CO-TRASH-DOME!!! Robinson Crusoe vs Eldritch Horror!

JEM wrote: Question. I had a game of Eldritch Horror where I had literally no choices to make for 40 minutes due to being detained, then cursed, then lost in time and space (and immediately lost again upon return due to a card event) just using my time to crank the game's engine along. No game should ever make someone feel so utterly shite for sitting down at it. Win or lose, "miss a turn" mechanics can go fuck themselves.

I still own it, I 'm trapped in an abusive relationship with it, telling myself that maybe next time it won't betray me.

Sounds like the game is doing what its supposed to do...Imbue madness.
Except it has gone a step further to the player rather than just driving a character insane.

Saving the world vs drinking your own urine.

Vote: Eldritch Horror

Eldritch Horror

No contest.

Dang! That's a fucking tough one. For the solo experience? I go with ROBINSON CRUSOE. That game is balls hard and you need to really feel ownership of all the (bad) decisions or you'll end up hating someone. I like ROBINSON CRUSOE tons, but I don't think I want to actually play it with other people, because they are so dumb and won't build a palisade and now we're fucked.

ELDRITCH HORROR works better in group play because of the The Launius Design (5&6 are successes). Someone might be making a bad call about how to go about something, but they might pull it off with a good roll. You can shift blame to the dice pretty easily. In ROBINSON CRUSOE you can just stare at your wife as Unexpected Hyena Hurricane or whatever awful thing comes up and ruins everything forever.

ELDRITCH HORROR can have shitty moments, to be sure, and ends kind of abruptly if it goes badly. But for the most part it really does streamline ARKHAM to the point where I don't feel bad asking new folks to play ELDRITCH, and I kind of do for ARKHAM.

Vote: ELDRITCH HORROR. Also palisades, I'm telling you.

jeb wrote: ELDRITCH HORROR works better in group play because of the The Launius Design (5&6 are successes). Someone might be making a bad call about how to go about something, but they might pull it off with a good roll. You can shift blame to the dice pretty easily. In ROBINSON CRUSOE you can just stare at your wife as Unexpected Hyena Hurricane or whatever awful thing comes up and ruins everything forever.

This is a super insightful point, I've never thought about what separated coops that are looser from the tighter, more competitive ones---and the ability to blame the dice and the game is a big one.

I had a conversation once with Launius about his whole "5s and 6s" thing...and he said almost exactly what you did Jeb. He wants there to ALWAYS be that chance so that you can get those Hail Mary moments when somebody takes a chance, rolls one die, and gets that five or six. It's actually quite smart how he frames this too, with there being additions to the dice pool versus the blessings/curses that give you +1 or -1. Nothing fancy, and enough room for there to be a little narrative there.

From a co-op perspective, that not only prevents "blame", but it also gives everybody a chance to step up and be the hero...or to get an unexpected success. But there too, you might have eight dice in your pool and completely bomb it.

We used to rag on him (good naturedly) about the 5s and 6s...but it really is a great mechanic for co-op adventure games.

As for the debate at hand, that is a hard call, especially with EH fresh in my mind (and going to be played tonight). I actually think it's a much smoother, easier to run game than Crusoe, but it also lacks the artistry and finer detail. The narrative is much more "connect the dots" in EH, where I feel like Crusoe delivers a pretty solid story arc just about every time. With people, I think I definitely prefer EH. Solo, Crusoe. Sort of like Mage Knight in that way.

VOTE- TIE

jeb wrote: Dang! That's a fucking tough one. For the solo experience? I go with ROBINSON CRUSOE. That game is balls hard and you need to really feel ownership of all the (bad) decisions or you'll end up hating someone. I like ROBINSON CRUSOE tons, but I don't think I want to actually play it with other people, because they are so dumb and won't build a palisade and now we're fucked.

People are dumb. The one time I played Robinson Crusoe, we played the scenario where we need to make a big pile of wood to light so that rescuers might see us. The whole fucking game, I kept telling the other two players that we need to stack up more firewood, more firewood, more firewood. Every fucking turn. At the end of the game, we come up a turn short. Just enough time to finish the firewood pile and no time to light it. So my fellow players rewound the last two turns and replayed them so we could win. Dumb.

I haven't play Robinson Crusoe as much as I'd like, and the system is a bit fiddly at time. But, man, does it have a great narrative and the systems *do* make sense thematically. Need to think about getting that expansion, though I've yet to get through the base game's scenarios.

I've only played AH once, many years ago. It was kinda shit, though a game with that variety it's probably not fair to judge it on one play. And while I'd probably enjoy EH, there can only be one winner.

VOTE: Robinson Crusoe

Easy call for me. Even with the bloat, I would rather play Arham Horror over Eldritch Horror (and I can take out expansions to make it smoother). Robinson, I've barely played above the intro beach scenario and have loved it every time.

Winner: Robinson Crusoe

It's time to tally the votes!

RC (7)
Gary Sax
Applejack
Columbob
Shellhead
Gregarius
cdennet
Jarvis

EH (9)
wkover
charlest
SuperflyTNT
VonTush
Green Lantern
Egg Shen
Death and Taxis
scissors
jeb

EH stands victorious above the mushy pulp that is RC, but not without broken nose!