XIA – THIS WORLD IS MORE OPEN THAN WILL SMITH’S MARRIAGE

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Good to see you back in the saddle. Thanks for the review. It's a tough sell since I already have Firefly, Merchants and Marauders, Merchants of Venus... I'll have to try it sometime at a con or something.

If I ever get drunk enough to buy this, the first rule that gets airlocked is "20 = Fame". In the game I played, the winning point was earned that way and, while it's true I won't forget that soon, it's not because I thought it was really great.

Gary Sax wrote: Good to see you back in the saddle. Thanks for the review. It's a tough sell since I already have Firefly, Merchants and Marauders, Merchants of Venus... I'll have to try it sometime at a con or something.

Barnes indicates that he liked Merchants of Venus more, hence his relinquishing his copy to me. I had Firefly and all the expansions up to Blue Moon, and it's really good, but my main beef is that it's basically the same thing ad infinitum. Xia has a lot more ways to win which is why I like it more.

Also, I never really stopped writing - I do the very occasional Miniature Market review and still put up reviews on www.superflycircus.com fairly often. That Miniature Market gig is definitely more for people who are into buying and trying lots and lots of new games, and after the wife's surgery and the opposing car insurance company essentially winning the lawsuit through what can only be considered as dirty ass tricks, I can't be dropping 100$ a month. And even if I could, I wouldn't. The only viable model for doing that is the Patented Barnes Plan (as I imagine it): Buy 100$ in games, play them, sell them at a discount and cover that loss with the payment for the articles. Smart plan and totally legit, but just not something that I'm keen on doing.

In any event, thanks for the kind words!

@Dave: I'm a five percenter, I guess. Knowing that the D20 isn't rolled all that much, and when it's usually rolled, there is a 'uuuuge chance that you blow up, it doesn't bother me. I look at it like the Kessel Run - you were so awesome at piloting through the asteroids that you became a legend. Makes sense to me, but YMMV. Just kind of sounds like you lost because of it and it left you salty.

I played this twice and thought it was merely okay. I liked it better than M&M, but by no means is it better than Firefly. Xia is nice and open, but there's a few areas where I thought, "Yup, this was a Kickstarter." I preferred Firefly's more focussed design, the whole thing runs on push your luck, which I love, and the movement mechanic is fun and exciting. I think it ultimately comes down to which design goal you prefer though, both games do accomplish them quite well.

Thank you for not using the term "sandbox." Fuck that bullshit term and the douchebag horse it rode in on. It means nothing in the realm of board games as every game has an end goal and it deserves to be banned from the lexicon along with "epic," "fail," and any combination of the two.

I think "sandbox" has its uses in this world - I always thought of FFP's Last Night on Earth as a sandbox game in that it dumps a bunch of parts and mechanical rules on you and has the flexibility to basically play whatever scenario you want. I mean, many games do that but they don't generally dump parts on you that aren't in any way used in the existing scenarios. They literally tossed shit in the box that they thought you'd have fun creating scenarios with. But I agree - the phrase is overused in epic proportions. Total fail.

SuperflyTNT wrote: @Dave: I'm a five percenter, I guess. Knowing that the D20 isn't rolled all that much, and when it's usually rolled, there is a 'uuuuge chance that you blow up, it doesn't bother me. I look at it like the Kessel Run - you were so awesome at piloting through the asteroids that you became a legend. Makes sense to me, but YMMV. Just kind of sounds like you lost because of it and it left you salty.

No, I thought it was a dumb rule as soon as I heard it.

Xia is miles ahead of Firefly, imo, but that doesn't say much because I thought Firefly was crap. Xia is the game Firefly wishes it was, though it doesn't have a Hat Card. You can probably still use a plastic dinosaur for the current player token, though. Xia has a lot more room for good play and surprise routs, where a player in the lead can be passed not because the game threw him a random bone he couldn't handle but because another player did better. Yet there's still enough sloppy randomness to give it a good time, AND nobody will quote lines at you.

Compared to Merchants and Marauders, though, it's not so good. We didn't see a lot of combat in our Xia game (it didn't really last long enough and none of us came out with guns a-blazing) but I'm not a super fan of the combat in M&M, so that might be the factor that pushes it over. In nearly every other respect M&M does what Xia does better, just with pirates. I love Merchant of Venus but it's not really comparable here (at least the "Classic" rules, I haven't played the FFG rules.)

I tend to agree with you, for what it's worth, with regard to the 20 rule. It's certainly not something I think I'd have put in a game design. I get what he was doing - legend making - but it's kind of a dumb rule. That said, it did make my kid dance around when she won like that and that alone was worth it.

I love M&M, but I think combat was weenie. I think the adventure cards in M&M really did make the game interesting, which is lacking in Xia. But M&M has two choices, basically - be a merchant, or be a marauder. There's no exploration, no surprises mostly (aside from the side adventures), and it's a pick up and deliver game for the most part. Xia does more and I'd argue better in some ways, and it doesn't pidgeonhole you into one of two persistent roles.

Combat in Xia is awesome, but they kind of fucked it up a bit with the ships' ability to take way too many hits to blow up. Shields are just too juicy.

Just my 2c.

Nice piece, good headline.

I think now that I've gotten my wife interested in Firefly (and now that she's watched more episodes, which I do think helps the immersion), I probably won't be looking at Xia again anytime soon unless someone else has it (and few people I game with would either play a game like that--unfortunately--or pony up that much for one game, but it's certainly intriguing.

I waited a year+ to play it....it was my single most anticipated game. The minis sold me. I admit freely that I'm a bits whore. As it turns out, I also really loved the game.

Nice read Pete. I've been really tempted to by this one and wanting to try it for a long time. The two things that have constantly kept me away are 1) price and 2) similar games. Everytime I thought about taking the dive I would think about how I already have Firefly, Merchant of Venus and Merchants and Marauders. They all seem like they scratch a similar itch. Don't get me wrong, it's one of my favorite spots to scratch, but for whatever reason I've been able to hold off on Xia. It sounds like a great time.

They're launching an expansion kickstarter on May 31st and we'll see if I can resist going all in on the expansion and the base game......

Thanks, Mike. Means a lot coming from you. I needed that today, too. What a fucking miserable two days its been.

You're right in a sense - I see this being equivalent only to M&M; Merchants of Venus and Firefly are far more similar to one another and dissimilar to M&M and Xia. Firefly and MoV are essentially in the same space (in my mind) as Return of the Heroes; lots of pick up and deliver, some other minor shit to do. Even the missions in Firefly are essentially "go here, roll some dice" type delivery-style non-delivery missions. So, you're spot on with that comparison.

What impressed me about them as a company is that they gave Photoshop files for fans to make their own missions and cards; the problem, obviously, is even if you get Artscow cards, there's going to be a noticeable difference. I plan on making a shitload of expansion stuff and using some Firestorm Armada ships I have lying around as the ships.

I didn't know about the expansion - good looking out, brother. I shoud be able to sell something to pay for it; my problem is that my stable of games is pretty much loaded with the games we play and love. Except Horus Heresy.

Great to see Xia getting more love - our group has really taken to the game, in particular the tightness of the rules and the fact that they're so easily customizable, too. We've ruled that a "1" on the d20 actually LOSES you a Fame Point, and implemented a few trade rules to prevent "milk runs" from happening too often. And yeah... the thing just looks gorgeous, for cryin' out loud.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/1438045410/...s-of-a-forsaken-star

39$ expansion dropped on KS today. I backed it within a couple of hours. What a value.

Looks like the expansion will address some of the primary concerns people had with the base game (easy trade routes and fighting not being entirely worthwhile). It's always nice to know that a company is listening and willing to address these things.

Funny you should mention that you've been trying to get this game for so long and having all that anticipation build up. My "Waiting in Vain" game seems to be Shadows Of Brimstone. I was eager to buy it when the kickstarter launched...but then I bailed due to the price. Then it was the minis that kept me away. I've yet to pull the trigger on one of the core sets, but I think I might finally cave. At this point I just need to know. It's a good feeling to be that excited about something, but man I hope it doesn't let me down. At least you loved XIA! I'm hoping it goes similarly for me with SoB.