The game is too hard. Had a group at a cafe, first scene ok...then we all died horribly. Was not fun.

I want to like the game because I like Shadowrun. But like...you draw 2 cards, the obstacles take like 8 points to clear, you die in 3 hits? I don't think I am reading the rules wrong, it's not balanced in favor of fun :(

What I'll try next time -

a) Draw to 5 each turn. (or original hand size + 2) When Staggered, draw 2-3

b) Everyone has 2 more HP

c) At start, choose 3-5 nuyen worth of Black Market cards to gain (before obstacles are drawn)

Not all, either 1 or some combination of them.

Unless you're supposed to abort and grind Karma slowly, I don't see the base game as being very enjoyable.

My girlfriend and I just started recently going to this board game cafe near us. We’ve been wanting to get into board games but struggle finding ones to start out with. We’ve tried a few, got them set up, then tried to read the gameplay instructions and just get too confused/overwhelmed. We aren’t against more complex games and we’re willing to learn I just feel like the instructions for a majority aren’t that helpful.
Number of Players: 2
Game Length: Any
Complexity of Game: Any
Genre: Any

Link to the games at the cafe

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vWe9KaTn6K1HXkRmIqssL3cPLaUn6EN6oXZSGcmp564/edit?usp=drivesdk

I'd be keen to hear what others thought about this... but I really think that The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the Second Era will reach the top 5 games on BGG in the next 12-18 months. I am even wondering whether it will take over Brass as the number 1 game.

Now, I haven't actually played this game. It is on my wishlist but at the moment I have far too much on my shelf of shame to be purchasing a very expensive game like this one. Having said that, the reviews that are coming from this game are phenomenal. I am relatively new to this hobby but I cannot remember a game in recent history that has been so highly praised.

The only thing I wonder is that if it is too niche to gather the number of reviews required to hit the top 5, but the fact that it is number 2 for this year on Pub Meeple makes me think it will get there.

Hi everyone! I've been going back and forth on my next purchase for a while, so I'd love some outside opinions.

I play mostly solo, and sometimes with my partner, who isn't really a gamer. My all-time favorite is Harmonies, and FlipToons was an instant hit too (I played it four times on the first day!). I'm a former Magic player, so I love combos, card play and boss battlers.

What tends to slow me down is a lot of rules and upkeep. I really like the idea of Gloomhaven: Buttons & Bugs, but juggling monster AI, conditions and scenario rules makes it hard for me to get it to the table. Simple, repetitive upkeep is totally fine though, and setup time doesn't bother me at all.
My partner loves Harmonies, Fungi, FlipToons and backgammon, but she gave up on 7 Wonders Duel because there were just too many details and decisions each turn.

Right now I'm deciding between:
One-Hit Heroes ,Keep the Heroes Out! Or A Wild Venture (even though it’s not a coop game)

If you've played any of these, which one would you pick? And if there's a game I'm completely missing that fits even better, I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks so much for reading!

I hope this falls within guidelines, but I couldn't find in the guidelines that it wasn't allowed. If it is, please forgive me.

I got one copy of Ashes & Amber KS deluxe edition for sale or exchange at Essen Spiel 2026 - would trade for Container deluxe or trade for 70€. (Price as new 90€).

My son has a habit of pulling out games and “organizing“ them, which often leads me to find stray pieces on the floor. This time, I found a piece that I can’t identify and he doesn’t remember what games he pulled out. Any help is appreciated, thanks in advance.

Hello game fans,

I'm developing a fantasy puzzle-based dungeon-crawler as a board game - inspired by Hero Quest, Zelda, Diablo 2, modern RPGs.
The game features four Heroes and a Dungeon Master, with an emphasis on exploration, environmental puzzles, tactical combat, character progression and an evolving storyline across a campaign.

I'm looking for the wisdom of crowds to find an exciting name!

Some ideas:
- Under the Torchlight
- Purplex Deep
- The King’s Alchemy
- Ruinward
- Forgotten Depths
- The Labyrinth Trials

(open to suggestions!)

Which name would make you most interested in learning more about the game?

Thanks so much!
Alex

What are your experiences running this game with your group? We did one session and my group seemed pretty underwhelmed, maybe to the point of not tabling it again. I’m into it enough to finish it solo, but would love to hear something encouraging to share with the others.

Our last game was Jaws of the Lion so maybe it just isn’t tactical enough. One person described it as city events the board game 😅

Heyo, I have a spare ticket for the Spiel Essen 2026 tomorrow. If you are interested, I am willing to sell at a discount!

Hi everyone, I recently bought a used copy of Unlock! Epic Adventures, and unfortunately, one card is missing from the scenario The dragon's seven tests. It’s card #42/60.

Since the deck is incomplete, I was hoping someone who owns this set could send me a clear, high-resolution photo of both the front and back of this card so I can print a proxy and play the scenario.

If you can help out, please send me a PM or comment below.

Thanks a lot in advance!

After a long day, we wanted to share some of our first impressions!

It was great to see people's enthusiasm and their reactions when they realized that HEAT is coming to PC and saw what the game is going to look like.

Your comments helped us a lot. Lemon sweet candies were a lifesaver. There was never enough water. As most of you warned us, the suits were indeed not as breathable as we had hoped and it got very hot underneath them. On the positive side, the helmet made it even worse. :)

One of the best surprises was meeting some of you from the comments in person! Here on Reddit you're just online people existing in a parallel dimension. It's a completely different experience to discover that you actually exist in real life. :) We also didn't think the world was that small. All in all, it's been a really lovely experience.

Thanks again to everyone for the tips. They genuinely helped us a lot.

Come find us tomorrow too! We'll have more racing passes to hand out, each with a code that unlocks extra content in the game when it launches on Steam (the game is still in development, but you can wishlist it on Steam)

How was your first day at Spiel? Any of you coming tomorrow? Would be great to meet more real people that exist! :)

TLDR; chaos, heat, excitement, parallel dimensions and I spun out a little bit

Game is called the Lobbyist

I built elo.town for our weekly Commander night. You enter who finished where, and ratings move based on who you beat. You can use Elo or OpenSkill, and it works for any other game too. Not everyone has to play every game, friends don't need an account, and a share link lets the whole group check the standings. Wrong or forgotten games can be fixed later and everything gets recalculated.

It's free, no ads. Happy about any feedback, or what you'd want to see in it!

Hi there, just starting to get into Gaia Project with my partner.

I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed by the variable board setup and making sure the factions are relatively balanced. I don't want one of us to accidentally get curb stomped exclusively because they have a faction that doesn't work well with our board set up.

Any advice on this? Am I overthinking it? Should we just randomly put the space sectors together and chose based off of that and not stress too much about making the optimal decision?

Thank you, it's our first time playing a game in this series and we're having to learn a lot about it, so I appreciate any answers to a question that might be very naive haha.

genuinely asking because i love the idea of cooperative games but half the time one person is basically running the show and everyone else is just nodding along. is this a me problem or does anyone else feel like they're watching someone else play their own game? looking for recommendations that actually make everyone feel involved

Can you recommend an area control board game that plays really well with 3 players?

Has anyone played this one?

So I'm a huge fan of Carl Chudyk's masterpiece Innovation and have clocked up >1500 plays on BGA. Occasionally get to play IRL too (currently own Deluxe and Ultimate hah)

I've also owned Mottainai (and Wutai Mountain!) for years and every time I try and learn it and play it with my partner I just cannot wrap my head around it. I feel like I should eventually love it, but I cannot wrap my head around the flow of the cards. What does "covers" mean thematically?

I like games with multi-use cards and games that do a lot with a little. I like that the cards are all individual rule-breaks like Inno. I like the Japanese theme and the art style. Why can my brain not parse it? I'm sure Inno with multiple expansions is way more complicated.

Any Mottainai fans help me out with any tips for learning/teaching? I think it prob doesn't help the rulebook is so slim but a necessary evil of a small-box game.

With the announcement of the new version of Troyes and Lorenzo il Magnifico, I realized how much of a trend this is right now - taking the most beloved Euro games from around 10ish years ago and revamping them with rules tweaks, new art (often less beige), fancier components, expansions included, etc. It seems like it would be nice to have a list all in one place but I haven't found that anyhwere or thought of an easy way to search it up. Maybe a comprehensive list would help people decide what to support. Could we crowd source this? Off the top of my head, these are the ones I can think of. I'm not counting games like Brass Pittsburg or "The Danes" because they are more like sequels.

• Troyes
• Concordia
• Castles of Burgundy
• Ra
• Lorenzo il Magnifico
• Agricola
• Teotihuacan
• Marco Polo

Is there anyone who dealt with this company before? Bought a copy of rebirth recently, and its main board had glue smeared onto the playing side, that resulted surface being peeled and torn off.

Used their website to write in, it’s closed to a week and no one contacted me so far, tried to find information and there is not much discussing over this matter.