AngryJason
Shared on Mon, 06/24/2013 - 10:27I'm still playing Neverwinter on a daily basis, but my level 42 devout cleric has hit a spot where I cannot proceed solo. I have taken my great weapon fighter up to level 22 or so, and am having fun there, but figured I'd change gears a little bit and give the Secret World another go. I'm having a fairly good time with it. I understand the criticism is that it doesn't have much content, but I'm not in a position to judge that just yet. I guess the thing that I'm enjoying most about it is that the questing feels more ogranic. I can be on a quest, and see a side mission and elect to take that. There's no real leveling in the game, so all you have to go on is "normal" "hard" "very hard". I have taken my share of hard adventures and some are grueling while others aren't too bad. The other thing I like is how the game challenges you to use outside sources of knowledge to solve a puzzle. Being asked to translate latin, look up bible verses, hit wikipedia is really an interesting way to incorporate every day surfing and "googling" into a metagame. Now, being realistic, that lasted about an hour and then I was all "secret world - digging deeper walkthrough", but still, it's nice to know that a robust tapestry of puzzle solving exists if you're willing to invest the time. While I don't expect to go too heavy into TSW, it's coming on strong as a good 2nd or 3rd go-to game.
Marvel Heroes, on the other hand, is facing a fall out of the top 5 rotation of games.
Words cannot describe how much I am digging Elder Sign as a tabletop game. The IOS version, Elder Sign: Omens is fun enough, but it cheats like hell. The other night, my iPad was dead, so I decided to set up the tabletop version of the game and play solo.
I've been getting more into tabletop gaming as a way of involving the whole family in an activity. I can't stand when my girlfriend sits in front of the tv for an evening, or the boys are playing xbox or wow - and I know - glass houses and all, I'm usually on the PC or Xbox or PS3 for a good hour+ per day. (by the way, I'm not really digging Last of Us). Anyway, I see a need to get us more connected - so I've been going deep into tabletop gaming. King of Tokyo was well received, though I found it a bit stretched out. Forbidden Island is way too unforgiving for anything short of a hardcore group. Fluxx and it's variants are a hit, but I find it too simplistic. Dixit Journey was also well received, but with the kids, it's far too easy to sort out what they're doing.
With all that said - I've decided to expose my girlfriend's kids (what do you call a lady you've lived with for 3 years, dated for 4.5? Girlfriend seems so 'temporary') to D&D. The 4ed red box should be at my doorstep when I get home tonight, and I figure I'll have them roll some characters and then I'll take them through a small adventure. Myself, I haven't played D&D for over 25 years, and even then, I wasn't hardcore. I figure we'll all be learning as we go. They had a good time with Castle Ravenloft (we did simplify quite a bit), and I'm hoping the pen & paper will stir a spree of imagination in them (and me too, the workaday world sure can limit creativitiy). Any advice to a noob DM with noob adventurers to shepherd through some dungeon crawls?
- AngryJason's blog
- Log in or register to post comments
Comments
Submitted by CrypticCat on Mon, 06/24/2013 - 11:01
Yeah, teach them early that thac0 isn't a limitation and spent good time on them understanding it. Solves a lot of problems straight from the git.
Submitted by Azuredreams on Mon, 06/24/2013 - 11:38
Sadly I don't think 4th edition even uses THAC0 anymore. My son plays D&D with some buddies at the library and to hear him talk about the classes etc, honestly I can't understand half of what he's saying. This coming from someone who had 1-2nd editions memorised and played every day from the age of 8 till 21.
Submitted by AngryJason on Tue, 06/25/2013 - 20:52
no thac0 in 4ed. We're done with night 2 of the D&D experiment. So far, it's been pretty good. The way the red box works is that you start out creating your character in a solo adventure - so, playing through with the boys and the lady took a lot of time. I can't really complain, it is what it is. As we all get more familiar with how characters work, we'll be able to create new characters using the character builder thru d&d essentials. It didn't occur to me that a 9 year old may not understand the concept of roleplay. I figured this would be a no-brainer, but when I chose the "what's in it for me?" option to gain an unaligned alignment, he looked so disappointed and asked me "is that really what you'd do? the merchant needs help".
So, a quick diversion into what it means to roleplay was taken. He couldn't bring himself to pick anything other than lawful good. I can empathize, when I play mass effect, I can never be jerk-shep.
We're through the character building now, and are about to embark on the second part of the red box quest.
Submitted by Raider30 on Mon, 06/24/2013 - 12:55
Welcome to the world of board gaming. Seriously, it's a ton of fun and as you are likely discovering there are a lot of games out there that have nothing to do with the milton bradley/parker brothers stuff you probably played with as a kid. For lots of good ideas on games to play, as well as lots of review videos to help you decide if it is something you will like with your family members(they can watch them as well and that's a nice thing if all the kids go 'blech' that doesn't look fun well then you save $50), head over go boardgamegeek.com
There are tons of fun games out there for families/kids. You've already got King of Tokyo, which is usually a quick yahtzee like dice game, but if they like dice games you should try Quarriors! Tons of dice which represent monsters and spells. Easy to play and who doesn't like rolling dice? I've not tried Fluxx but you might want to look at Munchkin. It's my 11yr old's favorite game right now. Survive is another great family game.
- Raider30
Submitted by BlowMonkey on Mon, 06/24/2013 - 13:14
My family (kids are 19, 15, 8 and 5) have been loving Ticket to Ride and Settlers of Catan. Also for an awesoem co-op gaming experience we love to play Pandemic. (We are also huge Munchkin fans!). We are looking at getting Carcassonne next I think - looks interesting :)
Board Games FTW!
Submitted by Raider30 on Mon, 06/24/2013 - 20:14
@ BlowMonkey and AngryJason - if you like the co-op and want a fantasy themed game try Defenders of the Realm, which is basically a fantasy themed version of Pandemic.
Submitted by BlowMonkey on Tue, 06/25/2013 - 08:39
Thanks Raider - I'll check that one out!
Submitted by H2Daddy on Mon, 06/24/2013 - 14:08
These are some great suggestions. I love board games but don't get to play nearly enough. I can suggest several but a new one I picked up rather cheaply is D-Day Dice. You can play solo or with a group. Fun little game. Besides Board Game Geek, lots of good reviewers on YouTube. I get good suggestions there. Dice Towers is good for reviews. I have been wanting to try D&D but never played and I don't think my family would enjoy it besides my 9 year old.
Submitted by CrypticCat on Tue, 06/25/2013 - 04:48
On the solo-note, the World of Warcraft boardgame (you should be able to pick it up cheap now, ebay or graigs) can easily be played solo, though it is not stated as such in the rules.
There's a play-variation with a moving world-boss (out-of-the-box) that is perfect for it. All you have to do is to pick either Alliance or Horde (depending on the classes you like, the BG is ented on vanilla-WoW) and just don't set up the other class. You can also co-op that way too, by just not setting up the opposing side and play one side in tandem. (The rulebook will explain it as it showcases normal play.)
Due to the way the card-system works, no two games ever play out the same and encountering the world-boss early will rain on your parade.
One game to keep in mind, at least.
Submitted by AngryJason on Tue, 06/25/2013 - 20:54
I'm registered over on board game geek, but damn, that site is evil. I now want to order about 5 more games.
I have been scouring youtube for tutorials on the star wars card game by fantasy flight. I think I'm about ready to play it, but I'm not sure I can explain it properly to the girlfriend. I've noticed that BGG has a guild which plays it with webcams, but that's intimidating to me at the moment.
Submitted by Raider30 on Wed, 06/26/2013 - 06:29
Heh, after you go through an initial buying phase(because everything just looks so cool) you will settle down. Plus the more you try the better you will get a sense of what you and your family will enjoy.
Just in case you didn't know but the Star Wars game you are referring to is a living card game or lcg. Adventure packs are released every month or so. Normally at a $14.99 price. However, I strongly recommend you buy online whenever possible. My two favorite sites are coolstuffinc and miniature market. The discount an online store offers is quite significant especially once you hit the free shipping order total, which is $100 at cool stuff and I think about that much at miniature market. Trust me it doesn't take long to find a few games your want to meet the free shipping price. It also helps to settle down crazy spending as you can just put games on your wish list while you research them more to see if you will really enjoy them or if its just.a 'man this is so neat' kind of thing.
Oh, btw, another great family game is Castle Panic. It is a co-op game and really helps kids work together and teaches them to plan one or two or three moves ahead as a team.
Submitted by AngryJason on Wed, 06/26/2013 - 09:19
Yes, it's the LCG. I have three of the force packs so far - just haven't been able to dive into the game yet.
I know Castle Panic well. I play it with a couple friends here and there. It's good, but the problem we run into is my girlfriend and my friend's wife stop playing because we just run roughshod over them, telling them every move to make. It basically becomes me and him dictating the entire game. I did buy the Wizard's Tower expansion, but haven't tried it out yet.
Submitted by Raider30 on Wed, 06/26/2013 - 09:57
Wizards Tower adds some difficulty to the game and some pretty cool thematic additions like climbing trolls that scale your walls and jump right into the castle ring.
Yes CP is definitely a game where dominant players have to watch themselves or, as you said, run all over the other players. That's one reason I like it for kids though as its easier for me to sit back and let them try to figure out the best play( and only offer hints when they seem stuck).
I think the lcg packs are 9.99 or 10.49 at coolstuffinc. So if you aren't buying online you are prob spending too much. :)
If you guys like superheroes try the Marvel deck building game Legendary. It's good for kids and adults. It's co-op in that you all are trying to beat the bad guys but not co-op in the sense of you telling other people what moves to make.
Submitted by AngryJason on Wed, 06/26/2013 - 14:07
Thanks - I'll check out coolstuffinc - got some more of the hoth series coming out soon, plus the big expansion.
I have been checking out Legendary, but I'm really trying to avoid it for the immediate future - just too many games to learn and play.