Recommend me a board game?

[VegasRobb]

Any Boston area peeps going to the Gamewright warehouse sale? Per BGG there is a two day sale happening.

[Dean]

Thanks for letting me know about this. I think I’ll head over there today.

[jpinard]

Strange question.

What table height do you all think is best? Something that is higher (closer to the eyes) or something that is lower (easier to lean over)?

If you feel you have the perfect table would you post it’s height? I just can’t board-game on the floor anymore and we’ll need to pick up a card table (or two) for our future parties.

[aganazer]

Strange question.

What table height do you all think is best? Something that is higher (closer to the eyes) or something that is lower (easier to lean over)?

If you feel you have the perfect table would you post it’s height? I just can’t board-game on the floor anymore and we’ll need to pick up a card table (or two) for our future parties.

Out of the three table I use in my house I prefer a large rectangular pub height table. I like the height since you’re inevitably walking around it during setup and its easier with the table a bit higher. Not sure on the exact height, but I see tables that are about this high all the time, second only to the standard kitchen table height.

If you want a fold out table, be careful about the size more so than the height. The most common fold outs these days are very narrow. I use one for smokey garage games and it gets tight with some game boards.

[Two_Sheds]

Typical card table height is about 28". Works fine for me.

[Anders_Hallin]

Here I Stand is over $100 in Sweden :(

[Lorini]

Look for a cheap dining room table on Craiglist. Card tables really aren’t good for board gaming.

[Bahimiron]

Jesus, D-Day Dice ended with north of $160k. They were asking for $13k.

My BGG Santa apparently pledged $35 for me, so I guess March will bring me a game about which I know very little. Except that it will come with a bunch of fancypants dice and a nifty satchel since they reached something like thirteen stretch milestones.

[tiohn]

Over $170k, actually, and there is still another milestone bonus that hasn’t been announced yet. I pledged without knowing much about it because I’m always up for more solitaire games. There’s a nice Vassal mod for the free version, which I gave a shot this morning and had a good time. It’s definitely difficult.

[Ben_Sones]

Look for a cheap dining room table on Craiglist. Card tables really aren’t good for board gaming.

Yeah, too small, and way too light. You don’t want to do any gaming on a table where the slightest nudge will bounce everything around.

Jesus, D-Day Dice ended with north of $160k. They were asking for $13k.

We need to throw more links to promising-looking Kickstarter games in this thread. I’ve missed a couple that I really would have liked to order. They reached their funding goals before I discovered them, so now I’ll have to hope that they make their way to a game shop that I can buy from (and I find a copy before they are gone), or they do another printing. Miskatonic School for Girls, in particular, looks really awesome. I love the theme and concept.

I’m thinking about getting in on Kings of Air and Steam. It looks interesting.

[Tracy_Baker]

Jesus, D-Day Dice ended with north of $160k. They were asking for $13k.

My BGG Santa apparently pledged $35 for me, so I guess March will bring me a game about which I know very little. Except that it will come with a bunch of fancypants dice and a nifty satchel since they reached something like thirteen stretch milestones.

That was interesting to follow over the past month. I mean, it’s just a preorder. But they managed to market it so well with the stretch rewards and constant updates that the thing took on a life of its own, especially towards the end. It was neat to see a Kickstarter project milked so thoroughly.

Compare this to the way Tasty Minstrel is handling their Kings of Air & Steam Kickstarter. Fresh off the success of Eminent Domain, I think they figured getting massive preorders for Kings would be a breeze. They set a goal of $10,000, which they’ve tripled, yet you still see them sending out pleas begging people to get the thing to $80,000 in the next four days. It’s sad and insulting.

Getting to 80,000… A Unrealizable Dream?

I have been seeing opposition to the possibility of getting to $80,000 in pledges at this point. Many think and say it is an impossibility. I don’t know about you, but few things get me more fired up than people saying it cannot be done or more accurately that I cannot do it. Once, my uncle got me to spend 15 hours digging a hole for $20 by telling me I could not do it!

Many say that getting to $40,000 is not going to happen. I say it is time to show them otherwise! I know it can and will happen. Kings of Air and Steam will be the best it can be…

There are faceless organizations that would like to see many independent game publishers fail and Kickstarter snuffed out as a funding source. Dominating store shelves with their games and their games only.

There is no more time for this “Woe is me” bull. It is time to move forward, and get this project super-overfunded. The first step is to get to $40,000. The target is to do this in one day, just to show that we can! You can make this happen by emailing 3 friends that you know will like the game, ask them to pledge. I will email the fans of Tasty Minstrel Games, all 6,710 of them…

Here’s the ridiculous email he sent out:

I Get It…

For the past several days and even weeks, you have been looking for more information about Kings of Air and Steam. I wanted to give it you. Somehow, I got into this “woe is me” funk where I was sick and uninterested in doing anything but maintaining the status quo. Regardless of how it happened, or how long it lasted, we must deal with the facts moving forward:

Kings of Air and Steam finishes funding on December 13th.
Right now, Kings of Air and Steam is at $29,219 in funding.
To get to the best production quality possible, we need to get to $80,000 in funding.
“Impossible”, “not worth the effort”, “give up”… I get it… That attitude crept into myself personally, and helped promote this “woe is me” attitude. The bottom line is that $29,219 and 695 copies of the game worth of support is astounding. But we can do more:

Getting to that $80,000 will prove to be difficult, but with your help it can happen…

The project for Kings of Air and Steam

How To Do It
If you have not yet pledged support for Kings of Air and Steam, then you can start by doing that. For those of you who have already supported and are about to support, please send a personal email to at least 3 friends that you know will like this game. Tell them the situation. Let them know that they will like the game, and that will additional support the components of the game will get serious upgrades to miniature airships instead of wooden tokens.

Share the project again with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

Most of all, send those personal emails. That will be the key. While I could reach an astounding 6,710 people with this email, if everybody opened this and emailed at least 3 friends, then we could reach a total of 26,840 people. That is the kind of scope that we need to hit the mark.

The project for Kings of Air and Steam

Thank You
Thanks for your support. Tasty Minstrel Games would not exist without the support of you. I greatly appreciate it, and I want to bring the absolute best game possible to the market. I would not be asking you for this if I did not need to or if I thought it to be an impossibility.

The project for Kings of Air and Steam

Thanks in advance,

Michael Mindes, Founder
Tasty Minstrel Games

You tripled your goal, you weepy weed. You haven’t actively marketed this thing, haven’t maintained interest with trickled out stretch rewards like D-Day Dice did, and set a funding goal of $10,000 for a game that you hoped to get $80,000 in preorders for. Talk about resting on your laurels.

[Bahimiron]

That was interesting to follow over the past month. I mean, it’s just a preorder. But they managed to market it so well with the stretch rewards and constant updates that the thing took on a life of its own, especially towards the end. It was neat to see a Kickstarter project milked so thoroughly.

Compare this to the way Tasty Minstrel is handling their Kings of Air & Steam Kickstarter. Fresh off the success of Eminent Domain, I think they figured getting massive preorders for Kings would be a breeze. They set a goal of $10,000, which they’ve tripled, yet you still see them sending out pleas begging people to get the thing to $80,000 in the next four days. It’s sad and insulting.

The people who use Kickstarter for something that’s going to happen either way, that they’re just looking to get some pre-orders for rather than using it to actually seed the creation of something, really do bug the hell out of me. Kings of Air and Steam really struck me as doing this the first time I saw the writeup. I can’t say what it was, maybe the way he was laying down his stretch goals before they were even reaching anything, real counting your chickens before they pledge to give you $35, but it just gave off such an annoying vibe.

On the other hand while Miskatonic looked interesting, $45 as the lowest donation where you get any product struck me as a bit out of my personal interest reach. In the end I kind of wish I’d gone for it, but had I done it I know I’d be thinking that I wished I hadn’t.

Then again, it’s pretty easy to look on Kickstarter and find plenty of projects that probably genuinely wouldn’t exist without Kickstarter money and, well, kind of look it and probably won’t make their money* and maybe that’s okay.

*I can’t believe this guy was seriously asking for $45k.

[Dreamshadow]

So, 51st State and it’s ‘expansion’ caught my eye. Can anyone tell me anything about the gameplay and their thoughts of the game?

[Ben_Sones]

On the other hand while Miskatonic looked interesting, $45 as the lowest donation where you get any product struck me as a bit out of my personal interest reach. In the end I kind of wish I’d gone for it, but had I done it I know I’d be thinking that I wished I hadn’t.

It’s a little on the pricey side, but card printing is expensive, especially in small print runs, and this game has a lot of them (178, plus some other other bits). That’s also a heck of a lot of art (also expensive).

Then again, it’s pretty easy to look on Kickstarter and find plenty of projects that probably genuinely wouldn’t exist without Kickstarter money and, well, kind of look it and probably won’t make their money* and maybe that’s okay.

Yeah, there are definitely some iffy projects in the mix, but the cool thing about Kickstarter is that the good ones seem to rise to the top.

[dogbert]

So, 51st State and it’s ‘expansion’ caught my eye. Can anyone tell me anything about the gameplay and their thoughts of the game?

I was really excited about it as a Race for the Galaxy fan & the setting appeals to me… But the game didn’t. Sold my copy pretty quickly. Unclear iconography, /far/ too much randomness in the cards - it’s easy to get in pretty screwed up situations where you can do next to nothing because of terrible card draws - and poor rules. It’s a shame as it had potential. Not sure what the expansion fixes.

[Tracy_Baker]

The people who use Kickstarter for something that’s going to happen either way, that they’re just looking to get some pre-orders for rather than using it to actually seed the creation of something, really do bug the hell out of me. Kings of Air and Steam really struck me as doing this the first time I saw the writeup. I can’t say what it was, maybe the way he was laying down his stretch goals before they were even reaching anything, real counting your chickens before they pledge to give you $35, but it just gave off such an annoying vibe.

Yeah, when I read the project description and saw that they didn’t need the money to make the game but were only trying to get some better components for it, I knew I wasn’t going to kick in. Then it just got worse when they started sending desperate emails to people who bought their previous games trying to mobilize them into some sort of viral marketing arm. You could tell that their plan was to hit $80,000 without any trouble, and when that didn’t happen the messages took on a tone that their fans were to blame for not helping out enough. Sorry, Mindes, but it’s your job to get me excited about yet another pick up and deliver game. This ain’t Amway.

On the other hand while Miskatonic looked interesting, $45 as the lowest donation where you get any product struck me as a bit out of my personal interest reach. In the end I kind of wish I’d gone for it, but had I done it I know I’d be thinking that I wished I hadn’t.

That price seemed extreme for what looks to be a very light game cashing in on a theme that’s beaten to death. I sat that one out, too.

I really like stuff like Z-Ward where you can kick in a few bucks and help someone get money for something that would otherwise languish in the dustbins of RPGDriveThru. I got the pack with all the Parsely games, just because I think it’s a really neat idea. (The idea being a live text-based adventure where players take turns giving Zork-like commands to another person playing the computer.)

I also backed Creatures, which is an awful game but great fun to play with the kids. I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns up in Target and whatnot and becomes a huge hit.

[Ben_Sones]

That price seemed extreme for what looks to be a very light game cashing in on a theme that’s beaten to death. I sat that one out, too.

I dunno, there are a lot of deck-building games out there, but this one sounds like it has a pretty original twist (sabotaging other players’ decks with bad cards), and I love the theme and the art. I’m bummed that I missed it, but hopefully I’ll be able to find a copy when they go into production. It’s only $5 more expensive than Ascension, with a similar number of cards, so the pricing doesn’t seem all that extreme to me.

[Tracy_Baker]

I dunno, there are a lot of deck-building games out there, but this one sounds like it has a pretty original twist (sabotaging other players’ decks with bad cards), and I love the theme and the art. I’m bummed that I missed it, but hopefully I’ll be able to find a copy when they go into production. It’s only $5 more expensive than Ascension, with a similar number of cards, so the pricing doesn’t seem all that extreme to me.

Ascension is $30 online, which I’m sure this will be once it hits retail. There’s a big Kickstarter premium built into that price. If it gets great reviews I’ll get it, as I love deck builders and this looks like it will have nice production values, but it was too much to gamble on when there are so many great games out right now.

By way of comparison, Eaten By Zombies, another deck builder with a tired theme, seemed like a much more reasonable risk to take for $25. That has 198 cards, plus dividers, an incredibly practical storage box, a mini-expansion, and a custom die.

[VegasRobb]

I held off on backing miskatonic as well. Seemed too much money for what didn’t look like a whole lot. Same for the Sentinels of the Multiverse expansion. I did hop on D-Day Dice at one of the lower levels. I honestly hope the company doesnt bankrupt themselves via freebies.

I decided against Kings of Air and Steam. Did not appeal to me.

Tracy, I would have loved to back something like Creatures! Get in here and spread the word! That’s a near perfect Kickstarter game (unique, inexpensive with a DIY feel).

[Ben_Sones]

By way of comparison, Eaten By Zombies, another deck builder with a tired theme, seemed like a much more reasonable risk to take for $25. That has 198 cards, plus dividers, an incredibly practical storage box, a mini-expansion, and a custom die.

Well, fair enough. I guess everyone has different thresholds for games. I tend to be willing to spend a little more on indie projects (especially ones with good production values, as this one seems to have), and I’m a big fan of the Lovecraft theme. I guess it’s a bit “tired” in that there are a lot of games out there based on it, but there’s aren’t that many good ones, so I’m always excited when a new one emerges and looks promising.

I’m also feeling a little buyer’s remorse for purchasing the iOS version of Elder Sign. I was hoping for a light Arkham Horror, and instead got a Cthulhu-themed reskin of Go Fish. :(