Tabletop Gaming

Over the past year or so me and my friends have slowly become tabletop gamers.
 
I'm not talking about playing Snake and Ladder, Cludeo or Monopoly here, I'm talking about proper well thought out and individualised games.
 
We have always enjoyed the odd game of something here and there but these days we plan out whole weekends dedicated to tabletop gaming. We usually pick two or three games we have played before and play a lengthy session of Pathfinder (a derivative of Dungeons & Dragons). Someone also always brings a new game to the table to keep things fresh.
 
Personally I enjoy tabletop games because from a game design perspective they present mechanics in their purest form. Still to this day a lot of well-known games go through a tabletop prototype phase of some sort to help test and explore their core mechanics with minimal cost. They are a good way to break an idea down to its base element to see if it is actually any good. There is a whole mad alchemy to it all which I am only just really starting to get my head around.
 
Tabletop also seems to be a growing hobby in the UK so I was wondering if anyone else partakes in board gaming or Pen and Paper RPGs?

Also while I am still fairly new to the hobby, if people want recommendations I am more than willing to offer up several games for various different types of players

I used to play a lot of warhammer and warhammer 40 thousand and stuff when I was younger. Now days I dont though. I did recently buy a whole bunch of 40 thousand paints and figure pieces though and build a mini army which was fun.

I've not played tabletop games for years. Not averse to it, just nonenof my friends/family are interested. Know any good single player games 

Time is an issue too, but that's the same for videogaming these days!

Never been a big thing for me but for a few of my friends it has. So I have been roped in to a few games in the past. I really enjoyed a gears of war game. Personally, I'd love the Firefly game but the £50 price tag is off putting for something I'm unlikely to play much.

sorenlorensen wrote:I've not played tabletop games for years. Not averse to it, just nonenof my friends/family are interested. Know any good single player games 

Time is an issue too, but that's the same for videogaming these days!

I find that a lot of people jump in the deep end and end up not enjoying themselves because they aren't ready for some of the more complex games. You don't start with Game of Thrones: The Board Game (although it is a very good game that everyone should play!) you have to work up to it. 

The things that have really got my group of friends into the scene have been things like Card Against Humanity (warning not for families!), Love Letter, King of Tokyo, etc. then we've moved onto more complex things from there.I've always dabbled in Tabletop RPGs so I slotted that in there at the right time once everyone got used to behaving like idiots around each other with other games 

Wolvieware wrote:Never been a big thing for me but for a few of my friends it has. So I have been roped in to a few games in the past. I really enjoyed a gears of war game. Personally, I'd love the Firefly game but the £50 price tag is off putting for something I'm unlikely to play much.

The Firefly game does look good 

I wrote a thing about my recent session of Fiasco, a storytelling RPG that sees you and your friends craft a darkly comic story along the lines of films such as Fargo, American Beauty, Pulp Fiction and the like.

Check it out here: http://langstrothgamedesign.co.uk/2014/12/23/what-a-fiasco/

I figured I might make this thread a semi-update thing of my tabletop adventure for those who are interested.

So here we go!

A slightly more detailed version of this is available on my site: langstrothgamedesign.co.uk

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I went to Draughts over the weekend which is London's premiere Board Game Cafe and had a blast. They have a ridiculous amount of games on offer and the setup is elegantly simple. You pay £5 and you can stay and play as many games as you want. Food and drink are on offer too and the whole place has a professional feel to it that other Board Game Cafes seem to lack.

While we were there we played and enjoyed:
King of New York - A fast and simple monster fighting game with deep tactics.
Settlers of Catan - A true classic of the medium and a must buy/play!
Sheriff of Nottingham - A Lying/Bluffing game which is an immense amount of fun.

All three a family friendly too!

The staff are also really helpful and eagerly offer up advice and recommendations. They even teach and run games for your table if you want to jump right into something.

If your interested go check out their site: Draughts Website

I also picked up a copy of Cyclades today! Here is a pic from around halfway through the unboxing and organising process



It is a game set in Mythological Greece that is all about area control and development with the twist being that players bid on gaining the favour of a given Greek God to do certain actions.

Board Gaming website, Shut Up & Sit Down's recent review of one of the game's expansions pushed me over the edge into buying it:



In addition to all of this not being the sort of person who believes in over stretching themselves I have started up a tabletop group in my local area: http://www.meetup.com/The-Bishops-Stortford-Tabletop-Group/

We've had a couple of sessions already and we have played good range of games which I will delve into at some point in the future!

I played the Alien Deck Building game for the first time tonight and it was really, really good! We played the scenario based on the first film and it actually ended with me frantically trying to lure the Alien to the airlock on my own because everyone else was dead!

If you're a fan of the films and/or fancy a co-op rather than competitive game I would go check it out!

Amazon Link: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Legendary-Encounters-Alien-Deckbuilding-Game/dp/B00MU2DQAW