Familiar Tales | Review | With Mike

[@OneStopCoopShop]

COMPONENTS - No complaints about the cards and storybook (except that I had a few pages stuck together). The minis look great. I've heard from a few people that they had a few broken off their base, but mine were fine. 0:00 - Introduction 0:30 - Lower Player Count Play 1:30 - Page/Scenario Design 2:12 - Leveling Up 3:13 - App and Storyline 4:06 - Action Card Play 4:50 - Final Thoughts

[@jartree]

I definitely agree with your #5, but what I realized about halfway through my campaign is that I could hold cards over to set up the next character with the symbols that benefit them. It means less actions overall, but more powerful actions. That realization made me like the system a bit more. I have really enjoyed this one.

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Yeah, I thought of that too, but it’s a fairly significant nerf of characters and their actions, at least compared to typical 4 character play

[@TheOnlyTata]

@@OneStopCoopShop It's worth remembering that certain cards are "culled" when playing at these player counts. This means that said cards come up more often and not the diluted Assist/Focus cards. SO as a result the mini nerf balances out not being able to just consistently blast your way with the OP combos, you have to decide between having strong turns with one character and not so with the other or a balance between the two or specialising in defence to take the blows for the character you are setting up to attack with. In short, you have to use good card play to set up replacement for the missing Assist etc cards. To make it harder (lots of people mention no difficulty scale) I just use the Forgotten Waters system of modifying the "levelling up" rather than reducing health. So you increase the cost to purchase cards by +1, +2, +3 etc.

[@twothirdsanexplosive]

I was hoping for more interesting branching around how the kiddo grew up. Like taking inspiration from Fog of Love and having the girl's adult personality be based on tokens or cards from decisions made throughout the game. The amount of moving to finish the scene and feeding the baby doesn't seem up my alley.

[@OneStopCoopShop]

I would have liked that too. I like how the child changes, but it feels a bit like “if you failed a lot, A, if you won a lot, B”

[@dav1dgear]

Wait I thought there would be branching narrative and the personality of the princess will be changed based on you decision. So it's not like that? It's:simply like Collin says that you get result a if you fail a lot and result b if you win a lot? That's a let down

[@OneStopCoopShop]

@@dav1dgear this is Mike, not Colin, but yes, the primary determinant of the princess's path of goodness or badness is dependent on your misfortune level at the end of each era.

[@dav1dgear]

@@OneStopCoopShop hahaha sry mike I don't know why I said Collin 😁. But yeah that's a bummer then I was hoping there would be more moral choices

[@AndrewDayMortgage]

You mentioned doing a house rule for power distribution. Do you have any other house rules that you would suggest? And how would you house roll the power distribution?

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Oh sorry, I didn't actually test one out. I was just suggesting that people might LIKE to :) That being said, what I would probably do is the same thing we do in Gloomhaven for XP: keep it as a common pool for all characters, so it gets balanced evenly between them.

[@kikiah9586]

Thank you for the review!

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Thanks for watching!

[@TheTriforcekeeper]

Does someone know what the anime-looking game to the right of Mike in the intro is called? The one below Aerion!

[@OneStopCoopShop]

That is one of the Blazblue expansion boxes for the fighting game Exceed (from level 99 games). I designed an unofficial solo automa for the game. It’s one of my favorites

[@TheTriforcekeeper]

@@OneStopCoopShop thank you very much for the info!

[@BlakeAustin2011]

Mice and Mystics, Stuffed Fables, Aftermath, and now Familiar Tales all have way too repetitive mechanisms. The stories are always pretty solid, the app is a great integration that isn’t overbearing liked Descent, and the cards are easy to read/understand. But I feel as though I’m watching a game from 4 years ago or now. Plaid Hat should partner with Target and get this game in stores. Families with young kids will dive in easily. Great play through and review, as always!

[@OneStopCoopShop]

I think this one has the most interesting card/action play of the bunch though :) Thanks for watching!

[@BlakeAustin2011]

@@OneStopCoopShop Agreed. It took Aftermath and added multiple functions per card. And each character does feel unique. It’s not a bad game by any stretch; it just seems PHG doesn’t try to innovate much.

[@ilyasburty4556]

Hey Mike, can I ask what brand of sleeves you're using? They looks so clean I'm jealous!

[@OneStopCoopShop]

I think those were just Sleeve Kings penny sleeves. Pretty good quality!

[@joseg.6187]

I plan to play it two players. Would increase hand size help with the defense problem? Or should be fine (I assume game is not too punishing)

[@OneStopCoopShop]

My advice would be for one of you to control the ranged characters and the other the melee characters (so the cards match better). And maybe something like… the first time a character gets attacked the controlling player draws 1 card after defending or something? Not sure the best fix for it

[@SuperHappyDonnie]

Why not just play like four players, even though you are 2? I often play 2 chars in boardgames with friends. If four player is better, play like it was four player.

[@OneStopCoopShop]

This is certainly my first suggestion, though it becomes very unwieldy for solo play.

[@dangfxn771]

How does this game compare to Forgotten Waters in regards to complexity/heaviness? Forgotten Waters was just the right amount of complexity for my fiance who plays board games but not into the super heavy games, is this one about the same?

[@OneStopCoopShop]

This one is a bit heavier, because of the whole deckbuilding/card play aspect. It's not as simple as Forgotten Waters' "pick an action, roll a die" gameplay. But it's by no means heavy, compared to other adventure and crawler games. And the in-app tutorial is really good, so I would guess your fiancee would do just fine with it.

[@dav1dgear]

If you compare this to aftermath which do you think is better overall?

[@OneStopCoopShop]

I think the card play is more interesting here, the rules are MUCH clearer, the story is more compelling… this is the best of the series for me by a fair margin, despite its hiccups

[@dav1dgear]

@@OneStopCoopShop awesome looks like I'll still be getting it then

[@vickyxu9986]

Can I play this game repeatedly? Or if I play it once,I can’t play it anymore?

[@OneStopCoopShop]

None of the components are used up. And there are branching choices (and a BIG branch in the latter part of the story). I’d say you could play through twice, MAYBE three times and not be bored with it

[@HungryGamerReviews]

You sleeve cards?

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Rarely, and only for deckbuilders :)

[@patriziopastore9895]

Nice review so better to play with a group of people or family not solo.

[@twothirdsanexplosive]

From Mike's playthrough I can't imagine this being too hard to just play all the characters.

[@OneStopCoopShop]

Like Thien said, solo is fine as long as you are ready for the multi-handing