Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game

Previous:
Next:
Tags

Dresden Files is a game I've been waiting on quite a while. It was a Kickstarter project launched many months ago. The designer is local, and I playtested a prototype last year. It finally arrived a couple of days ago, and I have it set up right now for solo play with the Storm Front book.

Playing…it plays very smoothly. Everything is easy to understand. Knowing what to do, that's going to be a really tough problem with this game. Here's the deal: everyone gets an initial set of cards, and there is no regular redraw of cards during game play. It may be possible to acquire more cards during the game, but there is no "refresh your hand" phase. This makes it really tough to decide what to play, as there is no going back.

Upshot: loss with tie game. This game does play fast, I can see 30 minutes being very achievable.

Here's the end of the game:

Dresden Files Game 1

Previous:
Next:
Tags

What to play next?

Deciding what to play next is always a tough call when faced with a closet full of games, all of which were purchased with intent to play. Here's one I'm dealing with the decision.

  • Something New: this means both something new to me and a game which has been published recently, within the last two or three years.
  • Something Classic: I've acquired a number of games properly considered "classic" which haven't yet been played. The current example would be PanzerGruppe Guderian.
  • Something Again: mastery requires constant practice, which means playing games many, many times to allow nuance to appear.
  • Something Vietnam: as I'm on a Vietnam binge. I don't have all the Vietnam games ever published, but I can say that I have a lot of them, and probably more than most people.
  • Something Obscure: as it's fun to poke around in the dustier corners of game design.
  • Something Different: break away from the same old publishers and try a game from one of the new kids on the block. Or, conversely, dip into legacy with a classic tried and true.
  • Something Light: once in a while it's nice to actually finish a game all the way through in one sitting, in an hour or two.
  • Something Heavy: if possible, it's nice to set up something big and complicated which can be left out for days or weeks or even months, for a leisurely stroll through a very large or long game.

There are surely many more ways to choose, but the above method keeps me busy enough, helps me get both breadth and depth into my play, and provides me with a sense of progress.

The odd man out

When there is an odd man out:

  • Have a solo game ready to play.
  • Keep score or advise on a game in progress.
  • Referee a game in progress.