The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure-inspired board game

Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by UweSchmidt on Sunday October 08, 2017 @10:35AM (#15428347)

As with many games of this type, epic gameplay comes with complexity, a learning curve and long play sessions. Anyone know of boardgames that deliver something big from a minimal set of rules and items? I wouldn't mind exploring a dungeon in 10-15 minutes with a random stranger on a train.

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Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by adamredwoods on Sunday October 08, 2017 @01:30PM (#15429074)

If you're looking for a "dungeon crawler" that plays quickly, check out: Dungeon Roll https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/138788/dungeon-roll

Dungeon Dice https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/136192/dungeon-dice

5-minute Dungeon https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/207830/5-minute-dung...

Pathfinder: The Card Game (although a bit long) https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/133038/pathfinder-advent...

Shadowscape https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/200359/shadowscape

Dungeon Twister https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/144525/dungeon-twister-c...

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Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by JoshTriplett on Sunday October 08, 2017 @04:24PM (#15429822)

Seconding Dungeon Roll. It can be played solo, but it's a lot of fun with 2-3 people. (With more, it gets rather boring for anyone not either playing or running the dungeon.)

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Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by UweSchmidt on Sunday October 08, 2017 @03:03PM (#15429430)

Thanks for your, and everyone else's, replies, I'll check them all out!

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Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by tom_usher on Sunday October 08, 2017 @01:00PM (#15428956)

I've not come across anything that I would call 'epic' from a minimal set of rules, but some of my favourites that you can throw in your bag, teach in 2 minutes and play in 15:

Welcome to the Dungeon/Dungeon of Mandom - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/150312/welcome-dungeon

Love Letter - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/129622/love-letter

Hanabi - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/98778/hanabi

No Thanks - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/12942/no-thanks

Archaeology - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/191300/archaeology-new-e...

Linko/Abluxxen - https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/153065/linko

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Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by soneca on Sunday October 08, 2017 @11:49AM (#15428631)

For the use case of playing on a train, if it is literal, you should play a board game that doesn't need a board.

A great one IMO is "Hive". It is abstract, so no story or narrative, but it is easy to learn the moves, very portable, easy to play on any surface and can be very deep in its strategy.

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Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by dep_b on Sunday October 08, 2017 @11:16AM (#15428503)

We play 7 Wonders with a lot of new players. "Play a card every round" isn't too hard to explain. Just make sure you're using the vanilla wonders not the ones with complex bonuses. More than once new players could win their first game.

There's a Duel version for random strangers on trains and such.

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Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by soneca on Sunday October 08, 2017 @11:47AM (#15428624)

I played 7 Wonders Duel and it is not that simple. Maybe the mechanics, but you have to have at least an idea of what strategy and tactics to use for it to be any fun

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Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by dep_b on Sunday October 08, 2017 @02:06PM (#15429213)

No experience yet with the Duel variety. Regular 7 Wonders would be one age of explanation, then the second age without explaining and finally some explanation around the Guild cards again by the third age. The second game would be without explanation.

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Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by chitresh on Sunday October 08, 2017 @12:42PM (#15428868)

Can't say that it delivers big, but the game Jaipur[1] can be fun. It is a two player game, takes about 20 mins and the rules are simple enough to be explained in under two minutes. As for the items - it uses cards and coins and shouldn't be too hard to handle on a train.

[1]: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/54043/jaipur

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Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by tomkha on Sunday October 08, 2017 @10:42AM (#15428388)

"Belying the imposing double-sided and icon-laden player aids, the gameplay of The 7th Continent is so straightforward that you could start a new player off with almost no explanation. Do an action, draw some cards, see what happens next."

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Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by JohnKacz on Sunday October 08, 2017 @11:55AM (#15428656)

And the mechanism of being able to save a game solves the long play time problem assuming you could continue to play other times with the same person(s).

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Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by scj on Sunday October 08, 2017 @12:20PM (#15428766)

I haven't played this, but given the title, you might want to look at Five Minute Dungeon.

Tiny Epic * (there are several games in the series) might be good. Although it does not meet your time requirements, it has few pieces and is portable.

The random stranger part is tough though. Even simple games take minutes to explain (Hive is an example another user gave, which is a great portable game, but it would take about 5ish minutes to explain the rules). It is also likely that you'll win any competitive games against a new player.

Much as I want to promote board games, if you are looking for portable fast games, the app store is probably going to serve you better.

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Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by hellbanner on Sunday October 08, 2017 @10:59AM (#15428449)

You're probably better off asking & browsing on http://boardgamegeek.com/ . You can filter by playtime, mechanics.

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Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by headcanon on Sunday October 08, 2017 @11:44AM (#15428612)

It seems this one would be what you would want - you simply draw a card and perform the action it says. Discover the game as you go - sounds simple enough to me.

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Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by dec0dedab0de on Sunday October 08, 2017 @11:54AM (#15428649)

Check out Forbidden Desert, it seems complicated at first, but one person who knows the rules is enough to get everyone going right away.

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Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by jamesrcole on Sunday October 08, 2017 @12:23PM (#15428785)

but not something for "10-15 minutes with a random stranger on a train". From memory games of it take more like an hour, and you need a reasonable-sized flat surface to arrange tiles and other components on.

https://boardgamegeek.com/image/1660694

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/136063/forbidden-desert

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Re:The 7th Continent: An ambitious Choose Your Own Adventure... by canremember on Sunday October 08, 2017 @12:38PM (#15428847)

Honestly, chess fits your description perfectly. Easy to learn the rules, rich gameplay, and easy to play on the go.

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