App compared to tabletop

[Dainalt]

I did a quick search, but if someone has already started a thread like this, I guess you delete this one.  I'm blind in one eye and can't see out t'other, so like as not I missed something obvious.

 

Anyway, I've been playing the app regularly for a long time and it strikes me that I've been building characters and decks based more frequently not based on stuff coming up but for replaying old scenarios, which is not how the tabletop game goes.  Typically, you're looking forward to the best approach to build something that will advance the story on the tabletop.  In the app, since you know you're going to be replaying scenarios, and those will be legendary, you (or at least I) make card, skill, and power choices based on replaying and getting cards that take the most advantage of some I know I'll eventually get, which is weird.  This isn't a complaint about either the tabletop game or the app.  It's just funny how the ability to set up a new game and go back over old scenarios with the same party so thoroughly changes the dynamic of how the game unfolds.  It's not a complaint, as I said, because the point is you can replay things quickly and there's nothing else to do until the next scenario ships.  Anyway, it's great fun, so why not?

 

In the tabletop, you (once again I) live with the cards I get as I move through the scenarios.  I only replay them if I lose the scenario.  You don't take for granted you'll get a certain batch of cards that will make specific build choices shine.  I think I'm going to restart a new party when the final game ships and only play every scenario until success.  Same as tabletop only faster.  It'll be interesting to see.

[DaveBaum]

I find myself playing the app differently than tabletop as well.  I think it's because of several factors:

 

* Games are quicker - no setup/cleanup time, and even individual turns are faster.  With tabletop, after dealing out the location decks and doing all of that shuffling I really want to make the game count which means I am basically always trying to win and progress forward.  With the app, sometimes if I don't feel I'm closing off locations fast enough I'll give up on beating the scenario and instead focus on gaining cards.  I'll opt not to close the Academy and keep exploring it just for the chance of picking up a cool spell.  Then after the blessings deck runs dry I'll retry the scenario since the games are so quick.

 

* There's a lot to keep track of in tabletop, and running more than 2 or 3 characters becomes tedious.  With the app, a party of 4 is a breeze and even running 6 characters is fine.

 

* You can keep a lot more character decks.  With tabletop, you really only can keep 4-6 characters built which lends itself to creating a party and playing through scenarios one by one.  With the app, it is much easier to swap characters around just to try a different combination.

 

So I wind up playing a lot differently in the app.  Repeating the scenarios multiple times means you see a lot more cards which then leads to more deck building decisions.  With tabletop I felt that aside from setting up the starting deck the deck building aspects were somewhat muted.  Sure you'd slowly acquire cards and increase the strength of your deck, but difficult or interesting choices were relatively rare.

 

However I don't want to knock tabletop.  For me, playing with actual cards and rolling dice is more fun.  I haven't tried "pass and play", but I can't imagine it being even remotely as good as sitting around a table covered with decks of cards.

[Hannibal_PJV]

Also quick replaying make the game much easier, because you Sooner or later have dream deck with all the best cards. So the Gaming really is much different. The quest mode is actyally closer the feeling of the tabletop version in some aspects.

[Chris_R]

Very shrewd post Dainalt. I do agree the experiences are different

 

Tabletop

 

- is more interactive

- the feel of simply rolling the dice is more fun

- the sensation of beating a scenario and breaking out a new pack of cards is intensely satisfying

- it feels little less quick in pace and I find myself taking longer over decisions (and making better ones)

 

The set up time, which is obviously far, far freater with the physical verson  I think drives the way you experience the game in a lot of subtle ways. As DaveBaum says, once you've taken the time to shuffle etc, you really want to make that game count if you're playing solo, or at least have fun with a group if it's a group session. So you play in a different way; less risk-taking, more focused on victory. The app makes some mistakes harder (not realising another character can help, especially), but others easier (simply playing the wrong card).

 

With the app, the setup is so much quicker that the games feel a little more immediate and a little more 'disposable', if you like. If things are not going your way, you can decide to develop your hand. The extra difficulty levels also lend themselves to optimising equipment as well as character build. I suspect that by the time you get to Giants, a lot of app players' characters start to look quite similar in terms of equipment; my Valeros probably looks rather similar to a lot of other people's.

In the tabletop game, some quite crucial bits of kit (Scrying, for example, or Swipe) are far from guaranteed to show up. I suspect that there's more diversity in build, especially as there's no Legendary mode that really needs you to have the best kit and can still screw you anyway no matter what you do (hi, Legendary Foul Misgivings!). The addition of the chest cards also changes the dynamic, although only a little as not many are really obvious picks if you get them; many are interestingly situational.

 

They're both great experiences but I think as we get more into the adventures, they're diverging more as it becomes easier to optimise your hand.

Edited October 16, 2016 by Chris_R

[Dainalt]

Yeah, I hadn't really considered that. I've only forfeited a couple of times, but irritation with forfeiting is greater when it took you fifteen to twenty minutes setting up a scenario. For me, tabletop is a social experience where we play and chat and discuss moves and the like. The app is more of a 'game' in the sense of focusing on what you do. Probably didn't explain that well. Along the lines of what you said, when you see swipe or scry or some other great kit, you do whatever you possibly can to get it because you might not see it again for a long long time in the tabletop. On the app, you can mine them replaying scenarios quickly and you need to do that because you've got to tune your deck to be legendary ready.

[chainsawash]

Yes, it's much easier to build that 'dream deck' as Hannibal put it, and also pretty much required to make it though Legendary difficulty.

 

My ideal way of playing would be to go through the story beginning to end, with no treasure chest cards and no replaying of completed scenarios, to make it feel more like the tabletop game. Of course even then I would probably be tempted to spend resources to go after a good card more so than when playing the physical version. When we played the physical game we would only play a few times a month (and it took over a year to go through the whole story). So we really wanted to complete scenarios since it could be a week or two before we'd play again. It made the decision to go after specific cards at the risk of potentially failing the scenario that much harder!

[renedq]

One of the reasons why I prefer tabletop is because I can play at lunch with friends. Also, the additional character decks are nice. 

 

The electronic version is nice because I can play it on the train to/from work.

[MauGibrin]

One thing that 'came alive' on the electronic version was the story. While I played with my friends, we barely noticed the twists of the plot: Aldern Foxglove, the invasion of Thistletop, the travel between cities... The dialogs created by Obsidian added a lot more flavor to he game!

 

Cheers!

 

Mauricio