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Topic	thirty-one tabletop games, ranked
SeabassDebeste 03/19/18 10:22:42 AM #106:	20. Celestia https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/175117/celestia Genre/mechanics: Press-your-luck, dice-rolling, hand management, take-that Rules complexity: 4/10 Game length: 20-30 minutes Player count: 3-6 Experience: 10+ games with 4-6 First played: 2016 A group of explorers sail through the land of Celestia in their airship. Each player on the ship takes turns being the captain and rolling the (increasingly difficult) dice to see what travails await. If the captain can discard cards from hand to defeat the obstacles on the dice, the ship will advance. If not, the ship crashes and restarts with everyone in it. But before the captain discards cards, players can choose either to stay in the ship (and either advance or crash) or to get out (and grab victory points associated with that location). The further the ship has gone, the higher value it is to leave the ship. Design - There's no question that the absolute best part of Celestia is the airship itself. It is constructed out of cardboard, stands alone, contains space for all six players' pawns, and has a motherfucking propellor. It physically moves forward as you roll for each obstacle, which is fucking fantastic. The second best part of Celestia is the in-or-out phase - it's a binary decision, but when it's trivial it's awesome to have a whole circle of people shout "In!" "In!" "In!" consecutively. When you leave the ship, you physically move your pawn out of the ship and onto your little player character circle. (This is almost trivial, but the fact that you have that little landing pod is excellent - ) The decision whether to stay or not isn't entirely trivial ("Do I think the captain has the cards needed?") - if you're sitting to the left of the captain, then a successful run makes you the next captain, and the captain cannot bail. Then there are also special power cards which may reward you for pressing your luck (a jetpack that lets you collect rewards even from a crashing ship; a spyglass which lets you bypass obstacles) or for bailing early and screwing with others (a moor that prevents the ship from advancing; a nasty surprise that forces blank dice to be rerolled). There's just enough meat on this game's bones. Enjoyment - The first few times I played Celestia, we got a few rules wrong. Notably, we thought you made the call whether to stay in before the captain rolled their dice. Was just as fun playing that way, if slightly more luck-driven. Celestia also has a "Little Bit of Help" expansion, in which certain cards are designated Helping Hands, and passengers play these to help the captain if the captain cannot pass the obstacle alone. In general, I've found that this version is worse. Celestia is incredibly quick-paced both to teach and to play, and when I think about my best experiences with it - rapid in/out decisions, rolling the dice, laughing when people crash on only needing to discard one bird card - it seems like the perfect filler game. But the Helping Hands expansion slows it a little. And there can be times where the game feels a little dispiriting - the smart play can sometimes be to get off, but it just feels really bad to watch the ship advance (however improbably) without you. There's also some luck in the early stages as to which card you draw when you disembark from the ship. So for a game that seems painless, there can actually be some pretty bad feels on occasion. Play fast enough, and none of this is an issue, of course. Future - Hell yeah. I was looking for a social-ish game to wrap up the night at the game store last night - was considering Anomia - and then I saw Celestia. Had a blast teaching and playing. So definitely yes. Bonus question - What is your favorite push-your-luck game? What about your favorite game where you have to depend on another player? Hint for #19 - I just want peace and quiet and everyone glaring daggers at me when I look like I might have forgot --- yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness <cite>SeabassDebeste posted [p:898080818] in thirty-one... [t:76412082]...</cite> <quote>20. Celestia https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/175117/celestia Genre/mechanics: Press-your-luck, dice-rolling, hand management, take-that Rules complexity: 4/10 Game length: 20-30 minutes Player count: 3-6 Experience: 10+ games with 4-6 First played: 2016 A group of explorers sail through the land of Celestia in their airship. Each player on the ship takes turns being the captain and rolling the (increasingly difficult) dice to see what travails await. If the captain can discard cards from hand to defeat the obstacles on the dice, the ship will advance. If not, the ship crashes and restarts with everyone in it. But before the captain discards cards, players can choose either to stay in the ship (and either advance or crash) or to get out (and grab victory points associated with that location). The further the ship has gone, the higher value it is to leave the ship. Design - There's no question that the absolute best part of Celestia is the airship itself. It is constructed out of cardboard, stands alone, contains space for all six players' pawns, and has a motherfucking propellor. It physically moves forward as you roll for each obstacle, which is fucking fantastic. The second best part of Celestia is the in-or-out phase - it's a binary decision, but when it's trivial it's awesome to have a whole circle of people shout "In!" "In!" "In!" consecutively. When you leave the ship, you physically move your pawn out of the ship and onto your little player character circle. (This is almost trivial, but the fact that you have that little landing pod is excellent - ) The decision whether to stay or not isn't entirely trivial ("Do I think the captain has the cards needed?") - if you're sitting to the left of the captain, then a successful run makes you the next captain, and the captain cannot bail. Then there are also special power cards which may reward you for pressing your luck (a jetpack that lets you collect rewards even from a crashing ship; a spyglass which lets you bypass obstacles) or for bailing early and screwing with others (a moor that prevents the ship from advancing; a nasty surprise that forces blank dice to be rerolled). There's just enough meat on this game's bones. Enjoyment - The first few times I played Celestia, we got a few rules wrong. Notably, we thought you made the call whether to stay in before the captain rolled their dice. Was just as fun playing that way, if slightly more luck-driven. Celestia also has a "Little Bit of Help" expansion, in which certain cards are designated Helping Hands, and passengers play these to help the captain if the captain cannot pass the obstacle alone. In general, I've found that this version is worse. Celestia is incredibly quick-paced both to teach and to play, and when I think about my best experiences with it - rapid in/out decisions, rolling the dice, laughing when people crash on only needing to discard one bird card - it seems like the perfect filler game. But the Helping Hands expansion slows it a little. And there can be times where the game feels a little dispiriting - the smart play can sometimes be to get off, but it just feels really bad to watch the ship advance (however improbably) without you. There's also some luck in the early stages as to which card you draw when you disembark from the ship. So for a game that seems painless, there can actually be some pretty bad feels on occasion. Play fast enough, and none of this is an issue, of course. Future - Hell yeah. I was looking for a social-ish game to wrap up the night at the game store last night - was considering Anomia - and then I saw Celestia. Had a blast teaching and playing. So definitely yes. Bonus question - What is your favorite push-your-luck game? What about your favorite game where you have to depend on another player? Hint for #19 - I just want peace and quiet and everyone glaring daggers at me when I look like I might have forgot --- yet all sailors of all sorts are more or less capricious and unreliable - they live in the varying outer weather, and they inhale its fickleness</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
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