How did you discover Sentinels?

This topic has come up now and then in some personal convos for me, so it seems like a thing to ask of everyone at large.

For me it was when I was looking through the Google Play store in search of more board game apps after enjoying Elder Sign quite a bit. During said excursion I was intrigued by the Baron Blade icon (since I love mad scientist characters), and then was even more intrigued when I clicked through and saw that it was superhero-based card game. Since I thought that sounded like the coolest thing ever, being a fan of both superhero comics and remembering my days as a teenager playing Magic about twenty years ago.

And I remember the second thing I did right after winning the tutorial was read through the Multiverse, and I remember my decision to buy Season 1 was motivated as much by having more bios to read and music to listen to as it was having more stuff to play with.

(Aside: I know J&J rightly rag on the people who call Sentinels a "Magic rip-off", but I think the general similarity to Magic isn't such a bad thing when spun the right way, as it helped appeal the game to me and I know a number of people who are primarily Magic players who are also fond of Sentinels.)

It was at Gaelcon 2013, my roommate and his friends brought the game up to our room after the board game room was closed.  They invited me to play and that began my interest

We were having our normal Saturday game nights, and one of our friends brought a friend of their's over.  That person said they had this game called Sentinels of the Multiverse that was all about heroes defeating a villain.  We tried it out and played it for the rest of the night.  I then purchased all the things that were available.  And became a playtester in time to playtest Setback. :D

I met Chritstopher and Paul at Pax East 2013. RIght when Rook CIty was released. 

It was 2013, and one of my friends brought it to our weekly game night. We all enjoyed it and agreed we should add it to our regular rotation of games… for at least the next 2 years it was our entire rotation of games.

It was christmas three or four years ago ago my brother inlaw and sister got me three games two ive played with them before but one was new. Looking at it i was very interested in the comic book feel. The bios made me look into it more and ended up on flamerthrowers guides on characters and then ordered every expansion up to date

I wish I could remember the details. I just remember it was recommended to me by someone who I met on a hike in 2014 after we'd got to talking about RPGs.

I was made aware of SotM at one of my Gamers Club meetings.

Someone had brought their version of the first printing of the game(Back when it was in that little flimsy shoebox-like container), and I fell in love then and there after playing a round. I don't remember who we fought, but I remember my first hero was Bunker since I wanted to play someone 'Iron Man-ish'. I almost chose AZ as my first hero, but luckily I was directed elsewhere. Soon afterward I was gifted that copy once that person got the enhanced edition. I picked up the EE myself soon afterward, thus I donated the first printing to my club.

And the rest is history. This was all back around when IR was released, I think...

I first heard about it on a cruise. Then I got to play it in a restaurant at GenCon 2011.

A friend of mine brought it over, and we played Spite.  For hours.

Then another friend of mine picked it up, and we played.  He got more expansions, and we played more games.  I played it at ACEN and other places, and I evnetually got my own copy.

Then I joined here around when OblivAeon got KSd.

Intersting thread :)

Well, I read that awful toucharcade review... I never heard of SotM and they rated it very bad. 

As I love deckbuilding, roleplaying, strategy and card games I gave it a shot after some more months and research. 

It took some time to get the hang of it but it aged very well.

I do not own the physical game but the app is among my 3 favourite apps.  

I spent a solid two years not playing it in my local game club, despite being interested in it. There was one guy, that was pretty much all he played, just never got to it.

Then other friends who play it got me into it because of course I was gonna love it. :B

Some guy with long hair and beard wouldn’t shut up about it at his booth at Gencon 2011.  I think his name was Chris or maybe Topher,  something like that.   I finally bought it just to shut him up :)

I honestly regret giving away my original copy to my nephews when I got the revised edition as part of the Infernal Relic Kickstarter  

A professor in my grad program ran (and still runs) a weekly game night for students, visiting alumni, and friends (basically anybody who hears about it and can manage to arrange to get into the building after hours if they’re not affiliated with the program already). One guy had picked up the first edition at the Gen Con it came out and wound up bringing that and his Rook City copy when the latter arrived (so, early 2012). I was hooked immediately. I distinctly remember playing Legacy, Fanatic (when Absolution increased max HP instead of just regaining HP), and a particularly memorable game as AZ vs. Voss where things finally clicked and he became MVP once a Frost Hound came out.

Backed the IR/Enhanced Edition KS and everything else SotM immediately whenever they come up. I didn’t get the app for a while since I didn’t have a tablet at the time, though.

I still regret somehow missing the GTG booth at the 2011 Gen Con; I was there, but it just didn’t catch my eye during my wandering through the exhibit hall for whatever reason. I like to think that I’ve made up for it by being that guy who brings it to game nights with all of my other game groups from over the years (my undergrad friends, post-undergrad/pre-grad school group, old friends from high school, work friends now). I’m probably responsible for at least 5 other full collection purchases besides my own by introducing it to people who I don’t see often enough for them to use my copy.

My wife and I first played it at Origins 2012; I want to say that Adam ran our demo, but I could be wrong.  I played Tempest, she played Ra, and we got curbstomped by Plague Rat, as we had no idea what we were doing.

By that point, they were trying to sell off the remainder of their original run stock, but they mentioned that the revised version was incoming.  While I couldn't swing the cost then, the gameplay was awesome enough for me to want to pre-order the revised version.  From there, it's been an addiction...

SotM's been my group's "default" board/card game of choice for as long as we've had the core set; any time we can't decide on what to play, we break out Sentinels.  At least 3 of our group members also have at least the core set, while at least one of those has (like us) every expansion.  I'm on the beta team for the video game version, and literally play that daily--it helps me unwind before bed.

Ah, I did actually avoid becoming a playtester for either iteration as, despite my love of the game and the enthusiasm of old friends I never put together a regular game group to play with since grad school and so don’t feel like I could try things out often enough to be helpful. I enjoyed being an early VG demo person for multiplayer at Gen Con 2015 and got a picture with Jeremy in his “defeated power armor Baron Blade cosplay that made it into the Handelabra post-GenCon blog post.

The game club back at my college introduced me.  In my first game I played Argent Adept, and we got creamed by Miss Information.  Fortunately, this failed to dissuade me, and here we are.

When Andy got back from his cruise, he told some of us about what he'd heard, along with their plans to release info about characters during Gen Con. Sounded like something right up my alley, so I went to the booth to check it out – that tiny little booth in Andy's picture. Maia gave me my first demo. 

I was hooked.

The next day, my spouse kindly put up with trying out this new game that I was so excited about. Christopher gave us a demo. 

She was (thankfully) hooked. 

I had a friend introduce me during our regular board game night in 2013.  I recall playing as Ra my first game and having a narrow win against Baron Blade.  The gameplay and theme hooked me. 

In 2013, I was in search of board games that worked well as two player for me and my wife that were not overly vicious.  Cooperative sounded even better.  A friend suggested it, and now I've gotten way more into the game than he has.

A coworker brought in his copy in late 2014 soon after he was hired. We have mandatory 1 hour lunches, so we figured it was no problem to get through. What I didn't realize was that while he was familiar with the game, he hadn't actually used his copy yet, so I was given Absolute Zero with an unshuffled deck. By the time the game ended, I'd done next to nothing and I couldn't figure out why my power was to hit myself. After we won against Blade, I looked through my deck and things started to click. My next game a couple weeks later was as Legacy with a shuffled deck and I had a lot more fun.

(I told Christopher the AZ-unshuffled-deck story at Gen Con 2016 and he seemed horrified; he thanked me for giving the game another shot.)

I picked up an iPad Air 2 in November of 2014, as soon as they released, and I noted the existence of the app soon after. Picked it up the first time it went on sale for $8 on iOS in April of 2015 and I've been playing it regularly ever since. Since my primary mode of play has almost always been the app and I live in Indianapolis, I've also been a Gen Con volunteer for Handelabra the last two years.

My wife (favorite characters: Unity and Tempest) and I also have a smallish collection of the physical version, basically as much as we could stuff in one of the big expansion boxes. 

And now I feel sad that it took me so long to discover Sentinels. Unfortunately I just didn't have any friends or family of the type to already know about such a game, and my attempts to get my friends interested so far haven't gone that well. (Not surprising I guess; my friends are almost never interested in anything I like.)

Jeremy and I and the whole Handelabra Studio team were at PAX 2011 to show off our upcoming game: Uncle Slam! Our booth was up on the 6th floor hall and it was very fancy, with scaffolding and lights and TVs and fancy chairs. No Skyrim dragon or anything, but still pretty fancy.

Right next to us was a little booth that would be way more important to our future than anything we were doing at the time..

I don't have any pictures of Christopher, Adam, or Paul, but we played the game, chatted with them a lot, and I picked up a copy (original printing with Young Legacy promo). The start of a great journey =)

@MigrantP: I am often fascinated by how many things in life that seem perfectly arranged in hindsight actually came about due to simply pure chance.

I first played the game when someone brought it along to the gaming club I used to go to - he had the base (pre-EE) version of the game, plus what was at the time its only expansion, Rook City. I think we did the usual Baron-Blade-in-Insula-Primalis setup as the first game, from what I remember. I had a look at the various hero character cards and decided to play the Wraith because she had a cool name and because she looked like a sneaky Rogue-type, which is something I tend to go for in RPGs and stuff. I think we won the first game and then played against (and possibly beat, though I can't remember now) the Chairman. And Spite. And the guy who owned the game told us something like "They're re-releasing this some time later in the year, around October, so if you want it, wait till then to get it". So I did. There was another expansion out by then, called Infernal Relics. I managed to get that and the base game on Games Lore but they were out of stock of Rook City, so I kept checking back until a few weeks later when I was able to get that too.

At some point not too long after that I joined the forum and was therefore around for every subsequent Kickstarter and expansion release and all of the other things that have happened since then :D. And now the person I used to regularly play with at atbletop I don't really see face-to-face any more, so we use Tabletop Sim instead...although our games in recent months have been dominated by Spirit Island rather than Sentinels. So much co-op fun!

My opinion: It doesn't matter when someone discovers SotM. What matters is that they discover it.   

This thread has reminded me just how much I can't trust my own memories, so I went back and checked photos from the early days. Adam wasn't at Origins 2012 – it was just Christopher, Andy, and I. I'd forgotten, but we had folks sign a birthday card for Christopher to take back to Adam! 

My discovery experience was back in college I went to a local game store that had "Open Gaming" nights. People would bring their games and play with whoever showed up. The store also had a library rack of opened games that anyone could play. One of the games on the shelf had some weird, chisled-featured superhero looking guy on it so I thought I'd give it a whirl.

Now I am up to something like 150 hours played on just the PC VG, not including mobile and physical copy....

~Komori

My wife and I got invited to a game night at one of my old college friends' house. I dind't know most of his friends, though. I forget what we played first, but people kept talking about a game they just called "superheroes." Whoever brought the game over had the core game enhanced edition. He didn't quite have the story behind Sentinels right - part of his introduction was "they couldn't get the rights to Marvel heroes, so they invented their own!" - but we got the rules down and stomped Baron Blade in the Ruins of Atlantis. After thinking about it for a week, I decided that the game was fun enough to buy for ourselves to try...and that accelerated quickly.

As Russ mentioned, it wouldn't have been Adam – almost certainly either Russ or me. Evidence and memory suggests I mostly (possibly entirely) ran Baron Blade.

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We played at the booth itself, if that helps solve the puzzle. It would have been Saturday afternoon, as well-- we were only at Origins for the weekend that year due to my teaching schedule.

Some dudes were playing it at my FLGS.

We played with them, and I made my friend Henry buy it (along with the recently-released Rook City expansion.

The guys who showed me got some things wrong (damage increases counting for multiple instances of damage, for instance, and saying that “The only way to improve Absolute Zero is to burn his deck.”) But I still made sure to get in on the Kickstarter for Internal Relics!

A friend of mine brought it home from Origins in colombus in 2013, i had a BLAST! I still play it at ever opportunity with who ever can put up with me long enough to get a game in

I found the >G booth at PAX, I believe it was 2014.  The digital game had just come out for iPad and they were pushing it hard, but I don't have an iPad, so it was the card game that drew me.  I'd actually heard of it in passing before, compared favorably to the Marvel Legendary deck-building game, so I was very interested in playing.  Our host set us up with Legacy, Fanatic, and K.N.Y.F.E. (the third player was a SotM veteran but didn't have Vengeance) against Ambuscade.  He got eaten by the Velociraptor Pack and we loved every bit of it.  Took us a while to invest in all the expansions (we definitely never did get our money's worth out of Villains) but we at least have them all now.  We've beaten almost all of the solo villains on every difficulty level--we're just missing Ultimate Akash'Bhuta and Ultimate Agent of Gloom Spite/Skinwalker Gloomweaver because the games are long, boring slogs, and Ultimate Dreamer, Kaargra Warfang, Ennead, and Cosmic Omnitron because they're stupid hard and just not fun.  We've barely played anything else in the last 3 years, although now that we've wrapped up all the villains we plan to fight, I'm not sure what we're doing next.  Maybe rematches, maybe some other games finally.

I also played Tactics at the same event, and I loved it too, but I never finished a game at home.  It just takes too long, to set up and to play.

I picked up the Revised Edition cold - a few years ago my wife and i bought each other board games for our birthdays, which are within two weeks of each other, and the theme caught my eye (i’m a Champions player from way back).

Our first game was abortive, as we sat down to play at an hour when we should have been hitting the sack; nevertheless i noticed we had stumbled across a Ra/Visionary combo that effectively neutered the villain, and had we not been so tired, victory would have been within our grasp. For me, the game was perfect: superhero team combat with lively mechanics and way less setup than the RPGs that are my other love. I’m not able to play tabletop as often as I’d like, but the app lets me indulge at any time, and has clarified a number of rules questions for me, and I’m rambling now, so o/

I was aware of the game for a while, but hadn’t really looked into it too deeply, but stumbled on the app earlier this year while looking for a new game to play in my spare time. While I would like to own the complete collection of the real game, I suspect I would end up playing it solo more than with my board game group anyway (although I suspect they’d enjoy it), but the app is a fantastic and deep experience that I’m very glad I dropped the money on - very much looking forward to the remaining content to be added once the Kickstarter delivers.

Always loved super hero comics and card games, so this game is great for me.

I was looking at the game before my wife and I moved to Houston, so that was sometime in the 2010-2011 area. Once we got to Houston I ran into the game again at Fat Ogre comics and games shop and eventually bought a copy of the core, Infrenal Relics, Rook City, and what we now understand as Mini-Pack1 somewhere in between. While in Houston I never really made new friends, but I could always find people to play SOTM. We moved back to Abilene in 2012. So I bought mine somewhen before then. I never really backed the KS's, until Obliveon, video game Season 2, and the Green Ronin crossprodution. I'm kinda greatful, I can only imagine how it would have gone over before the wife really figured out how much I love this game. 

My copy of the video game says I've racked up 7111 hours... I might have a problem.

In Fall of 2012 one of my wife's high School friends came ove to play games.  He brought his copy of the game with Rook City and Infernal Relics.  I played Argent Adept because he was a Bard and also because said guy stated you shouldn't play him your first game.  My wife played Expatriette and with Adept's help shot all the things many, many times.

After he left I googled the game, saw the Shattered Timelines Kickstarter and got all of the game to that point through the Kicksarter.  I then hated myself because I had to wait to get any of the game.

I think I found out about it on BoardGameGeek, I certainly played it via the "official" vassal version (an electronic tabletop) a while before I trundled on down to Orc's Nest in London and picked up the original set and Rook City at the same time*. Since then I've picked up the expansions as and when they've come out.

All in all a pretty boring story.

*Pretty sure that I put up a picture of the receipt from that purchase somewhere on this forums when I found it while cleaning a few years ago.

EDIT: Yep, I did

So many cool stories...

It must have been 2012, and I was a Grad Student at RPI and working at a movie theater to help make ends meet. The other projectionists and I would game between change overs and other major film disasters to help pass the time while the movies played. We demolished all the classics like Munchkin and Bang, and we had fallen in love with Cooperative games like Pandemic and Shadows over Camelot. It was by pure chance that we were looking for a new co-op game the day it hit shelves for the first time. I found my first copy at a locaf game store (I believe Foam Brain, who had several runs of SotM memorabelia) and we fell in love with it. We had the entire theater hooked.

Over the years I think I have bought nearly the entire verse three times as I have donated my sets to previous gaming groups as a farewell gift. That theater still has my original version of the game and play it weekly to this day.

As with most things, it started with a guy named "Foz" who said, "I think you'll dig this." That was even before the Enhanced Edition came out I believe.

I was visiting a buddy in Seattle to attend PAX and saw the original tiny SotM box in the window of a FLGS there.  I checked it out on BGG to see what the internet thought (they loved it), so I bought it.  I loved it too.

I played a demo at Pax East, I believe right after Rook City came out. I also met Christopher and Alexfrog that day, but I didn't realize who they were until at least a year later. 

A friend of mine brought it to game night

Sometime after the EE edition had come out (but before the first expansion) I was over at a friend’s place for a games night.  They pulled out Sentinels and I loved it immediately.

I didn’t actually buy the game myself until several years later.  The reason was that another friend of mine picked up his own copy almost immediately after that game night.  At the time, he stored all his games at my place, so I didn’t need to buy my own copy.  But then 3 years ago he got married, and with both a bigger place and someone to play with, his game collection moved and I suddenly found myself Sentinels-less.  I pretty much immediately purchased my own copy of everything released up to that point, sleeved it all (in penny sleeves!) and have been enjoying my own copy ever since.  And with that same friend now living out of town, I even picked up the game on Steam so that we could more easily play together remotely!

I was hanging out with a friend of mine and her boyfriend brought the game over, I didn't really like him so I wasn't expecting the game to be great, but hindsight is 20/20. As for the game itself I played Argent Adept and we were against Voss.

The university I went to has a tabletop gaming club that meets roughly every other week (and runs a small convention every February that I've been a coordinator for since the 2013 edition). One week in October... it must have been 2013, because the villain was Miss Information... the club sponsor brought his copy of Sentinels and invited a few of us to play.

I proceeded to pick up the base set and what full expansions had been released (probably RC/IR and ST) at the next con.

I saw a copy in a game store. There was only one, so I thought, "Either this is a great game and they're almost sold out, or it's terrible and they have a ten-year-old unsold copy on the shelves." So I bought it on a lark. 

I'm glad it was the former. 

I went to play it at a club in london but the guy who had the game didn't show up that week. People there said they had played it and had enjoyed themselves. So ambled over to orks nest and picked up the Delux Edition core box. This would have been in 2013. I honestly can say I never looked back after that. My friends think I may have a bit of a problem. I laugh at them from my fort of sentinel cards.

Around the Shattered Timelines kickstarter I heard Christopher make rounds on a few podcasts. I knew my girlfriend (now wife) wouldn't like the art so I kept putting off serious consideration. When I finally decided to buy in I went to the kickstarter to discover it had ended the day before. Kicking myself I resolved to buy it when I could. 

While waiting the three months until it came back in print I read the forums and any lore (which at the time was mostly the character bios,) each day so that by the time it arrived I was already in too deep. Three days after getting the core game I bought Rook City, the day after playing Rook City I bought Infernal Relics, and I haven't slowed down since. 

If I hadn't said it before Sentinels was one of two games (the other being Chess,) that helped me considerably during two separate profesionally difficult times of my life: when I got the game I was working a seven-day twelve-hour-a-day job and a secret four hour per day job on top of that so that every day I was drained, irritable, and anxious. Sentinels let me focus on a small world I could engross myself in and allow the stresses of life to fall away for a half hour or so. 

Was walking around at a local con 2013 and saw a comic book game in mid play. Hoped in as Chrono ranger  (Someone had to go and left him on the table.) Played a card and a power before CC was KOed. Watch the game finish and had to leave.

The following year I hunted down for that game. Played a few game (Who knows what I played) and went to the world and bought it. Then preorder Wrath of the Cosmos. and been supporting ever since, even bought teh App game both on steam and my phone dispite all my complaining.

Summer 2015, I was bored and was searching a board game that I could play solo on Steam.

Never heard of it before, but it got me at 'Multiverse', I bought Season 1 without even playing the game once.

I was hooked ... not at first ... it was more a hate-hate relationship : The game villains played cards to make me lost, and I lose a lot. That was so unfair. But after a while, I discovered the Handelabra twitch, and learn to play better.

I though the game was great ... on a digital format. I couldn't imagine playing it with real cards because of all the bookkeeping. But a few monthes later, OblivAeon KS showed up and I decided to take the whole Multiverse. My way to thanks Christopher and Adam for their work with some money.

I received later the already published expansions, and since Vengeance wasn't on the video game yet, the only way I have to play it was the real cards.

So ... I played a first solo villain game : Miss Info vs the F5 Variants in the F5 Tower, then the Vengeful 5 vs F5 in celestial tribunal. And those games proved that I was wrong : Bookkeepings weren't that hard ... And so I played a lot of Vengeance game IRL before being able to do it on digital.

And now, I'm waiting for Obly and its pals to come to my house so I can feel the cards again. :)

I bought a lot of video games, they arrive, they went away, even AAA games ... SotM is the only one I kept playing regulary since I bought it.

Man, you we’re worried about bookkeeping and you jumped right into tabletop Vengeance? That’s definitely the deep end!

The year was 2011, either end of July or beginning of August. A few friends and i went to a table top store nearby, Table Top Game and Hobby for those curious. Sentinels of the Multiverse was the primary game that caught my eye, most other games that looked best were either way expensive or already owned by someone else. So if I was going to buy a game SotM would have been it.

I’m a very frugal person, so leaving without spending a fine would have been a perfectly valid option for me. So I did the most logical thing, flipped a coin.

It’s odd thinking that I probably would have never played it or even thought about the game again if the quarter would have landed on the other side.

A friend brought the got to play the game at Gencon, i think the year it came out. When the Rook City (and Enhanced Edition) kickstarter came out he got it and brought it to our game nights. I was hooked instantly. I missed the Infernal Relics Kickstarter and started a Wiki and a Statistics Project... all without having the game to own myself. When Shattered Timelines Kickstarter came about I got everything that was already available and haven't missed an edition since.

Wow. Given how involved you've been since the beginning, fate strikes me as capricious.

After I got done imagining how much it would have sucked to not have you involved, I started to think of all the people for whom the coin landed on the other side, whom we never got to know.

I saw it on the shelf at my parent's friend's house during a work party and was pulled in by the box art and superhero theme. 45 minutes later we had won with one hero standing at 1 hp. Soon after I aquired evrything availible for the game (pre-Wrath of the Cosmos) and continued to support and play since.

Christmas time 2014 I was looking for games I could play with my then 6 year old son, co-op was important, 2 player was important. Sentinels caught my eye but reports of the complexity discouraged me, and the fact it did not technically support 2 players, I decided to go with Castle Panic instead. Then I read some of the reveiews here: http://boardgaming.com/games/card-games/sentinels-of-the-multiverse?cpage=1#comments and got really excited and began to regret my decicion.

Christmas Day came and my parents bought us Castle Panic as well. That day I processed my return of the duplicate Castle Panic and purchased the Enhanced Edition. It arrived before new years and my son and I tried it out, I remember playing it on the floor in his room because the table was taken by others playing another game. We fought Baron Blade and then Omnitron and fell in love. I ordered Shattered Timelines on New Year's Eve 2014 (because Time Travelling Cowboy) and proceeded to get everything else since then. In fact I just picked up Wager Master, the final missing piece, it arrived 5 days ago.

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. 

I'm impressed your 6 year old could play it.  My son just turned 10(today actually) and its only been in the last few months that his reading comprehension hit the level he needed to really play.   

That’s probably the same TableTop that I frequent!

Overland Park, right?

I thought that store name sounded familiar. My wife and I made a point to go when we spent a few days in Kansas City a couple years ago. Very nice place.

If you go on Thursday, then I will be there too! Every week, without fail.

Oh yeah, he did not have the reading comprehension until recently as well. He would just pick a cool card from his hand to play and I'd tell him what it did, then he'd decide if he really wanted to play it. Over a few games as the same hero he'd know more or less they could do.

I just read through all of these and it looks like no one else discovered Sentinels the same way I did.  I was watching a TableTop video on Youtube in late 2012 or early 2013 (don't remember what game).  In the comments section, someone mentioned Sentinels of the Multiverse as a game they should play on there.  I thought it sounded interested, so I read the wikipedia page on it, which included character descriptions, and then I found Freedom Four Annual #1 and after reading that, I knew I had to have this game.

So unlike most people, I wasn't introduced through playing the game, but by actually reading Sentinel Comics.

For me, it was at PAX-Prime in 2013, and thinking "That looks like a really bad indie game" and ignoring it for a year.

Next year, at PAX 2014, learned a little more, tried the demo of the video game without attracting the attention of any of the staff, got confused, and walked away.

Wasn't until 2015, where I played it at a board game night that I finally understood the appeal. Had the whole game by 2015, and bought the first promos I got at their booth.

Wish my story was a little more positive than that. I'm a Sentinels fan, I swear. :)

It was back when the first edition had just come out I think or was about to perhaps and I remember seeing something online, but don’t really remember much of it, might have been an ad for it perhaps but it was colourful and had some bios I think too perhaps or a link to them, because I have a vague awareness of liking it being it’s own thing. Yeah, my memory sucks.
It was a very unknown thing at the time, I don’t remember seeing much else about it and I wasn’t as much into board gaming then as I am now either, so other than piquing my comic nerd interest it didn’t register much more than that, but I certainly remember that sticking in my mind for the original setting and how colourful it all was. Ultimately though while it remained in the back of my mind that was all that happened at that time.

I then had got more into gaming, having acquired a selection of board games and delving back into M:tG and was browsing online to expand my collection for some gaming nights and I saw a listing for a familiar little squarish box and purchased it.
I had a quick look through my old emails to remind me of this, and turns out I must have then searched around just after getting it as pretty immediately after I made my first ever Kickstarter pledge for Infernal Relics; seems just the update for the original game first then a succession of increased pledges obviously as I played it more and needed more until I basically pledged for everything I could get in that Kickstarter (and setting off a long running Kickstarter addiction since).

I can remember sifting through all the cards when first getting the original game and loving the characters, with an immediate fondness for Absolute Zero from the first WTF moment of seeing his base power.

Since then pretty much everyone I know who owns the game knows of it because of me or from friends I had introduced to it because of my rabid fanaticism for sharing it.
That original box got a little beat up from being dragged all over the place to show people. While nowhere near as good as the boxes now, it certainly was a good size for chucking in any old bag to take across the country.

My dad bought it and my family played a round. I was automatically hooked. I love looking at all the various lore and reading the flavor texts.

I can't remember the year, but it was at the uni gaming group. A friend brought in a bunch of her unplayed games, we played Sentinels first, then Sewer Pirats, then a lot more Sentinels

I saw SOTM on Steam a few times and found it interesting, but I didn't pull the trigger on buying right away...I don't know why. Eventually I bought it, but still didn't get around to playing it. In late 2016 my friend Melkathi on Steam kept posting screenshots of SOTM to his profile seemingly everyday, so I asked him about it. After talking to him I gave it a try and got absolutely hooked. Bought all the expansions on Steam for myself, bought a second copy of everything on Steam for my teenage son who also loves it, and bought copies of everything for our phones. My wife has it on her phone as well.

After seeing how I was playing nonstop, Melkathi dropped the bombshell on me about the physical game (I didn't know it was a physical card game at the time) and the upcoming OblivAeon. I went looking and was bummed that I was too late to participate in the kickstarter campaign, then he told me about backerkit. Ordered The Entire Multiverse immediately on Christmas 2016. Been patiently waiting for everything to show up since then.

Big boardgame fan, but I came to a point in my life where I have very little time for tabletop gaming, so digital versions of boardgames became very appealing to me and I followed the iOS board game blog on BoardGameGeek.  I had noticed they did a lot of previews for this game called Sentinels of the Multiverse but didn’t really pay much attention to it.

Then when Handelabra released Sentinels Digital in 2014, BGG had an in-depth review with nice screenshots.  The app was more expensive than other boardgame apps at the time, but for whatever reason, I ended up getting it.  My reaction at first was luke-warm.  I certainly enjoyed the artwork and I liked the comic-book feel of the app but it didn’t seem extraordinary otherwise, especially for that price point.  Not sure how many plays it took before I realized how much strategy and variety the game offered and then it quickly became my favourite app by far.  All other digital boardgames I have I’ve played maybe 5 to 10 times.  I’ve easily played over 1000 games of Sentinels Digital over the last 3+ years and still love it.

To end this story, even though I still don’t have time for tabletop gaming, my somewhat compulsive desire to own “stuff” kicked in and I finally ended up getting the cardboard version of Sentinels as well.

I was at a giant new years eve party that my parent's friend group does each year! I was about ten at the time (I think). I usually played with the other kids, but sometimes I like to watch my dad play games (because I would like play card games sometimes instead of running around a house for hours with nerf guns). So I sat down at the table while the group was playing and I started asking my dad questions about the game and one of my dad's friends (who had brought the game there) asked- "Do you want to play next round?" and I was like- "YES!" So I watched for the rest of that round and when it finished my dad's friend showed me a few of the easy characters. I decided to try Fanatic because she was the girl. Sorry Fanatic lovers, but I hated her, but still liked the concept of the game. So the next round I played as Tempest and LOVED IT! And there started my obsession with this amazing game. I tried to get my friends to play it too, and my sister did (starting her obsession with the game). My other friends tried, but lost interest quickly. 

I don't remember the year, but I was on another forum, and they were doing a Secret Santa gift exchange through Elfster, where we made a wish list and all that. I'd put a couple of games on my list, but knowing nothing about Sentinels, it didn't show up there. But I got a secret anonymous message from my gift-giver asking if I had Sentinels of the Multiverse. I replied that I didn't and hadn't heard of it. Anyway, that's what he got me.

My then-girlfriend (now wife) played our first game and got killed badly, but we still had fun. I went online and realized you should be playing with at least 3 heroes, so we corrected our mistake, and had even more fun. We've loved the game ever since, and I think we'd bought the Rook City/Infernal Relics combined expansion. Plus, the Unity mini-expansion by my birthday in February. Soon we had all the expansions. Still our favorite game, and we've introduced many people to it.

Last year at Who's Yer Con. My first game was Iron Legacy boy do I hate him...  Argent Adept had no chance and died before I could do anything. I spent whole con playing only Adept so I can learn him lol

Ouch! And you’re still here?

Heh, that was my thought, also. Don’t know who the sadist was that introduced you that way, but that was mean!

(And are you going to WYC this year?

My girlfriend and I had played Munchkins a couple times with friends of ours but she hated it because she is ultra competitive but also soft-hearted so she hated losing but hated even more how that game made everyone be an asshole to each other. In December of 2016, she and I played Ghostbusters with the same friends and she enjoyed it much more. I wasn't a huge fan of the game but did enjoy the cooperative nature. I searched "best cooperative games" and saw Pandemic and Sentinels atop most lists. We discussed which one to get, she preferred the idea of Pandemic but I tried the preview of the app for Sentinels and quickly bought the full app to try it out a bit first. Shortly after I made the executive decision that Sentinels would be our first cooperative game (largely because I have a slight fascination with Maori culture and was drawn to Haka) so I bought the EE (secretively adding some decks from mini-expansions 1 and 2 into the box) and we played it the weekend it arrived. Being an English teacher she was drawn to Tempest and then also picked Ra, I chose Haka (of course) and Fanatic. We beat Baron Blade which was decently fun but our 2 losses to Citizen Dawn and the subsequent need for revenge made us Sentinels fans for life. Every Christmas and birthday since she has bought an expansion for me and we have played many games with various friends. I don't know why she asks, "What do you want to do tonight?" anymore because I always answer "Play Sentinels".

I got the deluxe edition core set as either a Valentine's or anniversary present from my now-ex about four or five years ago. Sentinels was arguably the best thing I got out of that relationship. I ended up with all the expansions, and whenever my little brother is home from college we end up sitting down and playing a round or two together!

Hey, it's one of the folks I see over on Sentinels Tumblr all the time. Welcome!

I’m a big fan of Adam Ryland’s wrestling and MMA games for Grey Dog Software, and thought his superhero title Comic Book Hero was fun and always wanted a sequel. He mentioned a few months ago that this was unlikely to happen, but suggested people who enjoyed CBH would love Sentinels - I downloaded from the App Store and got hooked quickly!

Having listened to the extrasode about the birth of GtG, I'm reminded of the picture above from GenCon 2011. Fun things to note in that picture:

• You can see Christopher and Paul in the center, both looking towards the same customer, but who is between/behind them? Is that Adam? I think so, but am not sure.
• Sitting, next to Paul is Jodie.
• Towards the right, teaching at the standing table is Maia, Paul's wife, namesake of The Wraith.
• The booth may look bigger than it was, as GtG only had the right half of what you're seeing. The other side was a different booth (Glitchgear.com)
• Note that Greater Than Games doesn't show up anywhere, just the name of the one product they had to sell, Sentinels of the Multiverse.
• Not obvious from this picture is where the booth is located in the hall -- the very end of their row, against the back wall.
• I like how they've managed to find space to teach three copies of the game at two tables: Maia at the standing table, Jodie at one end of the sitting table, and Paul and Christopher at the other end.
• You can see a Bunker art print being held by a customer, at the near end of the sitting table. Gatling Gun, I think.
• Faintly, in the upper right area of the booth's back wall you can see a price list. The first item, in yellow, is Sentinels of the Multiverse. I can't make out all the lettering, but I assume it says $40. It then lists Art PRINTS -- ANY ONE, PICK TWO, and ALL THREE -- but I'm not sure what prices are. I'm also not sure what the later text is.

Boy that looks rough compared to what I saw now at PAX Unplugged. Boy GTG has grown.

Paul Looks the same. I am sure Maia doesn't need to volunteer anymore.
Christopher looks younger and Vestless. Glad to see he upgraded his taste.

Oh Hi, Jodie, hiding behind some people. 

It’s surprisingly weird to see Christopher without the vest and hat. Sort of a proto-Christopher.

That was back when he was just Chris.  After that GenCon, he leveled up enough to evolve.  Didn’t you listen to the GtG origin story?  They talked about all this.  Once Oblivaeon ships, he’ll evolve again into Christophive.

Prices for the art prints look like they're probably $4, $7, and $10.

The next line looks like it might be CUSTOM [something] $25 (and a label placed over the tail end).

Approximately 10 minutes after Andy took that picture of me and Christopher in the restaurant, I knocked my empty beer glass off the table and it shattered.

Good times.

It's strange, the things we remember sometimes.

A friend brought it to our gaming group.  I have loved it since then. 

I came across the game when I was trying to find another game for my group.  I have always been a huge super hero fan.  Played tons of Champions, MnM, and other assorted supers games over the years.  One of the guys I gamed with had the Marvel Legendary game and I wanted to get something different.  I saw Sentinels on the shelf at my local store and picked it up.  Wasnt all that sure about it the first two times I played but now I love it.  I dont quite have all of the hard copy stuff but I keep my eyes open for it.  I do have all of the digital stuff on Steam.   I too am waiting for the latest Kickstarter goodness.    I just picked up the RPG starter set this past Saturday.  Looks great and I cant wait to give it a shot. 

I first heard about this game after GenCon 2011 from the podcast 2 Champs and a Chump. It sounded interesting so I looked into it. After reading how awesome the game was, I bought the (original) core game and made my friends play. We lost horribly to Baron Blade the first few games. Then we all learned how to play better. I have been expanding the collection for my group ever since.

Back in 2012 I was slowly expanding my boardgames but money was tight. I was looking for a new card game and wanted to try a co-op game. So I spent a bunch of time researching reviews and info on boardgamegeek. I really like superheroes so... I ending up picking up Marvel Legendary over this. Mostly based on knowing those heroes and really liking Dominion. Years later browsing Kickstarter I saw Oblivaeon and it reminded me how close I was to buying this. So I purchased the Steam version to give the game a try before backing. I got hooked instantly but struggled to find the physical products anywhere. I ended up ordering base game and infernal relics/rook city and Kvothe expansion from WorldBuilders.  After introducing it to our weekly game group, It became the group favorite and was played almost exclusively after that for a long time.

A customer came into the store where i work (Nans Games and Comics) and was raving about this game that we had not heard about nor was it even available from our distributor at the time.
Soon  other customers came in asking about it and when we finally got some in they were scooped up immediately (this was long before Kickstarter was such a thang).
Everyone that bought a copy would just talk about how good it was.  The NEXT time we got some in I grabbed one for myself and began playing it and turning customers onto it ever since. 
Well until recently because for some reason Alliance no longer has any in stock and its been months and months.  
Please send Alliance more copies so i can get back to selling SotM at the store.
I have received more "Thank yous" from customers for selling them this game to than any other game.  Whether its new gamers or folks who have been gaming for years, the excellent replayability makes it a favorite for any that have played it.

Nan's Games and Comics .... sounds super familiar for some reason ... Oh, hey, you're in Houston! It's been QUITE a while, but I lived there 20 years ago and went there a few times. Glad to hear you're still around. 

As a retailer, I'm curious to hear your impression of how SotM ranks compared to other games. How well is it selling compared to other games? How well is it selling compared to past years? How much shelf space do you make for it? For its expansions?

In what had to be 2014, I first saw SotM at a gaming event (probably International Tabletop Weekend) at a local nerd bar. It looked intriguing, but I didn't get the chance to play it.

In what was probably that summer, I played a game or two when an old friend came into town to visit. I dimly recall getting schooled by Iron Legacy because another friend (the one who owned the game) wanted to try him out.

I have better documentation from here on out...the game must have stayed on our minds, because I got it for my wife for her birthday in May of 2015. We didn't play it right away, though.

In Jun 2015, during a visit to another friend, the friend who wanted to play Iron Legacy the last time brought the game with him and we learned to play a bit more seriously. I played the Wraith and the friend we were all visiting played Expatriette, and Omnitron continually wiped out our equipment, which put Expateriette's player off the game entirely.

In August 2015, yet another friend came to visit and stayed with us for a few days. We finally cracked open my wife's copy. We played as Ra, Bunker, and Wraith vs. Baron Blade. We got ruined. We chalked it up to inexperience, and tried the same match-up two more times, losing each time. Eventualy, we realized that our team was just way too light on Ongoing removal (Blade kept getting his defenses up, and we had no way to cope unless Wraith pulled a Grappling Hook).

Despite our losing streak against the starter villain, we got SUPER-ADDICTED that week and immediately started buying supplements. We've considered it a top-tier favorite game ever since.

The Metallian