Suggestions of fun, shortish play theme games.

[StayPuft]

(NOTE: Yeeeah... I tend to turn everything into a big, long story. LOL! I shall take pity upon those of you who may want to respond to my thread, but don't feel like reading the whole long thing. If you do read the whole thing, I definitely greatly appreciate that. If you'd rather skip to the part where you could maybe help, I will put the part where I actually get to the point, LOL, in bold red. Feel free to skip to that if you don't have time to read my novel below. LOL!)

Does anybody have any good suggestions of themed board games that maybe play a little on the short side? My group tends to love games like Last Night On Earth, Small World (like Risk, but very theme oriented, with creatures and special powers), Sentinels of the Multiverse (a super hero themed card game), King of Tokyo, and stuff like that. Games like that tend to be the ones we really enjoy.

There is one guy in my gaming group who is just as obsessed with Last Night On Earth as I am. The other guys do love the game, but they aren't as obsessed with it as myself and the one other guy.

The last thing I want to see happen is that they stop coming because they don't want to always play Last Night On Earth. So, for that reason, I always make sure to make it very clear that anybody can feel free to bring any game they like to try. We've played many other games, and have even skipped LNOE at times. Heck, I am open to playing other games. I'd love to experience other stuff and find other games I enjoy.

However, I wouldn't want to stop playing LNOE completely. Like I said, I am absolutely open to playing other games too, but LNOE was honestly the whole reason I got the game night together in the first place. So, if we stopped playing it all together, that would stink.

Anyway, long story short (too late, I know, LOL!),

I wondered if anybody knows of any really fun games with a cool theme that typically take maybe an hour or around that at the most to play. I ask because this way, we can actually fit in a new game AND Last Night On Earth in the same game night (or we can always try other games if the group wants to give LNOE a break for a week). We have three hours in our games nights, but after everybody gets in and we shoot the breeze for a while, we tend to play for around 2.5 hours. So, a game lasting around an hour would be perfect, because that still leaves time for a game of LNOE as well, or even something else.

[Wasteland Jack]

When my buddy and I want to burn an hour, Pandemic usually works. Munchkin pops in for a simple half hour of fun.

[mqstout]

* I find FANG fast -- and even when it's not, it FEELS fast because of its high excitement levels and quick turns. And it's simple to adjust the goal value of the game to make it take longer/slower. You could even say "person with most money after X turns (or X time,
* There's always Dominion or Ascension for deck builder games. (They're weaker on the "theme".) They go quickly.
* There's a whole range of quick-play cheaper card games -- Fluxx, Chez Geek/Goth, Munchkin, and so on, usually placed near game store checkout areas like candy would be in a supermarket. They tend to stay fast as long as you don't get into many expansions. [AVOID Back to the Future!
* Forbidden Island
* BGG advanced search for max play time of 1 hour sorted by rank. http://tinyurl.com/d4ttn5m

[jimbal]

We started playing Gloom, the card game that was on Table Top, and it is pretty quick and a blast. Munchkin tends to take us longer for some reason.

[MoonSylver]

Don't know if this one would be to your groups taste, but "Wings of War" (now "Wings of Glory") is a fast, easy, & furious game. Depending on the missions flown you might even get TWO in the space of an hour?

Can't remeber if I've reccomended "Claustrophobia" to you before, but it's quick, & oozing with theme. If you're considering it, you might act fast. The excellent expansion "De Profundus" goes OOP soon, if it hasn't already, so they're going to start getting scarce pretty soon.
---MS

[Cyrano89]

One I'm looking forward to releasing is Ruse. It is a steampunk card game that just had a successful Kickstarter campaign and should release in April. Basically there has been a murder and you are using the cards to pin the murder on someone else while protecting yourself with an alibi. When someone finally has a Method, a Motive, and an Opportunity that they can't deny, it becomes time for them to fess up to the crime. Very good for the story tellers in your group.

[Old Dwarf]

Elder Sign fills the bill for us.

OD

[Wasteland Jack]

(12-07-2012 09:43 PM)jimbal Wrote:  We started playing Gloom, the card game that was on Table Top, and it is pretty quick and a blast. Munchkin tends to take us longer for some reason.

How is Gloom? I was interested, but was a little leery when I first saw it.

[alderdust]

I play pandemic, munchkin, and smash up. All of these games play in 30-45 minutes.

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(12-10-2012 03:17 PM)Wasteland Jack Wrote:  

(12-07-2012 09:43 PM)jimbal Wrote:  We started playing Gloom, the card game that was on Table Top, and it is pretty quick and a blast. Munchkin tends to take us longer for some reason.

How is Gloom? I was interested, but was a little leery when I first saw it.

I have played gloom and it is very good if there is a good group who like to "story tell" however the cards are lacking in quality due to the ink is printed on top of the card and after just a few plays they tend to scratch off or rub off with sweaty peoples hands. I dont see why they didnt make it cost a extra couple dollars and put the ink inside of the card so it didnt rub away.

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I almost forgot 7 wonders is a good choice as well.

[StayPuft]

Awesome! Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. I will definitely have to check as many of them out as I can.

Mqstout,

It is funny that you mention Chez Geek/Goth, because the comic store where I have my gaming group actually has them. I was way into the Goth scene in high school (and much of it has stayed with me) so I thought that could be fun/funny to play, so I put it on my Christmas list.

As far as Gloom... I definitely say to take this with a grain of salt, so to speak. However...

I was honestly not terribly impressed with Gloom. It was alright, but I didn't really think it was that great. And coming from me, that is definitely saying something, because it is just the sort of game I should have LOVED. I mean, I'm not saying I didn't like it. It was cool. But, it just felt a little over-rated from what I had heard about it.

Again, that may have just been me, though. I definitely recommend trying it and forming your own opinion.