Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Just wondering if there's an audience for a group that goes and mods bad or mediocre board and card games into better games.

I can think of a large number of games I've bought or played in the past that I didn't like, but still saw a lot of potential that could be brought out with some modification.

These mods could be all new components, modifications to current components, and of course rules changes.

The best example is the old Eagle Games' ATTACK! board game, which my group ended up called DIPLOMATIC BLITZ! because the mechanics of the game really didn't support actually going out to fight as a valid strategy. And the end game victory conditions were a bit lackluster. Which is sad, because it was a nice risk-like with extra crunch.

Twilight Imperiam 3rd edition, is another example, forget the slow gameplay, it had the similar problem of attacking actually hurting both sides equally unless one side was extremely lucky.

People might hate me for this last one, but the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is one I considered highly overrated, as it essentially boils down to drawing a card, rolling a die, and very little player interaction. I think that game could be improved with some euro worker mechanics and a system that makes players work together.

Clash of Gladiators: forget this one attack round stuff. We play that once units engage they fight rounds until someone is wiped out. Makes the bull and bear much scarier.

Tentacle Bento: drawing two cards from the draw deck a turn makes sure that folks actually get to play after turn one or two.

Avalon Hill's Wizard's Quest: we made the game co-op after my friends and I read The Elfstones of Shanara. Inceasing the spawning of Orcs to once a player turn meant you had to be agressive with fewer forces instead of just stockpiling guys for an hour until someone had enough chutzpah to start making a move.

Avalon Hill's Titan: Random starting forces (done with 2d6 for location then a d6 for creature type) made for some interesting games (faster too.)

Modding is half the reason I play these games! Not exactly bad games but:

Monopoly - I'd like the game to end at some point thanks. Any player can have as many houses or hotels as the player wants as long as there's still some pieces remaining. Houses, hotels, and properties can be bought at any price the owning player chooses.

Axis and Allies: Europe - Tried to somehow add the Cthulu Mythos to WW2. Started as special great old one units that were bought with "favor" that came from conquest, but never worked out. In addition, additional funds could be gained by conquering other countries. You do not need to place purchased units at the capital, but can build a factory to place other purchased units. There was also some rules rule for long distance missile strikes, but that didn't work out either. In free for alls, all countries had the same economy (normally, Britain and the Soviet Union had shoddy economies)

Risk - No dice rolls (I was around 7 or 8 at the time and found the rules too complicated) If the attacking side had more units attacking than the defenders, the defenders lost.

Settlers of Catan - Tried to turn it into Sid Meier's Catan (I was waiting until I could get Civilisation 4). A total disaster that threw away every rule, but I still enjoyed it.

And for non board game ones:

Dungeons and Dragons 4e - Added a few weapons (chakram, kunai, metal claw, and spiked gauntlet) and a few classes in progress (Arcane Janissary, Shepard, and Tarrot Reader) Also decided "feth it" with the movement and dungeon tiles in favor of assuming how far the characters go. Might also alter the HP of monsters because I'm really not interested in fighting groups of Drow with 150 HP each.

40k - A few codexes and added some units to existing codexes. Everything is unbalanced, but still had fun making them. (and may be a good excuse for conversions later)

Monopoly and Risk need a lot of work done to them or better yet just play The Settlers of Catan.

That Risk suggestion makes Risk more like Small World in a way.

Same for Cheesecat's mention of Settlers basically being a version of Monopoly that works.

Perhaps I should have named this thread, "Successors to crappy older games."

 Cheesecat wrote:
Monopoly and Risk need a lot of work done to them or better yet just play The Settlers of Catan.

I don't know. I still think Monopoly is pretty fun. It just needs to have some other way of winning that doesn't involve losing every dollar.

There are Monopoly tournaments and the rounds aren't particularly long for a board game, I think it is the standard 60-90 mins?

I think the problem is, too many play by house rules and doesn't actually play the game as written.

sarcastro01 wrote:

Avalon Hill's Wizard's Quest: we made the game co-op after my friends and I read The Elfstones of Shanara. Inceasing the spawning of Orcs to once a player turn meant you had to be agressive with fewer forces instead of just stockpiling guys for an hour until someone had enough chutzpah to start making a move.

I had to laugh seeing this, because I remember my sister and I doing something pretty similar with that game.

We also would play Risk where we would take one of the other colors (usually grey for some reason) and make them the "Neutral Player". Then we'd take and fill all the map with them, and each of us would start out with one territory, and had to expand out from there. There were also no continent bonuses.

I guess the neutral thing is in the game in a way already, but that was our variant on it. It did change the dynamic of the game, at least at the start.