Plus: do not assume you need all the tiles in all the scenarios. This just isn't clear when you start playing and have to remember all the rules!
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We could make here a list of alternative CRBG scenarios, as well as the alternative rules people use.
Joël
"A full set of (game) rules is so massively complicated that the only time they were all bound together in a single volume, they underwent gravitational collapse and became a black hole" (Adams)
Yes, it seems the game is very FAQ-worthy. dozens of rules questions a day on boardgamegeek.com since it was released.
Joël of the FoS wrote:Well, from what I read, I believe you put a monster everytime - whatever the arrow colour, and use an encounter card when it is black.
Yes, this is correct. confirmed several times on BGG by the designers, and a strict reading of the rules.
Joël of the FoS wrote:And a table game can't be spooky.
Sure it can. Try Betrayal at House on the Hill or Arkham Horror... They just weren't going for spooky on this one. They were going for dungeon crawl with some spooky bits, just like I6 & EtCR.
"We're realistic heroes. We're not here to save the world, just nudge the world into a better place."
Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:Yes, it seems the game is very FAQ-worthy. dozens of rules questions a day on boardgamegeek.com since it was released.
Joël of the FoS wrote:Well, from what I read, I believe you put a monster everytime - whatever the arrow colour, and use an encounter card when it is black.
Yes, this is correct. confirmed several times on BGG by the designers, and a strict reading of the rules.
Joël of the FoS wrote:And a table game can't be spooky.
Sure it can. Try Betrayal at House on the Hill or Arkham Horror... They just weren't going for spooky on this one. They were going for dungeon crawl with some spooky bits, just like I6 & EtCR.
Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:Yes, it seems the game is very FAQ-worthy. dozens of rules questions a day on boardgamegeek.com since it was released.
Agreed. The rule book is terrible.
Okay, that's too hard. It does its job but some information could bear repeating and be re-emphasised and there are some grey areas in the rules that should have been clarified (can clerics jhealing word themselves, why there are 5 healing surge tokens, etc).
"A full set of (game) rules is so massively complicated that the only time they were all bound together in a single volume, they underwent gravitational collapse and became a black hole" (Adams)
Jeez, I can't believe how far this fell down the board already. It's like the only new thing we have for Ravenloft these days! Anyways, I am proud to say I will FINALLY be getting my hands on this thing Friday (if the UPS tracker is correct)!!! CAN'T WAIT! I read all the rules, downloaded the instructional manuel PDF and have been studying that, and I feel like I'm READY! I read all your thoughts here (and my man Jester got the sick look at the wizards site). Hopefully I can chime in later with my own thoughts, I'm just so excited to be getting this I'm giving you the preamble!!!
Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc4mBjj_yt4&feature=youtu.be
Well, I finally got to play my copy this past weekend, with two of the players from my RL campaign.
We played a total of 3 times.
- Scenario 2: find the icon - We won, but barely. If we hadn't gone half the game forgetting to take treasure from killing monsters, it might have been easier.
- Scenario 3: Klak - the little kobold bastard killed us fairly easily
- Scanario 6(?): The Dracolich - We won, but only by starting with 3 surges and choosing our own powers. The encounter card that makes you take damage for discarding treasure really wrecked us by coming out early.
Overall, as a boardgame, I enjoyed it, though it felt really brutal. Take the ominous feeling of Sauron marching inexorably down the corruption track in Knizia's Lord of the Rings, the despair of siege engines lining up outside of Camelot from Shadows over Camelot, the dread of chamber after chamber of the sub filling with water or fire from Red November, and sinking feeling of firing lasers that no one remembered to recharge toward a meteor barreling toward your shield-less ship from Space Alert. Add them all together, and that's maybe half the beating you get from Strahd's minions, traps, and random encounters in this game. I don't think everyone will like the "damned if you do, damned if you don't" decisions that come up all the the time. Even the hardened gamers I played with lamented when they got screwed by bad treasure draws. (The one thing that can actually help you in this game, and sometimes it's worse than useless. Try drawing "Level Up" when you just levelled last turn and you have to take 1 damage because that encounter condition is out). I also wish the layout of the dungeon mattered a bit more. Seems like some of the other scenarios might change that up.
One of the other player's biggest complaint: Magic Missile can MISS?!?!! How is that a D&D magic missile?
As a Ravenloft fan... well, the Dragonborn fighter laid the smack down on a Kobold Sorcerer in a trap-filled dungeon. Sound like any Ravenloft game you've ever heard of? Meh. It is what it is, and I shouldn't expect much more than that. Some of the encounter flavor text is Ravenloft-y at least. Some stuff comes right from the modules, like the Icon, the Sunsword, Sergei's Tomb. Some is just wrong: The Tomb of Ireena Kolyana? huh? Strahd decides to unleash a flesh golem on Barovia to destroy the town? really? Strahd who?
In any case, it's fun. I'm sure I'll play it often, but I have to lock my inner Ravenloft geek in one of Strahd's dungeon cells before I do. It's the Ravenloft module set in a generic D&D world, not the Ravenloft setting, and I can accept it as that.
As a counterpoint, we also played "A Touch of Evil: The Supernatural Game" this weekend. WotC could've bought this from Flying Frog, changed a few names and called it "A Touch of Evil: The Ravenloft Game" and it would've been 10 times closer in feel to the Ravenlot setting than the CR boardgame is. It has two mode, competitive and cooperative. We played competitive but will probably play co-op from now on due to the frustrating endgame of the competitive version. But until that endgame, it was very fun and incredibly thematic.
"We're realistic heroes. We're not here to save the world, just nudge the world into a better place."
Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:- Scenario 2: find the icon - We won, but barely. If we hadn't gone half the game forgetting to take treasure from killing monsters, it might have been easier.
Glad to hear I wasn't the only one that did that.
...and we lost the fighter in the Chapel, Icon in sight.
I have to reassess my initial impression of this game. Now that I have actually purchased it and played it a few times-- it is an excellent game and a heck of a lot of fun. The mini figs are fantastic, look incredible painted and the game plays really well. I still find the lack of a "board" a little annoying, but with the tiles, the game is always different every time, so that is interesting. Sorry to resurrct old thread from the crypts, but just wanted to post about how my views had changed. Its not fair to judge something without playing it. In this case, it is actually a lot better than I ever expected.
The huge surprise was how different Strahd looks. He looks interesting and stuff, in battle gear, I guess, battle . . .skirt (?) I actually went through the box 2x, thinking, mine had been missing the Strahd figure, he looks so different. But he was there, and its an interesting interpretation. No cape . . . but a huge sword? OK. why not? At least not the vampirate.
~ L A D Y S O T H ~
"I rule out nothing. Nor, I imagine, do you."
"Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside . . . "
"Hail Strahd, Lord of Barovia!"
Glad to hear you enjoyed it LadySoth. On a related note, in that blog that Matthew Martin linked to regarding RL 4E's postponement/cancellation, it mentioned that the 3rd game in the line will be "The Legend of Drizzt" in October.
I doubt I'll buy Ashardalon or Drizzt, though I do enjoy the Ravenloft game for what it is.
"We're realistic heroes. We're not here to save the world, just nudge the world into a better place."
I plan on going to Toad & Troll and buying some new monsters (and cards) and PCs from the Ashardalon game. Increase the number of players I can manage with Ravenloft and add some beastie variety.
LadySoth wrote:The huge surprise was how different Strahd looks. He looks interesting and stuff, in battle gear, I guess, battle . . .skirt (?) I actually went through the box 2x, thinking, mine had been missing the Strahd figure, he looks so different. But he was there, and its an interesting interpretation. No cape . . . but a huge sword? OK. why not? At least not the vampirate.
It is an unpainted version of the Vampire Vizier miniature from the Dungeons of Dread line (#28/60):
That's a little anti-climactic, I must say. No wonder they yanked the rug out from under the setting, they don't even think it is important enough for a unique Strahd mini! I WAS glad it wasn't vampirate, however...
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