The Syndicate

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2017 1:49 am**

I'm sitting on a personal collection of almost 150 games here. This is my kind of thread/forum. I wonder if you guys feel my mafia + boardgaming pain of not being able to play mafia in person due to not having a large enough group.

Posted: **Mon Nov 20, 2017 10:50 am**

Gumshoe wrote: ↑Mon Nov 20, 2017 1:49 am I'm sitting on a personal collection of almost 150 games here. This is my kind of thread/forum. I wonder if you guys feel my mafia + boardgaming pain of not being able to play mafia in person due to not having a large enough group.

That's a frequent frustration for me. When I'm at a party, "let's play mafia" is pretty much my only move, and it drives me nuts when I can collect about 6 willing participants and nobody else feels like it. One needs a solid 9 at least for it to really be worth bothering.

Posted: **Tue Nov 21, 2017 4:49 pm**

Gumshoe wrote: ↑Mon Nov 20, 2017 1:49 am I'm sitting on a personal collection of almost 150 games here. This is my kind of thread/forum. I wonder if you guys feel my mafia + boardgaming pain of not being able to play mafia in person due to not having a large enough group.

Got any recommendations for a board game newbie?

Posted: **Tue Nov 21, 2017 5:43 pm**

speedchuck wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2017 4:49 pm
Gumshoe wrote: ↑Mon Nov 20, 2017 1:49 am I'm sitting on a personal collection of almost 150 games here. This is my kind of thread/forum. I wonder if you guys feel my mafia + boardgaming pain of not being able to play mafia in person due to not having a large enough group.
Got any recommendations for a board game newbie?

What games have you enjoyed in the past and why? Which games have you not enjoyed and why? I'd have to know what you're into to give a good suggestion. My favorites might be game types that you hate.

Or are you a complete newbie and don't know any games?

Posted: **Tue Nov 21, 2017 5:46 pm**

Gumshoe wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2017 5:43 pm
speedchuck wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2017 4:49 pm
Gumshoe wrote: ↑Mon Nov 20, 2017 1:49 am I'm sitting on a personal collection of almost 150 games here. This is my kind of thread/forum. I wonder if you guys feel my mafia + boardgaming pain of not being able to play mafia in person due to not having a large enough group.
Got any recommendations for a board game newbie?
What games have you enjoyed in the past and why? Which games have you not enjoyed and why? I'd have to know what you're into to give a good suggestion. My favorites might be game types that you hate. Or are you a complete newbie and don't know any games?

Catan, Citadels, Ticket to Ride, One Night Werewolf, Plague Inc. (the board game), Bang! the dice game . . . thats about it

Posted: **Wed Nov 22, 2017 12:42 am**

speedchuck wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2017 5:46 pm
Gumshoe wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2017 5:43 pm
speedchuck wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2017 4:49 pm
Gumshoe wrote: ↑Mon Nov 20, 2017 1:49 am I'm sitting on a personal collection of almost 150 games here. This is my kind of thread/forum. I wonder if you guys feel my mafia + boardgaming pain of not being able to play mafia in person due to not having a large enough group.
Got any recommendations for a board game newbie?
What games have you enjoyed in the past and why? Which games have you not enjoyed and why? I'd have to know what you're into to give a good suggestion. My favorites might be game types that you hate. Or are you a complete newbie and don't know any games?
Catan, Citadels, Ticket to Ride, One Night Werewolf, Plague Inc. (the board game), Bang! the dice game . . . thats about it

Ok, I'll just have to assume that you liked all of those games. I have no real knowledge of Plague so I'm ignoring that one in favour of the others. So none of your games are too heavy on the theme (although far from abstract). Longer than a filler but not about to eat through all of your play time.

Machi Koro, Takenoko, & Five Tribes are all fun games that you might compare to Catan in the sense that each player can devise their own technique for acquiring points and you can choose to step on each other's toes or do your own thing. Machi Koro is about building shops and such to form the nicest town, Takenoko is a battle over bamboo between a gardener & a hungry panda, & Five Tribes comes down to balancing your use of workers in order to best control a board that at it's core is the game Mancala (this game is an arabian theme featuring powerful djinns

).

If you love Citadels due to choosing when is the best time to use which character then you may like Libertalia or Beasty Bar. If you like it for the drafting mechanic you can go heavy with 7 Wonders or light with Sushi Go. I'm gonna go out on a limb though and kind of stretch out a bit here and maybe find something you haven't considered before. First, Mr. Jack - as long as you're okay with a Jack the Ripper theme then this game is a blast. It's a deduction game (like Bang & ONUW) but it also allows you to choose which characters to use and when (ala Citadels). One player is Mr. Jack. The other is a detective. The game features many characters that are eligible to be moved by either player but only Jack knows which character he is. His goal is to subtly move that character to the exit without being exposed and stopped by the detective. My other recommendation in that area would be Smash Up. Smash Up (along with it's 10 million expansions) features over 89.86 billion different ridiculous(ly awesome) factions (I counted

). Each player chooses two factions and smashes the decks of those factions together for that game. That makes your team. Your team may be Pirate Zombies, Rockstar Killer Plants, Grandma Princesses, etc. Then the players fight over bases. You choose which base to assign which cards to in order to break the bases that are in your favour. Buying the expansions for this game is addicting.

The only recommendation I can think to make off of Ticket to Ride, personally, would be Tsuro. This is a bit of a stretch but you could say Tsuro is like Ticket to Ride due to path building. Tsuro is much more simple. It's a game that you put in as much thought you want. You could just place tiles and you'll probably lose hilariously but could accidentally win. Equally hilarious. You could try your best and run others off the board or just get a bad draw and lose anyway. Luck based but fun. The theme is nearly abstract but you're meant to be dragons forging your path in hopes of staying on the board for as long as possible.

For deduction games like ONUW & Bang, you could always go with Ultimate Werewolf (Deluxe Edition) as that is basic werewolf/mafia and nothing can trump that in my opinion. For a new spin you could go with The Resistance (or Resistance: Avalon) or Secret Hitler if you like the idea of deciphering who the baddies are so that you can exclude them from missions and law-making. You could go with Spyfall or The Chameleon if you like the idea of a solo baddie attempting to suss out secret information being given via clues by the good guys as they try to figure out which player doesn't seem to have the same information that they do (aka the baddie who knows nothing). If you're willing to try a longer game with heavier theme (although still a simple game), you could try Dead of Winter (or Dead of Winter: Long Night). I would highly recommend this game. You control survivors of the zombie apocalypse that have formed a colony in order to help each other survive. You can gather food, build barricades, rummage through buildings (finding objects and fun, game status changing stories), etc. Why do I recommend this under deduction you ask? Because each player has a hidden goal and one player's hidden goal MAY be to cause everyone else to lose. Are you all working toward similar goals or is a traitor in the mix ready to let the zombies overwhelm your home?

Posted: **Wed Nov 22, 2017 12:42 pm**

Gumshoe wrote: ↑Wed Nov 22, 2017 12:42 am
speedchuck wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2017 5:46 pm
Gumshoe wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2017 5:43 pm
speedchuck wrote: ↑Tue Nov 21, 2017 4:49 pm
Gumshoe wrote: ↑Mon Nov 20, 2017 1:49 am I'm sitting on a personal collection of almost 150 games here. This is my kind of thread/forum. I wonder if you guys feel my mafia + boardgaming pain of not being able to play mafia in person due to not having a large enough group.
Got any recommendations for a board game newbie?
What games have you enjoyed in the past and why? Which games have you not enjoyed and why? I'd have to know what you're into to give a good suggestion. My favorites might be game types that you hate. Or are you a complete newbie and don't know any games?
Catan, Citadels, Ticket to Ride, One Night Werewolf, Plague Inc. (the board game), Bang! the dice game . . . thats about it
Ok, I'll just have to assume that you liked all of those games. I have no real knowledge of Plague so I'm ignoring that one in favour of the others. So none of your games are too heavy on the theme (although far from abstract). Longer than a filler but not about to eat through all of your play time.

Machi Koro, Takenoko, & Five Tribes are all fun games that you might compare to Catan in the sense that each player can devise their own technique for acquiring points and you can choose to step on each other's toes or do your own thing. Machi Koro is about building shops and such to form the nicest town, Takenoko is a battle over bamboo between a gardener & a hungry panda, & Five Tribes comes down to balancing your use of workers in order to best control a board that at it's core is the game Mancala (this game is an arabian theme featuring powerful djinns ).

If you love Citadels due to choosing when is the best time to use which character then you may like Libertalia or Beasty Bar. If you like it for the drafting mechanic you can go heavy with 7 Wonders or light with Sushi Go. I'm gonna go out on a limb though and kind of stretch out a bit here and maybe find something you haven't considered before. First, Mr. Jack - as long as you're okay with a Jack the Ripper theme then this game is a blast. It's a deduction game (like Bang & ONUW) but it also allows you to choose which characters to use and when (ala Citadels). One player is Mr. Jack. The other is a detective. The game features many characters that are eligible to be moved by either player but only Jack knows which character he is. His goal is to subtly move that character to the exit without being exposed and stopped by the detective. My other recommendation in that area would be Smash Up. Smash Up (along with it's 10 million expansions) features over 89.86 billion different ridiculous(ly awesome) factions (I counted ). Each player chooses two factions and smashes the decks of those factions together for that game. That makes your team. Your team may be Pirate Zombies, Rockstar Killer Plants, Grandma Princesses, etc. Then the players fight over bases. You choose which base to assign which cards to in order to break the bases that are in your favour. Buying the expansions for this game is addicting.

The only recommendation I can think to make off of Ticket to Ride, personally, would be Tsuro. This is a bit of a stretch but you could say Tsuro is like Ticket to Ride due to path building. Tsuro is much more simple. It's a game that you put in as much thought you want. You could just place tiles and you'll probably lose hilariously but could accidentally win. Equally hilarious. You could try your best and run others off the board or just get a bad draw and lose anyway. Luck based but fun. The theme is nearly abstract but you're meant to be dragons forging your path in hopes of staying on the board for as long as possible.

For deduction games like ONUW & Bang, you could always go with Ultimate Werewolf (Deluxe Edition) as that is basic werewolf/mafia and nothing can trump that in my opinion. For a new spin you could go with The Resistance (or Resistance: Avalon) or Secret Hitler if you like the idea of deciphering who the baddies are so that you can exclude them from missions and law-making. You could go with Spyfall or The Chameleon if you like the idea of a solo baddie attempting to suss out secret information being given via clues by the good guys as they try to figure out which player doesn't seem to have the same information that they do (aka the baddie who knows nothing). If you're willing to try a longer game with heavier theme (although still a simple game), you could try Dead of Winter (or Dead of Winter: Long Night). I would highly recommend this game. You control survivors of the zombie apocalypse that have formed a colony in order to help each other survive. You can gather food, build barricades, rummage through buildings (finding objects and fun, game status changing stories), etc. Why do I recommend this under deduction you ask? Because each player has a hidden goal and one player's hidden goal MAY be to cause everyone else to lose. Are you all working toward similar goals or is a traitor in the mix ready to let the zombies overwhelm your home?

Wow, that's pretty in-depth. Thanks! I'll look these up!

Posted: **Wed Dec 06, 2017 3:46 pm**

Forbidden Island is fun.

Posted: **Sat Dec 16, 2017 1:20 am**

You could also try Munchkin, Avalon, Coup, Love Letter, Sheriff of Nottingham, Betrayal at House on the Hill,

Posted: **Sat Dec 16, 2017 1:21 am**

DharmaHelper wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2017 1:20 am You could also try Munchkin, Coup, Love Letter, Sheriff of Nottingham, Betrayal at House on the Hill,

Posted: **Sat Dec 16, 2017 1:24 am**

DharmaHelper wrote: ↑Sat Dec 16, 2017 1:20 am You could also try Munchkin, Avalon, Coup, Love Letter, Sheriff of Nottingham, Betrayal at House on the Hill,

Munchkin, Avalon (played it on a mafia site), and Love Letter are great! I'll check out the others. A friend of mine has Betrayal, and we're going to play it soon. While eating sushi.

Posted: **Sun Jan 07, 2018 8:41 pm**

Finished Seafall today. I'd give it an 8/10 overall.

Posted: **Mon Jan 08, 2018 11:43 am**

Golden wrote: ↑Wed Oct 25, 2017 2:04 pm
Spacedaisy wrote: ↑Sun Oct 01, 2017 12:30 amAlso, last time birdwithteeth came to visit we went to Emerald Tavern in Austin and we can never leave without getting a game. This time it was my choice and i went with Above and Below. I really really recommend this game. It is a great blend of worker management and role play. So much fun, especially if you get into using voices and so forth when you read the encounters. I could not speak highly enough of this game.
The sequel, Near and Far, is even better in my opinion. And it is available with an expansion of sorts on Kickstarter right now.

I got Near and Far for Christmas and I LOVE it! We did add a house rule though because we found that if someone just rushes through and throws camps out all over it ends the game too quickly for anyone to play any kind of strategy. It's kind of a good way to lose friends. So now we play it so if you build a camp on the map it ends your turn.

Otherwise a fantastic game!

Posted: **Sun Jan 21, 2018 1:11 am**

So I got a bunch of the DC Deckbuilding Game recently and it is pretty fun. So far the 2 games I played were completely different in terms of strategy/cards so thats cool.

Posted: **Tue Feb 06, 2018 1:59 am**

Watching Star Trek always makes me want to play it on a tabletop in classic dice form. I’ve never managed to hold anyone’s interest long setting it up though.

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2018 4:36 pm**

Spacedaisy wrote: ↑Mon Jan 08, 2018 11:43 am
Golden wrote: ↑Wed Oct 25, 2017 2:04 pm
Spacedaisy wrote: ↑Sun Oct 01, 2017 12:30 amAlso, last time birdwithteeth came to visit we went to Emerald Tavern in Austin and we can never leave without getting a game. This time it was my choice and i went with Above and Below. I really really recommend this game. It is a great blend of worker management and role play. So much fun, especially if you get into using voices and so forth when you read the encounters. I could not speak highly enough of this game.
The sequel, Near and Far, is even better in my opinion. And it is available with an expansion of sorts on Kickstarter right now.
I got Near and Far for Christmas and I LOVE it! We did add a house rule though because we found that if someone just rushes through and throws camps out all over it ends the game too quickly for anyone to play any kind of strategy. It's kind of a good way to lose friends. So now we play it so if you build a camp on the map it ends your turn.

Otherwise a fantastic game!

Interesting house rule. I've seen it that you can't place a camp when you defeat threats, for similar reasons. It's definitely hard to build a strategy (so is Above and Below) because it's hard to trace how others are getting points (or could get them) versus yourself. I always end up way too slow and can't do the storylines further away from the city as fast as others can.

Posted: **Wed Feb 14, 2018 4:38 pm**

I got Gloomhaven and it could easily become an obsession. It's soooo immersive. But the box weighs more than my 16 month old does.

Posted: **Sat Mar 03, 2018 9:48 pm**

Yo I'm real good at the DC Deckbuidling game
Also the "man of steel" card in that game is OP as hell.

Posted: **Sun Mar 25, 2018 5:12 pm**

I just bought and played through Spirit Island twice- the rules are so clunky getting started, but once you get the hang of it, it's an astounding co op Euro game that I've never really been into. Like, I tend to gravitate towards the ameri-trash theme games like Zombicide (nothing will beat the storylines we weave in that one- not even Dead of Winter), but this one has sold me albeit given me tons of analysis paralysis.

Spirit Island checklist- You should buy it if--
-You like co op games ok, but don't care for "quarterbacking", aka one person running the show while others watch that person play. This game doesn't have that much at all.
-You like strategy. TONS of strategy, and apparently there's expansions. Tons of replayability with different variations of cards/spirits
-You like continual action. The game never really lets up and kicks you while you're down.
-You only have 2 players. Scales well at 2. Probably would be even immersive with more. Wouldn't know.
-You like original themes and nice artwork
-You like *complex* games. Even knowing how most of the mechanics work now (took us 2 hours studying the rule book), I still feel like I know nothing jon snow.

DharmaHelper wrote: ↑Sat Mar 03, 2018 9:48 pm Yo I'm real good at the DC Deckbuidling game
Also the "man of steel" card in that game is OP as hell.

Have you tried Sentinels of the Multiverse? Not exactly deck building, but an immersive co-op filler with non-copyrited characters.

Posted: **Tue Mar 27, 2018 9:45 pm**

I've heard of it and seen it played but not had the chance to play myself.

Posted: **Wed Mar 28, 2018 2:06 am**

DharmaHelper wrote: ↑Tue Mar 27, 2018 9:45 pm I've heard of it and seen it played but not had the chance to play myself.

Now I’m at the point after 6 play throughs that it’s making my brain hurt, and needed a break from it lol.

There’s just so much to keep track of. It’s like chess with luck, lots of analysis paralysis making the game drag for 2 hours. Still a great game, just not in succession. And another negative I suppose is the win condition- it just feels so anticlimactic. We build up to a point, and we build up to another point and then before we really let forth wrath, it’s over and we collectively go “oh, was that it?” It’s about the journey, not the destination though, right?

Posted: **Wed Mar 28, 2018 2:55 am**

A friend of mine who has 100+ board games got me to try a game called Kemet... any of you play it? I liked it, but need to play it a few more times as I barely had a grip on the rules the first time... so many strategy ideas, though!

Also, Betrayal on House on the Hill (2nd ed.) is a brilliant game marred by horribly incomplete rules... like, they have 50 different "haunts" that can happen, each with its own page in the hauntbook to explain how it will work, and yet every time we play there is a missing detail or unintentional ambiguity that frustrates everyone... how often can the Banshee attack in a single turn? "uhm.... it doesn't really say...." FML, such a cool game, but the rules, man... they suck.

Posted: **Wed Mar 28, 2018 1:13 pm**

Scotty wrote: ↑Wed Mar 28, 2018 2:06 am
DharmaHelper wrote: ↑Tue Mar 27, 2018 9:45 pm I've heard of it and seen it played but not had the chance to play myself.
Now I’m at the point after 6 play throughs that it’s making my brain hurt, and needed a break from it lol.

There’s just so much to keep track of. It’s like chess with luck, lots of analysis paralysis making the game drag for 2 hours. Still a great game, just not in succession. And another negative I suppose is the win condition- it just feels so anticlimactic. We build up to a point, and we build up to another point and then before we really let forth wrath, it’s over and we collectively go “oh, was that it?” It’s about the journey, not the destination though, right?

The DC game is a bit like that. I try to combat the "paralysis" when i play but just going off the first few cards that I manage to pick up and building a strategy around that. The last time I played and won, my early game was picking up cards that let me draw more cards and kept my discard pile llight, then the big beefy mondo card hit the market, I picked that up, and shifted gears to buying as many superpowers as I could. (Man of Steel, the card, allows you to take all the Super Power cards from your discard and add them to your hand. So like 3 turns after I picked it up and had all these super power cards, I was dropping 30-40 points a turn where my opponent would be lucky to get 20 points. I could buy the whole market, defeat the boss, and have 25 points left over at the end of my turn.)

Posted: **Wed Mar 28, 2018 1:17 pm**

To add: The endgame in the DC game and I imagine any Deck Builder can be a bit... "Oh yeah I guess it's done now." but like you said, getting there is most of the fun. Those moments of "Aha! A strategy reveals itself!" and then the game quickly turns from a marathon to a sprint.

Posted: **Sat Sep 15, 2018 12:18 pm**

Posted: **Sun Nov 04, 2018 10:53 pm**

Power Grid was really fun! Tried it for the first time tonight.

Posted: **Sun Nov 25, 2018 4:48 am**

we got gloomhaven.... took us like 4 hours to learn/set up/start the first round, but once we got going it's pretty fun but still pretty overwhelming

Posted: **Sun Nov 25, 2018 10:38 am**

Played Harry Potter Codenames on Friday. Some fun.

Posted: **Sun Nov 25, 2018 3:18 pm**

we also played codenames (just the normal one) with my bf's family, have played it with them a few times before and it's always fun/kinda frustrating

but we played another game too, one that my boyfriend just bought and we've been really enjoying called Gizmos -- I'd highly recommend it, if you've played Splendor that's kind of the closest thing I'd compare it to but with a couple different mechanics (plus some silly art and a cool set of different-colored marbles that represent the resources). the rules can lead to some crazy action chains that are very satisfying to set up

Posted: **Wed Jan 23, 2019 7:17 pm**

nutella wrote: ↑Sun Nov 25, 2018 4:48 am we got gloomhaven.... took us like 4 hours to learn/set up/start the first round, but once we got going it's pretty fun but still pretty overwhelming

Good luck. I’m about 40 scenarios in, it’s still good times.

Posted: **Wed Jan 23, 2019 8:46 pm**

Golden wrote: ↑Wed Jan 23, 2019 7:17 pm
nutella wrote: ↑Sun Nov 25, 2018 4:48 am we got gloomhaven.... took us like 4 hours to learn/set up/start the first round, but once we got going it's pretty fun but still pretty overwhelming
Good luck. I’m about 40 scenarios in, it’s still good times.

Haha we've been playing pretty much every weekend now, my boyfriend is totally obsessed.

Posted: **Wed Jan 23, 2019 9:35 pm**

I wanted that, but I don't know who I'd play it with or when. At that price, it seemed like one of those things I'd buy and it would look nice in the house.

I'll leave that practice to Eloh.

Posted: **Wed Feb 13, 2019 3:12 am**

Oops I guess I shoulda put that dumb post about me spending all day today making props for my DnD group in this thread. I'll put pictures here when I get the chance if I remember to.

Posted: **Wed Feb 13, 2019 4:48 pm**

Turns out sealing stuff with wax stamps is tricky. This is probably one of the better efforts here. 20+ envelopes gave me a lot of practice.

Posted: **Tue Apr 23, 2019 5:00 pm**

Come on guys, why didn't WE do this??

Posted: **Wed Apr 24, 2019 3:25 pm**

Long Con wrote: ↑Tue Apr 23, 2019 5:00 pm Come on guys, why didn't WE do this??

I feel like the people on this sub could probably do something like this, actually. Good game design folks on here.

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