Thinking more expansively/inclusively about my Gloomhaven tribe
Instead of playing more Gloomhaven yesterday morning, I pulled out all the characters my gaming buddies and I have created, and tried to think about all of them -- except for Tod's character, which I will not play out of respect for him -- as members of one group. There exists one character per unlocked class, except for the two classes my two original characters retired from.
At any time, between 2-4 of them could go on an adventure together, while the rest do other stuff (their day jobs?).
I'd been running two of my own characters, and often borrowed one from the buddy characters for a group of 2-3. I think Gloomhaven is best-balanced when three characters play. Four characters feels crowded, because there are more monsters also, each game round takes longer. Two characters feels like not enough diversity of talents and powers, scenarios often need more options than two characters provide.
While playing on Thursday evening, I remembered what I most enjoy about Gloomhaven -- having to change plans on the fly. You can make a meticulous plan for the round, with the first character doing X, the next character doing Y, the next character doing Z ... but then the monsters receive orders you didn't expect, and the first character is now stunned or immobilized, and you have to come up with a new plan in the middle of the round.
As Field Marshal Moltke (the Elder) is often quoted, "No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy."
This quotation comes alive pretty often while playing Gloomhaven.
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I do want to continue pursuing scenarios that will help Stev to retire, so I can unlock another class, but I'm probably going to swap in one of the other characters for some variety. I'm thinking the Spellweaver because that's the only unlocked class I haven't played yet, because I was refusing to borrow Tod's character. But David created a Spellweaver, I can play her instead of Tod's.
At any time, between 2-4 of them could go on an adventure together, while the rest do other stuff (their day jobs?).
I'd been running two of my own characters, and often borrowed one from the buddy characters for a group of 2-3. I think Gloomhaven is best-balanced when three characters play. Four characters feels crowded, because there are more monsters also, each game round takes longer. Two characters feels like not enough diversity of talents and powers, scenarios often need more options than two characters provide.
While playing on Thursday evening, I remembered what I most enjoy about Gloomhaven -- having to change plans on the fly. You can make a meticulous plan for the round, with the first character doing X, the next character doing Y, the next character doing Z ... but then the monsters receive orders you didn't expect, and the first character is now stunned or immobilized, and you have to come up with a new plan in the middle of the round.
As Field Marshal Moltke (the Elder) is often quoted, "No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy."
This quotation comes alive pretty often while playing Gloomhaven.
-----
I do want to continue pursuing scenarios that will help Stev to retire, so I can unlock another class, but I'm probably going to swap in one of the other characters for some variety. I'm thinking the Spellweaver because that's the only unlocked class I haven't played yet, because I was refusing to borrow Tod's character. But David created a Spellweaver, I can play her instead of Tod's.