 1 & 2 had a lot of story and I liked them the best. Or they stuck with me the best. Charterstone was some mechanics with pasted on story. Where will Stonesaga land. And maybe it isn’t an issue for me, but I think about it.

Why You Need This Game

Let’s start out with that it is very mechanically sound and interesting. The minis games are a lot of fun as you start to dig into all of your options. Delving deeper and deeper and then needing to get back out is interesting. Fishing is a dice placement puzzle of trying to catch what you can but also not fail the check and have bad things happen. Foraging/hunting in the forest might cause you to come across a monster. But it also gives you a grid to layout to create your most optimal gathering.

Also, since I have played it, there is some solid story to it. Is it the most story, is it like Pandemic with story between missions that tells you how the world is changing, or a paragraph in Aeon’s End Legacy, no, it is less. But it is more than Charterstone. And the decision you make, how you build up your settlement, will make a difference in what you explore next as the story branches out. And I like that story but I also like how it does the branching as well.

Finally, this one is based off my experience with OOMM Games games not doing the playtesting or the company itself. But their games are a lot of fun. They offer a ton of different and unique things in them. Stars of Akarios is very ambitious but works really well with a hodgepodge of mechanics and provides a fun story. So based off of my gaming history with OOMM Games, I don’t know if this is a game you’ll want to miss.

Back or Brick – Stonesaga

This is a Back for me. And I backed it at the highest level. Now, I will say that if it wasn’t OOMM Games and I didn’t know the designer, I might have backed it at the lower level. The value seems just a bit stronger there for what you are getting. Though as the campaign goes on, that might change.

But this is a game that will have limited retail availability. OOMM does seem to get some extra stock but they don’t have wide retail releases. And things like expansions will be harder to get. Yes, that is leaning into the FOMO, but I’m doing so based off of playing it.

Now, there are reasons it won’t be for everyone. If you like to get two games a year and delve into them 50+ times each, legacy won’t work. But you already know that. I do think mechanically, with snappy quick actions it is accessible. I found that it is very collaborative as you play, and that players stay engaged because of the mechanics.

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

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Gloomhaven

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

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

Sword & Sorcery

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

Stars of Akarios

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

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

Pandemic Legacy

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

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

Tainted Grail

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

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

Charterstone

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

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

Aeon’s End Legacy

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

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

My City

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

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

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

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

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

Paper Dungeons

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

Sleeping Gods

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

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

Risk Legacy

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

Seafall

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

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

Final Thoughts

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

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

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

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What Are Legacy Board Games?

A Legacy Game is going to be similar to a campaign game in some ways. You play the game over several sessions or sittings with an unfolding story, or at least tracking everything that you are doing, whether you win or lose and things like that.

But different than a campaign game you make changes to the game. This could be placing stickers on a board game, adding rules to the rule book, or tearing up cards. The idea is that every decision you make in a legacy game is going to be permanent and persistent. For example, in Risk Legacy you can blow up a country or area. In Pandemic Legacy your character can die or gain scars. And these don’t ever go away, or in the case of a blown up country ever come back.

The Issue

So you can see how that issue would start to present itself. If the game is played over a campaign style set number of games, and you can never go back and play it again, is it a good value?

The Case Against

Let’s use Pandemic Legacy as an example. In Pandemic Legacy you play through a year, that is 12 games, but if you lose in a month, you play through it again. So you are looking at 12 to 24 games that you can play. With that you are placing stickers on the board, rule book, and cards. When you are done with your year of games, you have a map that isn’t all that playable. You could maybe get down to base Pandemic, but there’d be extra things thrown in, and extra powers for characters that you’d need to ignore.

So is it worth it to buy, when it was first out, a $70 game? I could break down the math, say 12 games, four players, if you have that many, and an hour a game, so 48 hours of game time/entertainment time, which is a pretty cheap value for entertainment. Better than the movies. But once you are done, you are done, compared to other board games out there, or even base Pandemic, which is cheaper and you can play forever, the price per hour value will be higher.

The Case For

On the flip side, what case could be made for it. Firstly, because you are putting things down permanently on the board, decisions matter more. I don’t love it when it feels like there is a wrong decision, but decisions carry more weight when you are adding a scar to a character, or have a city yet again have an outbreak and the panic level rises yet again.

Plus, there is the unfolding story element of the game. Not all legacy board games have a ton of a story to them, but it provides an opportunity to play with story more. Now, campaign games can do that as well, but with less consequences, or consequences in different ways. For a legacy game, the story can unfold and change up the world completely or the board completely as you play. It might be hard to get into a city in Pandemic because of too many outbreaks in a location that is unique to you.

Are Legacy Board Games Good?

Legacy board games aren’t going to be for everyone, but generally, I do think that they are good. The reason for that is that they provide a different gaming experience than almost any other game out there. The experience they can bring because you make permanent choices adds that extra weight to a game like Pandemic that could get played out if you play it often enough.

I also think that the concern about how many times you can play a legacy game is less of an issue than most people think. Let me dive into that a bit more. Most people play a game, 4-10 times a year. Not play games, but just play a given game in their collection a limited number of times. Now, that might be different for you, and it is for everyone. Some games are played more, others are played less. But it’s rare for games to get played a ton of times if you have a few games in your collection.

So a legacy game provides 12 plays, on the lower end that is more than you’ll play most games in a year. That might be more than you play a game in three years. Let’s say you have Twilight Imperium and you can play that once or twice a year, that’s at minimum 6 to 12 years to equal the amount you’d play Pandemic Legacy likely in a year. Plus some legacy games offer modes to play post the legacy campaign.

Three Recommendations

I’ve played a number of legacy games, and some work better for me, others won’t make the list, Seafall, because it isn’t a great legacy game. So let’s talk about some legacy games that you could maybe checkout. If you are interested, these could be a good spot to jump into the mechanic and see if it is one for you.

My City

This one is pretty easy to recommend because it is a cheap game and a simple game. It is a tile laying game where you score points and get rewards with how well you build out your town each game. Compared to a lot of legacy games, this is much cheaper. You can probably find My City for about $20 right now, and the game is an easy one to get into.

It is a game with less story in it. It gives reasons for what you are adding to the rules throughout the game. But that story is very loose and it’s mainly just a tile laying game. But it adds in more things as you go, so the game feels like it develops and progresses over time. And you can play it once the game is done, granted with slightly different rules.

Pandemic Legacy Season 1

I’ve talked a lot about Pandemic Legacy and I’d be remiss to put it on the list. I think that Pandemic Legacy Season 1 is a good jumping in point to the series of games. There is Season 2 and Season 0 as well, but Pandemic Legacy Season 1 is the most like Pandemic and easy to pick up.

This has more of a story going throughout it and creates some very fun and interesting moments in it. There is even a very nice twist that happens as the game goes along. I won’t spoil when or where that is in the game, but it is interesting. It takes the Pandemic system and makes it so much more thematic as you play without changing up the game that much.

Aeon’s End Legacy

Finally, Aeon’s End Legacy. This is one that I played on Malts and Meeples and is a game that I really enjoy. It is a cooperative deck building game where you don’t shuffle the cards in the deck. Which I find fun because you can set-up some things as you go, or at least attempt to. Plus the different nemesis that you face offer a nice variety to the game.

Aeon’s End Legacy has less story than Pandemic Legacy, but more than My City. Where Aeon’s End Legacy really shines, though, is as a jumping in point for Aeon’s End. It takes a game that is not too complex, makes it a bit simpler and then slowly adds back in the complexity of the game.

Final Thoughts on Legacy Board Games

I don’t believe that everyone needs to have them or play them. But I also do not believe that because a game says legacy someone should immediately reject it. Often times the experiences in a legacy game are going to be more interesting or unique than those in other games that are one off. And they are something that can’t be replicated in that style of game. And as I talked about before, it’d probably be playing a game more often than people play most of their games.

But if you only own a few games and you play those few games all the time, I totally get not wanting to own a legacy game. They would reach the point where you wouldn’t be playing them anymore and it wouldn’t provide the value for you long term.

Though, I believe that story and experience element of the game does make it worthwhile. It is like a movie in a lot of ways. You go to the theater and you see a movie and hopefully you remember that experience and story. The same can be said for a legacy board game, you are paying for that memory of the story and experience, even if it’s not something you can play again. I do find it odd when people don’t bat an eye at going to a movie but a legacy game is something that is so obscene to them. The experience is not that different except the game is cheaper per hour of fun.

What is your favorite legacy board game? Or do you avoid them, if so, what is the reason?

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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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Needless to say, that’s a lot of different ones. And that doesn’t even include games like My City, Pandemic Legacy Seasons 1 and 2, Risk Legacy, Charterstone, and I’m pretty sure I’m missing one or two. But why play a campaign game? Why play a game that has a story that when you’re done you can’t really play again?

The Case Against A Campaign Game

1. A Campaign Can Only Be Played Once
2. It Takes A Long Time To Play
3. They Are Hard to Get A Group For

A Campaign Can Only Be Played Once

Once you’ve played a campaign game you can’t play it again? You might be marking up a board or you might not be, tearing up cards, but you might not be. In either case, though, you play the story once and you know the story of the campaign, is there really that much difference? And why would I want a game that limits my game plays?

It Takes A Long Time To Play

You want to play the same game over and over again? What happens if you have a break and need to pick it up again, will you remember where you left the story? Do you leave the game set-up so that you aren’t doing the set-up and teardown every time?

They Are Hard To Get A Group For

And with that play time, how do you find a group who is up for that. What sort of plan do you come up to play with? We all have lives, so how do you get it to the table consistently?

The Campaign Game Rebuttal

A Campaign Can Only Be Played Once

This is not fully true. For some games it is a bit more and very much so for Legacy games. Though with a Legacy game often, Risk Legacy, My City, and Charterstone, they can be played after. But even in the case with a legacy game if you can’t, it is still a great experience. It is a story that can’t be told in a normal game.

And this is true for all campaign games. It tells a story that might not exist anywhere else. If you do only play it once, you still get an experience that is different than most games. Even your favorite games you might play five times a year, or maybe that’s just games that you like pretty well. So if you do get through a whole campaign, you end up getting your money’s worth from it.

Finally, not all campaign games can’t be replayed. While I am not sure I could go back and play Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game again, at least not without everyone else being new. There is still plenty in that game that I never saw. Gloomhaven has more scenarios and classes that I never played. Tainted Grail has tons of story and plot lines that I never went down. So yes, you can replay them, you just might know some.

It Times A Long Time To Play

Yes, this is true, but that is also part of the experience of an unfolding narrative in a game. In a shorter game, there might be a narrative that emerges, but by nature of the shorter experience and desire to be replayable, it’ll be less impactful.

So if you want to experience a whole narrative, campaign games are a great way to go. And while some can have one person running the game, most, as compared to an RPG which also matches up with a lot of these criteria, are fully cooperative. That means that everyone is playing the same game and doing the same things.

They Are Hard To Get A Group For

It is not much harder than getting a game group together. I play campaigns with two different groups, both offshoots of my game group. But expectations do need to be set when it comes to a campaign. I had one group fall apart because of life reasons, but still am maintaining the other two.

Start with letting them know the commitment. A campaign game is a commitments and they should know that. Also discuss frequency of play. A lot of times groups will fall apart because they are not frequent enough or too frequent. If they aren’t frequent enough, people forget how to play. Too frequent and it becomes a burden to play it. Know what schedule works for your group and try and stick to it.

Why Play A Campaign Game?

So we’ve looked at some reasons why you might or might not want to. And I do think that game group can be a valid reason if no one is interested in playing a campaign game. However, I think more people are than a lot of gamers might think. But why do I play them?

1. The Narrative Experience
2. Consistent Gaming
3. The Epic Scope
4. Digging Into A Game

The Narrative Experience

I talk about this a lot. I love games that give you story that you can explore. You’ve seen me play Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon, some and Sleeping Gods. Even Pandemic Legacy Season 1 gave story to delve into. And I love when a game gives you story like that.

It is interesting, because the ones that I really love give me flexibility in that story. Gloomhaven more so in how you build and play your character. But Tainted Grail and Sleeping Gods allow you to branch out into the world and see more of what is happening. And they don’t tell you how you need to play it, yes, there are targets you go for, but there is always more to explore.

Compare that to regular Pandemic, or a lot of other one off games, they don’t offer the same story. Now, there is story that emerges in those games from the choices that you make as a player. Which is the same for a campaign game. But the players need to bring a lot more of the narrative to the game.

Consistent Gaming

This is also kind of a rebuttal to it being long and finding a group. For myself and other gamers, consistently gaming is amazing. So often it is hard to set aside time to play games, but with a campaign game, it forces you to do so. Like I said, it’s about that developing that rhythm. And a good campaign game will draw you in with the story it provides so you want to keep coming back to it.

It is a knock, actually, that I have against Gloomhaven. The story is less compelling than the game play. I love the mechanics, but the story could and should be better. But the game play kept me coming back over and over again. That cycle of playing cards and figuring out the strategy for a scenario is amazing. But a campaign game helps hook you to come back for consistent gaming.

The Epic Scope

A campaign game also can have much more epic scope to it. I own other games that have epic scope, The Reckoners or Atlantis Rising are two examples. Pandemic, even, with trying to save the world from diseases. But while you play, those games, that scope is just smaller than what you can get in a campaign game.

Tainted Grail, yes, you are trying to save Avalon, how is that different than Pandemic and saving the world? Well, it is different because what you need to do builds and changes as the game progresses. It might be finding the grail, but now you need to complete a ritual or more in the game. It just keeps building and building until you reach an epic finale to the game.

Digging Into A Game

And now, this is one that is very much for Gloomhaven, but it allows you to dig further and further into the game. And with that, you get to explore and understand the mechanics of the game and the character(s) that you are playing so well.

In Gloomhaven it is that card loop of playing two cards to do the top action on one and the bottom on the other. It just makes for a fascinating puzzle that then you can augment and optimize with items and figure out what is going to work best for you.

Final Thoughts on a Campaign Game

The scope and epic nature of the experience really pull me in. And they are some of the best stories I’ve found in a game. Now, the experience won’t be for everyone. And I think the biggest reason is that sometimes they are just harder to get to the table. If you’ve watched Malts and Meeples, you know I like to play them there. But without a gaming table, I have one now, it is a lot of work to set-up and tear down every time for one to two hours of gaming.

But if you can find a group, I believe that they are worth checking out. And there are so many themes out there. I look at what I have coming in, Frosthaven another game in the Gloomhaven world. Then HEL: The Last Saga a fantastical Viking mythological game. ISS Vanguard is an epic space exploration adventure. Rogue Angels when that comes out is going to be a more boots on the ground dungeon crawl space game. So there is likely a theme for everyone out there, including lighter fantasy like Adventure Tactics or Cora Quest for the whole family.

What is your favorite campaign game?

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Wish List Board Games

41: Pyramid of the Pengqueen

Low on the list, but let’s be fair, I do still want all of these games. This one just seems like an interesting idea, and it’s penguins. But the basic concept is what one person is playing as the Pengqueen who is going around her Pyramid, but no one can see where she is going. Everyone else is trying to get treasures. It’s kind of a hidden movement with a board that is vertical and magnets on both sides. So if you get to close, the magnets attract. Cool simple looking game for the holidays and with the toddler eventually. That’s why I want it.

40: Stella: Dixit Universe

A twist on Dixit where it keeps the great artwork. But players are trying to associate words with pictures and match up those words. And to me that sounds more interesting, and overall just a good looking party game. It also doesn’t have the thing that I don’t love of find the right answer in a bunch of them or tailor your answer to whomever is picking the best that so many also have. This one there isn’t a “right” answer, but you’re playing everyone.

39: Thunderstone Quest!

Thunderstone Quest! is a deck building game, so you might think it’d be higher on my list. For me, I think that I’d like the game a lot, but I’m not sure how much I’d play it over the other deck building games that I love. Thunderstone Quest with it’s fantasy theme and dungeon delving looks cool. But compared to something like Xenoshyft: Onslaught, Aeon’s End, or Clank!, I’m not sure that it’ll do enough for me. It looks like it’s basically just a deck building game.

38: Mice and Mystics

Mice and Mystics is one of the older games on the list. And one of the first storybook games from Plaid Hat Games. These are the ones where there is a book with maps and those are the boards that you play on. I like the feel of this where you play as the mice fighting other things. It’s lower because I really wanted to like Stuffed Fables and I thought it was a bit much for what it did. And that was building off of the Mice and Mystics system, slightly. So I’m worried this will feel like there are too many extra rules with the different pages as well.

37: Coconuts

Now for something very silly. Coconuts is a game where you are tossing coconuts with a monkey trying to get them to land in cups. As they land in cups, you get them and you are trying to complete a collection up to a certain number. But people can steal your cups. A fast paced dexterity game that is meant for that fifteen minute palette cleansing game.

36: Blank Slate

Another party game, in Blank Slate. Blank Slate is a matching game, where you put own a word to complete a phrase, [blank] Run for example. And they are trying to match with another player’s word. If they match up with one person, you get two points each. If you match up with more, well, you still get points but not as many. Simple concept of a game, but one that I could see working in almost any situation.

35: Qwirkle

One that I’ve played before. Qwirkle is an abstract game where you try and complete rows of six either of the same color or of the same symbol to get a lot of points. It’s kind of a cross between Scrabble and Rummikub. Both of them are classic games which I still enjoy. This one is definitely in that classic vein, but very easy to learn and play. So good one to pull out and have some fun with.

34: MicroMacro: Crime City

A combination of Where is Waldo and a who done it, MicroMacro: Crime City gives you a big map that you’re looking to follow a crime that has happened. The artwork is pretty cute and done all in black and white. What is cool about this one is that while it’s just a single map for all the cases, the cases are still dynamic. You can follow a blood trail and still see the same character as if they are moving. So the world is in motion which is really clever.

33: SET

Another classic game, and one that I mainly want to have in my collection because I’m good at it, or I was. It would kind of be one of those party trick games where I could dominate and impress. Kind of like Mastermind and always getting it in five rounds. So it’s more nostalgia than I think this is a great game. But I am curious to see if I’d still be as good at it.

32: Unmatched

Unmatched, and in particular I want the Marvel stuff that was announced a while ago and still isn’t out yet. But I do want to play this game system. It’s pretty clever how you spend cards to do actions, including to draw cards, and you’re looking to keep that balance of attack, move, and defend cards to play around with. Plus, when can you fight Bruce Lee vs some Raptors? Or Buffy the Vampire Hunter against Little Red Riding Hood?

31: Ramen! Ramen!

This one I mainly want because I think it’s going to be a small and cute set collection game. And because the artwork really makes me want ramen. So maybe that’s what I really need is to order or make some ramen soon. But the game looks like simple fun in that weight of something like Sushi Go. And with cute artwork like Sushi Go, that generally means that it’ll get played fairly often.

30: Risk: Shadow Forces

This is a new version of Risk Legacy. Now, there does seem to be fewer legacy elements to it than Risk Legacy, but you’ll see a number of legacy games on this list. I really like legacy games, and Risk is a fine game. I thought that Risk Legacy really improved upon it. So I’m hoping that this will just be another fun version of Risk.

29: Transhumanity

This isn’t a legacy game but more of a campaign game. Earth has leapt to somewhere else gone is the sun, next to us now, a scarlet dwarf star. Or maybe Earth stayed and they switched the other way. But the theme is cool and it’s a cooperative campaign where you are trying to influence what happens on Earth or the other Earths that have shown up as well as improve your deck of cards through card drafting. I’m mainly digging this one for the story, but I suspect it’s going to be right up my alley.

28: Gloom of Killforth

I own Shadows of Killforth that I need to play. But this is going to be a fantasy survival game where the world is very shrinking as the gloom takes it over. And you as a hero are building up your cards so that by the end of the game you’ll be able to defeat the big bad. And you can go to spots where gloom has taken over, but it’ll be harder to do anything there. Good concept and good artwork. I mainly want this because of completionist tendencies and I should just play Shadows of Killforth

27: Ghost Stories

Ghost Stories is supposed to be a very hard cooperative game. Players are trying to drive back ghosts and take them out in this game. And I like the horror them. Plus I really like the very hard cooperative nature. I know that sometimes cooperative games can be too hard, and I don’t want them all to be too hard, but this one, I want to bang my head against it’s difficulty and see if I can win.

26: Aqualin

Aqualin is a two player game from Kosmos. It doesn’t seem like too difficult a game but looks fun. One player is trying to group sea creatures by color. The other is trying to do it by fish type. It almost reminds me a bit of Qwirkle, but each player has a specific goal. I like little simple games like this that shouldn’t take too long to play but offer lots of very good choices.

25: Dungeons & Dragons: Dungeon Scrawler – Heroes of the Undermountains

There are a few roll and write games on this list, I don’t own all of them. But this one is on the list for two reasons. Firstly, I like the Dungeons and Dragons theme. And I know it isn’t the first and hasn’t been the last, but I like the idea of a dungeon crawler roll and write. I’m worried that it might be a cash grab of a game, considering the IP and popularity of roll and write games, but I still want to give it a try.

24: Machi Koro Legacy

Another legacy game, this is basically just Machi Koro, a game that I like. But it’s a short legacy campaign and then you can play Machi Koro. So, I want to get the game to just be able to play through the campaign and then have a copy of the game back in my collection. This is a legacy game that I can sit down and play with anyone, or probably even play over a weekend if I really wanted.

23: Menara

Menara is a dexterity stacking game. But a cooperative one, so no one is pulling for someone else to knock over the tower. To me that’s more interesting than something like Jenga. It changes the game from “haha, you knocked down to the tower” to “oh no, the tower fell down”. And that just feels better as a game when something game ending happens and it’s not about it being one person who is losing.

22: The Librarians: Adventure Card Game

This is another one that I’ve played. Granted, it was in prototype form on TableTop Simulator. The game was a good time and I really like the show. And the game has you playing through season one of the show. It’s a good cooperative game with solid mechanics. And I’d be more excited for this if I could play a real copy of it. And even with that less than ideal play, I am still ready to pick it up if I get a chance.

21: Star Wars: Rebellion

And another game that I’ve played. Star Wars: Rebellion is the original trilogy in a box, but your version of the original trilogy. It’s a lot of fun and a great two player game with one side being the Rebels and the other being the Empire. It has been on sale a few times, the only reason I haven’t picked it up is I know someone who owns it.

20: Adventure Ink: Five Factions of Filigree

I don’t know when this one will be hitting Kickstarter or published, I’m not sure which it’ll do, I’m guessing Kickstarter. And for that reason it is pretty low on this list because I am very excited for it. It’s a big story game but also a roll and write type game where things that you roll will get drawn onto things, I believe dry erase. The whole concept sounds very ambitious and very different. So like most games and projects that I enjoy.

19: Star Trek: Super-Skill Pinball

So, I was talking about roll and writes, here’s another one. And one that I know that I like. Super-Skill Pinball is maybe the most thematic roll and write game that I’ve played. And this basically slaps a Star Trek theme onto it, I’m curious I want to know what the tables will do. Because if it’s basically just taking existing tables and making them Star Trek, then this would drop off the list. But I’m guessing it’ll be all new tables.

18: Floor Plan: The Winchester Mystery Mansion

I got rid of Floor Plan, but I’m excited for this. My issue with Floor Plan, while fun, was that I didn’t feel too much like I was making a floor plan. The houses that were made were just too crazy. You could build a room with zero doors, and as long as it met criteria, it would give you points. But the Winchester Mystery Mansion is crazy in real life, so a crazy floor plan will make more sense.

17: Dungeon Party

This could also be called Dungeon Quarters. And that’s why I want the game, it looks like one of those games that would be simple enough to pull out almost anywhere. But also be a silly good time when you play it. It’s, like I said, basically quarters, bouncing a coin onto a monster to deal them damage. Plus then with the dungeon crawl theme on it and powers for your characters. I’d bring this one out to a brewery and have a great time.

16: The King’s Dilemma

More legacy with The King’s Dilemma. This is one that’s kind of a story telling game as you all are making decisions about what to do and opening lots of envelopes with story and more choices. And the choices, you might not agree in real life with what you decide, but it’s to get points, so it gives a chance to role play your character hoping to get your way on this thing that’ll help you. I’m really intrigued by it and another one I want to play but I won’t buy until I know who I’m playing it with.

15: Divinus

Yet more legacy with Divinus. Divinus, from Lucky Duck Games, pits the Greek Pantheon against the Norse Pantheon. And you are working to become a demi-god as you support one of the two sides, or both, throughout the game. It’s intriguing because you are placing dice to get tiles to build out lands in front of you. And then it uses Lucky Duck Games technology to scan locations and tell story. I feel like it might be a bit mechanical from watching some game play, but how will the story develop, I want to know.

14: Hadrian’s Wall

I think this is the final roll and write on the list. Hadrian’s Wall is a hefty roll and write. Two big sheets of stuff as you build up defenses along the wall to keep the invaders from being able to get through. I don’t know a ton about the game, but it’s a heavy roll and write, so I’m interested. And everyone who I’ve talked to about the game who has played it really likes it.

13: Die of the Dead

I wish that I had backed this one on Kickstarter. Then I wish that I had picked up the copy someone traded in at my FLGS. From what I know about this game, you are trying to manipulate dice to get them rolled and played onto this 3D stairs and make it to the top. The concept seems interesting and the game is just amazing to look at.

12: Strike

Now to a much simpler dice game. In Strike, you are rolling dice into a bowl and trying to get matches to build up your die pool and avoid getting a strike which will end your turn. It’s a last person standing with dice sort of game. This is one that just seems like a silly good time and one that would be great to pull out to end a board game night with some good laughs.

11: Tsukuyumi: Full Moon Down

Now we’re into mainly big games, there are a couple of smaller ones left, but Tsukujumi: Full Moon Down is not one of them. This is an area control sort of game where different factions are battling over areas. And what drew me to this game is that Sam Healey, formerly of the Dice Tower liked it, and I tend to like games that he likes. It is one that I think I’ll really dig, but also one with the price tag that I might want to try before I would buy it.

10: Maximum Apocalypse

Survive the zombie apocalypse, or alien, or dinosaur, or kaiju, or well, you get the picture. What is cool about this game is that it’s very much a survival game but feels like on the lighter ends of things. I maybe even want the latest version more so that offers a campaign to the game, but also, without a campaign it might be easier to play. Because who doesn’t want to play a scenario were a kaiju is stomping across the land to get you? And I like that the map is set-up as well.

9: Doodle Dash

Now one of the few smaller games left. This is basically just racing to draw something as fast as possible so that your clue is given first. Though, if you go too fast and draw too poorly, they might not get it. So it’s a balance of how fast you doodle, probably very fast though. Seems like a good party game that is similar to some, but I don’t have many drawing party games.

8: Townsfolk Tussle

This is one that I looked at on Kickstarter as a boss battler game but I didn’t back. I know it’s coming back to Kickstarter, but I’m not sure I’ll back it that time either, even though I definitely want it. But Townsfolk Tussle is a lighter game where you fight against different mustache twirling villains. I like the artwork on the game, which is Cuphead or old cartoon/comic like. And it is kind of a campaign, but not a massive campaign game. I just have Oathsworn and Primal coming as boss battlers.

7: Monumental

Monumental is a game that I wish wasn’t available only on Kickstarter and probably one that had standees. This is a deck building game where you fight, get more cards, and move and explore on a big map. What draws me to this game is how you activate. It isn’t a normal deck builder in that you don’t play a hand of cards. Instead you have a 3×3 grid and you activate a row or a column for the cards. That feels very unique in what it does.

6: Kingdom Death: Monster

Now the grandfather or all boss battlers? Well, maybe it isn’t that, but it’s the biggest one that really put them on the map. I’d love to get my hands on Kingdom Death: Monster. But I really don’t want to spend an arm and a leg like it costs. And I really don’t want to but together all the minis. This is one that I’d love to have, but I’d need to find it for the right price, which I doubt I ever well.

5: Iron Forest

Iron Forest is another one that I could get right now on Kickstarter. But I am not backing it, mainly because $80 for a flicking game, plus shipping, is more than I want to pay. I can probably find it cheaper used later. But I love Icecool from this company, and Iron Forest is two layer Icecool with some extra rules. If there was a game where I wanted to have it in front of me and play it tonight, this might be the one.

4: Arkeis

Arkeis is another legacy style game. I’m not sure if it is truly legacy, it’s been a while since it was on Kickstarter. But this is a game where you are exploring tombs in Egypt, I believe. And that theme is really cool. Plus it’s a campaign game, so I always like those. Just the Egypt theme has me really excited for this one. And it is a game where the box creates rooms for you to go into. It just feels like it’s going to be epic.

3: So Clover!

Now a small game again, So Clover! is a party game from the makers of Just One. In this game you have a clover leaf that you has four cards on it with four words on each card, one per side. So each leaf has two words on it. You put down a word that connects those two for all the leaves you have. And then you shuffle in a fifth card. Everyone else is doing the same thing. Then one player at a time, everyone who didn’t write on the board tries to unscramble it. It seems like it will work with almost anyone and be just a bit harder than Just One.

2: Vampire: The Masquerade – Chapters

Now a really big game, Vampire: The Masquerade – Chapters is going to be playing a story driven dungeon crawl maybe boss battler game. And of course it’s a campaign as well. So really it is everything that I love. I didn’t back it when it was on Kickstarter because I thought it was too expensive, and do I really need another campaign game? I probably don’t, but I love the mystery and intrigue that Vampire: The Masquerade Chapters promises. So I really want to try and track this one down when it finally delivers.

1: Rogue Angels: Legacy of the Burning Suns

Finally Rogue Angels. I don’t need to say much about this one. You can watch me play it here. It’s not even on Kickstarter yet, or back on Kickstarter anyways. And from what I know about the changes coming to the game, all cosmetic, it’s going to be amazing. Plus, the game play itself is great. I can’t wait for this to come back to Kickstarter and then sometime in the future to be delivered.

Final Thoughts

Rogue Angels is easily my top game on my wish list. Though, there are others, So Clover! for sure, that I’ll be getting before it. I’m waiting for that one to come back into stock because when it does, it’ll get played right away. It’s going to be a great game night and holiday option for me. And some of the other ones, they might never get picked up. I mean, Kingdom Death: Monster, I’m never going to buy that. But some others, Vampire The Masquerade – Chapters, I definitely want to track down.

What game is #1 on your wish list?

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The games that, as far as I know, are just going to be published or that I’ll have access to. So it might be a crowdfunding game but one I didn’t back. I kind of expect this to be a harder because there often isn’t a ton of information out there on games. And going through BGG, there are a lot of entries but a lot of them were crowdfunding games.

So You’ve Been Eaten

Fairly sure this came to Kickstarter, but I don’t remember 100%. So You’ve Been Eaten is a game where you are playing as a miner trying to get out of a monster that has eaten you. Or you play as the monster trying to eat the guy. It’s a game that can be played by 0, 1, or 2 players. 0 players means the game plays itself. Well, with someone taking the AI’s actions.

But the concept of the game is just fun. I feel like I like games with really weird themes, and it’s hard to get weirder than being eaten by a monster and trying to get out of it. The title if nothing else just makes me want to try the game.

Sagrada: Legacy

It’s two things that I love, Sagrada, a great dice drafting and dice placement game. And Legacy, meaning that the game progresses and grows as you go through it. I’m not sure what that is going to entail, but I’ve been excited for this one since I learned about it. I don’t know for sure this will come out in 2022, but whenever it does, I’ll be picking it up.

My hope is that you build up a whole cathedral of stained glass windows through the game. I am guessing this won’t have nearly as much story as a lot of legacy games, but it’s a game system that I already like with Sagrada. And it might be a more accessible legacy game, like My City.

Vagrants Song

This one is kind of out right now, so it might be a bit of a cheat, but it’s not out for a wide audience. But the Dice Tower, and that it was multiple times in the Top 10 of the year, I believe, Tom, Zee, and Mike all had it there, it makes me interested. This is a bag chit pulling game, battle game, a lot going on it. It’s cooperative and there is story as well, so like I said, a lot going on.

I don’t know that this is one that I’ll pick up. It feels like it’s unique, the art style is unique. This is kind of like So You’ve Been Eaten in that it just feels different from almost anything else out there. Yes, there are elements that have been done before, but the teme especially is really different feeling.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Chapters

Now, I know I’m cheating on this one. It most definitely is a Kickstarter game. It is even a game that I looked at on Kickstarter. But it wasn’t until I saw a playthrough of the prototype, and it was a partial production copy prototype, that I knew I wanted this game. It’s a big campaign game, I should have known before.

But it has story elements, and heavy story elements to it. I like it when my campaigns tell a great story. And it also has that divide that we’re seeing in games like Oathsworn as well where you have combat and a map, but also just story and choose your own adventure from a book. So I hope that this one gets some level of retail release when it eventually comes out.

Unmatched – Marvel

I haven’t gotten any Unmatched before. This is a game that is a fighting game between two people. I already own a game that I love like that with Super Fantasy Brawl. But now that we’re getting Marvel characters, I might need to pick up some Unmatched.

What I really like about this for Unmatched is that it isn’t the normal characters. I think one of the boxes maybe has Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and Ghost Rider. Yes, they show up in other games, but there isn’t a box where it’s Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor. So they are starting with different characters which I really like.

Flicking Finches

I hope that this game is at GenCon, let’s be fair. I don’t think that I’m going to pick up this dexterity game where you are flicking finches in hopes of getting Darwin to draw them without trying it. I’ve done that before with some dexterity games, but I’ve a good idea of what they are. And now I have my favorites all set aside with Icecool and PitchCar.

So do I need more flicking games. Likely not, but if I could demo this one. And if this one is fun. Then maybe I’d want to get another flicking game that is on a bit of a smaller scale.

Bullet [STAR]

It’s the shape, not the word that’s why I have brackets. But this one is a bit of a cheat. I already pre-ordered this game. It is a real time game that is basically a solo puzzle. You try and use cards and powers to stop bullets, I think. Basically over up discs so that they don’t fall down and get you.

The aesthetic of this is great, it has that anime art style that I know some might not like, but I do. And I ordered the wooden discs to replace the ones that come with the game. So my thing is going to be even more fancy. Plus the game plays in two minutes so that is cool, very fast game to get to the table.

Risk: Shadow Forces

This is one that I need reviews on. When it was announced I immediately became interested. Why, because it’s a legacy game. And I had a really good time with Risk Legacy. But Risk: Shadow Forces seems to be a legacy game on the same level as Risk Legacy. By that I mean very few things to open up.

I thought that Risk Legacy was fun because of the group I played with. But I don’t think it’s an experience that I’d go back to. If Risk: Shadow Forces is the same level, I don’t need to go after it. But it is a legacy game and I’d love to play all of them. I like the shorter campaign style nature of them. And they seem to be more accessible to some people. Still, I need a review.

Lord of the Rings: The Card Game

This is a bit of a cheat. This game is already out, but they are coming out with a revised core box. I think it makes it so you can play with more. But it’s also a chance to jump into the game. Do I need another living card game to buy stuff for, I do not. But just getting the core box, I could see myself doing that. It is a theme that I love and my wife loves even more, so maybe a game that is easier to play.

But those are the board games that I’ve spotted thus far coming in 2022, at least that aren’t on Kickstarter or Gamefound. Obviously, we don’t know everything that is going to come out at this point. There are going to be games that the designs get finished and they just show up out of no where. Or, like this year with Stardew Valley are announced and immediately able to be pre-ordered. Is there any game you are excited for already in 2022?

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If it’s not obvious, I clearly love campaign games. I have a lot more on my shelf from Pandemic Legacy Season 0 to Midarra: Unintentional Mallum Act 1, to Destinies, all that need to get played. Plus there are more on the way including a massive game, Frosthaven, the follow-up to Gloomhaven. Yet, compared to a lot of gamers, I’ve played a lot of campaign games. So how do I get a consistent group together?

Talk About Campaign Games

Talk with people about playing a campaign game. It sounds obvious, but I think a lot of gamers forget to do this. I forget to do this with people who might be interested in a campaign game. I own many other games that aren’t campaign games, so I sit down and play those with a lot of people. People who might want to play a legacy game or a campaign game, but I don’t mention it.

Now, it does come with a balance. I have one friend who I could play a campaign game with, but I don’t. Why, because while we had fun playing Sword & Sorcery, I realized I wasn’t playing my other games as much. So now I game with him every other week, and it’s just pulling games that maybe don’t get play that much off the shelf. Heavier games that are a one off, or teaching him new games that I’ve gotten. So it is a balance, but if you don’t mention campaign games, people won’t know it’s an option.

Define a Schedule

This one is tricky, especially as you get older. When I was in college I probably could have gotten stuff together easier. Or played campaign games more often. If I’d played Dungeons and Dragons then, I probably would have played for an eight hour session every week, or maybe every two. Now my schedule doesn’t permit that. The same is true for the people I game with. We have work, other activities, and kids in some cases. All of those things eat into gaming time.

On the flip side, we now need to get it scheduled more than before which means that we play more consistently. When younger, it is easy to go months if you aren’t thinking about it. You play for hours, but when you stop, you might not play for a long time again. Because I need it on the calendar to know I can play, that means we have a consistent schedule.

For both campaign board games and Dungeons and Dragons, I play every other week. The Gloomhaven/Tainted Grail group meets every other Tuesday. Dungeons and Dragons is every other Thursday. I keep, or try to, them on opposite weeks. That means that the one player who overlaps doesn’t have two evenings in one week are taken up and the same for me.

It is important to define it also so people know the commitment level. A full Saturday once a month might be what you need, or even weekly. Figure out what works for you and your players.

Be Flexible

This goes against what I said, or might seem like it, but I don’t think it does. Flexibility is scheduling is important. There are different reasons that people cancel and flexibility is important for that. I’ve had my Dungeons and Dragons game shift by a week multiple times, and that is fine. We know the schedule, every other Thursday, and try and make that work, but adjust when need be.

Now, there are more valid reasons for being flexible sometimes. If someone keeps on missing because they just don’t feel like it that day and that causes you to cancel, that isn’t being flexible. That’s them not being interested and they can be dropped from the group. Likely, campaign games weren’t for them. But lie things, working overtime, a kid who is under the weather, car troubles, those sorts of things need to allow flexibility.

Know Your Campaign Players

Finally, know who your campaign players are. I talked about before how I have one person I game with regularly not with campaign games. He’s played them with me before, but doesn’t always love a long campaign. He dropped out of Dungeons and Dragons recently because it’s too long for his focus and style, which is fair. Dungeons and Dragons is a massive commitment. I’d play a shorter campaign board game with him, and have with Sword & Sorcery, but I know he isn’t my big campaign game player.

On the flip side, I’ve played Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon and Gloomhaven with the same two people. And that’s taken us years to get through, I think coming up in February will be four years of us playing games. Gloomhaven took up most of that time, but Tainted Grail will as we wait for Frosthaven. I know I can campaign game with them.

I also had a group I played Pandemic Legacy games with, but I don’t think I’d campaign game with them anymore. They were always hard to pin down in terms of scheduling. And lately, they’ve been even harder. One of them was part of the Charterstone group and even with just one, they were still hard to nail down for that. So I moved away from playing campaign games with them. Knowing who will be consistent enough is important.

Are They Worth the Effort?

Clearly for me they are worth the effort. Campaign games give great experiences at the gaming table. They are completely different than playing a one off game because the story emerges around you most of the time. There are twists and turns that simple cannot exist in a regular game.

That isn’t to dismiss other games. Normal single session games still give very good and I still play them a lot. There is just something about a campaign game and a shared experience that is different. This can be a legacy style campaign game or just a campaign game, either are very good. And you get to know that feel of the group you are playing with. You know all your styles and really develop how you play a campaign game.

Have you gotten through a campaign game or are they on your radar? Have you found a good group to play with?

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My Experience

Now, I’ll start off by saying, I am not the only person I know who owns board games that I play with. I have friends who own other games and different games. I don’t try and repeat games that they have too often. Though there are some, Root for example, that I want my own copy of but I do own a lot of the games that we play.

For me, I don’t consider this to be a bad thing. If “Friend X” owns a game and I want to play it but they aren’t around to play it, or I want to introduce it to a different group, I can’t if they own it. Now this isn’t a problem too often, but something like Mysterium which I think would be great around Halloween and I wouldn’t have minded playing last game night, I couldn’t because I don’t own it. I’d be introducing it to a new group but I couldn’t because I don’t own it.

I also don’t mind because I have the space to store the games. Granted, that space is filling up a fair amount, but there is still space for some more and I rotate games in and out because, that makes sense. If I were a collector, I’d have to reconsider what I was doing, but I’m a gamer first and a collector second when it comes to board games.

The Disadvantages

This isn’t to say that being the main game buyer doesn’t have some disadvantages, it does. Mainly the space and money involved. Like I said, I rotate games out of my collection, this generally lets me buy new games. And that’s a lot of fun to be adding new games into my collection, but I also make the decisions, generally, on what leaves.

When I look at a game in my collection, I ask myself, will I play it, but more so, will I pull it off of the shelf to play. There are some games that I look at and I know I won’t. Will I pick to play Splendor, the answer is no. But as the owner of that game and the owner of games for my group do I need to keep it around? That one stays around because my wife likes it, otherwise I’d have gotten rid of it.

But what if it’s someone who I only game with sometimes. If it is their favorite game am I going to keep it in my collection for the two times a year that I might play with them and that they’d request that I take it off the shelf? It is using up real estate in my collection. Often one thing that I do is if I am going to get rid of a game that someone else might like, I’ll offer to sell it to them, give them first crack at it. Yes, it means they need to bring it, but it means I have more funds and space to get more games.

It also means that you’re lugging more games around. If you’re the only one with a big collection in your group, you need to bring a variety of games to the game nigh, or host. And if you don’t have a specific theme or focus for what game you want to play, you can lug around a whole lot of games that you don’t end up playing. That sounds like not that big a deal, but if you don’t know what big game you might play, it is a lot.

The Advantages

You always have the game to play whenever you want is the biggest one. You don’t need to ask someone to bring something, you already have it. Now, that means that people ask you to bring things, but I don’t consider that a disadvantage, in fact it can help you know what games are likely to get played so you don’t need to bring as many.

I also like it because it means that I always have games to introduce people to. Now, I might have my go to games that I use, but I don’t always have to use the same ones. If a person likes a certain theme, I can pick out that theme to play with them. I have the variety of games always at hand for whenever I want to play.

And really for me the sharing the hobby part is the biggest thing. If I have a game for most any and every occasion, it means that the hobby can continue to grow. It means that I’ll have new people to play games with. That means that the other more complex games or different games that I want to play will get played more often. This is really the case with campaign games as well. If I have a campaign and I can get new people into gaming, I have more people to play those games with. And if I don’t have the games I can’t do that.

How To Balance Board Game Buying

One issue is that people can expect you to have everything. Or they will want you to keep that one game that they like or get more like it. Obviously that’s not really feasible, so how do you keep from just having stacks of games around that people might want to play?

The first big thing is to rotate your collection. Now, maybe you are a collector and you just want to keep stuff. I don’t think that everyone needs to be a collector though. I have around 300 board games. Do I need to add another 300, it doesn’t make sense. If I have 600 board games I won’t play all of them. In fact in my challenge this year, I’ve played around 70, so that’s not that huge a percentage.

I could have 600 games but I’d still probably only play 70-100 of them a year, that means, assuming no overlap it’s going to be 6 years to get through all of them. That’s unreasonably long. I most likely won’t be playing only unique games. Most likely I’ll be playing the same 70 to 100 games most years.

Next, ask for help in buying games. When Frosthaven came to Kickstarter, I knew it was a campaign game that I wanted to play. I also had a specific group I played Gloomhaven with. Those people will be who I play Frosthaven with as well. So I asked them to chip in a little money. When I got Charterstone to play with a group, we decided to split the cost. The same thing happened with Risk: Legacy.

For getting something like the newest version of Ticket to Ride, I wouldn’t ask. But a campaign game, and extended shared experience with a specific group, ask. People might say no, and then you have to decide if it’s worth it. Or they might say yes and gladly help.

Are you the game owner/buyer in your group? Is there someone in your group who is?

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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?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

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