u/VaporSpectre

My current theory is everyone is tapped out for cash. Ive had things up for months, changed descriptions, lower prices on some of them 4 times, and am in a populous area.

Nobody is buying anything.

There's some seriously good deals and yet, my theory is everyone's wallets are just clapped out.

Can anyone suggest any other credible theories, or have any advice, or anything? If this goes on for much longer, I too will be forced to only spend $ on groceries and utilities, out of fear that me practically giving stuff away won't move at all.

It's dire out here.

I'm not necessarily talking specific missions, more the map type, be that theme, setting, pacing, style, etc. Or the mission objectives, plot twists, etc.

For me, honestly it's still ones that take place in a manor or castle. To me, penultimate Thief just takes place in these settings. Running Interference, End of the Bloodline, heck even Checking Inn, Checking Out. Possibly even some of the TDS city hub side missions. All of these feel like top Thief vibes and moods to me.

Now, in saying that, my favourite mission overall is Life of the Party, but anything set on a thieves highway is an instant win for me. Still, when I try to picture Thief in my head, it isn't on a rooftop - it's in a cold, dark, dank castle with torches.

So what is it for you, and why?

Hi all,

In your opinion... well, to put it bluntly, what the bloody hell happened?

One decade, the only thing people and kids wanted to play were dungeon crawlers, dungeon divers, adventure games, and RPG-adventure board games. Heck, it dominated for 30 years! You know the ones I'm talking about! DragonLance, HeroQuest, Space Crusade, Descent: Journeys in the Dark, and...! Then...! Uh.... oh....

What the bloody hell happened?

Even the videogame side of things couldn't get enough of dungeon runs. Daggerfall, Diablo, Diablo 2, Titanquest, Arx Fatalis, Nox, Dungeon Siege, Dungeon Siege 2, I'll even count World of Warcraft for bloody sake!

And now... well, it seems a shadow of its former self. Where did we go wrong? Why have we been shunned from the light, and why is the only certifiably GREAT dungeon game actually a euro game... Gloomhaven! Even that was nearly 10 years ago now!

So i ask you... what caused this once dominant and glorious genre to lose its shimmer? What made it so dull and redundant like it often is today, full of tropes and hackneyed, tired concepts. Where is the innovation? The sense of mystery? The roguelike levels of replayability we were promised, only to... blow away in the wind like bone dust in an ancient tomb once unearthed to the sunlight...

How did we go wrong? What can we do to restore it? What would make Dungeon Crawling fresh again?

It was a 4 player game using reinforcements expansion, we played the second scenario of 4 player games and I think 70% of the time of the game was either in that player’s turn or due to him second guessing his teammate’s decision and going through every possible scenario.
I’m not sure if I’m really asking how to deal with it or just venting, and before anyone says don’t play with them, this is a very dear friend and is an integral part of our boardgame group.
Has anyone had this happen with undaunted before? Most of my games are an hour or maybe 2 max.

Ok I've got a weird one today.

Asmodee split from Embracer group in 2025, to form an independent public company.

Does this mean, should Embracer group desire to publish a boardgame using one of their licenses, they would contract it out to Asmodee now? Or do they own a seperate boardgame division post-asmodee-split that i am unaware of?

How would they handle licensing a publication of that now? I'm happy to go digging around corporate documents but thought I'd ask here first if anyone had any leads on this.

Thanks all.

I remember seeing a while back a post here describing how they programmed the light on textures on computer hardware from 1997/8, but it utterly escapes my memory.

Did they pre-bake individual textures with different light levels, and then swap them out when a torch went out? Surely not, as that'd chew up a huge amount of storage in an uncompressed library.

Did the entire map have another grid overlay of brightness adjusting every single square in sight to the player?

How on earth did they pull this off and then STILL have lighting effects like the fire arrow all the way back on Pentium IIs?!

The mind boggles!

Massive Darkness? Shadows in the Forest? Even... Descent 1st edition?

Yep, technically I'm gonna say these all count as either having the concept of shadows or actual shadows in their game and/or gameplay.

We all know how a shadow is created: It's the absence of light created by a light source itself. Otherwise it'd just be darkness, silly!

Well, what other games can you think of that have shadows incorporated into their rules or mechanics?

/uj and complete /uj here.

I seriously think Cole Wehrle is trying to start a cult through boardgames.

Think about it. His recent split from Leder games. His statement that "All games are evolving works of the community, not just expressions of an auteur". His rabid devotion from everyone working for him. His declaration that all of the games he makes now demand deep, serious, focused, repeated, strategic play from his fans, like a ritual shibboleth of devotion through the act of playing his games. Speaking of which, are so convoluted, complex, and circular in design (all while his followers espouse how "genius" and "innovative" they are) that they basically eat all logic and reasoning, and require hours upon hours upon days upon months of one's own free time in order to "Truly understand - or else you just dont get it, man".

And then there's his obsession with 'Narrative' and Epistemology. Especially that last one. Cole is trying to frame himself as the God Emperor of the Next Wave of gaming, of media - Nay - of storytelling and human existence itself.

Cole Wehrle is attempting to create a cult out of the synergy of story and all forms of media, starting with bonding books and games together. Next, he'll attempt to create a singularity of the human experiential mind - the phenominiality of it - with the mind control powers of storytelling through narrative media.

I don't know how to stop him or his circular reasoning, eruditic, accountability-wavering academic speech where he never really answers a question and somehow avoids all criticism (while always appearing to have the answer to everything...), but I had to warn someone. I mean look, he turned Matt Martens from a simple board game enjoyer to something akin to a high priest or proselytising the high order of Cole.

His next response is either going to be silence or to publish a Youtube (or spinoff interview on Youtube) where he laughs off this serious accusation as nonsense. Mark my works.

MASSIVE rant incoming.

Just had the WORST session of Imperial Assault after reading countless people have about how much better it was than either Descent editions (i love Descent 1st edition so much), and both of us believe quite truly that it was our lowest experience of any boardgame we've ever played. That is no hyperbole - we very literally found any other game to have redeeming qualities, in comparison.

First up, the game is just straight up broken. The missions are horribly written to the point of nonsensical, and entirely unfair. Sometimes you have lost for having done everything perfectly correctly, and the game just rug pulls an auto-loss for the Rebels AND it did so an hour ago but forced you to play because... content? Engagement?

There is nothing compelling here. The story per mission is 3 sentences of vague, generic sci-fi. The combat is BORING. There is nothing compelling to do except move and hit. On my turn? I move and hit. Oh but what about this guy? He also moves and hits? But watch out for this group of dudes! They might...! Move and hit!

We laughed at how horrid this game was. Audibly cackled with how un-playtested and undercooked this entire expensive box of trash was.

Where in the hell did it garner a reputation as the best example of dungeon divers?

This is the clearest example to me that some people on the internet will promote and defend anything. I'm gobsmacked at how miserable everything about this game was. The mechanics, the rulebook(s), the playtime, the setup, the price, the table space it took up, even the minis themselves!

Somebody try to convince me this wasn't ENTIRELY made for children!