Boardgaming in 2020: the year of the, uh, post-minis era? We can only hope!

This, sadly, is why I haven’t picked up Dune. It’s real tough getting people together for board games where I live and with my work schedule.

Anyone have thoughts on Irish Gauge? Also a odering a year ago from Coolstuff, my Lords of Hellas expansions arrived. I realize that may not excite some, but I enjoy the game and even if you don’t use all the stuff just the ability to switch out the gods and mix it up seems cool.

I had a great time at TotalCon. Played 3 games of Fury of Dracula: 2 as Dracula and 1as a player. Game one did not go well for me. The hunters supplying at night is usually god for Dracula, as he can get an event card. If I had’t shuffled the deck, I’d have thought it was rigged. I only got one card out of 11. I was forced to sea early, took too much damage, and was killed by a player.

Second game was a cake walk. My first encounter deck had a 4-point vampire. Later, I got an event card that let me place a second encounter card on the hideout that had the vampire. It had advanced just enough for it to be on slot 4 or 5, and the card let me place a second card on 4 or 5. Two turns later, that matured for an 8 point gain in one turn. Getting the remaining points was easy.

Last game we didn’t get to finish, but Dracula probably would have won.

I also picked up the Game of Thrones Board Game used for $15.

Also, I ordered the Wings expansion or Scythe. What is the best way to store this? I am just using the original box, mostly, with their storage components. It’s a rare game that mostly works like this. I don’t think the airships will fit.

It was hard to tell which Broken Token set I need. Is there a different vendor that makes a better one?

Lots of info on Frosthaven in this interview with Isaac Childres:

Think of this as an MCU movie. It takes place in the same universe as Gloomhaven. Done strands will be connected. But it is its own story.

There are new gameplay elements (crafting, changing seasons, …), but it follows the basic gameplay patterns of the original.

And be ready for a game of a similar scope to the original. Considering we are only a dozen missions into the original, this one will likely steal away our free time for a long time too…

The KS launches on the 24th of March. I’m kinda hoping it includes the option for a storage solution.

Coming May 15

So is this Betrayal at the House on the Hill: Scooby-Doo Edition?

Regarding the new Gloomhaven thing, I’m interested, but we only made it halfway through the original. So, like the Kingdom Death: Monster second KS, is feel weird about paying a bunch for more (standalone) content when there’s so much I haven’t played that I already own.

On the other hand, I just today finally took a look at the Vampire: The Masquerade: Chapters Kickstarter that has about a week left, and man, I’m tempted. It basically looks like Vampire: Gloomhaven- big, branching campaign, etc, but it also has options for other, non-combat event resolutions, including “40+ branching dialogue books (with over 200,000 words)” which just sounds wacky. I mean, sure, I still have the aforementioned Gloomhaven, KD:M (and others) to get through, and Etherfields and Sleeping Gods on the way on the next few months, but this isn’t availed to ship until summer 2021. I should have plenty of time to get through all that before then, right?

So is Fantasy Flight dead? They seemed to have collapsed into a red dwarf of nothing but collectible card and miniature games. You have to go 7 pages deep into their front page news before you can find anything about something that’s not CCG or minis. Wizards of the Games Coast Shop.

Arkham Horror 3 was thrown out half-baked but designed to be easily built on with expansions, and then they whiffed on the expansion, taking an entire year and only including TWO new scenarios before immediately going silent. Not one peep of new news for 4 months. Instead, resources were put into the only new board game they’ve put out for the last 7 months, the total dud Final Hour.

They appear to be cranking out plenty of product to me.

That they’re not cranking out product to support the games you’d like them doesn’t make them “dead” – though they have done plenty of layoffs lately.

Agreed. Their release schedule between now and April is packed.

https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/upcoming/

Any word if they’re done with “board” board games and if AH3 is getting abandoned?

It certainly seems it, AH 3 was perfect for cranking out expansions and I thought they would have some in the hopper and just crank them out,

If it’s dead, then I wish they would just reprint the AH 2 stuff.

Looking at the upcoming releases, the majority of them seem to be minis or card-based. Not much actual board game stuff in there.

Well that’s unfortunate. While not technically “dead”, it’s like hearing that your favorite video game company is now going F2P mobile only.

I’ll miss old FFG. They were a big part of the forefront for kicking off the board game renaissance during the mid to late 00s. They showed you could have great production values and art back when non-Hasbro boardgames meant crusty cardboard chit & hex strategy games.

I guess ccg’s and minis only was the natural progression of their business model. Is that the only option now for established publishers in a post Kickstarter world?

Yeah, there was a time when a FFG game in a theme I liked would be a buy for me. Now, after AH3, I am not sure. I don’t mind AH3, and the story bits and the modular setup are great. I don’t think the scenarios have any more limited replay that AH2’s race to seal gates.

One criticism a friend had about AH3 is it would be nice if they either supplied enough monsters to create a scenario pack for each scenario, or sold them as an add-on. It would let me put each scenario in a zip log bag to set up quickly.

The gates were the objectives, and you couldn’t completely plan where they’d turn up or which other world they’d take you to.

AH3 you know exactly when and where each objective stage is going to pop up. The rumors are also fairly inconsequential compared to AH2/Eldritch so you don’t even have that shaking things up.

If they’re going to wash their hands of AH3, I wish they’d release some kind of “randomizer” pack for the existing scenarios as a swan song. Set up the objectives like the adventure decks in Eldritch. That way they could still retain the story nature of the scenarios by offering “acts” and randomly picking a card for each one from 3-5 possible choices. In fact, I’d prefer if they went with that system for any new scenarios going forward.

Also be nice if they expanded the starting equipment options. It was a neat idea but pretty anemic in execution.

I forgot the original designer left, so that accounts for some delay. I am holding out some hope they will release a new expansion this year.

Same with Mansions of Madness, I wonder why they just don’t release a ton more cheap downloadable e-scenarios (DLC, printable sheets) for $5 a pop. How much overhead could that possibly entail? It’d be almost pure profit.

They don’t even pay artists for new illustrations! :p

We’ve been over the MoM situation in one thread or another around here. Really what you should just do is get the Valkyrie fan-created App, that imports the official app assets for the full experience, and allows for fan-created material (and includes a construction kit/tutorials, etc) if you want to try for yourself. It’s a few years old now, and there’s a ton of scenarios, all rated and reviewed, multiple languages, etc.

Speaking of FFG…

Is anyone else excited about this:

It might be the exact expansion pack I wanted for this dumb game (that I still enjoy).

Not dead, but FFG is having a tough time:

http://www.d20radio.com/main/layoffs-at-fantasy-flight-uncertainty-about-rpg-future/

It is with sadness that d20Radio communicates what we have confirmed is a large layoff of key personnel positions within Fantasy Flight Games. According to our sources, the decision was communicated to the affected employees on Monday, January 6. The two prominent areas of layoff we have confirmed are both Fantasy Flight Interactive (the company’s digital game studio) and the RPG department .