Regarding Runebound: I am not a fan of how lengthy [and repetitive, and boring] the game can be by default. It’s just too damn long mainly, even with just two players.

Interestingly, I really dislike grind in video games, and as a general concept in tabletop games, though the latter can be masked/layered over well by either great narrative in RPGs or interesting mechanics in board games.

Runebound is almost exclusively grind. I’ve very nearly sold/traded the game on several occasions, but have ended up pulling back every time. Likely it’ll go in the coming year or so. But…

When house ruled (we have an entire sheet of several options we play with – usually all of them) that grind can go quickly and becomes quite enjoyable. Even OTS the different fetch quests do have some fun theme pasted on, despite universally requiring players to wander the map in search of trouble, or traipsing to specific locations to deliver/retrieve news or goods.

Solo the game is among my least favorite, because all the fun of the game is in racing to kill Darkwing or whatever his name is. We don’t really engage in PvP, because it doesn’t really add much and killing one another only makes things take longer. That said, we do play with a “dropped gear” rule where anyone can swoop in and snag gear left behind by a killed hero/hoarded by murdering monsters. We also play that you receive a couple pieces of gear when spawning, at start of game or later. That initial “I can barely kill chickens!” phase is gone from our games.

I’ve never played with Midnight rules, though I’ve glanced at the PDF and would be interested in trying.

I own one expansion – Sands of Al-Kalim – though I’ve never broken it out. Sadly the Runebound box has taken a beating over the years and is on its last legs.

I really enjoy the movement dice/terrain choices, which is one element that I know has changed in 3e. I also enjoy the 3-phase combat and the skill-check aspect pulled from RPGs (though simpler to visualize than most RPGs here as it’s presented as percentage chance). Anyone actually played the latest?

Sorry to hijack the thread.

I’m not a fan of Talisman at all, it’s just one step shy of vanilla roll-and-move. I am a Vlaada fan, though, and would definitely check out Prophecy for that alone. I’ve got lots of interest in Time Stories!