Fannish Fifty #3: Cooperative Boardgames
Jan. 21st, 2023 10:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brokenmnemonicFor this week's Fannish Fifty post, I thought I'd post up details of three of my favourite cooperative boardgames. That then led to a couple of days of thinking about what might make up my favourite cooperative boardgames, and that was hard so instead I'm just going to post about three cooperative boardgames I like without ranking them or even declaring which if any are my favourites, because I wouldn't want any of them to feel bad. Especially if they're not on the list...
The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game which I'm going to shamelessly include despite it having "card game" in the title because it includes a board. I have mixed feelings about the books this game is based on after the last couple of novels, but I adore the boardgame. It's fast to teach, can be played solo, plays quickly, and the characters all feel different. The basics of the game are simple; you have to solve cases and defeat enemies, and you win if at the end of the game the number of solved cases is greater than the number of active monsters. Everyone shares an energy pool, and each turn you pay the cost to play a card, or discard a card to add energy to the pool, or use your once-per game special ability for free, or pass. The expansions each add two characters to the available pool of characters (up to about 16 or so in total) and each deck is tailored to feel like the character they represent. Some characters are good at solving cases, some at killing opponents, some at removing obstacles... each character has a secondary ability triggered when they discard a card, and they can be surprisingly useful. I've played this game a lot, both in person and the PC version, and I still take it with me when I go to a boardgames meet.
Arkham Horror (Second Edition). I know that there's a new edition of this game out, and I know that there are other games that have the same feel but fixed things some people don't like about Arkham Horror 2nd ed (Eldritch Horror plays faster and lets you travel the world; Elder Sign has the same feel, but plays quickly with dice, etc). However, I like this game a lot, to the extent that I've actually run half a dozen play-by-forum games of it on Boardgamegeek. This is a game that will probably take hours, and is happy to do so. You need to get clues to seal gates, and you're racing to seal enough gates before something ancient, timeless and very unpleasant emerges through and turns the world into a Cthulhu-esque snack buffet. To close a gate, you need to pick up clues off the board(s), then go through a gate into an otherworld, survive, come out of the gate, and make a check to seal it. There are problems, though. Almost every location requires you to have an encounter that will test your skills. Monsters lurk or openly prowl the streets, and can be very difficult to beat. As thigns go wrong people get scared and run away, closing shops you need to get resources and items from and costing you allies. Lose enough stamina or sanity and it's off to the hospital or asylum for you - or you can pick up a permanent injury or affliction. The game received several big box expansions, several small box expansions, and then a big box expansion to better integrate all the expansions together. You can stay in Arkham, or use expansions to visit Dunwich, Innsmouth or Kingsport; the small expansions add cultists, Egyptian curses, deities that may help you and promises of power that can turn you into the enemy. There's flavour text everywhere in an attempt to feel like a story; there are loads of characters with varying abilities, strengths and weaknesses, and the expansions add things like personal goals to solve that may help you (or save you). It's a long, glorious mix of storytelling, dice-rolling luck and fighting the good fight. I've seen pictures of people cosplaying during games, pimping their sets out with physical props and generally just having a blast with it.
Flash Point: Fire Rescue. Before I took the Dresden Files game to every boardgame meet, I took Flash Point: Fire Rescue. The theme shines through on this one, as with Arkham Horror - you play a team of firefighters, and you're trying to rescue people (and pets) from a burning building (mostly). You need to save a minimum number to win, before the building collapses on you. It's another quick game to teach, although whereas a Dresden Files game takes 20-30 minutes, Flash Point takes 30-45. A turn is simple - spend your action points, then roll to make the fire worse. You'll spend you action points moving, fighting fires, carrying people out of the building, carrying explosive things out of the building, cutting holes in wales... and the game also lets you play specialist firefighters with varying abilities. Including rescue dogs. Some firefighters are better at carrying people, some are better at fighting fires, one can repair holes in the wall, another can work out if that thing you can see is a person or not without you having to get into the same square, another can help other firefighters... there's a lot of variations between characters, and the expansions add new locations, new problems and new firefighters. The base game comes with two different types of house to fight fires in, but others include condoes, multiple-story buildings, a ship, a submarine, and so on. I always have fun playing this one, and I'm looking forward to when my nieces are old enough that I might be able to try playing it with them.
I don't buy all that many new games recently, partly because of Lego, but there were a number of other games I wanted to add to this list but will probably save for the future, like Pandemic (and Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu), Zombicide, Aeon's End, Legends of Andor, Hanabi, Fuse, Yggdrasil, Mysterium, Forbidden Island, the Witches...)
The Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game which I'm going to shamelessly include despite it having "card game" in the title because it includes a board. I have mixed feelings about the books this game is based on after the last couple of novels, but I adore the boardgame. It's fast to teach, can be played solo, plays quickly, and the characters all feel different. The basics of the game are simple; you have to solve cases and defeat enemies, and you win if at the end of the game the number of solved cases is greater than the number of active monsters. Everyone shares an energy pool, and each turn you pay the cost to play a card, or discard a card to add energy to the pool, or use your once-per game special ability for free, or pass. The expansions each add two characters to the available pool of characters (up to about 16 or so in total) and each deck is tailored to feel like the character they represent. Some characters are good at solving cases, some at killing opponents, some at removing obstacles... each character has a secondary ability triggered when they discard a card, and they can be surprisingly useful. I've played this game a lot, both in person and the PC version, and I still take it with me when I go to a boardgames meet.
Arkham Horror (Second Edition). I know that there's a new edition of this game out, and I know that there are other games that have the same feel but fixed things some people don't like about Arkham Horror 2nd ed (Eldritch Horror plays faster and lets you travel the world; Elder Sign has the same feel, but plays quickly with dice, etc). However, I like this game a lot, to the extent that I've actually run half a dozen play-by-forum games of it on Boardgamegeek. This is a game that will probably take hours, and is happy to do so. You need to get clues to seal gates, and you're racing to seal enough gates before something ancient, timeless and very unpleasant emerges through and turns the world into a Cthulhu-esque snack buffet. To close a gate, you need to pick up clues off the board(s), then go through a gate into an otherworld, survive, come out of the gate, and make a check to seal it. There are problems, though. Almost every location requires you to have an encounter that will test your skills. Monsters lurk or openly prowl the streets, and can be very difficult to beat. As thigns go wrong people get scared and run away, closing shops you need to get resources and items from and costing you allies. Lose enough stamina or sanity and it's off to the hospital or asylum for you - or you can pick up a permanent injury or affliction. The game received several big box expansions, several small box expansions, and then a big box expansion to better integrate all the expansions together. You can stay in Arkham, or use expansions to visit Dunwich, Innsmouth or Kingsport; the small expansions add cultists, Egyptian curses, deities that may help you and promises of power that can turn you into the enemy. There's flavour text everywhere in an attempt to feel like a story; there are loads of characters with varying abilities, strengths and weaknesses, and the expansions add things like personal goals to solve that may help you (or save you). It's a long, glorious mix of storytelling, dice-rolling luck and fighting the good fight. I've seen pictures of people cosplaying during games, pimping their sets out with physical props and generally just having a blast with it.
Flash Point: Fire Rescue. Before I took the Dresden Files game to every boardgame meet, I took Flash Point: Fire Rescue. The theme shines through on this one, as with Arkham Horror - you play a team of firefighters, and you're trying to rescue people (and pets) from a burning building (mostly). You need to save a minimum number to win, before the building collapses on you. It's another quick game to teach, although whereas a Dresden Files game takes 20-30 minutes, Flash Point takes 30-45. A turn is simple - spend your action points, then roll to make the fire worse. You'll spend you action points moving, fighting fires, carrying people out of the building, carrying explosive things out of the building, cutting holes in wales... and the game also lets you play specialist firefighters with varying abilities. Including rescue dogs. Some firefighters are better at carrying people, some are better at fighting fires, one can repair holes in the wall, another can work out if that thing you can see is a person or not without you having to get into the same square, another can help other firefighters... there's a lot of variations between characters, and the expansions add new locations, new problems and new firefighters. The base game comes with two different types of house to fight fires in, but others include condoes, multiple-story buildings, a ship, a submarine, and so on. I always have fun playing this one, and I'm looking forward to when my nieces are old enough that I might be able to try playing it with them.
I don't buy all that many new games recently, partly because of Lego, but there were a number of other games I wanted to add to this list but will probably save for the future, like Pandemic (and Pandemic: Reign of Cthulhu), Zombicide, Aeon's End, Legends of Andor, Hanabi, Fuse, Yggdrasil, Mysterium, Forbidden Island, the Witches...)
no subject
Date: 2023-01-21 11:52 pm (UTC)The Dresden Files game in particular sounds like it could be interesting. I sometimes idly consider getting into boardgames, but know so few in-person people who would play.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-24 09:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-25 02:27 am (UTC)That would probably be a good way to start. :)
no subject
Date: 2023-01-22 01:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-24 09:29 pm (UTC)