House Rules 22: Quarriors Discussion and Why Dice Are Awesome
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This week, we have the full GFBR boardgame crew as Hectarion joins us to discuss Quarriors! The game that’s been described as “Dominion Dice” is on the chopping block. We hit its strengths, its weaknesses, and whether it would be a good game for you.
Then, we start discussing dice in board games. And why the randomness they create also leads to some of the most memorable moments in gaming.
Have to agree, enjoy the unknown chaos that dice can toss (pun intended) into a game! You should try Magnifico. There is a mechanic that if you roll a certain way when attacking with your tanks, it simulates a massive malfunction that destroys your ENTIRE army! Hilarious when it happens to some one else, but makes you want to smash your head through the wall when you’re the victim!
One other note, I game mostly with my kids and dice provide a sort of “leveling” mechanism in strategy games. So we enjoy that practical side, as well.
Thanks Jason! I haven’t tried Magnifico though after reading a quick description of it, I think it might be fun to try out.
After this podcast, the more I reflected on the concept of “memorable moments”,the more I realized that playing games where swings you mention can occur are what make board gaming a fun hobby for me.
I just listened to the podcast and wanted to add my thoughts about the game. I have played this game several times with different groups of people. A few times with my gaming group and then a few times with people at Gen Con. I am also a huge fun of deck building games and of dice, so i was sad that I found it unfun and pretty boring.
I understand the appeal of them game and I am a sucker for dice, but I felt it was almost a great game and was just not there. I found the mechanic of “discarding” dice to be clunky and lead to confusion when you have a sloppy player. I also found the scoring mechanic to be unfun. There were several times when I had creatures out and on the turn before mine they were killed. Several players in my group commented on this fact as well and how it felt out of your control. I get that dice cause that, but I felt that there seemed to be too much luck involved in the game.
Also for a game with a lot of dice, I felt that you rolled too little of them. I enjoy having lots of dice and then rolling them all. The fact that I had to roll only a certain amount on my turn seemed lame. There were games when I bought a high end dice and rarely saw it.
This is one of the games where I see why it has so much hype and understand why people like it. I just found too many faults with it and ultimately I did not have fun playing it. And of course that is the most important part about gaming.