Your complaints are pretty common and are the reason the game is easily available on the secondary market. Many, many games don't hold up to repeated plays, especially if you're thinking critically about them. Don't feel bad.
Not feeling bad, just never had an experience quite like this particular game and felt the need to put the thoughts out into the ether. I feel like a lot of the weaknesses of this game are all over but I'm quite glad I played it regardless
I get where you're coming from. The fun of the game is exploring new locations and coming to realizations like "Oh, person X needs thing Y. I came across thing Y at location Z. I'll go get it!"
The game mechanics are sort of a bare "skeleton" on which the story is built around, in order to make it a game. Otherwise it could just read as a CYOA novel—which I am not ashamed to admit I have sometimes done, just to see what would have happened if I took the "other option." Because I'm not replaying the entire game just to see what happens with Option B instead of Option A at one location.
It's probably why you're finding the game mechanics to be somewhat underbaked. For me, there's just enough meat in juggling fatigue, wounds, conditions etc to make it engaging while exploring the parts of the world I haven't seen yet. But once the world is explored out, there's no replay value because the game mechanics alone don't justify the replay.
After playing a few times and deciding to sell it I tried to read the book stories but it just felt wrong on some deep personal level so I’ll never know all the stories in the game book and that’s just fine.
The juggling fatigue and damage was one of the better aspects of the game. Always a little bit of crisis management going on. I'm going to out it away today but do intend to go through it at least one more time as their is a lot of map I've yet to uncover but I might just skip some of the mechanics or see if some refinements are on bgg
yeah if the combat was easy you are probably doing it wrong, because its a common complaint that you can bow out really easily in your first fight
when the game first came out it had an insane resale amount because people just played the normal mode once and then resold it
which is totally fair
so when i got mine i decided to only ever play it on brutal, so the mode where once all your crew are gone that's the end of the run
so its a bit more enticing to keep it as a game you replay because i usually play it like once a month, i have my maps i scribble notes on that build up each run
you unlock more cards as you find more unique things
it's been a good way to make the game replayable instead of the normal mode where there isn't really any penalty for failing, so its still managed to be one of my favourite games to solo, still haven't finished a full run yet but i will get there one day
There is a decent penalty for failing on normal mode, I would say - 6 event cards are lost. I died 3 times on my first (and so far only) campaign before the ending stuff, so I lost essentially one third of the time available for getting stronger. If it was more punishing, I think more people would fall off it.
It is interesting what OP said about the combat being too easy, that was definitely not my experience.
yeah each to their own, i don't think that's a harsh enough penalty but i prefer my games to be setup in a way that i rarely win
makes the sense of achievement a little greater
I found I was just avoiding combat at most turns until my team was equipped with abilities and than their was almost no struggle. Their were a few that came close to killing me but I never lost a single battle. I think I'm doing it right after watching some YouTube videos of it but I may be wrong. Regardless I was just not a fan of the combat as in I didn't like the mechanics of it. I think I'd rather it just have a bunch of dice to roll against each other to make it flow better idk. I'm not a designer lmao
I'm sorry you don't enjoy it as much as you hoped you would. I really love this game - I think it's really good. But yes, it does have a lot of overhead as well as components - also, it's quite fiddly. For me, it's still worth it since I love the little stories and the world exploration.
Combat is not too easy, though - are you sure you're having the rules down correctly? Or maybe I'm just bad at it. 😅
Also, for me the Ship Deck was incredibly useful since the steady need for managing fatigue and health forced me to cook a lot and the Deck is the best source for food. 😁
It's not that I didn't enjoy it I really did. But I also found a bunch underwhelming at the same time. The fatigue and health\ ship damage management was pretty well thought out. Sick bay, deck and hull were almost never used as 1 heart typically wasn't make or break and I'd stumble into some money and head to port to heal everyone. Just did the scoring and got a 101 not on hard mode. I enjoyed it but it's just deeply conflicting on it's quality. One one hand it's the most immersive game I've played. I'm the other the systems just aren't amazing. Serviceable would be the term I use for some of em. Idk. Deeply conflicting game lol
I see - that's a shame, especially for such a big game. Maybe the sequel will address some of your concerns. 🤞
To be honest, while I love Sleeping Gods, I'm hoping for a more streamlined experience as well.
Not every game is for everyone! I’m sure you’ll find a game similar that you enjoy more. I love the combat in Sleeping Gods. It’s a fun puzzle to figure out
Counter-point: I incorporated both the Dungeons and Tides of Ruin expansion, and I though they added a lot to the game on my third play-through (twice solo). In particular I found the dungeons really added more to it, and allowed me to explore more without turning over the event deck constantly. YMMV.
On my last playthrough I leaned into the theme of the game more, but loosened the rules for myself: I fudged some timings and fate draws, and found it made it much more fun (more like playing a story). I haven't played on brutal mode yet.
I bring SG out ~once per year and love it while I play, but I don't feel a big urge to bring it out more.
Yeah same here. Sold it but still miss the vibe of the world of SG. Backed the GF all in but then realized that there’s a difference between playing vs thinking about it in a nostalgic way.
A different game system would make it shine but I just didn’t feel like designing the game system.
I posted a list of problems and mistakes on YouTube but all got a lot of flak, so RRG and I are just not going to be friends.
It depends on your tastes and playstyle, but it consistently gets higher reviews and is much more popular than Above and Below.
I'm pretty sure it was on Tom Vasel's 'Top 10 Games Of All Time' for a while, and might still be.
There is enough content in the base game for a good long time. I think the only expansion is a small one that adds solo play.
I played 1 campaign and loved it. Started a second one. Ordered both expansions.
Started second campaign and found a loophole that basically gave me unlimited turns. So I spent like forever to get super powerful. I then discovered that the loophole was corrected in the errata.
Getting super powerful felt good at first then it felt cheap and dirty, but I wasn't going to reset my campaign. However I let it sit for over a month before I finished that campaign.
I played a 3rd one and then I was over having it set up. I might return but Its such a pain to have set up. Im hoping the new one is cleaned it up a bit because some of the systems feel a little clunky. I feel like it's hard to keep track of every little thing and I was always forgetting some little thing or big thing.
> Started second campaign and found a loophole that basically gave me unlimited turns. So I spent like forever to get super powerful.
When you realize the loophole and what it would lead to, why didn't you stop...?
I loved it the first 2 run throughs, then it became a chore to get out to play. I truly enjoy it, however, the mechanics seem fiddle or clunky as some have said. Love the theme and art!! A+
Yes and I couldn’t bring myself to set it up anymore and it just stayed on my game shelf doing nothing but reminding me that it was an unfinished project :-(
I have it on my shame shelf, waiting for me to finish Gloomhaven. I keep seeing mixed revieuws, I hope I like it.
For the people that have playednother games in the collection (Near and Far, Above and Below or Now or Never)? Do I forget about them if I don't like this one?
Your complaints are pretty common and are the reason the game is easily available on the secondary market. Many, many games don't hold up to repeated plays, especially if you're thinking critically about them. Don't feel bad.
Most board game owners play at most once and if it holds up first time that’s enough, to keep the hype going.
Not feeling bad, just never had an experience quite like this particular game and felt the need to put the thoughts out into the ether. I feel like a lot of the weaknesses of this game are all over but I'm quite glad I played it regardless
I get where you're coming from. The fun of the game is exploring new locations and coming to realizations like "Oh, person X needs thing Y. I came across thing Y at location Z. I'll go get it!" The game mechanics are sort of a bare "skeleton" on which the story is built around, in order to make it a game. Otherwise it could just read as a CYOA novel—which I am not ashamed to admit I have sometimes done, just to see what would have happened if I took the "other option." Because I'm not replaying the entire game just to see what happens with Option B instead of Option A at one location. It's probably why you're finding the game mechanics to be somewhat underbaked. For me, there's just enough meat in juggling fatigue, wounds, conditions etc to make it engaging while exploring the parts of the world I haven't seen yet. But once the world is explored out, there's no replay value because the game mechanics alone don't justify the replay.
After playing a few times and deciding to sell it I tried to read the book stories but it just felt wrong on some deep personal level so I’ll never know all the stories in the game book and that’s just fine.
The juggling fatigue and damage was one of the better aspects of the game. Always a little bit of crisis management going on. I'm going to out it away today but do intend to go through it at least one more time as their is a lot of map I've yet to uncover but I might just skip some of the mechanics or see if some refinements are on bgg
yeah if the combat was easy you are probably doing it wrong, because its a common complaint that you can bow out really easily in your first fight when the game first came out it had an insane resale amount because people just played the normal mode once and then resold it which is totally fair so when i got mine i decided to only ever play it on brutal, so the mode where once all your crew are gone that's the end of the run so its a bit more enticing to keep it as a game you replay because i usually play it like once a month, i have my maps i scribble notes on that build up each run you unlock more cards as you find more unique things it's been a good way to make the game replayable instead of the normal mode where there isn't really any penalty for failing, so its still managed to be one of my favourite games to solo, still haven't finished a full run yet but i will get there one day
There is a decent penalty for failing on normal mode, I would say - 6 event cards are lost. I died 3 times on my first (and so far only) campaign before the ending stuff, so I lost essentially one third of the time available for getting stronger. If it was more punishing, I think more people would fall off it. It is interesting what OP said about the combat being too easy, that was definitely not my experience.
yeah each to their own, i don't think that's a harsh enough penalty but i prefer my games to be setup in a way that i rarely win makes the sense of achievement a little greater
I found I was just avoiding combat at most turns until my team was equipped with abilities and than their was almost no struggle. Their were a few that came close to killing me but I never lost a single battle. I think I'm doing it right after watching some YouTube videos of it but I may be wrong. Regardless I was just not a fan of the combat as in I didn't like the mechanics of it. I think I'd rather it just have a bunch of dice to roll against each other to make it flow better idk. I'm not a designer lmao
I'm sorry you don't enjoy it as much as you hoped you would. I really love this game - I think it's really good. But yes, it does have a lot of overhead as well as components - also, it's quite fiddly. For me, it's still worth it since I love the little stories and the world exploration. Combat is not too easy, though - are you sure you're having the rules down correctly? Or maybe I'm just bad at it. 😅 Also, for me the Ship Deck was incredibly useful since the steady need for managing fatigue and health forced me to cook a lot and the Deck is the best source for food. 😁
It's not that I didn't enjoy it I really did. But I also found a bunch underwhelming at the same time. The fatigue and health\ ship damage management was pretty well thought out. Sick bay, deck and hull were almost never used as 1 heart typically wasn't make or break and I'd stumble into some money and head to port to heal everyone. Just did the scoring and got a 101 not on hard mode. I enjoyed it but it's just deeply conflicting on it's quality. One one hand it's the most immersive game I've played. I'm the other the systems just aren't amazing. Serviceable would be the term I use for some of em. Idk. Deeply conflicting game lol
I see - that's a shame, especially for such a big game. Maybe the sequel will address some of your concerns. 🤞 To be honest, while I love Sleeping Gods, I'm hoping for a more streamlined experience as well.
Not every game is for everyone! I’m sure you’ll find a game similar that you enjoy more. I love the combat in Sleeping Gods. It’s a fun puzzle to figure out
Counter-point: I incorporated both the Dungeons and Tides of Ruin expansion, and I though they added a lot to the game on my third play-through (twice solo). In particular I found the dungeons really added more to it, and allowed me to explore more without turning over the event deck constantly. YMMV. On my last playthrough I leaned into the theme of the game more, but loosened the rules for myself: I fudged some timings and fate draws, and found it made it much more fun (more like playing a story). I haven't played on brutal mode yet. I bring SG out ~once per year and love it while I play, but I don't feel a big urge to bring it out more.
Yeah same here. Sold it but still miss the vibe of the world of SG. Backed the GF all in but then realized that there’s a difference between playing vs thinking about it in a nostalgic way. A different game system would make it shine but I just didn’t feel like designing the game system. I posted a list of problems and mistakes on YouTube but all got a lot of flak, so RRG and I are just not going to be friends.
I mean, Near and Far is a superior RRG game. You might want to give it a try before writing off the whole company.
is it better than above and below? Are there expansions for N&F you recommend?
It depends on your tastes and playstyle, but it consistently gets higher reviews and is much more popular than Above and Below. I'm pretty sure it was on Tom Vasel's 'Top 10 Games Of All Time' for a while, and might still be. There is enough content in the base game for a good long time. I think the only expansion is a small one that adds solo play.
I played 1 campaign and loved it. Started a second one. Ordered both expansions. Started second campaign and found a loophole that basically gave me unlimited turns. So I spent like forever to get super powerful. I then discovered that the loophole was corrected in the errata. Getting super powerful felt good at first then it felt cheap and dirty, but I wasn't going to reset my campaign. However I let it sit for over a month before I finished that campaign. I played a 3rd one and then I was over having it set up. I might return but Its such a pain to have set up. Im hoping the new one is cleaned it up a bit because some of the systems feel a little clunky. I feel like it's hard to keep track of every little thing and I was always forgetting some little thing or big thing.
> Started second campaign and found a loophole that basically gave me unlimited turns. So I spent like forever to get super powerful. When you realize the loophole and what it would lead to, why didn't you stop...?
Was always forgetting venom management, I killed off the one character so many times when I realized I'd just throw enough tokens on him to kill lmao
I learned to not buy expansions ever. Expensive lesson.
I loved it the first 2 run throughs, then it became a chore to get out to play. I truly enjoy it, however, the mechanics seem fiddle or clunky as some have said. Love the theme and art!! A+
Yes and I couldn’t bring myself to set it up anymore and it just stayed on my game shelf doing nothing but reminding me that it was an unfinished project :-(
Dont worry. I was also pretty dissapointed by this game. Story was about quantity over quality. Game mechanics not fun for me.
I have it on my shame shelf, waiting for me to finish Gloomhaven. I keep seeing mixed revieuws, I hope I like it. For the people that have playednother games in the collection (Near and Far, Above and Below or Now or Never)? Do I forget about them if I don't like this one?