The problem here lies in generality: it's not always easy, or possible, to simplify something and still have a viable game. Best case scenario, you can render one of those overengineered things into their simpler predecessor. For example: removing about a dozen of disconnected victory mechanisms from Game of Thrones boardgame results in something like Chaos in the Old World. At least the night was eventful, and the boardgame facilitated some of that fun. Good to see you back.[...] and I don't think we played anywhere close to how it was intended. We tried, it was just so over the top that we opted for a dumbed down version.
We didn't even finish. Just called it quits after a couply beers and a couply hours.
Oh we learned that quite quickly. We hoped dulling it down, would dull it down universally, but no. Just made it more complicated because some things were omitted, but they were attached to things we were still using, but we only discovered that at a later point. It was fun to just be angry as a unit. A collective bunch of idiots, confident in their idiocy and not too bothered about remedying it. The next boardgame/cardgame night we played Here to Slay which was much simpler, and a lot of fun.