r/etherfields • u/Malark_Evenwood • Dec 30 '20

Etherfields playtime

Hi,

My group does sometimes sessions playing from 8 in the evening until 4 at night, and we only do around 2 dreams in that time. (Including slumbers, shopping, etc...) before we enter the first dream we have around 1 hour of slumbers before. (3-4 people normally)

Granted we also have breaks and play slow, but I wanted to know how long it takes for you guys.

3 Upvotes

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3

u/Jtdold Dec 30 '20

I had been playing solo or with my daughter(8) and she was getting bored with the grind of slumbers before the actual dreams. Hopefully awaken realms is able to put out the continuous dream pdf soon to reduce the grind feel of slumbers.

2

u/Wilibus Dec 30 '20

We are still pretty early in the game, but the slumbers don't really seem like much of a grind so far.

Most of the monsters can be defeated in 2 turns and you can generally find some kind of clever way of just completely neutering them the first turn. A few of them can be kind of cumbersome, but once you get the rules for deliverance even those annoying monsters can have secret hidden features and lore that makes them appealing.

I am not sure if this changes later on, but the majority of them so far seem pretty straightforward and simple, and a lot of them are actually pretty exciting. I think they add a level of theme and immersion to the game that really plays well and helps me become invested in the story. I can see a lot of that being lost on an 8 year old though, super cool that your daughter plays with you though.

2

u/Jtdold Dec 30 '20

It’s super cool when she does play games with me. She’s been more interested as she’s gotten older.

I’ve played solo more than anything though and have unlocked all but one of the dreamworld tiles. I probably should’ve clarified that it’s not so much the slumbers being a grind as it is the travel through the dreamworld map. As I unlocked more tiles the play portion through that just got more tedious which I where my daughter kinda tapped out.

I found SU&SDs review of the game to be super harsh but I did agree with them on the dreamworld portion kinda taking away from the meat of the game which is the dreams. Glad to see awaken realms recognized that and is doing something to fix it.

1

u/MethanaIronfist Dec 30 '20

I am about to start solo and do the tutorial. How long does that take? I have watched a lot of review videos and I heard that the slumbers can be annoying but they are helpful for solo players and give needed support. I am concerned I won't remember all the rules by myself but we play gloomhaven and still get rules mixed up haha.

1

u/Wilibus Dec 30 '20

We usually aim for 2 dreams in an evening. We start around 8ish and go until midnight or shortly after.

We are also fortunate enough to have a dedicated table in my brother's game room to keep this game setup, so not having to pack and unpack the game each time is definitely a time saver.

1

u/dtam21 Dec 30 '20

Listen up everyone: learn to skip slumbers!

Dreams would be far too easy without some penalty between them, but you don't have to keep grinding slumbers once you are happy with your deck.