Discover: Lands Unknown (new FFG “unique” game)

Unless the procedural systems are really intricate and internally dynamic (e.g. Rimworld), I have a hard time taking procedurally generated narratives seriously. They often devolve into, at best, well authored madlibs.

I'm also a little grossed out by how copycat some of these ideas are, especially when Eric Lang chimed in that he pitched some of this awhile ago but got no credit.

If CMON can rip this off just right with randomly included miniatures the Kickstarter zombies will trample each other for the all in pledge.

And it does look and sound like 7th Continent...which puts this game in the catbird seat because that game is difficult to buy and unavailable in distribution.

Wasn’t the promise of legacy games that you make it your own by writing on the board?

I just do not give a shit about every box being unique, no more than I care about legacy anything. I’m much more excited about the little animal dudes in Root.

Keyforge is by far a better concept. I understand the fun of buying a $10 pack of cards and playing what amounts to random theme decks. This I don’t get.

The only times in my life I’ve ever thought “hey,It would be a great idea to make the content of a game random so that you don’t know what you are getting” we’re times when I was thinking about how many gimmicky games wind up on the clearance table at conventions selling for pennies on the dollar. I’m predicting this game will follow the same graceless arc into irrelevance that Seafall did.

FFG is flailing. The Arkham Horror 3rd edition is a great idea. Expanding Fallout is a great idea. Even X-Wing 2.0 is solid. But this...slot it next to the $200 SSD.

You know what? I'll push back on you guys on this. The theme here does not appear to be solving a curse or any sort of dark mystery. It's a survival/rescue game, like that old shitty AH game. It's basically a hiking/backpacking game, a niche that I think is super ripe to exploit now that the gaming scene is so much more diverse and there's a large audience for relateable settings that are not dudes and gals with guns and swords. If you take it from that theme, I think the randomish contents are actually a very good fit---each box could be like dropping you in a new wilderness area. Moreover, the designer, Corey, is my favorite at FFG. The art looks great, hitting the non-violent hiking game to a T.

I don't have any more info than you guys on this but I think the "gimmicky" unique box mechanic could be a great fit for the theme and setting. If I was selling this, I'd sell it as each box being a different national park or geographical area or whatever.

I *do* think the big concern of not enough content is legit real and that is yet to be settled. At 60, this has to be a real size game that isn't just pushing you to get the next box of it. It needs to be a full wilderness area that you can get a lot of plays out of hiking and surviving through. And I'd like to see the potential card list be quite large so, again, the boxes are meaningfully different and your next box really is, by and large, a different wilderness area with different challenges.

Michael Barnes wrote: Keyforge is by far a better concept. I understand the fun of buying a $10 pack of cards and playing what amounts to random theme decks. This I don’t get.

Just as a personal thing, I so deeply disagree with you here. In the Keyforge thread, someone describes getting keyword cards that depend on other keywords to be good and then getting *no other keyword* cards in their deck. That is the dumbest fucking thing ever. And that there'll have to be a balancing system since the decks will be unbalanced? The random composition is such a bad fit with competitive games, to me. I mean, there's a reason you do drafts with Magic cards when you do this!

“Outdoor Survival for a new generation”????

I’m all about the subject matter. And the one piece of artwork is awesome. I even like the high level concept that each instance of the game is essentially a unique set of survival/discovery challenges. But the gimmick, man. The gimmick. Based on what little we know, it seems that it is ultimately a set of modular random events or sequences.
You just don’t get all of the events or sequences in one box.

Corey K. can do some outstanding work, no doubt.

Oh, Keyforge is DOA as far as competitive goes. Like I said in that thread, the correct market for it is KIDS.

Gary Sax wrote: I *do* think the big concern of not enough content is legit real and that is yet to be settled. At 60, this has to be a real size game that isn't just pushing you to get the next box of it. It needs to be a full wilderness area that you can get a lot of plays out of hiking and surviving through. And I'd like to see the potential card list be quite large so, again, the boxes are meaningfully different and your next box really is, by and large, a different wilderness area with different challenges.

Well we know at most it needs 5 packs of yellow-size and 1 pack of green-size sleeves. So a maximum of 300 cards per box.

I think this sounds cool. I love the idea of having my version of a game having unique features, as long as a significant number of my friends and fellow gamers also found fun with the game.

For there to be any deep value in your version being different, it would be having a peer group to share and appreciate those differences.

To hell with that!

This idea is total bull shit.

Personally I like the concept of a legacy game providing a unique experience more than an algorithm doing that. It would also mean that the reason it's unique is because of my group and our antics.

I have never played a legacy game before, but Betrayal Legacy may very well be my first.

hotseatgames wrote: Personally I like the concept of a legacy game providing a unique experience more than an algorithm doing that. It would also mean that the reason it's unique is because of my group and our antics.

I have never played a legacy game before, but Betrayal Legacy may very well be my first.

^Exact thoughts I had while reading recent posts in this thread. Betrayal Legacy will probably be my first, but I also eventually want to recruit a play group for Risk Legacy. Everybody pitches in money, and the winner gets the game. Maybe to get people to show up everytime, we make a gambling proposition out of it as well. Maybe play for an ante each session, with a percentage set aside for the overall winner at the end.

Michael Barnes wrote: The only times in my life I’ve ever thought “hey,It would be a great idea to make the content of a game random so that you don’t know what you are getting” we’re times when I was thinking about how many gimmicky games wind up on the clearance table at conventions selling for pennies on the dollar.

Generally, that's true. But the exceptions have been lucrative. Magic: the Gathering. Pokemon. Even HeroClix made some money:

www.hcrealms.com/forum/showthread.php?t=255111

I guess... I guess I like Arkham Horror a lot more than you guys maybe? It's largely randomly constructed in terms of narrative.

I’ll just mention that the artwork on the page shows an Arabic woman with a hijab on. That’s a pretty bold item to lead off with. Bully for FFG.

I’m filing this in the who-the-hell-cares category because other peoples' copies of the game don't affect me. If my copy is good I'll be happy with it regardless of "Unique Game" being on the cover. If it sucks, I ain't buying a second copy.