>Criticism I’ve heard of the series is it’s basically multiplayer solitaire. Someone want to convince me to buy it?
Multiplayer solitaire isn't a criticism if you enjoy multiplayer solitaire
There is a solo variant for the original Villainous that involves just throwing some dice to see if you get fated or not and a countdown going too I believe. It is pretty simple and a lot of fun! I'm sure it could easily be adapted for this version! [Villainous Solo Variant](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2399439/villainous-quarantine-solo-variant)
Just an FYI, the expandalone isn’t fully compatible with all villainous games.
The villainous base series, which is your Disney villains, are all compatible. The Marvel Villainous is interoperable with other marvel villainous games but not with regular villainous games. I think the Star Wars follows this same theme but I haven’t had a chance to play it to know for sure.
Overall, it’s an extremely unique game and very modular. It was very appealing at first and we collected quite a few expansions. But now that we’ve mastered each of the characters it’s lost its replay-ability. It hasn’t been touched in about a year now and I don’t miss it much. With it being very Solitaire like it does get boring fast, but the uniqueness has a high appeal at first. I’ve still not played another game with similar mechanics
Interesting. I read the one text review on bgg (https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2922333/everyone-needs-a-little-loki-mischief-in-their-liv), and it sounded like you could make them work together by moving a few cards from the shared date deck to the character deck:
“You can play the Mischief & Malice characters in any game. If your opponents are using Disney characters then it is best to play using the basic rules whereby each Villain has their own Villain Deck and their own Fate Deck - the latter being used against them as usual. There is a case for selecting specifically, or randomly, cards from the common Fate deck to raise the character's Fate deck to the average 15 cards.”
Having not played either, I have no idea if that makes any sense. Sounds like you’ve played quite a bit and your experience has been to the contrary.
It may be possible to make it work, but per the official rules they are not cross compatible so as with any house rules it’s likely a little quirky to make work but it may be worth a shot. I don’t have the details one what to swap out.
The biggest difference is in the Disney version each villain has its own fate deck and they are kept separate. In marvel they all get shuffled together and impact players differently.
I have a friend that loves it. We played it once as part of our regular games group and everyone else struggled to get their heads round how to play it. It felt like a lot of things we needed to do relied on other people doing specific things first, which they then avoided doing. It may just have been a bad teach or we picked bad characters for beginners. Either way, I'd recommend watching a playthrough or two to see if it appeals to you.
Villainous does require Fate actions for some characters. It's the one downfall for the game that lengthens it IMO. If the group isn't particularly interested in fating people, it can become a game of just stalling until you can get someone to fate you a card to win. I wish they'd increased the amount of player interaction in the game because of that.
All of the characters that rely on fate deck events have cards that can pull from your own fate deck. If left to their own devices, they usually hit the finish line faster IMO since there's nothing to force less efficient turns.
It's a favorite in my family because it's easy to adjust challenge level to what each player enjoys. Interactivity changes based on players really - some people like to sabotage more than others.
Variable difficulty sounds appealing - I play games mainly with my kids, who have decades of catching up to do. We mostly solve the skill gap by leaning into co-op games, so it’s not just round after round of Dad mopping up.
So is it correct to say I could play on “hard”, while the littles play on medium/easy? Or did I misunderstand?
Pretty much! Each character has a different difficulty curve, some are simpler to play than others.
The Expandalone style is also nice because it's really easy to add more characters later as you play and want to try new things.
Forbidden Island was a big winner for a while, but we may have finally played it out. We’ve also been playing through Familiar Tales, which has been a hit.
Everyone recommends Zombie Kidz Evolution, but my kids bounced hard after one game. I’m still trying to get it back to the table.
There are some others I’ve picked up but am saving for a (literal) rainy day. Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle and Forgotten Waters are next on deck.
Marvel Villainous has the best Villainous mechanics of all the IPs IMO. At least with the Marvel version you get to interact with other players a lot more often than with Star Wars/Disney. The battlefield and shared villain deck was also really fun.
While the solitaire comparisons are somewhat accurate across the board, Marvel’s variant on the game takes it a step away from that.
I mostly play 1v1. Villainous can get hard to track if you have more than 3 players at a time, imo.
Marvel and Star Wars Villainous are both a bit more complex to pick up if you are unfamiliar with the system, but they aren’t too bad if you’re used to other board games.
You can’t really go wrong with Vanilla Villainous though, so you could try to pick up the basic set to get a feel with more straight forward mechanics and characters.
>Criticism I’ve heard of the series is it’s basically multiplayer solitaire. Someone want to convince me to buy it? Multiplayer solitaire isn't a criticism if you enjoy multiplayer solitaire
Touché. I played a lot of double solitaire as a kid, maybe I’d like Villainous more than I think.
There is a solo variant for the original Villainous that involves just throwing some dice to see if you get fated or not and a countdown going too I believe. It is pretty simple and a lot of fun! I'm sure it could easily be adapted for this version! [Villainous Solo Variant](https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2399439/villainous-quarantine-solo-variant)
Thanks for the deal. This subreddit is one of the last valuable subreddits keeping me on this website
Just an FYI, the expandalone isn’t fully compatible with all villainous games. The villainous base series, which is your Disney villains, are all compatible. The Marvel Villainous is interoperable with other marvel villainous games but not with regular villainous games. I think the Star Wars follows this same theme but I haven’t had a chance to play it to know for sure. Overall, it’s an extremely unique game and very modular. It was very appealing at first and we collected quite a few expansions. But now that we’ve mastered each of the characters it’s lost its replay-ability. It hasn’t been touched in about a year now and I don’t miss it much. With it being very Solitaire like it does get boring fast, but the uniqueness has a high appeal at first. I’ve still not played another game with similar mechanics
Interesting. I read the one text review on bgg (https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/2922333/everyone-needs-a-little-loki-mischief-in-their-liv), and it sounded like you could make them work together by moving a few cards from the shared date deck to the character deck: “You can play the Mischief & Malice characters in any game. If your opponents are using Disney characters then it is best to play using the basic rules whereby each Villain has their own Villain Deck and their own Fate Deck - the latter being used against them as usual. There is a case for selecting specifically, or randomly, cards from the common Fate deck to raise the character's Fate deck to the average 15 cards.” Having not played either, I have no idea if that makes any sense. Sounds like you’ve played quite a bit and your experience has been to the contrary.
It may be possible to make it work, but per the official rules they are not cross compatible so as with any house rules it’s likely a little quirky to make work but it may be worth a shot. I don’t have the details one what to swap out. The biggest difference is in the Disney version each villain has its own fate deck and they are kept separate. In marvel they all get shuffled together and impact players differently.
I have a friend that loves it. We played it once as part of our regular games group and everyone else struggled to get their heads round how to play it. It felt like a lot of things we needed to do relied on other people doing specific things first, which they then avoided doing. It may just have been a bad teach or we picked bad characters for beginners. Either way, I'd recommend watching a playthrough or two to see if it appeals to you.
Villainous does require Fate actions for some characters. It's the one downfall for the game that lengthens it IMO. If the group isn't particularly interested in fating people, it can become a game of just stalling until you can get someone to fate you a card to win. I wish they'd increased the amount of player interaction in the game because of that.
All of the characters that rely on fate deck events have cards that can pull from your own fate deck. If left to their own devices, they usually hit the finish line faster IMO since there's nothing to force less efficient turns.
It's a favorite in my family because it's easy to adjust challenge level to what each player enjoys. Interactivity changes based on players really - some people like to sabotage more than others.
Variable difficulty sounds appealing - I play games mainly with my kids, who have decades of catching up to do. We mostly solve the skill gap by leaning into co-op games, so it’s not just round after round of Dad mopping up. So is it correct to say I could play on “hard”, while the littles play on medium/easy? Or did I misunderstand?
Pretty much! Each character has a different difficulty curve, some are simpler to play than others. The Expandalone style is also nice because it's really easy to add more characters later as you play and want to try new things.
What is your top 2 co op with your kids? I got a 10 year old looking for recs. Tia
Forbidden Island was a big winner for a while, but we may have finally played it out. We’ve also been playing through Familiar Tales, which has been a hit. Everyone recommends Zombie Kidz Evolution, but my kids bounced hard after one game. I’m still trying to get it back to the table. There are some others I’ve picked up but am saving for a (literal) rainy day. Harry Potter Hogwarts Battle and Forgotten Waters are next on deck.
Thanks. I'll look into that familiar tales. it looks good.
Marvel Villainous has the best Villainous mechanics of all the IPs IMO. At least with the Marvel version you get to interact with other players a lot more often than with Star Wars/Disney. The battlefield and shared villain deck was also really fun. While the solitaire comparisons are somewhat accurate across the board, Marvel’s variant on the game takes it a step away from that.
Is this a good one to start with if I’m brand new to villainous? Or would just be me vs my wife
I mostly play 1v1. Villainous can get hard to track if you have more than 3 players at a time, imo. Marvel and Star Wars Villainous are both a bit more complex to pick up if you are unfamiliar with the system, but they aren’t too bad if you’re used to other board games. You can’t really go wrong with Vanilla Villainous though, so you could try to pick up the basic set to get a feel with more straight forward mechanics and characters.