Hi everyone, I thought I’d say hi in this new community as a new moderator. I’m Foon (she/her), and I love table top games. My partner and I have been gaming a lot in the past 5 years or so, and we have a bunch of friends that turned into boardgamers too, and boardgamers that we turned into friends. So on average we get almost a game a day in.
I’m excited to discuss all things tabletop gaming with you all. Some of my favourite games are Gloomhaven/Frosthaven, Spirit Island, Aeon’s End, Terraforming Mars.
What are y’all’s favourite games?
Hi! I play a lot of RPGs (with the exception of DND, for some reasons)… And I mainly enjoy thematic/narrative games (so, no “Germans” for me, even if the distinction is losing meaning day by day!)
What’s your favourite thematic/narrative game?
I think that the best one is Arkham Horror LCG by MJ Newman. It really blends together game mechanics and narrative feeling (ludonarrative harmony, as she describes here fo example: https://www.bewaretheblackcat.com/post/behind-the-curtain-enemies ). In short, you are not simply moving cards or pulling out tokens, but you are really living an adventure.
Then there is War of the Ring, really conveys both for the Free People and the shadow player a super thematic experience, while being a tight and ruthless wargame.
Those two are the peaks (for us). But I can name many other which we enjoy. Among the new ones, there is a very nice pirate game, forbidden waters. I also enjoy the games by Jerry Hawthorne (mice and mystics, comanauts, stuffed fables, …).
And many, many others (dune conquest, for instance, or star wars: imperial assault, …)
Ooh War of the Ring is an amazing game. I’ve only played it twice, but really enjoyed it. It’s done so well thematically and it really felt like we were living a story indeed. One of those games, I was playing the Free People, and was getting absolutely slaughtered by the Shadow Armies… But I had the card that let Aragorn bring the armies of the dead, and managed to get everything in order to wipe out a huge number of enemies. My opponent being as new to the game as I was had no idea this card existed, so the look of surprise was priceless!
Yes, I like that you could think of each game as a “potential alternative retelling” of the story. And if you happen to enjoy RPGs, there is one by one the authors of WoR, which is called “The One Ring”. The 2nd ed. Came out a couple of years ago and it’s a great game, with gorgeous art and great thematic rules (e.g. for when you are despairing, overburdened by the Shadow). I highly recommend it, you can also play it solo or coop with an expansion by the author of Ironsworn.