It all started four years ago.
The year was 2018. I was discovering the wonderful world of board gaming. For years I had but looked through the window glass, and now I was running in the populous lands of tabletop madness. At the time, I was young still; I hadn't heard of the 1 Player Guild, Solitaire Times didn't even exist, I didn't even know I couldn't stand worker placement, nor could I make the difference between deck building and deck construction.
But there was a title I had heard about, years ago, a fabled one, with its unbelievable promises of adventures, exploration, conquests, and delightfully solitaire gameplay. It was Mage Knight. At the time, I also thought I could handle any level of complexity. I was that naive.
Anyway. When the 2018 Ultimate Edition got out, I immediately ordered it. I spent lots of money to get it shipped from the US - I didn't know then there would be a much cheaper French edition a few months later. I just got blind, I guess, with the importance of this release.
And then I received it. And I was crushed.
A 150€ game (shipping included). The anointed King of solo gaming. Its insert, mercilessly shattered by the reinless bouncing of the card decks. I cursed WizKids and their frail product. I was disgusted.
Four years later. Now, Mage Knight is but one title in a sea of solo titles. I have never played it, since I couldn't get through the rules. Still, it is still the King of solo gaming. It is still terribly appealing. And now I am hearing about this new release, with a new, sturdier insert, better-painted minis... Suddenly I know what I just need to do.
I purchased the e-raptor insert. I always considered it, yet it was far too expensive for a game I already felt I had spent too much on. But the circumstances were dire: a few more threads on how much better the new insert is and I would have plunged into purchasing the game *again*, that's a certainty.
Now, the e-raptor insert includes a dice tower, because they just don't know how to fill such an oversized box. And it was a nice, sunny Sunday, my wife was working as usual, and I was caring for my son. Since he was obsessed with his tramway, I thought it was a good time to start building the insert. I started with the dice tower, but the little gremlin got pretty interested in it, and I offered him to try it first.
That was definitely fun. So I fetched a few more dice that were laying around.
But of course, he wouldn't stop just there. So I did my best and retrieved a few more dice.
By this time we even had a song (something along the lines of: "Even more dice! Never enough dice! I want more dice! Even more dice!") and he was singing aloud as if trying to call the entire neighborhood to their board gaming prayer. And he kept filling the dice tower with dice and more dice and even more dice! To the point where he just couldn't fit any.
That's a total of 137 dice in there. It kept us occupied for a bit more than an hour. And I challenge you to identify some of the games they are from!
I always regarded dice towers as useless artifacts. I never suspected it could lead to spending a very fun parenting time.
Loved that post Z! "The little Gremlin" 🤣 Awesome!
I'm totally on the same page with some of ya on the Webster's Unabridged Dictionary-sized rulebooks (lame pun intended). If I had a photographic memory with total recall, I wouldn't be so daunted by them. But since I don't, those games with the orange Complexity Ratings on BGG are not on my radar.
Anyone know what rulebook is the most massive, and how humongously ginormous is it?
Here's the largest book (not a rulebook, though) I know of.
Image Source: pinterest
Nice! The first thing that caught my eye in the picture, was that your hands were smaller than I thought they'd be. 😄 That picture of the over-loaded dice tower is a keeper. Z Jr's first dive into modern boardgaming! Kids often like to be 'excessive'. 🙂 Can he count? When you mentioned his tramway, is it on the lines of this?
Image Source: makemeiconic
Old story (brief) - I remember many years ago, one day, I started hearing this light, but not too frequent, banging on the outside of the house. Upon investigation, my daughter had a string tied around her Barbie doll's ankles, and was throwing her out the 2nd-story window (her bedroom was upstairs), while keeping hold of the other end of the string. The noise was from when the string 'ran-out' and Barbie would swing back and hit the outside of the house. She's pull her back up, then toss her out the window again. When I asked what she was doing, she said Barbie was Bungie Jumping. I just laughed and said something to the effect that she (Barbie) must be having fun 'cause she was still smiling.
P.S. As the Lord of Lame, I'll guess those white dice with the standard pips are from Yahtzee. 😉
When I first purchased Mage Knight: Ultimate Edition I was fresh into the hobby. I basically was hell bent on figuring this thing out since it was so highly praised. It also looked like something I would enjoy. I had it set up for a whole week on my table and spent the first day just reading the manual (Ironically enough, while some would judge my apparent use of time, I was quite proud of my “dedication” to this experience). In the meantime, Shadows of Kilforth arrived on the next day (after I had first set up Mage Knight) so I jumped into that instead. While there was some rules overhead, Kilforth was easier to get into and thus took my my gaming time for most of the week. Mage Knight’s introductory scenario watched silently by from the corner of my table until I could get back to it 1 week later. Finally, having re-read most of the instructions again 😴😴 I played through it. It was fun, puzzly and very tough. There was no free-form adventure feel to this. The experience is tight and requires a very thoughtful approach. There is not much margin for error. I eventually delved back into it several more times in the future, and even developed a shirt-lived passion for it (say a few weeks?). But, to this day I generally don’t even consider it due to its size and time investment. It is staying in my collection, that’s for sure. But is definitely not one of my highest rated games/experiences to date. I am impressed with the game when I do take the time to play it, however. There are different heroes, scenarios, tons of cards/abilities, expansions, etc. Just a ton of replay-ability. I think taking the time to learn the rules is well worth it for some solo gamers out there, because they may find more value in this then I have.
Aside from the ones frankd9009 mentioned, I see High Score! and Proving Grounds.
I recognize some deep space d6 dice, maybe some one deck dungeon as well?
I've received games from Kickstarters that come in a huge box like mage knight there. The thing is, I wasn't expecting them to be that huge. Just didn't pay enough attention I guess.
I open those giant games, look at the hundreds of components, pick up the rule book that's thick as a phone book... And I send that game straight to noble knight games for a fraction of what I paid for it. Ain't got time for that.