The 'quickstart' guide is just a series of symbols which are completely meaningless until you fully understand the game and all of its components, at which point...you don't exactly need a quickstart, do you? Ghost Stories is a cooperative game for one to four players. You are in control of one of four powerful Mage Knights as you explore a land under the control of the Atlantean Empire. Players are in for the fight of their lives and they will lose, a lot. I will say though, that for damn near a solid year, we were playing the Circle of Prayer wrong, thinking that in order to place a tao token on the circle of prayer, that tao token had to be in the active players' inventory, when in fact, you can just place a tao token of your choice from the supply. Betrayal at Mystery Mansion Review, The Liberation of Rietburg Board Game Giveaway. Mansions of Madness makes the list of games like Ghost Stories because it follows the same tried and true cooperative adventure formula and it is done with a top tier horror theme and storytelling. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Eight brave investigators stand ready to confront four scenarios of fear and mystery, collecting weapons, tools, and information, solving complex puzzles, and fighting monsters, insanity, and death. As for the difficulty of the game, it is hard, but it takes a while to get the feel for what actions should take priority. It seems to have so much potential, though. Also still hacking away at Spelunky 2. Each tile and card is also labeled with a series of icons that help players to understand their specific functions and actions. Thanks for the recommend on the app. Today's is probably getting the game soon, and I'm usually the rules reader /explainer. The #1 reddit source for news, information, and discussion about modern board games and board game culture. The game board is a series of 9 village tiles randomly placed in a 3×3 grid. For a dice-and-cards 'tower defense' style game there's a surprising amount of tactical requirement. I liked it more than most. Outside of the two box expansions, I also have the parody Wu-feng promos, the Crazy Old man card, and the guard tower. I'm assuming the ability to obtain more tao and actually easily use the other boards' abilities will make stockpiling tao and actually clearing out demons easier, right? I've finally mostly understood everything, but god damn, that is an experience that I honestly never want to repeat. Neutral boards are not assigned any Tao and Ying-Yang tokens. It will take a team to take on the horrors that await. I understand the gameplay but I am confused on how to make the deck for solo during setup. I think the game is easier (and more fun) with 4 players. Actually having two characters would be a drastic improvement and, somehow, never even crossed my mind. I got through it my usual way - read it through, then play it through by myself (pretending I was all 4 players at 1st, then digging into the solo play rules). Armed with their courage their faith and their powers they will try to return the reincarnation of Wu-Feng to Hell. Asmodee Games is not stranger to providing a immersive game experience and it’s obvious they didn’t cut any corners with Ghost Stories. A crazy, ever-shifting puzzle that actually prevents immersion in the rich theme. A word of caution though, the game is somewhat symbol dependent that can add to the learning curve. Ghost Stories is a cooperative game. • Beautiful artwork and visuals I honestly do. Sure Nemesis is in the sci-fi world instead of the fantasy/real world like Ghost Stories, but if you are looking for a deep, hour after hour of cooperative campaigning then Nemesis is the title on the list of games like Ghost Stories you should look at. Samurai Spirit which is a little more simple and has a cool samurai spirit animal theme. Ghost Stories is about treading water until you can get in that lucky knock out blow. The rulebook is one of the reasons it left my wishlist! You are in control of one of four powerful Mage Knights as you explore a land under the control of the Atlantean Empire. If they have no ghosts in front of them (they can have up three on their player board before bad things happen), then they draw a ghost from the haunting deck. It is very challenging, but hands down the best co-op game I've played. You repeat these actions until you get far enough in the game for the incarnation of Wu-Feng (big, bad evil guy) to show up. The ghosts also have a set of icons on their card that tell the players: how to beat them, what bad things they do when they are spawned, the actions they take each turn and what happens when they are defeated. Ghost Stories provides 4 levels of difficulty: Initiation Normal Nightmare and Hell. You will find many obstacles on your way: swarms of Alien organisms, the poor physical condition of the ship, the other players that will have their own agendas and, sometimes, just cruel fate. I've played it multiple times solo and with others and they all seem to like the challenge. I believe that there are tactics that can help with two player, but the only way to learn those tactics is by learning the tactics for playing with four first, or something. I could stare at the colorful artwork all day long, its that well done. Ghost Stories is one of the hardest games to learn if you only have the rulebook as a reference. If you like the content of a board game on this site, please consider to buy the game. Also included are some nice sculpted minis of the samurai and the Buddha statues for the players to use. I'm a big proponent of playing the games you love. The first thing you will notice about Ghost Stories is its fantastic artwork. Add the incarnation(s) of Wu-Feng to the deck AFTER having removed these extra cards. For each of such ghosts on the neutral board, adjust the position of the Haunting figurine according to the normal rules. • Game is somewhat difficult and will turn off the more casual gamers. Their Ghost Stories aide was how I went form being bewildered by the rules to perfectly understanding them. There are some really neat missions and moments later in the campaign. I can't ever imagine turning down a game. There are so many amazing games out there that I have very little tolerance for a bad rule book. Works for me, but it might not for you. It's pretty tough, but has a really high skill ceiling. Make sure the red board has the "Dance of the peaks" power visible (to enable flying). What a great way to introduce classic trick taking cooperation. So what do I keep coming back for more if I lose so much at Ghost Stories? After the ghost card has been drawn, then the player gets to take his turn. Most of the reviews on Board Game Quest are from review copies of a game provided by the publisher. Ghost Stories plays best with 4 players. Ghost Stories is a cooperative board game for 1-4 players that plays in about an hour. The village tiles will do things ranging from: helping battle the ghosts, healing players, giving resources, or even bringing dead samurai back to life. Glad it worked out for the three of you. If you are looking for something similar, you have come to the right place. Well that bodes well. The players play as a team against the game. Pretty simple mechanics actually. I completely agree that the rule book is not well laid out and written, I didn't have nearly as much trouble getting it as I expected, from all the complaints I read online and here. (certain special powers will help break that rule). The true adventure begins...eval(ez_write_tag([[300,250],'ultraboardgames_com-box-4','ezslot_5',116,'0','0'])); The Normal mode differs from Initiation on two points: The Taoists start the game with 3 Qi tokens, not 4. But when they win, oh boy is it sweet. I actually own that! Although I own all expansions (not all the promos), I really have only played it vanilla. All rights reserved. I will be celebrating with my sons by playing through the video game Little Hope, which gets released on the 30th. Such action is supplementary to his own power. One of the first board games I bought when I got into the hobby. © 2020 Board Game Quest – Dedicated to the amazing HM. Cookies help us deliver our Services. The preceding rules let you discover Ghost Stories at the Initiation level of play. WWE Legends Royal Rumble Card Game Review, Best Board Games Of The Decade | 2010 – 2020. Important: the phase 3 of the Yin phase (adding of a new ghost) is never performed fora neutral board. Looking for a new game to play and not sure which style would suit your tastes? Game boards that are not assigned to players - called neutral game boards - receive 3 Qi token each. It makes it overall easier in terms of difficulty and some more depth in gameplay, in exchange for being more fiddly. Good news is you can do a lot to mitigate the raw chance of dice rolls and the sometimes-ridiculous combos of ghosts that roll out. TL;DR: Ghost Stories is the game I've played more than any other, if you have specific questions, I'm happy to help answer. Halfway through the game you’d love to have round to just catch your breath, but don’t expect it. I don’t think it’s able to dethrone my favorite coop game, Pandemic, but it will still hold a permanent place in my game collection. But Ghost Stories' instructions honestly make me consider throwing the book out the window and winging it. The core game is perfectly great on its own, and has pretty good difficulty customization. Plus old lady Sarah... That is just a really bad string of events for you. I think the game is near impossible without having all four monk powers in play. In addition to the Yin-Yang, Taoïst colored Tao token and black Tao token, give each player a Power token. With all four monks in play, I've won 2 out of 6 tries. Ghost Stories has a lot of depth packed into this simple ruleset. My only complaint is that it does nothing to mitigate "alpha" player syndrome. When I do Instagram live videos of Ghost Stories I do it with just the base game as I can play and explain my logic and reasoning easier then trying to keep track of White Moon. 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