I think I wanna get an Obsession game going on BGA. Anyone interested in joining?
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Sure, Iād play Obsession. (I havenāt played it since our last BGA game so Iāll have to remember how.)
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Iād give it a go too!
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Iāll set a game up tomorrow!
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@wourme started up a game for the three of us. and sorry if you get an email tulpa. I invited you on accident.
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Iām dying. the games venue often has a group playing something with the same vibes
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a long time ago i was an interloper for a few years in a long term d&d group in its pathfinder era, and happened to be in a game explicitly meant to me ārules as writtenā - the DM and one player in particular seemed to be in a rules mastery competition so this sort of exchange tended to be very short
i remember us willing a couple of encounters and getting experience for them the pro player casting protection from evil 30ā radius and then setting up camp for the night, with the ghosts fucking off first thing in the morning. the pro player was of course a druid and exploited high strength bonuses on claw/claw/bite attack sequences on both his wild shape and animal companion (or whatever it was) to trivialize a good number of encounters
like building d&d 3rd edition system mastery is a pretty dumb use of time but itās kind of impressive to see people fluent in it and willing to take it to absurd places in action
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We had to postpone an Arkham Horror card game session at the last minute yesterday because one of the players got sick. Someone suggested we play something else and I jumped at the chance to suggest Barrage, which Iād seen on the shelf of the person hosting before. Itās one Iād been wanting to try for a while.
Itās about building dams to generate electricity (apparently in a dystopian future).
The game was somewhat slow and painful but the mechanics are very interesting. Itās easy to make mistakes as a new player and the game is extremely unforgiving if you do because everything ends up hinging on where you place your few pieces and in what order.
And while I often found myself frustrated while playing, I keep thinking about the game and I want to try it again.
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One of the designers of this was a co-designer on my favorite euro Grand Austria Hotel, which is a real frustrating machine to work with too. That must be an emotion he finds interesting to incorporate into his designs, by the sound of it.
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I played this recently and had no thoughts. I was the run-away winner because of sneaky moves like āchecking what the round 5 scoring condition wasā & ābuilding to it all gameā
I would try it again with the advance rules. but it feels like a simple minimax game. simple in determining the most likely future, not working through all the options
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https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2025/10/31/the-next-chapter-1/
FFG are introducing a new Core set for Arkham Horror LCG. It will be the standard that future expansions are based on, but is retroactively compatible with old cards and scenarios. They are introducing continuity to the narrative with future expansions. Card art is basically the same but has some elements that clearly distinguish a Chapter 2 card from an old AH LCG card.
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When they announced this they said theyād need to provide something additional to make this work with past campaigns. My guess is that the basic encounter sets that the campaigns typically call for wonāt be included and theyāll offer them as a separate pack (or suggest alternatives that are close enough to substitute).
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Obsession has been really fun to play. I think thatās a great game. I can enjoy it with or without its expansions, and even when I am losing there is still something fun to chase after or to observe like a story across the actions and guests.
Iām starting to think I may be no good at games, though I sure do love playing em. @wourme @gary are you both open to more BGA? What should we play? And is anyone else down to hop around to different games too?
Over the weekend we played Abomination: Heir of Frankenstein, as is tradition once per year around this time. Iāve had it for a few years and weāve played it just as much. This year we went and saw the GDT Frankenstein in the middle of our game (didnāt like the film), which for various reasons made us appreciate it even more.
Abomination is really an exemplary game I think. At its core it is a pretty basic worker placement game. Your resources that you collect are put to the task of creating different body parts to score points with. But the synergy between the mechanics, consequences, the narrative and the theming are immaculate. I am trying to think of how to quickly get at the wonder of it without writing a whole large post. It would be easy to list a million examples of how gaining workers or upgrading them just makes sense and creates echoes of some of the themes in the bookā¦ but youāre really better of playing the game to see those bear out. And it seems to be out of print and quite expensive in the second hand market. But keep an eye out for this one, if you ever see it out in the wild.
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@DarkSpur have you played this? I kind of want to play this.
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Yeah this was fun! Iām up for anything asynchronous we can play over a few days, especially more worker placement or engine building. Iāve also been wanting to try Ark Nova
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Yes, this is something I look for in games. Ark Nova has it for me, and so does Obsession. That even when you donāt win your choices are fun and things you look forward to, with the theme telling a little story. Itās also nice to win sometimes, though, of course. (I had hoped that final courtship would do it for me in our last game but I should have known it wouldnāt be enough.)
On the other hand are games that have nothing but agonizing choices, and whether you win or lose itās kind of a frustrating experience. (There is some appeal in this, I have to say, but itās not what I go for most of the time.)
I played Apiary for the second time this week, this time on BGA. My opinion of it remains largely the same. I like each of the mechanics and how they fit together but the game just feels too stuffed with things to do and the turns can drag at times even with a lower player count (3 this time instead of 5). It might be one better played async than real-time.
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Iād do Ark Nova, and Iām happy to teach the game if you or anyone else is interested but hasnāt played it before and prefers to learn games that way.
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Iād love to play ark nova again
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that would be great.
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Ark nova yes please
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