I really wish that more board games had multiple game modes. It's a feature that essentially allows you to have multiple, very similar but very different games in one box, which is awesome!
Two great examples:
SUPERHOT: The Card Game is normally cooperative against the Red Dudes, but there's a mode where you can actually gunfight with each other.
Gem Rush is a point mining game that you can equally play as a competition to be the one with the most points, or a cooperative game to get enough points together before the deck runs out.
More like this, please, designers!
Not to mention that both of the above instantly fix the problem of showing up to a gathering with a game and the consensus between the guests being a total coinflip between "cooperative is too safe and huggy" and "competitive stresses me out" - the one game you brought can do either 😸
@V Scythe is an exceptional board game in its own right, but straight out of the box, comes with both its default competitive mode where each player is vying for the most victory points at the end of the game (made up not just of objectives, but also territory controlled, amount of money, AND how much resources you have left over, with each being worth more or less points based on your tier of popularity in game!), AND a cooperative players vs AI mode!
@V I glibly describe it as "Risk, but if it was actually fun to play", which is... very reductive, and also anything that makes Risk fun to play means it isn't Risk any more. :3 Either way though it's an incredible game that DOES NOT rely on luck. It is extremely strategic, but also really simple to learn despite LOOKING really complex.
