Comment by cthalupa | Hacker News Reader

Comment by cthalupa | Hacker News Reader

Board games are back because the Euro game designers kept it alive during what was largely a board game dark age through most of the world. They broke back through into other markets, and re-invigorated creativity elsewhere.

There's been a ton of exciting developments in boardgames over the past few years. Legacy games introduced a whole new element to board games, starting with Risk Legacy, and richly continued by others, including Pandemic Legacy, which has reigned supreme at #1 on BoardGameGeek, the largest boardgaming website, for quite some time.

Dungeon crawlers that are more influenced by D&D and other pen and paper RPGs have been big, with things like Mage Knight, Descent, and more recently Gloomhaven being smash hits.

Board games with "AI" players, like Mansions 2e mentioned in the article, or the automata in Scythe, are influenced by video games in that you can even play single player against a psuedo-player, but not in many other fashions.

Even incredibly niche, boutique, and expensive games like Kingdom Death: Monster which is basically three games and a wallet draining miniature addiction in one very large box have become quite massive.

German here. Board games were never gone so I'm not sure what the article headline is trying to say. I guess this is an American perspective? Most of the "innovations" the article mentioned sound mostly like they're responsible for Americans developing a new interest in board games.

"Legacy" games, while somewhat innovative, sound like they're borrowing from pen and paper games (where characters might come back for new campaigns) rather than computer games (although CRPGs were heavily influenced by pen and paper from the start).

I think that's right. The OP is on an English site written in American English; the audience is likely that.

> English site written in American English; the audience is likely that

Does the term "lingua franca" mean anything to you?

Considering most sites with an international audience use English and most of those use American English specifically, this does not seem like a foregone conclusion.

HN is an English site mostly written in American English, do you therefore reckon its content is intended for an American audience?

> HN is an English site mostly written in American English, do you therefore reckon its content is intended for an American audience?

Yes. The coverage and topics are heavily weighted towards companies in the Bay Area + local US events.

While boardgames experience a revival in Poland, at the start of the millenium they were looked down upon as childish waste of time.

In 1980s Encore Games copied all the American SPI games and published them on the cheap.

I had the feeling they were quite successful, publishing 20 games: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/5018/encore-boa...

American here. I don't think board games were even gone in the USA. For a while they had a relative lull in popularity, but all along there were decent games being made by good designers. Many of the best ones from the '70s and '80s are even being re-issued for a new audience.

I'm not even entirely sure that there's been all that much of an increase in the number of friends I have who like to play board games. What's really changed is that the mass market retailers have started carrying these games, and the Lifestyle section of the local newspaper is suddenly talking about them as if they just appeared from out of the mists.

> I'm not even entirely sure that there's been an increase in the number of friends I have who like to play board games. What's really changed is that the mass market retailers have started carrying these games, and the Lifestyle section of the local newspaper is talking about them.

That's because their popularity has increased with the overall public, whether or not that is true of your immediate circle of friends.

Board games were gone in most of the world outside of Europe - it's not just America. Asia, the Oceanic regions, etc, all had a huge lull in their popularity. This has only changed over the past 10 years or so.

But popularity has increased even in Europe over the past decade. Just look at Essen Spiel - the 2000s were much bigger than the 90s in attendees, and they've had a nearly 30% increase in attendance in the past 5 years.

I was not saying Legacy games are borrowing from computer games - I disagree with the article on that, and my apologies if that was not clear throughout my comment. The only place where I think they have really done any borrowing is in the "AI" components that are more modeled after another player making decisions than static objectives you are playing against.

I don't know how true this is, but the theory I heard from somewhere is that post-WW2 Germany didn't have quite the same appetite for the Avalon Hill style wargames that were certainly popular in the UK and US. That created a divergence in design lineage.

For a long time in the UK and US board games were for children while wargames were for grown ups. It wasn't until fairly recently that board games have become popular here for adults.

You seem to be quite knowledgeable about board games, so I'm curious if Stranger Things has led to an uptick in popularity of D&D and the D&D influenced ones you mentioned. Luckily I live in a big city so I was able to find a nice business to try out the game with friendly people, after watching the show.

D&D and the like remain popular, though the latest craze are “RPGs in a box” which require less of the planning / time suck of a good campaign.

There is a board game company that is very popular & uses Kickstarter a lot, called “Cool Mini or Not”, which reminds me a bit of the kids in Stranger Things. There are a variety of excellent minister miniature dungeon crawlers (Zombicide Black Plague for feeling like super heroes vs zombies, Arcadia Quest for PvP) or strategy games (Blood Rage), or tactical combat/thematic games (The Others, which is an all vs. one game of corruption and redemption tactical combat and horror elements like Stranger Things or IMO the Buffy spinoff Angel).

There are also some other great RPGs in a box like TIME Stories, Descent, and Star Wars Imperial Assault (the latter two are nearly the same system , all vs. One style gameplay). The big excitement however is lately about Gloomhaven, which might rise to top game on BoardGameGeek next year (and deservedly).

Descent actually has an app that you can run (tablet or PC) that will play the part of the enemy. Not required, like Mansions of Madness 2e, but a nice way to play cooperatively.

Imperial Assault is supposedly getting an app like this soon as well.

D&D was already in the middle of a popularity surge when Stranger Things came out last year. Fifth edition (5e) came out in 2014 and somehow managed to make the gameplay more streamlined (and appealing to new players) while also being popular with current and past players. In 2015 you had Critical Role (live Twitch show) and The Adventure Zone (podcast) both appear and be hugely successful. I’m sure Stranger Things deserves some credit for showing D&D to a wider audience, but I don’t know if it’s been a significant factor.

Stranger Things has made me want to try DnD but I also know zero people who play in Seattle :-/

Same problem with trying out Pandemic: Legacy. Damn social anxiety.

Have you checked out https://moxboardinghouse.com they have an events calendar and a very friendly atmosphere.

I have horrendous social anxiety and discovering local game stores has been one of the best things to happen to me. Something about knowing that everyone is there for the same purpose of enjoying a shared experience in whatever board game/RPG/miniatures games world I prefer is extremely liberating and makes my anxiety melt away.

Same here. I feel uncomfortable in informal meetings, and having a clear set of rules (in a board game) makes me much more comfortable, and I gradually relax.

When I moved to Seattle, the D&D Encounters program was just getting started in the local game stores. That was an excellent way to meet other gamers in the area. That program has evolved into the Adventurers' League, which expanded Encounters to include groups outside of participating stores.

Card Kingdom / Mox is very popular; if you have some anxiety, I would recommend one of the other game stores in town. Meeples Games in West Seattle is very friendly and laid back. Uncle's can be chill, too, but I have not attended an event there since the Southcenter store closed.

I recommend checking the Adventurers' League site and visiting a few events at different locations; find which one matches your interests, best. Let the staff know you're new in the area and looking for a group; they'll redirect you to an organizer who will do their best to find you a table.

Alternately, there's a plethora of local gaming conventions around Seattle. Adventurers' Leagues are usually there, too. Same drill -- show up, let them know you're new and looking for new friends.

I had a similar problem, so I just decided to try running my own game. I'd played when I was way younger, so I have some experience, making it easier. If you watch enough online videos or read enough books, you should be able to piece together your own game with existing friends.

In some ways, if the friends are new to D&D as well, it's even easier, since they don't know what's supposed to happen either!

Meetup is used a lot to put together both board gaming and role playing groups. With the amount of tech companies in Seattle, and the overlap in demographics between boardgamers/roleplayers and tech employees, I imagine there are plenty of people out there if you're willing to go for it :)

Everyone else has covered this pretty well, but since you did ask me, I figure the polite thing to do is respond!

D&D and other pen and paper RPGs have been on the rise since before Stranger Things, and I think ST making it a plot element might be due to that, more than the other way around.

We've also seen a bigger push for some 'simpler' RPG systems that are a less rules heavy to try and entice newcomers to the genre. Fate has been the big one here, but others have stepped into the ring, and Fantasy Flight Games, which is a big name in the board game world, just released the Genesys rulebooks, which are based on their 'Narrative Dice' systems, which uses much simpler rules than a more traditional d20 style system. They had previously used it for their Warhammer and Star Wars RPGs, but Genesys is meant to be general purpose for whatever setting you may like.

The article acknowledges that the revival started in the 1990s already.

I know he isn't exactly known for his board games but US game designer Steve Jackson has really stood the test of time and has continued to make interesting games for decades.

Munchkin reskins from now until the end of time ;)

Steve Jackson is awesome, and there's definitely room on my shelves dedicated to Munchkin, Chez Geek, and Illuminati.

Despite Munchkin, etc, being very accessible, my understanding is that during the period the article talks about, where board games were "gone", it was very much relegated to the same sort of groups that would play D&D, GURPS, etc.

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