Getting Frosty

After abandoning Solomon Kane (boardgame), we moved on to something else I got through Kickstarter and hadn’t unboxed.

Yup, Frosthaven.  To show my level of preparation, we got together at 8AM (on a Saturday) and spent 2 hours punching stuff out, reading the guide, removing shrink wrap from cards, etc.  My friend, who introduced me to Gloomhaven, is much more of a boardgame person than I am and much more of a Gloomhaven person, where he’s reviewing Crimson Scales.  But, since this is my stuff, he let me waste a lot of our time.

We did two scenarios between 8AM and like 4:30PM, with a lunch break.  I’ve since done some reorganizing (can even close the box, now!).  Thought we would do two more scenarios yesterday, but we had to cancel.

I’ve read various reviews.  I’ve even done stuff like watch a video on buildings as what you are supposed to build or even what you can build was a mystery to us.  So, my opinions on the game are colored by other people’s.

I really enjoyed playing Gloomhaven.  I enjoy playing Frosthaven, and setup and breakdown will not be nearly as bad next time.

Can see from that picture that I’m running Deathwalker.  I was extremely rusty on how play works.  I played very questionably in scenario 1, yet we completed just before I was about to exhaust.

My friend is playing Drifter.  I felt like I had too many shadows in play this scenario.  Second scenario felt like I didn’t have enough.  I think after some research that I have a much better idea how I want to play this class.  Because of my poor play, we had to leave a lot of loot lying around.

I don’t need the amount of components this game has, and I’m inclined to believe that many newer games have too many components.  The basic engine of do scenarios and play cards you choose just works really well for us without worrying about the townbuilding.

Now, on a tangent, townbuilding is something that isn’t done enough in RPG play.  How do I know?  Because I keep thinking about running such a campaign, in various settings.  Because I had a recent conversation with a friend about how she wants to do more of it.

It’s nice to just play something fun without baggage.  Sure, it involved 3 hours of setup and breakdown, which is suboptimal, but we have the time.  Hopefully, we play regularly.  Maybe even start building buildings when get enough gold.