GW and FFG Breaking Up?

Sit down and play. It is an excellent sports game, I actually wouldn't be surprised if FFG were to recast it as a straight football game.

A hiding Dracula is a bad Dracula,
It's always been that way from 1st edition. A Dracula that doesn't mess with the hunters, popping up occasionally, and making more aggressive actions makes the game kind of dull. It is sensitive like that, and as such it does have the "all against one" issue where the Dracula player had to balance playing to win and playing for fun.

So the Dracula player shouldn't use the most obvious and best strategy for winning? Sorry, but that is pretty lame. I'm not going to tell anyone they have to play badly so we can pretend its like an RPG when its not. Mine is definitely going on the sell pile.

As many copies of FoD that has passed through my hands in the past, I ultimately decided it was a game I 'admired more than enjoyed' to quote a F:ATtie years ago in a trashdome. You do have to play Dracula for fun and not all out to win, and at that point I'd just as soon be Zargon in Heroquest or run an RPG.

Regarding FFG retheming all these GW titles (as I've seen posts about this all over the net)...I think that'd be lame. Does everyone really want to re-buy [GW licensed game] v1.5 with a few things ironed out or added in? Because you know you'd feel the need.

How about they just make new games with their original IPs?

It would be hard to justify throwing a team mate into a different match in a regular football game.

Mad Dog wrote: So the Dracula player shouldn't use the most obvious and best strategy for winning? Sorry, but that is pretty lame. I'm not going to tell anyone they have to play badly so we can pretend its like an RPG when its not. Mine is definitely going on the sell pile.

Back in first edition The Fury of Dracula a Drac player could win pretty well just by hiding pretty well. Encounters were just chits on the towns (behind a screen so the players don't know) so there was no "trail" unless the Hunters did a good job of sweeping and clearing which could let them find "new" leads. Dracula eventually needs to get enough Vampires on the board to win though, and every Vampire beaten goes to the discard until all the chits are pulled and he gets to put the discards back in the cup.

This meant games could take forever if Dracula wasn't aggressive and playing just as much for fun as to win. The Fury of Dracula had some things that made it very much like an RPG: Dracula's screen, Dracula reading event text to the players when they have Encounters, D6 rolls for random effects and events, and stuff like that. It's still one of my favorite games because it's really a big storyboard. Each game is what you make it, and an efficient Dracula is a boring Dracula.

The new FFG editions kept some of this feel to the Dracula play, but also added modern mechanics and a proper trail while taking away some of the storyboard feel. FFG Fury of Dracula 3e is a great game, but it requires a certain attitude for the Dracula player just like the original did. As the forever Dracula player my experiences with The Fury of Dracula led me to play 3e this way also, and we've never had a bad game.

Playing Dracula should be a thrill ride, both thematically and in actual play. These games support that. Fury of Dracula: The Efficiency and Optimization Exercise is badwrongfun.

wadenels wrote:
Playing Dracula should be a thrill ride, both thematically and in actual play. These games support that. Fury of Dracula: The Efficiency and Optimization Exercise is badwrongfun.

Let's create a resource management efficiency and optimization Euro game called Dracula's Platelet Count.

I'm curious to see what product lines they will still have in stock when their Holiday sale starts. The RPGs will be there, various Invasion and Conquest sets, disk wars, some Talisman stuff, but what else? I wonder how many copies of Fury of Dracula they have left in their warehouse?

There won't be any sales. Most the stuff's already gone. Ships have turned around and gone back to China, distributors are selling shelves and trucks they don't need anymore, and all FFG computer systems have been seized by GW so they can reclaim their top secret MOARSKULLS Photoshop brush.

Rumour has it that Steven Hand and Derek Carver were spotted in a Nottingham alleyway late last night burning standard-size square boxes.

Arbites just showed up at my house and seized my copy of Relic. Fortunately I was able to hide the rest behind a cardboard Space Marine stand-up I had kept from my store.

It's over folks.

Michael Barnes wrote: Heh, just you wait- games you had no intention of buying will be slightly more expensive in the future. "I wish I had not resisted FOMO" will be your lament.

It's like regretting that you never married your bipolar girlfriend from college. Man, she was hot.

I was playing Dracula to win, and some of the players felt totally hopeless, since any time they started to tighten the noose, I was able to escape. I don't really like pulling punches, but I suppose if it means the game never sees the table again, I could revise my attitude.

hotseatgames wrote: I was playing Dracula to win, and some of the players felt totally hopeless, since any time they started to tighten the noose, I was able to escape. I don't really like pulling punches, but I suppose if it means the game never sees the table again, I could revise my attitude.

I haven't found this to be anywhere near such a problem in the newest edition. It's much easier, generally, for hunters to find and kill vampires than it used to be. So in order to win, Dracula pretty much has to earn some points from attacking hunters. Even more so when you factor despair tokens into the equation.

Anyone gotten a shipping notice from WarStore yet?

MattDP wrote:

hotseatgames wrote: I was playing Dracula to win, and some of the players felt totally hopeless, since any time they started to tighten the noose, I was able to escape. I don't really like pulling punches, but I suppose if it means the game never sees the table again, I could revise my attitude.

I haven't found this to be anywhere near such a problem in the newest edition. It's much easier, generally, for hunters to find and kill vampires than it used to be. So in order to win, Dracula pretty much has to earn some points from attacking hunters. Even more so when you factor despair tokens into the equation.

It could have just been their inexperience. The biggest knock against the game was that it overstayed its welcome. I didn't personally think that, but I was the one winning. Makes it hard to convince people to play it.

Mad Dog wrote: Anyone gotten a shipping notice from WarStore yet?

No, I haven't. And I have two orders from them, FoD and the Woodlands expansions. But when I ordered Woodlands, it showed up as Highlands on the invoice and I emailed Neal (I'm assuming he's the proprietor) to fix it. He responded and said it was all good, so I dunno. Maybe they don't do shipping notices?