A Questing We Will Go!
One of the many (too many) gaming interests I have is fantasy questing board games. My enjoyment of this type of game started back when I was about ten years old and received the 1st edition Magic Realm by Avalon Hill for Christmas. Fantasy questing, monster slaying, and dungeon crawling with the detail, refinement, and structure of a well-produced boardgame. Wow, what a concept!
Now if anyone is familiar with Magic Realm, you'll know that the 1st edition rulebook read like 50 pages of the State of Texas Criminal Code. It was a total unplayable mishmash. A few years later, a 2nd edition was released, but it didn't get much better. So, I never actually played the game, but, wow, the componets, board, and theme all just captured my imagination.
Now, 25 years later, boardgame developers are finally realizing the potential that was Magic Realm, and I can't wait to get these games on the table with fellow enthusiasts. Recent games I've purchased in this genre are: Runebound, Descent: Journeys in the Dark; and Return of the Heroes (with the Shadow of the Dragon expansion). If anyone else wants to schedule a night or nights to try one of these out, just let me know. I definitely hope to do so over the holidays.
posted by Ben @ 5:55 PM
16 comments
16 Comments:
Actually, if anyone is interested in trying Magic Realm, the only sane way is to play using the new java version, Realmspeak,a free game at: http://realmspeak.blogspot.com/.
I do have a copy of the genuine board game, so if anyone gets wildly excited about it after playing on the computer, just let me know. Sentimentallity alone will probably make me want to play. Its an old, complicated, fussy, yet amazingly rich old dog of a game.
I would definitely be remiss if I didn't mention Hunting Party as an excellent game falling within the fantasy questing theme. I've only played one short game of it, but I definitely hope to play more if Patrick isn't burned out on playing it yet.
The first time I saw Hunting Party's modular map being pieced together and the various character cards, I was reminded of Magic Realm, though the games are totally different in mechanics.
I picked up a copy of MR on eBay for cheap about six months ago even though I knew I'd likely never play. The fantasy quest theme has always been a favorite of mine (Talisman, Dungeon!, HeroQuest, any number of video/computer games) even though they tend to be heavy on theme, heavy on luck, low on strategy, low on "having a prayer of finishing in under four hours". I need to spend some time with the Java MR.
It wouldn't be a dungeon crawl if it didn't take at least 4 hours and involve 100 die rolls...
The Dungeon Crawl theme is what drew me in to all this. It is what opened my eyes to gaming.
I probably can identify with you Ben, when you describe those feelings while dreaming about MR. I felt exactly the same thing with D&D (actually 2nd edition AD&D). I bought a few guides, but never actually played a full campaing, but boy would that sucker keep my mind busy daydreaming. Strong theme, endless possibilities.
Eventually this fascination migrated to Magic the gathering.... what better game than one where you are a spellcaster duking it out against another mage casting spells at each other....while doing it in a reasonable amount of time (now Magic I did play quite a bit of, compared to ad&d).
Of course, I also enjoy it in computer games, video games, boardgames, books, etc etc
The three best sites for Magic Realm I know of are:
http://www.thewinternet.com/magicrealm/
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/9049/mr00.htm
http://magicrealm.dewkid.com/
Also, I'm also an official backup/reserve player on a very well-organized Magic Realm PBEM game, overseen by probably the world expert in the game: http://www.tarotmoon.com/DEVMR2/Index.html
Oh, I'll never tire of Hunting Party. Also, I really really want to try Decent. However, I didn't really enjoy Runebound.
When are we gonna play decent?
Hey, this is one of my enduring favorites, too. I've had my eye on Runebound ever since it came out, I just haven't been able to pull the trigger.
I've heard that Runebound is best w/ 2-3 players, otherwise it starts to drag a bit.
I'd be interested in trying to schedule a dedicated night.
I've only played Runebound solo, but I can see it would work best as a 2-3 player game.
One cool thing is that Descent uses all the same characters (plus a bunch of new ones), so its fun to see how the characters perform in both environments.
Descent and Runebound are both on my holiday season agenda. Descent will take a good afternoon (4-5 hours) to play, but its very quick to learn. Runebound is a bit shorter, though still a good 2 hours.
I have Doom and plan on getting the expansion. Since Descent is pretty much the exact same game with some flare, I can tell you from personal experience that a game of this sort is never shorter than 4 hours. I'm clearly a minority on BGG though as I really, really enjoy every minute of it (even when it's bastard-hard to beat). I've painted most of my Doom minis so if anyone is interested I can always cart it a long.
Woo hoo! I have someone to play Doom with!! Life is good.
The expansion seems to fix all the game's issues and is still listed as having a December ship date...
I picked up Doom Collector's Edition (PC game) for $10 at Wal-Mart a few weeks ago. Good times with a shot gun.
Runebound should definitely have fewer (rather than more) players. If you do play, the trick is that after you've levelled up (or have a good follower) you are probably read to try a 2nd tier adventure. You could get unlucky and die, but it's a race game. The first game we played we cleared the board of all easy adventures before trying the mediums (etc), which added a lot of time to the game.
My 3rd and 4th game (both 3 players) took about an hour each.
I find Return of the Heroes unspeakably bad. I was happy that someone walked in and said "I wish I could play that" as it gave me an excuse to give them my character.
I should bring Wiz War out. Pay homage to your elders! No wussy "Everyone is racing to beat the bad guy," you need to kill other players!
Hmmmm... I haven't played Return of the Heroes (RotH) yet, but having read the rules and messed with it a bit, I believe I'm going to be pleased with this German grandson of Magic Realm. If nothing else, its quite pretty to look at.
Oh well, perhaps we have different tastes.
Brian I like that.... kill your opponent!!!!
DECENT!!! WHEN?!
How about 31 Dec or 2 Jan for a game of Descent? 21 Dec is also a possibility, but with no more than 3 players so as to keep the time manageable for a weeknight.
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