TL;DR: Fortune and Glory needs a streamlined 2.0 with more variety in its pulpiness. Or either Evil Hat's Race to Adventure could use a 2.0 that includes co-op mode and comes as a big box set with all the expansions already. And Dresden Files Co-op Card Game can feel too short, too abstract, and not thematic enough in the same ways that the recent Firefly Co-op Card Game did, yet it has something else going for it that overcomes those weaknesses.
I didn't post Fortune & Glory on this month's "holy grail" post, but the idea of what it could be would kind of make it mine. Except every time I get the itch to hunt it down, I get stuck in a stream of consciousness time loop that goes like this:
Fortune & Glory! Man that looks so fun. I love the theme of pulpy Indiana Jones style co-op. And even though it's been kind of hard to find, didn't I see something recently on Geek & Sundry about a reprint? I'm already a big fan of Jason C. Hill's *Last Night on Earth** so I bet it would be easy to pick up.*
... Finds the FFP site for the game
Hmm. Nothing on the publisher's site about a reprint. No news at all in 5 years. Let me just reread the rules PDF. ... ... Wow there's just a lot of fiddly bits going on in that set-up, approaching FFG levels, FFP! ... Holy crap, that's just a LOT of rules very different subsystems and special cases to keep up with, way more than LNOE. I guess the pulp theme takes more variety than the zombie theme to get the feel right? ... Yeah, even with my fairly experienced group it would take a while to get comfortable enough with all of these subsystems to have a fun, flowing gameplay experience. ... They need to really streamline this ruleset one day but keep the theme, and maybe even broaden the theme some beyond Indiana Jones pulpiness to include some Lost World Dinos and alien invasion style pulpiness. I do like how it seems the random Villian stuff in co-op seems like it will keep the game from getting old because it's always some kind of scavenger hunt.
Oh! Wasn't there a Fate based boardgame with a similar theme? What was that again?
... Finally land on site for Race to Adventure: A Spirit of the Century Boardgame and read rules etc.
Neat! They really nailed the variety of pulpy fun. And have had some pretty awesome sounding expansions too! But these comments indicate some of the expansions are print and play or something else inconvenient because the Kickstarter wasn't funded enough.
I liked what Evil Hat did with the *Dresden Files co-op card game** game a friend brought over; lots of challenge and variability and a pretty short game with a neat Endgame feature. The short games kind of added to what I felt was a bit of a lack in thematic feel, along with a need to have read far enough in the series to get some of the thematic-ness. Still, a great randomized quick playing abstract co-op. Weirdly, I had the same criticisms of low theme-feel and too high abstraction for the recent Firefly Co-op Card Game enough that I'd rather not play it again, but I'm totally down for more Dresden Files CCG even if I haven't read all the books. Not sure what to make of that*
Back to Race to Adventure... hmm. It reminds me strangely of *Forbidden Island except it's a competitive scavenger hunt instead of co-op. Fewer locations to move around to, but each location flips for difficulty adjustment which is cool. And each location has somewhat streamlined rules yet interesting variations of things to do and effects to contend with. It really needs to have some co-op rules baked in though. That would be even more fun, and allow for a change of pace from it always being a damn scavenger hunt.*
That sounds a bit like what I said about Fortune & Glory ...
Goes back to look for F&G info on other sites...