Top 3 Board Games That Need a New Edition

Just to set-up how I’m picking the list. I am picking games that I have played. I know that there are some games that are mainly unplayable as the rules are written. If I haven’t played it, I can’t judge that for sure. I know some people think Tainted Grail is the worst thing ever for the grind that was explicitly said to be part of the game (don’t get me started) but I like that game a lot. So I don’t think it needs a second edition of the core game.

3. Lost Ruins of Arnak

This one is pretty easy as to why I think it should have another edition and it’s not because there is a major flaw with the core box of the game. In fact, I enjoyed it pretty well playing what comes in the core box. But the first expansion gives you leaders with powers. That should be in the core box. It took the game from a 7 or so up to a 9 or 10 for me because it meant everyone was doing things a bit more differently.

Now, I don’t think this will happen anytime soon. Lost Ruins of Arnak is a new game that they are still coming out with expansions for. But, in my opinion, the leaders should be in that main box. Even if you want to start with playing vanilla Lost Ruins of Arnak, have it in the box for when you’re ready for the next step.

2. SeaFall

This one falls into having issues in a number of ways. The rules were not good, the game itself was too long, and sometimes, you just got the story out of order. But I like the idea of a pirate legacy game, even though this barely seemed like pirates. So SeaFall is one that could use a complete overhaul, well, kind of.

I do think that the bones are there for a good game. There are elements like getting crew, exploring, fighting, even the dice mechanics once you figured them out in the rules weren’t too bad, but it needs to be tightened up. Maybe reduce how much you can possibly do in a game. Introduce rules more slowly, something like that. They changed rules, but let’s start out with just exploring and then after a couple of games add in fighting.

The two big things are you need to shorten the length of the game. There is no reason, besides to allow you to find more, to extend the games by a point each time. The game is already long at the start, there needed to be a way to get more points at the start from the legacy decisions that you made. And it’d have been a great balancing mechanism.

The other thing is that story. Like I said, you can find it out of order. The game is played over a number of sessions, give me a booklet or a section of the booklet to find the stories. That keeps the story from coming out awkwardly and leave the players with more questions. I get the desire for open world, but that isn’t needed in this case.

1. Legendary: A Marvel Deck Building Game

This is a Marvel game that I will not get. Helps that a friend has or had a ton of it so I got to play it a number of times. But for me this is a game that needs to be rebooted because, in my opinion, the game really doesn’t work that well. You fight a boss, deal with henchmen, and generally feel like you’re not doing much of anything.

Marvel Champions is more of what I wanted, but I think there is room for improvement on Legendary and that both could be in a collection. Mainly, I don’t feel like a super hero when I played Legendary. That’s kind of the idea is you are a super hero(es) beating up bad guys. But it takes forever to get to the main bad guy, make the easier and throughout the game than a last second dash at the end.

And with the deck building, I feel like I’m collecting random heroes. Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow, and Captain America all in the deck, I’ll probably have some of all of them. So everyone is playing basically the same team-up. I’d prefer a more generic set of cards, each hero can add some to it, but you play as a hero with a base set of that hero’s cards. Let me build up my hero and be a hero in battle. I don’t need to be everything. Let me grab a cool move, some intel, whatever it might be. But it is better than what they have now.

Final Thoughts

I could have come up with more. I actually almost push Smash Up on the list with just, make it into Marvel Snap. They are close, but Marvel Snap is so much better. And that one would really be changing the game, into a new game, versus being a second edition. I guess that Legendary might fall into that area as well.

But board games sometimes need that new edition. And, I would, if I ever had the time, go through SeaFall again and try and turn it into a better game. Try and make it something that doesn’t take four hours to play and a lot of that time not being interesting, in higher player count games. But that is for future me when I have future time, though, I’ll probably always be busy.

Is there a game you want to see a second, better, edition of?

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But that is all great. There are still some IP’s that just don’t have good board games yet. And I think that some of them could have great board games if the right company got their hands on them. I think I could come up with more than three, but let’s pick my Top 3 IP’s that I want better board games for.

Top 3 IP’s

3. Tomb Raider

I think that there have been a few Tomb Raider games over time. But none of them have been that good. The one I that played was definitely very bad. That sad thing is that this was in 2019 at Gen Con and while I know bad games come out still, the hope is that if you’re showing off a new game there that isn’t out, you’ll make it better. They did not.

The issue with this game, and there were many, but the biggest is that everyone was Lara Croft. So it starts with something that makes zero sense. Then you try and move around a circle by playing out cards. All the cards were boring. Then you could also just mess with that other players were doing. In all, there is nothing that felt Tomb Raider like about it.

What I Want

This is clearly a narrative adventure game. And honestly a lot of IP games should be that. You have a pre-existing world, so how do you create something good for it. I think this could be perfect for Mansions of Madness style of game. Mansions of Madness does two things. It lets you have puzzles, and Tomb Raider could be way more creative with theirs. And you get to explore and build out locations.

Now, would I make this a campaign game. And honestly I’m a bit torn on it. I think that there are elements that would make sense from the franchise to be a campaign game. But a lot of the games are also pretty standalone in nature. So I almost lean towards standalone. But what I’m going to say is that I think there are game models you could use that offer both.

I like the idea of being able to get a box of the next series of missions in this case. All of those will be a connected arc. But like Fantasy Flight does with their LCG’s, and maybe that’d be a good Tomb Raider format anyways, have some stand alone packs. So you could get the core box, play as Lara and her friends, have some connected missions, and then get one off missions.

2. Sword Art Online

Now, the Sword Art Game is why I have a bit of an issue with Japanime Games. They tend to get a lot of IP’s and they don’t do well by them. The games aren’t balanced, the rules aren’t good, and it’s generally a bit of a mess. Sword Art Online: Sword of Fellows somehow manages to have a lot of rules written out but none of them explained. From when I’ve played it, and I still own it, it’s basically a Yahtzee style game of trying to roll dice and activate hits.

If you can activate all the dice, I believe it is, then you can switch with someone else not giving the bad guy a turn. That element is thematic to the show. But the issue with this game is that there’s not much of a game there. And there isn’t much that makes it feel like the show or light novels. It’s really that one thing, you can switch, and a very basic and boring leveling up.

What I Want

Sword Art Online in a Kingdom Death Monster system. I know really easily what I want. Or maybe Sword Art Online in a Frosthaven system. Finally, it could be Sword Art Online in a Oathsworn system. All of these have one thing in common. You go out to a boss battle or some scenario and then there is a town or settlement phase. I was already working on an idea for a game like this because Sword Art Online: Sword of Fellows was so sad.

But the basic idea is that you spend your time building up your guild, scouting, finding monsters, dealing with events, dealing with other players and NPC’s all leading up to a boss battle and going to the next level. And you need to balance everything, because in Sword Art Online there is no dying and loading it back up again. The whole point of it is a death game, so if you’re not careful your character might die. Of course, you can swap in other characters but obviously, it’s not the person who you were before.

This is just an idea that seems so obvious and it provides depth. But because the one game was made to make a game fast for an IP, we’re stuck with Sword Art Online: Sword of Fellows.

1. Dresden Files

Now my top IP that I’d like to see get a better board game, though this order is flexible, is The Dresden Files. This is a book series that I just love with great urban fantasy. And there is a board game out there that I own everything for the game. And unlike the other ones, I like The Dresden Files board game, but it could be better.

In the game you play through one of the books. And to do that you are either trying to take out more bad guys so that there are fewer of them left than cases you’ve solved. Or that there are more solved cases than bad guys left. And that’ll depend on the characters you play as. And then you are playing cards to beat up bad guys or solve cases, or to get back more action points to solve cases and beat up bad guys in future turns.

The game has some issues. It’s thematic, if you know the books. And the mechanisms are very inspired. It doesn’t feel like a Dresden story that way. It’s very mechanical and sometimes because of the shared action point pool you just discard cards. So you’re helping, but it isn’t exciting.

What I Want

This one I think I have the most specific thing that I want. Though Sword Art Online was pretty specific as well. I think there is more room to play with in that idea. I want the Vampire the Masquerade Chapter system with Dresden Files. It’s kind of choose your own adventure. It’s talking with people and monsters, it’s investigating crime scenes, and then it’s fighting. All of that is Dresden to a tee. You could maybe even mix in a city map and a blue beetle.

The only other option that I think could work, and it wouldn’t be as good would be a combination of TIME Stories and Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game. Both of them are about solving cases, which is what the Dresden Files ultimately are about. But there is more adventure to the Dresden Files that I don’t think that TIME Stories and Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game bring as much as what I’ve seen in Vampire the Masquerade Chapters.

So, Flyos Games, please get this IP or work with whomever has it, I want to see this game.

Other IP’s That Need Better Board Games

There are a lot of them out there. And I wanted to keep it to three so that I could dive into what I wanted to do as well. And there are some that have solid board games but could have better. Like Dungeons and Dragons has games people like, but do they feel like D&D to me? Or Harry Potter, Hogwarts Battle is a fun game, but does it feel like Harry Potter? Barely, and it’s not a game without it’s flaws.

If you could pick a few IP’s that have board games that you’d like to see get a better game, what would they be?

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Comments/Questions

Let me know your order for the official MCU shows and movies? That can include now Shang Chi which wasn’t out when I started the list. Do you agree with my list, what movies do you have a lot higher or a lot lower?

You can let me know that over on Twitter. Tweet your thoughts to me @TheScando or with #10MinMarvel. You can also leave a comment below with your rankings as well.

Also, what do you want to have covered next week? We’re getting down to it with What If, is there a villain, hero, or comic run that you think I should cover?

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