Door 6
We really love campaign games with an overarching pre-written story. However there are other kinds of story-telling games which can be just as awesome: games with an emerging narrative. This is what door 6 of MechanXmas is all about! 😍 Event cards, random encounters, dice rolls and random setups: they all contribute to make a memorable story as the game goes on.
Our favorite game that fits the bill the most is 🐙 Eldritch Horror . You can randomly choose an evil Ancient One to fight against, and some random investigators, all with personal backstories. With expansions you also get prelude cards that modify the setup or flow of the game.
At the end of the turn, every player will draw an encounter card depending on where they are - this could be researching clues in search of the Ancient One, visiting cities in hopes of finding something useful, having an otherworld encounter to try and close dimensional gates, or just random happenings on your travels. Each includes some types of skill tests, where success or failure will dictate what happens. After the encounters you also draw a card from the Mythos deck, that is usually some bad mysterious event. 🧐
Eldritch Horror plays similarly to Pandemic. You get to do 2 actions, then you draw an encounter, then something bad happens via the Mythos deck. You play until you win or lose. Simple, yet endless fun. 🥰
To be fair, the game has some cons too. 😬 There is an insane amount of output randomness. Many actions and every encounter will require dice rolls to resolve. You usually check which attribute is needed and roll that many dice: only 5s or 6s will mean success. So you could flat out lose due to bad rolls.
Some of the little story snippets you get can be also a bit random and disjointed, but it does add to the lovecraftian mystery factor as well.
Playtime can be brutal too, even though turns are relatively short.
But still, even with all these negatives, this game manages to deliver every time. It is always so epic as you travel between cities and continents, fight monsters and try to solve mysteries. We love it! 🥰
