Restoration Games

I suspect that Chrononauts has fired Time Agent.

We did small stakes bidding on Epic Duels and banned Yoda and Palpatine.

I’m sure that if I still went out to play games like that, Shadespire would be an All-Nighter.

Josh Look wrote:

Space Ghost wrote: @Josh -- what is the phrase? Inquiring minds want to know....

A game you accidentally play all night. I have no better way to describe it. Someone would put a game out as a filler and it would cause such a fuss that everyone would just want to take turns at it and would be completely content to watch when it wasn’t their turn to play.

I always called them event games. I had no better way to describe them. People just spontaneously gather around because whomever is playing at the time is just having such obscene fun.

I've seen this effect with Rattlesnake. A dumb kids game just exploded in epicness and then next Saturday we're having rattlesnake tournaments.

Michael Barnes wrote: We call that a Lionel Richie. As in “all night long”.

I think Dark Tower could be significantly updated and turn out OK. I think the brand is stronger than the game, and with apps replacing onboard electronics, there’s a lot of potential there to do something cool. Maybe something that is more of a “spiritual sequel” kind of thing than a reprint. Because the game is really kind of crap...the experience, atmosphere, and absurdity of it were what made it unique.

I agree completely.

Epic Duels, TBH I never understood the fanaticism about. It’s fun, it’s easy, and OMG Mace Windu versus Darth Vader. But the gameplay was never particularly impressive or interesting to me.

I disagree completely.

Legomancer wrote: voice of the mummy or we riot

Broadsides & Boarding Parties could also be very cool

Michael Barnes wrote: There has been some chatter around them and Time Agent, of all things...

Epic Duels will probably not be SW for obvious reasons.

I seriously doubt Time Agent. I talked with Tom Lehman about it at the TTN conference in Utah, and he gave no indication, and felt the design was way behind the times. I really pushed for a rework of Fast Food Franchise, and he gave a similar response - just too much to be done.

engelstein wrote: I seriously doubt Time Agent. I talked with Tom Lehman about it at the TTN conference in Utah, and he gave no indication, and felt the design was way behind the times. I really pushed for a rework of Fast Food Franchise, and he gave a similar response - just too much to be done.

Ah, that's a shame. Personally (and at a glance) it seems the issue with the game is not so much the design but that it's a 6-player, 3-hour plus design. I don't think there's a big market for those anymore, sadly.

Have you ever talked with him on Ludology? Would be interesting, he is very opinated and that would be interesting.

Those old TimJim/Prism games were clunky but really sort of ahead of their time. They kind of fell in between the waning of the Avalon Hill era and Settlers of Catan. I think I’ve played all of them...Fast Food Franchise is awesome, I think that’s the best one. Would love to see someone bring that back.

Barnes, I sent you some fort mail. Did you get the Arkham Horror LCG pack?

Restoration Games publishing Return to Dark Tower, designed by Rob Daviau and Isaac Childres.

Totally fucking nuts. I knew about it being Dark Tower, but not Childres. Dude is blowing up right now.

I'm really enjoying this concept. I didn't back the Fireball Island KS but I fully expect to check out these re-imaginings when they get to retail. With the electronic aspect of this game (or at least its old version), I'm curious to see how this will be adapted into current production & design standards/paradigms.

Frohike wrote: I'm really enjoying this concept. I didn't back the Fireball Island KS but I fully expect to check out these re-imaginings when they get to retail. With the electronic aspect of this game (or at least its old version), I'm curious to see how this will be adapted into current production & design standards/paradigms.

I have not seen screens but I would suspect they will have a tower that you can slide a phone into and run an app.

I want to like these guys but the jury is still way the hell out.

Downforce is great, but the original Kramer design is an undeniable timeless classic that still holds up extremely well in 2018. All these guys did with this "restoration" was take the Mona Lisa and put it into a nicer frame. It's hard for me to praise Restoration for this release because ANY publisher could've released a "definitive" edition of this design with minimal legwork.

Stop Thief! was something I Kickstarted, and it was a total dud in my game group, which mostly consists of my wife and her friends (not the usual hardcore gamer crowd). Stop Thief! shares Downforce's sterile graphic design sensibilities. It--like Restoration's new Fireball Island--removed the dice and replaced it with movement cards. I'm totally fine with movement cards if it's built into the game design from the ground floor up (see Downforce). But when movement cards are touted as a way of "fixing" dice rolling, it always strikes me as a lame, dickless and lazy "fix"--a change that paradoxically makes simulating movement even more of a thematic abstraction than merely leaving it to chance. Our group usually loves hidden movement games, all the way from the OGs like Scotland Yard to the heavier Fury of Dracula type stuff. This one sank like a stone.

Fireball Island. I foolishly didn't cancel my Kickstarter so I hope I'm wrong about this one. But it looks like a goddamn mess. By their own admission, they'd done very little playtesting prior to the Kickstarter launch, which is why reports began to surface of them changing rules and making up new ones on the fly during the "world tour" thing they did with the clay prototype during the Kickstarter. Stuff like doubling the amount of movement on the movement cards, which 1) proves they'd barely played their own game prior to launching the Kickstarter and 2) renders one of the big "innovations" of their version--the plastic trees that block and redirect fireballs--kind of pointless and impotent, because if you're zipping around the island 12 spaces at a time, by the time a fireball gets redirected by a tree you've "strategically" rotated into position, you and your opponents are already on the other side of the island and out of harm's way.

But then there's the grab-bag of mechanics they've tacked on. The lame-ass movement cards as a "fix" for dice-rolling, the set collection that's in every fucking game ever made, the endgame that--by their own admission--was ripped off wholesale from Clank!, etc. etc.

Then there's the lame "satirical" retheming and new win conditions: the island has been taken over by one of those trendy adventure tourism companies--to win, you have to snap three cell phone pictures to upload to the company's Twitter feed. Oh man, such biting social satire, I'm going to shit out my own skeleton laughing. Way to instantly date your own game before it's even released and make the original kiddie version from the 80s feel like the more timeless edition in retrospect, plus it proves these guys never really took this game very seriously from the start.

Also, the art style for the cards is inconsistent as hell, the island is awkward-looking, and the expansions look genuinely pointless (even by expansion standards).

Then there's Return to Dark Tower, which they unveiled by prancing around on stage and showing a pointless teaser trailer like they're goddamn Ubisoft at E3 or something. They're resurrecting one of the ultimate iconic mass market board games of all time, they've got the hottest game designer of the hottest board game in the world serving as co-designer, they're fresh off of raising a few million for Fireball Island, they're autographing posters for this new Dark Tower game at GenCon like they're rock stars--clearly these guys believe this is gonna be a sure-fire hit, right? Nope, they're going to launch a Kickstarter for it, because fucking of course they are, because these guys are a cynical marketing team first, board game developer distant second. Honestly, fuck these dudes.

Not liking the newer theme is subjective of course. But you do raise a good point about dating the game right out of the gate. They may as well have just talked about DOS, AOL, and Myspace for all it mattered.

The mechanics on the other hand are more concerning of course. And one that makes me mighty nervous. I backed for a buck, to see if I wanted it after the hype machine finally shut up.
I still get emails from them to this day to deal with the capaign manager and add more money, even though they stated that the manager is closed.

The observation about GenCon is accurate.

While I don't share the sentiment about fuck those guys, and was the reason I didn't 'thumb' the post, I gotta admit Motorik has a point.

I will say fuck dark tower though. They may as well have reprinted magic realms for all I care about dark tower. Games that needed to be left in history.

But I do wish them success with it so I can see actual titles that need to be reprinted done. Like, dark tower but not thunder road? Get outta here. One is still good, the other an anachromistic look at history no longer relevant. Like Myspace.