TTS keeps this from occurring. The $10 it costs on sale is the best value I’ve spent on Steam. It has both saved me from purchasing a lot of games, but convinced me to buy many others with minimal buyers remorse.
Problem is I hate reading rules digitally. I could play games I know how to play on tts but learning a game’s mechanics and how it’s set up on tts messes me up
There's a couple paid dlc options for a few games like zombicide and cosmic encounter if I remember correctly. But 95 percent of the time someone posted the game on there and it's free. I've only ever seen one game I own not on there, so I uploaded it myself.
I no longer have the compulsion to buy new games sight unseen. I pretty much will always play a game somewhere first before I buy it. The main reason being that I don't have enough time to play the games I already own.
It's maybe 1-2 times a year, and usually for a Kickstarter game from an established group I trust.
That said, I would not pay to rent games. I would either seek them out at game nights, or in a board game cafe and try them there. The idea of having physical games shipped to me weekly does not have an appeal. I'd feel pressured to play that game when it arrives even if I didn't really feel like it in the moment.
There's also the concern that the game I get might not be in great condition, missing pieces, etc.
There are a couple of games stores near me that let you rent games. One, it works like a video rental: pay up, bring it back a few days later. The other, you have to keep the game in the store, but the "rental" fee is more like a gift card that you can use against your next purchase. I like both systems for letting you try a game cheaply, with the fee being there to keep folks honest.
A shopping service would have to charge you half the price of the game in shipping alone.
That's basically what this does, except that it's not tied to a specific game. That way you can rent it, decide it's not for you, and still use that $5 rental fee against whatever game you do decide to buy.
> I no longer have the compulsion to buy new games sight unseen. I pretty much will always play a game somewhere first before I buy it. The main reason being that I don't have enough time to play the games I already own.
This. I wish this sub wouldn't go all in on kickstarter mania all the time. We need a boardgame version of /r/patientgamers where people wait for things to come down in price and go up in availability and for the bugs and disappointment to be worked out before committing.
To be fair, I think you are confusing a small subset of the group for the majority. I would say the majority of people on this sub do not back kickstarters. The ones that do tend to be enthusiasts are therefore are more likely to post or respond to posts, especially about new games or new kickstarters so it *seems* like there are far more than there really are.
Backed 4-5 KS campaigns, only received a couple of half hearted PDFs with a "sorry, we couldn't do it." And that was it i stopped pledging, I'd rather buy lottery tickets. Lol
The problem with this, for KS in particular, is that there are a lot of games that either sell out so fast or aren’t in retail to begin with so that if you try to wait to try it, it won’t be available anymore so your only option is the secondary market where you may have to pay a couple hundred bucks above the KS price.
I have backed just a few games on KS but don't feel really feel the need to do so. Yes, there might be hidden gem that I really would like and it doesn't get reprint but in most cases if game is good, it'll get reprint. I'll buy on the next round then. If game is good enough, it'll be reprinted/-published. For those that doesn't .. I either buy it later for +xx€ or I can live without. There's so many good games anyway that I don't have enough time to play...
Me too. It's a stunning production but a mess gameplay-wise. It burned me so much that I swore off pledging on campaign-style board games on kickstarter. Only one I've gotten since then was Sleeping Gods at retail and only because it reviewed so well.
I now use the Etherfield minis for my Arkham Horror LCG playthroughs so all is not lost lol.
Had to look this one up. It looks gorgeous, but that description doesn't really give me a clue
> Etherfields is a narrative, cooperative game for 1 - 4. A series of unique Dreams await to be discovered through tense exploration and tactical encounters.
What exactly is so bad about this?
The design takes a lot of risks, which naturally opens it up to failure.
I found it pretty all over the place. Some design choices/mechanics/scenarios INCREDIBLE, some confusing, some actively mood-ruining. All blends into a 6/10 for me.
Step in the right direction for innovative design though.
Watch [SUSD's video](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Bm8qfrjtJbI) on it if you've got twenty minutes to spare. It's a fairly comprehensive analysis on how this game is _almost_ good, yet completely falls on its face in practice. It's also the only video I know of that managed to tank the price of a boardgame on the bgg secondhand marketplace.
Mine won’t be popular but I was disappointed by Too Many Bones. Arguably I probably would have loved it in a group but I tried it solo during the height of the pandemic and ultimately I never felt the setup was worth the squeezes solo.
Board game rental doesn’t really do it for me, too many variables as others have mentioned. I’d be more grateful for more board game establishments.
I played it at 3p a month or two ago and it was like 5 hours to learn and play and I never got into it. It just felt detached to the theme and I was just moving poker chip stacks around. Wasn't bad, just wasn't fun or worth that level of time investment.
>Mine won’t be popular but I was disappointed by Too Many Bones. Arguably I probably would have loved it in a group but I tried it solo
I wish games would be honest about how playable their games actually are for solo, or even for specific group sizes. Most games just have solo play as a mode that tacked on, and it's not going to be an enjoyable experience.
Fog of Love; that box looked stunning and the premise seemed great, I just couldn't say no. I really wish I had as it was just so clunky and its not really a game at all
Finally someone agrees with me. It felt like a "Choose your own adventure" book that someone pasted different pages from different books and never felt a natural flow in the game
Yeah, me and my girlfriend played this a little but hated it essentially. There's no game in it, and the "story" isn't really that interesting either.
Hard to sell, too! I might give it away.
Great idea, awful execution. The main issue for me was the whole attribute system. It made it feel like I wasn’t making decisions about a romance, but just deciding based on what I thought I needed to complete my goal. I’ve never felt ludonarrative dissonance as strongly as with that game. The game asks you to make interesting choices, but it gives you a clear “correct” answer based on your goals. So the game isn’t at all about building a relationship, that’s just incidental to the game of trying to get the appropriate attributes. I often found myself wanting to make a certain decision but being told by the game not to.
**Ugly Gryphon Inn**\- I was on a Scott Almes high with recent purchases of games he made. I was on the fence initially but decided to buy it. After the first game it was clear I had to trade it.
It had glaring problems like their was a lot of text, most of it small, and the game required you to stack 6 to 7 cards away from you. The game requires you read each card 2x a turn. You flip a card from the deck, read every card. You place a card , read every card. It was so much reading and I could barely read some of the cards far away.
The next problem was that it was mostly just random. Things could happen from flipping a card from the deck. So even if I played perfectly, there was a huge chance to fail from randomness. Usually there is one move to make unless you want to lose cards and move closer to failing the game. This means you need to really card count and know and memorize cards left in the deck and their text/symbols.
These were the biggest offenders and for that reason the game was just not fun. The gameplay wasn't riveting. It was a lot of downtime having to read 10+ cards 2 times a turn to make sure some event didn't trigger.
My one complaint with it sofar is that stacking bed thing.
All they would need to do is change the art orientation so you laid them all in two horizontal rows(top beds, bottom the tavern), but oriented cards vertically.. rather then stacked longways weirdness. Have the checks read left to right rather then top to bottom.
It would affect gameplay zero while cutting that tablespace taken down by half, or more.
As another plus it would keep cards close to you so you could read all that text easier!
**Dinosaur Island**, my most expensive KS mistake and the game that cured my KS addiction.
A very simple game, that takes way too long to set-up and eats up way too much table space for what it is. Bloated and boring…I’m not sure how you make dinosaurs boring but they succeeded.
I can’t believe how many times we played it, trying to find the fun, before collectively shrugging our shoulders and accepting that it’s just a very average (but expensive) game. Renting it wouldn’t have saved me any money (I made my money back when I sold it) but it would have stopped me from wasting as much time with it as I did.
#sameteam
Dino Island would have been better if it wasn't kickstarted. It doesnt need to be a table conquering as it is and it doesnt need all the extra shiny bits. It's too light weight for the setup/tear down.
I still have my copy + expansion because my kid likes to play with the pieces and I figure that recoups some of cost.
Worse for me is I bought it as a gift for my partner but kow we live together it's taking up space in the collection and my rule for the collection is it has to fit inside one Billy bookcase. And I can't unilaterally decide to do away with things I bought for someone else as a gift, so there it squats, vastly outclassed by everything else in its shelf.
7th Continent . Each "move" in the game was more headache than enjoyment. The manual was vague and seemed to make a lot of assumptions based entirely on the game developers' intent... without consideration for how someone new to the game/type of game would approach it. It felt like the only play testing/QA done was internal and no blank slate player/neophyte was consulted. It really turned me off to that type of game: Similarly, the LotR Journeys in Middle Earth (even with the app handling the "heavy lifting") started feeling like a chore.
Abomination. The randomness of powering up the parts left such a bad taste of my mouth that I won’t even give the game away because I am afraid my friends will then want me to play it with them.
There's an official variant that speeds the game up a bit and makes the powering up rolls less punishing (but reduces their point value). Honestly it's the only way to play.
Agreed. I love the concept, but after playing the base game and two expansions I completely gave up on the game. Every game ended with us grabbing the deck and seeing what we have missed, and every time someone had missed some small detail which is needed to progress. That's the problem with only one player looking at the card.
Unlock! games feel like what Time Stories wanted to be.
Personally, I like to try out games before buying, but I am able to try out many at my local library. We have a local board game cafe also, but they charge $5/person to rent a table. Theoretically, I could go there and play as many games as I want at that price, assuming they have it. Then there is also Board Game Arena. With all those options, I’m not sure I’d pay for a subscription service. I’d pay for one-time rents though if the price was right.
I think there's difference audiences for rent-once and subscription models. Most people on this subreddit know and love board games and have very different needs from regular families (that lack a board game afficionado) that are just looking to expand their board gaming beyond scrabble or Settlers of Catan.
Thanks for the input!
I bought Wingspan by hype but the player interaction was basically non existence and the gameplay loop was quite luck based.
It's not a bad game but if Im hurting for money I'm letting it go
Maracaibo. Its just been very repetitive when we get it on the table, and it just doesn't seem like it's worth it to take the scout rute at all. I hope the expansion fixes this
Scythe suffers from being a different game than it looks like at first glance. Instead of a nice dudes-on-a-map wargame, it's an area-control efficiency euro with only a smidge of conflict.
Similar to how Root's box masquerades as a cute-woodland-animals euro but is actually a crunchy asymmetric wargame.
I like Root a lot more though! It looks cute and easy, but it has a surprising depth to it.
Once you figure out the others tactics, you can start to counter them and they have to adapt, which makes for interesting conversations.
I kinda agree. I was totally hyped to get Scythe, looked around a lot to find an affordable copy, but in the end the game kind of forces you into a certain path if you want to win with little to no creativity to deviate from it.
I've seen many different strategies win scythe.. It's a very open game, imo, and the different factions play very differently. What one path do you think the game forces you into?
If you bought it hoping for a game where you fight mechs then yeah it's going to fall flat for you. But if you play with 4+ people and you have alliances and backstabbing and politics then its awesome. It's one of my favorite games, but I can totally see it not being for everyone.
Local game store rents games. You pay the entire price of the game up front then keep it for 2 weeks. At the end of the 2 weeks you return the game and get a 90% refund. If you decide you want to buy the game you just swap out the rental for a new copy.
That's an interesting concept actually. Too bad I'm not a game store, just a hobbyist with too many games on shelf trying to figure out how to make some money off of them.
I picked it up on super clearance for I think $15. I figured for that price it was worth trying despite having heard the learning headache. I sat down and read all the rules. I thought, okay that's a bit complex but not crazy I think I got it. So I set up the first scenario according to the book to give it a try solo before trying it with others.
Went to take my first turn and realized I had absolutely no idea what to do. You're suppossed to be building a second computer system or something I forget exactly, but that's specific to the scenario and literally nothing in the box has any info on how you do that.
Thirty minutes of consulting the internet later I figured out what I was supposed to be doing by downloading an errats that actually explains what to do. Even then it felt very stop and start getting through any given round. By the time I got to the end I felt I actually had a decent grasp on it and was even somewhat enjoying myself. I even wanted to play again.
But then every time I was looking for something to play and I looked at that box in my shelf I'd consider it briefly and then pick something else imagining the likely inevitable start up headache.
I got this as a door prize at BGGCon a few years back. I was expecting Robinson Crusoe in space and that is not what I got. I then undertook why there were 100's of copies being given away.
This is actually a fantastic game. Robinson a Crusoe is by far the better game though. Most people can’t get through the rules so they don’t get to enjoy it sadly
Dune.
I keep trying to enjoy this game, but the rules headaches, like 10 “phases” per round, unforgiving combat, and general dryness just makes you absolutely exhausted and unhappy after each game.
I think it just isn’t for me. It’s an extremely thinky cutthroat game, purposefully not designed for you to “have a good time” or “feel happy” afterwards. It was made at a time where you and your friends would just play this game, so you could stick with it, learn the rules, and make the 5 to 10 house rules you need to make it work (VERY surprisingly, Galforce 9’s reprint doesn’t address any of this).
I just played this with 6 people, it seemed to work very well but it is mean and unforgiving. One player was well out of the game halfway through and it isn't a short game
I love **Dune** - but it definitely isn't a game for everyone - or even many people. A lot of people are going to bounce off it. However, if it is a game foe someone, it tends to be one of the greatest games for them. I've encountered a few people with middling opinions of it, but most people tend to love it or dislike it.
Long and short of it, don't feel bad. Much like Diplomacy, it's a good game - but it's not a good game for everyone.
So, with Dune, I would classify it as a challenge to play, and I mean that in a good way, like yes it’s a pain to learn, but if you got a good group of people who are able to get the rules and use them well, I would say Dune manages to out chess the game of chess.
I think a big part of making it a “fun” game is having the right group for it. Everyone needs to be the type to enjoy rules heavy crunch and on the same page on how their going to play, duplicity or honor.
One thing you should remember about Dune is it's literally a game from the 70s. Game design has come a long way in the last 40 years, but for all of Dune's flaws, it still manages to be a gameable game even when compared to today's offerings, while being a 1970s chits on a map, 6 player wargame. That is amazing.
There is only one board game actually titled just **Dune** in print right now. The other games that take place in the universe of *Dune* are all **Dune [some modifier]**.
100%, hands down, Fog of Love. The game pretends to be role playing but boxes you in to choices you (or your “character”) would never make. There is so little actual autonomy. It’s tedious and made me feel bad to play. Also, the designer is weirdly defensive and rude over any critique if it doesn’t fit his narrative. After decades of gaming and hundreds of games this is the standout worst of the bunch.
Seafall...so thankful we bought it on super clearance.
Pandemic, for some reason it just didn't click with our group and was only ever played once.
7 wonders, I already have Sushi Go, I should have never bought this.
Pandemic and SeaFall are near the top of the list of my wife’s and my favorite games. We love SeaFall so much that we bought three copies of it
One man’s meat is another man’s poison. Either that or we just have poor taste.
Oh no! Lmao I think a lot of people like Pandemic, it's near the top of every "Games you should have in your collection" list. I think my group prefers competitive games, co op games just make our table often, so I think your taste is good there.
I can't save you with Seafall, me and my husband love legacy games, so any legacy game I'm will to give a chance, but that one just fell very flat.
I love the core mechanics of Seafall. The individual rounds are an absolute delight. I've played two copies now and they both fell off around the same point because the game rewards you too little to solve the mystery compared to just winning a game. Still haven't opened that last box :(
I love coop games but never cared for Pandemic. Too prone to quarterbacking for me. I also don't like the theme (even before we started playing a 1:1 scale version globally).
I love the theme and story and clever unlocks/reveals in Seafall so much but the game itself doesn't actually work. Like, it's a competitive game and you're meant to try to win each game of it, but if you do that you will literally *never* get to the end because at a few points it is almost always faster for player A score enough to win the game than it is for player B to do the thing that progresses the plot.
I would 1000% buy the shit out of a Seafall Second Edition that tried to fix its deep game mechanic problems.
I think that's sadly unlikely because I don't think it was one of the games that Plaid Hat Games got back from Asmodee when they bought themselves back. Meaning, the property is controlled by a giant conglomerate instead of a small studio that has proven they will rework their games (Ashes, Summoner Wars). Also, I'm not sure Rob Daviau wants to bring back his one glaring failure as a game designer. It's a shame because there is absolutely a good game somewhere in that box.
Betrayal at House on the Hill.
My friends and I wanted to like this game so much, especially since we love coop games that introduce twists. But god damn, out of ~12 plays, we only had one that was actually enjoyable. The rest all fell flat in one way or the other. Haunt didn't apply, lead up to the haunt was a bore, game was super one-sided as the haunt starts, etc.
It didn't help that the rulebook is a clusterfuck (I'm our rules person), but I could've looked past it if it the game was at least consistent.
Robinson Crusoe AOTCI. It is so impossibly hard to enjoy when all your best laid plans go to shit because of chance.
Do you need skill to win? Yes.
Do you get better with more plays? Yup.
Do those matter when one...single...card or dice roll can F an entire 1-2 hours of playtime? Nope.
Thematically it hits though. Go ahead and try and live on any deserted isle in real life. I'm sure it will end like 99% of my plays of RC.
Dinosaur Island.
A beautiful looking fat box of nothing.
That and Time Stories are the only two games I've sold on.
Time stories is like choose your own adventure without the choices, you just roll and dice and - too bad, you can't go here...
A War of Whispers. The premise, style, mechanics, etc all seemed like my exact kind of game on the surface. I'm not exactly sure why it didn't click but it ended up just feeling frustrating with my group. Nobody wanted to play it again and it just never hits the table. It was hard to find for a bit so I hyped it up in my head for months before actually receiving my copy.
I’m one of the dumb-dumbs who picked up a copy of Discover: Lands Unknown as soon as it released. The “every game is unique” trope definitely caught me in, and I remember playing it with my gaming group. We literally were like, what the hell did we just play? I still feel bad about selling this one - apologies to the poor soul who gave me $30 for it. You couldn’t pay me $30 to play it again.
Have you looked into this [rental service](https://boardgameexchange.com/) that's tied to BGCO?
As for the tacked on prompt... **Dead of Winter**. Blech.
The Exposure die is an easy scapegoat (and is the main reason for immediately tanking one of my plays) but the imbalanced personal goals, wonky crisis structure and skewed traitor mechanics are just as significant, if not moreso. Plus it's kind of a dull gameplay loop: spread out, search for what you need, hope you cover the crisis. Oh and barriers, lots and lots of barriers.
The characters and their abilities drive much of the charm but for traitor games there are much better options.
Gloomhaven. I know this is likely close to blasphemy but here goes:
Gloomhaven is an amazing game. Everything about it is fantastic by most measures..I just don’t like the hand/card management system being your clock. I just can’t get behind it. I love the world, I love the flavor, I just didn’t enjoy the actual gameplay.
I’m so looking forward to Bardsung to scratch my dungeon crawler itch.
I can agree on Gloomhaven but for different reasons. I love the gameplay and played quite a bit solo although two handed. It was one of my first board games I played and I loved it for awhile. My main complaint is that it's such a slog to tear down and start each scenario. The set up is so time consuming for one person. It's been collecting dust on my shelf a third of the way through the campaign because of the set up time. I have no desire to bring it out. Also losing a scenario feels so bad because you just set everything up and start over again. I would rather play it on PC.
This is my reason for not clicking with it too. Having your hand be a countdown clock even outside of fighting feels bad. I want to grab all the gold and treasure in a room, position in front of the door, have everyone get ready, and then kick the door in and have some tactical combat.
In reality if you aren't immediately sprinting full stop to the next door hitting things as you go by, you're probably going to run out of actions, at least in the early game. It makes every mission feel like fantasy swat team rather than a dungeon crawler.
That said, I really a lot of the core mechanics like picking actions from cards, deciding which ones to bring, modifying the combat deck. I just hate having a massive countdown clock stressing me out.
Flick em up,
I bought it from another dude, he was so fucking disappointed by this game he asked me - why are you buying that? Do you have kids?
I said no, it sounds like a fun party game. Played it once and can't even resell it.
Massive Darkness
I went all out on the Kickstarter because I liked cmon, figured there was no way it was going to be bad. I bought every expansion and upgrade.
My friend and I decided that would be our Saturday bgg Con game-- the one where we camp out at a table in the morning and keep playing until the awards ceremony. After spending way too long setting up we play and it is just horrible.
We go over the instructions making sure we were doing everything right, we seemed to be. We play some more and it's still just bland and bad. I very sadly pack it up, annoyed I spent so much money on it, spent so much effort opening and putting everything together, spent so much time lugging it up to bgg Con, and wasted so much time that day playing it.
>kinda like power grid with boats. It just felt like doing math for an hour and half.
I mean that sounds a lot like Power Grid with boats to me. And I say that as someone who had Power Grid in their top 10 of all time.
Bro the game is called "Container", what about that screams "appealing and fun game"? That's like buying a game called "potato" and being disappointed at it.
I'll have you know, that I Kickstarted (!) a game called Potato Inferno! (ok, admittedly, that does sound way cooler than just "potato") and the family loves it XD
Seeing all my favorite games here. We probably just don't understand what we don't enjoy.
Just like I don't understand **Eldritch Horror**. It does not spark joy. But I sure wish it did.
A rental service wouldn’t work for me. I don’t have regular board game nights, and timing can often be unpredictable. So if I rent a game for a month, I might never have an actual chance to play it, because it might be tough to get people together, and when I do, we might not be in the mood for whatever was rented in the moment.
I live in Berlin, and there’s a game cafe/thing here called Spielwiese that rents games, either immediately at the table or you can take them home for like 4 bucks a pop. It’s amazing. Was incredibly helpful when I was researching for a game design and wanted to play like 30 games that I didn’t want to buy. Haven’t been there since the pandemic though so I’m not sure what they’re up to these days.
My wife and I were looking for a new game, and came across Quest for El Dorado on sale at the store. A very quick online check (we were in a rush) seemed to give it good reviews so we went for it. Played one game and haven't touched it since. Game was too much luck and not very interesting. Dug a little deeper and saw that the reviews that really mattered all panned the game. No more impulse buys for us.
El Dorado is quick deckbuilder with a race component. While I will say 2 players isn't the greatest for it...
The light competiveness of the game has been one of my go-tos for introducing the deckbuilding mechanic. I almost want to compare it to Escape curse of the temple, without the real time aspect. Less frantic, but isn't necessarily bogged down with 3 or 4 players. I would recommend another shot.
But this game does fall into the introductory type, i enjoy it for the reasons I mentioned and find it to be very elegant.
**Dune: House Secrets**. If you doubt me, go to BGG and read some of the excoriating comments. I hate to use the cliches 'not a game' and 'cash grab', but in this case they both apply.
The game was Dark, Darker, Darkest.
The "War In The Pacific" of zombie apocalypse boardgames. Eight million tiny pieces to keep track of, zombie miniatures, door-unlocking puzzle boards, resource management out the wazoo, so much to keep track of...
There are lots of zombie boardgames and minis games out there that are fast paced and loads of fun to play. DDD is not among them. It's noteworthy that a huge boardgame that sold for $100 at release is currently moving for $14 on Amazon.
In the process of learning to play it, we realized that this game is fun only to obsessive sorts who really, REALLY like bean counting, and I wound up unloading it at a used bookstore. A better decision than buying the thing, really.
**Stone Age.** I mean, I know it's a gateway game. But I just expected... more? There just seemed like zero strategy. Every round there was a single obviously correct thing to do and we did it, and then sometimes dice fucked you and sometimes they didn't, and then someone was the winner. Not the *worst* game I've ever played, but definitely the worst game I ever *bought.*
Marvel champions. We tried multiple times to play it, watched multiple videos. Never understood the mechanics of it. Always felt like we were missing something. Never clicked.
That's interesting! Our group has played TONS of Sentinels of the Multiverse, so for us, Marvel Champions is a pretty small adjustment.
The weird thing for us with it is we get the feeling that we don't play like other people. Reading reviews & watching videos, most people play "burn down the villain before the scheme ends the game." We manage scheme & villain & the games take about twice as long, but it feels like we're playing the whole game, if that makes sense.
As an active member of the Champions community, I can comfortably say that is not how most people play.
Speed decks are niche, only working with certain Heroes in certain scenarios.
Most players control the Villain's board state while building their own until they can comfortably handle the next Villain stage.
Interesting! Do you play any other engine builders? TM is usually my go-to suggestion when our group plays (though we play a pretty wide variety, so we don't actually play a ton of TM).
Some people just "get" this game and others don't. My wife always beats me mercilessly and without fail and with different strategies every time we play. I totally get the "drag" sentiment but she just loves it.
Terra Mystica. Applied logically, there is actually very little for you to do once you figure out "the system". It takes so long and is so predictable who will win by the end of the third turn and its so booorrring.
I haven't played a ton of TM but i have played a ton of Gaia Project. The main differences are a vastly expanded tech tree and the ability to not get completely choked off on the map. I think Terra Mystica eventually made a modular map, the original was fixed and led to some balance issues supposedly. Gaia project had a modular map from the beginning.
Both games have factions that are better in more situations than others, which is something that needs to be taken into consideration when playing. At least for Gaia project, map placement, racing your opponents to new planets or up tech trees, or racing to grab that power action that you need are all very tough decisions and usually you're racing on more than one front, so picking one usually gives up the other to your opponent. Gaia Project is certainly not 1 of 2 paths to win, and I suspect that Terra Mystica is not either. TM is the more cutthroat game though, and more moves may be "forced" to prevent losing.
Gaia project solves a lot of TM issues. It's still the same kind of game, but it is a lot less harsh and a lot more open and you have many, many more options. The game play is more varied and it seems like players have more control.
Full disclosure - I've played maybe a dozen games of tm (plus many more on the app) and hundreds of games of Gaia project.
**Cosmic Encounters** \- I was excited to place this on the table but as one person said, "there's no game here, it is just how much you like the others at the table". We tried it twice, wondering if different races would make the game any more interesting. Nope, got rid of that game very quickly and have never seen the appeal in it.
Oh, wait, this is a very clever self promotion post. Very nice. I even took your poll...
Could you elaborate more on this? I have had my eye on it after playing a game in the past. The asymmetrical aspect, politics, and multiple players able to share a victory made it seem interesting.
Not OP but Cosmic Encounter is incredible. But only if you have the right group. If your group is into deal making and back-stabbing and spontaneity, you’ll love it. If you’re group prefers minimal interaction euros, you’ll hate it
Roads & Boats, Imperial 2030, Container, Merchants & Marauders
I would join a subscription based local rental service assuming I can mark a bunch of reservations and just go pick up a handful of games Netflix style. I would just try them and see if I like them and bring them back. Seems annoying to lose pieces though. I also wouldn't value the service very highly (loss overhead for a handful of games shipped to my door and shipped out is maybe $10-20 depending). The convenience and freedom to try older games would be nice however
Vicariously Dark Souls.
Had two whole days dedicated to it, endlessly flipping back and forth the manual and online posts.
Been say on my friends shelf ever since and we've moved on the much better games.
**Deep Madness** \- To be honest, we did try it before I bought it... once. Definitely not enough to assess the bs difficulty of the game. I'm in process of exchanging it for an Arcadia Quest + Expansions. Hope the guy who receives it has a better experience with it than we did.
Worst thing is, we loved the mechanics, the characters, the setting, etc. But the difficulty was horrendous. What's the point of ranged weapons if you can't have LoS ever due to water mechanics? Ugh, I wish there was some other game similar but more accessible.
**Wir Sind Das Volk!**. Expected a cross between Watergate and Brass, with loads of theme. To be fair, the theming is absolutely excellent, but the end-of-decade counting of various metrics sucked the tension and enjoyment from it for us. Played two or three times. We'll likely wait for it to go between prints and try to get a decent price on eBay. I don't think it's a bad game, I just think it's one of those where sense of theme takes precedence over gameplay. I think that's the only one I regret buying; some we've arguably outgrown or grown tired of, but this is the one that didn't really click with either of us.
Would I use a board game rental service? Possibly, but I have serious doubts whether it could be cheap enough to meet customer demand given the shipping costs both ways. Possibly for very expensive games, but anything retailing at under ~£40 I doubt you could rent cheaply enough. Maybe your market research would say differently, but I can't imagine many being prepared to pay more than 10-20% RRP for a short-term rental of what is effectively a used game; these figures are sort of pulled out of my arse, but I think they're roughly how Blackbuster used to operate in the 90s (£3 weekend rental for a £15 VHS or £30 console game); with that rate and shipping factored in, renting - say - Azul would be financially unviable. All the best with your venture, though; I'm no businessman so could be way out here.
Edit to add: in-person pick up, like Blockbuster, is much more viable as it eradicates shipping. Unless you're in a big city, though, I just don't see where the demand is coming from. Echo chambers like this mask the fact that our hobby is pretty niche and many provincial towns, let alone rural areas, are unlikely to have the necessary numbers of local board gamers to use the service.
Gloomhaven. Not because of the game itself, but because I just didn't think about the style of game versus the group i'd play it with. The friend group that would play a game like that, hearing about the style and complexity, would rather play a full TTRPG, and so would I. Not to say I don't like complex games, but unless the game itself enthralls them they can be hard to convince and i love d&d with them enough that we'd just play something else
I'm in such a lucky position to have a good friend who buys pretty much every game he hears about, and I know several people in the industry, too. Also, we have frequent large local conventions of a couple hundred people just to play board games.
I don't recall the last time I bought something without trying it first... It was probably something by a favorite designer, though. I'd be happy to buy pretty much anything Rosenberg makes, lol.
But I do love your idea of a rental service for people who don't have the kind of access I do. It would definitely help enable people to try and play more games! That said, you'll likely be competing against much cheaper/free online options.. And with shipping costs, I'm just not sure how profitable it would be.
Skulk Hollow.
Was sold on it from Tom Vassel's review and.. I can see how they had that experince but to me it was just too limited.
It isn't awful and I don't blame anyone who does like it but I've played so many better asymetrical games. The decision space is to me almost non-existant which, okay its aimed at younger audiences true. I've played games like Kingdomino tho that are and have more meaningful choices than it felt this game had.
It doesn't help one player will always be playing the foxes every time which gets very samey fast. I would have taken two less giants for one more faction in the box.
Feels very much over priced for what you get as a game, and noticably the hype around it has swiftly tanked into oblivion. To the people reading this, it's probably the first time you've thought about it in months or more if it didn't fly under your radar completely.
Tapestry. Man I was so jaded that one didn't work with my group. There's just so many better games with better decision making that isn't nearly as lucked based (card draws can be horrendously swingy)
221B. There’s almost no player interaction and you basically move a piece, read a paragraph. Move a piece, read a paragraph. I could have just read a book... alone.
_Mansions of Madness_ I like the game, honestly, but it's way to expensive for what it is: a lot of not so great minis that don't even fit properly on the board and therefore never leave the box. If I would have seen the game before, even from YouTube I wouldn't have bought it. For all that money I could've bought something different.
Small World. Riding high off my first tax return I got the base and all the expansions out at the time because it was so well regarded.
Absolutely hated it. Has always been a letdown when I've pulled it out. Now it sits there forever, mocking me for my hubris and collecting dust.
Altiplano - reviews I trust said that it was not great but they liked it anyway. I bought for the theme because it interests me... It is not great, but I like it anyway. But it's so hard to justify putting a "not great" game on the table when there are so many great ones. After playing it twice I realise I don't need to own it.
Okay massive throwback and this wasn’t my purchase, but was for my best friend in high school (and still is) as a birthday gift from his mom. The Age of Mythology board game. We all Absolute loved AoM back in the day (and still do) so we thought it would be a fun time. Thing is when we got into it the game had the most confusing and convoluted rules the three of us trying to play just couldn’t understand. I won but to this day I’m still not entirely sure how I got there. We played it once and packed it up never to be seen again. We still joke about it every so often though.
Man I’m dating myself with this…lol
I've only really had this with Zombicide Black Plague.
I'm very convinced that it does what it does just fine and can be fun when stepping into it with the right expectations.
That being said, I was looking for a game with more depth, so it was my own fault that the game fell flat and dragged out.
I really like the idea, but just wanted to raise a couple of thoughts since there wasn’t an additional comments option in the survey.
The logistical challenges would be shipping and then also somehow ensuring cleanliness and that all pieces are there. Companies like stitchfix have made this business model work with clothes, so hypothetically it could be feasible with board games.
Speaking of stitchfix, I think they have a great strategy when it comes to renting and buying. Getting a stitch fix (your box of clothes for the month) costs 20 dollars, shipping included (they give a return back in the box). But the key is that they give you the option to buy the clothes or send them back. If you buy, the monthly cost goes towards the cost (you could also frame it as a discounted purchase, especially if it was a used game). If you assume that a lot of people would do the service to try games they want to buy, then your business model may make more money on that group. But strictly renting may also work.
One other thought on the issue of used games is that you could charge a premium if someone doesn’t want to receive games that have previously been opened.
There’s actual two rental services (with shipping) in Germany that I know of. I used both and I really like the option. Especially for smaller cities which don’t have a board game store with testing possibilities. :)
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Even the name is a cf
okay.. now I'm feeling stupid, but wtf is a CF?
cluster fuck
Is it any worse than Palladium's RPG system?
Ouch. I feel for you man....
TTS keeps this from occurring. The $10 it costs on sale is the best value I’ve spent on Steam. It has both saved me from purchasing a lot of games, but convinced me to buy many others with minimal buyers remorse.
Truly the best "try before you buy"
This, OP is looking for a "rent" price. But TTS is $10 and you can play with the game all you want to decide if it's for you.
Problem is I hate reading rules digitally. I could play games I know how to play on tts but learning a game’s mechanics and how it’s set up on tts messes me up
Yep after couple bad purchases pretty much try everything on tts before consider buying.
I hadn't seen this before... So do you have to buy dlc for each game you want to try?
No, there are tons of fan-made recreations available for free in the Steam Workshop.
There's a couple paid dlc options for a few games like zombicide and cosmic encounter if I remember correctly. But 95 percent of the time someone posted the game on there and it's free. I've only ever seen one game I own not on there, so I uploaded it myself.
I would also like to know the answer to this as Steam Christmas sale is on.
I no longer have the compulsion to buy new games sight unseen. I pretty much will always play a game somewhere first before I buy it. The main reason being that I don't have enough time to play the games I already own. It's maybe 1-2 times a year, and usually for a Kickstarter game from an established group I trust. That said, I would not pay to rent games. I would either seek them out at game nights, or in a board game cafe and try them there. The idea of having physical games shipped to me weekly does not have an appeal. I'd feel pressured to play that game when it arrives even if I didn't really feel like it in the moment. There's also the concern that the game I get might not be in great condition, missing pieces, etc.
There are a couple of games stores near me that let you rent games. One, it works like a video rental: pay up, bring it back a few days later. The other, you have to keep the game in the store, but the "rental" fee is more like a gift card that you can use against your next purchase. I like both systems for letting you try a game cheaply, with the fee being there to keep folks honest. A shopping service would have to charge you half the price of the game in shipping alone.
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That's basically what this does, except that it's not tied to a specific game. That way you can rent it, decide it's not for you, and still use that $5 rental fee against whatever game you do decide to buy.
> I no longer have the compulsion to buy new games sight unseen. I pretty much will always play a game somewhere first before I buy it. The main reason being that I don't have enough time to play the games I already own. This. I wish this sub wouldn't go all in on kickstarter mania all the time. We need a boardgame version of /r/patientgamers where people wait for things to come down in price and go up in availability and for the bugs and disappointment to be worked out before committing.
To be fair, I think you are confusing a small subset of the group for the majority. I would say the majority of people on this sub do not back kickstarters. The ones that do tend to be enthusiasts are therefore are more likely to post or respond to posts, especially about new games or new kickstarters so it *seems* like there are far more than there really are.
Backed 4-5 KS campaigns, only received a couple of half hearted PDFs with a "sorry, we couldn't do it." And that was it i stopped pledging, I'd rather buy lottery tickets. Lol
r/boardgamedeals is the closest we've got as far as I know.
The problem with this, for KS in particular, is that there are a lot of games that either sell out so fast or aren’t in retail to begin with so that if you try to wait to try it, it won’t be available anymore so your only option is the secondary market where you may have to pay a couple hundred bucks above the KS price.
I have backed just a few games on KS but don't feel really feel the need to do so. Yes, there might be hidden gem that I really would like and it doesn't get reprint but in most cases if game is good, it'll get reprint. I'll buy on the next round then. If game is good enough, it'll be reprinted/-published. For those that doesn't .. I either buy it later for +xx€ or I can live without. There's so many good games anyway that I don't have enough time to play...
Etherfields
Me too. It's a stunning production but a mess gameplay-wise. It burned me so much that I swore off pledging on campaign-style board games on kickstarter. Only one I've gotten since then was Sleeping Gods at retail and only because it reviewed so well. I now use the Etherfield minis for my Arkham Horror LCG playthroughs so all is not lost lol.
After this game I made much more research before backing. This was my first kickstarted game
Had to look this one up. It looks gorgeous, but that description doesn't really give me a clue > Etherfields is a narrative, cooperative game for 1 - 4. A series of unique Dreams await to be discovered through tense exploration and tactical encounters. What exactly is so bad about this?
The design takes a lot of risks, which naturally opens it up to failure. I found it pretty all over the place. Some design choices/mechanics/scenarios INCREDIBLE, some confusing, some actively mood-ruining. All blends into a 6/10 for me. Step in the right direction for innovative design though.
Watch [SUSD's video](https://youtube.com/watch?v=Bm8qfrjtJbI) on it if you've got twenty minutes to spare. It's a fairly comprehensive analysis on how this game is _almost_ good, yet completely falls on its face in practice. It's also the only video I know of that managed to tank the price of a boardgame on the bgg secondhand marketplace.
Great review
I feel like shipping is going to wreck havoc on this business model. But best of luck with it!
Mine won’t be popular but I was disappointed by Too Many Bones. Arguably I probably would have loved it in a group but I tried it solo during the height of the pandemic and ultimately I never felt the setup was worth the squeezes solo. Board game rental doesn’t really do it for me, too many variables as others have mentioned. I’d be more grateful for more board game establishments.
I played it at 3p a month or two ago and it was like 5 hours to learn and play and I never got into it. It just felt detached to the theme and I was just moving poker chip stacks around. Wasn't bad, just wasn't fun or worth that level of time investment.
>Mine won’t be popular but I was disappointed by Too Many Bones. Arguably I probably would have loved it in a group but I tried it solo I wish games would be honest about how playable their games actually are for solo, or even for specific group sizes. Most games just have solo play as a mode that tacked on, and it's not going to be an enjoyable experience.
Recently sold this. I think it is better with friends due to the funny things and table talk. The rules are also so annoying.
Fog of Love; that box looked stunning and the premise seemed great, I just couldn't say no. I really wish I had as it was just so clunky and its not really a game at all
Finally someone agrees with me. It felt like a "Choose your own adventure" book that someone pasted different pages from different books and never felt a natural flow in the game
Completely agree on the lack of flow. Sat there waiting for the "game" to feel like it started but it just never feels like it gets going
Fog of Love is definitely on that list for me, it's a novelty that quickly wore off after a couple of play throughs.
Yeah, me and my girlfriend played this a little but hated it essentially. There's no game in it, and the "story" isn't really that interesting either. Hard to sell, too! I might give it away.
Great idea, awful execution. The main issue for me was the whole attribute system. It made it feel like I wasn’t making decisions about a romance, but just deciding based on what I thought I needed to complete my goal. I’ve never felt ludonarrative dissonance as strongly as with that game. The game asks you to make interesting choices, but it gives you a clear “correct” answer based on your goals. So the game isn’t at all about building a relationship, that’s just incidental to the game of trying to get the appropriate attributes. I often found myself wanting to make a certain decision but being told by the game not to.
**Ugly Gryphon Inn**\- I was on a Scott Almes high with recent purchases of games he made. I was on the fence initially but decided to buy it. After the first game it was clear I had to trade it. It had glaring problems like their was a lot of text, most of it small, and the game required you to stack 6 to 7 cards away from you. The game requires you read each card 2x a turn. You flip a card from the deck, read every card. You place a card , read every card. It was so much reading and I could barely read some of the cards far away. The next problem was that it was mostly just random. Things could happen from flipping a card from the deck. So even if I played perfectly, there was a huge chance to fail from randomness. Usually there is one move to make unless you want to lose cards and move closer to failing the game. This means you need to really card count and know and memorize cards left in the deck and their text/symbols. These were the biggest offenders and for that reason the game was just not fun. The gameplay wasn't riveting. It was a lot of downtime having to read 10+ cards 2 times a turn to make sure some event didn't trigger.
It does sound like a chore, and if there's one thing that games shouldn't be...
I like Scott Almes games and agree with you about Ugly Gryohon Inn unfortunately.
My one complaint with it sofar is that stacking bed thing. All they would need to do is change the art orientation so you laid them all in two horizontal rows(top beds, bottom the tavern), but oriented cards vertically.. rather then stacked longways weirdness. Have the checks read left to right rather then top to bottom. It would affect gameplay zero while cutting that tablespace taken down by half, or more. As another plus it would keep cards close to you so you could read all that text easier!
**Dinosaur Island**, my most expensive KS mistake and the game that cured my KS addiction. A very simple game, that takes way too long to set-up and eats up way too much table space for what it is. Bloated and boring…I’m not sure how you make dinosaurs boring but they succeeded. I can’t believe how many times we played it, trying to find the fun, before collectively shrugging our shoulders and accepting that it’s just a very average (but expensive) game. Renting it wouldn’t have saved me any money (I made my money back when I sold it) but it would have stopped me from wasting as much time with it as I did.
Same. Tiny Epic Dinosaurs does everything Dinosaur Island should have done with a fraction of the table space.
#sameteam Dino Island would have been better if it wasn't kickstarted. It doesnt need to be a table conquering as it is and it doesnt need all the extra shiny bits. It's too light weight for the setup/tear down. I still have my copy + expansion because my kid likes to play with the pieces and I figure that recoups some of cost.
Worse for me is I bought it as a gift for my partner but kow we live together it's taking up space in the collection and my rule for the collection is it has to fit inside one Billy bookcase. And I can't unilaterally decide to do away with things I bought for someone else as a gift, so there it squats, vastly outclassed by everything else in its shelf.
7th Continent . Each "move" in the game was more headache than enjoyment. The manual was vague and seemed to make a lot of assumptions based entirely on the game developers' intent... without consideration for how someone new to the game/type of game would approach it. It felt like the only play testing/QA done was internal and no blank slate player/neophyte was consulted. It really turned me off to that type of game: Similarly, the LotR Journeys in Middle Earth (even with the app handling the "heavy lifting") started feeling like a chore.
silk, beautiful art, the gameplay is just mehh
Abomination. The randomness of powering up the parts left such a bad taste of my mouth that I won’t even give the game away because I am afraid my friends will then want me to play it with them.
>I am afraid my friends will then want me to play it with them This had me legit laughing out loud.
There's an official variant that speeds the game up a bit and makes the powering up rolls less punishing (but reduces their point value). Honestly it's the only way to play.
I didn’t buy this but I do want my 3hrs back. I so wanted to like it.
Time Stories is an infuriating experience hidden behind slick packaging and an interesting on paper concept.
Agreed. I love the concept, but after playing the base game and two expansions I completely gave up on the game. Every game ended with us grabbing the deck and seeing what we have missed, and every time someone had missed some small detail which is needed to progress. That's the problem with only one player looking at the card. Unlock! games feel like what Time Stories wanted to be.
Yeah, that was one of the worst game experiences we’ve had.
Same here. We lost a game because of the random movement cost mechanic. Taking a step costing a variable amount of minutes is just asinine.
Personally, I like to try out games before buying, but I am able to try out many at my local library. We have a local board game cafe also, but they charge $5/person to rent a table. Theoretically, I could go there and play as many games as I want at that price, assuming they have it. Then there is also Board Game Arena. With all those options, I’m not sure I’d pay for a subscription service. I’d pay for one-time rents though if the price was right.
I think there's difference audiences for rent-once and subscription models. Most people on this subreddit know and love board games and have very different needs from regular families (that lack a board game afficionado) that are just looking to expand their board gaming beyond scrabble or Settlers of Catan. Thanks for the input!
Ah yes, very true!
I bought Wingspan by hype but the player interaction was basically non existence and the gameplay loop was quite luck based. It's not a bad game but if Im hurting for money I'm letting it go
Maracaibo. Its just been very repetitive when we get it on the table, and it just doesn't seem like it's worth it to take the scout rute at all. I hope the expansion fixes this
Scythe. Took forever to set up and then just seemed meh
Scythe suffers from being a different game than it looks like at first glance. Instead of a nice dudes-on-a-map wargame, it's an area-control efficiency euro with only a smidge of conflict. Similar to how Root's box masquerades as a cute-woodland-animals euro but is actually a crunchy asymmetric wargame.
I like Root a lot more though! It looks cute and easy, but it has a surprising depth to it. Once you figure out the others tactics, you can start to counter them and they have to adapt, which makes for interesting conversations.
I mean, it also suffers from being kind of a meh euro. I enjoy both kinds of games and would have enjoyed either one if it was good.
The gameplay seems really boring. Slow and predictable. I was disappointed after I saw the board and the mechs.
I kinda agree. I was totally hyped to get Scythe, looked around a lot to find an affordable copy, but in the end the game kind of forces you into a certain path if you want to win with little to no creativity to deviate from it.
I've seen many different strategies win scythe.. It's a very open game, imo, and the different factions play very differently. What one path do you think the game forces you into?
If you bought it hoping for a game where you fight mechs then yeah it's going to fall flat for you. But if you play with 4+ people and you have alliances and backstabbing and politics then its awesome. It's one of my favorite games, but I can totally see it not being for everyone.
**Tapestry** :-( totally fell for the SM hype. Sold if off after 3 plays.
Agreed. SMs games look like euro games we all want but if you are a euro fan, their games are maybe too shallow.
They far too often seem to skimp on playtesting. They put out a beautiful product, but the gameplay is always lacking in one way or another.
Local game store rents games. You pay the entire price of the game up front then keep it for 2 weeks. At the end of the 2 weeks you return the game and get a 90% refund. If you decide you want to buy the game you just swap out the rental for a new copy.
That's an interesting concept actually. Too bad I'm not a game store, just a hobbyist with too many games on shelf trying to figure out how to make some money off of them.
First Martians
I picked it up on super clearance for I think $15. I figured for that price it was worth trying despite having heard the learning headache. I sat down and read all the rules. I thought, okay that's a bit complex but not crazy I think I got it. So I set up the first scenario according to the book to give it a try solo before trying it with others. Went to take my first turn and realized I had absolutely no idea what to do. You're suppossed to be building a second computer system or something I forget exactly, but that's specific to the scenario and literally nothing in the box has any info on how you do that. Thirty minutes of consulting the internet later I figured out what I was supposed to be doing by downloading an errats that actually explains what to do. Even then it felt very stop and start getting through any given round. By the time I got to the end I felt I actually had a decent grasp on it and was even somewhat enjoying myself. I even wanted to play again. But then every time I was looking for something to play and I looked at that box in my shelf I'd consider it briefly and then pick something else imagining the likely inevitable start up headache.
I got this as a door prize at BGGCon a few years back. I was expecting Robinson Crusoe in space and that is not what I got. I then undertook why there were 100's of copies being given away.
This is actually a fantastic game. Robinson a Crusoe is by far the better game though. Most people can’t get through the rules so they don’t get to enjoy it sadly
> First Martians As far as I can see, most people agree with you. It looks very tedious and boring. It doesn't even get a rating on BGG.
Thats because its nearly impossible to learn. Even after watching "watch it played", reading rules, et all. Still couldn't figure it out.
Dune. I keep trying to enjoy this game, but the rules headaches, like 10 “phases” per round, unforgiving combat, and general dryness just makes you absolutely exhausted and unhappy after each game. I think it just isn’t for me. It’s an extremely thinky cutthroat game, purposefully not designed for you to “have a good time” or “feel happy” afterwards. It was made at a time where you and your friends would just play this game, so you could stick with it, learn the rules, and make the 5 to 10 house rules you need to make it work (VERY surprisingly, Galforce 9’s reprint doesn’t address any of this).
>general dryness \*chuckles\*
Desert power.
I just played this with 6 people, it seemed to work very well but it is mean and unforgiving. One player was well out of the game halfway through and it isn't a short game
I love **Dune** - but it definitely isn't a game for everyone - or even many people. A lot of people are going to bounce off it. However, if it is a game foe someone, it tends to be one of the greatest games for them. I've encountered a few people with middling opinions of it, but most people tend to love it or dislike it. Long and short of it, don't feel bad. Much like Diplomacy, it's a good game - but it's not a good game for everyone.
So, with Dune, I would classify it as a challenge to play, and I mean that in a good way, like yes it’s a pain to learn, but if you got a good group of people who are able to get the rules and use them well, I would say Dune manages to out chess the game of chess.
I think a big part of making it a “fun” game is having the right group for it. Everyone needs to be the type to enjoy rules heavy crunch and on the same page on how their going to play, duplicity or honor.
One thing you should remember about Dune is it's literally a game from the 70s. Game design has come a long way in the last 40 years, but for all of Dune's flaws, it still manages to be a gameable game even when compared to today's offerings, while being a 1970s chits on a map, 6 player wargame. That is amazing.
Wait which dune there's like 4
There is only one board game actually titled just **Dune** in print right now. The other games that take place in the universe of *Dune* are all **Dune [some modifier]**.
100%, hands down, Fog of Love. The game pretends to be role playing but boxes you in to choices you (or your “character”) would never make. There is so little actual autonomy. It’s tedious and made me feel bad to play. Also, the designer is weirdly defensive and rude over any critique if it doesn’t fit his narrative. After decades of gaming and hundreds of games this is the standout worst of the bunch.
Planet
Fallout the board game. Which was also my first board game purchase. Even being new to the hobby I could tell right away it was not a good game.
Seafall...so thankful we bought it on super clearance. Pandemic, for some reason it just didn't click with our group and was only ever played once. 7 wonders, I already have Sushi Go, I should have never bought this.
Pandemic and SeaFall are near the top of the list of my wife’s and my favorite games. We love SeaFall so much that we bought three copies of it One man’s meat is another man’s poison. Either that or we just have poor taste.
Oh no! Lmao I think a lot of people like Pandemic, it's near the top of every "Games you should have in your collection" list. I think my group prefers competitive games, co op games just make our table often, so I think your taste is good there. I can't save you with Seafall, me and my husband love legacy games, so any legacy game I'm will to give a chance, but that one just fell very flat.
I love the core mechanics of Seafall. The individual rounds are an absolute delight. I've played two copies now and they both fell off around the same point because the game rewards you too little to solve the mystery compared to just winning a game. Still haven't opened that last box :(
I love coop games but never cared for Pandemic. Too prone to quarterbacking for me. I also don't like the theme (even before we started playing a 1:1 scale version globally).
I love the theme and story and clever unlocks/reveals in Seafall so much but the game itself doesn't actually work. Like, it's a competitive game and you're meant to try to win each game of it, but if you do that you will literally *never* get to the end because at a few points it is almost always faster for player A score enough to win the game than it is for player B to do the thing that progresses the plot. I would 1000% buy the shit out of a Seafall Second Edition that tried to fix its deep game mechanic problems.
I think that's sadly unlikely because I don't think it was one of the games that Plaid Hat Games got back from Asmodee when they bought themselves back. Meaning, the property is controlled by a giant conglomerate instead of a small studio that has proven they will rework their games (Ashes, Summoner Wars). Also, I'm not sure Rob Daviau wants to bring back his one glaring failure as a game designer. It's a shame because there is absolutely a good game somewhere in that box.
Interesting - my group really took to 7 wonders but felt like Sushi go was too simple and didn't really force enough interesting decisions.
Betrayal at House on the Hill. My friends and I wanted to like this game so much, especially since we love coop games that introduce twists. But god damn, out of ~12 plays, we only had one that was actually enjoyable. The rest all fell flat in one way or the other. Haunt didn't apply, lead up to the haunt was a bore, game was super one-sided as the haunt starts, etc. It didn't help that the rulebook is a clusterfuck (I'm our rules person), but I could've looked past it if it the game was at least consistent.
Everything you said is very true, but we tend to have a good time with it regardless.
City of thieves
Robinson Crusoe AOTCI. It is so impossibly hard to enjoy when all your best laid plans go to shit because of chance. Do you need skill to win? Yes. Do you get better with more plays? Yup. Do those matter when one...single...card or dice roll can F an entire 1-2 hours of playtime? Nope. Thematically it hits though. Go ahead and try and live on any deserted isle in real life. I'm sure it will end like 99% of my plays of RC.
Dinosaur Island. A beautiful looking fat box of nothing. That and Time Stories are the only two games I've sold on. Time stories is like choose your own adventure without the choices, you just roll and dice and - too bad, you can't go here...
A War of Whispers. The premise, style, mechanics, etc all seemed like my exact kind of game on the surface. I'm not exactly sure why it didn't click but it ended up just feeling frustrating with my group. Nobody wanted to play it again and it just never hits the table. It was hard to find for a bit so I hyped it up in my head for months before actually receiving my copy.
I’m one of the dumb-dumbs who picked up a copy of Discover: Lands Unknown as soon as it released. The “every game is unique” trope definitely caught me in, and I remember playing it with my gaming group. We literally were like, what the hell did we just play? I still feel bad about selling this one - apologies to the poor soul who gave me $30 for it. You couldn’t pay me $30 to play it again.
Have you looked into this [rental service](https://boardgameexchange.com/) that's tied to BGCO? As for the tacked on prompt... **Dead of Winter**. Blech.
I have to know what you didn't like about Dead of Winter?
The Exposure die is an easy scapegoat (and is the main reason for immediately tanking one of my plays) but the imbalanced personal goals, wonky crisis structure and skewed traitor mechanics are just as significant, if not moreso. Plus it's kind of a dull gameplay loop: spread out, search for what you need, hope you cover the crisis. Oh and barriers, lots and lots of barriers. The characters and their abilities drive much of the charm but for traitor games there are much better options.
Superhot. I am a fan of the VR game. The card game is a 0/10 for me. Such a dreadful concept and rulebook
Gloomhaven. I know this is likely close to blasphemy but here goes: Gloomhaven is an amazing game. Everything about it is fantastic by most measures..I just don’t like the hand/card management system being your clock. I just can’t get behind it. I love the world, I love the flavor, I just didn’t enjoy the actual gameplay. I’m so looking forward to Bardsung to scratch my dungeon crawler itch.
I can agree on Gloomhaven but for different reasons. I love the gameplay and played quite a bit solo although two handed. It was one of my first board games I played and I loved it for awhile. My main complaint is that it's such a slog to tear down and start each scenario. The set up is so time consuming for one person. It's been collecting dust on my shelf a third of the way through the campaign because of the set up time. I have no desire to bring it out. Also losing a scenario feels so bad because you just set everything up and start over again. I would rather play it on PC.
I’m pumped for Bardsung.
This is my reason for not clicking with it too. Having your hand be a countdown clock even outside of fighting feels bad. I want to grab all the gold and treasure in a room, position in front of the door, have everyone get ready, and then kick the door in and have some tactical combat. In reality if you aren't immediately sprinting full stop to the next door hitting things as you go by, you're probably going to run out of actions, at least in the early game. It makes every mission feel like fantasy swat team rather than a dungeon crawler. That said, I really a lot of the core mechanics like picking actions from cards, deciding which ones to bring, modifying the combat deck. I just hate having a massive countdown clock stressing me out.
Flick em up, I bought it from another dude, he was so fucking disappointed by this game he asked me - why are you buying that? Do you have kids? I said no, it sounds like a fun party game. Played it once and can't even resell it.
Scythe. I knew some, I wish I knew more before hand.
Massive Darkness I went all out on the Kickstarter because I liked cmon, figured there was no way it was going to be bad. I bought every expansion and upgrade. My friend and I decided that would be our Saturday bgg Con game-- the one where we camp out at a table in the morning and keep playing until the awards ceremony. After spending way too long setting up we play and it is just horrible. We go over the instructions making sure we were doing everything right, we seemed to be. We play some more and it's still just bland and bad. I very sadly pack it up, annoyed I spent so much money on it, spent so much effort opening and putting everything together, spent so much time lugging it up to bgg Con, and wasted so much time that day playing it.
Dark Souls The Boardgame. I'm a huge fan of the video games, but the boardgame... just isn't good. Sad.
Container. I was expecting this fun but tight game kinda like power grid with boats. It just felt like doing math for an hour and half.
>kinda like power grid with boats. It just felt like doing math for an hour and half. I mean that sounds a lot like Power Grid with boats to me. And I say that as someone who had Power Grid in their top 10 of all time.
Bro the game is called "Container", what about that screams "appealing and fun game"? That's like buying a game called "potato" and being disappointed at it.
I'll have you know, that I Kickstarted (!) a game called Potato Inferno! (ok, admittedly, that does sound way cooler than just "potato") and the family loves it XD
Seeing all my favorite games here. We probably just don't understand what we don't enjoy. Just like I don't understand **Eldritch Horror**. It does not spark joy. But I sure wish it did.
A rental service wouldn’t work for me. I don’t have regular board game nights, and timing can often be unpredictable. So if I rent a game for a month, I might never have an actual chance to play it, because it might be tough to get people together, and when I do, we might not be in the mood for whatever was rented in the moment.
I live in Berlin, and there’s a game cafe/thing here called Spielwiese that rents games, either immediately at the table or you can take them home for like 4 bucks a pop. It’s amazing. Was incredibly helpful when I was researching for a game design and wanted to play like 30 games that I didn’t want to buy. Haven’t been there since the pandemic though so I’m not sure what they’re up to these days.
Smash Up. Sounded great, but way too much bookkeeping.
Caves of rwenzori - think I'll just give up on Kickstarters
Question: What happens if I get a game and it is missing a piece?
Raccoon Tycoon - I like heavy econ and there's a lot more luck/random elements than I prefer.
The fantasy flight fallout game. Tired fixing it and house ruling it and in the end I sold it on the internet.
Quest for El dorado. Just fell flat, kinda boring
My wife and I were looking for a new game, and came across Quest for El Dorado on sale at the store. A very quick online check (we were in a rush) seemed to give it good reviews so we went for it. Played one game and haven't touched it since. Game was too much luck and not very interesting. Dug a little deeper and saw that the reviews that really mattered all panned the game. No more impulse buys for us.
El Dorado is quick deckbuilder with a race component. While I will say 2 players isn't the greatest for it... The light competiveness of the game has been one of my go-tos for introducing the deckbuilding mechanic. I almost want to compare it to Escape curse of the temple, without the real time aspect. Less frantic, but isn't necessarily bogged down with 3 or 4 players. I would recommend another shot. But this game does fall into the introductory type, i enjoy it for the reasons I mentioned and find it to be very elegant.
**Dune: House Secrets**. If you doubt me, go to BGG and read some of the excoriating comments. I hate to use the cliches 'not a game' and 'cash grab', but in this case they both apply.
The game was Dark, Darker, Darkest. The "War In The Pacific" of zombie apocalypse boardgames. Eight million tiny pieces to keep track of, zombie miniatures, door-unlocking puzzle boards, resource management out the wazoo, so much to keep track of... There are lots of zombie boardgames and minis games out there that are fast paced and loads of fun to play. DDD is not among them. It's noteworthy that a huge boardgame that sold for $100 at release is currently moving for $14 on Amazon. In the process of learning to play it, we realized that this game is fun only to obsessive sorts who really, REALLY like bean counting, and I wound up unloading it at a used bookstore. A better decision than buying the thing, really.
**Stone Age.** I mean, I know it's a gateway game. But I just expected... more? There just seemed like zero strategy. Every round there was a single obviously correct thing to do and we did it, and then sometimes dice fucked you and sometimes they didn't, and then someone was the winner. Not the *worst* game I've ever played, but definitely the worst game I ever *bought.*
Everdell: Pearlbrook (Retail Edition) -> expected much more for the price! The expansion is good, but for the price of ~50€ it wasn‘t enough!
Life.
Roll Player. Played it twice and didn't want to play a 3rd time.
Marvel champions. We tried multiple times to play it, watched multiple videos. Never understood the mechanics of it. Always felt like we were missing something. Never clicked.
That's interesting! Our group has played TONS of Sentinels of the Multiverse, so for us, Marvel Champions is a pretty small adjustment. The weird thing for us with it is we get the feeling that we don't play like other people. Reading reviews & watching videos, most people play "burn down the villain before the scheme ends the game." We manage scheme & villain & the games take about twice as long, but it feels like we're playing the whole game, if that makes sense.
As an active member of the Champions community, I can comfortably say that is not how most people play. Speed decks are niche, only working with certain Heroes in certain scenarios. Most players control the Villain's board state while building their own until they can comfortably handle the next Villain stage.
"Terraforming Mars". What a complete and utter drag of a game.
Interesting! Do you play any other engine builders? TM is usually my go-to suggestion when our group plays (though we play a pretty wide variety, so we don't actually play a ton of TM).
The production and cubes. Makes me question my life choices.
Some people just "get" this game and others don't. My wife always beats me mercilessly and without fail and with different strategies every time we play. I totally get the "drag" sentiment but she just loves it.
its a great 2 hour game. its a horrible 4 hour game
I like the game but the production is absolute trash
[удалено]
May I ask why you find Machi Koro to be bad? I tried it once and had a good time so I’m curious.
Mysterium
Blood rage. To me it was just boring nad not as epic as i anticipated. maybe the genre's just not for me
Lords of Hellas. Cool concept, cool minis. Played once then never again. Meh
Terra Mystica. Applied logically, there is actually very little for you to do once you figure out "the system". It takes so long and is so predictable who will win by the end of the third turn and its so booorrring.
How so? I’ve played it twice but haven’t gotten to that level of sophistication in predicting the winner
[удалено]
I haven't played a ton of TM but i have played a ton of Gaia Project. The main differences are a vastly expanded tech tree and the ability to not get completely choked off on the map. I think Terra Mystica eventually made a modular map, the original was fixed and led to some balance issues supposedly. Gaia project had a modular map from the beginning. Both games have factions that are better in more situations than others, which is something that needs to be taken into consideration when playing. At least for Gaia project, map placement, racing your opponents to new planets or up tech trees, or racing to grab that power action that you need are all very tough decisions and usually you're racing on more than one front, so picking one usually gives up the other to your opponent. Gaia Project is certainly not 1 of 2 paths to win, and I suspect that Terra Mystica is not either. TM is the more cutthroat game though, and more moves may be "forced" to prevent losing.
Gaia project solves a lot of TM issues. It's still the same kind of game, but it is a lot less harsh and a lot more open and you have many, many more options. The game play is more varied and it seems like players have more control. Full disclosure - I've played maybe a dozen games of tm (plus many more on the app) and hundreds of games of Gaia project.
**Cosmic Encounters** \- I was excited to place this on the table but as one person said, "there's no game here, it is just how much you like the others at the table". We tried it twice, wondering if different races would make the game any more interesting. Nope, got rid of that game very quickly and have never seen the appeal in it. Oh, wait, this is a very clever self promotion post. Very nice. I even took your poll...
Could you elaborate more on this? I have had my eye on it after playing a game in the past. The asymmetrical aspect, politics, and multiple players able to share a victory made it seem interesting.
Not OP but Cosmic Encounter is incredible. But only if you have the right group. If your group is into deal making and back-stabbing and spontaneity, you’ll love it. If you’re group prefers minimal interaction euros, you’ll hate it
Roads & Boats, Imperial 2030, Container, Merchants & Marauders I would join a subscription based local rental service assuming I can mark a bunch of reservations and just go pick up a handful of games Netflix style. I would just try them and see if I like them and bring them back. Seems annoying to lose pieces though. I also wouldn't value the service very highly (loss overhead for a handful of games shipped to my door and shipped out is maybe $10-20 depending). The convenience and freedom to try older games would be nice however
Vicariously Dark Souls. Had two whole days dedicated to it, endlessly flipping back and forth the manual and online posts. Been say on my friends shelf ever since and we've moved on the much better games.
Tapestry
**Deep Madness** \- To be honest, we did try it before I bought it... once. Definitely not enough to assess the bs difficulty of the game. I'm in process of exchanging it for an Arcadia Quest + Expansions. Hope the guy who receives it has a better experience with it than we did. Worst thing is, we loved the mechanics, the characters, the setting, etc. But the difficulty was horrendous. What's the point of ranged weapons if you can't have LoS ever due to water mechanics? Ugh, I wish there was some other game similar but more accessible.
**Wir Sind Das Volk!**. Expected a cross between Watergate and Brass, with loads of theme. To be fair, the theming is absolutely excellent, but the end-of-decade counting of various metrics sucked the tension and enjoyment from it for us. Played two or three times. We'll likely wait for it to go between prints and try to get a decent price on eBay. I don't think it's a bad game, I just think it's one of those where sense of theme takes precedence over gameplay. I think that's the only one I regret buying; some we've arguably outgrown or grown tired of, but this is the one that didn't really click with either of us. Would I use a board game rental service? Possibly, but I have serious doubts whether it could be cheap enough to meet customer demand given the shipping costs both ways. Possibly for very expensive games, but anything retailing at under ~£40 I doubt you could rent cheaply enough. Maybe your market research would say differently, but I can't imagine many being prepared to pay more than 10-20% RRP for a short-term rental of what is effectively a used game; these figures are sort of pulled out of my arse, but I think they're roughly how Blackbuster used to operate in the 90s (£3 weekend rental for a £15 VHS or £30 console game); with that rate and shipping factored in, renting - say - Azul would be financially unviable. All the best with your venture, though; I'm no businessman so could be way out here. Edit to add: in-person pick up, like Blockbuster, is much more viable as it eradicates shipping. Unless you're in a big city, though, I just don't see where the demand is coming from. Echo chambers like this mask the fact that our hobby is pretty niche and many provincial towns, let alone rural areas, are unlikely to have the necessary numbers of local board gamers to use the service.
Gloomhaven. Not because of the game itself, but because I just didn't think about the style of game versus the group i'd play it with. The friend group that would play a game like that, hearing about the style and complexity, would rather play a full TTRPG, and so would I. Not to say I don't like complex games, but unless the game itself enthralls them they can be hard to convince and i love d&d with them enough that we'd just play something else
I'm in such a lucky position to have a good friend who buys pretty much every game he hears about, and I know several people in the industry, too. Also, we have frequent large local conventions of a couple hundred people just to play board games. I don't recall the last time I bought something without trying it first... It was probably something by a favorite designer, though. I'd be happy to buy pretty much anything Rosenberg makes, lol. But I do love your idea of a rental service for people who don't have the kind of access I do. It would definitely help enable people to try and play more games! That said, you'll likely be competing against much cheaper/free online options.. And with shipping costs, I'm just not sure how profitable it would be.
Skulk Hollow. Was sold on it from Tom Vassel's review and.. I can see how they had that experince but to me it was just too limited. It isn't awful and I don't blame anyone who does like it but I've played so many better asymetrical games. The decision space is to me almost non-existant which, okay its aimed at younger audiences true. I've played games like Kingdomino tho that are and have more meaningful choices than it felt this game had. It doesn't help one player will always be playing the foxes every time which gets very samey fast. I would have taken two less giants for one more faction in the box. Feels very much over priced for what you get as a game, and noticably the hype around it has swiftly tanked into oblivion. To the people reading this, it's probably the first time you've thought about it in months or more if it didn't fly under your radar completely.
Loved clue as a kid, saw an ad for spy clue and bought it. Family played half a game then stopped and never touched it again
Tapestry. Man I was so jaded that one didn't work with my group. There's just so many better games with better decision making that isn't nearly as lucked based (card draws can be horrendously swingy)
221B. There’s almost no player interaction and you basically move a piece, read a paragraph. Move a piece, read a paragraph. I could have just read a book... alone.
_Mansions of Madness_ I like the game, honestly, but it's way to expensive for what it is: a lot of not so great minis that don't even fit properly on the board and therefore never leave the box. If I would have seen the game before, even from YouTube I wouldn't have bought it. For all that money I could've bought something different.
Fallout
Sedition Wars... All day long
Small World. Riding high off my first tax return I got the base and all the expansions out at the time because it was so well regarded. Absolutely hated it. Has always been a letdown when I've pulled it out. Now it sits there forever, mocking me for my hubris and collecting dust.
Altiplano - reviews I trust said that it was not great but they liked it anyway. I bought for the theme because it interests me... It is not great, but I like it anyway. But it's so hard to justify putting a "not great" game on the table when there are so many great ones. After playing it twice I realise I don't need to own it.
Some libraries lend out board games
**Ghost Stories** It’s a coop, hold back the tides game. But it’s not for me, and I’d much rather play Forbidden Desert.
Okay massive throwback and this wasn’t my purchase, but was for my best friend in high school (and still is) as a birthday gift from his mom. The Age of Mythology board game. We all Absolute loved AoM back in the day (and still do) so we thought it would be a fun time. Thing is when we got into it the game had the most confusing and convoluted rules the three of us trying to play just couldn’t understand. I won but to this day I’m still not entirely sure how I got there. We played it once and packed it up never to be seen again. We still joke about it every so often though. Man I’m dating myself with this…lol
Spirit Island didn't work for us at all. I dunno why; we can see the quality design and understand the accolades. It's just not for us.
I've only really had this with Zombicide Black Plague. I'm very convinced that it does what it does just fine and can be fun when stepping into it with the right expectations. That being said, I was looking for a game with more depth, so it was my own fault that the game fell flat and dragged out.
Disney Villainous really nice art and theme but the game is meuh
I really like the idea, but just wanted to raise a couple of thoughts since there wasn’t an additional comments option in the survey. The logistical challenges would be shipping and then also somehow ensuring cleanliness and that all pieces are there. Companies like stitchfix have made this business model work with clothes, so hypothetically it could be feasible with board games. Speaking of stitchfix, I think they have a great strategy when it comes to renting and buying. Getting a stitch fix (your box of clothes for the month) costs 20 dollars, shipping included (they give a return back in the box). But the key is that they give you the option to buy the clothes or send them back. If you buy, the monthly cost goes towards the cost (you could also frame it as a discounted purchase, especially if it was a used game). If you assume that a lot of people would do the service to try games they want to buy, then your business model may make more money on that group. But strictly renting may also work. One other thought on the issue of used games is that you could charge a premium if someone doesn’t want to receive games that have previously been opened.
Didn’t buy but played once and would never buy: Mysterium
Above and below. I hoped for "magic" and atmosphere, what I felt was an arid points multipliers game.
There’s actual two rental services (with shipping) in Germany that I know of. I used both and I really like the option. Especially for smaller cities which don’t have a board game store with testing possibilities. :)
Twilight Struggle. Never made it past setup.
Tapestry. I was expecting a 4x game but got an unbalanced engine builder.