What games have you bought recently?

[Raynor]

I went through a big purge last month and just ended up putting whatever money I got from selling games right back into new games. Gen con proved to be a great place to pick up games too, who knew! I’ve gone before but this was the first year I was in some Facebook trading groups and a good amount of people were selling in prep to raise Gen con money and the con itself was a great place for exchanges. Gen Con also has a tendency to infuse me with a bunch of energy and willingness to learn new games too.

As a result I ended up grabbing Bardsung and Massive Darkness 2 and learning them both the last two weeks.

Bardsung I probably won’t hang onto forever, but it’s the closest game to Shadows of Brimstone I’ve seen, with flipping tiles, encounter cards, and leveling up. The rulebook is a little rough but once you’re through it the game itself is really well streamlined and fun if you like typical dnd dungeon crawls. It works solo a lot better than Shadows does, which was what convinced me to pick it up despite preferring Shadows of Brimstone in most respects. I’ve heard some complaints that it is too Grindy, but honestly sometimes I’m just in the mood to do some grindy dungeon crawling so it’s been perfect so far.

Massive Darkness 2 I had no interest in at all but everyone kept raving about it, and anyone who complained about Bardsung also sang praises to MD2. I’d gotten to try Bardsung before I decided to grab a copy so I was curious what could make people like this one so much when I quite enjoyed Bardsung.

Well… they were right. MD2 has a lot of that Zombicide dna in it, but instead of being a zombie game with dungeon crawler mechanics it is just a true blue dungeon crawler. In Shadows of Brimstone or the above mentioned Bardsung, you’re in it for the long haul. They’re campaign games where you don’t really get the full experience without committing to a whole series of game sessions. It can be fun but frankly it’s limiting. My favorite games have always been scenario based (aToE, Arkham Horror, etc) But there’s definitely an appeal to leveling up a character that you get from these longer campaign games. MD2 manages to bake the appeal and function of a level up system right into a single session scenario game, and it’s lovely. So while I’m having a great time with Bardsung right now as a mostly solo game in place of a good Shadows of Brimstone group, Massive Darkness 2 fits my normal collection staple type exceptionally well and I expect I’ll be playing it for a long time to come as the snappy dungeon crawl of choice.

Anyway, most of my energy has been going into learning these two systems this month. Been a great time

Highlights of my demos at gen con were Oathsworn and Foundations of Rome, which were both exceptionally fun demos.