A venture at World's End

Looking out for a place to buy comic books in Ghent, I stumbled upon a little shop close to the university, named World's End. It's in an otherwise desert street, absolutely impossible to find out if you don't know it's there; there is an iron door with a weird symbol engraved on it, opening towards a stone staircase that dives underground. When you arrive there, it's a rather cozy place, with a lot of comic books (but they are hidden in some rear room), and surprisingly, a few board games as well.

During my recon expedition, I had found they had a Knizia on sale, and they were selling two games that got my interest, Crypt of Chaos and Lost Ones. I thought I would return, but preferred to give me two days to think things through.

All following pictures are taken from BGG.

So, today I came back, intending to buy Crypt of Chaos. A pocket-sized, card-based, indie dungeon crawler? I'm in!

Well, in the end, I didn't get it. It felt expensive for the amount of content, and that character art is really abhorrent. The rules are also overly simplistic: lay down tiles, fight monsters if you want to clear the paths they obstruct, and do so by just dealing as much damage as your attack stat, then receive as much damage as their attack stat minus your defense stat. Items give you +X on a stat. During attacks, you also randomly draw cards that act as modifiers for the attacks.

So, I passed. Next one, Lost Ones! There were a lot of boxes of it, and I am in no hurry to acquire a game, so I didn't consider getting it this time but decided to do more research. I had been very tempted by the KS, but passed on it because price + not sure about the design. Now that the game is available in retail, there sure would be more comments on it?

Well, what I've read on BGG confirmed my fears: a) since the layout of the map is always the same, you "learn" with each game which is the optimal path until you get to a point you are not yet familiar with, so you must go through the same sequence every play; b) you are punished for exploring too much the world because you have too limited actions (your hand of action cards is also your life). This latter point really makes me rule out the game forever.

So, it appears as if I got nothing in the end (well, except the Knizia game). No no no. I got Madoshi, another Kickstarter I had first backed then turned my back on (link to Athena's post). It was discounted, so I basically got it for the KS shipping fees. I like buying things in retail! It comes in a small box with a magnetic lid, alluring wooden components, and should be playable within 20 minutes, so perfect for my commute time by train. Hopefully, you'll hear more about it soon enough!