Cruise game room newb

sainttardamus

Good evening sea monkeys!

I've been on JCCC1, and JCCC3.  I play tons of games...both board, and video.  But I tend to not play the D&D style board games (I play lots of those in video form).  So my question for JCCC4, so i don't feel like a complete noob, and can feel comfortable sitting down in the game room....

...what should I be playing this year in anticipation?  What's the fun game that everybody loves to play in the game room on the cruise? I feel I'm missing out on an integral part of the experience, and want to make the game room a haunt of mine next year.

Thanks!

@CurtisFulk

OXOCube75

Well there seemed to be good games going of some of the looney lab games (fluxx, ice Pyramid). Another good one to try is Lord of Waterdeep which is not a difficult D&D game to learn. 

What you really need to look at is what games do you like playing? Make sure you bring it on board and let folks know you would like to play. That way you may introduce others to games that they had not played before.

origamislayer

Have you watched TableTop? I'd say that's a good start

sainttardamus

Good to hear. Love tabletop, and feel am already prepared then. Thanks sea monkeys.

ThatGuy

Personally, I aim to play games that I haven't played before.  It may be something from TableTop, or high on the BGG list, or something I've only heard of, or even never heard of.  The cruise is great for that, because (in theory) someone who knows how to play brought the game, so they can help teach it.

I also like teaching others how to play games I'm familiar with.

You won't be behind the curve, ever.  You may be able to play one of the really long 4+ hour games like Arkham Horror, Talisman, or Ecplise.  You can always pick up something like CAH, Fluxx or Zombie Dice very quickly.  And there are all sorts of games in between that will see plays - Red November, Pandemic, Ticket to Ride, Dominion, Lords of Waterdeep, and several more.

That said, if you get the chance to play some of the older/stranger/less popular/newer games, I would take the opportunity to do so.  I absolutely loved To Court The King, and ended up playing a half dozen times.  Last Will was great. I found Quarriors and the DC deck building game to be worth another look at some point.  I saw people playing Boss Monster, which is still a prototype, that I enjoy.

So take anything on TableTop as a start, and add anything you have/can play beforehand, then look for new games on-board to play.  It is a great opportunity to learn new games.

stationary

@ThatGuy:  I was just happy that I wasn't the only person aboard this year who had heard of Red November.

Oboewan

@sainttardamus I am not a big fan of Fluxx, Dominion or CAH (just burnt out on it) and prefer some of the longer games.   I really wanted to get in a game of Tzolk'in that I brought but was really happy to see that it saw some play without me (one of my favorite new games from Essen last year).  I got to play Talisman which is always fun and got to teach and play Lords of Waterdeep (which is NOT a D&D game... just has that them pasted on) and Last Will.    I also got to play a Ticket to Ride, a few games of Alhambra, Star Trek Catan, Tales of the Arabian Nights, and learned Gloom and King of Tokyo.   Your best bet would be to check out the jococruisecrazy game collection on BGG and see what games you'd like to learn/play/have people bring next year.  I'd say my biggest complaint with the game room this year was that there seemed to be a number of tables surrounded by people not actually playing any games and just "hanging out".   While this may be fine, I think it discourages people who might want to play a game but can't find space  from actually approaching said group of people and asking if they can take over the table space for a game.

ProfBeard

@oboewan At one point when the game room was really busy I actually ended up taking a couple of the games I brought (because they were mine, I had no issue with removing them from the game room, though I wouldn't have taken the liberty with other folks games) and went up to deck 14 and played in Seven Hearts. The game room really ended up being smaller than I expected and at popular times was hard to find a spot.  

I stopped down Sunday morning before disembarking to check if anything was left over, but they had already broken it down and set it up for the next cruise - with the whole thing open it was quite spacious! I know we needed the other rooms shut off for some of the other JCCC events, but it would have been nice to have the whole room for the game/hang out space.

Oboewan

@ProfBeard  I went up to the Viking Lounge and played a game or two of Zombie Dice.  There were some table set up in one of the offshoot rooms that had some games going as well.

chetman

I was with Prof when he did that (us, our wives, and another couple), and the funny part was that after we'd been up there for 10 minutes or so the room started filling up with other monkeys. 

Oh, and one very confused table of Snorks playing Bridge, which was funny. 

I'm of two minds about gaming spaces. Having one giant space would be great for some things, but (let's be honest) the roar of the crowd in the game room we had could get pretty loud. One awesome aspect of taking it up to 14 was that it was quieter, even after it filled up. Now, we didn't help that any -- we were playing a frantic dice game called Escape -- but we were at least starting from a lower baseline dB level. 

Icemage

I'll try to document what I played here from memory on JCCC3:

* The Resistance + Avalon expansion

This was the one game I desperately wanted to play on the cruise, and I was thrilled to see it present.  Wonderful, wonderful multiplayer game that revolves around your ability to deceive or convince your fellow players.  If you've played Werewolf or Are You The Traitor?, it's like those, but with less unnecessary BS and fewer killjoy game mechanics or memorization. The Avalon expansion adds even better mechanics to tweak the gameplay of The Resistance.  The only drawback is that it requires 5+ players, and really only comes into its strengths at 7+.

* Cards Against Humanity

What else can be said about the most evil Mad-Libs game in existence?  It's still just as evil, though it seems the novelty of it has worn a little thin this year, even with new expansions.  Still stayed on permanent rotation, but not nearly as much as last year.

* Last Will

Brewster's Millions in board game form.  I felt this game has bit more bookkeeping than is strictly necessary.  It's good, but the rules are sort of impenetrable for newbies, and it's not always evident what constitutes a smart play.  The main feature I liked was a set limit on the number of turns, but it's not quite enough to balance against the somewhat excessive number-crunching and token-spawning.

* King of Tokyo

There's a lot to like about King of Tokyo.  It's like Yahtzee meets Godzilla.  Easy to learn, easy to play.  Attractive presentation, fast gameplay and a good feeling of control for players makes this an excellent pick-up and play game.

* Superhero Dominion variants (can't remember the exact names but I played both the Marvel and DC Superheroes variations).

Both of these games were pretty good.  The DC game felt a bit less balanced, as each player draws a superhero that alters their basic gameplay, and the various hero cards themselves don't feel as balanced as they strictly should be in this sort of game.  The Marvel game did feel more balanced, and the ability to tweak the theme of each game by adding/subtracting cards from the general play decks gave each playthrough a completely different feel, but requires a bit more setup time.

* Ascension (Dominion variant)

Have played this before on past cruises.  It's basically Dominion with some relatively abusive combinations added.  Not horrible, but I don't think I'll be playing this again on future cruises.  I actively avoided Dominion for the same reason.

* Tsuro

This was probably the most unusual game I played, and certainly the most elegantly designed board game I've played in quite some time.  It's basically a board game version of Pipe Dreams, where you receive random pieces that you use to propel your gamepiece across the board, with the goal of avoiding sending yourself accidentally off the edge. Can't recommend this game enough, for players of any age.  Very few moving pieces, simple enough for even young children to understand, yet with a lot of depth to the fast gameplay.

* Zombie Dice/Alien Dice/etc.

Good clean fun, though sort of a throwaway game to kill time rather than any sort of actual deep gameplay here.  Roll dice, try to score without busting.  Cool the first time you see the mechanic in play, less so on subsequent playthroughs.

* Fluxx and variants

Wizard of Oz Fluxx saw a lot of play from what I could tell.  I'm not a huge Fluxx fan, mostly because I tend to dislike games where you only tend to win by blind luck rather than any sort of deliberate design or good decision-making.  Fluxx's "let's bend every rule" is great in theory, but feels about as satisfying as winning a game of Mario Kart in practice.

Saw a lot of Lords of Waterdeep being played, didn't get a chance to play myself.

arenson9

@Icemage -- Have you tried Sentinels of the Multiverse?

Icemage

@arenson9

I have not.  Wanted to, but every time it was "in play" when I wandered by, the game was already in full swing.  Will try to get to it next year for sure!

mikesphar

I actually *own* Sentinels and have still yet to play it. I need to cultivate more local tablegaming friends.

stitchinthyme

We took some games (including ones that weren't ours) out of the game room to play elsewhere. I figured that as long as we brought them back, it was probably okay.

I know I was one of the people who sometimes hung out (knitting or doing chain mail) in the game room rather than playing games. I did feel a little guilty for taking up table space (though that's actually fairly necessary for chain mail), but I wanted to be where the action was, and more than once I stopped knitting and joined a game while I was there. Still, I will try to keep this in mind next cruise.

The games I played on JCCC3 included Alhambra, Gloom, various Fluxx games, Munchkin, Dominion, Get Bit, Redshirts, Forbidden Island, and Pandemic. (The latter two are more or less the same game, though Pandemic is much harder to win.) I like the silly games, like Gloom, Munchkin, and Redshirts, quite a lot -- they're basically about doing bad (or good, in the case of Gloom) things to your opponents in order to win, and we had some hilarious games during JCCC3. (Actually, I only got to play one partial game of Redshirts, because it was right before a show, but it was basically a cross between Gloom and Munchkin with a Star Trek theme.)

I definitely want to try more new games before JCCC4, because I tend to be a little shy about joining a game I haven't already played, even though I know it's silly because there was at least one person (other than me) who'd never played before in every game I played during JCCC2 and JCCC3. (I was on JCCC1, but didn't spend any time in the game room on that one.)

origamislayer

@mikesphar Since the decks for each hero (and the villain and env) pretty much stay seperate you can apparently play online via Google hangout and the like. I hope to do that once I get my copy (as well as playing in person).

burnumd

I actually shied away from the longer games on the cruise because I'm fortunate enough to have a good gaming group where I live and there were a million other things to do and only 7 days to do them in, but I definitely had some good times in the game room and learned a new game on board (the Penny Arcade deckbuilder). I mostly played social games (like the aforementioned Resistance and its successor, Avalon) because, as was mentioned, they work best with a large group and I enjoyed figuring out strangers tells. Those games seemed to be constantly on one table or another probably because they're good icebreaker games and are fairly quick. I imagine it'd be hard to say specifically what the hot game will be next year, but whatever was on Tabletop two or three episodes before the cruise is a safe bet. Games whose creators are on board are also usually in heavy rotation, and this year in particular there were a lot of prototype games, if that's your bag. If you want to play longer games, the one specific game I really like playing but knew I wouldn't have time for is the Battlestar Galactica board game (which I know was played at least a few times this year). I hadn't played it for a very long time because it looks complicated and wanted to play with someone who knew what they were doing but it's actually worth checking out even if you don't have that luxury. It's fairly simple (for a Fantasy Flight game) and is, IMO, one of the best merging of theme and mechanics I've seen in a long time.

arenson9

Anyone who wants to play Sentinels over the Internet, give a shout. You need to have a copy of the game itself, but that's it. We'll set up a time and get together in a Google Hangout and have an awesome time.

ProfBeard

I'm definitely interested in some Hangout SotM.

I was surprised to find that I ended up gaming less than I had anticipated, but I had an amazing week and the games I did play were all quality, with great people.

villicious

I'm interested in tips for running Sentinels in a Google hangout. When we've done it, we've had trouble keeping up with which cards one another had in play (I think I resorted to using my deck to reconstruct what the villain/environment were doing after Patrick would do the villain/environment turns).

origamislayer

@villicious: I've never played online, but I've used the SotM iPad app when playing the game in real life to keep things straight. It really only handles the villain and environment cards with hit points in play, (and all hit points, who's highest/lowest, etc), but it's been a great help.

arenson9

@villicious The following spreadsheet (BGG login required, but free) is extremely helpful for playing online.

http://boardgamegeek.com/filepage/85440/mezikes-sotm-online-gaming-aid

One person runs the spreadsheet and shows it to everyone else. Everyone can see HP and what cards are in play.

There is a relatively small, but dedicated group playing online regularly. If you want to join, head to: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/117769941955241654989

Sean or anyone else, would Sat night around 7pm EST be a good time to play?

villicious

Thanks, y'all. There was no iPad app when we did this! Now I know!

Saturday is Patrick and my anniversary, so I believe we will be at dinner.

ProfBeard

8pm would be a touch easier for me (getting the kids to bed and all), but I can do 7pm if it works better.

arenson9

8pm is great. Let's see if I can figure out how to make a hangout ...

... well, I created a Google+ event and sent an invite to ProfBeard's email address.

I believe anyone could find the event at: https://plus.google.com/events/ceq6arqjqb8n1ip9icj5r38d9e0,

but I'm not entirely sure ...

arenson9

Hmmm ... that URL doesn't seem to be working. Anyone who wants to join, please let me know and give me some way to invite you to the event -- email address, add me to your circles. Feel free to send me a PM or send me email at [email protected] .

AND, if someone understands Google+ better than I do, please feel free to educate me on the best way to create events/hangouts and/or invite people to them.

ProfBeard

There is an errant comma at the end of the link.  I was able to get to the invite at this address: https://plus.google.com/events/ceq6arqjqb8n1ip9icj5r38d9e0   I use G+ Hangouts a fair amount, but I just create the hangouts on demand, not ahead of time. There is a way to make an "on air event' but that doesn't seem to mean it has a hangout, but rather it is a way to make the event publicly viewable but privately modified.

arenson9

Excellent. See you Sat. We'll have a good time if it's just the two of us. Others are also very welcome.

If you don't have a copy of Sentinels, you can't play, but you are welcome to spectate.