In balance, I think I’d prefer a dungeon crawler without an app.
— Matt Colville? (@mattcolville) August 13, 2021
The App tracks stuff like…oh, Jason hit with his bow and now we all do +20% damage. And neither Jason nor we need to know that, or track it, the app does it all.
However…you could just cut that ability and now you don’t need the app to track it. It's like…I love the automation in Fantasy Grounds, but for a boardgame…just make it simple and fun and fast and you don't need an App to track everything. I don't think the players would notice if this stuff were missing.
— Matt Colville? (@mattcolville) August 13, 2021
I felt like the App was pulling us through the adventure. Me telling the App “I move here, what happens?!” feels passive. Like the app is in charge.
Me moving to a spot that lets me flip over the next tile, I feel like I’m in charge. Also, I think these games assume that the players' make their decisions on the World Map and then the quest is this linear adventure where we don't have real choices, and tactics and strategy are sorta…not that important.
— Matt Colville? (@mattcolville) August 13, 2021
But I prefer the kind of game where my choices matter, and I think that means: the players have to be allowed to get in over their heads.
I think the D&D boardgames do this pretty well, but it's been a while since I played one.
— Matt Colville? (@mattcolville) August 13, 2021
Modern boardgame culture is much more akin to folks who read as a hobby. You buy one, you play it or you read it, then you put it on your shelf and move on. Seems like very few people expect to play the same game more than once these days.
— Matt Colville? (@mattcolville) August 13, 2021