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Micro Reviews of Board Games From a Non-Competetive Perspective

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kyrathaba:
Dixit looks nice!  Might have to try this.

Ravenloft is only to be played when you have a good Dungeon Master who is up for it.

And I can tell you now that there are not that many.

This setting was tried by our group when it was still active, but our DM did not have the 'chops'.
--- End quote ---

Agreed.  I had one of those rare DMs who was so in love with the Ravenloft setting (and novels) that he Dungeon Mastered these games with real excellence.
Like Shades, I wish I could participate in a tabletop game, but I live in a rural area, and have little time.  I have to content myself with my online game.  My favorite AD&D setting was Forgotten Realms.

mouser:
It's been a while since I posted one of my non-competitive board game mini-reviews, so here goes.

This is a mini-review of: Crack the Case


Crack the Case is kind of a party game for amateur sleuths.  The game comes with a ton of large cards which have two sides.  On one side is a short "mystery" you read to the rest of the group.  On the other side is the solution to the case that the reader keeps private. Then the rest of the group just asks questions of the reader that can only be answered by words like: YES/NO/MAYBE/IRRELEVANT/CLARIFY QUESTION.

That's basically the whole game.  Keep in mind that this isn't a game where you uncover clues and figure out some deep mystery -- the game is really about trying to come up with QUESTIONS that will help reveal the answer to the case (like trying to figure out how and why person X killed person Y).

We had quite a bit of fun playing it and liked the fact that it required no setup, and everyone could just sit where they want and shout out questions and all play at the same time.

Some "cases" were more enjoyable than others, but each case only takes 10-15 minutes to play and every one that we played involved moments where we were pleasantly perplexed and searching for the right question to ask to "crack" the case -- and eventually solved each one.

A big thumbs up for this one -- especially when playing with groups that don't like too much structure, want to jump right into something -- and it's also one where there is no pressure on anyone to come up with ideas, etc.  Since it's basically just a free for all of shouting out questions.

Final Rating: 8 out of 10.

mouser:
Note: we spent a couple of *hours* playing Crack the Case live in the DonationCoder live irc (efnet) chatroom the other day, and had a blast.  We will be playing again soon if anyone else wants to play.

40hz:
Question for all you boardgamers...I just unboxed a copy of The Settlers of Catan (board version) and played it last night with three friends (one a big SoC fan - the rest of us veteran gamers).




I was pretty excited giving it a try since it gets rave reviews and is one of the most highly recommended games out there.




I must admit I was more than a little disappointed however. It was an ok game as far as it goes. Great packaging, cool changeable board map, simple clear instructions. And decent gameplay.

But I just didn't experience anything playing it that made me think it deserved some of the accolades it received.

So question: am I missing something -  or does it maybe get better once you add some expansion packs and involve more players? Because I really want to like this game. It's just I'm having a hard time doing it after last night.

 :)

mouser:
I played it once, didn't enjoy it.

Looks like you are learning what I learned -- different people have very different tastes in board games.

With all of the accolades that Settlers has received, I can surmise that it is a great game for many people -- and has some deep and interesting strategic elements.  But that doesn't equal fun for everyone.

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