Eh, you only really need to recalculate when new values are added to the empty rows/columns, I found it to be about on par with calculating domination in DS as far as mental upkeep. The mechanics I thought were servicable in terms of thematic connection, as an abstraction of cutthroat urban planning politics, though that’s something I don’t usually concern myself with admittedly.
I am very interested in the original polish version of mysterium yeah from what everyone has said. Gonna try and convince this cat from the board game group to bring it this coming week.
I’ve Ben playing a LOT of citadels w my best friend who’s in town right now. We always play it when he’s around but we discovered that the 2 player game, far from being inane, is one of our favorite modes yet. One would think it would be more limited but it’s actually the most complex and strategic mode I’ve played yet.
So much so that after experimenting w some bonus characters and whatnot we decided to try out an insane super-mod version coming out of our brains or asses w 12 characters, mixing and doubling many of the ranks and coming up w new rules for some of the personalities…we’ve been playtesting it and it is actually a ton of fun. Definitely gonna come up w a pdf ruleset for people to play who are interested. It’s bananas and amazing. And each player has 3 characters each. :0sweat_smile:
Masques looks really awesome too. These leanly-built but intensely complex card games are totally my jam, less unwieldy than big boards but so much more variable.
original ukrainian version 
tho honestly at this point there’s no real reason to get the polish version over the english version since the polish edition is like twice as expensive to import as english version is to buy.
It should be noted that if folks here do not use http://www.boardgameprices.com/ to price their games, they really should. There’s no reason to overspend on already very expensive bits of cardboard.
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I mentioned the…derivative? polish version not out of board game purity but because I understand that the setup is actually slightly different, and from what I’d read/heard, better.
Our newly-dubbed “Citadels: City-States” mod is completely obscene and chugging along well. The sheer fun of toying around w these rules has not worn off as we seem to keep developing them mid game. There is truly an element of Calvinball to this…
I got the polish version because it was cheaper than the Ukrainian version before the English version was released but I think the English version was the first real revision
I’m finding myself liking Terra Mystica the more I play it, after being meh on it my first time through. It’s like the designer decided to take the basic concept of the generic resource conversion Euro to its absolute extreme and came out with something decidedly unique.
Patchwork is a sweet little 2p game by Rosenberg where you’re trying to patch a quilt together out of little tetris looking pieces. Probably my go-to filler for 2p from now on, because you can play a game in like 30 minutes.
Yeah, I like Terra Mystica but it’s analysis paralysis to the extreme. There are just so many things you can do any given turn, and everyone in my group feels exhausted after it’s over. So much counting and recounting, and messing around with the magic bowls. Our group normally plays a little too slowly, so it doesn’t end up hitting the table much.
The asymmetrical faction powers are really cool though. Some are really drastic and significantly change the way you have to play.
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yeah, terra mystica is cool but it’s a little too fiddly (and the rulebook is a mess which didn’t help matters). It’s the sort of well-executed eurogame that I always feel tired and dissatisfied after.
I like archipelago better moment-to-moment but man the scoring and the pacing of that game are so arbitrary and a couple of the mechanics are fairly extraneous.
How is the scoring arbitrary for you, out of curiosity?
the hidden scoring conditions are basically impossible to get a feel for on your first couple of games, and there are so many resources at play that it’s really easy to have an impossible time of getting any kind of basic economy going if you aren’t very very deliberate with your early-game turns.
I think it’s a vastly better game if you a) entirely ignore (as in don’t use) the export market if you’re playing the short or mid length game, and only use it in the long game, and b) use as many public scoring conditions as there are players, and only keep the private endgame conditions, ignoring the private scoring conditions.
I can understand that I guess, but I the deduction aspect of the hidden goals is one of those things that makes the game work for me personally. Short-length games definitely suck in general, I’m pretty sure they were only included for teaching purposes. The real meat of the game is definitely in mid-length or long games, where have enough time to figure out what people are building towards in terms of their objectives.
could we have a thread like this but for tabletop roleplaying i wonder
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Probably a good idea. If you want to start it go ahead, though I’d probably like to contribute to the OP after I get my shit together, since I am one of the more RPG/Story-game knowledgeable people on this forum.
I do have the slight ambition of making a ‘so you want to play RPGs in 2016 and already played Fiasco, Monsterhearts and any of the OSR games’ post at some point so that’s what I would contribute.
Played Mysterium last night, I really enjoyed it (I was the ghost) though I feel it would be much less enjoyable on anything other than easy. The group seemed to enjoy it but were bummed out when they got the final visions wrong, which made them feel the whole game was for nothing (and it’s a pretty long game). I don’t really feel that way, but it does seem like a problem that the whole game comes down to one final phase that doesn’t have too much to do with the previous ones.
yeah it’s fun to tweak the rules around the final visions because at that point why not
Mysterium actually works quite well on the higher difficulty settings. It doesn’t FEEL significantly harder. My group has never lost at the final vision so what can I say maybe you gotta work on your psychic powers.
Also, the game dramatically shortens in playtime the more you play (one game takes 45 minutes including set up and tear down but I am pretty obsessed with efficient set up)
Are there any particular tweaks you would recommend?
I’ve pretty much eliminated the clairvoyancy rules from the US edition (they’re bad and convoluted and slow the game down a ton, if you’re playing with them that may be why you thought the game took a long time)
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Yeah, I just read that most people seem to prefer ditching those. I think that might be a good idea, they just made it more fiddly.
Do people here keep the non-talking secret vote at the end of the US version? If not, which method do you use?
edit ONE MORE THING
Does anyone know of a good video to prime people for Tragedy Looper? I have some people interested but want us to all be somewhat prepared before diving in. Thanks everyone for being helpful and informative, too
The problem I had with Terra Mystica is that most game actions seem to lead to the exact same point values. I played twice and all the players were always within a few points of each other. Assuming everyone at the table is competent at resource management and knows how to maximize the value of their actions, the winner is seemingly determined by who can eke out a few extra points through one of the systems (like being a few clicks ahead on one of the point tracks).
Then again, we played 3 player so, maybe 4-5 is better?
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