Waters: A Crossroads Game, PH2900

You need to play it to fully understand the rules. But then it's awesome!

Bought as a present - loved it and lots of fun to play

This is a great game so far! We just finished the first, 2-session scenario last night. The game has very nice art, and is extremely well-written and funny. I urge you to play on the silly side and you'll have much more fun. The components are sturdy cardboard and well-designed, there are a few not 100% clear rules, but it is easy enough to make minor changes. It hums along best with 4 or 5 players, and we house-ruled the Masked Pirate to cycle through the Infamy order otherwise it seems to just be a huge boost to whoever is already in first place. You need to have a device to run the app on; I'm using my old laptop and it works great. My friends and I have quite enjoyed this game.

Forgotten Waters is a cooperative game, for the whole family. It says I think ages 14+, but really anyone over the age of 10 could easily play. They won't run into anything they haven't seen far worse of on TV. The game itself has the novel aspect of being akin to a "choose your own adventure" style of those old books that used to be out. The app was extremely user friendly and easy to navigate. Solid voice acting gave flavour, but towards the end of the night, when we started seeing long pages of text, we all said "ehnnnn" to reading/listening to it and skipping the three minute narrative, just jumping to the "you get +1 brawl". The game poses several minor ethical dilemmas throughout (do you save the noble woman in distress, or do you rob her?) which the game does a very good job of switching up who has to make the decision (rarely the same person twice in a row). The rules are straight forward, and within 15 minutes tops, we all had a grasp on how the game went. Well constructed pieces, good theme, and was enjoyed by everyone.

Arrived on time but the box is damaged as seen on the image. Still playable and enjoyable

This is one of my all time favorite tabletop games. Like other Crossroads games from Plaid Hat, the main point is cooperation, but there's also the opportunity for a bit of backstabbing (you're playing a pirate after all). Every playthrough is different, even when playing the same story. The end objectives may be the same, but the journey varies each time with different characters and random events so that there is some good replayability. The game is app driven, which I usually don't like, but the app for this game is so well done. It adds so much to the game with ambient sounds, sound effects, and well done voice-overs. The app is actually a website, so it runs from pretty much any device with a browser but also has an offline mode (voice-overs require HTML5 support and an internet connection). The game doesn't take itself too seriously. There are a lot of jokes and a few fourth wall comments. Fans of the Dead of Winter series or other games from Plaid Hat will not be disappointed with this one.

The rich voice acting and audio create fun moods for playing this with your family and kids ~8+ or with a group of friends you haven't seen in a while over video chat. I've played several super fun games using zoom with an extra phone that shows the map while everyone plays using the web-app. So fun! Great way to connect with friends and chat while working together, making jokes and having fun on a pirate adventure. Highly recommend!