I didn’t want to turn the boardgaming thread into a “your favorite band sux” thread, but I absolutely hated my one game of Pulsar ####. You got me stoked to try it, but by the time I was a few turns in, I was pretty much done with it. I think part of the issue was that half of the players knew the game already and even after the teaching, I didn’t have a handle on what was going on. It didn’t really click until we were well into the game and I was the guy lollygagging way back at the rear of the victory point track.
But mainly, it just felt so arbitrary and dry. A bunch of random icons conspiring to do various things to give you points. I didn’t get a sense for any sort of setting, or economy, or even tone. It felt dry and theme-less. Points salad, hold the dressing.
But based on what you’re saying, I feel like I’ve got to be missing something. Maybe it’s because we were playing the babygame without the unique factions? Or maybe I need to experience the variety that comes with the modular tech tree? Or maybe I should have paid closer attention to whatever those tiles were that you fit together to give you red dice?
But the pervasive feeling I had pretty much the whole time was, “Why aren’t we just playing Project Gaia?” :(
-Tom