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Culture War Roundup for the week of January 23, 2023

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Oh it's too broad of a question to answer easily but I'd love to answer in detail. There are all sorts of different types to explore depending on your tastes. The two broadest categorizations are the Euro game and the Ameritrash(this is a term of endearment) with euro games focusing more on tight puzzles to really crunch on with your brain while American style games still often have crunchy puzzles but with increased amount of random chance, direct player conflict and above all theme.

Past that classification there are all sorts of different experiences you can have but you may need to answer a couple questions for me to point you in the right direction, are you looking for games for a consistent group of players? There are 'legacy' type board games where each time you play them you modify the board with stickers and card packs in a campaign type experience. What is the age cohort you would like to play with? There are great modern games simple enough for kids. Would you like to cooperate with or fight against the other players? How about an asymmetric game where one player is against all the others? Cooperative experiences of board games have come a long way.

There's probably more factors as well if you have any particular goal.

Just so I actually answer you question if you're not that interested. Somewhat diverse set of games I'd recommend without hesitation:

  1. Betrayal Legacy - Or the original 'Betrayal at house on the hill' if legacy doesn't appeal to you. Explore a randomly generated haunted house collecting boons and detriments until you trigger a haunting in which one or more players are suddenly trying to take down the rest of the group.

  2. Treasure Island - One player is the pirate captain who picks a place on a map to bury treasure and is imprisoned by his crew as they search the island marking where they'd dug with dry erase markers and getting hints each round from the pirate captain.

  3. Blood on the Clocktower - we actually have a motte discord group(albeit it's half rdramanaughts) where we play this one in a slightly modified format. It's an evolution on the classic werewolf where there is a demon and a number of other roles that need to each use their special abilities to find and execute them.

  4. Gaia Project - This is a pretty classic euro style game. Over a few rounds each player uses their faction to try and colonize planets and rack up victory points.

  5. Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective - This one is like a classic choose your own adventure book with extra components meant to be played along or with others(definitely recommend with others)

  6. Ticket to ride - You draft cards and try to complete railroad routes across the united states(or other locations with expansions). Deep enough for adults to enjoy together but really shines in being appropriate for all ages.

Betrayal at House on the Hill is the most ridiculously unbalanced game that I actually wholeheartedly recommend. IME the vast majority of monsters are ridiculously over or under powered, but IMO this actually kind of works for the game: either 4/5 players have fun taking down an axe murderer and some zombies (fun adventure!) or 4/5 players are running around desperately trying to survive one more turn against a vampire ("horror movie").

If you've not played the legacy variant yet I definitely recommend, and of course the balance isn't all that important. One of my favorite thing about asymmetric games that go a little theme heavy is that the balance isn't really all that important as long as it is not blatantly broken. A game with a terrible winrate for some role with a group that plays regularly just means the person who finally wins with it is a legend. Look at demons in Blood on the clocktower, they don't win all that often in games I've played but when they do or even just do really well they're praised for it.

Do you mean asymmetrical games?

Speaking of asymmetrical games and going on a slight tangent, it is funny how the Vagabond in Root is probably underestimated instinctively by new players (he's just one guy in a game where factions deploy dozens of units and buildings), yet is widely regarded as OP to the point of houserules for nerfing him, banning certain classes of Vagabond and/or having an agreement to take turns whacking him at all times.

Do you mean asymmetrical games?

Yes, edited