Regarding the Essen thread:
Michael wrote: "I'll believe that the L5R boardgame is coming when I see a physical copy of it somewhere. " True. I wasn't considering an L5R boardgame, just the other games they are promoting.
Larry recommended Peloponnes (and I did notice his review of it). As for his other points...
Endeavor is also quite good, for those who are fond of Euros.For the games that haven't been released yet, I seek out the prototypes that you avoid, Brian, so I can attest that Fabrikmanager, Macao, Dungeonlords, Campaign Manager 2008, and Burger Joint are all very good. BasketBoss appeals to me, since it's an approach to sports gaming (a GM building a team where the players' abilities change with time) that I've tried a few times in the past with my own designs
First off: I only avoid prototypes while I'm at conventions. I'm perfectly willing to waste a few hours of normal gaming time on a prototype. (You may remember I tried the Leaping Lemmings prototype). So if you want to send me a copy of your great prototype, fine. (I have turned down a few review copies recently, but no prototypes).
- Endeavour (which I still think should have used the British spelling, so it shall be referred to here) has been bought by a local. So, done.
- I may buy Burger Joint. But I don't need more two player games.
- With BasketBoss, I'm in Larry's boat. (Almost exactly. I've designed a GM style teambuilding game (about soccer). Basically it was my response to Footmania, which intrigued but didn't fulfill the promise. And I played LEFL/EEFL (aka United aka Fireside Football) for years as a PBEM. So I'm interested in the theme as well... [Perhaps I should pull my soccer game out and take another look at it, but it wasn't terribly good.] Now I'm looking at the team-management games on the geek. Are any of them good? (I suspect there are more that aren't tagged as well, yet).
- Some expansions are possible (Roma, Le Havre, Agricola).
- Most of the other titles are still on a 'wait and see' basis.