Expansions - where do you stand?

I used to hate expansions. I have this collector complex that if I buy a game, I HAVE to have all the expansions. One of the reasons I am loathe to try Runebound, lest I actually like it and then be compelled to buy all five thousand expansions. Oddly enough I never had that in Magic the Gathering, but that was a money sink in it's own right. This is also why I regret getting into Heroscape, because it's deceptively easy to collect everything, and sooner or later you find yourself drowned in figures you'll never use.

I love it that Twilight Imperium and War of the Ring have only one expansion, and I hope they never come out with more. I wish they stop coming up with expansions for Arkham and Descent, those games bleed me dry.

There are some games that I think don't even need expansions at all. Like Cosmic Encounter. That game stands alone, and there is nothing to be fixed. Also, Battlestar Galactica. I know a lot of you guys like that game, but I can't bring myself to like it. I played it 7 times, and I only enjoyed it once. A bit too gamey for me, and I don't feel the theme so much. Much like how I hated Shadows over Camelot. Feels like Shadows over Camelot in space for me, although a little more complex.

Then we have games that are BEGGING for expansions. Battlelore, which was my first Ameritrash game (forgive me, I came late to the party), is in desperate need of a shot in the arm. It was awesome for me and my brother, when it was the only thing we had. But as we slowly built our library of trash, it felt less and less cool and more and more abstract and sad. I'm still hoping FFG can wake it up with an awesome Heroes expansion or some such. Not crossing my fingers.

And at last we come to the game that inspired me to write up this post. Marvel Heroes. I recently got this game in an auction, and our first two plays were sorely lacking. Of course this was because we messed up a major rule, and we couldn't play any of our cards, but still. The story deck is sorely lacking, it's a bit more abstract than we would've wanted but there's great potential in it. I was actually surprised this game by my favorite designers came AFTER War of the Ring. Felt like they should've learned a thing or two from that game. This game would really benefit from an expansion. Too bad Nexus lost the license. Would've loved to see what they would've come up with.

Love expansions. Hopelessly addicted to expansions. It scratches my obsessive completionist tendencies as well as adding variety to games I already like.

Octavian wrote:

Love expansions. Hopelessly addicted to expansions. It scratches my obsessive completionist tendencies as well as adding variety to games I already like.

What he said.

Expansions are great. I mean, here's a game you already like, and then you get more stuff! Needing expansions to 'fix' a game is kind of sad though.

The problem is in being a completist. It's not about making a collection, especially if you're not enjoying what you're buying.

I like expansions but I don't need expansions for every game. I think Ameritrash and Wargames call out for expansions more than Euros because most AT games have variable powers, characters, races and maps.

I own the game and must have every expansion:
Twilight Imperium 3 (Shattered Empires)
Arkham Horror (Everything)
Railroad Tycoon (Rails of Europe)

I own the expansion but they're not necessary:
Last Night on Earth
War of the Ring
Wings of War (4 minis)
Talisman (Grim Reaper)
Runebound (two small expansions)

Games I own but I don't have the expansions:
StarCraft
Everything else in my collection

kookoobah wrote:

There are some games that I think don't even need expansions at all. Like Cosmic Encounter. That game stands alone, and there is nothing to be fixed. Also, Battlestar Galactica. I know a lot of you guys like that game, but I can't bring myself to like it. I played it 7 times, and I only enjoyed it once. A bit too gamey for me, and I don't feel the theme so much. Much like how I hated Shadows over Camelot. Feels like Shadows over Camelot in space for me, although a little more complex.

You are crazy. Cosmic is begging for an expansion that allows 6-8 players and adds more stuff generally. My copy of Cosmic is cursed, if you open the box a 6th gamer appears at the door within 30 seconds.

Do they have the BSG TV show where you live? I agree with you that BSG probably doesn't need an expansion, but that wouldn't stop me from buying one.

hancock.tom wrote:

kookoobah wrote:

Also, Battlestar Galactica. I know a lot of you guys like that game, but I can't bring myself to like it. I played it 7 times, and I only enjoyed it once. A bit too gamey for me, and I don't feel the theme so much. Much like how I hated Shadows over Camelot. Feels like Shadows over Camelot in space for me, although a little more complex.

Do they have the BSG TV show where you live? I agree with you that BSG probably doesn't need an expansion, but that wouldn't stop me from buying one.

Unless they drastically changed game play (add another board with the Pegasus or New Caprica?), I don't think an expansion would be worthwhile if only to add more characters and Crisis cards. The game doesn't need that.

And kookoobah, it stands to reason that if you don't like a game, why would you be interested in any expansions?

I'm not that interested in more characters and crisis cards either. More skill cards or alternate skill cards might be nice. I completely agree that it does not need an expansion..... Honestly with the game's popularity and cheap entry price at $30 online, they might be smart to do some kind of deluxe edition instead and throw in a couple new elements, then sell the new elements as a small box a few months later for people that don't buy the deluxe.

Columbob wrote:

hancock.tom wrote:

kookoobah wrote:

Also, Battlestar Galactica. I know a lot of you guys like that game, but I can't bring myself to like it. I played it 7 times, and I only enjoyed it once. A bit too gamey for me, and I don't feel the theme so much. Much like how I hated Shadows over Camelot. Feels like Shadows over Camelot in space for me, although a little more complex.

Do they have the BSG TV show where you live? I agree with you that BSG probably doesn't need an expansion, but that wouldn't stop me from buying one.

Unless they drastically changed game play (add another board with the Pegasus or New Caprica?), I don't think an expansion would be worthwhile if only to add more characters and Crisis cards. The game doesn't need that.

And kookoobah, it stands to reason that if you don't like a game, why would you be interested in any expansions?

But I hope they will sell replacement skills decks, as after a dozen plays my cards are getting a bit grubby around the edges - and we haven't hit summer yet with all those sweaty palms ... the game may have to go on ice until the Autumn.

Some games get so many expansions it becomes a hassle to get everyone to agree on whether to use any of them and then which ones. Certain Euro's are particularly guilty of this (Carcassonne, Catan, Ticket, etc).

I bought a few of the Runebound expansions that get shuffled into the base game so I don't see 2/3 to 1/2 of any deck during play. Because I don't like in adventure games when you see mostly the same cards each time you play. As then it quickly changes from reading the card text for atmosphere to "got _____" and then moving on.

I like expansions. They are a great way to add new things to games you already enjoy. If you have any impulse-control at all, you don't need to buy all of them.

I'll be buying the Talisman expansions. More stuff adds variety and makes the game better, and Talisman gets a lot of play. I have the 1910 Ticket to Ride expansion; I play it a lot with my wife and her family and the expansion makes the base game better.

I don't have any expansion for War of the Ring, StarCraft, Doom, Ca$h 'n Gun$, Twilight Imperium, Combat Commander: Europe, Settlers ect. They are just great without them, IMO, and I don't play them often enough to justify buying the expansion (I play CnG enough, but the expansion just doesn't attract me).

I love expansions. Especially since I tend to buy fewer board games, and play those games more. Anything that adds variety and replayability to a game I like is guaranteed to get my money. I'd go so far as to say that I would rather spend the equivalent amount on expansions for games I own then on entirely new games.

The one problem I have with expansions is that companies seem to treat them like they're very easy to do. Which is true. But they are not easy to do well. So what you end up with far too often are elements that are either way too unbalanced, or even flat-out broken (whether too good or effectively useless). Yes, Talisman, I'm looking at you.

In general, I like expansions, because they give me variety without having to learn too many new rules. My favorites systems for expansions are Runebound and Alhambra.

My least favorite game for expansions is Arkham Horror. The game is complex enough and it's played so infrequently that we always have to go over the rules again (and there always seems to be a new player), that layering on even more rules makes it a burden.

Expansions can be great. Sometimes an expansion can fix a good but flawed game, like Twilight Imperium. Or it can add more of what makes the game fun, hopefully in balanced quantities, like Nuclear Escalation did for Nuclear War. I like Arkham Horror expansions best of all, as they offer a mixture of more of what made the base game good, plus experimental new ideas, plus an overall interactive effect that expands replayability by an exponential factor after adding in a couple of expansions.

Sometimes expansions don't add enough to the game to justify the price or even the space in your collection. Case in point: the Zombies!!! expansions. The military base and the mall added nothing particularly worthwhile to the game, and even the guts tokens from the school expansion only added a moderately interesting random element to an already somewhat random game. (Not that there's anything inherently wrong with randomness, at least in moderation.) It wasn't until the Six Feet Under expansion that they finally addressed a core problem in the game, which was that it tended to last too long. If that had been the first expansion, it might have saved this game in the eyes of many players.