Oh, the pledge manager for Distant Skies opens in August, to everyone.
My poor wallet.
Hey, it worked! Thanks for the great advice. :D
I’ve been giving this a go, and I feel like I’m doing fairly well. Three totems, but now facing the most dangerous event cards, so we’ll see. :) Fun, in any case. My only complaint would be that it is a space hog, it is actually an awkward fit on my table.
But I have a question for those who know the game better. You start with two quests, and up to this point, completed quests always provided me with further quests. Now, suddenly, I have no quests to pursue. So… is this normal? Am I just supposed to explore blindly and come up with further quests? Or have I misread something somewhere, and overlooked quest cards I was supposed to receive?
From what I had seen to this point, it looked like the keyword system meant that arriving someplace without the necessary quest card really wasn’t going to accomplish much. But maybe that was just in a very small starting area, or I simply misunderstood.
If you didn’t notice this, the quest cards with waves on the left of the card are ones that will take you other places, and generally are ‘larger’.
But yeah, if you are out of quests then blind exploring is the way to go! Bigger cities and ports are usually a good bet.
Thanks!
It looks like I could pick this up for $87-93 on Amazon, but I think there is another printing coming later this year. Is $90 a reasonable price for this game, or is it inflated due to limit supply? I didn’t see a way to preorder the next printing on their website.
It seems like people are enjoying this quite a bit and if it is going to become very difficult to find I don’t know if I should just get it. I did just buy Spirit Island and we didn’t get a chance to play that yet, so I don’t need a new game right now.
MSRP is about $85-99 depending on the source, but I’d imagine shipping is going to be in the $15-20 range due to the physical weight of the box. So for instance, Miniature Market has it for $77, but shipping will probably take you back up to where you’re at with Amazon.
Yup - that is basically what it goes for.
I have Tides of Ruin coming tomorrow because I’m in love with this game and it is now going to eat cash out of my wallet at every opportunity
It looks like Miniature Market has free shipping, at least if I also order the expansion. Looks like I’d save $25ish vs Amazon. Is Miniature Market a good place to buy? I’ve never used them before.
Edit: Looks like people have mostly good things to say about them online. I’m in no rush so slow shipping isn’t an issue.
As a new St. Louisan, I’m proud to say they’re terrific. :)
Actually, I’ve never shopped there, but friends in the area (and in this forum!) recommend them highly. Good store. Good people. (To clarify, I have friends who have had a competing local gaming store franchise here in the Lou since 1981, and though they’re competitors, they speak highly of one another.)
I’ve heard they have a good reputation, just slow on shipping - but everything gets out.
For another 1/3 of a campaign done last night.
Game cracks me up. Spend 10 turns sailing around to find a totem. Then you explore a random location and stumble on one!
Up to 6 totems in this campaign with a 1/3 to go! We only got 1 on our last play
Campaign finished with a bit of a whimper.
Did not find another totem in the last 1/3 of the game. Chased a bunch of quests which got us rich, but no totems to be had. Wrapped up with 77pts.
I made the mistake of reading BGG and.peepa there are finishing with like 380pts and that just seems like insanity to me.
My wife and I did the tutorial and turn walkthrough. I feel like we should just reset the game and start from scratch. What did you guys do?
IIRC, no need to do the tutorial but you must start out with the beginning walk through. But my memory may be faulty.
I would just keep going!
Continue from there. That’s what we did for our first game.
I restarted to correct some mistakes I’d been making but it doesn’t make a big difference either way.
So far this game isn’t drawing my wife and I in as much as I was hoping. For me, I don’t think I like the sailing and sometimes randomly picking places to explore / sometimes using info from quests to pick where to go. It can feel somewhat arbitrary to me. Also, we got a bit too aggressive taking on an encounter and got a party wipe, which made us need to lose 6 events worth of time. Even with the rulebook telling us it gets more dangerous as you travel further from the starting point, it can be hard to really know what will be a good challenge and what will wipe you.
Is this game intended to be played as a roguelike - keeping detailed notes as to what the encounters are at what locations so on the next run you can plot out where you will go? So as you get more familiar with what is in the world it becomes more about planning and less about wandering around? Or would that kinda suck some of the enjoyment out of the game?
I think we found 3 totems at this point - with maybe 4 cards left in our second pass though the event deck. So, we probably won’t do very well. We’re trying to decide how much we want to continue or if I should just sell the game and the unopened expansion and go back to Too Many Bones, or start second campaign of Gloomhaven or something.
Any advice on how we may be able to get more out of the game than we’re currently getting?
That’s too bad! I never tried it with two players but the sailing and adventuring drew me in pretty quickly. Maybe it just isn’t for you? But isn’t “arbitrary” just another word for “choose your own adventure”? :)
I found I started to enjoy it more if I played longer sessions so the narrative had a chance to pick up steam, sometimes literally. I also recommend following quest cards whenever you have one. That’s the way to get the totems you need.
As for keeping notes, it’s up to you. Some folks like to do so. I took notes for a while but then decided, yeah, it was sucking out my enjoyment. It added too much busywork to the flow of the game and I was happier just trying to remember a few locations and otherwise keeping the mystery of exploration intact.
I think I’d start over after a party wipe rather than press on. You want to be accumulating weapons along with totems over time. If it’s the sense of not doing very well that’s causing discouragement, maybe start a new game? You might do better knowing what you both know now.
One last idea… maybe one of you should ditch the second mate and play it solo? I think I’d have a hard time going on an ocean voyage with my wife. :D