Games for 3 players?

[Harem Route]

Can you folks recommend some interesting games for 3 players? Most games that we find are either 2 players max, or require 4 players at minimum to be fun. So, our awkward group of 3 needs new games.

What we're looking for primarily is atmosphere. Games that help provide it are greatly appreciated. Our current favorites are Arkham Horror, Eldritch Horror, Dead of Winter for that reason. Red Dragon Inn is also amazing, although again, much more fun in a bigger company.

The second most important thing is probably visuals. So nice art is, again, very appreciated. But not absolutely mandatory.

Other than that, open for any suggestions at this point. Don't care if it's co-op or pvp, don't care about the setting, don't care if it's anime or not, hardcore or casual, just want something that would be fun for a small group of 3.

[YourPeepingTom]

Epic spell wars is one of my favorites. munchkins would work too, exploding kittens, uuuuh mysterium might work with three people? i'm kinda lookin for three player games as well

[One Sun Mirror]

Three Kingdoms Redux is specifically designed for exactly three players (and can't be played with other player counts actually). It is relatively heavy and takes approximately 3 hours to play through, but it is a fantastically well balanced interactive experience. It is also a DLC for Tabletop Simulator, and I would say one of the best ports to this format you'll find.

For atmosphere, I'm not 100% certain I understand exactly what you're looking for. It isn't a role-playing game, but personally I feel the theme shines through and integrates well with the mechanics. I feel like I'm a lord running an ancient Chinese state, planning out the actions of my generals, improving infastructure, occupying territory, gaining fancy new titles...

The art in this game is fantastic, colourful and giving a sense of each space and character, with some more subtle elements for those paying special attention. I feel art of the board layout helps to reinforce the theme by presenting you with what would be the epicentre of your empire, a great city, surrounded by borderlands between each of the feuding kingdoms, as well as some space for tribes living on the peripheries of the Empire.

[Harem Route]

Thank you for suggestions. I completely forgot about Epic Spell Wars, even more so that it can be played with 3 players. I've only played it once at some convention, but loved it there. Definitely need to give it another go.
Mysterium is great too, one of our favorites actually.
A little tired of Muchkin, but it is a fair suggestion. And have never tried Exploding Kittens, so, will try that =)

As far as Three Kingdoms, I absolutely love that period, of course love the Dynasty Warriors, Romance of the Three Kingdoms and even that cheesy TV drama about it xD
Yet somehow, never heard of this board game. I'll absolutely give it a try.

Originally posted by One Sun Mirror:

For atmosphere, I'm not 100% certain I understand exactly what you're looking for.

Fair enough, I should have been more specific. I know this is a very broad request anyway, mostly because we are willing to try a lot of stuff, even outside our comfort zone.
Buy anyway, by atmosphere I meant that the games I've listed as an example have a lot of fluff text that gives more life to them than just mechanics and numbers. Scenarios, different characters, enemy and event descriptions, all that stuff. Whereas games like.. idunno... Monopoly, Agricola etc. - they are purely mechanics based with no... well... atmosphere in them.

Sometimes, games without fluff text can also create certain atmosphere. Like, say, Zombicide. Or even Evolution that is still just a resource management game at its core, but it's just a little more alive when it's not simply "move a block to a square, now you have more food", but also "your creature has a second tail!". You know, just something beyond the mechanics that hepls you immerse into a game's setting.

And sometimes, something as simple as nice art helps. Like, for example, Ghost Stories or Exceed (although the last one is 2 players only).

[One Sun Mirror]

If you know the period, you will love the game and must try it out. As I said, it's available as a DLC for this game.

As for atmosphere, the art certainly helps inform about your generals and different kinds of improvements. There's probably not an enormous amount of flavour text in the game, and it's up to the players to determine whether they jive with the flavour that is offered. I would say that the tension created by trying to balance out how you screw the other two players over without runining yourself creates a great atmosphere for me, but that's really personal taste. Admittedly, this is just the mechanics creating that feeling, but I think it's the kind of emotional state you might find in warlords competing for Empire.

I'm happy to teach it to you sometime if you want to check it out (or even play) before making a purchase.
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Another great game is Fury of Dracula which I would say also creates a great atmosphere and is very thematic. One player plays the Vampire Lord himself, while the others team up as a gang of vampire hunters and must frantically track him down before his influence corrupts the hearts and minds of all across the European continent. It's tense and creates a great player dynamic in my opinion. I haven't played on here, so unsure what the quality of the mods might be like, but the game is fantastic. Another long, heavy one though. Can be played with anywhere from 2-5, and I would say is best with anywhere from 3-5, as it gives the vampire hunters some kind of team dynamic. Two people teaming up works differently to four, but I would argue no less engagingly.

[Anxarcule]

Catan is a fun game, though be somewhat simplistic for your group. With expansions(especially Cities and Knights) it can make it more strategic.

I haven't played it yet on TTS but Wiz-War is a very fun strategic competitive game. I think the only workshop item is somewhat lacking on the visuals part but the game play is a ton of fun.

[Flam3]

Sub Terra is quite a fun challenging cave exploration tile based game with various dangers including "horrors" and is easy to get to grips with. If you've seen the movie 'Descent' it's kinda like that but boardgame like, heh.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1251884042&searchtext=Sub+Terra

[Pseudok]

A Touch of Evil.

I think the sweet spot for A Touch of Evil co-op mode is three players. Less than that and it's very difficult and more than that it becomes rather easy.

Since you already mentioned Arkham Horror in your gaming history, you might like this game.

[SaltyO]

I have played more with 3p on TTS than any other # I think.

If you like co-op theme heavy games, there's just tons to choose from. Fantasy Flight Games, as you've indicated by your tastes, makes a lot of these, but there are others. Some may be more euro style than you like. I'll paste a list I wrote a couple years ago I have hanging around.

The glossary is for my friends friends who are not seasoned gamers. Some good picks in here anyway:



Nemesis Kickstarter/mod
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1265009992
The City of Kings is a cooperative tactical roleplaying board game for 1 - 4 players in which your character is tasked with exploring the hazardous world, trading for vital resources, and battling your enemies whilst uncovering a story of a world imperiled.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/207243/city-kings

Dungeon Alliance is a deck-building, dungeon-crawling miniatures adventure game that allows players to send 1-4 different teams of adventurers into perilous dungeons in search of experience and treasure. At the start of the game, each player drafts their own team of four heroes (from the 17 included in the game) and uses tactical movement and card play to overcome the dungeon's monsters and treasures. Each player starts with a unique twelve-card starting deck that includes the starting cards from all four of their heroes.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/209660/dungeon-alliance

7th continent based on choose your own adventures from the 80s, sort of
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/180263/7th-continent


Arabian Nights \
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/180263/7th-continent
Narrative style. Not cooperative, but interesting.

Captain Sonar (not sure how this plays 3p but very good anyway)


Tabletop Sim Co-Ops and Semi-Co-Ops.

High Quality Co-Op DLCs

Darkest Night - This lightish co-op fantasy RPG-boardgame was just re-released with all new graphics, bells&whistles, scripting and all the expansions in one DLC. http://store.steampowered.com/app/433520/Tabletop_Simulator__Darkest_Night/ The pictures haven't been updated, it looks better than that.

Ameritrash zombie miniature tactical cooperative game.
Tabletop_Simulator__Zombicide/ Also good (perhaps much better) is another co-op survival zombie slayer Dead of Winter http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=331869126&searchtext=dead+of+winter

Tiny Epic * -- Tiny Epic Defenders is specifically co-op, all the others are a lot more fun than they sound and good for lighter game night moods. These are easy to learn and good for lighter game moods. I've not played the co-op DLCs despite having owned them.

Wizard's Academy is a co-operative game of magical experimentation for 1-6 players. This game is very surprisingly fun, challenging, and plays nicely with 3. http://store.steampowered.com/dlc/286160/

The Captain is Dead! - Fun but also pretty damn hard at normal levels. Some balance issues too. likely not as thematic as some would like due to simple design.

Cavern Tavern - Jokey RPG-themed “dice worker placement”, the mechanism where dice are manipulated and used as workers, like meeples, to trigger specific actons on cards or the board. In this game players are trying to not piss off the customers. Kind of an elaborate rootbeer tapper. I have yet to play.

Mistfall - a single, longish campaign, cooperative LCG like Pathfinder but 5x more complex. Just barely an RPG itself.

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Non-DLC *Co-Op* Mods:

Cthulhu Mythos: There are at least 5 co-op Cthulhu games I know of on the workshop. They range from somewhat “laid back” dice rollers like Elder Sign, genre mixers, to more in-depth living card games like Eldritch Horror. The list is not exhaustive. http://www.hplovecraft.com/popcult/games/board.aspx
The popular ones are, from least to greatest complexity: 1. Elder Sign 2. Mythos - Call of Cthulhu: Collectible Card Game - Shadows Over Brimstone - Mansions of Madness 3. Eldritch Horror 4. Arkham Horror
I've heard Eldritch is the best balance between Arkham Horror's depth and insanity and a lightweight game. Mansions (an “app driven” game), Eldritch, and Arkham are ranked among the best co-op games ever.

Mage Knight - Scripted with all (including new Druid) Expansion - Would require touching up on MK's crazy ass rules.

Pandemic - The normal co-op version of the classic save-humanity-disease-control simulator. Pandemic is a challenging game that relies more on how a team works than anything else. This is one of the most popular co-op games ever made. Surprised no interest in trying it.
Pandemic Legacy - This is a more character focused, “rpg” implementation of Pandemic and is also extremely popular right now.

Gloomhaven - This would probably go well with most people. You might just wait for the PC turn based game version instead.
After 8 level ups, I found it to be too grindy and would prefer a normal tabletop RPG, but most people worship this thing.

Descent 2.0 -- No shortage of content on TTS. The Overlord seems to be stopping us from playing.

XCOM: The Board Game - Like the computer game, but co-op, and on a board.

Dark Souls -- Like the computer game, but co-op, and on a board. Lighter than PACG, not much “flavor,” but it still looks like it might be fun. Very streamlined.

Robinson Crusoe -- Looking past the PBS theme, this is actually a great game and one of the most highly rated survival/co-op games ever. Highish learning curve due to rules being sorta messy. Have BGG forums loaded up.

The 7th Continent -- I know very little about this one, but it appears to be doing well. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/180263/7th-continent

T.I.M.E. Stories - Multiboxed memory deductive RP unique thing. On hold pending the brainpower/time to play it I think? More theme/story based than character and grind.

Legendary Encounters: An Alien Deck Building Game - Don't you want to play a vast campaign set in the universe of the Alien film franchise?

Kingdom Death: Monster - the insanely successful psychotic episode that starts all characters naked in the dark, literally. If you can grind through Arkham this is worth considering.

Space Alert! - A real time co-op similar to Captain is Dead! but more intense, a heart pounder, essentially Pulsar, the board game

Aeon's End -- I know very little about this game save that it was well received. Cooperative deckbuilder that takes place in an underground city, unique storyline.

Too Many Bones & Rollplayer (not coop) -- Two games that are based on a new trend of “dice building” instead of deck building. Dice manipulation is a big part of it. Curious about these things. I own a Kickstarter copy of Rollplayer, pretty interesting mechanics.
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/192135/too-many-bones
https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/169426/roll-player

Spirit Island - I REALLY want to try this game. Cooperative strategy game where players play different spirits on an island being taken over by Europeans. It's kind of like The Anti-Euro. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/162886/spirit-island

Shadowrun:Crossfire -- Surprise, it's the LCG version of Shadowrun. Don't know much about it. https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/135382/shadowrun-crossfire

Massive Darkness - Another high fantasy campaigner but with TONS of minis. Reminds me a bit of Dark Souls, but Darkerer. There is a big mod of it in the WS. I call this the energy drink of co-op games based on its design decisions.

Dead Men Tell No Tales -- This co-op game with a map building element (like mage knight) everyone together as a team of pirates boarding a conquered ship. Haven't looked deep into it, but if you're feeling piratey... https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/141423/dead-men-tell-no-tales


And many more.

worth a mention:
Dune (from 1978, a semi-co-op game far ahead of its time, central is bluffing)
Betrayal at House on the Hill (80s horror in a haunted house, betrayal mechanic)
Shadows Over Camelet (beloved classic semi-co-op with a betrayal mechanic too)
Archipelago -- Could give that one another shot some day, we spent a long time learning it. See Shut Up Sit Down review, I agree with it.





BG Glossary:
Legacy- Legacy games are games that are changed by each play. Each play group will have a totally different game by the end of their journey. The effects and choices permanent ly change the game world. For instance, Risk Legacy requires you to mark up and deface the actual board. This is currently a very popular selling point as people like to know their worlds are unique; they are also introducing “unique” components to different boxes, for even more special..

Ameritrash -- Wholly embraced European expression for American games that are filled with theme, miniatures, lots of toys, asymmetrical gameplay, shiny objects, etc. Twilight Imperium, Pathfinder CG are perfect examples.

Eurogames -- Generally the point is to acquire victory points to win, there's rarely any player elimination, the majority of titles focus on historical or strangely specific themes. There is an unwritten agreement among eurogame designers to not rely on violence as the sole reward system, so there is often an anti-violent or non-violent setting. Theme not important overall. Games of Stefan Feld, Reiner Knizia perfect examples. Settlers of Catan is just barely a eurogame. Bruges is a eurogame.

LCG - Living card games. A sprawling genre that includes Pathfinder ACG. There are too many of these to list here. The trend is now moving toward combining many different mechanics and influences (i.e. Gloomhaven, is euro+rpg+lcg+worker pl. etc)).

Deckbuilder - i.e. Dominion. A game that focuses on creating the best hand and deck to achieve an advantage. Much in common with “engine building” games.

Drafting - Drafting is a mechanic that allows a bargaining or pre-round selection phase. Archipelago has a little bit of it; Bloodrage is not co-op but a great example of it. Drafting is a fun card mechanic.

Worker Placement -- A giant tent of games. Usually involves a wood meeple or token being placed on a spot that activates an event, scores points, harvests things, etc.

Diceworker/Dicement/Dice Manipulation -- Games in which dice are used as “workers,” but being dice, have more dimensions than a token.

Tableau Builder -- These games involve playing or building a character, empire, species, etc. out of cards and other things in a tableau in front of you. Seven Wonders, Race for the Galaxy, Glory to Rome, Eminent Domain, etc. A new trend is games involving multiple tableaus, they are crazy. I call them tableau hydra games. Tableau Building- http://store.steampowered.com/app/579940/ - Race for the Galaxy. The classic tableau empire builder. Hydra from Nippon: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/196340/yokohama

[SaltyO]

I didn't edit the above very well, but hope it's helpful anyway.

[Harem Route]

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, that's a lot! Not that it's a bad thing of course. There surely will be something to our liking.

Thank you all very much =)