Gave my copy of Lords of Waterdeep and its expansion Scoundrels of Skullport another outing tonight, and it was pleasingly different from the first time we played. Less pleasing in that I lost by a considerable margin — I struggled to get a good means of income going at any point throughout the game, and the board as a whole ended up pretty “dry” — but interesting to see quite how much a difference there can be between two different playthroughs.
We’ve been playing the game in its most advanced form — that is, incorporating the two “modules” that form the complete Scoundrels of Skullport expansion. One of these, centring around iconic Dungeons & Dragons locale Undermountain, focuses on high-value quests — the most valuable quests in the base game were 25 points, while the Undermountain module beefs this up to an impressive 40 — while the other, centring around Skullport, allows you to perform numerous powerful actions in exchange for “corruption”, a resource that is worth a variable amount of negative points at the end of the game according to how much is in play at any given time.
Aside from the new mechanics — all of which blend beautifully into Lords of Waterdeep’s base game without forcing players to learn hundreds of new rules — Scoundrels of Skullport also incorporates numerous new quest and intrigue cards (the latter of which are used to either give yourself an advantage or mess with other players) as well as a substantial selection of new buildings (which can be purchased to add to the number of possible actions players can take on each turn, with the building’s “owner” receiving a benefit every time another player uses it). And the fact that there are so many of each of these components — far more than you need for a single game — means that, judging by our recent playthroughs, there’s a significant amount of variety and replayability going on. Some games will be very heavy on the monetary income; others will be strong on the corruption; others still will see players playing a lot more intrigue cards than usual.
It’s good to see a game have such flexibility and variety while still maintaining relatively simple base mechanics. All you essentially do in Lords of Waterdeep is collect various coloured cubes and tokens, then use them to complete quests and score points. At the end of the game, you score bonus points according to the conditions on your secret “Lord” card, which usually reward you for each quest of a specific type you successfully complete. That’s essentially all there is to the game, but the variety of different possible actions offered by the action spaces and cards — particularly once you start throwing in the press-your-luck aspect of the corruption tokens — means that one game has the potential to play out very differently from another. And it doesn’t feel like you’re relying on luck; rather, it’s a type of randomness that keeps things fresh and interesting without putting certain players at an arbitrary disadvantage.
We’ve still only played it a few times to date, but Lords of Waterdeep remains one of my favourite titles in my collection. I’m sure it’ll be hitting the table fairly frequently.
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It’s cool to see you talk about board games. As I’ve transitioned from just video games to both kinds of media, I’ve grown a fondness for seeing how long time video gamers perceive board games with their growing popularity.
Yeah. I’ve found it personally interesting how much of a “divide” I feel between the two forms of gaming, though. I don’t find video game adaptations of board games all that fun — I tend to take the attitude that if I’m playing a video game, I’d rather be playing something that plays to the strengths of that medium — and likewise I haven’t seen many board game adaptations of video games that are much cop. The new The Witcher and XCOM games may change my outlook there somewhat, however!
I really like Lords of Waterdeep. It blends the same primal greed motivation that makes oldschool Monopoly such a staple, while obviously turning up the dial on fantasy role playing style mechanics. It’s a recipe that’s hard to say “no” to. I haven’t had the opportunity to play any of the expansions, but it sounds like they’re welcome additions. Having nobody to play traditional board games is one of the few unfortunate shortcomings of my hermit lifestyle.
I’m not sure if this has ever come up in conversation (probably not, because it’s too lengthy a thing to have explained on Twitter), but I used to work for a board game store as their on-the-road convention staff. Whenever there was comic and gaming cons in the area, I would pack my car full of board & card games and go pedal them. Most weekends just ended with me be frustrated that people didn’t seem interested in anything but licensed deck building games and Munchkin, but there were some good times to be had. Demoing stuff was the best part – hence my familiarity with Waterdeep.
You should definitely give the expansion ago. While it lengthens the game a little, it adds considerably more variety and ways to win without making the mechanics any more complicated. Most Lords of Waterdeep fans won’t play without it these days.