Looks over at all his space games. Nope, not a weakness for me at all. Haha.
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Here’s something that isn’t always true, but happens enough to irk me: why is Sci-fi more commonly approached from a strategy and tactics angle (or alternatively a grand, economic/negotiation angle, or all of the above), while Fantasy is usually focused on Character development (and associated talents/feats) and narrative?
A recent example for me is between Galaxy Defenders and Sword & Sorcery. These are two games that share the same basic ruleset and engine to drive it, yet stand so far apart you could justify owning both. And of course that means each offers something the other does not.
Galaxy Defenders leans heavily on the maneuvering game, with tight, hex based positioning (putting greater emphasis on things like line of sight and range), weapon and armour upgrades, and an enemy that really exploits poor positioning. It contains a campaign, but the narrative elements are basically just there to link scenarios and lend conceit to why you started this round with a bazooka. It is satisfying in a way that’s similar to a good crunchy tactical wargame.
Sword & Sorcery, meanwhile, expands the formula to include adventuring, branching paths, traps, a comprehensive levelling system including stat boosts, weapon and item upgrades and improvements, random loot, side quests, variable enemies with complimentary attack patterns, several special boss events… the list of improvements and indulgences is comprehensive and often bewildering. But it all comes at a massive cost: the game board is reduced to large areas with little “X’s” to mark basic line of sight, removing a significant and enjoyable (and frankly game defining) element of Galaxy Defenders in the process. Positioning still counts, but it’s diminished to little more than your typical front row/back row JRPG for practical purposes.
Sword & Sorcery is unequivocally the better game in my opinion (it’s why I’ve got it now, and not Galaxy Defenders), but that’s not really the point. The differences between the two really exemplify what I see as a pretty common pigeonhole for each of the genres.
TL;DR, I find myself far more attracted to Sci-Fi on basic “coat of paint” appeal, yet still get roped into otherwise far less thematically appealing Fantasy titles for their gameplay loops.
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I think it is a matter of technology. On a sci-fi (or even modern days) war game, there will be a predominance of ranged weapons, and it is more believable that communication will make a big set up or a space battle more likely to be organised and arranged strategically. On Fantasy we always will have the dungeon crawl group or band, where there is a lot more tendency towards hand on hand combat; even though there are ranged weapons, they still aren’t so easy to use as in a later period (medieval like fantasy, I mean) so only well trained (archers or magicians-sort) or heavily and slow devices (crossbows) tend to be able to use them.
So in that aspect, they might be sort of realistic…
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I think that can work both ways. In an SF game with tech at least something like the present day I can be thrown out of my suspension of disbelief if something works really weirdly; on the other hand, because I have real-world knowledge to anchor on, I enjoy it more if it does feel more or less right.
(The higher the tech, the more it becomes magical, and the more it feels like magic - I can’t tell you your dimensional portal to the heart of the sun shouldn’t work like that, but similarly I’m less engaged…)
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I described 504 as “Patrick bait.” I knew it would be flawed, but I could not not get it. I loves me modularity.
I am weak to new editions/reprints of games that I had wanted and failed to get the first time around.
I am also weak to expansions and promos. I do have a completist streak.
Sometimes these combine, such as the Kickstarter for Tiny Epic Galaxies: Beyond the Black. I didn’t own the base game (dodged the initial bullet), but couldn’t resist the new expansion.
For RPGs, I can avoid anything that’s over $20. For everything else, it has to grab me, intrigue me, or just match something I’ve been pondering recently. There’s no rhyme or reason to it.
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For me relatability is a big thing. If a guy comes along saying “hey, I’m making games in my garage! Help me have fun!” Then I’ll back it; if it’s just some big company, I know they’ll be fine without me, and I’ll pick it up super cheap second hand.
As far as the actual game goes, I always want anything involving exploring/conquering space, or anime! 
And anything listing off mechanisms is going to put me off, especially "tableau building’ 
Also I love nice things, even if it’s worthless as a game, just to decorate with. Hence most of my KS purchases are just dice and cards.
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I identified so hard with every single thing you said in those first two paragraphs, and I think I just discovered 2 other weak spots.
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As somebody who prefers writing for Steve Jackson Games to self-publishing, I hope not too many people think as you do; it would diminish my royalties, which are my reward for doing the best work I can.
I currently have Sleeping Gods, Roam, Empires of the Void 2 and The Ancient World 2nd ed. ordered to be delivered at various times.
I think there may be something there…
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My weak spot is area control or area majority/influence as BGG now calls it… I am not even necessarily good at it but give me some form of this (favorite examples from my collection include Inis, Root, Terra Mystica & Gaia Project, Spirit Island, Dune and at least 6 of my yet-to-arrive kickstarters also fall into this category) and I will want this game; for bonus cravings combine with unique player powers and/or a hand of beautiful cards and I will hand over the money without hesitation. There are very few of these that I played and didn’t like (but there are)
Sadly, my partner does not enjoy this as much as I do, so it takes a lot of convincing to get these games to the table–even the few coop variants that exist are a hard sell (Spirit Island & Root coop are the only ones I know) and the rest of my local gaming circle aren’t fans either…
But that’s not enough to keep me from backing/buying games that promise to allow me to spread out over a map with my markers, meeples or minis.
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Have you tried El Grande?
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I have. It’s been a few years though–like 15 or so… I believe I enjoyed it but had no idea what I was doing or so. I recently tried to convince the friends who own El Grande to play on TTS but failed to deter them from trying El Dorado instead 
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Nature theme
Pulp anything
Shiny gems that you can hold
Legacy elements
Anything at all related to the book Dune
Absolutely terrible Vampire the Masquerade cash-in games that nobody believes will be any good but I immediately click Buy anyway even on the most expensive kickstarters for the chance that they could recapture even 1% of Vamp 2nd ed.
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I have yet to buy any VTM themed game but there are preorders on one of my online shops for some kickstarter something something heritage that are hard to resist… and whenever any VtM game comes up I drool over it but I am so scared of disappointment… I decide to wait and so far nothing ever popped up again after the Kickstarter.
I backed VTM Heritage, and to be fair it actually looks pretty good.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/sweet-lemon/vampire-the-masquerade-heritage
But I also got Prince’s Gambit, and that was exactly as terrible as it appears 
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/200664283/princes-gambit-casual-vampire-card-game
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For board games, my weak spot is modularity. This is why I bought 504, even though I suspected it wouldn’t be that good.
For RPGs, I’m pretty good at resisting most things because I simply don’t have the time to read the ones I already have. But I am attracted to streamlined, smooth systems, especially if they are reasonably generic, and are not build upon pre-defined classes/archetypes/playbooks.
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Sorry, the next line should read “… but an island can be a component”.
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I believe that’s a dozen or so components…
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I’ll just add “Autumn leaves theme” to my weak spots.
(Sees “Indian Summer” and literally doesn’t care about the gameplay before putting it on a wishlist)
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