3481

I started with first, played the first expansion, tried the second edition that incorporated the spawning fixes from the first expansion, and playtested a couple other expansions including the card decks they added at some point. They never did anything to improve the movement that I could tell and whenever I bitched about it I was told that the designer loved the movement and wouldn’t let anything be done about it. The spawning was improved but still sucked, especially in combination with the movement. I don’t know what may have happened since then but I’m skeptical. And I wouldn’t be playing with two people.

3482

You know what? You’re right (unless more movement-enhancing items were added in the 2nd edition). Movement didn’t change. Maybe it just felt like less of a slog because they moved the starting town to the middle of the map instead of the corner.

Later expansions like Sands of Al’Kalim add gear that you can discard to move an extra space, along with some other movement-enhancing features like teleportation. They make a big difference, and I never had much trouble in the first place with the dice system because generally it was easy to move through the easy areas but more difficult to move to the challenges up in the mountains and other rough terrain, which added to the theme for me.

That said, I’ve never played it with more than two people, and turns go extremely fast if you have two people who know what they’re doing. Playing with three or four the weird movement system would create a lot more downtime, and I can see how someone would hate it.

3483

I am totally on board with it being easy to move in easy terrain and hard to enter hard. What I am not on board with is having whether I can move in those areas -at all- determined by random dice roll. (And furthermore, having to choose between a guaranteed one space move or very possibly not moving at all -before- the dice roll.)

3484

Which is where the gear and items come in, but I hear you. It’s a polarizing movement system for good reason.

3485

Yeah, but you have to get that stuff for it to help, and I’d rather play a game where the loot is awesome than where it compensates for core design issues. And from what you say, they’re mostly in expansions, which again, shouldn’t be necessary to fix core design.

3486

The loot in Runebound is awesome. The movement-enhancing stuff is a small part of it that helps mitigate the movement problem (and is cheap if you’re talking about survival gear).

I guess it comes down to whether or not you feel a movement system that can screw you is a huge problem or adds to the adventure atmosphere. I think the latter, but see why someone who thinks the former feels that way, as there are so many other games where movement is far less random.

3487

Well, again, it’s not that the movement system can screw you. Talisman’s movement system can screw you. It’s that you can be condemned to sit there and do NOTHING, potentially for turns on end.

3488

Robert Florence tells you why you WILL preorder Dreadfleet: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/09/17/cardboard-children-dreadfleet/

Mind you, after seeing what price I’d have to pay on Ebay for Space Hulk nowadays (GW means it when they say limited edition) and after seeing those pictures, I think he might have a point:

A 10 minutes intro where Games Developer Phil Kelly gives us an introduction to Games Workshop’s new boxed game, Dreadfleet.:

I gave in to the temptation. I’m weak.

Wendelius

3489

You make it sound like that happens a lot, which in my experience it doesn’t. The movement dice have also let them incorporate other gameplay elements that use them and add a lot to the atmosphere.

3490

Came across this while I was looking for Elder Sign reviews, a bit too long, but still amusing.

3491

Thanks for the tips. I’d somehow never heard of Cyclades. Apparently an iOS version is in the works, so I may try that one out first to see if I’d like the board version.

And I had no idea Intrigue had rules for a 6-player game. That’s the one expansion I’ve been skipping because it seemed superfluous and because it had my most-hated card (Saboteur), so it’s probably time for me to check it out.

3492

It’s happened to me every single time I’ve played Runebound. -shrug-

3493

Stuck doing nothing for turns on end? Every single time? That’s some terrible luck as I’ve never seen it happen to anyone else.

I see there’s an upcoming Mage Knight board game that combines deck building with Runebound-like monster slaying and world conquering. Are there any other games like that, where there’s a metagame that the deck building is just a part of?

Dread Fleet looks frickin’ amazing, but I can’t imagine how awful it will be to separate that intricate stuff from the sprues. I hope someone I know buys a copy. Speaking of big expensive games, I caved and ordered Star Fleet Captains from Miniature Market along with Rune Age and Elder Sign. Supposed to ship the 21st, but there are rumors that there were problems with some printing aspect of Captains that may delay it. That would make me 0 for 3 with my pre-orders this year (Eminent Domain still hasn’t shipped to Kickstarter supporters, and the Summoner Wars Master Set is still tied up).

I’m shocked WizKids didn’t paint the minis for Star Fleet Captains, but it probably means they’re holding out to do deluxe editions or a zillion expansions. Stupid WizKids…

3494

Awesome! That makes two of us! CSI still shows a release date of the 21st, so I’m keeping my finger crossed.

3495

Stuck doing nothing for more than one turn at a time? A few times, probably not every time. Stuck doing nothing for multiple turns over the length of a game, purely due to the movement system and/or the movement system interacting with the limited availability of encounters? Every single time.

3496

Yeah, I gave both editions of Runebound a solid try, and even bought Isles of Dread to see if that would help at all, but in the end I gave the game and expansion away. I hate hate hate the movement system, and the rest of the mechanics are not interesting or rewarding enough to compensate. Not a big fan of the “world,” either.

3497

See? Polarizing. :)

Island of Dread is the weakest big box expansion by a long shot (with the exception of Midnight, which I don’t even count because it’s such a strange departure from the rest of the series). A lot of the rough edges were smoothed out by Sands, further refined in Frozen Wastes, and I’ve heard Mists of Zanaga turns it into a game almost everyone would like (though I haven’t tried it yet).

That said, I have a whole stack of games a lot of other people seem to love in my sell pile because they didn’t do anything for me, and I can see where Runebound could leave a bad enough impression to end up there for a lot of folks. I’ve just never found a similar game I’ve liked as much. Prophecy was kind of dull, Dungeoneer and Return of the Heroes were terrible, the World of Warcraft board game is a monster with nearly no payoff, and Tomb is a completely different beast. I’ve never played Talisman, but looking at the rules it has no appeal to me whatsoever.

Maybe that Mage Knight game will knock it out of the park…

3498

I really like the combat and character systems in World of Warcraft, but it has a lot of setup, a lot of downtime, and a time limit that’s way too tight, so I ultimately found it kind of unsatisfying. (And I have no idea what they were thinking with the blue monsters that are every bit as dangerous as usual but have no payoff whatsoever for killing them.)

3499

With the expansion most of those are addressed, except the game NEVER FUCKING ENDS.

After one 10 hour marathon in which we just got tired and noone even won we never played the game again.

3500

I got the World of Warcraft game as a gift, but one 12+ hour session has so far been enough. At least I won.