# SF&F board games



## Carolyn Hill (Sep 11, 2006)

The description of this forum focuses on RPG games, and most of you are talking about computer games, so I apologize in advance for asking . . . but does anyone play the non-RPG board game Settlers of Catan, in any of its versions?  I'm an addict. 

To make up for my non-RPG question, I'll ask about a RPG board game: have any of you played the board game based on Buffy the Vampire Slayer?  Most TV-inspired board games are lame, but the Buffy game is actually fun.

Or Solarquest?  Either the original or the Apollo 13 version?

Or Lunar Rails?

Or Merchant of Venus?

(I am now imagining a deafening silence.  )


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## Azathoth (Sep 12, 2006)

> (I am now imagining a deafening silence.  )


  I'll get out the crickets.    To answer your question - I don't play board games at all.  I choke on the pieces.


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## dwndrgn (Sep 12, 2006)

I've always been interested in trying these.  My biggest complication is my hubby who is my natural games partner (naturally  ) and he isn't a fantasy fan at all.  However, he does like strategy games like Risk and the like.  So I've been tempted to get one to try it out but they are a little pricey to take the risk that he'll lose interest (gets bored easily) before it even starts if it is too complicated to set up and get started.  Any thoughts on games I might start with for a newbie and an easily bored newbie?  I love games and hubby doesn't like to play most of the games we have as I'm usually pretty good at trivia and scrabble and the like - so he feels defeated before he even starts.  I figured a strategic game like this he might get into, but I'd like to have us crawl before we walk


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## Jason_Taverner (Sep 12, 2006)

I love board games. At the moment playing decent, warhammer quest and monopoly. I've never played Settlers of Catan but its supposed to be amazing. Our gaming group isn't active at the moment the main man is moving house so once he settled I expecting to start up again.


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## SkywardShadow (Sep 12, 2006)

I play a lot of board games. Catan is fun, if a tad simple for my tastes. I have played a ton of Solarquest in the day, though I didn't even know there was a different version, I'll have to look into that.

I really love the A Game of Thrones boardgame... it's quite worthy of it's namesake.


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## Carolyn Hill (Sep 12, 2006)

Dwndrgn, the hubby would probably like Catan.  Even when it's not a player's turn, the player has things to do.  The basic strategy is simple, so you can start playing without reading endless rules, but it allows for complexity later, 
as you become more familiar with the game.

Skyward, will you please talk more about A Game of Thrones?  I'm going to google it right now to see what it is, but I'd like to hear why you love it.  I'm always looking for new games.

Jason, what's Decent?


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## Jason_Taverner (Sep 13, 2006)

sorry brown rat I mis-spelt. The game is Descent: Journeys in the Dark . A very much action based dungeon crawl. It has thousand of parts, even coins for the money you make. 16 plastic miniature heroes and huge monsters to take on. Very little role play


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## dwndrgn (Sep 13, 2006)

Brown Rat said:
			
		

> Dwndrgn, the hubby would probably like Catan. Even when it's not a player's turn, the player has things to do. The basic strategy is simple, so you can start playing without reading endless rules, but it allows for complexity later,
> as you become more familiar with the game.


Thank you ever so much!  I just might have to make this a gift to ourselves for Christmas!


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## Carolyn Hill (Sep 14, 2006)

Jason, does the DM in Descent have to make up the scenarios?  Or is it sort of like the old Hero Quest, which came with scenarios?


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## Jason_Taverner (Sep 14, 2006)

comes with own scenarios but the DM adds new tasks with his random encounter cards, trap cards and treasure. A lot like old heroquest but the PC's are great. The range of miniatures is great, from standard to orc to massive dragons. Game playing surface is like warhammer quest but more detail and about 3times the size.


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## Carolyn Hill (Sep 16, 2006)

That sounds good, Jason.  And I found more info about the board game Skyward mentioned, A Game of Thrones.  If I can convince my gaming buddies that we should purchase both games and try them out, I'll let you know what we think.  Thanks for the tips!


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## SkywardShadow (Sep 18, 2006)

Sorry for the long wait on my reply.

I think most games break down into a combination of two types. Chess, and Dice. Most are some combination of the two, made up of random luck versus strategy and chaos (chaos simply being the term used for not knowing what your opponent is going to do). 

I really enjoy A Game of Thrones for it's lack of dice rolling and luck.


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## Joel007 (Sep 18, 2006)

It was the simple board game D&D that got me into the computer RPGs. However, dice rolling for the 10000th time gets on my nerves, so now i let the PCs handle the semantics and just give the orders 

best board game ever was diplomacy!


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## Trey Greyjoy (Sep 18, 2006)

Just saw this post. My wife and I play the Buffy game! There is actually a bit of strategy involved. Its quite fun. 

There is a board game based on George Martins ASOIAF series that Im dying to get also!


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## Carolyn Hill (Sep 18, 2006)

Hooray, Trey!  I'm delighted that you're playing the Buffy game.  Which one of you gets to play the villains, and which one gets to play the scoobies?  Or do you trade roles each time you play?

Skyward, what does the board look like in Game of Thrones?

Joel, the last time I tried to play Diplomacy, my brother kept pissing me and the rest of us off because he broke deals with everyone.  I'm one of those "let's be nice" people who sticks to her agreements--which makes me ridiculously unsuited to play Diplomacy.  (Grrr.)


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## Trey Greyjoy (Sep 18, 2006)

My wife has always played the villians for whatever reason. I think she likes to play "Spike" 
Oh, the Game of Thrones is the game I was referring to as being based on the George RR Martin series! I keep forgetting to order it!

I just recalled also, there is a relatively new game called Heroscape that looks kind of fun. Some friends of mine are going to play it and I looked into getting it. The only problem I have is that they sell limited edition expansion pieces. As "collector" I know Id have to have them all if I started playing, so I opted to not purchase the intitial set. 
Here is a link to the official game site: http://www.hasbro.com/heroscape/


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## Jason_Taverner (Sep 18, 2006)

Trey Greyjoy said:
			
		

> My wife has always played the villians for whatever reason. I think she likes to play "Spike"


 
I never played the game but my woman loves spike as well.


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## SkywardShadow (Sep 20, 2006)

Ok, first, I need to find a woman to play these games with me. 

Second, the map to A Game of Thrones is very pretty, just a map of Westeros. There is an expansion, maybe two now, that expands on it, but I have yet to play with them.


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## Carolyn Hill (Sep 21, 2006)

I should have made my question clear, Skyward:  is the board for Game of Thrones a hexagonal grid, a predetermined track, or something else?  Do players traverse the board, or build on areas of the board?  I'm trying to get a sense of the gameplay, not of the attractiveness.


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## SkywardShadow (Sep 22, 2006)

Ah, I apologize. The map is broken into provinces, no grids or tracks. Players build armies upon their provinces, and of course cross borders to wage war. The wall is often threatened, and each player has to 'bid' troops to protect it, if it is not protected, the player that bid the least troops is punished severely, IIRC. There are a couple of other bidding mechanics as well.

A shot of the gameboard: http://boardgamegeek.com/image/120724

The game in action: http://boardgamegeek.com/image/134292 & http://boardgamegeek.com/image/60127


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## Carolyn Hill (Sep 22, 2006)

That makes it sound something like Risk.  Is that a fair comparison?


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## SkywardShadow (Sep 23, 2006)

As far as moving troops around goes, yes. No die rolling for battles though.


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