Agreed. Her abilities are useful, but not amazing, its her other stuff that makes her good. In fact, you could her entire investigator ability section and I'd still play her for her story and her starting equipment/clues. I also happen to think that starting wherever you want is *very* beneficial.
Okay, how are you supposed to fight Zhar in final combat?
Avi_dreader said:
It also sounds like you do not play random investigators? Did I read you right?
Random. Get delt one and take it.
Side investigator question: on personal missions where you have to "draw" certain item types, does your starting equipment count? Dexter got delt 2 tomes and we were wondering if that meant he started the game passing his mission.
As far as Zoey vs Ursula, if you're mainly going by starting clues then Zoey also starts out with 4, and "only" clearing out monsters is much more useful than Ursula picking one or two shop encounters while shopping all game.
As far as knowing all the encounter cards, having every single card in the game memorized shouldn't be the default expected skill level to have a chance at winning the expansions.
GrooveChamp said:
Random. Get delt one and take it.
Yeah, baby! That's the only way for me as well.
GrooveChamp said:
Side investigator question: on personal missions where you have to "draw" certain item types, does your starting equipment count? Dexter got delt 2 tomes and we were wondering if that meant he started the game passing his mission.
Starting equipment counts for Personal Stories with a "have X of A, B, C", not for draw PS.
Oops, forgot Amanda the student. She might be worse than Ursula.
Along with the pluses that others have said, I think there's a great advantage to cancel encounters. Ursula's ability is similar to the psychic's Mythos negation ability.
Simply keep a couple extra clues on hand and you can send her to the worst locations without worrying about monsters, gates, and/or curses appearing. Sure it's not game saving like negating a nasty Mythos card, but I'll gladly trade one clue token for no gate + monster appears = one doom, or one clue for not getting cursed. (This is especially useful if you don't have the cards memorized 
)
Also, if I understand correctly, cancelling a gate + monster encounter is different than Kate's ability to prevent the gate from opening, so no DOR token either?
Ursula isn't on the same tier as Patrice or Mandy, but she is quite useful. I think it's exciting to use a decent investigator and not knowing whether you will win the game, than using a sure-fire one like Patrice with a mountain of clues to win.
GrooveChamp said:
Oops, forgot Amanda the student. She might be worse than Ursula.
Amanda, Vincent, Dexter 
and George, that's my anti-team. George has usurped Jim Culver's spot from it, he's now an alternate.
Dam said:
Avi_dreader said:
I wish you'd buy Kingsport already, if only so you could use my heralds and stop complaining about easy final battles ;')
TBH, they'd still most likely get classed under draw in my stats. Regardless of their difficulty, whether it's Hastur at modifier 0 or Zhar and its 88 hits needed, they get marked the same.
Also, I don't do homebrews, they are like Eurogames, want nothing to do with them.
I like 'Eurogames' (we call them belonging to the German school of game design here) for several reasons:
- The set-up times are non-existent
- You don't need move your furniture around to find enough space to lay all the bits and pieces (can be played in bars without 'causing a scene')
- They don't break your back when you need to move the game to play at some other venue
- The rules are simple and elegant, so no need for tons of FAQs (this, right here, is the biggest reason I feel Eurogames are superior)
- You can easily play a few rounds every night as the games don't last that long
- You don't need to rely on dice to resolve things as they rarely, if ever, used in Eurogames
FFG has good stuff too, I'm not denying that, but Eurogames are easier to keep you gaming: cheaper, less hassle, instant gaming pleasure.
satakuua said:
I like 'Eurogames' (we call them belonging to the German school of game design here) for several reasons:
- The set-up times are non-existent
- You don't need move your furniture around to find enough space to lay all the bits and pieces (can be played in bars without 'causing a scene')
- They don't break your back when you need to move the game to play at some other venue
- The rules are simple and elegant, so no need for tons of FAQs (this, right here, is the biggest reason I feel Eurogames are superior)
- You can easily play a few rounds every night as the games don't last that long
- You don't need to rely on dice to resolve things as they rarely, if ever, used in Eurogames
FFG has good stuff too, I'm not denying that, but Eurogames are easier to keep you gaming: cheaper, less hassle, instant gaming pleasure.
Bolded often means very little or no randomness, so they become math/other exercises (option A gives me X, option B gives my Y, etc.). Randomness also to me means a game will automatically be more fun, since not everything will follow a set A to B to C sequence. No player elimination means you're stuck with the game, even if you made a poor choice early on and have no chance of winning. And of course, for me, the abstractness of them means theme is hard to find (if there even is any). That and the lack of direct conflict.
Heck, I remember a spoof strip in Knights of the Dinner Table where they play Settlers of Catan, probably weren't actual cards, don't know, but one of the characters drew a Robber card that had to you discard cards from hand if you had too many, nothing you could do about it. The character complained that he had a card called "World's Largest Army" and couldn't attack the other players or deal with one lousy Robber. Another char wasn't too happy that it was an island, with ports, but no navy.
Dam said:
Bolded often means very little or no randomness, so they become math/other exercises (option A gives me X, option B gives my Y, etc.). Randomness also to me means a game will automatically be more fun, since not everything will follow a set A to B to C sequence. No player elimination means you're stuck with the game, even if you made a poor choice early on and have no chance of winning. And of course, for me, the abstractness of them means theme is hard to find (if there even is any). That and the lack of direct conflict.
Heck, I remember a spoof strip in Knights of the Dinner Table where they play Settlers of Catan, probably weren't actual cards, don't know, but one of the characters drew a Robber card that had to you discard cards from hand if you had too many, nothing you could do about it. The character complained that he had a card called "World's Largest Army" and couldn't attack the other players or deal with one lousy Robber. Another char wasn't too happy that it was an island, with ports, but no navy.
Yes, the themes are usually just afterthoughts with no real bearing whatsoever on the proceedings and yes, direct conflict is not usually there. That does not mean you are not able to play against others, mind you just have to find a way.
Still, the points you made are valid. It's just that I don't think they wreck the party.
satakuua said:
Still, the points you made are valid. It's just that I don't think they wreck the party.
They just make people at said party fall asleep 
!
I'm an AT-***** through and through. Conflict, dice, randomness, theme, that's what it's all about for me. Don't mind longer games, though these days, even longer ones like AH, Doom and War of the Ring rarely reach the 2-hour mark. Marvel Heroes rarely goes 1 hour. Just mention those specifically, as a lot of people say those games take 2+ hours minimum, or at least use the length as a negative.