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Shadows of Malice MEGATHREAD
Any thoughts on favorite setups? Will be solo for now. I was going to go two heroes---do you start with any of the optional starting equipment?
First impressions are that the game looks great but there is an insane amount of wristage and certain mechanics really needed another streamlining. Banding looks like a serious winner in terms of cool new implementations. Definitely getting an outsider designer vibe, feels like a 1980 AH game to me.
Game begs for a VASSAL module.
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- Michael Barnes
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I just pick random masteries but I like them to be different colors. I also like to use the
"steward of the city" variant where everyone starts with a piece of equipment.
Four tiles, but it is kind of long.
If you like it after your first game, definitely get the expansion- it adds quite a bit of dimension without piling on a bunch of needless stuff.
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- Sagrilarus
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My first game with friends struggled mightily, as they're an impatient lot. I had missed some of the rules and they aren't well described in a just-in-time fashion in the rule book. But there are player aids that help, and you'll want to make sure you have that lined up ahead of time.
If you stumble into combat, you'll get nuked. The game is about going in prepared, with your chosen player (avatar) warriored up with potions and weapons and armor. Other players are in support with shards.
With a "bigger" graphic design this would be a Mage Knight level game in the market. But it's not. That's ok too.
S.
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- Sagrilarus
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But there's some really good stuff in here. The teamwork aspect is central but not forced on you, which I like. My favorite thing about the game thus far, though, and this is a BIG one, is that your treasure and expendables all really mean something. So they're worth working for because they give rather big (if sometimes situational) bonuses which have be leveraged correctly. It does an especially good job forcing you to get out of the hoarder's mentality that most coops put you into---you have to be throwing potions, casting spells, and using the shards constantly to beat even regular enemies. I think it's a high compliment to say that almost no combats in the game are autopilot where you just use your "constant" equipment.
Definitely going to solo it more. Have a headache right now so I don't want to try to store stuff like "you must make a luck roll difficulty 5 to have a non-lair encounter" in the brain. Which the game has some of. That front/back 2 page BGG supplement by a user is absolutely vital, I would be annoyed constantly playing the game if I didn't have it.
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- Michael Barnes
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That is a really good observation about equipment. Throw the damn potions, don't hold them. And that's right, you can't really fall back on a couple of "ol' reliable" pieces of gear.
The game really is ALL ABOUT being prepared. That's a major theme, actually.
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Obviously I have Bloodborne on the mind, but the only comparison I can add that might be helpful for Shadows of Malice is that the game is close kin with the Souls series videogames. Bear with me. Basically, the Souls series is known for making almost all fights and rooms "boss fights," even those with regular enemies, that you need to approach cautiously and strategically. You even need to use consumables against regular enemies sometimes. Furthermore, you can retreat at the start of any battle, so it has that Souls characteristic of being able to engage on your own terms, equipped as you choose to be. What it means is that coming into a battle you need to be prepared with the right items and potions---since the table for rolling up enemy types is quite deterministic you can prepare pretty well and know which lairs to raid. It also yields excitement when you've planned properly, executed the right masteries and equipped the right items and finish off something---even if it's just a lair that rolled up powerfully---which is great. The game has a build to it but I think its strengths are in the turn to turn small victories. Another characteristic of Souls is that dying isn't that big a deal (esp. if you're in a band) and in fact it's not a bad idea to just die sometimes to get some resources back.
Early thoughts are that I do wonder if the blue combat masteries are not just better than the other support ones (particularly the gold). So something like the 4d* more crystals when you kill an enemy is great but only on a red shirt that basically squires for some sort of blue mastery badass. Which makes solid sense, actually, but it does mean that I would suggest playing with two heroes at least. If you draw a gold mastery it's mainly useful as an errand boy, which would be a pretty fucking boring way to spend 2-3 hours. The game is quite long.
You're spot on about the theme being preparedness. This is the type of game I feel like the eurogamers might diss with some nonsense about being "luck based" which is absolutely not true. In fact, there's enough rolling in the game to reduce the luck and many of the critical rolls are close to known ahead of time.
FWIW, I preordered the expansion. 25$ with free shipping is nuts.
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- Space Ghost
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Solo game w/2 heroes #3. On a single map tile. Lasted about 20 minutes. Scythed through two lairs, got a scroll and a piece of armor so I was seriously outclassed against a stronghold monster and their brutal +3 CR. I went and stocked up potions and got a grenade, then saw that my scroll was for Avian or Insect. One of the strongholds was on Mountains which gives a pretty good probability of avian and insect, so I went there and torched him with the scroll (4d2 damage) and a lightning grenade potion. Wouldn't have been able to touch him otherwise, since it had ferocity. Turned out to be a light well, game won. A big shadow was 2 spaces away from another stronghold which I wouldn't have gotten to.
I wouldn't play on one tile again but I do love the brevity of the experience.
Also, I printed these out and I really liked them: www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/108324/sh...s-malice-player-mats
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Great, great story on your single map experience. Where else can you get a full-on adventure in just 20 minutes?! I've never played it that way. I always worried that it's just too flukey, (Shadow flukes on to a light well early, or you do ... game over ... and there's no tension) although your experience suggests it can also produce a pretty epic experience.
I ordered the expansion too. A lot of games are flash-in-the-pans, but this one feels like it's got staying power, particularly given the designer's stated intention to keep on building it out.
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I've been thinking about the game today, so that's a good sign. Going out to a bar tonight so I won't get another shot at it until tomorrow.
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- Michael Barnes
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The game makes me think of Magic Realm too...but WAY stripped down and MUCH less emphasis on minutiae.
I've done one tile games...they are short, but they are useful to sort of mess around with the system and try some things out. The four/two or four/three setup is usually pretty good.
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At least I'll get it soon so I can play the game again...
Of all the goofy things I like about the game I keep thinking about the little pawprint counters that indicate where the artifacts are.
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