Thanks for the support, Goose. 🙂 *fist bumps in solidarity*
I agree that it’s successful as a board game, even though I personally feel like the “rooms” it fills in my house of “what I want out of a game” are similar to that of a D&D dungeon crawl adventure, and I’d much rather just do that. To each his own, I guess.

That’s fair. I forget that DnD can be played with much more of a combat focus (I’ve avoided the editions that tend that way and vastly prefer 5e).

Marc, I’d argue that d&d isn’t just about role playing, for me its been at least half, maybe more, combat wherein the decisions are very similar to what I encountered during my brief gloomhaven stint. I’ve not played mage knight, but gloomhaven seemed like a constant stream of what I’d encounter in a dungeon crawl portion of a d&d adventure, with the same degree of complexity, without the role playing. So, for me its just not that exciting, even for what I guess is the accrual msrp of 120. I think the argument of “Its good because you don’t need a DM” is a good one, but that’s never been something my group has struggled with, so for me, I think I’d just rather dungeon crawl in a tabletop rpg setting.
I think the idea of the game is a good one, and I think it meets the needs of certain groups really well, I just dont think its for me.

Gotta prioritize your current campaigns, but this should honestly be the next one you do, especially if you have a group on board who will remain somewhat committed. Completely worth it.

Steph, I don’t see much of an overlap at all (also, is it retailing for $200?? The kickstarter was $100). DnD is about roleplaying of which there is basically none here. This is a tactical card-based combat game, and the actual gameplay decisions aren’t even in the same league as DnD. There’s no comparison. This is closer to Mage Knight. Not even close to any dice-based RPG combat system.

Steph – I think the “Why not just play D&D?” question is really good for games like this… For me, the two reasons to play Gloomhaven over D&D are the lack of DM (as Wayne says) and the fascinating card combat system. I think Gloomhaven actually succeeds at just being a board game – I’d want both in my gaming life.

On the other hand, I’d be fine always playing D&D over Descent. Descent scenarios are imbalanced, which is made even worse since a DM was still required – and the combat is just a less creative version of D&D combat. So I’d say that the only reason to play Descent over D&D is the prep time.

The MSRP of Gloomhaven is $120. You are seeing inflated pricing because the retail shipments have not started. To play D&D, your group is in for at least $100 for one copy of PH+DMG+MM. Plus, you’d have to buy miniatures, if that is your thing.

If your groups is happy with D&D or some other RPG, stay with it. My group has always struggled with getting someone to DM. We think Gloomhaven will scratch our itch. I view it as a dungeon-master-in-a-box.