by A.J. Coltrane
GNOIF #21 recap — GNOIF Throws Together A Posse (A fairly random cross-section of games.)
Games That Got Played: Dark Gothic, Forbidden Island, Letters To Santa, Seven Wonders.
Games That Didn’t Get Played: Castle Panic, Poo, RoboRally, Small World, Ticket To Ride Card Game, Tiny Epic Kingdoms.
#21 — GNOIF is old enough to drink(!) Last minute invites meant that lots of people already had plans. Turnout was small, which was ok. We got in some good gameplay.
Dark Gothic is the “new thing” — it’s a deck building “colonial horror” themed game. Each player starts with a slightly different deck and a different hero ability. That adds some welcome asymmetry to a genre that can get a little static in terms of strategy. The object is for the players to sort of work together to defeat evil villains before too many “bad things” happen. There’s still one winner.. so players cooperate, but not too hard. The game is by the same studio that does Last Night On Earth, and the “photo” artwork is excellent. It’s one of my new favorites. BoardGameGeek page is here.
I enjoyed Seven Wonders as well. My “Recommended Game” summary is here.
Thanks to the few intrepid folks who showed, and thanks to everyone who brought awesome beer and food.
FlatbreadGarden 
I like the additional mechanics they added to Dark Gothic. The quasi-cooperative aspect seemed a bit tacked-on, and may have been there just to put a timebox around the whole shebang, but facing a set of common uber-villains and the mix-and-match color costs of card acquisition add additional layers of complexity and interest that were quite welcome.
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Now that you mention it, I bet the “timebox” observation is spot-on.
Either that, or they figured out during playtesting that it turned into a bloodbath if there wasn’t *some* motivation to “get along”.
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