| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Garen Thal |
Posted - 10 Aug 2011 : 17:31:57
So, folks are talking a bit about the Undermountain boxed set that will see print some time around April of next year. What I haven't seen mentioned is the other major FR game release that was announced this past GenCon: Lords of Waterdeep.
It's not a roleplaying game product, but an influence-building Euro-game set in the City of Splendors. It uses lords that will be familiar to us all, coins based on the canon FR coins of Waterdeep, and locales and plots that fit right in to anyone that knows at loves the city.
I can't say much more, except to reveal a secret that most don't know about yet:
The game is freaking awesome.
I was fortunate enough to get to play through the game with my dear friends Ed Greenwood and Steven Schend, new friends Logan Bonner and Trevor Kidd, with D&D Tabletop Games Manager (and designer for the game) Rodney Thompson walking us through the rules. It only takes one round of playthrough to get the rules down well enough, and is an awful lot of fun to play.
A Forgotten Realms game, that doesn't care what edition of D&D you might play (if you play D&D at all), and is true to the setting, family-friendly, and tremendous fun.
I give it 5 out of 5 (Moon)Stars.
I can't wait to see the final product. |
| 30 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Gelcur |
Posted - 03 May 2022 : 18:57:47
Looking forward to reading Steven. This is one of our favorite games in our group and we wish they they would produce more expansions or even new versions set in different cities/regions.
I've always wanted to use the board as a backdrop for a quest in Waterdeep where, the players start off as adventurer "cubes" and advance their way up to agent "meeples" and eventually have the chance to become new Lord having the pick up playing a game halfway through. Almost like the chess board problems. |
| Steven Schend |
Posted - 03 May 2022 : 16:24:57
But since Gelcur performed necromantic magics on this thread, it's reminded me that I ought to finish writing down my house rules for an added benefit/secret for the game that deepens the game because of the lore. No worries—I'll share the link when I get around to finishing those rules… |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 28 Apr 2022 : 23:23:18
quote:
Originally posted by Gelcur
So I continue to enjoy this board game. But I have one thing that irks me. Taols are worth 2gp in the city and Harbor Moons are worth 50gp.
If they were Platinum Suns and Harbor Moons it would make sense. If it were Taols and Platinum Suns again it would make sense.
Does this bother anyone else? Has anyone else reconciled this?
Never really paid any attention to it, since it's not really relevant, in the board game. |
| Gelcur |
Posted - 28 Apr 2022 : 21:52:24
So I continue to enjoy this board game. But I have one thing that irks me. Taols are worth 2gp in the city and Harbor Moons are worth 50gp.
If they were Platinum Suns and Harbor Moons it would make sense. If it were Taols and Platinum Suns again it would make sense.
Does this bother anyone else? Has anyone else reconciled this? |
| Drustan Dwnhaedan |
Posted - 12 Oct 2015 : 16:25:57
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by Hoondatha
The expansion is great. Games can especially get crazy with Skullport, as people are frantically grabbing and replacing corruption tokens. I just wish I could find somewhere around here to play.
The game I played at GenCon used those rules. I managed to end the game without any corruption. 
Nothing can corrupt the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen! |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 09 Oct 2015 : 21:16:54
quote:
Originally posted by Hoondatha
The expansion is great. Games can especially get crazy with Skullport, as people are frantically grabbing and replacing corruption tokens. I just wish I could find somewhere around here to play.
The game I played at GenCon used those rules. I managed to end the game without any corruption. |
| Hoondatha |
Posted - 09 Oct 2015 : 21:14:12
The expansion is great. Games can especially get crazy with Skullport, as people are frantically grabbing and replacing corruption tokens. I just wish I could find somewhere around here to play. |
| Delwa |
Posted - 09 Oct 2015 : 20:53:09
Even if you never play the game, the quest cards make great inspiration for a Waterdhavian adventures. I haven't played with the expansion yet. I'm hoping for Santa to be kind. I might have a chance of beating my wife at that game for the first time... ever... |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 09 Oct 2015 : 20:23:45
I played a game at GenCon, and quite liked it. |
| Markustay |
Posted - 09 Oct 2015 : 19:40:33
Just got this game, and the expansion, in the mail from Amazon, not ten minutes ago, and looking forward to playing it tonight. Hope it was worth the expense. |
| Kris the Grey |
Posted - 13 Apr 2013 : 04:03:22
The expansion set looks amazing! I was hoping for one or the other of those locations, it's great that we get both. Now I know why Ed and THO were going on about how excited they were for the expansion to release. It'll be that much more entertaining to have it drop at GenCon. I guess I'll have to join the darn tournament after all... |
| Dark Wizard |
Posted - 12 Apr 2013 : 23:57:55
MSRP is always out of whack with reality. It's currently listed for pre-order at Amazon (USA) for 25% off from the MSRP. With the exchange rate, might be worth the effort to import it. |
| Kilvan |
Posted - 12 Apr 2013 : 15:40:28
Looks very cool but 48$ CAN for an expansion??? No way I'm buying it at that price. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 12 Apr 2013 : 14:41:41
cool, this will be fun to play. |
| Dark Wizard |
Posted - 12 Apr 2013 : 07:08:13
The expansion to Lords of Waterdeep was announced a while ago as Scoundrels of Skullport and it includes new areas encompassing not only Skullport but also Undermountain.
The box art has been revealed (and it's awesome). Listed release date is August 20th. More details at the Wizards.com:
http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/35790000 |
| Kilvan |
Posted - 05 Apr 2013 : 02:16:09
quote:
Originally posted by Erik Scott de Bie
For fans of the game, Lords of Waterdeep has been nominated for an Origins Award this year! http://www.flamesrising.com/2013-origins-awards-nominees/
Cheers
That's great! Though I'll be surprised if Kingdom Builder doesn't win. |
| Dark Wizard |
Posted - 04 Apr 2013 : 23:56:08
Here's the link to them: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzuOBCMtXfs&playnext=1&list=PL4F80C7D2DC8D9B6C
It's a show on YouTube. Episodes run around 20-something minutes to half an hour, longer if they're split into two videos. They recently released extended versions of some of their episodes.
The premise is Wil Wheaton playing board games with his friends (sometimes family) and rotating guests per episode. Some of those friends/guests are celebrities (actors, geek celebs). Others are creatives involved in the entertainment industry (writers, producers), not limited to TV or film, sometimes from publishing (authors), comics (writers, artists), etc. Some are game designers. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 04 Apr 2013 : 19:43:00
quote:
Originally posted by Derulbaskul
Lords of Waterdeep is going to be one of the games featured on the new season of Tabletop with Wil Wheaton on YouTube.
methinks I'm missing out on something? Season of Tabletop with Wil Wheaton? What's the premise of this "show" and roughly how long are the episodes? |
| Erik Scott de Bie |
Posted - 04 Apr 2013 : 18:01:57
For fans of the game, Lords of Waterdeep has been nominated for an Origins Award this year! http://www.flamesrising.com/2013-origins-awards-nominees/
Cheers |
| xaviera |
Posted - 04 Apr 2013 : 17:09:01
I've played both Settlers of Catan and Lords of Waterdeep - I own the former and will likely buy the latter.
SoC is simpler than LoW but, as has been pointed out, is dice-based and so has more randomness, which can lead to players getting shut out fairly early in the game. LoW, on the other hand, is a 'worker placement' type of Euro-game (for which the rules and concept can easily be grasped within about 30 minutes) in which your actions are largely under your control (that being said, it is possible to be prevented by other players' actions from doing what you want to do). While you probably won't win your first few games of either, you may enjoy LoW more because the way the turn sequence is set up means that all players are constantly involved.
LoW requires no knowledge whatsoever of D&D, roleplaying, the D20 system or the Forgotten Realms setting. If you've played other worker placement games (e.g. Caylus, Stone Age, Agricola) you'll grasp it quickly.
For more information, check out http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/110327/lords-of-waterdeep - scroll down past 'Images' and 'Videos' to the 'All' section where you can find reviews or information on rules, strategy, etc.
|
| Dark Wizard |
Posted - 01 Apr 2013 : 02:20:03
Awesome, can't wait to see that episode.
Tabletop sold me on Ticket to Ride and Dragon AGE. I'll most likely pick up Pandemic as well, and maybe Elder Sign. Fortunately Tabletop needs to do no selling for Waterdeep since I own it already. |
| Kilvan |
Posted - 01 Apr 2013 : 01:20:50
quote:
Originally posted by Derulbaskul
Lords of Waterdeep is going to be one of the games featured on the new season of Tabletop with Wil Wheaton on YouTube.
Nice! Love that show. |
| Derulbaskul |
Posted - 31 Mar 2013 : 17:58:53
Lords of Waterdeep is going to be one of the games featured on the new season of Tabletop with Wil Wheaton on YouTube. |
| Delwa |
Posted - 30 Mar 2013 : 18:37:08
Just got the game for my birthday, so finally I can play it at home with my wife instead of driving all the way to my local game store or bribing a friend. Love it, as always and can't wait for the expansion.
I do have two questions though. The runes on the sides of the box and on the coins. Can anyone tell me what they say or provide me with a book name and page number so I can figure it out myself? A Grand Tour of the Realms mentions the general shape of the Waterdhavian coins on page26, and has the alphabet, but the runes on the box are slightly different from the ones in the campaign setting, or I'm just being overly cautious and picky. :( |
| Hawkins |
Posted - 07 Jan 2013 : 18:58:32
I got an Amazon Gift card for Christmas, and after some deliberation and reading some reviews, decided to pick up LoWD last week. I am thoroughly impressed with it. It is fun and easy to pick up. Our group of four was able to play a game in 2 hours, including time spent referencing the rules (though my wife had read them once through beforehand). |
| Kilvan |
Posted - 07 Jan 2013 : 18:26:51
I would say that Settlers of Catan introduces more randomness (dices) than many Euro-style boardgames, LoW included. It is a very popular game, and rightly so. Easy to understand, relatively quick, and still requires strategy (and it is quite fun). But in the end, if the dices do not roll our way you're done, so don't expect to win every games even if you have the most experience with the game. If you're cool with that, I suggest you try it out. |
| 9thChapter |
Posted - 07 Jan 2013 : 18:03:26
@sleyvas - Thanks for the review of LoW, I have been thinking about that game for a while.
I terms of Settlers of Catan , I would say that the game opens up a much broader audience. There really is no fantasy feel to it at all; more agrarian (if that makes any sense). It revolves around dice roles, bartering, and building your settlement (roads, villages, farmhouses) outward across a small island while trying to control the trade of some combination of grain, stone, timber, or wool to your advantage. You continue until someone reaches 10 points (which in my experience is probably between one and two hours) and there is probably 20 minutes or so of setup and explanation time required for those coming in cold.
The fact that it features prominently in major bookstores and gaming stores here in Canada is also another reason it has proliferated so heavily IMO. It seems (based on my visits to the States over the last year or two) that the same seems to hold true there as well. |
| sleyvas |
Posted - 07 Jan 2013 : 15:50:16
I got this game for Christmas (I had my buddy tell his wife to tell my girlfriend on facebook that she heard me and her husband talking about it). I just played it for the first time Saturday. We had 5 players (3 of whom had never played D&D and knew nothing of the forgotten realms). The first half hour was setup and teaching the rough rules and the game lasted a total of 3 hours. So, it was just long enough to be fun (kudos to those who put in the rule that you only have so many turns). The part where you don't reveal who you are as a lord ended up actually being the deciding factor in the game, as the player who won barely snubbed me out in the end because she completed so many quests that helped her as a lord that she earned an extra 28 victory points. I had worried that non-gamers may not enjoy the game, but I have to say we all had fun (we had a 12 year old kid who was playing, and he thanked me personally with no prompting because he'd really had fun... then he turned to his Mom and said she should buy his Dad a copy, and his Dad commented to his wife that there was another couple she was friends with whose husband would like playing <he's a sci-fi/fantasy RPG player>).
After this success, I went online and bought the "order of the stick adventure game". It may be more complex.... hopefully though it can be fun. I've also "heard" of settlers of Cataan, but I've never seen it to know anything about it, so if anyone knows anything about that, I'd be interested to hear.
Rulewise, the rules were pretty easy to pick up. The only questionable thing we found was that whenever you buy a building do you get the victory points that an owner would get... or just the victory points stacked on it (we agreed it was the latter, but our original read we thought the former, but then we hadn't actually placed the VP's from round 1 on the buildings yet... we figured that out the second round). |
| Jeremy Grenemyer |
Posted - 28 Dec 2012 : 01:17:08
Now that this game has been out for awhile, I was wondering if anyone has developed house rules, found errors/errata or otherwise created alternate rules to play the game differently?
I still don't have a copy but am angling to (hopefully!) get a copy be the end of the year. |
| Kris the Grey |
Posted - 04 Dec 2012 : 17:30:01
Sleyvas,
The game requires pretty much zero D&D knowledge to play as it merely mimics D&D concepts with it's rules instead of relying on a knowledge or mechanics of the D20 system. That said, as a lover of the Realms I adore the game as all of it's fluff text is 100% authentic to Waterdeep circa 1372 or so. I don't even mind losing (which says a lot given how I play board games, Lol). I've used it as a bonus Realms trivia game while playing, it's that true to the setting. So, your non-Realms people will enjoy it as a pure board game while you get the joy of a nostalgic romp down Sword Street as they do.
As to complexity, it's one of those 'minute to play, lifetime to master' type games. We've played it with all of our non-RPG gaming friends and you can learn it as you play it quite well. By the time you are on your second game you've got all the concepts down. Developing a strategy that allows you to consistently win is a bit trickier, but it lends itself to close endings where the bulk of the players are all within a few points of each other and the 'Hidden Lord' rule usually results in come from behind victories.
It's also fairly short. It has a built in limit of 8 turns (made up of 2 to 4 rounds depending on the number of players) and goes quite quickly. By the end you are wishing for one more round to complete a final quest! You can play it in between 1 and 3 hours every time (with 1 to 2 being most common).
In short, I'd give it a shot. It's a pretty good game for under $40. Let me know what you think when you get a chance to play it. |
