Thoughts on Runebound?

[Haltherrion]

Any Runebound players here?

My group has played enough Talisman that we are starting to get burned out on it (lots of fun with it though). I picked up Runebound a while back and have played it a few times with my son. It's been reasonably entertaining but we also usually lose interest after a while and only get so far into it.

Describing it to a friend, I told him "It wasn't as fun as it seems it should be." I'm hoping I'm wrong. It does seem to have the potential to be entertaining and the mechanics are interesting.

We may give it a try with the adult gamers and see how it goes. I've also fattened the decks up with some expansions which might provide a little more variety.

Any opinions on the game? Is it ho-hum or much more fun once you get into it?

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

My group has played enough Talisman that we are starting to get burned out on it (lots of fun with it though). I picked up Runebound a while back and have played it a few times with my son. It's been reasonably entertaining but we also usually lose interest after a while and only get so far into it.

Describing it to a friend, I told him "It wasn't as fun as it seems it should be." I'm hoping I'm wrong. It does seem to have the potential to be entertaining and the mechanics are interesting.

We may give it a try with the adult gamers and see how it goes. I've also fattened the decks up with some expansions which might provide a little more variety.

Any opinions on the game? Is it ho-hum or much more fun once you get into it?

Just as with Talisman, you'll definitely want to fatten up the adventure/encounter decks, which it seems you've done.

The big problem with Runebound is the sheer amount of downtime which can make multi-player games of 4 or 5 people virtually unplayable. It's a much slower game than Talisman, but also less wacky and more tactical and immersive.

It's definitely worth giving it a try, and I think it's a very cool game, but it can be tedious with too many players. I've heard the term "multi-player solitaire" used a few times.

 

[MerricB]

I indeed only enjoy Runebound solitaire. There isn't really a good "adventure scale" fantasy boardgame IMO, and I've tried a few.

Talisman is (sadly) one of the best, especially in its current form, and it's still random and can be very frustrating. At least downtime is minimised.

Runebound works well for 1 player, is playable (sort of) with 2-3, and should be avoided for 4+ players. Downtime is a big killer, as is the lack of interaction. There are some really cool expansions, but the game as a whole sort of lacks punch.

Prophecy, despite being designed by the amazing Vlaada Chvatil, feels like a slower, more boring Talisman. It's designed as a Talisman variant, but gaining power is too slow, and at 180 minutes for a full game, just takes too long for the entertainment derived from it, especially as you'll have probably seen the entire encounter deck twice over!

Return of the Heroes plays as a "not enough adventure" type of game: there are quests that require you to criss-cross the (large) map, but there aren't enough challenges along the way to maintain interest.

Descent: Road to Legend is rather good, but also extremely long. And becomes a tactical dungeoncrawl in any case for much of its running.

Castle Ravenloft and Wrath of Ashardalon are excellent, but sit in the "dungeoncrawl" box, along with Descent in its original form. The next level up is rather devoid of good games.

Cheers!

 

[Haltherrion]

I've played it a few more times and I have to say the game is growing on me. It certainly takes a long time but as a solo play or with one other player, it's a pleasant way to spend some time.

 

[Dog Moon]

Personally, I can only handle Runebound to played occasionally. It's a decent game, but it isn't quite good enough to play consistantly [like we do with Arkham Horror, for example].

What I would recommend is for you to pick up Mists of Zanaga [one of the big box xpacs]. IMO and the opinion of the others I game with, it's the most involved of all the games regarding interaction with all the players. There's these rituals in play that have different in play or when resolved effects and there's primal gods that have different abilities that effect the game depending on which rituals are finished. When you kill a creature, you decide what ritual to try to complete and this causes talking to the group about the plan and what to get rid of.

The last two games we got a Primal God that ended up putting Doom counters on it and we were forced to help each other out in order to make sure we could get to fighting the Primal God before the Primal God gained 8 counters and all players lost.

[We also did it even more cooperative and treated the Primal God like the Ancient One in Arkham Horror, meaning that we all fought it and it had more hit points to account for more of us fighting it. Because of this, for us to all fight the Primal God, we all had to get a Red kill and make our way to the Lost City to fight it].

In the normal games, however, it's supposed to be more individualistic, but it tended to be more 'each of us playing sort of our own game on the same board' until it seems like someone is nearing win-dom and then it becomes a race to finish first.