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Disclaimer: more journal entry than a strong blogpost

My (board) gaming group and I recently finished our first campaign of Arkham Horror: The Card Game. It is a living card game, which means that there is no randomness to the cards that you get. You get structure decks for characters, and there are rules that govern how you can go about building your own decks for a character. The card game plays similarly in some ways to the Arkham Horror board game, where you as investigators encounter some mysteries and must go about meeting a goal.

Unlike a tabletop role playing game (TTRPG), there are explicit decisions and goals that you are trying to meet to accomplish the goals in the game. There are horrifying monsters attacking a university–find a way to quell the monster, and then attempt to quell the monster! You can either succeed or fail at this task, which would advance the story in different branching paths, much like a visual novel or a choose your own adventure story/game.

Despite the fun that the card game itself is (managing your turns effectively, ensuring that the right investigators are conducting research, fighting monsters, and protecting and supporting one another), it doesn’t have the flexibility of a TTRPG. You can’t solve the problem of the monster by, say, evacuating the students. The game didn’t account for that, and doesn’t have an option for exploring that resolution. Like a video game, you are limited by the foresight and script of the game designers. While satisfying, and while you have the agency to make choices, you cannot make any possible choice.

The fun at the table

This group of friends are longtime friends of mine, and we have moved to playing board games usually. Of the usual crew, with 4 of us total, only 2 of us regularly play TTRPGs (one of the other dudes is in my regular Cypher System game). I have played a game of Ten Candles with them, and maybe it’s because of how I noticed that they played Ten Candles that I am leaning more on emphasizing the fun that we already have at our table.

For this gaming group, they are rather focused on solving problems and tearing apart puzzles. There is a way to accomplish a goal, approach a problem, and fulfill our goals. That’s what their focus was on in the Ten Candles game–figuring out how to survive. There weren’t a lot of unprompted roleplaying scenes between the player characters. Maybe it’s because of inexperience, or maybe it’s because of gaming preference?

What can we play?

With that experience in mind, what would we have fun playing? Board games with some amount of complexity to them, either co-op or competitive, works out. In terms of RPG mechanics, problem solving systems with some narrative points seem to be attractive. They are safe, at least. So, for a future long term game, maybe we can choose another game that supports Choose Your Own Adventure type of gaming like Emberwind?

But, maybe other narrative, free-form leaning games might be a good fit. Usually, when we’re gaming we’re pretty locked in. We’re not on our phones much. We’re actively at the table, engaging with one another and with the game. However, for some of the games of the Arkham Horror LCG, we had some down time to check phones and zone out a little. We were hanging out, and it didn’t feel rude.

When we were playing Ten Candles, we didn’t have a problem with cell phone distraction or player engagement. I think that with this group, it might be worth experimenting with another game, like…a powered by the apocalypse game? Masks could be great fun, for sure.

Why this blogpost?

Truth be told, I was writing this blogpost because I was on the fence as to whether I should suggest straight up TTRPGs with this group. Part of the reason was a fear, part stress, part being tired in general with other things happening in life. I am trying to organize a game of Fabula Ultima for my coworkers, which started with high engagement, but has now lulled to not super high engagement, which had been a little discouraging. I guess that bled over to other parts of my life, so I wanted to weigh that uncertainty in a blogpost.

But hey, I found a solution by journaling this thing out. That’s what this blog sort of is, anyway. The lesson of the day? Write out your thoughts, weigh the options and feelings concerning each of them, and then make a decision. And if you’re still not sure? Get more information, by…you know, talking with your friends.

Talk with your friends! That’s the eternal lesson, and the whole post. Happy gaming, y’all.