Just listened to this after I found myself with a rare solo lunch
I must say of recent episodes–I don’t listen to everything–I enjoyed this more than most. As with the “which three games on the desert island” type posts, it makes me think of my own short-list of games I want to get to the table when we can have boardgame nights again and with whom I want to play them.
And as Ava wasn’t the first to mention that all of Inis fits in the expansion box, I finally tried and while I love the big box new cover art (really I do), I feel that the game may be less intimidating for those who don’t know it if it comes in a smaller box. Also: shelf-space and the green box of the expansion is also really nice.
Has anyone else been making up dream boardgame nights?
At this point it’s anything that has what I’m starting to think of as the Tabletop UI, which seems very quaint and nostalgic, but somehow feels better than a screen despite the obvious shortcomings.
Overall we’ve had things pretty lucky in this particular part of Spain and our last “games night” was in early January, but I get to see and play again with my non-gamer friends this weekend. I’m hoping my new arrivals will go down well too and expect they will: Mysterium and Sheriff of Nottingham.
I’ve been in sort of a low-level panic for a few months now. I have approximately 3 friends who are willing to dig into and play any game. I have more friends who are willing to sit down and play certain games, but when it comes to getting the type of games I love played, I rely on specifically three of my friends.
One of those moved to Colorado a couple of years ago.
One of those, around the time I moved to the extreme south-end of the Kansas City metro, he moved to the extreme north-end of the town (it’s probably about a 45 minute drive in good traffic)
And the most reliable gaming opponent I had was my former neighbor. I now live 20+ minutes away from someone that used to be 2 doors down the street.
So… I’ve been dreaming about game nights… but as of yet, I’m not even sure what they look like. I have a great space in my finished basement for a gaming night, but I’ve never had one in that space, so it’s still very abstract and fuzzy in my thoughts.
I know what you mean. I order games that I know I’ll love. I play them solo or multi-handed and know they are great. But with all the game nights on hold…
(I am sick of TTS and in any case we keep playing the same few things digitally over and over and it’s been getting worse and worse we’re reduced to “Set with friends” which I hate and skribbl.io which is ok)
… the stack of games that need the hobbyist gamers to play is just getting bigger all the time. I went through my collection and marked those games as “want to play” that really haven’t seen the table yet due to covid or that I really want to play in a big group. The list has 22 games now and that is mostly new games. At least half of those have those “specific” requirements and that is with games like Oath still on a ship (or maybe in port now… I am getting a bit jittery about that one). I think even my copy of Blood on the Clocktower will arrive before lockdown ends…
Not exactly, but I’m keeping an eye on the calendar, weather, vaccination rate and changes in restrictions. Several of the usual group are a bit on the frail side, so we were erring on the side of caution last year, but masked gazebo games seemed to work well until (about mid-September) it got too cold for most people’s comfort. Some time around the end of this month I’m planning to propose that we start again.
I can relate to this. I have one person in my circle that is probably willing to try out anything. The rest of the circle consists of my wife, his wife, and my brother-in-law. All of them play games, but are not always as eager to dive into new games as the two of us. Thankfully there are plenty of games we all enjoy, but it does make it harder to get other games that I want to try out to the table.
I used pubmeeple to rank the games I want to play with other people around a table… here’s the top 10 (out of 30-ish) and I included soon-too-arrive pre-orders and Kickstarters. Games that have good solo-modes have usually ranked lower even though I may want to play them very much with more people…
Rank
Game
1
Pax Pamir: Second Edition
2
Inis
3
Hansa Teutonica: Big Box
4
Oath: Chronicles of Empire and Exile
5
Space Base
6
Beyond the Sun
7
Viscounts of the West Kingdom
8
Brass: Birmingham
9
Spirit Island
10
A War of Whispers
I am a bit surprised that Sidereal didn’t make my top 10… and that Spirit Island did Because I’ve played the latter a lot and it has great solo-ing capabilities.
Because I’ve played the latter a lot and it has great solo-ing capabilities.