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Cult of the Old - Lords of Waterdeep

Podcast/Video Details

Channel Name
Episode #
7

Game Information

Players
2 - 5
There Will Be Games

Each episode your hosts Iain McAllister, Matt Thrower, and Nate Owens are going to turn back the clock to look at games that are at least 10 years old. They’ll give their own critical impressions, tell you about the history of the game and its impact, and what relevance these games still have in the modern hobby landscape. 

Dungeons and Dragons has always been the dominant game in the tabletop RPG space. From its early days to the all encompassing 5th edition, there have always been attempts to leverage that name in other ways. T-shirts, mugs, TV shows, and of course board games. Lords of Waterdeep from designers Peter Lee and Rodney Thompson is a game that took many by surprise when it came out. Putting the worker placement mechanism into the world of DnD as you take on the role of one of the Lords of the city, it remains on shelves to this day and we delve into the reasons why. 

There Will Be Games

Iain McAllister  (He/Him)
Associate Writer and Podcaster

Iain McAllister lives in Dalkeith, Scotland with his wife Cath and their two dogs, Maddie and Gypsy. He has been a keen member of the local gaming scene for many years setting up and participating in many of the clubs that are part of Edinburgh's vibrant gaming scene.

You can find more of his work on The Giant Brain which publishes a wide range of articles about the hobby including reviews, previews, convention reports and critique. The Giant Brain is also the home of the Brainwaves podcast, a fortnightly podcast covering industry news that Iain hosts with his friend Jamie Adams.

patreon Discord

Articles & Podcasts by Iain McAllister

 

Iain McAllister
Associate Writer and Podcaster

Articles & Podcasts by Iain

 

 

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Jackwraith's Avatar
Jackwraith replied the topic: #340060 22 Jul 2023 14:13
Hey. I did listen to this one and didn't have much feedback about it, but I also listened to the 7 Wonders episode this morning and was really intrigued by that one, especially because none of you like it very much. I'm not a huge fan (I've only played a couple times) but I wanted to remember to things that came up to me while listening (Sorry for posting this in the wrong topic.)

First off, sorry, Nate, but I agree with Matt in that I don't see much of any connection between 7 Wonders and Ra. But, again, having only played the former a couple times and having played the latter a TON of times, it might just be my unfamiliarity with 7 Wonders that leaves me without the connection.

Second, I found it kind of odd when all of you seemed to agree that drafting games were WORSE with more players, when the game that inspired 7 Wonders (MTG) basically standardized the idea of a draft with eight. I always found that part of the magic (ahem) of MTG drafting was not only what you were talking about, in terms of the tension created by giving cards away that you wanted and hoping they'd come back, but in also watching the patterns of what was coming to you initially and then returning to you from those packs that were passed around. That's what makes the whole mechanism even more interesting to me, although the card content of MTG packs and the static set of 7 Wonders is obviously a very different dynamic.

All of that said, I do agree that 7 Wonders probably tops out at 4 or 5 players for the best experience.
Cappster_'s Avatar
Cappster_ replied the topic: #340066 22 Jul 2023 21:20

Jackwraith wrote: First off, sorry, Nate, but I agree with Matt in that I don't see much of any connection between 7 Wonders and Ra. But, again, having only played the former a couple times and having played the latter a TON of times, it might just be my unfamiliarity with 7 Wonders that leaves me without the connection.


I got where Nate was trying to go... That each set of colors had their own specific ways of contributing points, three rounds, etc. But how you get to that point is so vastly different I can also see where the dissonance from Mike and Ian came from.

I gave my thoughts on the discord about the various expansions, I'll wait to copy/paste them.
san il defanso's Avatar
san il defanso replied the topic: #340098 30 Jul 2023 12:48
Well, I tried to qualify my statement re: 7 Wonders and Ra, but yeah, it's more me than anything else. The three-rounds-and-scoring thing is a pretty standard format, I've just played that much Ra.

One thing I wish I could have back with the 7 Wonders episode is that I wish I had realized that I wasn't really coming to this game with any experience in drafting games. I had no memories of Magic drafts, and so 7 Wonders was scratching an itch I personally didn't have. Maybe one of my issues with the game is that I'm not sure it expresses to me why people love drafting in the first place. Compare that to, say, Dominion. There's a game that totally made you understand why people love building decks, even if you'd never done it before.

Anyway, I wish that I had understood that lack of context on my own part. I remember thinking that the day after we recorded this episode. :)