Not grindy at all. They way it works is each scenario that gets unlocked can be played in “story mode” or in “casual mode”. You can always go back to adventures you’ve already done in casual mode if you want to grind. Maybe just need some gold to get that one item, or possibly to get a treasure chest you missed the first time through. Can only get “end of adventure” awards once though in story mode.
Think of it like Diablo. You can go through the campaign straight; maybe repeat a tough part here or there if you wiped out. But for the most part a linear experience. You can certainly go back to parts you already finished to grind gold/xp if you want, but it’s not required to finish the game. The dungeons all scale to the party though, so it’s not like leveling up will make the next story adventure a cakewalk.
I think what people mean when they say ‘grindy’ is slow progression, which isn’t quite the same thing. After three scenarios, we made end level (and one of us just barely at that). Also, very little ‘loot’, in the classic sense of the word.
3 adventures is about where you’d normally expect to hit 2nd level using normal difficulty. We’re 22 adventures in and have yet to repeat an adventure. This isn’t Descent with scads of magic items, but at 5th level (with a couple of retired characters) most everyone has about 6 or 7 items, some of them upgrades from prior versions. Much of the “flavor” comes from the higher level character cards, and the unlocked character classes are considerably different from the starting ones.
My current class is levelling about every two scenarios, but in fairness has a mechanic that just blows exp wide open. I earn more than anyone else by at least a factor of two.
Fantasy Flight announced their next competitive LCG today: Legend of the Five Rings. I think it was pretty much known that this was coming, but this is the first official announcement I’ve seen. Full preview here:
One thing I thought was really cool when I was reading up on the game was how you level up the town itself, with future characters starting at the level of the town. That sounds like the opposite of grinding to me.
That is a cool feature- but the town can actually level fairly slowly itself. It seems that chances are that you might be retiring a L7 character, but the new one you bring in is only L2 or 3. The 2nd edition is actually shortening that track, leveling up the town faster, IIRC. For now, the designer has just said to fill in one town XP box per level if you have 1st ed.
I understand the complaints about slow leveling. If you’re used to a ‘normal’ adventure game, waiting until after your third scenario to get new toys and abilities can seem like a long time. And even then, it’s just one new card. If you’re only playing one game per week, that can feel like a slog, and you aren’t making any progress. In my own game we’re using a variant to give a little more XP for writing a bit in the shared journal (Trello board I’ve mentioned before), tho keep other groups up-to-date on World changes.
Most of the time, when I’ve gotten rid of something, I never think twice about it. One of the exceptions to that is my Legend of the Five Rings cards. Why did I get rid of those? Derp.
I remember the original game. I played a few times and and enjoyed it, but the cards were weirdly hard to find, and I wasn’t quite into it enough to pursue it. I’ll probably try this one out, though. I like the art and the look of the gameplay, and I’ve been wanting a new deep card game to play since they discontinued WH Conquest (still mad).
It’s one of my top-10 boardgames, but it’s not for everyone. The design is brilliant, but it takes a while to wrap your head around it; there are non-obvious rules and strategies. It’s a deep, challenging design.
For those of us who have the original, I would think the new Manchester game would be of more interest than a remake of the original, yes?
I only played Brass once but fell way behind because of a rule gaffe not in my favor and just coasted in last place for 2 hours(?). Heavy euro which is usually kinda boring, but this was better than others. I feel no need to ever own it though.
I’m actually more excited to see a new L5R RPG, since that’s one of my favorite settings. Maybe even some boardgames set in L5R since I’m not sure a competitive LCG is for me given the difficulty finding a “partner in crime” for that sort of thing.
A lifetime ago, I loved L5R. Fact is, though, with competitive Netrunner in ruins(ish) and with supply issues making a Destiny scene impossible to develop, I am really skeptical about putting money and time into another FFG card game right now.
So Gloomhaven. How replayable is it in the overall sense?
I’ve heard it is one of those games where you mark or throw away cards (like Risk Legacy), and I have no interest in that type of thing where you can’t reset the game to its “base state” to replay again. Is Gloomhaven not for me then?
You place stickers on a map when you explore new locations, but it’s just adding those locations to the map. Otherwise everything else in the game is supposed to be easy to restart. I believe the stickers on the map are just there to create a sense of exploration / adventure but don’t serve a gameplay purpose. At least that’s what I’ve read.
Ha, my group is playing Seafall right now. It definitely takes some getting used to, but yeah, we rip stuff up, write on the board and cards, put stickers on things, throw stuff away.
We all chipped in to buy the game together (since it has no resale value and you can’t really play it with other people it doesn’t really make sense for any one person to own it). When we’re done with it, I assume we’ll just throw it away. It’s a different way of thinking about game ownership, but I’m mostly ok with it. How many games have you played five times (or fewer!) and then they just sit on a shelf forever? (For me, the answer is MANY TIMES).
