Tabletop Games

[Yuna]

My partner and I play a lot of tabletop games. What are people's top games right now?

Here is my list
1. Gloom haven
2. Scythe
3. Twilight Imperium
4. Puerto Rico
5. Agricola

Also looking for games recommendations or games to try ! I could always buy more games. =)

[Karma8791]

I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never heard of any of these.

[Reefer]

I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never heard of any of these.

That’s at least two of us

[finman56]

I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never heard of any of these.

That’s at least two of us

That is 3 of us.

We like Racko! lol

[nematoda]

I have played some of these:

3. Twilight Imperium (with significant modding, the political system is inadequate)
4. Puerto Rico (not recently)
5. Agricola (not recently)

I've heard of Scythe and seen it played, but not tried it. We just finished a game of Medievio Universale and see that it has promise, but not for the budget conscious. Before that, we had great fun with Fallout (a board game). We have also enjoyed Star Trek: Ascendancy. I have heard favorable reviews of Ascension, which I have played but was not as enamored as my son.

[shyboy69]

Table top games? You mean like Monopoly? I always like Monopoly as a kid!

Up next will be DM talking about tiddly winks.

[cubphan]

Mansions of Madness and Arkham Horror are my two currentl games. Of course, I will always consider D&D a priority...

[Reefer]

I like a big table for Twister!

[scarletknight]

The only thing I've played very much recently is Catan, both the regular version and the 2-person card game. Enjoyed both.

[DMLawPro]

I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never heard of any of these.

That’s at least two of us

That is 3 of us.

We like Racko! lol

+4

Nothing like a good game of Tiddlywinks though on a slick tabletop...

[Yuna]

I have played some of these:

3. Twilight Imperium (with significant modding, the political system is inadequate)

Tell me more about the modding...
I have access to Fallout, I'll probably try it next.

[YAG]

I have attended several regional GenCons, and tried a lot of games, but I can't tell you which ones, just not as into it as I was pre-parenting days. I did some war strategy games and of course D&D.

I was one of the first gen players of D&D, because a guy I worked with in high school (he was a college student) turned me onto it. He met Gygax at some convention of some sort, and bought the stuff. I remember HOW excited he was when he could get a DM manual in book form. When I started playing, everything was paper copies/prints and in a three ring binder. (Yeah, I'm both old AND was a precocious nerdboy). Getting the die in those configurations was a mail order affair.

By the time I was in college full time, it had grown a LOT. I attended several 3-day tournaments with my group of friends, much alcohol (and herbals) were consumed. We managed to win one, even.

I'm going to look at this list and talk to Ford, I know he is REALLY into it.

[nematoda]

Tell me more about the modding...

[/quote]

Try http://www.astralvault.net/games/SA/
or perhaps https://boardgamegeek.com/

[finman56]

Here is my thing, when it takes me longer to learn how to play the game than it is does to play it, I am out.

[Publisher]

You're in luck with D&,D

It takes the rest of your life for both

[LastGoodManAlive]

Not Familiar with those, but did enjoy Traveler, D&D (AD&D), Fasa MechWarrior, Fasa Shadowrun.

Been pleased that a lot of those recently have come out with computer versions that are .. fairly ok.

[DMLawPro]

What about Ping Pong?

[iowanprimate]

My God! You actually play Twilight Imperium? I thought it was just a status symbol, like swords on a wall or something. Doesn't it take, like, a week and a half to play? I mean, Agricola is a long game, but TI... Wow...

Of course, I shouldn't cast too many aspersions, I have Arkham Horror, 1st Ed on my shelf, and have tried to play it with 8 players. We quit after 8 hours... Of course, the beer and 12yr old scotch probably didn't help, either...

I've played Gloomhaven on my computer, but never on the table. It's a bit too spendy for me, and I've never been around when anyone who has it was willing to put it out.

I think the most fun I've had is with Carcassonne (with some of the tile-only expansions, I'd avoid the gimmickier ones), and Mansions of Madness. But if you have a big group of people, get Captain Sonar or The Werewolves of Millers Hollow. Those are both fun group activities.

I'm trying to think of other games I've played and really enjoyed... Incan Gold is a fun push your luck game, but you need several players for that. The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 was a lot of fun, but I don't know that you can find it anywhere (well, there's a listing on Amazon for $350). It's based on John Carpenter's The Thing, and does it pretty well. Good traitor mechanics. I need to clear some space and give Mice & Mystics another try. Munchkin (and Munchkin Quest) is a funny tongue-in-cheek geeky game of stab your neighbor and steal their stuff...

Fluxx, or any of its many themed incarnations, can be a fun diversion. Very simple rules, but they change all the time...

I'd really like to find the time/group to get into playing both boardgames and TTRPGs again. The indie RPGs that are out there are incredible.

I would have linked more of the games to their BGG pages, but the forums only allow 5 URLs per post.

[chevytooheavy]

I play in my garage. Only occasionally with a gear head friend. I have never met a lady willing to get under a car and get dirty. Sadly.
Not sure that Unicorn even exists.

[chevytooheavy]

I play in my garage. Only occasionally with a gear head friend. I have never met a lady willing to get under a car and get dirty. Sadly.
Not sure that Unicorn even exists.

Don't mind me, melancholy tonight.

[jamesgeo]

Very recently i was introduced to Dice Throne. If you're a fan of D&D I very highly recommend it. Its def my new fav table top game.

[YetAnotherHobbist]

I play in my garage. Only occasionally with a gear head friend. I have never met a lady willing to get under a car and get dirty. Sadly.
Not sure that Unicorn even exists.

There was a dancer at SIlk in Madison that would have been up for that. Unfortunately, AFAIK, she was strictly a dancer there (with a day job), nothing more...
I don't believe she was into cars, as such - but the taking something apart and putting it back together would have been right up her alley .
So it's not impossible .

[Yuna]

My God! You actually play Twilight Imperium? I thought it was just a status symbol, like swords on a wall or something. Doesn't it take, like, a week and a half to play? I mean, Agricola is a long game, but TI... Wow...

Haha, it takes the whole day. We've made some house rules to help even things out. Also agreed that gloomhaven is faster on something like table top simulator, the set up takes too long.
I'll check out the list of recommendations. I like games that don't rely on too much luck.

I've also been doing some Mutants & Masterminds, Pathfinder and GURPS, but thinking of switching to another RPG system. Anyone played Exalted? I heard that during their marketing, they said that people can get a free copy if they rip up their D&D books.

[iowanprimate]

I've also been doing some Mutants & Masterminds, Pathfinder and GURPS, but thinking of switching to another RPG system. Anyone played Exalted? I heard that during their marketing, they said that people can get a free copy if they rip up their D&D books.

That's some old school RPG'ing there... I'll suggest you also look at FATE, and many of the variants (one I just got the rulebook for, and haven't even read through it yet is #iHunt that looks really cool, where you play a millennial monster hunter in the gig economy; think uber or doordash, but for hunting things that go bump in the night). There are a number of one-off systems that can be fun for group of folks who can get into them, like Apocalypse World and Fiasco. For unapologetic dungeon crawling (murder-hobo): Dungeon Crawl Classics is a sure thing (canonically, you start with 10-14 level 0 civilian characters, and the first session is a "funnel", and the survivors become lvl 1 adventurers of whatever class you want, or is appropriate to their stats or the story so far).

[vorlon]

My God! You actually play Twilight Imperium? I thought it was just a status symbol, like swords on a wall or something. Doesn't it take, like, a week and a half to play? I mean, Agricola is a long game, but TI... Wow...

Haha, it takes the whole day. We've made some house rules to help even things out. Also agreed that gloomhaven is faster on something like table top simulator, the set up takes too long.
I'll check out the list of recommendations. I like games that don't rely on too much luck.

I've also been doing some Mutants & Masterminds, Pathfinder and GURPS, but thinking of switching to another RPG system. Anyone played Exalted? I heard that during their marketing, they said that people can get a free copy if they rip up their D&D books.

How rude of them!

[iowanprimate]

I've also been doing some Mutants & Masterminds, Pathfinder and GURPS, but thinking of switching to another RPG system. Anyone played Exalted? I heard that during their marketing, they said that people can get a free copy if they rip up their D&D books.

How rude of them!

I've got some 3ed books I would probably be willing to part with... I prefer Pathfinder (3.75) to 3.0. But I'm keeping my red box books! And my 4ed and 5ed starter boxes... Yeah, I have a problem...

[Yuna]

My group does not like 4ed at all (too much like boardgame mechanics) which is why they stuck to Pathfinder. Haven't tried 5ed yet. I like GURPS for the 3D6 over a D20, but I think the economy and leveling is harder to manage.
I didn't think of one shot systems, I'll check those out. Thursday night is my table top gaming night so I'll bring it up. Thanks for the suggestions!

[ShyDaniel]

I believe Davenport IA has a place called "Nerd Bar" dedicated just to tabletop games. I was hoping it would catch on, not sure what Covid did to it. Might be annoying to play if clusters of frat boys float in and out like they do the other bars. The arcade bars are still going strong.

[iowanprimate]

My group does not like 4ed at all (too much like boardgame mechanics) which is why they stuck to Pathfinder. Haven't tried 5ed yet. I like GURPS for the 3D6 over a D20, but I think the economy and leveling is harder to manage.
I didn't think of one shot systems, I'll check those out. Thursday night is my table top gaming night so I'll bring it up. Thanks for the suggestions!

Sounds like your group likes crunch and dice rolling (hence Pathfinder and GURPS)... Most of the systems I mentioned are very heavy on story-telling, and less reliant on dice rolling. A lot of newer games (at least, the ones I know about) going the route of "only roll dice if failure is interesting", and even then, they usually have ways for the players to succeed at a cost if the dice gods fail them. Fail your lockpick roll? the lock opens, but your picks are ruined until you can get them replaced, or you leave obvious signs of tampering which will alert the patrolling guards. Fail your climb roll? You finish the climb, but you had a bad go at it, and hurt your wrist, attacks are at a disadvantage until it heals, or your ankle is sprained and you can't run until it's healed. That sort of thing. FATE is big into that. It is actually really interesting in that every character, every thing and every place has aspects that you can tap into by using fate tokens. And they can be anything from the blatantly obvious "Burn, burn, BOOM!" aspect of a propane storage tank that you can tap to cause a massive explosion to "Always sees a friendly face" aspect of a well-connected PC that you can tap in an otherwise precarious situation to have a third party suddenly lend a helping hand of some sort. DCC does this by allowing you to burn luck points. You can lower your attributes to change the dice rolls. This is especially important for wizards, since magic in DCC is weird and unpredictable. It always has some bizarre side-effect, and high-level wizards are almost always chaos-twisted... things. Apocalypse World is almost entirely theatre of the mind, there are very few dice rolls. But the basic rules are free if you want to check them out. Fiasco is a game of connections and things going wrong. There's a scenario, and you set up your characters and how they are all interconnected. Then you spend a little time trying to deal with the job. Then there's the tilt, where everything goes wrong, and you try to complete the job/survive, and finally the epilogue where you get to tell the finale. It's all written like production notes of a heist movie.

You also might like Call of Cthulu. It gets pretty crunchy. Canonically, it's set in the 20's (core Lovecraft), but there's also CoC Modern.

Just to throw them out there, I've read good reviews about Torchbearer as having an old-school RPG feel. And I have, but have not read in depth, Fantasy Age, which Wil Wheaton used for Titansgrave, as well as Dungeon World (which is based on the same Apocalypse engine as Apocalypse World, but with an old-school RPG feel). I've also got Savage Worlds around somewhere. It's a fast and loose system for throwing together a quick adventure game. Thematically, they're aiming for an Indiana Jones feel, but it's pretty easy to set it in any setting. But again, it's designed to be fast and loose.

And yes, I'm practicing my best work avoidance by geeking out about board and role playing games...

[turner47]

I've been playing Carcassonne since I was a kid. At first my partner was thinking it was very boring but it grew on her in time.