Campaign Game Recommendations

0:09 Some viewers may find the following video disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised. Hey everyone, welcome back to Board Games Unlocked and today I'm going to be doing something that I think will be very helpful and also uh quite a bit of fun. So um about a week ago I had received a comment of someone requesting campaign game recommendations and I get this you know quite a bit since my channel covers a lot of campaign games either as a full on series, half a series or if I play it on my off time and I do a full uh discussion over it. So I I feel that I am relatively qualified to talk about campaign games. Um but they were wondering you know could I do a video over you know best fantasy, best sci-fi, etc. etc. And it got me thinking of you know expanding that into kind of recommending a wide variety of games.

1:07 And I was trying to go about how I was going to do that. Should I just go through BoardGameGeek and talk about them? Well,

1:14 [clears throat]

1:14 on my Facebook I saw someone post it was Facebook or Reddit. Actually I think it was Reddit. Uh someone had posted a grid like this over the Legend of Zelda games which I'm also a huge fan of as you can tell if you've watched the channel for a while. Um Um they kind of had a similar grid to this. So I took that, took some of the ideas that would apply to campaign games and put in a few of my own. And here we are. I'm going to be going over my recommendations depending on what I think of these different categories. I'mma go into them and explain. So in that Legend of Zelda grid that the guy had, he had multiple games that applied for different topics. So, he could have done, I think Twilight Princess is best storytelling, but it's also best combat.

2:11 Here, I'm actually not going to do that. I am going to cuz I I don't really think I that would be all that fun. I'm going to give a different campaign game for each category here. And so, the categories are and I'm going to start from bottom right to top left is game everyone should play, favorite art design, best character builds, best items, needs a remake, best fantasy game, best sci-fi game, best horror game, best overworld, best combat, best storytelling, biggest personal impact for me, best beginner game, most affordable, and then last but not least, my favorite game. So, if you're in the market for a campaign game, I think these cover most of the topics. There were a few that like I could have thought of, but apparently grids not fun only lets you do a 3 by 5. So, here it's essentially going to be 15 games that I'm going to be recommending. And over on the left are the games that I have thought of.

3:15 Now, to clarify, these are all campaign games that I still own or like. I There are a lot of campaign games that I do not like. Obviously, I would not recommend them.

3:28 [snorts]

3:28 A good example is Dante's Inferno. I would not put in any of these categories even if they, you know, potentially might fit. I don't like Dante's Inferno, so uh why would I recommend it? Um I don't know how many games I have here. There's three then 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13. So, 36 campaign games are the ones I've considered. And to be fair, there are a few on here that I that are not technically campaign games, but they either give the best feel of a campaign game, so you might call that a cheat, or they're long enough that it kind of you kind of play them multiple sessions.

4:15 Last preamble before I actually start talking about this is what do I consider a campaign game? I consider a campaign game where you play the same game in multiple sessions as it is progressing. Like I said, there's a few caveats on here and they might not even make the list cuz obviously there's 15 here. I have over 30 games, so some of these might not even land in the grid, but um But yeah, so there are games that I think some people might want to consider. Um you know, let's say Massive Darkness 2 is a good example. You play that in a single session. Now technically it does have a campaign mode. I did not include any of those because A, I haven't played them, and B, I would probably think they're tacked on anyway.

5:08 That's obviously I haven't played them, so I don't know that, but But yeah, so with all that being said, let's go ahead and get started. And I'll be pulling up the games over in Board Game Geek, so I can go into a little bit more detail, or if you want to find it, then that's where I would recommend you go. I know Siri. I have my dog underneath my desk right now. Being very good. Okay, so and I have not thought about these at all. I just went through all the games that I campaign games that I've played and that I still like. And so a game that I think everyone should play. Now this one is very difficult because I also have to think of the other categories that I would put um that I would put another game in because obviously I think a game, you know, Aetheria should be a game everyone should play. However, I might want to save that for a different different area.

6:08 Um I don't think everyone should play Gloomhaven. Um I don't think everyone should play Kingdom Death Monster. Let's see. You know, I'm kind of I'm leaning uh man cuz I'm trying to think of the general board game population. And and most of the time I feel like a lot of people play with families. And and if that's the case, you know, whether it's, you know, parents with their kids or one of the parents with their kids or a group game you know I think what I'm actually going to what I might do I think everyone should play the Lands of Galzair.

7:07 That feels good cuz it's not going to go in really any of the other ones. I have a I I have an idea for this one if I can hopefully I put it in here. Yes, I did. Okay. I I am going to go with Lands of Galzair for a game I think everyone should play. Um especially for kind of the the scope of the game. Um so this is a adventure open world storytelling game that it's you know, well, hold on. Hold on. Should No, no, no. Okay, I was thinking Yeah, no, I'm going to put Lands of Galzyr here. I almost put it in a different category, but I like I said, I have a I have another game for that. So, this one I think will work for a lot of different groups.

7:53 Um whether you're playing with a significant other, whether you're playing casually with your friends, or whether you're playing with your family, I think Lands of Galzyr does a lot of really, really good things. If you can get past the animal the uh anthropomorphic animal uh theme. This game does an excellent job of giving you a unique character who has a reason for being in Galzyr. It also does an awesome job of kind of giving you different attributes that you can modify and change as you are going through the course of the game. I will say Lands of Galzyr is a lot of like side quests the game because what it does is it gives you a lot of different quests to go on in various regions of the of the board.

8:40 And then whenever you get there, you just pick a quest to go on. But [snorts] the writing itself is very well done. It gives you a kind of a sense of purpose whenever you are actually going out and making a decision. When you get to a location, you have different choices that you can make. And then sometimes I might continue on, it might take you into a different area that you have to go to. And every character specifically does have their own main quest that they're going on. But you can do what you do in a lot of RPG games and just not focus on that at all. I think this game also does a really cool job of modifying the different events depending on what month and day you're on. Because whenever you move to a location, you draw an event card, and sometimes it'll say, "Is it winter?" Oh, we're in December, so yes, it is winter.

9:35 Uh and that'll be a different event. Otherwise, it won't. And that, I think, actually kind of gives the feeling of a living, breathing world, uh, versus just a lot of other games where uh, it just it's just a random event that happens. The other thing that I really like about this game is the fact that it's going to sound weird because it it's going to sound like it should apply to a lot of um, of other games, but your session, when you're playing, is a finite number of days, depending on number of players. And once you're done, you know, you'll be making changes, you'll be swapping cards into your world deck, or uh, and then there's a ton of cards to modify.

10:24 Uh, so again, based off your decisions, those cards will be put away, new cards will come in. But the game, instead of having a save system, where the game is just open, and then you decide when you're done, and okay, let's go through the save system, which a lot of games don't do a good job at, Lands of Galzyr has a finite number of rounds that, once you are done, it kind of expects you to put it up. So, it feels like it's a one-shot. So, that whenever you're done, you just pack it up, and then you play it again at a later time. Um, but the way it handles that, uh, is just really nice. It you can you don't have to it it I think I'm having a difficult time explaining why it's different, because it feels different. It's not a save system, it's just you're playing it's as if you were playing a game like Vantage, if you know what Vantage is.

11:20 [snorts]

11:21 Where Vantage is not a campaign game, and is literally a one-shot game. You play it, then you're done, and then next time you play it, you start all over. This game has that same type of structure, except that when you play it, one, you can just play a different character if you want, and they're going to come in with different items and and a different starting thing as if they just showed up to the to the campaign, but Oh, I can't cycle through these while they're blowing up. Um but except you just kind of pick up where you left off. So, it allows you to just kind of quickly get into the game and get out.

11:55 [snorts]

11:56 Now, for a lot of people, I think that the one thing that might be missing from this game is there's not an extensive combat. Uh everything is done through checks. So, you have combat, it it's just the same check as everything else. But, I think generally I I really really like the writing. It's very charming. It's it's not overly intense, but you actually get to feel like you're living in a world um that that is changing and evolving. It is it it really is kind of a uh innovative game. There are a lot of games that we'll probably talk about that have similar ideas, but just execute it not as clean as Lands of Galzair. So, I think this is a safe bet. I think this is the one I'm going to go for, Lands of Galzair.

12:46 Then, we are going to go into favorite art design. Oh, man.

12:53 [snorts]

12:55 Let's see. I think Need some coffee. Okay. There are This one's tough because I don't think there's any game that's on this list that I would say has bad art. But, whenever I'm looking at a game and the way I'm going to go for art design is what would I have a poster on my wall for? And if you watch my channel, you might see that I have a massive poster of Gloomhaven. That is not because I think Gloomhaven's art is is better. In fact, it's there's barely any. So Gloomhaven's out.

13:46 Um it's probably going to go to an Awaken Realms game. Honestly. I cuz like I said, there's surprisingly not a lot of games that I have here that actually have PROMINENT ART. OH, MAN. Uh I think I made it very difficult on myself to Okay. I might I may know. I may know what I'm going to do. Cuz some of these are actually straight up easy for me. Um I'm going to go with Vengeance.

14:31 Now, you might be thinking Vengeance is not a campaign game and you would be 100% correct. But like I said, this is probably one of two exceptions that I have on here. I think this actually might be the only exception. No, no, no, there is there So there I have two exceptions on this game that I that don't technically fit into my description of a campaign game. However, I think Vengeance is the best campaign adjacent game. Now, that probably actually go into most affordable as well because you can actually just buy it. It it wasn't crowdfunded or anything, but the whole point of Vengeance is is in the description of the the title where everything that you do is based off of vantage point. Every card that you see is as if you are the character that is looking out at it. So, whenever you see a card um I zoom in here. Yes, I can.

15:35 So, perfect example. You get the card 361 and this is your viewpoint of of this particular card. And there's thousands of cards in here and every single card is like this. And then you're given an action based off of what you are seeing. And you don't know what those actions are uh or what they're going to do. I'm not really going into the depth of the mechanisms here, but if you really appreciate art, I think that I think just vantage I mean one the art itself I think is absolutely stunning. This card maybe not in particular, it's a kind of a looks like a uh uh superheated edge of a lake. Um but if we can look at some other pictures without it being spoiled.

16:27 There we go. Whoa, that got weird. Uh even the the items in the in the game are super cool. But I just love the fact that every time you see a card, if you're playing solo or playing by yourself, well, or playing with other people, what you're allowed to do is you can't you you try to explain to someone what you are seeing cuz you're still in radio contact. So, I find that to be actually kind of a a bit of fun when people are It's like whenever you're on the phone with someone and they're trying to give you directions and you you're just thinking, "Dude, I have no idea what you're trying to tell me." I actually just had this the other day with my DoorDash driver. He's like, "Where you at?" I'm like, "Okay, make a left at this building and you should see a house with their car in the driveway."

17:12 "No, I'm standing in my driveway." "I don't see you." That's how it kind of feels, but I love the fact how everything that you see and able to do is based off of what you are seeing. So, you see this weird kind of rock looks almost like a crashed ship. And you would be able to Okay, do I want to try and repair this? Do I want to salvage it? Cleave, no idea what that does. Do I want to squeeze? Can I squeeze into it? Um and then on top of all of that when you are moving cuz you only get to do one action on every single card. When you are moving you are looking at the direction of where you think you might be going. Um so, you see this mountain range in the distance. So, if you go north, you're going to be heading towards the mountain range.

18:01 It's such an awesome comp holy unique experience. Oh, here's the here's the best picture.

18:08 I should have been talking about this one. Here's here's a magnificent picture showcasing the art. And this is also kind of its own unique breathing world that as you play more and more and more and more, you're going to learn how this world operates, who people are, what guilds there are to interact with. Um and it's such an expansive game that every single time I've played this and I've shown this to a lot of people, I've had radically different um experiences. So, I have to give best art to Vantage just because everything you were doing is based off of the art on the card. So, uh again, technically not a campaign game, but man, it I mean, like I just mentioned with Lands of Galzair, it Lands of Galzair feels like a one-shot that you just kind of that that choices persist from game to game.

19:11 Vantage also kind of does that, except it's all meta knowledge. So, every time you're playing it, yeah, it's a completely different, wholly unique uh experience game. But, if you've seen secret cards, or if you've been to certain locations before, that gives you inside knowledge. So, it kind of works a similar way, except you don't make choices that persist. Okay, so now we can go ahead and move on to best character builds. And this one is actually going to be really easy. Um cuz character builds, I think, in a campaign game are something that needs to be very expansive and creative without the game becoming broken.

19:57 And there's [clears throat] a few that kind of do a decent job at it. However, a lot fail. And this one's actually kind of tough, because there's two that I could consider, which would be The Elder Scrolls. Nope. Nope. [clears throat] That's not where that's going. Um The Elder Scrolls uh Betrayal of the Second Era, that's a really good one, just because it allows you to be very creative uh within The Elder Scrolls. However, anytime I talk about character builds, I always mention Madara. Madara, I think, has the best character build in any type of campaign game.

20:42 Um the sheer amount of builds you can do is just wild. And they actually do a really good job at keep it you keeping you within your lane that every time you're coming up to kind of the next chapter, the enemies and stuff scale ahead of your current stuff, but not so much that it takes forever to kill them, but you can clearly tell that you need to start upgrading your items. And what's also cool is it's not like you whenever you go to upgrade your items that you have to completely do a rebuild. It's just Oh, okay. Here's the equivalent of if I'm using a short sword, here's the next level of short sword, but it's not just that. It's not Okay, now you roll a purple die, now you roll two purple dice or something. Um But whenever you're looking at a character sheet, not even a character sheet, but like if you're looking at Rook, you have two weapon slots that can also have upgrades on them. You have a uh a core that you can do, you can do armor, then you have these uh relics, up to three relics, then you can have um Oh, I can't remember what this section is called, but it's not your armor, but it's kind of like an armor.

22:02 And then you have your consumables that you can have, on top of the fact that your character has a special ability. And what's really neat is that during the tutorial, they kind of give you a general idea of how the four characters should play, not should play, uh how what they recommend, but you don't have to play that way at all. You could You can have any character be any type of build uh that you that you want. And if it was just the items alone, that would probably be enough, but then they go into the disciplines. And there's five schools of disciplines, all with increasingly different levels, and you have to spend XP on them. Uh so if you want to go all in on one class, uh it gets more expensive because you go up higher levels.

22:50 It is immaculate how the character builds work in this game. And I feel like it's almost designed in a way that it they kind of want you to break it. And I almost think that that's part of the design, not an oversight of the designers. It It really is just an absolute blast and kind of the They set the bar of what I compare a lot of campaign game builds to. And so many go in and they're very restrictive on what on what they're wanting you to do. A lot And I mean some games, like if we take a look at the grid, do an okay job. A Rydia does a pretty good job of character builds, but again, I mean Faith Forge does a good job of character builds, but they're all within your class.

23:46 If you're a rogue, you're going to get rogue build. If you're a bard, you're going to get bard build. If you're a warrior, you know, so on and so forth. And there's nothing wrong with that. If you like have a particular play style, then you just pick that type of It's no different than playing a D&D and be like, "I want to be a fighter." And then that's what you are. But if you love the JRPG style of I want to go full-on, you know, white mage of being a pure healer. Um well, then absolutely do that. If you Like I've had Zeke do a build where he his whole build was based on consecutive attacks. If he got his first hit in, then he could attack again and then that would increase his chances, so he could get multiple attacks in one. I had another character who He was an all-or-nothing build where if he hit you, it was going to be a ton of damage, but it was difficult for him to hit. Uh it is It's awesome. And this is just for Act One. I know Act Two and Three got even more expansive on the fact that there's dual disciplines. And the Acts Two and Three are continuation of the story, so I'm curious as to how the items are going to go.

25:04 But yeah, they they do character builds amazing. So, if that's something that's important to you, then I would highly recommend Madara. Then we're going to go to best items. Now, this one's interesting because I don't necessarily look at items as kind of a as as kind of a highlight of a um of a campaign game. But, it is important because it kind of ties into character builds. Um let's see, items. You know I think I have one.

25:49 I'm just thinking where I want to put it cuz I know where some are going to go uh already. And yeah, you know what? I think I'm actually going to go Kingdom Death Monster. I think Kingdom Death Monster might have the better the best items. Kingdom Death Monster. And the reason I say that is because your entire character's build is based around the items that you are able to craft from the monsters and queries that you kill. And another game kind of does the same thing with Aeon Trespass Odyssey, but I actually think that their their tech tree and kind of their items are lackluster. That's one of the weaker points of that game.

26:45 Um but KDM has has it in such a way that whenever you kill a like we'll just go with the standard lion, when you kill the lion and go back to your village, it's [snorts] going to or your settlement, it's going to unlock a bestiary that allows you to craft stuff with lion parts. And then, you know, more and more queries are unlocked as you're going throughout the campaign that are all centered around a particular theme. The Crimson Crocodile from the Gambler's Chest has a thing about blood build. Um the Screaming Goat has a section about using goat parts and so on and so forth. But on top of all that, this goes a little bit into character build, I think, uh because with KDM, you have these these slots here.

27:34 Uh like the red and the blue. And when you link them, you actually get a a benefit depending. So, the rawhide headband, uh you need to have one one green one blue link to get that ability. For the rawhide vest, get plus one evasion, you need a blue and a red, which you have here.

27:53 [snorts]

27:53 So, the items are actually very creative because they require you to have this 3 by 3 grid puzzle element. And sometimes you might take an item that just is I mean, the bone axe, for example, is two dice uh hits on six or higher does three damage. And it has an innate passive, and you might just take something because it has a passive ability, even though you can't link this uh that red to anything. Even though there's no reason why you can't have the bone axe down here with the rawhide. So, I like the fact that you are kind of thematically utilizing the things that you are fighting and killing for your items. And there's so many that are absolutely creative. There are a lot of items in KDM that come with minis that you can buy.

28:46 Um or just from Nemesis. If you're able to actually like critical a certain Nemesis, um, then you might be able to get the weapon that they're carrying, and you can do an entire build around that. Uh, so I think with KDM's unique structure of the only way you get better is through the items that you are able to craft, and that's going to kind of dictate uh, your path moving forward. Out of all the games that I have here, none stand out to me with their items. I think more so than KDM does. And some of them don't even really have items that are essential. Like, take Gloomhaven for example. Yeah, you can get a potion, and you can get armor and stuff, and it's all good for your character, but they're all standard.

29:42 Uh, obviously there's a healing potion in a fantasy game. There are still neat items you can get, but I would never talk up Gloomhaven with its items. So, if I'm thinking of a category like this, I really think KDM kind of locks it down. Then we're going to go to needs a remake, which is actually kind of a fascinating concept because whenever I'm looking at these, like I said, I took a lot of games that I like or still have. Um, for needs a remake, I would have to look at games I don't like, and I didn't get include them here. Um, but at the same time, the games I don't like that are campaign games, I wouldn't, besides just coming out and saying, "Okay, just completely remake it because everything about it sucked." I probably still wouldn't be that keen on it. Again, I'll use Dante's Inferno or Odelin for that matter, two very recent games that came out that just did not do it for me. Even if they came out with a second edition and said they've overhauled it and completely remade it, I don't know if I'd be too keen to give it another shot.

30:56 But there is a game that I did include on this list that is also technically not a campaign, but it has so many expansions to it that it kind of feels like it's own campaign, so I really have three games on here. Um and I'm actually going to go with Time Stories. I'm sure no one thought about this game in a million years. When did this game come out? 2015, over 11 years ago, and then they made expansions uh over time. 10 expansions, I think. What's the last one? Okay, I'm like that's a fan expansion. Final Fantasy, I didn't even know there were fan expansions for this. Escape from Auschwitz? What the [ __ ] All right, well I didn't even know there were fan expansions for this. There's actually a lot. That's kind of wild. Um some weird ones.

31:44 Well, the last There's a ton of fan expansions. I wonder how readily available they are. Anyway, if you don't remember, Time Stories was this kind of concept of of a loop game. Where as you are I'm looking for a good picture. Here we go. This is kind of the beginning. So, if you're playing with multiple people, you would be assigned kind of a character. You were like the beginning of Assassin's Creed. You are a real person, but then you're going back in time to a specific era and you take over these uh these these uh I'm trying to think of what they're called.

32:33 Not What What are are called? Do they say it? In the description? Narrative game deck exploration. Given a role. I cannot temporal units? Is that what they're called? Anyway, you you take over someone in that era and then you're kind of exploring what is happening and over the course of all of these expansions they had some big overview or overarching story. Um here we go. The Marcy. I think this was the Marcy case. This was the zombie one, one of the first two. But it was a really cool idea because you you would actually go to general locations and kind of have certain people go and talk to uh people of interest, go to locations of interest, gather information, but you had to do it in a certain time limit. Every certain actions took a lot of time. If you didn't have the right people, you would have to go back and send the right people. The problem with the game was it was not fun to loop. Uh essentially what would happen is if you ran out of time, you were supposed to completely reset, start at the beginning, and then now you know exactly where to go. You know going over there just waste time.

33:55 So then you know talking to that person requires a particular character to go, not the one you sent originally. Which is a good idea in concept except uh I don't know anyone who actually enjoyed that part. Um eventually got to a point where we would just say we looped and then just would continue going. So they had a lot of really cool stuff going on with this. I think they just kind of lost the plot about three scenarios in and they kept making more. Um my favorite one was actually the Arctic Expedition. And it wasn't ever super clear what the overarching story was. So, I think that this game could actually do with a remake. I think out of all the games that I have included, all the games I can think of that I don't enjoy, uh this one, if they came out and said, "Okay, we're doing a Time Stories 2."

34:48 Which I guess they technically tried. They tried to do It was like Time Stories: Revolution. Um Was it Revolution? Yeah. But they did not continue that. That was 2020. People didn't really like it. I actually enjoyed it cuz it felt a lot more streamlined. It was cleaner, and it was quicker. It didn't have the whole board presence for no reason. But I think if they did a a concept kind of like Etherfields did, which I guess that would be a campaign game that I could have included on here, but I barely got into it. Uh if they did a a bigger legitimate campaign where you did have a bunch of different areas you can go to, and there was an actual narrative that was connecting all the different stories together, yeah, I think it could actually work. If you didn't have the loop idea, and you kind of had a fail-forward system that allows you So, you still have to be time-efficient, but you don't get the benefits of going back. Um or if you do, then there's there's things that have changed since you went back cuz you you interacted with the wrong people, and now they're not there anymore. So, you kind of have to play it in a different style. Almost a little bit kind of like Lands of Ga- how Lands of Galzyr does it, where if you're doing something and it makes a change, it swaps it puts a card in like the trash area, and the new card comes in.

36:16 So, if you do go back to the Greek era, and you messed missed out on uh a check, now that person is either more suspicious or they're not there or, you know, you told someone the wrong thing and now they're acting upon a different it Hey, okay, well, where's that guy we were talking about? Well, he was actually killed because you told the guard about him and you weren't supposed to. I think they could do a really cool idea with this time loop system without it being an a Well, you ran out of time. How about you just redo it? And it turns a hour and a half story into a 4-hour story, you know? So, Time Stories I think could do with a a full-on full-blown remake that's completely cohesive instead of little expansions coming out over time.

37:09 Now, we're going to go to best fantasy game. So, if you're really into fantasy, this is the one that I think does fantasy the best. And oh, man. There's a lot of fantasy on here. And let's see. So, I could Do I want to go dark fantasy? Typically, my man. I don't know. Cuz I wouldn't call Sleeping Gods fantasy. I mean, it Fantasy is that broad term that it's like all of these count because it's all fantastical.

37:55 But, I'm talking about like Lord of the Rings high like potentially high fantasy, Dungeons and Dragons um kind of fantasy. Gloomhaven is good cuz that's its own unique world. I don't think they go fantasy enough, at least for my personal taste of fantasy. Divinity isn't terrible for that pick. Um but I don't think the game is very good. Uh but I guess I let's see. There's two that I'm considering. And it's a tie between Aridia. But at the same time I also don't get fantasy from it. It is a fantasy world because you're playing as bards and cats and dwarves and things like that.

38:48 I'm actually going to go with Uh where was it? I feel like I saw it and then I was thinking, okay, that's that's a really good one. Oathsworn I could go for dark fantasy. But I think I'm actually going to pick Elder Scrolls. Uh this game definitely just has it has the leg up because it's based off an IP from Bethesda that clearly makes high fantasy RPGs. Um where it it encompasses almost every single uh setting that that uh Bethesda has made with Morrowind to Oblivion to uh Skyrim. Um but the reason why I'm picking Elder Scrolls over some of those other ones is because of the fact that whenever you're looking at your characters and the enemies you are fighting everything about it is high fantasy. Now, this might not be if if you're so I could have done two sections of best high fantasy and best dark fantasy. If I was going with grim dark fantasy, I would pick proba- I'd actually prob- man, what would I do?

40:07 Cuz I'm going to talk about Elder Scrolls as I think the best fantasy game. Um but I do want to go on a side note as if I was going dark fantasy. Painted Grail oath sworn or Kingdoms forlorn are the three I would pick for for dark fantasy. So, if that's more your speed, I would check out any one of those three for that theme. But, I'm going to go with high fantasy here cuz that's the one that I actually tend to enjoy. So, in terms of any type of build, you could be a ton of different types of classes, a bunch different types of races that all are in this this setting of of high fantasy. Uh whenever you're in various sections, the enemies that you are fighting uh go between goblins and and wargs and things like that. Whenever you are doing your character build, you can do tons of different types of magic or uh you know just really I mean, this was my second my runner-up for character builds. And but that all actually matters because it goes into the fantasy aspect that whenever you're starting the game, you actually pick a guild that you want to that you want to be a part of and that's kind of going to dictate your overall uh narrative experience that is all centered around the the fantasy setting.

41:38 [snorts]

41:38 The fact that each of the locations has their own gimmick around them, kind of like their own rule set that will determine the the choices you have whenever you are going from place to place. All that is centered around a fan uh fantastical setting. Now, with Skyrim and stuff, I mean, one of the things Oh, it's in Chinese.

42:02 Or Japanese, I don't know. Uh I was like, "Oh, I can read that here." But, that looks like a troll that you would be fighting. It might not be as I I you could probably pick a miniature game that would help, but I really just think that the fantasy does go hard in this one. Um it Yeah, it and it's just because probably I've played the you know, Oblivion and Skyrim and that's kind of pretty much it. I never played I thought I think I started Morrowind a little bit. So, yeah, I'm going to go with uh Elder Scrolls as the best fantasy game. Then, we go to the best sci-fi and this one is actually kind of going to be a stretch for me only because there's not that many sci-fi games uh sci-fi campaign games.

42:55 For [snorts] some reason, I mean, there are I guess there's actually there's one out that I haven't played that could easily probably hit the spot and I'm going to mention it here, but I haven't played it and that's Phantom Epoch. I have it backed for the second uh Kickstarter, but this definitely is in a uh I think a sci-fi setting if I'm not mistaken. But, like I said, I haven't played it, so I don't know much about it. And I think there are more that are going to be coming out. Phantom Epoch is one that's out. There is uh um Oh, another Rogue Angels, I think also does sci-fi. And then the big one that would probably take this list is Enormity because that's 100% sci-fi.

43:46 Uh and it's done by Into the Unknown, the same guys that made Alien Trespass Odyssey and Kingdom Forlorn. So, out of those from the demo I've played, I'd throw Enormity in there, but that's not necessarily fair cuz it's not even out. So, I have a couple options for sci-fi. And some people, if you have a better sci-fi recommendation, then um then yeah, definitely let me know in the comments. Cuz I You know, I love fantasy. If I have a choice between fantasy and sci-fi, I'm probably going to pick fantasy nine times out of 10. But every now and then after playing fantasy back, you know, for you know, back-to-back, I do I do kind of get an itch for sci-fi, a big sprawling sci-fi game. And so, my options for sci-fi are essentially there's two.

44:39 From what I have. Time Stories would actually been been sci-fi. Uh cuz it's technological and and using time travel and stuff and fantasy doesn't ever really touch on time travel. So, we got Stars of Akarios and ISS Vanguard. And um and here's the thing, neither of which I have finished. I have only started ISS Vanguard and Stars of Akarios. Um in fact, with Stars of Akarios, we quit because it clearly needed to be finished and now it has been finished. I just haven't had a chance to go back and dive that deep into it.

45:25 But from what from what I have played of either, I think I'm going to go with the sci-fi more. I might actually go ISS Vanguard. And the reason why, well, it's actually Let's go to it. ISS Vanguard. One, I love this cover. And two, because it has this whole element of ship building and ship and upgrading technologies and scanning, uh, artificial intelligence, and decoding a message that you get at like the beginning of the game. But, over the course of the game, you have this the ship booklet that you are literally using technologies that you're finding on various planets, picking up, uh, from monsters that are dropping stuff, from locations that you're investigating. All that stuff that you are then using to decode and analyze that allow you to upgrade your ship.

46:34 Um, the the different types of, uh, character builds that you're going with that. I know I talked about like character builds is its own section, but all of that is tied into the sci-fi setting. The fact that you have various ships that you can unlock that help you maneuver from, um, from location to location. This whole scanned booklet. The different galaxies that you're in that you can go investigate this meteor or this crashed, uh, space site. Uh, or you know, you have different planets that you can actually dive down into, and you have to take into to consideration the hazards of that planet. All of that just screams sci-fi. Stars of Icaria does also a very good job. It does kind of a similar thing in the sense that you will have space combat, and you will have, um, kind of a, uh, tainted grail or Seventh Continent style maneuvering around the board.

47:39 And and it easily you could honestly put Stars of Icaria in this spot. The reason why I am picking Ice of Icaria over it is cuz I've played a little bit more of Ice of Icaria, and and I've also and and it was a cleaner game. I didn't, uh, I didn't quit ISS Vanguard because it needed to be fixed. I quit because I I ended up moving. Um So, I think this one also has a more interesting aesthetic. Like the the different locations that you're going to uh all are tied into this very Mass Effect kind of feel, which is 100% sci-fi. So, I get Mass Effect vibe from this one. Again, this one is my weaker section, but I if I was doing fantasy and you know, I kind of had to include sci-fi.

48:29 I've only taken uh I'll take any type of consideration if people are thinking you know, ISS Vanguard is really good with sci-fi, but if there's just an overall better game that hits sci-fi more, please let me know cuz I I like sci-fi. Uh and I like I said, I do want campaign games to have some variety. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know what it is with fantasy. Fantasy just kind of all I can always just hit on a fantasy game even though some people might think that they're all samey. I don't know. But so yeah, that's what that's what I'm going to pick for best sci-fi game. And this that is a little bit more subject to change whenever I do get around to finishing ISS Vanguard or get around to finishing Stars of Akarios.

49:15 But by that point, Rogue Angels will come out and Phantom Epoch will be out and there's a ton more. Oh wait, what other sci-fi games do I have on the docket? Those are the two that immediately come to mind, but I feel like I have a few more. All right, best horror game. Now, this one is also a bit of a stretch, not because I haven't uh put it you know, I haven't thought about it. It's that there's no horror campaign game. There's I mean, there are game there are game campaign games that have horrific stuff in it. Uh Again, you might think I mean Kingdom's Kingdom Death Monster is probably the best horror game.

50:03 But I already have that in best items. So, I can't I'm not going to put it in best horror. There is a game that I am actually going to consider that is now going to be a campaign game. And you might think, well, isn't that the one shot as well? Well, I already put Vantage in in favorite art design. So, I'm This one was my second game that I thought was going to be more of a stretch. And that is Dawn of Madness. So, Dawn of Madness actually fits more of a campaign game than Vantage does because Vantage can be played in a couple hours and then you're done. Dawn of Madness, you're probably finished act one by the time you are uh by by the time you're a few hours in.

50:54 However, so whenever I mention what I consider a campaign game, I said it's one that you actually play over multiple sessions. Dawn of [snorts] Madness now has a save system because like I said, each investigator's story takes hours. It is at least 6 hours long. And a lot of people don't want to sit down for 6 hours and play anymore. So, now there's a save system and you can put it away and play and come back. So, it technically kind of has become its own campaign game. And out of all the horror board games, I mean Final Girl would have easily made this list if it wasn't specifically campaigns and Final Girl is definitely not a campaign game.

51:39 This one has clear uh inspiration from things like you know, uh Evil Within, Dead Space, um Silent Hill. Uh not Resident Evil, mainly Silent Hill and kind of Evil Within. Where you play as a What do they call them? I want to say investigator, but that's not what they are. Um Let's see. Did they not call them What do they call them? Wanderers. That's what they're called. Uh where you play a particular wanderer and they will have their own full narrative book. If you want to play as Catherine Little, whenever you're playing multiplayer, you just pick kind of one wanderer and that's the mind you're going into. This actually kind of also could have hit sci-fi a little bit, but I was obviously saving it for the horror section.

52:37 So, with Catherine Little, the farmer, she has her own pretty much full-fledged book, uh that will also dictate the various locations, the type of enemies that you're going to be going up against, uh that are their own specific horrific uh abominations that are going to be traumatizing these characters. Um and the writing very much lends itself to a horrific setting. Uh I mean, just from the sheer art style, it is I mean, art could have been high up there, too. But, you have to deal with sanity and your character's level of sanity that they're having to deal with from having all these different monsters coming at them.

53:26 Um let's see if I I was hoping I could find a picture of like one of the books, but I'll use this one because these are all the different locations that you're going to be moving around and going to. And whenever you have a narrative encounter, it's based off the locations and they're all tied to this one wanderer. And this game does not shy away from very touchy subjects, uh horrific instances that you would see in any type of horror movie. I mean, I can just show you the art that would clearly showcase why I'm picking this as the best horror. Um but the descriptions that they have of the way the enemies move and what the wanderer is seeing and feeling and experiencing uh throughout the entire narrative campaign, it's all I mean, if you really let yourself get into it, it is all incredibly horrific. It is one of the best narrative games that leans into that horror section. And it doesn't hurt that it's also kind of the only one that does it. Not that there's not horror games, but because this game is so heavily uh uh narrative focused, it kind of allows you to kind to get that feeling of horror

54:50 [snorts]

54:50 whenever, you know, regular horror games that are are horror themed just don't allow you to get that same sense of feeling. So, I think that this one does fit in this best horror game for campaigns because it now has a save system. It it isn't fully realized yet because we're still waiting on extra content where it does physically have a save storage, uh but they did at this point in time, it should actually be coming out around now. Um but they did uh preemptively give kind of a a home brew way of saving where you could print off a save sheet and you'll just have to use different bags and stuff, but whenever people get all of their content, it will actually be a a a vacuum-sealed saves this uh system, which is perfect because like I said, these games last a very long time.

55:48 So, if you want to play up to a certain point, then you could actually put it away and save it. So, that does work for a lot of campaign games. So, yeah, I'm going to pick Dawn of Madness for best horror. Then we got best overworld. And what do I mean by that? I'm going to I use overworld as kind of best setting.

56:08 [clears throat]

56:08 Um If it whenever it's like world-building and um and things like that. And this one is probably going to be Gloomhaven's a good one because it is its own fantasy. They didn't just go with your standard elves and dwarves and things like that. They are all a unique race. I do like the world of Gloomhaven. But at the same time, I never really am interested about the lore. That that they do a whole whole lot of work on that. Um What do I want to do with overworld? Oath forge is pretty fascinating cuz it's a different setting, almost feels Middle Eastern. Um That one's kind of cool.

57:01 But I am I do think I have one in mind. Oathsworn is also very neat. That one I was actually very intrigued with the world that it was it was putting in in there. Sleeping Gods is also cool. Ooh. Oh, man. This one's actually tough. I am going to go with It's a brand new game, so it could be recency bias, but trust me whenever I say that this one kind of helps. It does a lot for its overworld, and that is going to be Lands of Everfrost. So, this one literally just came out at the time of this recording.

57:48 Um So, it's 2026. I got my copy in like 2 weeks ago, uh but I've already played a ton of it. And the reason why I'm going with Lands of Everfrost for its overworld is because it is a blend of RPG and it says right hybrid RPG and board game experience. There's not even that many pictures I can use for it. But the reason why I like this one is because it gives you the capability to actually read about the world. For all the other games that I mentioned, Oathsworn really thought the world was cool, and you learn a little bit about it as you're playing, but it's very isolated to the the chapter you're in.

58:38 You don't get to go further out than what they're telling you. Uh Kingdom Death Monster technically has a ton of stuff, but you have to search for it, and that's not necessarily that fun. Kingdom Death Monster also very cool, but all of these games have their own world that that you only get to understand based off where you are at in the actual game. Lands of Everfrost has this entire um this entire player's handbook. Let me see if I can find a picture. Nope, they're all just going to be these models, aren't they? It's fantastic. Okay. Well, do they have Okay, so maybe this is going to be the closest one that I'm going to get.

59:29 And it's not necessarily spoilers because it's like the tutorial section. But uh whenever you are actually creating the character and it tells you everything about the character. It is a player's handbook from a tabletop RPG, Pathfinder, you know, Starfinder, D&D, things like that. But on top of that, you get to understand what types what the characters are like. You get uh to learn about the races and and things like that. But at the back of the the the player's handbook is a codex. And that actually tells you about the gods, about the various regions, the Midlands, the Rot lands, um the the different cities, uh terminology.

1:00:20 All of this stuff that you can read that actually allows you to understand the world you're in. You actually have a lore book. So, if I want to know about Whitewell, there is a section. I mean, it's not the deepest thing. It doesn't go into Whitewell and then you learn about that. But, however, while you're actually playing the adventure, you get to understand the the politics and things of Whitewell specifically. But, if you actually read the codex it gives you a deeper understanding. So, you might be thinking, "Okay, this this game is brand new. That's why it's on my mind. Other games have a better overworld." And they have cool overworlds, but I think Lands of Evershade gives you the capability to dive deeper into the universe and and gives your characters a better understanding of whenever you're trying to roleplay.

1:01:17 You know, they understand what is kind of at stake whenever you're able to make decisions because you read about the gods. So, if you're talking to a priest of a particular god, you might respond in a different way because you actually know how they view that god. Things like that they a lot of these campaign games just do not give you. And because it's so heavily choice-based, you you kind of want to read. And even just from the get-go, the the overworld is incredibly fascinating. Uh that I was it I was intrigued to even go in the back. I grabbed the player's handbook and was flipping. I'm like, "Okay, well, I want to know about Whitewell. I want to know about the Midlands cuz that's where we're currently at."

1:02:03 So, let me learn a little bit about going you know what's going on. The opening narrative or kind of it puts the setting in is incredibly fascinating that I kind of wanted to read about the gods. So, I think that in and of itself just gives gives Lands of Ever Shade that the leg up over a lot of a lot of these. Even some games that I like more than Lands of Ever Shade, I have never really been that intrigued over you know, diving deeper. So, that's what I'm going with for best overworld. Then we got best combat. Best combat.

1:02:50 You know, I actually do think I have one for this. There are a lot of games that have good combat. And I'd probably put one of these already in there. But because I've resigned myself to having a different game in each section, I'm going to go with Oh, man. Okay, hold on. I thought I had one, and then I saw Oathsworn. Okay. Oh, man. Gloom I do really like Gloomhaven's combat. I love that card system. However, Oh.

1:03:39 I should have done I should have thrown in best boss fights. But that would that isolate quite a few. I kind of wanted every game to have a shot in a Well, I guess that's not true cuz then I I wouldn't have best horror game. Do I Do I include boss fights as best combat, or do I just do cuz that would be a boss battler. Um

1:04:06 You know, I think I I'm going to go I'm going to go with Aredia. I I really really like Aredia's combat. And the reason why is because it actually does directional attacks. So, whenever you are playing or whenever you're in a fight with her and they've all been incredibly fun, too. Whether it's been a boss or mobs, it's it's just always been such a clean, effortless system. But let's see if I can find Uh, that's not a great That's not great, but it'll it'll work. No, it won't cuz I can't zoom in.

1:04:52 Well, it's a little bit blurry, but Well, let's see if I can actually find Uh, you know, damn it. Why don't Why do some pictures not allow me to zoom in? Nope. I thought that was going to work for a sec. But the Aredia's combat actually does directional combat. Your weapons and stuff will attack at certain angles. And whenever you're aiming at an enemy, that enemy has a certain amount of uh targets on its actual card. And some of them might have armor pieces on it. Some of them might be shields, so that you would have to attack in a different direction. Some of them will allow you to hit critical weak spots that if you're going up Let's just say you're going left, you know, across.

1:05:44 That's what your weapon does. It attacks three across. But, if that goes over a critical hit point, that has an arrow pointing to another section of the actual card, then you get to do extra damage that you wouldn't have normally been able to hit. But, the same kind of goes for enemies. Whenever you are fighting, this is one of my favorite things about this game, is you actually get to have armor pieces that are on various sections of your body, whether it's I mean this is your chest, your legs, your feet, left and right hand, left and right arm, left and right shoulder, and your head. And different enemies will have different dice that you will roll, and they are directional dice. I was hoping I could find the dice on here, but they're color-coded. It's red, yellow, blue, and gray.

1:06:40 So, whenever you're rolling them, it'll be okay, you're it's it's a four damage attack, and then you'll roll the directional die, and it'll have a little like a highlighted pip that might indicate you got hit in the head. And if you don't have armor there, or if you did have armor, but it's been hit multiple times, that will either absorb no damage or all the damage. Not all the damage, but some damage. And I absolutely love that. I think it is incredibly thematic. Uh oh, here's a good picture. Where uh these these uh resin kind of pieces represent the armor that you have on it. And so typically it's supposed to have one, but if you it let's say you get hit and you roll and it's your left hand.

1:07:32 And it's for two damage. Okay, well, then you remove the one armor piece you have on it and it absorbs the two damage. But now if you get attacked again and it uh hits your hand, you don't have any armor there anymore cuz it's been worn out and you would take the damage. And so you would have to go you have to go to towns and get it repaired by paying money. Um but over the course of the game you get different types of items that you can slot in different sections. It is such a innovative system. No other game campaign game has done that. It's just Oh, you have health. This is your health. Do theater of the mind stuff. Here you don't have to do theater of the mind. It is all actually tied into the the system. On top of that whenever you are doing your characters, you have different you have two main actions and a minor action and minor is you actually take one of the minor action uh wood pieces and put on your shoes to show that you're moving. Whenever you're attacking, you put on your you know, main weapon or your off weapon or put it onto a potion. Uh you have different uh uh what's the word? Kind of skills that you can use depending on your class.

1:08:46 Um the actual movement of the board Where is it? Right here. Uh not in this particular case cuz that's just a that's that's just a town or camp you're in. But let's say you were fighting on here, you actually have line of sight and positioning matters and uh you have difficult terrain and you have, you know, walls and stuff that block. So, actually moving around is very tactical. The way that they've done the combat is so creative with a lot of uh different gimmicks. I I love the combat here. It's not cumbersome. It's very quick and uh some of the enemies that might be a higher level than you, you know, you can still take on if you're um if you're tactic uh yeah, if you're strategic enough. It it but really why I'm putting this in the best combat is this grid system for armor and the action system uh for activating your skills, but also the way the enemies are hit. I love that directional uh attack. When you are trying to decide what weapon to wield, you look at how it's going to hit and how that's going to sync with your other teammates. It's just so cool. I really want more games to do combat like that.

1:10:09 Not that it Not that some of these games don't have really good combat. Fate Forge has very quick, snappy content that's more of kind of a puzzle. That's also really good. I love Gloomhaven's card system. But I just really like combat with Auridia. And then we go to best storytelling. I I think a lot of these games have really good storytelling. Um I mean, Madara, if I didn't have in best character builds, would be in contention because Madara also has kind of a narrative feature that kind of had me talking about it outside of the game, trying to theory craft and think about who, you know what might happen, similar to as if I was watching an anime.

1:11:02 Um the Roll Player Adventures also does a really good job there because a lot of it is storytelling. Hell, Dawn of Madness could have easily fit in because it is fully narrative. Um let's see. This War of Mine is also very good. Uh This one's tough. Because you kind of want a game that has you captivated by its narrative. And some of these I don't think I mean, some of these are definitely stronger than others.

1:11:55 And I'm trying to think again on where I want some of these to go. And there was a game that did pop out whenever I we got the best storytelling that first um the that I initially thought of. Oh, man. Dragon Eclipse is a lot of fun. Um and that had a good story that I kind of wanted to follow. But it didn't really stick with me after I had finished, even though I still like uh I still liked it. Um

1:12:38 Oathsworn's Oathsworn's narrative is really good. But I think uh man. Now, what do I Cuz storytelling and overworld kind of do go a little bit hand in hand. Um And I might have to cut No, I haven't skipped any. I was going to say I might have to come back. I mean, technically a storytelling story fold wildwoods. I did just finish that and I did like the story even though it felt a little bit amateurish at but it's I mean, I'm not going to pick it.

1:13:21 All right, I'm tied between two. And And the only reason I'm not picking one [clears throat] over another is because I do have a spot dedicated for a game later on. So I think for best storytelling I am going to go man. This one is is very difficult for me cuz cuz there's some games that I really really like that are like nine out of 10, 10 out of 10 games. I mean, to be fair, all of besides time stories, all of these are like nine or 10s. So cuz I love campaign games.

1:14:17 Uh but there's some games I really like that I'm just now realizing are not going to hit um you know, hit this this grid. I'm going to drink this and stall for time.

1:14:38 Technically, Familiar Tales is also really good with storytelling cuz it's kind of a storybook.

1:14:45 [clears throat]

1:14:45 All right, I'm beating around the bush. I'm going with Tainted Grail. And I'm kind of tying in story. I mean, obviously storytelling goes with writing. And even though a lot of games have done really well with writing nowadays, I think Tainted Grail did the best campaign like board game writing first. Cuz a lot of it was very cheesy. Tainted Grail, a lot of board games writing was either non-existent or very bad writing, or it was serviceable just to get you kind of from point A to point B. When Tainted Grail came out, that was the first thing I think a lot of people were kind of talking about was how captivating the writing was and how descriptive it had been for the world.

1:15:36 So, whenever we're looking at best storytelling, I mean, I haven't even gotten into Kings of Ruin or Age of Legends or anything like that. I'm talking about just base Tainted Grail. There's always been uh a setting that I've just absolutely loved. That kind of Arthurian legend Dark Souls kind of vibe that it gives you. But, when you're going to different areas and actually having the narrative kind of describe what you are experiencing, whenever your characters are having their own personal moments and it's going into, you know, what they're feeling and how they're interacting with the world around them, it's so descriptive and captivating that you actually feel like you are watching a show or uh or reading a novel, even though it's all broken up into into different sections, it's all so cohesive with the world.

1:16:44 This is why I was saying, "Okay, Overworld and storytelling kind of go hand-in-hand." And they do. And the I'm funny enough, I'm putting two Awaken Realms games in the two categories I think kind of go together. Uh that's because Awaken Realms is one of the best in the business, I think, for narrative kind of campaign games, especially with their writing. The reason why Lands of Everlasting got best world uh is because it gives you codexes and stuff to actually understand what the world is about. However, Tainted Grail gives you that kind of same concept through its writing. Uh and it's such a cool cool setting. Um it has this massive narrative book that luckily we cannot read. But how each of the locations you're at will have a full-on description and then the different choices you can make in that are all really, really well written.

1:17:45 I'm about to die. So, I think the the different chapters that you're doing within Tainted Grail are incredibly fascinating, how they all link together uh to make a cohesive narrative without it being uh just a massive book. Like, don't get me wrong, I think Dawn of Madness does excellent storytelling, but it does it it it does end up being, you know, a majority of reading. It's, "Hey, let's sit down and listen to uh one person read." Luckily, they have audio narration for it. Uh and that that helps a lot. In fact, any type of storytelling narrative-driven campaign game needs audio narration at this point. I get very frustrated if I'm the one having to read now. So, I'm I mean, I would say I've been, uh, you know, uh, like, uh, spoiled with narrative-driven games, uh, whenever they do have audio narration, but yeah, just something about Tainted Grail and its writing. I mean, hell, they even made a full-on video game centered around Tainted Grail that plays very similar to old-school RPGs.

1:19:00 And I don't think any of these other games could actually do that. Uh, so, that just goes to show kind of how well-written the the board game was to where they can kind of just take that exact same world and story and apply it into a video game setting. So, that's what I'm going to go with for best storytelling. This one was probably the hardest category because I think there are a lot of games. I mean, just to just just for honorable mentions, uh, for writing that that I considered. I mentioned Dragon Eclipse. Uh, Familiar Tales is very family-friendly and a lot of fun. It reads like a fairy tale book. Um, I I literally thought Ice & Fire and Guard as well because as much as I don't like the game play I legitimately like the story and I wanted to just go through the foreteller and listen to that cuz it was very I looked forward to the story sections of those.

1:20:04 Um, Kingdoms Forlorn is also really good with its storytelling. In fact, I that's probably my second choice only because the all the different knights have their own story book to it. And they're incredibly captivating. They're literally a book for the knight and, uh, you actually get some emotional moments with some of the characters. Uh, so, they did a the they're excellent as well. Um, then the reason why I'm not picking Kingdoms Forlorn is because Tainted Grail does a similar concept with your characters having unique moments in various sections, but it's also the overall storytelling of the world versus just an isolated knight.

1:20:50 Uh and it feels more cohesive. With the knight story, it's it is isolated. Um but then there's also other knights next to you and they don't really interact. They can. There are moments where the storytelling will ask, "Hey, is Sir Saunch in this party?" And if he is, then you kind of get an interaction between them, but it doesn't happen enough. So, it's kind of weird when some people it's like, "What are we doing here? Are we just standing around? Are we just T-posing?" But yeah, so Kingdoms Forlorn, uh if you don't like Awakened Realms for whatever reason, that would be my second choice, but uh Oathsworn is also very captivating with its writing. It's very very good. Um Let's see. This War of Mine, that would also be Awakened Realms. That's that hits a little bit more closer to home just because it's real life.

1:21:38 So, that's really good. But yeah, I'm going with Tainted Grail. Then we got Biggest Personal Impact. So, this is a game this category is meant to what game actually impacted me the most uh to where I what I'm going to go with is where I was emotionally impacted. Cuz the weird thing about campaign games, at least the narrative ones, is they don't really elicit any emotion out of me. I and I don't think a lot of games try to. They don't try to make you cry or feel things or, you know, get you riled up. Some games can in a uh in a My dogs are are playing.

1:22:29 Um in kind of a fun you know, gamey sense. But there's one game that I think actually got an emotion out of me. And that is Aila and something shiny. This one took me by surprise. And I think this might be the biggest controversial pick. I'm going to go ahead and let you know, I I've a full series on this channel. Actually, I Okay, I have a I Well, I'll go through that in a sec. But I had heard about Aila and something shiny being very mature. Um and I was like, really? The game about a stuffed rabbit?

1:23:17 Okay. So I I bought it and I was kind of thinking you know, just to see what people are talking about. And the first couple chapters, you're kind of thinking, oh, okay. Yeah, this is what This is what people who can't separate games from reality um are talking about. Where, you know, This War of Mine, for example, where they're thinking, how can you have fun playing game like that? You know, it's cuz it's a game. Um but by the time I finished finished Aila and something shiny, I I was actually in in a mood. It It really got a good reaction out of me. And what's more fascinating about that game is it got that reaction out of me with virtually no no writing.

1:24:10 It's all through you know, the cards and the pictures and and what you are actually inferring from what is going on. And I There was a comment that someone had mentioned on my run-through of this is how this is how they do kind of pull the rug out from under you. You would not expect what this game I don't want to spoil it, but you don't you would not expect where this game goes until you're playing it, and by the time you're at that point, you're kind of in too deep. And I could see this being a very overwhelming for some people. I happen to be in the demographic that it doesn't affect me, but yeah, this one but well, it doesn't affect me in in a negative way. It really did get a good reaction out of me, and I loved what they did with it.

1:25:04 So, I can't go in too deep on it, but if you like I mean, I said Take the Grail's best storytelling, Lands of Ever Shade's best overworld, you know, all these different categories, and Island Something Shiny was able to capture something that all these other games have missed. And yeah. It could just be time and place with you know, it's 2026, certain things in the world are [ __ ] atrocious.

1:25:31 [snorts]

1:25:32 So, it could have just be that this the message it was coming across, I think could have just been one that for the right place, right time. But yeah, if you are wanting something intriguing and I think captivating, Island Something Shiny I just thoroughly enjoyed all the way through. And it it doesn't in five chapters. That's the thing, it's also a very short game. So, yeah. Can't go into spoilers cuz I don't want to spoil it, but that's the one I'm putting in biggest personal impact. Then, we're going to best beginner game. This is a game that I think will be a really good starting point for uh if If wanting a long-form campaign game, one that you actually get to feel like you're making decisions, you get to do character builds, you get to uh kind of feel what a campaign game is about.

1:26:30 There are Okay, so I'm not going to put this here, but Arkham Horror LCG is as right now a good place to start because they just kind of redid it. It's Arkham Horror 2.0 or whatever. Now would be a perfect time to hop in on this one so you can start getting all the expansions and content releases as it's coming out versus having to go back and acquire all that stuff. Um Oh, man. There are Okay. Familiar Tales is also a very solid one because that one's self-contained and uh and has like its own story book that you're going in.

1:27:16 But I think I'm torn between two. And it's none of these down here. I think What am I going to do? Which one am I going to pick? All right. I've been holding this because I've mentioned a few times there were a few times that this game could have been thrown into one of these categories. It actually [snorts] could have been put in the best fantasy game. I think I mentioned it back then. Uh I also mentioned it kind of with best storytelling. So I want to give it its due and I recommend this game for a lot of people who are hopping in and that is going to be Roll Player Adventures.

1:28:04 I thought about Pandemic Legacy for best beginner game. That would be a I mean Pandemic Legacy is a really solid one to pick because it's based off Pandemic. Uh and it does a lot of really cool stuff. But it is kind of a one-and-done game. Not that the experience isn't isn't great and I think it's one of the best better board gaming experiences I've had. You do kind of you're done whenever you finish the campaign. Roll Player Adventures, you can still keep playing. Uh or you could play it again and make different decisions. So Roll Player Adventures is if you are coming or if you've been interested in kind of a tabletop RPG um this game was spawned funnily enough from another game called Roll Player where you would It was a dice drafting game where you compete you were competing to make the best uh best D&D character. More or less. It's not D&D, but it's heavily inspired by it.

1:29:09 Uh what you could do is if you've played Roll Player, you could actually take that character and import it into this game. Very cool idea, but it does kind of make you change how Roll Player at least for me how I play Roll Player because this is fully cooperative, Roll Player is competitive. So whenever you're trying to actually import a character from Roll Roll Player into this, you're kind of playing Roll Player cooperatively so you can get the items and stuff that you're wanting. What I've started doing is just taking the pre-generated characters and throwing them in here. All that to say the reason why I think Roll Player Adventures is a the best beginning game is because it's not complicated at all.

1:29:56 The game is actually on the easier side where whenever you're in combat or you're making skill checks you get to a point where you've acquired so many items and skills and stuff and you've leveled up enough and you have enough gold and all that that you whenever you're given a test you can kind of manipulate the dice in any way you want. Uh it doesn't start off that way. It becomes a little bit more of a thinker and more of a a puzzle and sometimes you might get it and sometimes you might not, but as the campaign progresses it is it you just have so much [ __ ] that all of your whenever you need to make any die a certain number or a certain color, you have the means to do so. It doesn't mean that it's automatic. You might actually have to think and look through all your stuff and you might have to use some of the the tokens that let you play extra cards, but you're going to be able to to succeed.

1:30:54 It doesn't make the game any less fun and it doesn't it still doesn't make it go through the motions uh where it's like, "Okay, why even bother? We're going to get it." You still have to work for it and sometimes you still might not get it, but what's it's fail forward. You get to keep moving. It's going to change the outcome and the other reason that I think this is a really good beginners game is because the entire campaign is broken up into small form adventures. Whenever we're looking at this picture here, the uh Taren's Taren's Trophy that's adventure two. And the the different keywords and choices you make it do matter over the entire course of the campaign.

1:31:39 However you don't have to really worry about that while you're in an adventure as an adventure book. All the decisions and stuff you are going to be interacting with are in this adventure book. The only map you're going to be on is in the adventure two map. The the locations you're going to are all going to just be based off of this one particular adventure. Now, whenever you are going from adventure to adventure, it does tie together, but you don't have to manage this 100-page rulebook or this big sprawling map or this this huge outlandish combat sequences.

1:32:25 This one, I think, can be played with all age groups. Um families, I've I've played this with my significant other, I've played this with a friend my age, and it's it's captivating and fun and whimsical enough, and you actually get to feel like your decisions kind of matter. Um You still get to play completely different characters that have, you know, their own items and stuff that you're carrying. If you do get the expansion, the Nepherus' Judgment, I think that's what it was called. It gives your characters a little bit more depth. When you want to move on, there is an expansion for it. Uh It was called Yeah, Gloomhaven: A Secret.

1:33:12 This is kind of its own stand-alone story that includes jobs that kind of whenever you are experiencing something, it might mention, "Hey, is there an herbalist in the party?" "Oh, yeah, I picked out herbalist." And then that'll give you its own section. I [snorts] think this game absolutely works wonders for beginner people who, whenever you're done with it, again, you can go through and make different decisions. Uh try different item combinations, you know, go It allows you to be creative as well. If you have a particular item, here's a combat check if you're fighting an an ooze. These are the dice they're putting in that spot. But, if you're at a particular location and you're thinking, "Well, hold on. There's a door here. I have this I mean, this is going to be so obvious, but I have this key. What if we try the key here? It didn't work in that It didn't work in the ancient chapel, but what if it works on this in this door, you know, what if it works at this room we're in on the the island?"

1:34:19 And, you know, sometimes it might and that'll unlock a bunch of different uh a a different sprawl uh path that you get to do. There's actually a lot more. You can, again, also just go from point A to point B to point C and not experiment at all. But, you do miss out on a lot. These adventure books get deeper and thicker um as you go along. So, depending on the decisions you make as well, it's going to open up different paths. So, I think this this game allows for a lot of replays. And then, you know, this could be a great stepping stone. If you like how this is done, then you might jump to a game that has bigger um you know, more in-depth combat. You might jump into a Gloomhaven or a uh uh you know, or a Sleeping Gods or something like that.

1:35:14 So, yeah, I'm going to go with Roll Player Adventures as best beginner game. Then, we go into most affordable, which is not a lot of these. Uh a lot of these games are $300. Um and that is a lot for most people. And sometimes, the games aren't even worth that much. I would say a great example is Divinity: Original Sin sits around $400 and it's not worth that price tag at all. Uh but there's a lot of games that I really like that I would highly recommend people play.

1:36:01 But I mean, all of these are insanely expensive, hundreds of dollars for games. So, most affordable There's a couple options, I think. Um How I'm But at the same time, some of them I can't really remember. Cozy Sticker Ville is is a really good one. Uh But that was That one is a little bit of a stretch of a campaign game. It technically does It can last multiple sessions. Um but I played it in a night. And so, it doesn't really last all that long, and you at most can play it twice, and then you're done. I loved my time with it, but um But yeah, I wouldn't really put You can afford it. It is like a $40 game, I think.

1:37:03 Arkham Horror LCG is pushing it if you're only doing the re- the remake, the 2.0, because it is just the core box. But there is two boxes, and it's the core box, and then the investigator box, and hell, that's actually over a couple hundred bucks just from those two. So, I actually wouldn't put Arkham Horror LCG on here. The one I'm actually going to pick And some of them are crowdfunded, and so you either have to find it second-hand, or hope they do a reprint. No. Can't put Lands of Galador on there, because it's already on game everyone should play. Primal is like 400 bucks. Um There's Vantage is also Vantage is affordable, but I got that in favorite art design.

1:37:58 If I was to go with a game that let's say is a $100 or less. Okay, but I have to do some research. So Sleeping Gods Let's us see how how people are are selling it on the board game geek geek market. I don't know what the hell this person is. Okay, so 90 bucks for the English game found edition. Uh okay. So sitting around that on average $100 or less. The other game that I'm thinking of is Familiar Tales.

1:38:45 And Familiar Tales has Someone's selling it for 30. Okay, I'm going to go best bang for your buck. Sleeping Gods. It was between this and Familiar Tales. Familiar Tales I think is actually a cheaper game. Uh I mean how we just we just looked at it. Yeah, you can get a copy for 30 bucks. However, if I'm doing the the rule of $100 or less, you can get a copy of Sleeping Gods for that or cheaper. Um and you get way more game out of Sleeping Gods.

1:39:31 They're I mean weirdly enough Pandemic Legacy was actually season one specifically was kind of difficult to find. I think it seems to be out of print so you have to get it second-hand. Um So, you're probably actually going to pay around I think I literally paid maybe 70 to 80 to get a copy of it. Um Sagrada Artisans was also up there for most affordable. Storyfold Wildwoods was really good. Um also probably a little bit cheaper. So, I guess technically most affordable, I would just pick the cheapest game. However, I think for just a couple bucks more, you get a bigger, richer, deeper game in Sleeping Gods.

1:40:16 Uh and so, whenever we're taking a look at Sleeping Gods, I mean and this could be either one, probably. This This is the one I'm picking is the first one, but there was Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies that I think is an improvement overall from this one, even though I think I mean it's a 10 out of 10 game for me. I absolutely love Sleeping Gods. You get a lot here. You get a big, sprawling world that is completely open world where it just kind of gives you a few quests, and then you can either try and follow that or you can look at the map and think "What the hell's over here?" And just go that way and see what's over there. And then maybe you can't do anything right now, but you know, later on you get a few keywords, you could actually jot that down on They give you a paper map you can write on. You can write down the KEYWORDS AND OH, HEY, we finally got that keyword. You can go back and now explore that location.

1:41:15 Um All these different characters have a special gimmick around them. Uh the characters are kind of whatever. They're not It It isn't a storytelling game about the characters, but they all do participate. And so, whenever you're doing combat and stuff within Sleeping Gods, it's it's kind of a puzzle, grid-based puzzle. But I think if we're I mean cuz campaign games unfortunately are not are not cheap, but there are cheaper ones. And with Sleeping Gods, uh I think I think you kind of get a lot of game for a relatively affordable price. So, if you're think if you're kind of one of those with those board gamers that don't really you don't back games, you don't stretch pay, you don't have a problem, you are actually you're you're you buy a game every now and then, out of all the games here that I think that you are willing to be a little bit more frugal with your money, the Sleeping Gods gives you ton of games or a a ton of game with a reasonable price.

1:42:31 In my opinion, most affordable is always a hard one because some people might have a budget of 20 bucks every 5 months to buy a game or whatever. Or they they look for discounts and I mean, if you're I think it might just be my my personal take, but if you're very stringent on money, campaign games might not be for you. They are all pretty expensive, unfortunately. That's why I wanted to have that category here because it I wish that wasn't the case, but all of these games here for the most part are probably bare minimum $200. Sleeping Gods is not. As we just saw, you can actually find find a copy of it for around 100 bucks. I don't know what the second one goes for.

1:43:17 Sleeping Gods: Distant Oops, and Sleeping Dogs. Sleeping Gods: Distant Skies. Uh that one Oh, someone's selling a copy for 50 bucks. Yeah, actually it's somewhat cheaper. So, there you go. Even better. Uh technically, I would say Distance Skys is an improved game. I like the storytelling and world of the first one a little bit more, but I think the second one mechanically is a better game. So, yeah. I feel more comfortable with Sleeping Gods being in there. And last but not least, if you want to know my personal favorite game, uh the reason why I haven't thrown it in any of these other categories because I said I was only doing one game per category, that is going to be Aeon Trespass: Odyssey.

1:44:08 I love this game. And the you know, it's actually kind of funny. Whenever we're looking at these different categories, I could have put uh Aeon Trespass: Odyssey in a lot of these games. Or in a lot of these categories. I could have put it in best fantasy game cuz I really it it might also be a little bit sci-fi. I know some cycles get a little bit more sci-fi around it. Um I love the world that it's in. The kind of primordial ancient ones coming in and killing the Greek gods. And you're you you pilot I guess it does lean more sci-fi. It's kind of in that middle ground. But you Evangelion pilot these titans too cuz they're the only ones who are strong enough to defeat and and damage the primordials. Um I could have put it in best combat because it's pretty much a I think an improved the system of Kingdom Death Monster even though it's whole wholly ripped off. Um But that fate system, the inverted paradigm system where it as as the fight goes on, the more damage you take, the tougher you get, but the more damage you deal to the enemies, the tougher they get, so the fights are always ramping up. Uh I could have put it in best storytelling cuz it's writing is also exquisite uh for that. They also have very very

1:45:39 awesome segments of of narrative uh sections. Uh biggest personal impact? No, I I would definitely going there. Definitely not most affordable, definitely not best beginner game. Um I love the art uh that goes into it. It It just really hits that vibe of kind It's not high fantasy, but it's a dark It leads on the darker side, but it's in that Greek mythology that I love. Um it is it it it really hits on so many levels for me. Um you just have they they and I mean it it does a lot of really interesting things. I love the different cycles, how the cycles are all stuck in different uh sections of Greece.

1:46:28 Um the the overall structure of the campaign, I really really like how you have a constant progression. The fact that there is a main story, but then you can also have a ton of different really in-depth side stories. Uh the different technologies, the Argo, that's like your massive [ __ ] uh shitty ship city ship uh that you are learning about as the campaign is going on. I absolutely love this game. Yeah, it doesn't have the best character builds. It has a decent character builds. It doesn't have the best items. It does It doesn't uh hit on every single level, but to me, it doesn't really have any glaring weaknesses.

1:47:13 Um hell, even the the one kind of weakness I could give it, I think does better than a lot of campaign games out there. So, yeah, I just I mean even over Kingdom's Forlorn, which is this company's second game, uh which had really good it it did mob fights really well. It did boss fights cuz it's pretty much this. Uh I love the the individual knight books with Kingdom's Forlorn. It is I hated the other half of the game, which was the delve. Uh some people like the delve more than what happens in ATO, where you're actually just kind of moving around on a a grid. I can find a picture of it. I actually like kind of the the Argo movement on the different tiles because it it's constant progression instead of just wandering aimlessly for the sake of aimless wandering. Um but but yeah, I I mean the the world, the the combat, the writing, all the things that I value in a campaign game ATO nails. So, that's why it's my favorite. I can't find a picture. It's going to be painted minis, which my minis are actually getting are painted for it for up to cycle three.

1:48:33 So, yeah, my favorite game Aeon Trespass: Odyssey. Absolutely love it. So, so yeah, these are my campaign game recommendations for all of these categories. And like I said, there were 15 slots here, over 30 games that I considered. There were some I try I wanted to talk about more than what I just ended up picking. Um like there were a lot of games that I think could have fit in certain categories. Fantasy games, for example. Game everyone should play, Cozy I could have put Lands of Galzair in best beginner game and role player Adventures in game everyone should play.

1:49:19 So, some of these I do think aren't as solid as others. But, I'm I'm pretty happy with this selection. This is the the grid that I would be going for. And yeah. So, that's it. If you are looking for campaign game recommendations, look no further than this grid here. And I hope this was fun. I hope it was interesting. If you could think of If you could think of 15 different categories that I did not touch on here, let me know in the comments below. I actually thought this was a lot of fun. I I I would love to do kind of more niche categories or grids like this. So, if you want to see kind of a sequel to this where I where I don't include these games, that these 15 are actually omitted from consideration, let me know that in the comments below.

1:50:18 But, also let me know what games you would recommend, like you would personally recommend for these categories. I would be very interested and I can highlight those for other people who might not like my personal taste. But, anyway, that's it everyone. Hope you enjoyed. Like, comment, share, and subscribe and have a wonderful whatever time of day this is for you.