Games I Usually Like Or Don't

[chas]

THE CHAS LISTS OF GAMES I USUALLY LIKE OR DON'T
By Chas


As an older gamer, I've spent hours playing things I was only a bit interested in if at all, just to be social. These days I'm aware that, as Richard Borg said to me in a post recently, "our remaining gaming time is precious.” I'm pretty specific about my likes and dislikes at this point in my gaming career arc, but I'm open to almost anything once. If a game is elegant, that is to say so well designed enough to be functional on many levels at once, I'll generally appreciate it, regardless of period, theme, or genre. That being said, I often won't play a game I don't like twice. So here's where I am in 2017. I don't expect others to agree with me at all, but here's what I like to see, and what I offer at my own table.


GAMES I USUALLY LIKE

*Multi Player Multi Module Games (including 4X). The Big Powers of a particular universe, whether historical or fantasy/sci fi, with military, diplomatic, political, economic, and/or other modules all at once. This category composes the majority of my current game collection (available for perusal on boardgamegeek).

*Light wagames (I used to play the heavier ones) For example, any Commands and Colors game by Richard Borg-- I have them all, with all of their expansions.

*Historical Games I have a Masters in History, and have traveled all around the world. Games that reflect that older reality of period flavor accurately are great.

*Fantasy and Science Fiction Games This includes games based on multicultural mythology, major media tie in Intellectual Properties, and other imaginative visions.

*Miniatures Games I GM my own with my rules from Medieval/Fantasy to The Korean War with 54mm (2 1/2 inch, 1/32 scale) collection of over 30,000 painted figures and their terrain, vehicles, and equipment.. I attended the HMGS conventions for many years, although I don't any longer. These include Obscure Wars, the lesser known historical conflicts.

*Heroscape in its many varieties, which is not a game, but a religion. My monthly group, The New York City Gang of Four, has been meeting regularly for 9 years!

*Euro-Ameritrash Hybrids They're awesome, don't eliminate players, or take too long.

*Co-op Games I'm a team player, and often a team leader/GM.

*Humorous Games We live by laughter; especially us Jewish types.

*Strategical Games large scale simulations.

*Tactical Games Skirmishes and small unit combat.


GAMES I USUALLY DON'T LIKE

*Complex Old Style Hex and Chit Wargames Been there; done that, since the 1960s.

*Family and Children's Games (Unless playing with same, which is rare for me).

*Pure Eurogames Themeless and abstract.

*Abstract Games Who cares? Play chess!

*Economic Games With Lots of Math. Ugh! I might as well do my taxes.

*Short Games If it plays in less than 90 minutes, its usually not worth the time.

*Horror Games and Goth sensibility games. Especially Cthulhu and slasher themes. I'm old and scared; and careful crossing the street. One day, you will be too. If you live that long.

*Adventure Games. Aka Dungeon Crawls. Most of them are not very good. You might as well just role play. But there are exceptions to every rule. I keep trying and not liking them, because my buddies want me to, and they keep buying them.

*Role Playing Games I wrote one of the first reviews of Dungeons and Dragons, and it was very positive. But these days it would have to be with a very good DM and creative people—who usually are busy doing professional creative things.

.

[Tornado]

Afraid of Cthulhu? You two cross paths in your youth?

RPGs pretty much always come down to the GM in my experience.
The system especially is secondary and often the setting/genre is as well.
A great GM can make pretty much anything fun.

Ever play any Battletech or mech based miniature war game?

[chas]

I've done extensive role playing, to the point where our old group played our own rules without dice! Which takes trust and story telling ability to the max. We also had our own company doing role playing for customers in their houses, but we'd missed the first wave, and were too early for the modern one, so we only did one or two visits. I was in charge of being the "sleeper," teaching new players by being in the party! At a Con I once one the "Most Helpful to the Dungeon Master" prize.

I played Battle Tech once at my old club, and MechWarrior many times, owning ridiculous amounts of it (which I no longer have). I saved about a dozen of my favorite robots for use in other games, such as C3V Scape. Remember, I love Japanese anime. When it comes to minis I do my own toy soldiers, but I've played air, naval, spaceships, steam punk sky galleons and ether ships, and you name it.

I'm not afraid of Cthulhu, I've even watched some of the movies. But keeping your sanity to me is not a very positive victory condition.

[Tornado]

Cool.

So you guys had a GM service? That is really neat!
Was that in the 70's?

We never got to big into MechWarrior as we kept our RPGs and Wargames split.
Ever try Robotech from Palladium?

I played a Cthulhu game last year at GC that was fun enough. The setting does not matter to me as long as I enjoy the game play.

[lefton4ya]

I'll join in the convoy:

GAMES I USUALLY LIKE / GAMES I DON'T LIKE / GAMES I KINDA LIKE

*Light wargames: Heroscape and Magic:AotP being biggest, other CVN/Stephen Baker games such as Battleball, and Summoner Wars, also all Risk versions, DDM/SW minis (D20 system) in the past.
*Heavy wargames: If you have to measure, assemble & paint, and memorize pages of rulebooks and stats, not for me. Warhammer/Hordes, Mechwarrior, Historical Miniatures etc.
*Medium wargames: X-Wing, Bloodbowl, and even Heroclix would be in the middle for me so I might like if I had the time & $

*Wargame/Eurogame mix: Kill opponent + Victory Points - King of Tokyo, Scythe, Shogun, Risk Europe/Star Wars Risk, & I'd probably be into Star Wars:Rebellion & Imperial Assault if I had

*Co-op Games (with or without Betrayor): Dead of Winter, Pandemic, Legendary (& other co-op deck games), Betrayal at House on the Hill

*Social Deduction Games (wihout DM or RP): I like faking people out and figuring out who is who - Resistance, Secret Hitler/Hamilton, Coup, Two Rooms and a Boom, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong, Good Cop Bad Cop
*Social Deduction Games (with DM & RP): I don't like that one person has to sit out for a game, and unlike most people I hate role-playing by what I mean pretending/acting like a detective, healer, or speaking in accents: Mafia/Werewolf
*Social Deduction Games with either DM or RP, or use a mobile app for part of it are in the middle - One Night Werewolf & Werewords

*Fast-paced slow-medium planning Eurogames: I like to be able to see my and opponent's victory points/$ add up throughout the game (but a little at the end is fine) - Carcossone, Machi-Koro, Tokaido
*Euro-Ameritrash Hybrids where your main objective is victory points by building an empire or missions, but can screw with others as well: Alien Frontier, Lords of Waterdeep, Cosmic Encounter, Acquire
*Slow paced Eurogames where you plan long-term and most of the victory points are gotten and/or counted at the end of the game, and there is a lot of time between turns: Catan, most games by Reiner Knizia
*Eurogames where you think medium-long and victory points are mostly counted at the end: Ticket to Ride, Dominion, Puerto Rico, Terra Mystica, Between Two Cities, Imhotep

*Creative/word games that are NON crass: Apples to Apples, Beyond Balderdash, Codenames, Telestrations, Things... (with the right people)
*Creative/humorous games that are crass: Cards Against Humanity, "Adult" versions word games, Things... (with the wrong people)

*Quick, fun "filler" games: Exploding Kittens, Love Letter, Lost Legacy, Fluxx, Cash 'N Guns

*Munchkin - it is its own class of game, although Battle Blakes by Lucas @weesel99 & @ManTrainChooChoo is a lighter version of it
*RPGs
*CCGs - Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, etc.
*CDGs (collectible dice games): I might be able to get into Dragon Dice or Marvel/DC Dice masters

*Abstract Strategy that I could master with enough time, or has a slight amount of luck such as random draws: Checkers, Connect 4, Element, Backgammon, Patchwork, Hive, Blokus, Quirkle, Tsuro
*Abstract Strategy that I would never master: Chess, Go, Mahjong
*Abstract Strategy that I think I could master but do not have inclination: GIPF, YINSH, DVONN, TZARR, etc.

*Dexterity Games - Jenga, Click Clack Lumberjack, KLASK, Pool, Air-hockey
*Speed Games - SLAPS/SPIT, and other ganes where you have to think fast

[chas]

lefton4ya,

That's an interesting list, all right. And some of your categories show how the hobby has changed over the years. I've played and enjoyed an occasional game like the ones you mention that are not on my list, but obviously didn't think to list them.

Yes, Munchkin is a humorous game. I used to collect them all, but I finally went on the wagon, and got rid of all except the original game and its many expansions (and Conan, with the same color cards).

The "heavy' wargames I used to play back in the day were board games by Avalon Hill, SPI, etc.

I could make up a a Hate List but why bother offending anyone? My pals know what they are!

[flameslayer93]

I haven't played enough games to say which I like/hate but I can say I dislike games with a long setup time (unless I'm not the one setting it up) lol. Heroscape falls into this category, but that's why I try to get a good long game day out of an impressive board.

Also, I'm not partial to Dungeon Crawlers. :P

[TREX]

@flameslayer93 , I'm with you on games that take a long time to setup. Heroscape rarely makes it to my table now days because not only does it take a while to set up, its pieces sometimes stick and are hard to take apart without worrying about breaking them.(especially castle sets) I have so many other games that are fun that my brothers don't want to play multiple games of heroscape and would rather play something else.

[chas]

Almost all of my Game Days are here at my place. I usually do the inviting, and choose what we'll play ahead of time, sometimes by consulting others based on when they can come and what they want to play. We'll usually play a main or longer game that I'll have set up before the others come, normally at noon. If there is time, we'll play another one of the same game. After that and a dinner break, we'll take it down and play a shorter game that doesn't take long to set up.

For Heroscape, the rotating monthly Game Master will send me a map online, that he's found or built on this site. Then I print out the plans, and put it together the day or morning before. I usually free build the maps for my own GM games. So I'll also do that ahead of time. Occasionally another free building GM will come a couple of hours early to build their own map from my own large collection of terrain, or the library of maps we've accumulated over the years.

Following the system from the normal Game Dates above, we'll play 2-3 Scape games on the same board. After dinner we'll all help take the Scape board apart--its usually a big one, often 20 x 30 hexes for a 4 player scenario. Then we'll play a shorter board game that doesn't take long to set up.

And that's how we do it here in Brooklyn, USA.