Seafall (No spoilers?)

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yerm

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I just gave this as a housewarming present to my brother and sister-in-law. I had some questions if anyone wouldn't mind sharing their opinion...

We could easily do this 3, 4, or 5. My understanding is go with 4. Am I correct? How much worse is 5?

If I do it 4, but the 4th is a non gamer... is it complicated on top of being slow? Is it overly punishing of poor choices or is catchup reasonably fair? Risk legacy for example was just devastating if someone sucks while pand legacy I had no problems with 2 non gamers; both had a blast.

Is it directly competitive or more just points? I could bring another brother who loves games but even basic shit like forward settling him in cataan can become a salt mine. Worth bringing him?

If I bring a young lady who gets horrendously bored even at shit like munchkin turn times and we do go with 5... safe to assume she will hate her life with how slow it is?
 

faille

Molten Core Raider
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Yeah, pretty sure you can rule the young lady out completely if she'd be in a 5 player game. While turns are speeding up for us, there's still a fair wait to the point where my partner reads a book and does work. Admittedly she's lost interest in competing in the game generally and is focused on her own goals, but still...

As for competition, it really depends on the make up. Our group is fairly carebear, with little direct confrontation and most of us doing our own things. There's certainly scope for direct attacks though so I'd imagine other groups are far more ruthless.

Catchup is fairly good but is dependant on learning the game. There's a significant danger that non-gamers won't be able to use the mechanics effectively if they're not improving as well. Again, really depends on the players. As for complexity, it's strength could also be it's weakness. While the game starts off simply and builds up it's complexity, that also means you're effectively learning a new game each session. Arguably, it might be better if it started off more complex but allowed people to get used to that. Really depends on the 4th player as to whether he'd like having to learn whole new mechanics and getting used to for the first five or so games.

I played Pandemic Legacy with non-games and everyone loved it also but I can't see Seafall suiting them. It's just that much more complicated, in addition to being compettive instead of complex and a lot slower. I think you're better off with 3 players who are gamers and will enjoy that style of game rather than adding more people who it's not really suitable for. Just my opinion of course and every group / person is different!
 
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faille

Molten Core Raider
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Well, up to 10 or 11 games now and I have to say, it really is a shit game.
The catchup mechanic doesn't work nearly well enough so if you're behind then you've probably already lost. Apparently the last thing is a big spoint scorer which might turn things around, but if you haven't won enough or build up enough by that point, you won't be in as strong as position to get it. And going early might be a slight advantage in picking advisors or doing things, the fact the game can end suddenly means more often than not, you never get a final turn to score some extra points.

The biggest complaints I have is the complete randomness of the game. You can do nearly the same things as another person but have wildly different results. They help the natives and get free wood and gold and a bunch of points. You help the natives and they attack your boat and do damage. You miss a roll on an endevour check and you sink and have effectively wasted your turn. Make the roll and you get 6+ points and a bunch of other stuff.

Which leads on to my other complaint. You can plan to achieve something, working at it for a number of turns to get the stuff you need and sail to the position to do it and miss your roll, get a random event that makes it too hard, get pipped to the post by another player, or any number of other things. So instead of scoring up in the 20s like the leading players, you get 12 and fall further behind.

The game now actually makes me angry and I wish I could just quit out but it would mean pretty much the end of the game unless you can play with just two people.
 

Hateyou

Not Great, Not Terrible
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That sounds like shit. Why can't you quit out? Are you 10 games into a campaign or what?

I get the not wanting to quit if so, we were like that with Descent, even though we were kind of not having a good time with it. We did finally move on though, it just wasn't worth it. Luckily both sides were having shitty games so the feelings were mutual.
 

faille

Molten Core Raider
1,830
414
That sounds like shit. Why can't you quit out? Are you 10 games into a campaign or what?

I get the not wanting to quit if so, we were like that with Descent, even though we were kind of not having a good time with it. We did finally move on though, it just wasn't worth it. Luckily both sides were having shitty games so the feelings were mutual.

Yeah, its legacy / campaign and if quit, my partner will aso, leaving just two players left. The game is supposed to be 3-5 but I think it might be ok for them to finish it from this point. I hate quitting out though leaving them in the lurch but it really does make me angry now and isn't enjoyable at all anymore.
 
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Hateyou

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I guess I'd just play the rest of it taking every chance I could just to see how bad I could fuck up and die. Kind of like a regular game of kingdom death. May be more enjoyable that way?
 

meStevo

I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
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We never got to our 3rd game of this.

Hope we take to Gloomhaven better.