I'm looking for a good co-op game to play with my friends that will be fun and exciting for a very long time. So would this be a good choice? or is there better options?

thanks in advance everybody. sorry if this is the wrong place to ask a question like this

FFG has lots of good co-op games right now. Arkham Horror, BattleStar Galactica, and Red November are all fun games but cater to a different crowd.

RN is a whimisical game that is pretty light. You can play in about an hour or so. You are a bunch of half-drunk gnomes trying to save your sub from sinking and otehr calamities. the rules are a bit tough to swallow but it plays decent once you see how it all goes. It is pretty much a true co-op with an optional way to escape and win -or lose - the game alone. Game plays 2-8.

BG is my new favorite game. It runs about 2 or 3 hours and is much heavier in theme than RN. It is based on the TV series but still a good game even if you are not a fan of that show. You are trying to get your ship to a certain planet before resources run out. TYhis is more of a tema game in that you have hidden traitors working against the rest of the players. And accusations is a big part of the game. The ruels are pretty straight forward and this game plays 3-6.

AH is still one of my top 2 games. It is also heavy in theme and can run a long time. With experience, you can bring it down to 2 or 3 hours but can expect 4 or 5 in the first games, especially if you don't knwo the rules. The game is highly replayable and has a lot of expansions that make it even more so. You are a bunch of 1920 residents trying to save the world from Great Old ones from Lovecrafts works. Game plays 1-8 but is ideal around 4.

Fix your top 5 traitor, and a game of AH never lasted more than 2 and a half hours for me... even the long and agonizing ones where I know I'm loosing...even though it seemed to be forever, it was still 2 and a half hours. (I play arkham horror way more since I relised that).

What about Runebound? It seems to be close to AH: coop game that can be played solo. I am not familiar with it but have been considering acquiring it. Despite the huge fan base, it is ranked a lot lower than AH on boardgamegeek. Is it any good?

StarBurn said:

My top 5 is fine. Arkham has always been my top 2 (second chair to Memor '44). BSG is just what is "new." That's great that the game only takes 2 hours for you. Most of my games are under 2 hours as well but I have had a few that just wouldn't move and take 4 hours. Plenty of other people report back that first games can take upwards of 5 hours, especially with more players and less knowledge of the game.

BSG is not a co-op game! It's a witch hunt! Find the cylon and hound them (or if you are us, decide who is a cylon before the first round and taunt them mericliessly until the end of the game, even if they aren't a cylon)

No one is mentioning Willow the Board Game! $.50 on ebay well spent.

StarBurn said:

How many players/investigators? Solo?

StarBurn said:

Actually, I have a hard time believing you can play a standard game (i.e. one that doesn't end prematurely because of extremely bad luck, too many gates, etc.) with 4+ investigators in two hours, unless you play the different phases not as written. I've heard from several players that they prefer to play the first four phases with a single investigator, then phase 1-4 with the second investigator, etc. and/or all players resolve their phases in parallel, rather than consecutively.

I'm wary of an changes to how the phases work since I believe they will always result in side-effects that weren't intended.

It's also possible, though, that we're just all slow players. E.g. when we're playing D&D our combats can typically take 2-4 hours, as well. That's easily twice as long as for the majority of players, if the forums are to be trusted.

In our games a lot of time is taken up by discussing strategy. We also get easily distracted by chatting about topics that don't have anything to do with the game. So, that's probably part of the problem.

Then again, my solo games (with 4+ investigators) also take a lot of time...

Maybe I should open a new thread asking for tips how to speed up the game

combats taking 2 hours in d&d? snooze! Maybe an hour if it a complicated room or something. Being prepared with combat stats pre worked and deciding what you are going to do while other people are rolling speeds things up.

jhaelen: "Actually, I have a hard time believing you can play a standard game (i.e. one that doesn't end prematurely because of extremely bad luck, too many gates, etc.) with 4+ investigators in two hours, unless you play the different phases not as written. I've heard from several players that they prefer to play the first four phases with a single investigator, then phase 1-4* with the second investigator, etc. and/or all players resolve their phases in parallel, rather than consecutively.

I'm wary of an changes to how the phases work since I believe they will always result in side-effects that weren't intended."

I've played my last 150 games or so blending phases and a question only comes up once in a while. Since I played many, many games by the book, we can resolve those questions very quickly and so the effect of blending turns is nil. When we we first started doing it it dropped our 3 or 4 investigator games by an hour. Probably we know play most games in 3 to 3:15 minutes. Two and a half hours maximum is a long way off.

*Phase 1 Upkeep is generally played as written.

tamsyn said:

I bought the Willow game when the movie came out. What a fun game.

Still, I can't say I've found a true co-op that is better than Arkham Horror. I just wish there were more games like it.

at least there are two people in the world playing it!

blending phases? you mean everyone doing all their phases at the same time? Difficult when you play with Mandy!