B5 Card Game

[Nastastu]

Did anyone here ever play the B5 card game? If so, was it any fun? I had picked up both the earth/minbari and centauri/narn campaign sets as well as some booster packs and a regular earth and a minbari starter deck when it had first come out. I never actually tried it out for various reasons and was wondering if it was any fun.

[Ubik]

Did anyone here ever play the B5 card game? If so, was it any fun? I had picked up both the earth/minbari and centauri/narn campaign sets as well as some booster packs and a regular earth and a minbari starter deck when it had first come out. I never actually tried it out for various reasons and was wondering if it was any fun.

I heard the game was good. My ex-girlfriend and I bought up a load of booster boxes really cheap about 7 years ago, but we never got around to learning the rules and playing. I think it works better as a multiplayer game, so you have more than two factions interacting. If you find a group willing to give it a go, you'd be onto a winner because sealed product for 'dead' card games is usally really cheap.

[Looney]

you'd be onto a winner because sealed product for 'dead' card games is usally really cheap.

You'd think, but every time I see any they seem pretty high compared to what I think they should be. I'm sure there are some that are cheap, but I have seen more than a few that, in my opinion, seem very pricey. I too bought a few a long time ago, but never got into it. I've never really known how to play those games and I was so deep into collecting the Trading Cards I didn't want to stray too far down that path and get stuck with the frenzy of trying to collect those as well. I do recall back when it was viable that there were people who seemed to enjoy playing it who weren't always familiar with the show. It seems that on more than one occasion I came across people who were just fans of the game. Hope that helps.

[sarthaz]

I really enjoyed playing it. It's a lot more complicated than a game like Magic, but it's thematically very strong within the B5 universe. I haven't been able to find someone around here to play me in years tho. It's definitely a dead game.

[ulkeshkosh]

It was a great game! I would love to still play if anyone in my area was a) patient enough (games can last 3-4 hours or longer), b) had the mental capacity for the game (it really requires some strategy to build the decks and play), and c) actually interested. I have over 20,000 cards (sadly not enough from Wheel of Fire or Crusade) and they mainly go unplayed. Maybe one day they'll be worth something to someone, but for now they continue to sit in my garage.

[JasonDavis]

I'm glad to know it was supposed to take several hours to play. I once had a go at it with a friend--neither of us real gamers--and, after setting up and going through the rules, we had to adjourn for the night and play the actual game the following day. And I think it lasted six hours.

We never found the time to play a second round.

[phazedout]

playing the ankh morpork board game with a friend who was distant, I discovered a method to play via skype. We both had sets and I would blindly deal the card to the other person's hand, they would replicate the set up on their end and when they got new cards, I would hold them up and we assigned each card a number so she would say "play card number 3", I would hold this up (facing away form me) and then we could proceed.

I don't own the B5 card game so do not know if this mechanism would work, but by all means why not give it a try?

Of course if somebody wants to post me a set of the game for play testing purposes, I have no objections
Phaze
on the "Up to my hairline in Uni work though, still it would be nice to have handy" ID

[Ubik]

playing the ankh morpork board game with a friend who was distant, I discovered a method to play via skype. We both had sets and I would blindly deal the card to the other person's hand, they would replicate the set up on their end and when they got new cards, I would hold them up and we assigned each card a number so she would say "play card number 3", I would hold this up (facing away form me) and then we could proceed.

I don't own the B5 card game so do not know if this mechanism would work, but by all means why not give it a try?

Of course if somebody wants to post me a set of the game for play testing purposes, I have no objections
Phaze
on the "Up to my hairline in Uni work though, still it would be nice to have handy" ID

I think if you each had a well focused web cam angled down onto your 'board' you'd be able to play. Or you could just use something like Lackey CCG to play online for free and download the entire set digitally. Loads of dead cardgames are played online this way.

I'm looking into getting the B5 card game set up on Lackey. Would be up for some online games for sure. I've played Magic The Gathering and Netrunner online in this way and its a great little app for doing that.

[Looney]

Anyone play the RPG? This friend of mine has a book and he wants me to try to play it. I've never played one of those before and he knows nothing about B5, so I'm not really sure how much fun it would be. Any thoughts, opinions, ideas?

[phazedout]

I assume the RPG is a GURPS interpretation? You can GURPS pretty much anything but I have not read the source books so cannot comment, sorry
Phaze
On the "visiting and coding with friends" id

[Looney]

I am not really sure about the terminology involved. This is what I am talking about.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-Babylon-...item3f3d9af418

Is that considered to be a RPG or GURPS?

Anyone know if it is worth trying out?

[phazedout]

GURPS stands for ( I think) Generic Universal Role Playing System.

so still rpg.

That looks really cheap, I would love to pick it up but the seller doesn't ship internationally, anyone willing to help me out here? if so please PM.

Alan

[Looney]

Before you start down that path I think you should know that while that one seems cheap it looks like there are many companion books, some that are not so cheap. Just a word of warning. I know the way my brain works is that if I buy one, I'll have to buy them all.

[Nastastu]

I think just about any RPG could be fun as long as you have interest in the setting. You get out of it what you put into it.

I hadn't picked the B5 Roleplaying books up, which is kinda surprising. I did pick up the Farscape Roleplaying book but my intention with that was that two of the actors were coming to a local convention. I had Wayne Pygram and Virginia Hey sign the section of the book about their characters. Would have loved to do the same with the B5 cast but never had any appearances near me, at least that I was aware.

[Satai with Punsch]

Some old post necromancy here ...

I did play the Babylon 5 card game a few times when it was sold in the stores and enjoyed it immensely. As was stated previously it does take some time and the learning curve is a bit steep, but it manages to capture the atmosphere of the show very well indeed.

The game ia of course about the accumulation of power through all kinds of ways, intrigue, negotiations, military conflict, armament and so on. Nothing strange there, but you also have to balance the Shadow/Vorlon influences unless you want to start the Shadow war which changes the winning conditions of the game greatly. But hey, if the Shadow are your friends there is noting to loose, right?

But unlike many other games this game also have a mechanism for consequences. So even if you win a conflict your opponent can throw an aftermath consequence on you. Very JMSy


Great fun game, but unfortunately I have not managed to play it for several years now