Unfortunately I decided to check out board gaming as a hobby a little too late to hop on the Runebound wagon... but I feel that Talisman and Descent will be fun!! Looking forward to Battlelore 2nd ed. and I also got my eye on Twilight Imperium. But back to the topic at hand, what the .... is up with board games becoming "collector's items" and being sold for "collector's" prices in less than 5 years most of the time. Seems like the business to be in if I wanna be an Amazon/eBay jerk..

Unfortunately I decided to check out board gaming as a hobby a little too late to hop on the Runebound wagon... but I feel that Talisman and Descent will be fun!! Looking forward to Battlelore 2nd ed. and I also got my eye on Twilight Imperium. But back to the topic at hand, what the .... is up with board games becoming "collector's items" and being sold for "collector's" prices in less than 5 years most of the time. Seems like the business to be in if I wanna be an Amazon/eBay jerk..

I fully agree, I too have came to the Runebound table late and become saddened, disilussioned and a little upset at the horrendous prices people are charging for their copies- A game goes oop and within weeks the prices sky rocket, often astronomically Human beings, it seem by nature are greedy and capitalism has gone bonkers.

Unfortunately I decided to check out board gaming as a hobby a little too late to hop on the Runebound wagon... but I feel that Talisman and Descent will be fun!! Looking forward to Battlelore 2nd ed. and I also got my eye on Twilight Imperium. But back to the topic at hand, what the .... is up with board games becoming "collector's items" and being sold for "collector's" prices in less than 5 years most of the time. Seems like the business to be in if I wanna be an Amazon/eBay jerk..

I fully agree, I too have came to the Runebound table late and become saddened, disilussioned and a little upset at the horrendous prices people are charging for their copies- A game goes oop and within weeks the prices sky rocket, often astronomically Human beings, it seem by nature are greedy and capitalism has gone bonkers.

I sometimes wonder if the people buying and selling on Ebay even play the games or even are gamers. A few years back I had a massive nostalgia binge and wanted a bunch of Lego space sets and games I had in the 70s and 80s. I would bid on games like TSR's Knights of Camelot -- not a hot property -- and watch the price sky rocket at times and then see what looked like the exact game box posted within a few weeks with a Buy It Now price $20 to $30 more. (I eventually did score an somewhat overpriced copy that smelled like an attic - still does sadly). Reading some of the descriptions of games and it seems the poster never played the game.

Let's not even talk about Lego sets that sell for $1k or more within 5-8 years of going OOP. I have a closet full of Lego sets that I am convinced I could sell in another 10 years and pay for my daughter's college.

Runebound is fun but not so much fun that it is worth the prices on Ebay. There are a lot of flaws in the game, which I don't mind over looking for the original price but not for $100 pack of cards. Wait for the 3rd edition or buy the other current RPG like games -- Mage Knight, Pathfinder Card Game, Talisman is fun with lots of drinking and Arkham Horror can keep one busy a long, long time.

Arkham.... I was totally thinkin about it! I'm really torn about TI3 tho... it's just that most my friends are kinda hesitant about an 8 hour day around the table. So I'm all like "...and you call yourself a friend ..."

Arkham.... I was totally thinkin about it! I'm really torn about TI3 tho... it's just that most my friends are kinda hesitant about an 8 hour day around the table. So I'm all like "...and you call yourself a friend ... "

Hahahhahah I lol'd on this one.

I played 3 games of TI3 this year...am I the luckiest gamer out there or what! It's a great game but it's true it's time consuming. I know it's off-topic like crazy but here's some quick tips to help have the best experience with TI3:

1- Have everyone read the rules! This is the most important rule of all!

2- Choose a day that everyone can be there and don't have anything planned later...like a rainy sunday where you can start the game early like 10am

3- Enjoy!

I played 3 games this year: 1st game was with 8 players, all newbies and everyone had read the rules. The game took 8 hours which we thought was awesome! We really thought it would last 12+ hours. Second and third game with 5 players and took 5 hours.

So with well prepared players you can estimate a session as 1 hour per player.

Back on topic, Runebound 3rd edition please, thank you!

Have you seen the cover of the new Battlelore? The Runebound mark is still there. Runebound sells very well, is sued and sought everywhere, and there is no reason to not keep it publishing. Just one. He has more than eight years, and these are many years for an edition of a game. Throughout the next year we will know a lot about the Third Edition of Runebound.

I hope you're right about that.

More... Have you seen the Upcoming section here? Sure... and maybe you have seen the mysterious "Sands of Al Kalim" expansion. The very curious about it is not this fact. Is that in ALL the reprints in UPCOMING we can see, in red: This is a Reprint. But we don´t see that in the new realeases of new games, or new editions...

This wouldn't be the first time they forgot to take down a reprint notice for a game line that had been cancelled. Although I admit it has been there for quite a while now. Maybe no one is complaining so they haven't spotted it yet.

Just when I though it would be time to buy this one, it's out of print. Seen only few expansion here and there.

I would REALLY appreciate the Third Edition.

Thank you FFG for making that happen!

Plz ! Reprint ! i just discovered this game to my chagrin of it being out of print, waiting for a reprint to get the whole series, if not will have to forget about this game, luckily i haven't played it so i wouldn't know what i'm missing. But the limited availablility price's are too gouging. i hear its the ultimate for solo play in a board game, which is what i'm looking for. hopefully it will come back and surprise me.

Plz ! Reprint ! i just discovered this game to my chagrin of it being out of print, waiting for a reprint to get the whole series, if not will have to forget about this game, luckily i haven't played it so i wouldn't know what i'm missing. But the limited availablility price's are too gouging. i hear its the ultimate for solo play in a board game, which is what i'm looking for. hopefully it will come back and surprise me.

I don't know about "the ultimate" in solo play, but it is certainly well suited to the task. =P

Some one suggested a Kickstarter... I doubt FFG needs to do that. But the idea of a version with everything in it sounds nice.

Just imagine: Runebound 2nd ed Deluxe! Core game and expansions in one box!

Of course it would be expensive as hell but so tempting...

If you want a Runebound 3rd ed., please read and post at:

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/100012-group-positive-thinking/

You can also read the steps I plan to take in addition to the posts in this thread!

Just going to throw my hat in here. I'd like to see re-prints of the core game and the mini-expansion set.

I'd also be glad to see a 3rd edition that fixes some of the common complaints about the game, chiefly:

- More player interaction

- Shorter turns

- odd graphic design decisions (i.e.: using a helmet to represent ranged attacks? those gross sweat bead things for fatigue)

Here's some suggestions to kick things off:

More Player Interaction

I know some people like the way Runebound plays, as one BBG reviewer said, like "group solitaire", but I think most people would prefer more engagement between players. Boardgames are all about social interaction, its what distinguishes board games from video games.

One solution would be to create more cards that you can play offensively (or defensively) against the other players. The character deck expansions did try to do this but they were far too complicated and fiddly. I'm thinking something much simpler, like Runes that cause another player's item to spontaneously shatter, or causes an Allie to turn against him or a monster to suddenly heal back to full health. I actually think this should be the primary purpose of "Runes", to more explicitly differentiate them from other types of items.

Shorter Turns

Turns in Runebound are just too danged long, especially for new players.

In my game we've house ruled that there is only 1 combat round per turn. This might actually make the game slightly longer because a single combat could stretch out over several turns, but it makes turns much shorter, which picks up the game's pace and the non-active players don't have time to become restless. It also provides an opportunity for other players to sneak into an active combat and steal the glory, or to join forces and save a desperate player. The house rule generally works and I recommend it for 2nd edition, although there is the occasional monster whose rules break the system.

Odd Graphic Design Decisions

Just think through the icons better to make them more intuitive. Why not have a bow or an arrowhead to represent ranged attacks? Even the melee attack icon, an open palm, was an odd choice: a clenched fist or crossed swords would have been more appropriate. When I see an open palm, my first association is "skill check", not battle. This might seem like nitpicking, but icons should really be as obvious and intuitive as possible to reduce potential for misunderstanding or distraction.

Anyway, yes, I want Runebound back on the market. It fills a certain niche that no other game out there does. Talisman is a fun game, but it doesn't quite have the same epic scale and emersion that Runebound offers.

Shorter Turns

Turns in Runebound are just too danged long, especially for new players.

In my game we've house ruled that there is only 1 combat round per turn. This might actually make the game slightly longer because a single combat could stretch out over several turns, but it makes turns much shorter, which picks up the game's pace and the non-active players don't have time to become restless. It also provides an opportunity for other players to sneak into an active combat and steal the glory, or to join forces and save a desperate player. The house rule generally works and I recommend it for 2nd edition, although there is the occasional monster whose rules break the system.

That's an interesting idea. I'll have to try it out some time.

Odd Graphic Design Decisions

Just think through the icons better to make them more intuitive. Why not have a bow or an arrowhead to represent ranged attacks? Even the melee attack icon, an open palm, was an odd choice: a clenched fist or crossed swords would have been more appropriate. When I see an open palm, my first association is "skill check", not battle. This might seem like nitpicking, but icons should really be as obvious and intuitive as possible to reduce potential for misunderstanding or distraction.

I understand what you mean. I always get the hand and the helmet confused too. For some reason my mind thinks the helmet is melee and the hand is ranged (drawing a bow?)

I get why they picked those icons - because those icons do double duty as skill icons and combat icons. The hand is a part of the body (physical skills) and used to hold melee weapons (melee combat), whereas the helmet represents the head and thereby the mind (mental skills), and presumably also your mental alertness (relevant to ranged combat.)

But I agree they're confusing and they probably could have found better icons. In general, I think Runebound relies a little too much on iconography, and would have been clearer if it used keywords instead of icons in some places.

Re: 1 combat round per turn

It generally works pretty well without breaking the game. Sometimes a "before combat" action can cause problems but you can usually use your critical thinking skills to fix these problems when they come up.

Our house rule also allows players to move after they finish a battle if the battle started during a previous turn. Yes, this can mean a a player can fight 2 battles in one turn.

In Runebound very few battles last more than 3 rounds anyway, and in a way dragging out the battle over several turns makes it more exciting. Especially if you racing for the win.

I guessing that when you say SoAK was "made available as new" you mean they happened to have a copy that a speculator never snatched up to immediately eBay?

I don't think "ordering" it will pan out - unless your store has some sort of network where they work with other game stores to locate items. Even then most stores would simply just eBay since they can make a mint off unopened copies

I finally got the base game and most of the expansions from second hand. Sands of Al-Kalim was even made available as new from a local store seller - got that copy today (now availability is unknown again). Still missing these:

Big Box Expansions:

Runebound: Midnight (don't want that much)

Runebound: The Island of Dread [currently ordered, availability unknown]

Item & Ally Card Expansions

Runebound: Artifacts and Allies

Runebound: Walkers of the Wild

Challenge Card Expansions

Runebound: Shadows of Margath (Second Edition)

Runebound: The Dark Forest

Runebound: The Terrors of the Tomb

Adventure Variant Expansions

Runebound: Crown of the Elder Kings [currently ordered, availability unknown]

Runebound: The Scepter of Kyros

So, currently hoping mostly a reprint.

I guessing that when you say SoAK was "made available as new" you mean they happened to have a copy that a speculator never snatched up to immediately eBay?

It might actually have become available due to Spring cleaning of the shop. According to news section, Fantasiapelit did an inventory check early March which lead some hard-to-get stuff becoming available. It seems to have been the only copy. The shop still has one copy of Frozen Wastes, though.

I demand a reprint as well.

The prices on Ebay are crazy!

Still need a lot of small card expansions. Mostly character decks.

I must have all the expansions of my favourite game.

Take my money FFG

Hey all! Please back this game up in this thread!

Lots of like-minded folks there are working on a petition to send to FFG demanding a reprint or a 3rd edition!

http://community.fantasyflightgames.com/index.php?/topic/100012-group-positive-thinking/