Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Incline Co-Op boardgames

Snorkack

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 8, 2015
Messages
2,975
Location
Lower Bavaria
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Hey guys!
I love my pnp, because I like games and I often like playing with my friends, not just against them. The older I grow, the less time I have at disposal for evening-long or even weekend-long pnp sessions. So quite a while ago I started getting into board games, and especially those that are played cooperatively against the game itself are a really good substitute for that 'working together' feeling.
I'm always curious to see recommendations for coop boardgames, so let's make a thread about those. I begin with three games that I think are pretty awesome.


Pandemic (2008) https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30549/pandemic

I guess this is the prototype coop board game. It's pretty accessible, rather abstract, widely available and if you clicked this thread, chances are you knew it already.
Humanity is threatened by four deadly diseases that spread quickly over the planet and the players need to contain the spread to tolerable levels while researching the antidote. The board is, similar to Risk, divided into countries and regions. To find a cure for a specific affliction, a player needs four cards of the same color, but the players also need to use the cards in order to be mobile on the map. Each player has a specific role: The doctor can cure the country where his pawn stands more quickly, the scientist needs less cards to find the antidote the logistics officer can move other pawns more effectively,...
The rules are pretty simple and a single session is about 45 minutes. It is imo the perfect game to initiate people to the world of coop board games for who monopoly has been the pinnacle of board game complexity.


Legends of Andor (2012) https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/127398/legends-andor

This game received a lot of buzz and although it looks like it could be similar to Descent and the likes, Andor is more a puzzle game than anything else. In the base game there are 5 scenarios, one of them is the tutorial. Each player plays a typical fantasy hero archetype, while monsters move over the map in a predetermined pattern and try to reach the castle and kill the population. The players need to solve specific tasks, e.g. travel to the search markers on the map, search them and find a specific item. Then they need to get to another tile and defeat a strong boss. There are special events that are triggered after a certain number of rounds, an amount of enemies that are slain, etc. Then the game reveals new objectives or threats to the players who then need to reevaluate the situation.
Apart from too many monsters reaching the castle, there's another losing condition. You need to complete the objectives in a certain amount of time. But not only turns take time: slaying a monster adds to this counter as well, so you need to think twice about slaying an enemy next to you or not.
The appeal from this game comes from the scenarios that only reveal themselves during play. Once you have beaten a scenario, there is only little replayability. Several expansions are available.


XCOM: The boardgame (2015) https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/163602/xcom-board-game

As the name suggests, this game is based on the xcom franchise and deserves that name more than many of the xcom pc releases of the last years.
I have one problem with most coop games: Although it looks like four people are playing, it sometimes is just the one who understood the mechanics the best telling his mates what to do in their turns. Xcom doesn't let you do that.
In order to play, you need a mobile device or a pc besides the actual board game to play. At first glance it looks similar to Pandemic. There's a world map, each player has a specific role. One controls finance and airforce, one controls ground troops, one is in charge for science and research and one handles the (browser-, ios- or android)app, transmits informations to the others and manages sattelite network.
General goal is to prevent humanity to exceed a certain panic threshold as well as defending the xcom base while solving missions that require ground troops until the final mission is unlocked and beaten. There are two phases: realtime phase, and resolve phase.
During real time, the app gives the players consecutive tasks like placing ufos and aliens on the map or allocating research, deploying sattelites, air and ground forces. The latter all cost money and need to be agreed on while a strict timer is urging.
In the resolve phase, the allocated funds are spent, battles are resolved and research that enables new weapons or actions gets checked for success. When all is done, app checks if winning or losing conditions are met and proceeds with the next rt phase (or not).
This game is just awesome. I comes with a variety of difficulties and missions (replayability) and I'd recommend it to anyone who's into boardgames. Oh, and the tutorial is brutal :D
 

agris

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Apr 16, 2004
Messages
6,760
I'll add one:

Betrayal at House on the Hill (2004) https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10547/betrayal-house-hill

Random house generation via tiles, up to 6 players exploring a haunted house. After a certain number of creepy events happen, 1 player is turned into an antagonist and the other players must join together to stop him. There are 72 antagonist plots, 72 survivor (everyone else) plots, and the antagonist can be anything from the player turned into a werewolf and going through the house killing people, to their character actually removed from the game but instead are controlling a lovecraftian tentacled monstrosity that has sent 12 abominations into the house to hunt the party.

Every player has stats and and an inventory system. I love it. It's crunchy though, definitely not for people who don't like RPGs. My old tabletop hackmaster (retroclone 1st ed ad&d) group loved this game, as does my wife who doesn't even play rpgs.
 

Snorkack

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 8, 2015
Messages
2,975
Location
Lower Bavaria
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Oh yes, that one's in my collection, too. Mechanics felt a bit half-baked though. I remember one scenario when I turned out to be the bad guy. All my objectives were in adjacent tiles while the rest of the players happened to be in the basement. It was just impossible for them to stop me. Also, the first half discourages teamplay since you never know whos gonna be the baddie. The house exploring and the fact that you don't know the opposing party's exact objectives is genius tho.

Anyone got opinions on Arkham Horror? I heard it sucks unless you have at least four expansions.
 

Azalin

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 16, 2011
Messages
7,304
Anyone got opinions on Arkham Horror? I heard it sucks unless you have at least four expansions.


Eldritch Horror
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/146021/eldritch-horror

Another coop based on the Cthulhu Mythos,it's an adventure game where you choose a character and travel across the globe closing cosmic gates,fighting monsters and doing some quests that depend on who the Great Old you are fighting is.The are expansions out that add more Old Ones,cards,monsters,items etc to increase the replayability.It is supposed to be a more streamlined game than Arkham Horror which had become too much of a clusterfuck after a dozen expansions but I cannot comment since I haven't played Arkham,it's still a long game that can take 3+ hours depending on how many people play.
 

Explorerbc

Arcane
Joined
Nov 22, 2012
Messages
1,170
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/98778/hanabi

Not sure if that's what you are looking for. You only use cards and have to play them in the right order as a team to get points. You can see other players' hands but not yours, so you have to give each other information about what they are holding and help them make the right play.
 

Hellraiser

Arcane
Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
11,299
Location
Danzig, Potato-Hitman Commonwealth
Room 25

The prison from Cube with the group trying to escape it, only some of you are actually the guards. Also has a gimmick where everybody queues up actions during the planning phase, and no way to change them during the execution phase which may lead to shoving somebody into lava, by accident.

Battlestar Galactica

By far one of the best board games ever. Everybody contributes anonymously to solving the crisis of the turn and the overall problems of the fleet, with traitors in the mix. Lots of negotiating, planning, mind-games, making hard choices (should we pass this crisis and waste good cards or take the hit and have something to counter the next one which could be a do or die one?) and backstabbing. Also you can say your bro is a Cylon and have all the other player agree to lock him up in the brig, while you are the Cylon yourself. The downside is that it has a learning curve and the downtime between turns can get quite long, even if you can still make meaningful choices on somebody else's turn.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/98778/hanabi

Not sure if that's what you are looking for. You only use cards and have to play them in the right order as a team to get points. You can see other players' hands but not yours, so you have to give each other information about what they are holding and help them make the right play.

That game is fucking hard. It's a good challenging party game though. The rules are simple enough that it doesn't take long to explain. And a sessions is short as well.
 
Last edited:

Galdred

Studio Draconis
Patron
Developer
Joined
May 6, 2011
Messages
4,346
Location
Middle Empire
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
BattleStar Galactica. Having traitors on board as much needed tension IMO (but then, it is not fully coop anymore), and gives a god reason not to listen to the "boss".
I had some fun with Mage Knights : The Board Game in cooperative mod, even though the game is firstly a racing one.
 

Ellef

Deplorable
Joined
Dec 29, 2014
Messages
3,506
Location
Shitposter's Island
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015
Eldritch Horror
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/146021/eldritch-horror

Another coop based on the Cthulhu Mythos,it's an adventure game where you choose a character and travel across the globe closing cosmic gates,fighting monsters and doing some quests that depend on who the Great Old you are fighting is.The are expansions out that add more Old Ones,cards,monsters,items etc to increase the replayability.It is supposed to be a more streamlined game than Arkham Horror which had become too much of a clusterfuck after a dozen expansions but I cannot comment since I haven't played Arkham,it's still a long game that can take 3+ hours depending on how many people play.

Personally I found the derivates of Arkham Horror not nearly as entertaining, they remove all the things which makes Arhkham both brilliant and a hassle. The problem with Arkham Horror is the game length and the set up + pack up time. It truly becomes the Arkham Horror when you've got 5 expansions to sort through.
I'd recommend it to anyone who likes the theme though. The base game is perfectly fine, and if you like it you can add expansions gradually. Get it!


Shadows over Camelot is a traitor mechanic game which is much quicker and more accessible than most.

Robinson Crusoe is meant to be damn difficult and the most highly rated CO-OP game on BGG. Haven't played it though.
 

Don Peste

Arcane
Joined
Sep 15, 2008
Messages
4,277
Location
||☆||
1909564_10153573327236936_5189323870338210570_n.jpg
 

da_rays

Augur
Joined
Jan 23, 2014
Messages
382
Location
Filthy Pub , Quebec City
Two recommandations : Both are deckbuilding game ( if thats your cup of tea ) Lord Of The ring LCG , the deck building card is pre game , in which you choose your heroes and build your deck/strategy around it, then play with the other players to beat the game. The other one is Marvel Deck building game , in which you build your deck during the game ( like dominion or ascension if you know of them ) and try to beat the game ( which is customizable with different objectives and ennemies types ). Marvel is very easy to pick up and play , even for non boardgame/card game junkies. Shadowrun deckbuilding is also nice , pretty much the same things as Marvel DB , but with a different flavor.
 

Black_Willow

Arcane
Joined
Dec 21, 2007
Messages
1,866,230
Location
Borderline
Lord Of The ring LCG
Had to quote that for emphasis. It's an amazing game.

Also:
Descent: Journeys in the dark (2nd ed) - it's a dungeon crawler which isn't 100% co-operative, but lets you (and 3 of your buddies at max) control heroes fighting against The Evil Overlord (who is also a player). It's a mix of RPG (the heroes and the overlord get more proficient with time, there's a campaign with branching plotline) and a small-scale tactical game. Also, there are official co-op modules and an unofficial "automated overlord" module to make all campaigns (each expansions adds one) co-operative.
 

Galdred

Studio Draconis
Patron
Developer
Joined
May 6, 2011
Messages
4,346
Location
Middle Empire
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Lord Of The ring LCG
Had to quote that for emphasis. It's an amazing game.

Also:
Descent: Journeys in the dark (2nd ed) - it's a dungeon crawler which isn't 100% co-operative, but lets you (and 3 of your buddies at max) control heroes fighting against The Evil Overlord (who is also a player). It's a mix of RPG (the heroes and the overlord get more proficient with time, there's a campaign with branching plotline) and a small-scale tactical game. Also, there are official co-op modules and an unofficial "automated overlord" module to make all campaigns (each expansions adds one) co-operative.
I never thought of it as coop, but it is a good suggestion indeed. I find the first edition better, even though it is also a lot rougher (it needed streamlining, but not that kind of streamlining IMO). You can also go with Star Wars : Imperial Assault, which fixes most of Descent RTL 2 flaws.
 

Black_Willow

Arcane
Joined
Dec 21, 2007
Messages
1,866,230
Location
Borderline
To continue my fapping over Descent, they announced an app to make it fully co-op, automatise the underlord and add dungeon exploration, so now it should become even better as a co-op game.
 

Snorkack

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 8, 2015
Messages
2,975
Location
Lower Bavaria
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Some nice suggestions to be found so far! Battlestar Galactica ranks high on my wishlist, and thanks for mentioning Space Alert! I heard about it once and it sounded really interesting. Unfortunately I forgot its name.
I have Descent 2nd edition and I think its one of those really overrated board games. Setting up a scenario often takes longer as playing it out, and especially as overlord the game is rather lackluster. Killing heroes is absolutely pointless, upgrading your deck is boring compared to getting new abilities and equipment... This app you mentioned sounds really like a good idea to iron out the game's flaws.
 

MessiahMan

Cipher
Patron
Joined
Apr 12, 2007
Messages
390
Location
Shitsville
Codex 2012 Project: Eternity Wasteland 2 Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2
I'd like to throw the Mage Knight board game into the pile. Sort of a deckbuilding game, mostly a gem management game (for the higher powers of your cards), entirely a math nerd's wet dream, it plays co-operatively (with use of a dummy player for pacing) competitively, and solo (also dummy player).

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/96848/mage-knight-board-game

I also suggest the lost legion expansion for it. It adds a bunch of neat scenarios, fills in a couple of holes in the game, and really brings the experience together. The Shades of Tezla expansion can be mostly ignored, but it is cheap and not terrible by any stretch of the imagination.

Would just like to throw in...Don't play with too many people. The game is slow enough with two.
 
Last edited:

Gragt

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 1, 2007
Messages
1,864,860
Location
Dans Ton Cul
Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin
Elder Sign has been getting some cool expansion, like Gates of Arkham that borrows many elements from Arkham Horror while keeping the whole thing playable for common mortals. It also makes the game much harder, which addresses the main complain about the lack of difficulty of the base game — the first expansion, Unseen Forces, added a bit of difficulty in addition to a few new mechanics, but it was still easy if you were good at planning ahead.

The new expansion, Omens of Ice, appears to be what I had hoped for in my review of the PC version of the game: a conversion of the Alaska campaign for the board game. The previews shows that the damn will likely be brutal, with two levels of difficulty, and various bad things that can easily snowball if left uncheck. I am tempted to say that with Gates of Arkham and Omens of Ice, Elder Sign is finally reaching its full potential — it’s still worth getting Unseen Forces for the expanded museum experience and the blessed and cursed dice, which are both used in the next two expansions.
 

Spectacle

Arcane
Patron
Joined
May 25, 2006
Messages
8,363
The D&D cooperative board games are quite good, and present a decent facsimile of a real D&D dungeon crawl. Avoid the one wher you can play as Drizz't though, he is predictably OP and makes the other characters seem like dumbos.

Shadowrun Crossfire is another good co-op game. It's a card game rather than a board game, but features a team of runners combining efforts to overcome various scenarios.
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
13,997
Location
Platypus Planet
I love the D&D Adventure System Board Games. They're great co-op games if you want hack & slash dungeon crawling with good and slick mechanics that keep the game going at a pace that is fun and never slows down to a crawl. The Castle Ravenloft one is definitely my favorite one, it has some very fiendish boss fights and scenarios that will make you sweat bullets. Wrath of Ashardalon adds in some new cool mechanics and overall polish, but I found it to be a lot easier due to how many OP items, heroes and spells were made available to the players compared to Ravenloth. I have yet to play the Drizzt and Temple of Elemental Evil ones, but I know that the Drizzt box has strong as fuck heroes so it should be pretty easy as well.
 

coutil

Literate
Joined
Mar 22, 2016
Messages
7
My personal favourites at the moment;

Pathfinder Cardgame (Not the skull and bones one, it's said to be utter shite)
Mansions of Madness
Betrayal at House on the Hill
Elder Sign

Great coop games with 2 or more people.
 

Hobo Elf

Arcane
Joined
Feb 17, 2009
Messages
13,997
Location
Platypus Planet
I love the D&D Adventure System Board Games. They're great co-op games if you want hack & slash dungeon crawling with good and slick mechanics that keep the game going at a pace that is fun and never slows down to a crawl. The Castle Ravenloft one is definitely my favorite one, it has some very fiendish boss fights and scenarios that will make you sweat bullets. Wrath of Ashardalon adds in some new cool mechanics and overall polish, but I found it to be a lot easier due to how many OP items, heroes and spells were made available to the players compared to Ravenloth. I have yet to play the Drizzt and Temple of Elemental Evil ones, but I know that the Drizzt box has strong as fuck heroes so it should be pretty easy as well.

ToEE is very challenging, mostly because encounter cards have something called "Rage of IMIX", which causes the tile you're on to do two damage to everyone. RoI also stays there and said tile becomes a rapehole. There are more rage of imix cards than one, there's about 1/4 of the deck, and so basically the entire dungeon turns into fucking lava it sucks.

So they're basically back to Castle Ravenloft with Strahd coming from the shadows to drop a FUCK YOU fireball on you before melting back into the night. What about the monsters? Any new gimmicks?
 

Ebonsword

Arcane
Joined
Mar 7, 2008
Messages
2,326
Man, I kept *trying* to like the D&D boardgames, but never succeeded. It's basically like playing D&D with a DM who pulls no punches and tries his best to kill the party at every turn. I especially hated how the game discourages exploration, which seems like an unforgivable sin in a dungeon crawler.


I'm not sure if it's quite what you're looking for, but one of the products from Dark City Games may be worth a shot. They're basically like Choose Your Own Adventure books except you can play with a full party of adventurers. The character creation system strikes about the perfect balance between simplicity and depth. They also feature tactical combat on a grid.

http://www.darkcitygames.com/

It's been a while since I played one, but my recollection is that I appreciated more what they *tried* to do than what they actually succeeded in doing. Still, they're quite cheap, so may be worth a shot.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom