Shelf Toad of the Year

drewcula wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: I bet the number of sessions that Earth Reborn has actually been played worldwide since its release is only in the high teens.

Michael? YOU told me to buy Earth Reborn. It was your GAME OF THE YEAR.

I managed to play it 8 or 9 times...a few times with Frank Branham and Steve Avery. But once it fell out of currency, it was DONE. No looking back.

It is a really awesome game...it’s just...well yeah.

Boelinger also did one of the other Great Shelf Toads of our time, Archipelago.

Michael Barnes wrote: Protip- I think the expansions will be valuable. I doubt GF9 is doing big runs on them, and wouldn’t be surprised if they were only 1 printing. Especially the Borg.

Any specific reason for this thought? I want to add these to my box at some point and I figured they'd be around forever.

Michael Barnes wrote: Boelinger also did one of the other Great Shelf Toads of our time, Archipelago.

I stock toads I KNOW I won't get to play. I'm sick. That is one of them. Sidereal Confluence is also one.

I gave Earth Reborn a serious look, because its sounded like something I might love. What I saw was:

-those ugly cards covered with a whole alphabet of symbols.
-cool miniatures that I would probably never get around to painting
-a game that would be a pain to set up
-a game with a steep learning curve

Definitely had some toad body parts, at the least.

I think my toadiest game right now is Descent, 1st Ed. I've managed to sell almost all of the others (including Descent, 2nd Ed.) I'm still trying to sell my 1st Ed. copy and may be doing so to a friend when her enormous pile of back pay comes in, pending judgment.

I bought a copy of Earth Reborn when it went on one of those fire sales at some website, so I got it for like $30. Got one game in and eventually traded it for a copy of Hellenes.

Gary Sax wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: Protip- I think the expansions will be valuable. I doubt GF9 is doing big runs on them, and wouldn’t be surprised if they were only 1 printing. Especially the Borg.

Any specific reason for this thought? I want to add these to my box at some point and I figured they'd be around forever.

I believe that these were printed with the base game but released almost a year later- after which the game did not exactly set the charts on fire. I would be very surprised if it were considered financially viable to run another printing of the expansions. The Borg was delayed even further. I would not be surprised if it becomes scarce within a few months.

And as we all know, licenses aren’t forever. With Trek in a huge upswing due to Discovery and rumblings of a Tarantino re-reboot, I don’t know if the stakeholders will want to keep such a niche game in print or if the license might travel to a larger company.

Scarcity will drive the value up.

I've got everything from Descent 1st edition except for Sea of Blood, but that's the game that got me into this hobby... so I don't see me moving it.

Exact same. I have everything but Sea of Blood. I'm not eager to sell it. It's not like I dislike it. I've just played a ton of it and it does become a bit of a math puzzle after a while or just a matter of scoring one of the best Silver treasures so the heroes go on a rampage (Grinding Axe, anyone?) Of course, the Overlord could just get the right hand and ruin everyone in the first room, too, so it's a bit too much of a coinflip for me these days, which is kinda why I'm willing to sell it. I liked 2nd Ed's system a bit more, but I could never get people to sit down for a campaign, so I ended up selling that, too.

The

Michael Barnes wrote:

drewcula wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: I bet the number of sessions that Earth Reborn has actually been played worldwide since its release is only in the high teens.

Michael? YOU told me to buy Earth Reborn. It was your GAME OF THE YEAR.

I managed to play it 8 or 9 times...a few times with Frank Branham and Steve Avery. But once it fell out of currency, it was DONE. No looking back.

It is a really awesome game...it’s just...well yeah.

Boelinger also did one of the other Great Shelf Toads of our time, Archipelago.

Actually, Christophe is a master of Toadism. He literally could’ve written Possum Kingsom and Tyler.

He makes bad ass games that people play feverishly until they can’t bear them anymore, never to be seen again.

Earth Reborn isn’t his first game to boast of true greatness and then eventually drop so far off the radar that even Tanga wasn’t fucking with him.

DUNGEON TWISTER. It has umpteen bazillion expansions AND a reboot. It sold well. It is truly a masterpiece. And now, it is croaking away on dudes’ shelves begging to be played with like a palsy-afflicted kid begging to be picked for kickball, never given a chance to remind people of its greatness.


PS: Expecting Mike to keep a game he rates an A+ is like expecting Warren Buffett to go long on cryptos. The man sees games for what they truly are, but for him, the seeing is more important than the investment, not to mention the fact that games generally peak out from a value perspective the first few weeks of publication.

You must have been really fucking high to find Dungeon Twister fun.

Did it become a shelf toad when you quit smoking weed? Just wondering...

Not that I did a lot of gaming in 2017 (or rather as much as I would have liked) but the irritating thing for me is that Wiz-War was my 2017 shelf toad compared to other games.

Since it is my fave game, it is highly irritating.

Boelinger is the reigning king of shelf toads. Even Dungeon Twister, a small, fairly inoffensive yet brain-burny game languishes on many shelves unplayed.

My Earth Reborn is fully painted, adding insult to injury.

Archipelago is a terrible game with terrible graphic design, full stop. It deserves to suffer. I felt trolled playing it, which at first I found funny but the joke wore off. Fuck that game.

Barnes, just play ST:A. 3 players, 4 max, mix and match factions. The game is probably better than most things your playing.

Have we established why Earth Reborn is a shelf toad? I've bought it twice now, but I never play anything, so we need data from those of you who actually play games. Is it just the horrific set up time? Because Heroscape also takes a long time to set up.

My Earth Reborn is also fully painted. Setup / tear down is a significant part. Also the fact that it has a million rules, and unless you play frequently, it's a full rule book read every time, ala Mage Knight.

But I am determined to play it soon. In fact, I am going to do the full "build the map" mode, which I have never even tried.

Gary Sax wrote:

Michael Barnes wrote: Boelinger also did one of the other Great Shelf Toads of our time, Archipelago.

I stock toads I KNOW I won't get to play. I'm sick. That is one of them. Sidereal Confluence is also one.

one of my friend's favorite games we play it every other month