Not similar at all aside from “game uses cards” – they both play totally different. With PACG you have limited “deck building” during sessions and hand management during play, with your deck being your life, too. With SR:CF you have a deck builder with random market (think Ascension or Star Realms), but where you buy directly to your hand. You don’t really do too much deck building in the sense of preparation, but you buy what you need right now and right where you are, to make sure you survive. Game actions are quite different, too. PACG gives you a RPG-like structure in that you face problems that you solve by rolling dice with modifiers. In SR:CF you have no dice and no abilities you build up, you face an assortment of obstacles and attack them with different colors of damage, matching up color and number requirements. It is much more a puzzle of optimizing your different cards, often over multiple players and turns, to make sure you take down as many obstacles as possible and to survive the attacks.

Both can sit happily beside each other in a collection without feeling same at all. But there is one other really big difference: if you played the Rise of the Runelords and felt it was too simple, the base game of Shadowrun: Crossfire will feel too hard and punishing. I personally liked that, but even I was quite happy that the High Caliber Ops expansion to SR:CF did make it a bit more manageable. And I like the additional missions you get in that expansion – so much that I personally would say that HCO is a must-have expansion for SR:CF.

Oh, and setup/teardown of SR:CF is MUCH faster than PACG. Open the box, grab 4 stacks of cards (and your character sheets and starting decks), shuffle each stack/deck, draw your first obstacles and starting hands and off you go to your doom. No location preparation and silly stuff like that, digging through the box, hunting for card types.

Not similar at all aside from “game uses cards” – they both play totally different. With PACG you have limited “deck building” during sessions and hand management during play, with your deck being your life, too. With SR:CF you have a deck builder with random market (think Ascension or Star Realms), but where you buy directly to your hand. You don’t really do too much deck building in the sense of preparation, but you buy what you need right now and right where you are, to make sure you survive. Game actions are quite different, too. PACG gives you a RPG-like structure in that you face problems that you solve by rolling dice with modifiers. In SR:CF you have no dice and no abilities you build up, you face an assortment of obstacles and attack them with different colors of damage, matching up color and number requirements. It is much more a puzzle of optimizing your different cards, often over multiple players and turns, to make sure you take down as many obstacles as possible and to survive the attacks.

Both can sit happily beside each other in a collection without feeling same at all. But there is one other really big difference: if you played the Rise of the Runelords and felt it was too simple, the base game of Shadowrun: Crossfire will feel too hard and punishing. I personally liked that, but even I was quite happy that the High Caliber Ops expansion to SR:CF did make it a bit more manageable. And I like the additional missions you get in that expansion – so much that I personally would say that HCO is a must-have expansion for SR:CF.

Oh, and setup/teardown of SR:CF is MUCH faster than PACG. Open the box, grab 4 stacks of cards (and your character sheets and starting decks), shuffle each stack/deck, draw your first obstacles and starting hands and off you go to your doom. No location preparation and silly stuff like that, digging through the box, hunting for card types.

Quite some diverse selection this time: aside from our usual Progress: Evolution of Technology (which I forcefully retired for a while now, so that other games get more of a chance) and 7 Wonders: Duel (probably the new and upcoming star around here for two-player games), we got some Forbidden Desert in for a change at our open game night. And of course some Paperback. At home I got some solo sessions in with Star Realms (I ignored it for a while, but recently the Colony Wars expansion came out and gave it new impulse, so I got multiple plays in – it’s easy with Star Realms, as it is so quick), Night of Man (skirmish game with slightly dense hole-y-poke-y rules but great play and fantastic counters) and my first play of Leaving Earth (only base game so far, but expansion for Outer Planets is already in my cupboard). And my wife and I got some 1775: Rebellion in, too. I like it, because it gives me the Risk vibe but with limited game duration and much more focus. All in all a great week.

When I am out to meet with people, I often have some game with me – at least something like Cypher (or actually my german-translated steampunk re-theme of it), or sometimes San Juan (I have it re-packed in a smallish leather card pack). If I know the people are up for a game, I bring something more involved, usually some deck builder or other card based game that packs small and teaches fast.

I refuse to answer the second question 😉

Quite some diverse selection this time: aside from our usual Progress: Evolution of Technology (which I forcefully retired for a while now, so that other games get more of a chance) and 7 Wonders: Duel (probably the new and upcoming star around here for two-player games), we got some Forbidden Desert in for a change at our open game night. And of course some Paperback. At home I got some solo sessions in with Star Realms (I ignored it for a while, but recently the Colony Wars expansion came out and gave it new impulse, so I got multiple plays in – it’s easy with Star Realms, as it is so quick), Night of Man (skirmish game with slightly dense hole-y-poke-y rules but great play and fantastic counters) and my first play of Leaving Earth (only base game so far, but expansion for Outer Planets is already in my cupboard). And my wife and I got some 1775: Rebellion in, too. I like it, because it gives me the Risk vibe but with limited game duration and much more focus. All in all a great week.

When I am out to meet with people, I often have some game with me – at least something like Cypher (or actually my german-translated steampunk re-theme of it), or sometimes San Juan (I have it re-packed in a smallish leather card pack). If I know the people are up for a game, I bring something more involved, usually some deck builder or other card based game that packs small and teaches fast.

I refuse to answer the second question 😉

Another suggestion that plays really well solo (well, you have to run two characters) and coop (up to 4 people): Shadowrun: Crossfire. But make sure you get it together with the High Caliber Ops expansion – I feel that one is essential to open up the game. It is a deck builder, but pure coop. It’s setup is as fast as Hero Realms – just throw a few stacks of cards on the table and have a go at it. And it is really fun playing solo.

Allthough, if you are a former MTG player, and if you look for deck construction, there IMO is nothing better than Lord of the Rings: The Card Game for solo and coop play. It is really solid as a solo gamer and gives you all that MTG could give you, except that you don’t need an opponent. Just be aware that it is an LCG, so there are regular expansions. You don’t need to go too far in if you don’t want to, but if you are anything like me, you might want to, because of the bigger card pool and the more options for deck building.

Another suggestion that plays really well solo (well, you have to run two characters) and coop (up to 4 people): Shadowrun: Crossfire. But make sure you get it together with the High Caliber Ops expansion – I feel that one is essential to open up the game. It is a deck builder, but pure coop. It’s setup is as fast as Hero Realms – just throw a few stacks of cards on the table and have a go at it. And it is really fun playing solo.

Allthough, if you are a former MTG player, and if you look for deck construction, there IMO is nothing better than Lord of the Rings: The Card Game for solo and coop play. It is really solid as a solo gamer and gives you all that MTG could give you, except that you don’t need an opponent. Just be aware that it is an LCG, so there are regular expansions. You don’t need to go too far in if you don’t want to, but if you are anything like me, you might want to, because of the bigger card pool and the more options for deck building.

well, Hero Realms will most surely hit retail, so you could easily drop down to the $25 base game + stretch goals level. Much cheaper that way and if you aren’t interested in the character decks, you get a base game and a solo mission (at least if we hit the next stretch goal). And then can later decide if you like it and go for the mission packs and maybe one or two character packs if you decide you want to go at missions as a wizard or stuff like that.

The full monty for this game is silly expensive. On the other hand, it’s a damn fine game engine beneath it, and they take it quite a bit further with this one. The biggest benefit of the SR engine is that you just throw the cards on the table and are ready to go. This seems to add just a little overhead but keeps the play fast as it was, with just a tad more options in it (and a more MTG like vibe from the cards than they had with SR). It is why I am still in at the adventurer level, because that hits a sweet spot with me: fast setup solo game in a small package I can just throw in my backpack, with the option to play with up to 4 without problems.

The thing that still keeps me with the SR engine games (at the moment obviously mostly Star Realms and the Colony Wars expansion) is how easy it is for me to get some fun solo time. It’s like chocolate – you can’t stop when you start.

So this thing is a $72 box of valrhona chocolate for me. Expensive? Hell, yeah. Worth it? For me, yes.

well, Hero Realms will most surely hit retail, so you could easily drop down to the $25 base game + stretch goals level. Much cheaper that way and if you aren’t interested in the character decks, you get a base game and a solo mission (at least if we hit the next stretch goal). And then can later decide if you like it and go for the mission packs and maybe one or two character packs if you decide you want to go at missions as a wizard or stuff like that.

The full monty for this game is silly expensive. On the other hand, it’s a damn fine game engine beneath it, and they take it quite a bit further with this one. The biggest benefit of the SR engine is that you just throw the cards on the table and are ready to go. This seems to add just a little overhead but keeps the play fast as it was, with just a tad more options in it (and a more MTG like vibe from the cards than they had with SR). It is why I am still in at the adventurer level, because that hits a sweet spot with me: fast setup solo game in a small package I can just throw in my backpack, with the option to play with up to 4 without problems.

The thing that still keeps me with the SR engine games (at the moment obviously mostly Star Realms and the Colony Wars expansion) is how easy it is for me to get some fun solo time. It’s like chocolate – you can’t stop when you start.

So this thing is a $72 box of valrhona chocolate for me. Expensive? Hell, yeah. Worth it? For me, yes.