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Gloomhaven
- ChristopherMD
- Topic Author
- Away
- Road Warrior
Gloomhaven is a game of Euro-inspired tactical combat in a persistent world of shifting motives. Players will take on the role of a wandering adventurer with their own special set of skills and their own reasons for traveling to this dark corner of the world.
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My copy arrives tomorrow. I'm ashamed to admit how much it feels like Christmas. I played it 3 weeks ago for a friends birthday and it took over the table for the rest of the weekend. The twelve year old in me, that spent rainy weekends wearing out Hero Quest with his brothers and friends, thinks this is the best thing that has ever happened, and the puzzle loving 46 year old me loves it too!
I think we need an actual Gloomhaven game/table talk thread, for people that actually are, or are interested in, playing the game, and maybe discuss all the high-brow topics of component bloat, kickstarter excesses, industry shifts, the resurgence of rpg's, etc. somewhere else. If any of the mods prefer it based on a different sub-forum, have at it - I punted and stuck it in catch all.
I'm thinking that most people would prefer spoiler tags if you are going to talk about specific missions or any materials not revealed when you open the box - i.e. unlocked classes, the contents of any of the envelopes, scenarios, city and road cards - If we had people that wanted to talk specific scenarios alot, maybe we could do a sub thread.
/Seriously had to adult myself into not planning a short work day tomorrow, so that I could meet the Fed-Ex guy
//and hug him
///well, at least a high five
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I would like to have a weekly game - I will host unless someone with a better set-up wanted to host - And I would like to play with mostly the same people - But I know that someone will drop out at some point. And also, 3 seemed like a good number - 4 seemed like it would drag unless you had 4 that were fully engaged and liked to play quick, because one Analysis/Paralysis guy during card selection could really suck the joy out of a session.
So my questions for those of you that have taken this for a spin :
How did you put your play group together? How did you handle it when someone wasn't there? Or when you had someone that wanted to jump in on a Gloomhaven in progress? Did you have designated "at large" characters for drop ins to play? Did people share characters? Did any of you try running two games out of the same box?
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boothwah wrote: How did you put your play group together? How did you handle it when someone wasn't there? Or when you had someone that wanted to jump in on a Gloomhaven in progress? Did you have designated "at large" characters for drop ins to play? Did people share characters? Did any of you try running two games out of the same box?
Disclaimer: I haven't played Gloomhaven, but I was in a small group that completed Silver Tower and is currently partway through Blackstone Fortress. More to the point, we faced the same issues that you are now facing, except for the important distinction that Gloomhaven is a legacy game.
Our Silver Tower group consisted of a three committed players plus one player who we knew in advance would be moving away before we finished. Our Blackstone Fortress group is the same three committed players plus one less reliable player. To minimize absences, we only play when all three of the committed players are available, which is about once every 4 or 5 weeks. Sometimes we will dedicate a long session to the game, and sometimes we just play for part of a session after playing some other board game. We used to take turns running the extra character when there was a no-show, but the host doesn't mind running the extra character so we tend to leave that to him. Running a second game would be possible, and maybe our host has been doing it. Just in case, we all take a camera phone picture of our character's stuff before putting the game away. Blackstone Fortress also has "card vaults" for the specific purpose of keeping each character's stuff together between games.
For your purposes, the legacy game factor means that you probably shouldn't run more than one Gloomhaven group at a time, because the components will be getting altered through play. For the same reason, you should stick with a single core group of solid players. Most of my gamer friends would find it impossible to make it to a weekly game on the regular, but I have had good success with role-playing campaigns that meet on a bi-weekly basis at the same scheduled time. Also, I suspect that even one AP player could really be a drag in Gloomhaven.
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- ThirstyMan
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I don't see myself playing much solo....it is a perfectly good game for solo play....probably one of the best if you are into tactical skirmish puzzles. And maybe the branching story line/unlockable legacy content is icing on the cake for that crowd. But for me it's the whole sandwich, plus the social side of a shared ritual.
So excited to play with other people. But who knows, maybe sometime down the road, I will play some solo gh vs. starting another Xcom2 save.
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Btw, the helper app is amazing.
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"Your game came, Dad. I tried unpacking it for you, but it's to freaking heavy - what is it?"
"Do you want the drinking from the firehose version or do you want to wait until I unpack it and try to give you the 20 minute sell on it?"
"Short version."
"Like Pathfinder, in that we have our own dudes with their own cards and abilities and we get new cards and abilities, and there is an ongoing campaign. The combat is tactical minis, you submit two actions cards face down each turn and then act them out in initiative order. We work through a campaign book and our success/failure/choices open or close various locations and scenarios."
"Sounds cool? How long does it take to play?"
"About a half hour per person."
"I want to try it."
Yay!
Later in the evening, the wife finally sits down and says, "So this is the big one you've been chasing since Ryan's B-day?"
I asked her if she wanted to the rundown - She looked over the components - "not tonight, and I'm going to want a glass of wine, because I'm guessing you're going to want to watch a video."
So - Yay?!?
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Some takeaways -
I will only play without the app, if playing without the app is the only option. At first I was hesitant because I like all the rituals and damage tokens and markers are not that onerous to deal with. But man it saves a BUNCH of table space not having all the envelopes and action decks out. Probably saved 20 minutes total, with reduced set up, tear down and in game administration.
I will weekly remind our group to pursue checkmarks and that the tension between the slightly selfish battle goals, and the hidden information are what keep this game from being like Pandemic and that none of us want that alpha gaming experience.
Making the best of a dog's breakfast when you're last in initiative order is a valuable skill to have. Getting bent over not being able to do the amazing thing you hoped to do, is something that you need to be able deal with gracefully, or this is not the game for you. I would go as far as saying, if you've ever been accused of being an alpha gamer, or know that you have those tendencies, you should probably try a practice session with at least 2 other people, because there's a good chance this game might not be for you.
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An interesting development. Also I hope Gloomhaven: Subtitle is the official name.
Edit: the tweet won't work? It's a stripped down retail version of Gloomhaven with 4 new characters and 24 scenarios. Compatible with the base game. $40ish.
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- hotseatgames
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- D12
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Edit: also works as an expansion to Gloomhaven which is neat. All new characters, monsters, and scenarios.
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Everyone hit level 2. This game really hits it's shine on that 4th or 5th session. This week's game we set up, played, and picked up and realized our plays are running @ an hour, so I'm going to start setting up 15 minutes early so we can get 2 scenarios in from now on.
When I get some free time at my pc, and can be arsed, I'll put up some spoiler tags and talk some stats and gameplay.
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