this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2023
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Each one of these items and tokens and sheets is important. Each one of these pieces have been carefully considered by brilliant designers. Their role is clear. If I looked right now, I’m sure every token is explained somewhere in a game manual that unfortunately reads like a VCR repair guide that’s been run through Google Translate eight times. ‘Remember to put the second deck over the initial deck so the last piece from the regular meeples pool does not cross into the irregular meeples pool before the dice rolls a zero’. That’s not an actual line in the manual; I’m too lazy to dig through a board game box that’s larger than the ones I use to move furniture. Someone will get mad at me about this and, honestly, they are right.

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[–] Blapoo@lemmy.ml 19 points 2 years ago (13 children)

I completed Gloomhaven. It was a MONUMENTAL undertaking, required diligent organization and a dedicated table that was never used for anything else. You also need a bachelor's degree in the rulebook (or just get comfortable with house rules that fill in)

I'm 15% of the way through the expansion (Frosthaven) and am utterly exhausted. There's so much to do and so many opportunities to put something back wrong and now my draw pile somehow has the discards in it. Fuck.

But it was a glorious journey. Gloomhaven added a welcome interface layer that classic DnD was missing for me. And the combat system is so colorful! That said, the game basically demands a companion app for tracking health. Definitely not for the faint of heart, but immensely rewarding.

[–] Carighan@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yeah Gloomhaven left me exhausted, too.

Plus, I'll be honest: the main card selection system is brilliant. Unlocking characters was fun. The rest was... there was something else?! It was that forgettable and flat. The story barely exists and is at its best very thin window dressing. The interactions are nonsensical due to the random nature. The game is grindy as fuck.

I dunno. Fun once. I have zero intention of playing any more of it or any successor, ever. Done way more than enough Gloomhaven for my life.

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