This Meetup-based
boardgames group has returned to the Marlow Donkey.
There were other people about, but it wasn't too crowded, and for
most of the evening we had one end of the place to ourselves – even if
we were the only people in masks.
We started with Tavern
Masters
(by Dan Kriss, his only design so far, published by his own company).
The basic idea is that you buy items for your tavern in one part of
the round, then try to attract customers with said items in the other,
which gets you more money. There's some card synergy and
engine-building, which made it unfortunate that for three rounds out
of what turned out to be five I had nothing to do and no meaningful
choices to make, because there was no intersection between the cards
available to buy and the cards I could afford. Obviously there's
always a luck element, but…
(Also some of the art is distinctly boob-heavy for my taste and every
female character I saw was less dressed than any male character. If I
want to look at breasts I don't need to have pictures of them in my
boardgames.)
Not enthused, even with shiny metal coins.
Then we went on to
Shamans, which I
picked up recently; it's a combination of trick-taking (you generally
want to follow the suit that the first player put down) and social
deduction (one of you wants not to do that, without being spotted as
such). Also gorgeous art, though the reflective board was not as clear
as it might be in fashionable pub lighting. Definitely interesting
though, and it'll be going into my 3-5 player rotation, even though it
has the same problem as Antidote that you need to rebuild the deck
each time you change player count.
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