Quite a few years ago now, my gaming group pretty much regularly played Runebound. At first I found the game really interesting, and I still love a lot of the mechanics and the sense of high adventure that the game brings to the table. Ultimately though, the game has one flaw that really breaks the experience for me, and even though I haven't played it in years now, I still don't really feel like picking it up again because of that. That one flaw is the true lack of player interaction.

If you have played the original Runebound, you probably know what I'm talking about. The game pretty much devolves into a single player game with other players sitting around you waiting for their turn - players that have no need (and thus no want) to interact with you during your own turn. Sure, there's a PvP in a sense, but in my experience this was *never* used for any other purpose than harassing other players, only used by people that felt victory was out of their grasp anyway. I think all of us around the table felt the player versus player combat was more annoying than anything else, so ultimately we just chose to ignore each other on the map anyway. This led to a lot of just really bad experiences with the game for me. It happened so often, especially towards the mid- to- end game, that the players would just leave the table during my turn, or any other turn besides their own... and I couldn't really blame them - after all, there was nothing they could do during my turn, and only rarely would an action I took actually affect them in any meaningful way. I find there is little in the board gaming world more depressing than playing a multiplayer game alone, where the people you play with have very little incentive to care about your turn or your actions. We'd even have games where a player would win the game - and no one around him or her would even notice because they were just waiting for their own turn while watching TV(!)

I know there were expansions that tried to improve player interaction down the line, but my experience is with the core game only, so I can't really say how well they did .Still, I'm just really worried we might see something similar in the new Runebound, and in that case, this clearly won't be a game for me.

Well I kinda understand what you mean. I only played the core Runebound second edition and most of the time it's a single player "campaign". So Runebound became for me as a perfect solo game and I kept to Descent for playing with other players.

It would have been nice if they focused more on teamplay in this edition. Like drawing a card (combat, social or the other one) and you can only accomplish/start this event if the person who drew the card can "persuade" another player to join him.

Example: Lord Hawthorne draws an "encounter combat card" and it states "Beastmen invasion" (just thinking out loud). In order to save the settlement/camp Lord Hawthorne has to bring in another player and so he chooses Master Thorn. Only togheter they can start this adventure and have shared reward.

Or something...

I know what You are saying. In 2nd edition the game was too long for me and too boring. And the lack of player interaction did not make it better. It did not even feeled like a race with other players, so there was no tesion. And when You had too many expansions the game had large piles of pile of cards and getting the iteam that would be usefull was more then almost impossible.

I hope they fixed all this in this game then maybe I will buy it. At this point I'm waiting to see more and maybe then my interest will go up.

One thing I really like about Magic Realm is how some characters work well alone and some characters work best in groups, and choosing your character at the beginning signals to the other players what kind of game you want to play. I've not seen this in Talisman, Runebound, et cetera. I think any fantasy adventure game that does not make "the characters band together to take down the monsters" a good option is missing the main focus of the genre, really, and that's a shame. I hope Runebound 3e addresses this in some way. I want to care about the other players' turns, and rooting for them is a great way to do that.

Sounds to me, Elyra, like you should try Mage Knight (if you haven't already!).

One thing I really like about Magic Realm is how some characters work well alone and some characters work best in groups, and choosing your character at the beginning signals to the other players what kind of game you want to play. I've not seen this in Talisman, Runebound, et cetera. I think any fantasy adventure game that does not make "the characters band together to take down the monsters" a good option is missing the main focus of the genre, really, and that's a shame. I hope Runebound 3e addresses this in some way. I want to care about the other players' turns, and rooting for them is a great way to do that.

I agree with you Elyra. The main reason why my gaming group does not play this anymore is because of the lack of player interaction. I'd like to see that they fixed this. Anyway, we will have to wait. By the way, I've played Mage Knight Pac_Man3D and I really like it, the only flaw that I see on that one is the length of play... 4-5 hours?!?!?!

I agree with you Elyra. The main reason why my gaming group does not play this anymore is because of the lack of player interaction. I'd like to see that they fixed this. Anyway, we will have to wait. By the way, I've played Mage Knight Pac_Man3D and I really like it, the only flaw that I see on that one is the length of play... 4-5 hours?!?!?!

YEAH! 4-5 hours of sheer awesome!

Using character decks adds the player interactions that lacks in the base game.

Shortly said : when I play some "good" card that gives me a bonus, I fill up a pool that other players will use to play "bad" cards against me.

My "good" cards are for my hero, and are played during my turn.

My "bad" cards are for rival heroes, and are played during their turns.

Use these decks only once, you'll never come back to the base game. Unless for real solo play.