Off-topic
Board Games/Tabletop Games
Out of Games doesn't need to be specifically about video games! haha. Tell me about some of your favorite board games, or tabletop experiences like Dungeons & Dragons, Shadowrun, etc. I'm always in the market for more!
My family has a game night we do each Friday: there are five of us, and it's a struggle to find ones that can successfully field five players. Four appears to be the magic number, much to our dismay. Still, we've found some, like Talisman, Settlers of Catan, and Wingspan. We've even adapted some games that could theoretically run with more than four without trouble, like the Firefly board game. We also have a fair number of cooperative games, to curb our bloodlus...I mean "competitive natures". We had to stop playing certain games like Munchkin because people get too upset :/
Unfortunately, when a game lacks an expansion or setup for a fifth player, we lose out on what could be a fun experience. The Horizon: Zero Dawn board game has really nice, detailed miniatures of the robots...but all the expansions add more robots, not more players. I went out of my way to buy the Kickstarter pieces to the "Borderlands: Mr. Torgue's Arena of Badassery" game on Ebay - because I absolutely love Borderlands - and despite now having like 25 playable characters, the rules are still only balanced for four people. It all sits in a tote in my room, collecting dust alongside my Bunkers & Badasses tabletop stuff :(
Segueing into tabletop games, I really enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons with my dad and his friends...but it doesn't like me lol. I am terrible at rolling favorably, and I don't care to roleplay my characters that much. We're there to play a game, not be actors! I bought a Bunkers & Badasses set - the Borderlands equivalent - but I don't have anyone to play that with, so I guess my campaign idea will remain just a Word document forever. My dad is currently creating his own tabletop rulebook/setting with the intent to publish it, so that's cool.
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Scattergories is a fun one. It's about fast thinking and trying to think like your opponent as you write down answers that fit a specific category.
I've played it over screensharing and mic and friends and it's a fun time.
The deck-building game Dominion works well with 5 players; I've played with that many several times. I know that some TCG purists disparage Dominion because the meta is "solved", but I have a really fun time trying out new ways to build engines or try out new synergies with various cards even if there are obvious "optimal" strategies. The base game is really good, but there's also TON of expansions (Seaside is my favorite) that bring new cards and mechanics to the game. Replayability, because of the variety of cards you can bring in to any given game, is fairly high, IMO.
I also like Scythe and the box says it can be played with five people (although I've never played with that many so I can't tell you how it goes). If engine-building/exploration is your family's cup of tea, it's a good game with a decent amount of replyability (most the game-to-game variety come from the event cards). The hardest part for beginners is getting used to the turn flow, once you've got that down things move a lot faster.
My absolute favorite game is Once Upon a Time, but it's a little esoteric. It's collaborative/competitive storytelling, where each player has a hand of cards featuring story elements and has to weave those elements into the story as the storyteller, or try to interrupt the story with their own cards to take it down their path. Each player has an ending card they're trying to build towards, and the first player to empty their hand and organically steer the story to their ending wins. It can accomodate five players, but it's not for everyone.
I don't want to cure cancer; I want to turn people into dinosaurs.
Enthusiastic agreement with most of the above!
I recently discovered Splendor, which my family has been greatly enjoying. Simple enough to get right into, complex enough to develop strategies over time. If you like Catan, you'll probably like this one too.
I also love One Night: Ultimate Werewolf. It's an interactive game where the players collectively try to solve the mystery of who the werewolf is, but one or two players might be the werewolf themselves. It's all about detective work and bluffing.
As a huge fan of escape rooms, I have found a number of at-home escape room games you can play. My favorites are the Unlock! Escape Adventures made by Space Cowboys. These games use a free phone app in which you enter codes, get hints, etc. Very creative and fun.
I used to love the game Pandemic (a rare cooperative board game), but after the last few years ... it hits a bit different, you know?
"Be excellent to each other." -Bill and Ted
I love lots of tabletop games, but sticking to the ones I own myself and favourites I have to recomend:
BANG!
Social deduction western game where a sheriff has to get bandits and renegade with help of the deputy. The thing is, you only know who the sheriff is and have some good mechanics like distance and character abilities that make each game really unique. It is an easy to learn hard to master situation as every character have their strenghts and playstyle.
Betrayal at the house of the hill 3rd edition:
A game where you investigate a randomly generated mansion with your friends because of a reason you select before starting until sth happens. This something can be any of around 50 different scenarios and there is normally a traitor present. It is pretty good for a laugh with friends.
Boss Monster:
You are the boss of a dungeon and have to lure adventurers into it to collect their souls, competing with other fellow boss monsters. Do not be too greedy though or you might take wounds. The 8-bit asthetic is really awesome. It is pretty simple to learn.
Catan was mentioned before but is amazing anyways.
Mision Cumplida:
It is a cooperative game where you have 4 cards in your hand (as well as your fellow players) and have to complete objectives that will be popping as you play. The game mechanics are similar to UNO! where you place cards depending on number and color. You cant tell the other players what you have on your hand and have to play in the same 4 columns to make things such as "All cards are green or orange" "All cards are higher than 4" "There are 2 not adjacent blue cards" etc. until you hit a number that depends on the wanted difficulty level and number of players.
Paleo:
Cooperative modular game where you play as members of a tribe and try to survive each night collecting resources and trying to finish some goals that depend on modules used. Really fun and strategic.
Sushi Go!: (Or Sushi Go Party!)
Fun party game where you pass your hand to the player on your left each time you play a card. Your goal is to have the best sushi combination played but you have to play with the hands of everyone and try to think what they might play or benefit from. Sometimes you play a card to mess with your opponent instead of trying to get lots of points yourself and make him loose in a big combo.
Virus:
Another fun and quick game I play a lot with my wife (as well as mision cumplida). The Goal is to have 4 working organs in your body and there are viruses and other cards used to interact with other bodies as well as organ stealing etc. Really fun
Wingspan
A simple yet deep game where you have to play different birds to gain points. Hard to explain for me without the box near, but it would be a resource management game. Really beautifully made.
Also I saw Pezman mention Unlock! It is a pretty awesome series and made me remember about another game that uses an app called "Chronicles of Crime". In this game you are a detective and use the app to scan cards to find evidence, talk to witnesses, etc. It is pretty fun and have some mechanics like in game time passing each time you do sth that might end up changing how the case moves forward. For example taking too much time to finish might mean another victim, etc. The app logs everything but I recomend bringing a notepad with you.
Lemushki - The one and only since the 2006 rebranding.
To mention some of the 5(+) player games that I have found success running at my college gaming groups (because I agree, past 4 becomes a much more difficult task)
Magic Maze:
A cooperative game where you and the rest of your team of rag-tag teenage adventurers are trying to "acquire" your treasure from a magic mall. It requires a lot of team work because each player is the ony one who can take their actions in this race against the clock!
Scythe:
As someone mentioned earlier, the base game works with 5 players! This is a more tactical game, but the art is beautiful and it can lead to a lot of intricate decisions, if your family is willing to take the time to learn it this game is phenomenal!
The Crew:
Another cooperative game, The Crew (and the Crew: Mission Deep Sea) are both games with slight variants that focus on the joy of trick taking games, but for the sake of cooperation to complete your mission!
Wingspan:
A game that could easily be considered a modern classic already, Wingspan is a game for everyone, it's got tableau building for those of you who want to build that really complex synergistic board. It has plenty of fun colorful tokens and strong theming with flavorful goals and ways to compete and win the game. Oh, and did I mention BIRDS, every bird is unique and lets you learn about birds around the world!
It's cool to see that Wingspan is so popular - we play it all the time, and even own the digital version on our phones so we can play when we're not at Game Night lol
Co-op favorites in our group: Zombicide Black Plague (hack your way through undead hordes), The Siege of Runedar (dwarves defending a gold mine; max 4 players unfortunately), Mansions of Madness (solve Lovecraftian horror mysteries).
Flamecraft ("dragon placement") is an accessible and very cute game that can handle 5 players.
7 Wonders (civilization building via card drafting) is great with many players (up to 7) because turns happen simultaneously, so it doesn't slow down much with larger player counts. Similarly, Libertalia (pirates on a plunder tour) can be played with 6 players and is partially simultaneous.
Terraforming Mars is an engine builder, so it might appeal to the Wingspan fans, but it is longer and a bit more complex.
Oh, and I agree with the recommendation of The Crew (either variant). Some people don't enjoy the pressure of mistakes dooming the mission though, so it does depend on the group. I'd recommend giving it a try online via BoardGameArena and buy the box if it fits your group.
After reviewing the demo for Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon for the latest Steam Fest, I went to YouTube to see what some of my preferred content creators had to say about it. That's when I learned that it was a board game first; you don't often see that! Most "ports" are from video game to board game, like Skyrim, Fallout, etc., and not the other way around, except for stuff like "you can now play Wingspan on your phone!" which is not what I mean by that.
Of course, not only is it just for up to 4 players, the developers have no intention of increasing that player-count to 5 😒
It seems "Awakened Realms", the publisher of the Tainted Grail board game, have a particular mold and plan to stick to it: games that are 1-4 players only, expensive, well-made, and well-written. The latter half of that description is great; the former...not so much 🧐
I looked into their other games, namely the "ISS Vanguard" spaceship cooperative campaign, and whatever else appeared on Amazon: all the best looking ones tap out at 4 players. Not to mention ISS Vanguard is $160 on Amazon! I can't justify that, even with my family's liberal board game purchases in the past.
While the story and atmosphere of Tainted Grail are indeed excellent, mechanically it has some issues, in my opinion. As you start, the combat system is relatively complex and a lot of combos are impossible to trigger because your characters have insufficient stats. Maybe this was intentional to emphasize that the player characters were a choice of desperation, but it doesn't feel great to play.
Combat gets better as you progress in the story and unlock stat upgrades, skills and useful items. But as you progress to later story chapters, the encounter decks become more monster-heavy, which has the side effect of providing more XP but less food, which means you'll have to fight more often to gather enough food and will get loads of XP. So where the early game was difficult and slow to progress, the mid-game is grindy but not as tense.
We also had an issue where we took a wrong turn on the map: we investigated an area where we could only discover things in later chapters. However, this wasn't clear until we had spent all our resources and were stuck in a place where it was impossible to recover them. So we had to revert back to the start of the chapter and explore in a different direction.
That said, when the game does work, it is awesome, full of gritty descriptions and difficult choices. We will likely finish the game for its story, although I don't think I'd be up for a second playthrough. Maybe other people feel the same way, in that case getting a second hand copy for a more reasonable price might be an option for you. While the game has legacy elements, that's implemented as deck building and one double-sided paper record sheet, so it should be easy enough to reset a game to its starting state.
The four-player limit is a hard limit though: the player characters all have dedicated story content, so even if you could mechanically fit in a fifth player, they would just be a sidekick without a story line.