Recommend me a board game?

[Jorn_Weines]

STUFF

Thanks for your thoughts, sounds good!

[Rob_O_Boston]

I want to move to Seattle just to go to those game taverns! They look awesome. The only place here in Boston (that I know of) to play games is in the basement of Pandemonium Books. It is generally filthy and serves no beer, and gives dungeons a bad name.

[Lorini]

From what I hear there’s a ton of places to play in Boston. Send a geekmail to Dan Blum on Boardgamegeek. He should be able to help you out.

[Mysterio]

From what I hear there’s a ton of places to play in Boston. Send a geekmail to Dan Blum on Boardgamegeek. He should be able to help you out.

I wish the same could be said for Tampa. It’s board-game desolate here, which does not support my pipe dream to ever play TI3. :-(

[PeterK]

I’m currently looking for new board games than can be played within a lunch hour. Cosmic Encounter seemed like it might be a good game for the group of people I play with, but I’ve read conflicting things about how long it takes to play. I know the game has been brought up before, but I can’t remember if the playing time was discussed. Can it reliably be played in about an hour?

[Mrenda]

I was going to recommend a board game to the previous poster. I remember a friend showing it to me when he came back from Essen last year, I remember playing it, I remember it being very good and I remember it being completed in less than an hour. I can’t however find it on Boardgamegeek. This is a first for me, and I’ve never heard of it happening before. The game is called Habeas Papum and it’s about, not surprisingly, electing a pope. I’ve even searched for the word “Pope” on BGG and still not found anything.

I must tell my friend tomorrow. Maybe he can get many geek points for putting up a game no-one else has done.

[Jason_Lutes]

I’m currently looking for new board games than can be played within a lunch hour. Cosmic Encounter seemed like it might be a good game for the group of people I play with, but I’ve read conflicting things about how long it takes to play. I know the game has been brought up before, but I can’t remember if the playing time was discussed. Can it reliably be played in about an hour?

Nope. Some sessions wrap up quickly, others can drag on and on. CE is one of my all time favorites, but the only thing consistent about its playtime is its unpredictability.

[Mike_Cathcart]

I’m currently looking for new board games than can be played within a lunch hour. Cosmic Encounter seemed like it might be a good game for the group of people I play with, but I’ve read conflicting things about how long it takes to play. I know the game has been brought up before, but I can’t remember if the playing time was discussed. Can it reliably be played in about an hour?

Seems like a lot of card games would be good for that. Usually pretty easy to transport and a lot of them are in the 30-45 minute range and easy to teach. Dominion, Citadels, 7 Wonders. You could even go co-operative with the Space Hulk card game. All of those are easily under an hour.

Several Knizia games would work. Ra, Through the Desert, Samurai, Modern Art. I think most of them have iOS versions you can try before spending 30 or 40 bucks on them.

Also Carcassonne. That’s pretty easy to carry around if you just throw all of the tiles in a bag. Maybe don’t use the river expansion so you only have to set aside the one starting tile.

I guess, um, there’s a lot of games? Be more specific :P

[PeterK]

Seems like a lot of card games would be good for that. Usually pretty easy to transport and a lot of them are in the 30-45 minute range and easy to teach. Dominion, Citadels, 7 Wonders. You could even go co-operative with the Space Hulk card game. All of those are easily under an hour.

Several Knizia games would work. Ra, Through the Desert, Samurai, Modern Art. I think most of them have iOS versions you can try before spending 30 or 40 bucks on them.

Also Carcassonne. That’s pretty easy to carry around if you just throw all of the tiles in a bag. Maybe don’t use the river expansion so you only have to set aside the one starting tile.

I guess, um, there’s a lot of games? Be more specific :P

Ah, sorry if I wasn’t clear. My question was specifically about Cosmic Encounter. I only mentioned the part about looking for games that play in an hour as a preface to why I was interested in Cosmic Encounter. I wasn’t looking for further suggestions, though I certainly won’t disregard any that come up. :-)

But now that you mention it, the card games do tend to work well. We’ve played Dominions, Thunderstone, Saboteur, Citadels, and 7 Wonders. When I’m not there, they play a lot of Magic.

I’m not sure if they’re as into co-op games, but I’ll have to check the Space Hulk card game you mentioned. Thanks!

[PeterK]

Nope. Some sessions wrap up quickly, others can drag on and on. CE is one of my all time favorites, but the only thing consistent about its playtime is its unpredictability.

That’s what I was afraid of, but thanks. It’s too bad as I think the style of game would be perfect for the group of guys I play with.

[Lorini]

You can always use Meetup to find board game groups. That’s where mine is and it’s totally free. The organizers pay meetup for the service, so it’s ad free too.

[AaronSofaer]

So a friend picked up Ghost Stories and brought it to my May game night (last night).

Awesome game. Perfect for the hyper-strategy guys in my gaming group, and it sucks the powergamers (including me) out of the games like Dominion, so it can actually be an even game. :)

[AaronSofaer]

Also, tangential question for you board game people who are also game developers.

If you were going to develop a board game for one of the consoles, which would you pick?

(iPhone, iPad, Android, DS, PSP, Wii, XBOX, PS3, PC)

Or would you just write it in Java and then port to everywhere you could? grins

[GloriousMess]

I’m writing an Android (Java!) game based on an existing boardgame at the moment, with my own little twist applied. Not sure when it’ll be set free on the market but it’s working well so far.

Platform wise I suppose mobile devices and PC are equally attractive, as they’re the largest markets. Consoles require some sort of outlay for the development kit I thought?

[kerzain]

So a friend picked up Ghost Stories and brought it to my May game night (last night).

Awesome game. Perfect for the hyper-strategy guys in my gaming group, and it sucks the powergamers (including me) out of the games like Dominion, so it can actually be an even game. :)

Did you get the White Moon expansion with it? If you ever wonder if it is worth it, I give it a resounding YES. I can’t go back to playing without it.

There’s some talk about the game and what the expansions brings to the table earlier in the thread if you’re ever curious.

[AaronSofaer]

Did you get the White Moon expansion with it? If you ever wonder if it is worth it, I give it a resounding YES. I can’t go back to playing without it.

There’s some talk about the game and what the expansions brings to the table earlier in the thread if you’re ever curious.

I’ll definitely look into it, then. The thread is pretty massive, and I must have missed some posts when I searched through it, but I’ll take another look.

[kerzain]

Yea, the thread is huge. I was just letting you know it was there, somewhere.

[Nightgaunt]

Ascending Empires was a blast.

Good to hear, Don. I just ordered it yesterday and was hoping it would live up to Catacombs. Everything you have said about it makes it sound fantastic.

Also grabbed Olympus from Fantasy Flight. I know it’s very four years ago, but I love me some worker placement!

[Lorini]

I really liked Olympus. We played it over the weekend and it was a lot of fun.

[Case]

I posted impressions of a number of games I played at a recent local tabletop gaming con. This first article covers 7 Wonders, Dominant Species, Arkham Horror, 6 Nimmt & Saint Petersburg.

I’ll have more impressions up in a day or two, including the epic 3-player Sid Meier’s Civilization game we played.