Trashdome - Runebound vs Return Of The Heroes

RotH

Runebound (2nd edition)

First, I'm going to insist that RotH serve a five-minute major in the TrashDome penalty box for having the most annoying rulebook in the history of Western civilization.

Now, with that out of the way, the clear winner is ...

RotH.

Runebound is okay in a D&D-powergaming-except-it's-on-a-board sort of way, but, in the end, it's all just leveling up with kewl lewt and phat stats. RotH is the more engaging experience, by far.

Vote: RotH.

Never played Return of the Heroes, and I'm still voting for it. Runebound was terrible! Probably the worst game FFG has put out. Dull, multi-player solitaire.

RUNEBOUND!

"Multi-Player solitaire?" Can you actually mess with each other in Return of the Heroes? I know there is no interaction in Under the Shadow of the Dragon. You can't even "see" the components for other people's quests.

Ken B. wrote:

"Multi-Player solitaire?" Can you actually mess with each other in Return of the Heroes? I know there is no interaction in Under the Shadow of the Dragon. You can't even "see" the components for other people's quests.

Besides the fact that the artwork was made by a second year graphic designer and the gameplay for UTSOTD is atrocious. The characters are bland. I got it because it was a fantasy crawl, but after looking at it and playing it, I thought that I could have spent the money and bought something I would actually enjoy playing. Runebound, while not perfect, is much better than that.

I've played RotH three times, including once with the first expansion. All the games were anti-climactic and overall boring. I felt that I saw all the game has to offer in the first play and subsequent plays proved that for me. With each play actually being more tedious than the last. RotH might as well be an optimization game while Runebound is open adventure with more sandbox qualities despite the dice movement. Hack/slash is way more fun than delivering pizza's.

Yikes ... need a separate thread for all of these non-voting editorial posts.

RUNEBOUND is for clowns, get with it people and vote ROTH.

A vote for RUNEBOUND is like telling game publishers "Hey, I like it when you shit in my face with a garbage game and a pile of expansions that convince me it's good because there's so much of it".

ROTH should be the only choice here. What other game uses _actual porn stars_ for its female models?

Octavian wrote:

Runebound (2nd edition)

Ah - the kiss of crap has been applied.

Vote: RoTH

Southernman wrote:

Octavian wrote:

Runebound (2nd edition)

Ah - the kiss of crap has been applied.

Vote RoTH

Michael Barnes wrote:

ROTH should be the only choice here. What other game uses _actual porn stars_ for its female models?

That is probably where Flying Frog got there ideas for character models. RotH loses for potentially inspiring the Lady Pirate in AToE -- you should change your vote for that reason alone.

Wow, this must be Special Olympics week in the Trashdome. These games both blow.

Runebound, as mentioned, is long and boring. I'd rather play just about any game ever made than 6-player Runebound.

But ROTH? Give me a break. This is a bunch of fairy tale bullshit, that, themewise, is about two steps above Candyland. I feel like I'm going to have to follow the sugar plum trail to the gingerbread house to rescue Hansel and Gretel, then take the magic lantern to the happy village to learn a secret from the talking mouse. This is what happens when game designers living in a collectivist nightmare that is the EU read the first Dragonlance book and then decide to make a "thematic" game.

Runebound, as a two-player game on a lazy afternoon with a few brewskis, is at least passable. It has great/hilarious flavor text that you can read to the other guy in the most breathless/melodramatic way possible for a good laugh. I've never laughed once while playing ROTH, except at my own pain.

VOTE: RUNEBOUND

dysjunct wrote:

Wow, this must be Special Olympics week in the Trashdome. These games both blow.

We're running low on good games. Next week: TOMB vs Dungeoneer