Gencon 2015 - Here are the games I played!

I thought as part of my Gencon 2015 recap it'd be fun for me to write (and hopefully you to read) a review of what games I played. I tried to take pictures of every game I played and in almost every way succeeded!

For the purpose of this post I'm leaving out London Dread which I wrote about in its own post. I'm also going to leave out a summary of the Warmachine games I got to play as I'm saving those for a future post about playing Warmachine at a convention like Gencon.

Those two disclaimers aside, here's what I played!

The first game (and not in order of what I played, just the first game I'm writing about) wasn't actually quite a game yet. Look to the right of this text right now. See that face on that little box? Those adorable GIGANTIC kitty eyes? All the folded up little boxy kitties on the table in front of it? This was my game that I most wanted to learn more about.

Kitty Tower doesn't have a lot of info out about it. It was at the IDW Games booth, and the only info that had to share was that the game is hopefully coming out next year with full rules. For now, it was as simple a game as could be - just stack a bunch of kitties! I played against my brother and sister to see who would get to the seventh kitty stacked. I'd like to think my experience with my own two kitties (who are notoriously difficult to stack in real life) gave me the experience I needed to win. At this point I'm hoping to get a lot more info about the game, but stacking cats? You had me at hello.

Gencon Impressions: London Dread

I survived Gencon (mostly) again once more this year. It was a great time, albeit a little different than normal since we were staying in a different hotel from years past and the Hopeless Wife couldn't attend. I've also heard murmurings that they set once more a brand new attendance record. For my two cents, it was definitely crowded at times, but Indy continues to adapt and offer new experiences for the ever-expanding crowds.

For my first post-Gecon post I wanted to focus on the game that excited us most coming away from the show. On Thursday my brother and sister, along with yours truly, got a chance to sit down for a full introduction session of a brand new game called London Dread by Plotmaker Games. To be honest, there's not a whole lot of information out there other than it's a Danish game and what I took away from playing it at Gencon.

First off, the game is a lot of fun from a first play-through. It's 100% cooperative. We played with four people, but apparently it plays 2 to 4. I imagine solo play is definitely possible, but there's a timing mechanism that makes that a TON of information for one player to handle.

A Question of Character - Environment

In this abominably sweltering weather, it only seems appropriate this week to focus my a Question of Character tweets and sample questions on how your character interacts and reacts to their environment. I'm having a great time thinking up five distinctly different questions each week fitting my themes, and I hope to one day be able to compile them into a big list as a character building resource for others to use (probably once I feel like I've exhausted the schtick - so hopefully not for a while!).

As always, I wanted to pick a theme that appears fairly innocuous but has the potential to describe a lot of how a character might react in many situations by focusing on specific situations. Generalization is the name of the game here. What better way to find out how a character reacts to stress than hitting them with 100+ degree heat? Think about this for a second - what's your favorite season? Why is it so? Do you go with Summer since it's baseball season, or Fall because it's college football time? What we do when we do it, has a ton to do with our personal physical comfort, and a lot of that is a direct result of weather, or potentially climate as a whole.

As a reminder, last week's theme, Decisions, produced the following questions:

1. Do you regularly consult with family members before making big decisions?
2. You must choose to cut the green or the blue wire to disarm a ticking bomb. How do you decide which wire to cut?
3. How do you feel about making a decision via committee?
4. Do you sweat the small stuff like what to eat for lunch or what music to listen to on the way to work?
5. How do you decide what to do on the weekend?

As you can see, I went with equal parts Big Damn Hero and Big Damn Mundane Hero with the questions. In coming up with the items for last week, I really wanted to explore both the big decisions and the little decisions since both scales really have a lot to offer when it comes to defining a character.

A Question of Character - Decisions.

So you may have noticed a significantly lack of postage last week. I decided kind of late in the game that I wanted to take a week off from blogging just to see how it felt. It felt good, man. That being said, I'm also excited to get right back into things. So consider today's entry to just be a delay from last week.

Two weeks ago I made a new kind of Player Monday post where I talked about the finer details of a character through looking at small little questions that can add a lot of bang for your buck. In this week's a Test of Character I'm going to be looking at a new set of questions. Whereas last time I looked at how a character takes care of their physical appearance, this week we take a look at how characters make decisions that affect themselves and sometimes, everyone around them.

As a reminder the various entries can be found on Twitter through following my account. Last time's questions included:

Does your character keep his or hair long or short? Why?
Does your character go out of his or her way to give off a specific scent or fragrance?
Does your character dress for weather or throw caution to the wind?
Does your character ever wear t-shirts with funny graphics?
Does your character was their own clothes?

So look forward to this week looking at how characters make their decisions. Some people make quick decisions while others take minutes or hours to decide on the simplest manner. Context of the choices of course matters, but more so, where are the decisions being made? In line at Starbucks, in the middle of an operating room, or in the midst of a huge firefight during WWII? We interpret these traits to be quite defining of a character's ability to function under all different types of pressure whether social, martial, or otherwise. How does your character make decisions?

A Question of Character - Personal Grooming

You can tell a lot from the cut of a man's suit.

I like gaming resources that give me little bits to think about throughout my week and don't take a huge amount of time to read or consume. Of course, I also blog, and by blogging, I mean I produce a product that provides a service at direct odds with that first concept. What is a blogger to do?

Oh, I know, I'll combine my powers with the tool made for the job - Twitter! Now, I'm already on Twitter (@HopelessTweeter thankyouverymuch), but to be honest, I use the thing mostly to read the musings of other bloggers and game designers from whom I enjoy many little snippets throughout my workday. In an effort to return to the Twitter fold, I'm launching a new project for myself.

Character Monday: A Retro Test of Character

Today I'm going deep into the Hopeless basement for one of my very first Test of Characater posts that I'm reasonably sure 99 percent of you haven't seen before (unless of course you've been digging around in the Hopeless basement - in which case, could you price my rummage for me?). This dude could serve you well in any military campaign, but he was originally designed as a 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars marine. I hope you enjoy!


It was always cloudy in the slums of Yetterdam. The poorest inhabitants of one of the weakest and least profitable planets of the Confederate, who was going to pony up to finish the terraforming and scrub the skies clean once and for all? No one, Sargeant Clot grew up resenting this fact everyday of his life.

Of course, if you were rich, you not only had the best in artificial sun lighters, but you also got out of a tour in the ConMarine Corps., or ConCorps for short. For so many young, eager, and naive Yetterites, the ConCorps was the only hope for getting off the planet and to peep some sights of the big warm sky hidden by soupy gray plumes of murky vapor. Forget the fact that it was required of all Confederate citizens. 

Player Monday: "I did warn you not to trust me."

Game of Thrones has been one of my favorite fantasy epics since I first got into the world with the debut of FFG's original core set for the card game way back in, what 2001? Has it really been ten years of Thrones for me? Anyway, I figure since now the story has exploded as a result of it being on TV, it might be a good time to discuss betrayal from the players' side of the table. Intrigue is a central theme of Thrones and can easily be a central theme in our weekly games.

Of course, we almost always see intrigue and betrayal coming from the NPC's as the evil GM laughs maniacally from behind the protection of the omnipresent Dungeon Master's screen, but it doesn't have to be that way. There's a couple of ways we could explore betrayal as players, but you need to make one decision before going any further: do you want this to be a surprise to the group?

Mechanics for Arabian Knights: Adventures in the City of Al-Haran

I've decided to start posting my ideas for my own homebrew game system. This is in conjunction both with my Arabian fantasy setting, tentatively named Arabian Knights that takes place in the gigantic ancient city of Al-Haran and with a space opera setting I've been working on for over a year. What you see below is meant to be the start of my own universal role-playing setting with examples specifically applying to Arabian Knights. This is just the first post about the rules, and you'll see that there's still more to go, but ultimately the system is actually designed to be quite simple and straight-forward, not needing more than a dozen or so pages to explain how it works. Anyway, please share your thoughts or concerns you might have, and be kind, this system has been evolving and changing over the course of the last year as I figure out exactly what combination of mechanics will make me happy. 


Basic Mechanic

Players roll a d6 pool made up of Function Rank + Specialty Ranks (if any are applicable) + Gear Ranks (if any are applicable) + Circumstance Ranks (if any are applicable) in either opposed rolls or versus a fix success number (based on three or four tiers of play). You only have to roll if there's a chance your character could fail or if failure could lead to something huge happening (e.g. if the stakes are big enough, even the simplest of tasks can be incredibly difficult). 

The City of Al-Haran - An all new setting and system is in the works!

I started developing an original seating to go along with a little homebrew system I've been working on. I started a thread over at rpg.net about it to give the system and setting a run for a play-by-post game. On Friday I'll be posting more information about the system itself. It's just a bit of a hobby production right now, but I've been working on this stuff in one form or another for a while now. Let me know what you think! 


They say one could walk the streets of the great Al-Haran their entire life and never cross the same path twice. The city is larger than any other of the former Belarn Empire, and since its downfall, the four houses have risen to the challenge of filling the power vacuum left behind in the dust of the Uprising of Al-Haran. While the revolt wasn't the sole cause of the fall of the Empire, it was a great spark that lit the powder keg of all those ruled by the Emperor.

At the center of the city sits the Seat of the Sultan. Emptied since the Emperor's governor was lynched in the in the streets by the city's people, it is now the coveted empty throne of the nobility. To the South of the Seat lays the Street of Spear where the Princess Areebah raises the armies and arms of Al-Haran. To the East of the Seat lays the Street of Sun where the Prince Jawad raises the crops and fine sand silk that allow the people of Al-Haran to eat and prosper. To the North lays the Street of Wind where Princess Yafiah leads the people of Al-Haran in their faith and reverence toward the one true Lord of the Desert. Finally, to the West lays the Street of Sand where Prince Yusuf leads the heretic tribe of Sandspeakers, those who master the wild chaotic magics of those things which otherwise go unseen in the dunes of the great desert. 

Player Monday: Today we speak of MURDER!

For today's Player Monday post, I want to take a few minutes to discuss the concept of... MURDER. I'm inspired to write on the topic after having seen X-Men First Class yesterday afternoon. While the movie does a great job of exploring prejudice on many levels, there's also a strong conflict between Magneto and Professor X about whether it's right to kill your enemy (or an existential threat of enemy like Sebastian Shaw - the film's main villain). This got me thinking about the greater debate between superheroes and vigilantes in comic books. Both types of heroes tend to do some good, but they differ in their level of brutality and willingness to end a human life. Think Batman versus Wolverine. Batman has a line he won't cross - killing criminals. Wolverine won't let killing someone get in the way of doing the right thing.

Applying this debate to our own characters, at least in my anecdotal experience, I'm surprised by how often I meet Wolverines and how incredibly rare the Batmen are. D&D characters tend to have no problem at all killing off the baddies (ESPECIALLY if they're not human). Consider that this is the quintessential "Hack n Slash" game and it just adds to the effect. I don't play a lot of supers games, but in Icons I know we run across mostly Batmen, but again these are games where we're doing our best to imitate classic four color superheroes. These guys don't kill.

Player Monday: 3 Character Examples Using the 3 Simple Questions

Last Monday I made a little post where I began focusing on providing resources for the other side of the GM screen - the players. I got a great response view-wise, and it seems like a lot of people were happy to see some discussion on how to be a better player. As a result, I'm going to start devoting Mondays to player resources that are going to hopefully help me as well as all the other players out there. I also promise to never write the word "playa" as a part of this new focus, no matter how often I would desire to do so. Consider it a Hopeless Guarantee!

After my post last week where I discussed three questions that can make every character (player or non-player) a more interesting, well-developed individual, I received a couple of requests for examples using these questions. As a reminder, here are the questions:

1. What does your character want?

2. Why does he or she want it?

3. What is he or she willing to get it?

Without further ado, I've decided to take three characters from pop culture that I think we can all appreciate and recognize as quality characters to show that, at their core, these questions are what make the character stand out as someone to remember.

How to Play a Better Character with 3 Simple Questions

Today's post is a short one, but I hope useful as well. I've found that a ton of blogs (most of 'em?) focus on giving tools to the GM to run a better game or generally make his or her life easier. This makes a lot of sense since the kind of people who tend to read and spend time on gaming blogs (you know, you people) tend to be those who run games and organize their gaming groups. At least this is the assumption, but I figure there have got to be people out there who buy game books, spend tons of time planning out cool character concepts or setting elements, and will never have a real chance to run a game. I call these people players. Anyway, today is my first concentrated effort to address some of the interests of the less served, let's call them "silent majority" of the gaming community.

Today's just a couple of questions to help you organize your ideas and scheme for a character either in a new game or even a character you're currently playing that lacks some direction. These go beyond what your Strength is or which feat you want to start the game with. Answer these three questions and try to tell me you don't know how your character would react to any situation a vengeful GM might throw at you.

1. What does your character want?

2. Why does he or she want it?

3. What is he or she willing to do to get it?

Really it's very similar to the way a character is built in Mouse Guard with beliefs and instincts and all that. It really works for any character that I can think of, and is applicable not just for building an RPG character but good when trying to brainstorm or work through some writer's block and get inside a character's head. There's no reason it can't be used for prominent NPC's as well (in fact, I would think if nothing else, these three questions would be enough to get any good villain off the ground running in a good direction). Try it with a character you're bored playing. Pick a new direction for him or her and see how it goes!

   

Anthology Games Part 3 - Table Mechanics

 

Now that we've discussed what a Movie Anthology RPG (MARPG) is and why you would play an MARPG, it's time to get down to the meat of how you can play an MARPG. There are a couple of things that I could think of that a GM should focus on, but the first big question when planning for this type of game is to decide on the system you want to use.

There are a couple of considerations. The first is simplicity. Since you'll be playing three or four mini-games instead of one larger game, you're going to want a system that's not going to wear on your players too much. Where an MARPG session can last as long as your random D&D session, keep in mind that your adding a lot of complexity story-wise by introducing three or four new cast of characters and settings. I think we often overlook the matter of complexity of the story to focus on the complexity of a given game system. While whether your players "Grok" or can understand the rules of a new system is fundamental for the success of any game, you also have to look at how deep you're players are going to and are going to be able to get into the story you're trying to partnership with them to tell. So, simplicity in system is going to save you a lot of headaches.

Something like Risus would be pitch perfect for an MARPG, but then again, the Basic Role Playing system used in Call of Cthulhu should also be straight-forward enough to get the point across. This isn't to say that you have to stick to one rule set. Keeping in mind that you want to have a consistent tone and message throughout your games, there's no reason you have to stick to one rule set. If you decide to jump around, it's even more crucial that you keep the systems simple and you know them backward and foreward and not have to look up a rule during the session. My gut tells me to stay with one system, but there are reasons we have different systems out there as they strive to do different things. It might make sense, for example, to switch between Risus and CoC during one MARPG if you can justify the change because both systems play strongly to the specific dressings of the scene. For example, look at the Animatrix as an anthology piece. There are so many different types of stories told, but they all add to the overall tone of the evil overlord robots and the message is simple: human nature is at once both destructive and incredibly creative. While these are consistent, the types of action from a group of kids exploring impossible physics to a badass training module run for two of the members of the human resistance. It wouldn't be appropriate to try to tell these stories all using the same system.

Pre-generated characters are a must. You can't waste time speculating between games about some player's random character's background as a farmer and whether he great corn or raised cows. This will kill your message and instantly destroy your tone (unless of course you're trying to play the MARPG in order to better understand Farmville). The need for pre-gens speak to a larger need for pacing through your acts. When you're planning each mini-game out, keep it focused on a specific scene or timeframe. Do your best to try to plan for a specific climax and enjoy the ride that your players take to be able to reach it.

So, what's the verdict? Do MARPG's sound like a viable option? I'll be honest that this is all vapor and theory at this point. If my Dragon Age game wasn't going like gang-busters, I'd love to give this a try. I may still put something together in the future, but more than anything I would love to hear what others think about the idea or even if anyone has a chance to run one themselves!

  

Anthology Games Part 2 - Tone and Message

In my own experience and studying of RPG's, I've never seen this played out explicitly or even really discussed, but I'd like to see examples if anyone has any. A movie anthology RPG (MARPG) would have to meet a couple of criteria matching what happens in actual movies. First and foremost, an MARPG has to be several smaller games broken up into distinct arcs played out over the course of a single, possibly extended, game session. The games should all share a broad genre (like horror, western, sci-fi, or fantasy) that can give some cohesiveness to the overall tone and message of the night. After all, it's likely that each game will star a whole new cast of characters for the players to utilize in telling the story. 

Those are the most important part of an MARPG - tone and message. Tone is going to be the glue that keeps your stories together - driving towards the overall feeling and helping to deliver the message in turn for each story that's played out. Whether it's thriller, horror, or even slapstick, tone is what ultimately will keep the two to four stories played out make sense when looked at together. It's important to establish the tone of the night outright before even the first game begins. Like trying any genre outside of generic sci-fi or fantasy, you need to let your players know what kind of story they're walking in to. They need to know what types of tropes might be thrown at them, and that they should probably pay a little more attention to keeping the right tone themselves through out the night.

Of course it's possible to play with tone a bit. The anthology movie, The Signal (pictured at the top of this post) is a perfect example of how tone can be manipulated in order to give the audience a reprieve - catch a breather. The Signal is a horror movie through-and-through. In each unique act truly terrible things happen to and are caused by the main characters. The catch here is that each act is directed by a different person. They have to work towards maintaining the message of the movie, but have a lot of freedom otherwise. The second act of the movie takes a turn for very dark comedy which the audience member does not see coming based on the first act. By the time you get to the third act, you've had some time to recover for the pure horror that finished off the film. Consider changing up the tone a bit in the middle of the game to give your players a pallet cleanser of sorts. Just to make sure to re-establish the overall tone for the final act.

Message is the theme of the night. It's what the GM and players will explore through different scenarios and scene set-ups. If tone is the flavor, then message is the actual dish. Message can be as simple as "trust no one" or as complex as "the funniest thing that can happen is when a well-laid plan falls apart." It's the kind of story you want to tell, and each separate game should add something unique to the mix that adds to the overall message. We don't often think of games as something with a message. We tend to just think of something cool or a neat twist and work it into a bigger plot or adventure. In reality, lots of the best games are so good because they have a specific message they want to give the players and all the rules in the game work to support it. Fiasco is the best example I can think of. Both of the messages I used above could match Fiasco's message, but overall it's as simple as this - "Things Fall Apart." Not just plans, but people, relationships, etc.

Planning your message from the start is not just a great way to make sure it's all going to fit together at the end of the night, it's down-right crucial. The message is the true reason to play. It's the theme that you and your players are going to explore using play-acting and game mechanics. In this way, an MARPG is actually a lot like real group work in therapy. Role Play in group therapy is a very popular technique, and it's often used to explore these underlying thoughts and feelings in a person's head. Role Play in Friday night gaming doesn't have to be drawn from a neuroses but instead can be used to explore a creative concept. The message, for example, can be used to explore a theme from a story you're trying to write. An MARPG can help you gain insight into the theme of your story simply by seeing it played out in the message and tone through several different settings, characters, and challenges.

I hope you enjoyed this musing on MARPG's and will come back for my next and final post on the topic where I examine some of the guts of what will make an anthology game really run on all cylinders when the group hits the table.

  

Anthology Games Part 1 - Introduction

Often we think of a single game session or extended campaign in terms of movies or episodes in a long-running TV show. RPG's, as strories, share a lot in common with both small screen and big screen entertainment. If you're playing a one-shot, it's often set up very similarly to a movie. There are character arcs and a story that's simple enough to be played out in three to four hours but rewarding enough to be worth taking the time to play. If it's a campaign, each session of the adventure often ends up feeling like an episode in a TV series with familiar characters overcoming a new challenge each week leading to a confrontation of a final challenge - hopefully encompassing a larger goal that each individual episode lead to at least in a small way. The Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG pays homage directly to its television roots by explicitly states that each session is an episode in the campaign's overall season.

This metaphor works extremely well to explain what role-playing is to people outside of the hobby. People get TV and movies. They know what a season premiere is. They're familiar with the genres and tropes of these medias. They understand how characters created by writers (players) can work all season just to meet a single goal while at the same time having to confront the classic monster-of-the-week type of challenge.

Back to the topic at hand - movie anthologies. For the purpose of these articles, I'm making a distinction between anthology TV shows and movie anthologies. Anthology TV shows such as the Twilight Zone or Masters of Horror end up coming off much more like one-shot games than movies anthologies do. This isn't a bad thing, but it's not really the topic at hand. For example, the entirety of our Dread experiences could be categorized as being an anthology TV show (and it would make for an incredibly entertaining TV show at that!). The same could be said for Fiasco. Instead, I want to talk a little bit about the concept of taking the anthology movie tropes and moving them into a gaming scenario. This is what I'll be discussing for the next couple of posts throughout this week. I'd love feedback as I go, and any examples of games that already do the things I discuss would be very welcomed. I hope you enjoy these articles as much as I enjoyed exploring the ideas within them!

This post and the ones following it are originally inspired by the incredible Black Sabbath horror anthology from Italian director Mario Bava - hence the image used at the top of the page.


  

Gift guide! It's Christmas Time!

You don't have to be afraid! We're here to present some present ideas for you and your own. Doing some not-so-last-minute Amazon Christmas shopping made me realize that it's not too late to make some gaming suggestions for my readers or, barring that, maybe some suggestions for my reader's loved ones to look to. You notice that we have reviews for all these items. This is not an accident! While we love year-in reviews and Christmas buying guides all over the net, we feel the little blurb you get here wouldn't be enough to make a purchase decision with. That's why we've combined the two and made a kind of "best of the year" and "stuff we'd be proud to gift" list all in one. Enjoy!

The Adventurers from AEG

Waaaaaay back in February this year Andrea reviewed a little game from AEG that seemed to come out of nowhere. The premise is simple: you play a team of Indiana Jones types trying to get in and out of the temple alive with as much gold as possible.

It's a common troped among non-collectible games, but The Adventurers offers up a truly unique experience. Part Incan Gold, part Mouse Trap, it's a game that, say it was me "even the whole family can enjoy." Whether laughing at the poor explorer who gets crushed by the giant stone or flaunting your lock picking skills, The Adventurers really delivers on the phone. The 3d terrain really brings the game alive and helps deliver that impending sense of doom you should get when going into a trap-ladden temple. Who's this a good gift for? Everyone. You have to hate fun not to like this game.

Outbreak: Undead

We found a lot of gems at Gencon, and this is a game I can proudly say Andrea discovered all on her own and brought to the table for us to play. Find her review here. There are a ton of zombie RPG's out there to choose from, but from the get-go, paging through Outbreak: Undead, you immediately get a different feeling from the book. The thing is basically the textbook/diary from hell. Every page is lined like a notebook and the text is written from the viewpoint of a survivor.

The system itself is quite unique. It's focuses very heavily on the aspect of the zombie. There are extensive rules about how many zombies will find you and how quickly they'll eat you alive. In other words, it's a cheery holiday affair. Who's this a good gift for? Anyone who's interested in zombie tabeltop fun but may be burned out on other zombie games. It's also a great place to start for rookie zombie role-players.

Warhammer 40,000: Death Angel from FFG

Solo and Cooperative games seem to be all the rage lately. Battlestar Galactica was a ridiculously-huge success that's spawned one interesting expansion soon to be followed with a second. Risk is great, but sometimes you just want to take the collaborative play of an RPG and run with it in a ready-to-go board or card game. You can find my review of the game here.

Fantasy Flight really hit the ball out of the park with Death angel. It's playable for one to six people which means it's great for the lonely gamer or the regular friday night group. The gameplay is fast and deadly, and victory really feels like a big deal. Somehow they managed to take the high-stakes action of Space Hulk and through it into a tiny box costing just a tiny fraction of the price. Who's this a good gift for? Someone you don't want to spend a lot of money on but still want to give a great gift for. A.K.A. this is the perfect budget gift to a gamer friend. It's also something I would freak out if I got it in the mail from a cross-country old friend who knows I don't have anyone to game with since I moved. Either you'll get to play it, or you know someone without a group will get to play an honest-to-God game on their own. Win-Win.

Battles of Westeros from FFG

We're all about Battles of Westeros around here. It was kind of our big break, and it's really only fitting since we've been gaming in George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire world since the very beginning. Review, you ask? Try our whole label section here. I think you may find what you're looking for.

In our time playing Battles of Westeros, it became clear quite quickly that Rob Kouba, the designer, took what worked with Battle Lore and amped it up. He made the battlefield mobile and more unpredictable. Much like the source material, you always had to stay on your toes as the game shifted from Battle Lore's section-based play to BoW's commander-based action. Who's this a good gift for? Anyone who liked Battle Lore will flip when they give Battles of Westeros a shot. It's a deluxe game, but it's quickly expandable, so make sure you don't pick it up for someone who doesn't like FFG's expansion model. Otherwise, it's hard to go wrong with wargamers when it comes to BoW.

That's all we got for now! Hope it makes your Christmas shopping even the tiniest bit easier. There's truly a staggering amount of great stuff out there to be for your gamer loved ones. Good luck!

Rusted Heroes Dragon Knights, Painted!

Hail. hail, the gang's all here!

So these six minis technically only count as one for my NaMiPaMo goals (all but the Mercenary Assassin were done before November started), but I'm still happy to finally have the unit finished! This is the first time I've set out to paint a GROUP of minis (my attention span is usually limited to one or two at a time) - Paul's request to have each fighter be a different "dragon color" helped keep things interesting. Keep reading for close-ups and technique notes!

NaNoWriMo and NaMiPaMo - Creative November Gaming Style

Now that we've all survived Shocktober we've got a couple of new projects as we sprint towards Thanksgiving! If you haven't heard of it, there's this neat internet phenomenon known as "NaNoWriMo" a.k.a. National Novel Writing Month. The idea is that you write every day in November in order to complete a 50,000 word novel. No editing, no looking back, just forward progress to get words on to the page. Keep Reading to see what Andrea and I have up our sleeves to celebrate this month-long torture session!

Betrayal at House on the Hill 1st Edition vs. 2nd Edition

I really enjoy Betrayal at House on the Hill. I owned the 1st Edition game and decided to sell it off (for a good profit) when the 2nd Edition was announced. I was able to buy the new edition and a couple other games for the money I made off the sale. So, how do the two editions stack up?

Eye Candy


1st Edition - I thought the original box design was alright, but it didn't really evoke the necessary mood to really get people interested in purchasing the game. This cover may partially explain why it took a while for the game to find its audience in the board game community.

2nd Edition - This cover is much more to my liking than the first edition. The spooky feeling is evocative of an isolated home in the swamp, somewhat like the home in the movie The Reaping. The cover really gives the impression of a creepy, lonely mansion where people could easily go crazy or be confronted by the unknown. It gives off the perfect kind of mysterious atmosphere that the game has to offer.

Winner?
2nd Edition!

Components

1st Edition - The big complaint about the pieces from the 1st Edition was the circular tokens. These tokens simply had words like "bat" printed on them with no graphics/colors to distinguish them. This uniformity combined with a hefty amount of tokens made it very difficult to find the tokens you needed. On the other hand, the room tiles seemed to be made of sturdier cardboard. The same is true for the character cards. The rest of the pieces, dice and minis, are essentially the same.

2nd Edition - The small tokens are great. They come in two sizes and the large sets of similar tokens have their own, colored design. On the other hand, the room tiles seem thinner and less sturdy overall than the 1st Edition Some of the tiles are warped and I have concerns about long term durability. Plus, the underground lake is in the basement in 2nd Edition. I liked it better on the upper floors.

Winner?
1st Edition since I can always make due with boring tokens, but the room tiles are a necessity. Take the tiles from 1st Edition and the tokens from 2nd Edition for the best pieces.

The Haunts

1st Edition - These Haunts were considered so unbalanced that the game manufacturer put out a pdf with a fairly large rewrite that helped balance the game better. I don't really play this game for the balance, but rather the experience. Even with this in mind, needing such a large rewrite was a pain, but the rewrite did help make the game more fun. Includes 8 Haunts replaced in 2nd Edition.

2nd Edition - The Haunts seem pretty balanced and better explained so far, but I haven't had a chance to play it nearly as much as we played 1st Edition. I like having 8 new haunts different from the original since it does add something new to the game. No need to reprint whole new books.

Winner?
2nd Edition!

Final score

2nd Edition wins 2 to 1. Either edition is completely worth the price of admission, but 2nd costs a lot less right now. This game is a great Halloween or any Friday the 13th game. I only rate it a 6 or 7 out of ten, but it is very thematic and can easily be played with non-gamers.

Review: Dread House: “A Game for Kids and Brave Adults”

If your regular gaming group includes kids who might get too spooked by a standard Dread game, or if you’re just looking for another fun thing to do with a Jenga tower, you might want to give Dread House a try. Dread House is a new 2-6 player game from Dig A Thousand Holes Publishing in which you play a group of teenagers exploring a haunted house. It’s mostly a board game, but includes an appropriate amount of narrative role-playing for an 8+ age group. The rulebook also includes suggestions for incorporating younger kids into your games.