If you're looking for an upgraded Talisman, you could try Relic. It's basically the same game with a 40K makeover, but it does add some more choice to things. For one thing, the adventure deck is replaced by three decks which mostly (but not exclusively) challenge either Strength (melee), Cunning (ranged), or Willpower (psychic), and different spaces on the board draw from different piles. In addition, psychic powers (the equivalent of spells) can either be used for their actual effect, or can be discarded instead of rolling a die in order to set that die to a particular number based on the card. These and some other aspects give the player a little more control. I mean, it's still not like Puerto Rico that's mostly deterministic based on what other players do, but at least you get to choose which ride to go on in the theme park.
RPG-style Board Games
- Thread starter Olgar Shiverstone
- Start date
schneeland
Hero
I'd say, I beg to differ (when we play Euro games, the atmosphere is usually rather relaxed). But I will admit that, as a German, I might be biased
This reminds me, though, that there is UltraQuest - an RPG-style board game by German indie publisher Flying Games (Shop, Board Game Geek). I haven't played it myself, but I did hear good things about it.
Whizbang Dustyboots
Gnometown Hero
We have to grade on a curve. "Rather relaxed" for a German is pretty serious for the rest of the world.I'd say, I beg to differ (when we play Euro games, the atmosphere is usually rather relaxed). But I will admit that, as a German, I might be biased
Clint_L
Legend
I'm not seeing this - there are tons of good party games and tons of good strategy games and most reviewers appreciate the difference. Nobody is judging Wavelength by the same metric as Eldritch Horror, to cite two of my favourites.
Olgar Shiverstone
Legend
Because wearing scaly underpants chafes.
//
What would a Euro-RPG game look like? Drafting cubes instead of 3d6 down the line?
I don't know. I remember watching a Youtube review of Eldritch Horror where the reviewer complained about how random the game was and your choices not really having much impact. I think the reviewer missed the fact that while it's not totally deterministic, most types of tasks strongly lean toward testing certain stats – for example, researching a clue usually but not always involves testing Observation, and other world encounters usually involves Lore and/or Will. Sometimes you get nasty surprises, but the relevant decks strongly lean that way. I do wish the rulebook had been clearer on which tasks use which skills though – the information is there but reversed ("Observation is mostly used for Research encounters and Expedition encounters", not "Research encounters mostly use Observation"), which I don't find as helpful.
And while on that topic, while it's technically a card game and not a board game, the Arkham Horror Living Card Game is amazing, and probably the closest I've come to an RPG in board game format. As in most Arkham games, you play one of a few pre-invented investigators, but in addition to having a card with that investigator's stats you also build a deck for them, usually consisting of 30 cards plus a few that are special to that investigator plus a random weakness. The cards have classes which match the investigators' classes, but most investigators can spread beyond that a little. For example, the investigators in the core set mostly have the restriction that they can use any card that's their class or neutral up to level 5 (the highest), and one other up to level 2. The ones in the first expansion instead have in-class or neutral up to level 5, and up to 5 level 0 cards from any class. And after that they get more specific. These cards can represent Assets (cards that stay in play once played, often representing items, spells, allies, or special training), Events (one-shot effects), or Skills (cards you can discard to boost a skill test and often get a special benefit in addition to the bonus itself).
The card game format extends to the scenarios themselves as well – there's no board, but instead you (usually) build a board from cards based on that specific scenario. You also build an encounter deck with both scenario-specific cards and cards belonging to various encounter sets – e.g. the first scenario in the Path to Carcosa campaign uses the sets Evil Portents, Delusions, Hauntings, Cult of the Yellow Sign, Striking Fear, and Rats in addition to the scenario-specific cards. This allows for a lot of variety in the challenges for various scenarios. The scenarios themselves usually boil down to some variation of "get X clues before Y rounds", but there's usually a lot of embellishment around that (particularly the "get X clues" bit – most scenarios require you to get clues, but some allow you to just spend enough of them to move on, and others require you to use them in specific ways). They're also split into stages, so after a certain number of rounds something happens to shake things up, and the same applies to when you spend clues to move on to the next step.
The one disadvantage of this game is that if you're going to go deep into it, it gets pretty expensive. I mean, not Magic or Warhammer expensive, but pretty expensive. The core game costs $60, but that's just an appetizer. You also have ten different campaigns at the moment, each of which consists of a campaign expansion for $75 (the actual campaign with ~8 scenarios) and an investigator expansion for $50 with 5-6 new investigators and a whole bunch of new player cards. The investigator expansions aren't strictly tied to the campaign expansions (though there are often thematic links) – that's more of a remnant of an older business model they were using where each campaign had a "Deluxe campaign set" containing the new investigators, about half the new cards, and the first two scenarios in the campaign, and then followed by six "Mythos packs" with a new scenario each and a few new player cards. This method eventually became untenable as the game grew so they switched to a different model, and have been re-releasing the old campaigns using the new system.
Anyhow, the game oozes flavor. Playing it feels pretty much like playing a good Call of Cthulhu campaign, with a bit more pulp action and player agency. Plus, if you're really lucky, you might get your brain temporally transplanted into the body of a Yithian far into the future, and while exploring their Great City to try to figure out how to undo that a bunch of mobsters show up wanting the money you owe them. Good times.
I’m steadily acquiring a range of games in this space, for multi- or solo-play, and filling different time demands. Recently I picked up Pauper’s Ladder which is a fairly light-weight and fun adventure game that we can play easily in an evening. I also just got Vantage which is a coop exploration game that usually fits into an evening of play.
I also have some short-play games like Mini Rogue and the Kinfire Delve series - these provide a fun game in less than an hour.
Contrast that with Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era which need 4-6 hours per session and each play through runs to three sessions if you are successful.
So, it’s not about ‘more complexity is better’, typically it is ‘more complexity takes longer’. Games of different complexity and play time can all be fun.
I think what is very common at the moment is that ‘lots of stuff’ is a way of generating interest when crowdfunding, so bigger games which require more shelf space and tend to involve more time are becoming more common.
I also have some short-play games like Mini Rogue and the Kinfire Delve series - these provide a fun game in less than an hour.
Contrast that with Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era which need 4-6 hours per session and each play through runs to three sessions if you are successful.
So, it’s not about ‘more complexity is better’, typically it is ‘more complexity takes longer’. Games of different complexity and play time can all be fun.
I think what is very common at the moment is that ‘lots of stuff’ is a way of generating interest when crowdfunding, so bigger games which require more shelf space and tend to involve more time are becoming more common.
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Jahydin
Hero
I know I was pretty disappointed in it. Felt like I was playing a never ending game of Monopoly.
Jahydin
Hero
Could be off here, but I'm thinking Roll Player, Too Many Bones, Mage Knight, and Gloomhaven all count for more "Euro" style RPG games.
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