I know I’m late catching up on my Substack reading, but on the topic of Catan expansions... I’ve played a few and found Seafarers to be the most fun and easiest to get into. It enlarges the map, divides the land mass into islands, adds Trade Routes for crossing the water, and incorporates bonuses for exploration. It ups the complexity of the game without really changing how the game is played, so it’s easy to get even casual gamers to try it out. I’ve also played some of the versions in the Traders and Barbarians set, but they weren’t very memorable.
I believe Mana Project Studios' Not the End uses the bag-building, push your luck, mechanic you're referring to - or at least something similar to it, and might be worth checking out.
Otherwise, I'm a big fan of legacy boardgames, and I really like seeing that idea implemented in ttrpgs - the two examples out of the top of my head would be Sunderwald and Yazeba's Bed and Breakfast. I'd really like to see more deck-building RPGs, if only to give me some ideas for a game I'm trying to design in that way.
I know I’m late catching up on my Substack reading, but on the topic of Catan expansions... I’ve played a few and found Seafarers to be the most fun and easiest to get into. It enlarges the map, divides the land mass into islands, adds Trade Routes for crossing the water, and incorporates bonuses for exploration. It ups the complexity of the game without really changing how the game is played, so it’s easy to get even casual gamers to try it out. I’ve also played some of the versions in the Traders and Barbarians set, but they weren’t very memorable.
Solid recommendations! I'll see if I know someone with Seafarers to give it a try!
Accidentally broke omnes.exeunt.press DNS for a little while. So if you can see this, it is fixed. 💀
I believe Mana Project Studios' Not the End uses the bag-building, push your luck, mechanic you're referring to - or at least something similar to it, and might be worth checking out.
Otherwise, I'm a big fan of legacy boardgames, and I really like seeing that idea implemented in ttrpgs - the two examples out of the top of my head would be Sunderwald and Yazeba's Bed and Breakfast. I'd really like to see more deck-building RPGs, if only to give me some ideas for a game I'm trying to design in that way.