LARP and more (or is it less)?

LARP

LARP has been dominating my time lately.

Recently I created a buckler using a foam kickboard.

It measures approximately 17 x 11 inches. I slapped the X (actually a chi) on with duct tape. It's just a placeholder until I paint something.

I did a photo shoot last weekend. I really like how this kit came out.

Our group is inspired by the Byzantine Empire so this is my attempt at a (somewhat) inexpensive kit. The tunic and pants cost <= $20 each. I made the helmet from a cheap Halloween costume item. The brigandine was a bit costlier, but not really needed for the game. It's something I already owned and thought it would look good.

Gaming

It has been a month since my last Tweedle adventure. I have the basic idea for the next one, but haven't got around to playing it. This is largely because I want to illustrate it with miniatures like last time, but the figures need to be painted. This is one of the drawbacks to minis in roleplaying games; you can quickly run out of figures unless you already have a large inventory of monsters.

Family Game Night

We did manage a family game night last weekend. We played Castle Panic, and just managed to stop the invading horde. We were left with just two towers and one wall.

We left the TV on downstairs, which distracted our cat Onyx and let us play the game in peace. Our cat Thomasina was happy.

Family Game Night Fail

Back in July, I mentioned how we resumed family game nights, but moved to the bedroom so that our cat Thomasina could watch.

Well, we haven't been regular with it but still manage a game from time to time. Last Saturday we decided to give Thom a treat with a game.

When I started setting up, she was sleeping in our spare bedroom. By the time I had the game up, she came into the bedroom and took up her usual viewing position on her perch. We weren't feeling up for anything too complicated and Elizabeth was feeling nostalgic so we pulled out the venerable kid's game, Candyland.

Well, Thom watched for a couple of turns and then left the room. I guess it was too simplistic for her. Wow, judged by our cat.

We finished the night by playing Dead by Daylight on the Nintendo Switch.

The Return of Family Game Night

It has been a while since we regularly played games. Part of the reason was that our black cat, Onyx, would hop on the board and play with the pieces.

It's a pity because our eldest cat, Thomasina, loved watching games. Lately, due to age, she spends most of her time in the upstairs bedroom. Recently, we decided to bring the games to her.

Here is our latest setup. We bought a foldable game table and set it up in the bedroom. As you can see in this picture, Thom can watch the proceedings from her perch.

We've gamed the last 3 weekends. Previously, I won at Dragonwood but the following week we failed our Codenames: Duet missions.

This week was Ticket to Ride Scandinavia. My wife had a nice 20 point lead when she played her last train. However, she failed to complete 2 routes, losing 24 points. Meanwhile, I completed 9 routes for 78 bonus points to pull ahead for a decisive win.

Admittedly, I was quite lucky with my destinations. At one point, I drew 3 destination cards and was pleasantly surprised to see that I had already completed the routes!

Family Game Night Fizzles

It's been a while since we had a Family Game Night. For the most part, this is because I have not been motivated to set up the games. Well tonight, I got motivated and set up Ticket to Ride.

I forgot about another reason why we don't play many games anymore - Onyx.

Onyx on a miniature game.

He loves playing games. Except that he sits on the board, bats around the playing pieces, knocks the cards off the table, etc. He was in full form tonight. We only played 2 - 3 turns before we gave up.

I wonder if Ticket to Ride is available on any of the video game consoles.

The Flood Gates Are Open

We played a rather eventful game of Forbidden Island last night.

First, there was a literal flood when I spilled a glass of water all over the tiles and cards. We dried up as best we could and continued the game. 

As you can see from the following picture, the game itself was a near run thing. Most of the island had sunk when we found the last treasure. If the waters rose any more, we would be goners. Fortunately, the helicopter arrived in the nick of time.

To make our escape even more dramatic, Hurricane Onyx bore down on us. Fortunately,we got away just in time.

I Survived!

The zombie apocalypse, that is.

On a whim, we pulled out Zombies!!! Saturday night. Now I usually do poorly in this game because it relies heavily on good dice rolling, which is not my forte. This game began true to form as my first character succumbed to the zombie horde.

My second character, however, got on a roll and was a zombie-killing machine. I managed to take down 22 of them. I then realized that there is an alternate victory condition - kill 25 and win the game! I was sooo close, but then my luck ran out. My second character went down.

So I went back to the start, but this time the helipad had been played. I steadily made my way to it. My wife was closer to the helipad, but her dice rolling had cooled. She rolled a 1 twice in a row. Then I rolled a 6, enough to make it to the waiting helicopter. Three zombies stood in my way. Not for long as my luck returned. I mowed them down and made it to the helicopter, which lifted me off to safety (sorry dear).

My path of victory in red
My wife circled in yellow

Dicey Rolling

Saturday night my wife and I played Dragonwood.

For "a game of dice" my rolling was particularly bad. One example:

Needing a 9 on 4 dice, I rolled an 8 (3, 3, 1, 1). But I have the lucky mushroom, which allows me to re-roll a die. Great! I just need to roll a 2+. And I get . . . a 1.

This happened multiple times during the night!

Naturally, my wife won.

Just a note - I really enjoy Dragonwood. Set up is quick and easy. The rules are simple also, which means it is easy to get back into even if we haven't played it in a while. Yet the game play is not simplistic; there are plenty of decisions the player needs to make (do I draw or fight? If I fight, which creature do I attack? What attack do I use? etc.) I have enjoyed this game a lot.

A Couple of New Games

My wife and I have grown a bit tired of our current crop of games. We have some good games but they are a pain to set up (looking at you Fortune & Glory). As a result, we have primarily been playing card games with little set up time. However, we are bored of the same old thing. Thus we decided to do a little game shopping last night. We went to Barnes and Nobles looking for some simple games.

First up was Forest.

Elizabeth just adores the artwork and theme (a fairy forest). The game was surprisingly fun for such simple rules. You lay down cards with random numbers and kinds of little fairy creatures. You can claims cards once there is 7 of a kind on the table. The goal is to claim the most cards.

While the rules are simple, there is some nuance to gameplay. First, you must be observant enough to recognize when there is 7 of a kind. You also need to plan your moves - you want to build up to 7 but you don't want to accidentally set up your opponent.

Overall, it was an enjoyable experience.

We then tried Dragonwood, by the company that published Forbidden Island.

In this game, 5 Dragonwood cards, representing monsters or enchantments, are placed on the table. Players try to overcome a monster/enchantment and collect its card. Monster cards provide victory points while enchantments provide bonuses in future battles. Players use Adventurer cards to buy dice; the player must roll a certain number or higher to win the battle. There are different types of attacks, adding some decision making to the process. The game continues until the two dragons are defeated (or until Onyx the cat sits on the card deck. Sorry, no picture. :( ).

This was another light game with simple rules that provided an entertaining experience.

Overall, we felt we chose well. We enjoyed both games. There was enough strategy in each to keep us thinking, but it was not burdensome with respect to rules or set up time. I recommend both these games for some short, light fun.

Note: all photos are from Boardgamegeek.

Some Random Thoughts

Hexify
I am a fan of gridded games because you don't have to fiddle with a ruler. As I was playing Spandau and Lewis yesterday,  I wondered if I could adapt it to a grid. I tried an experiment this morning with a couple of my rockets. Using a hex grid, I had to change the maneuver chart (turning in S&L uses 45 degree increments; I had to modify it to 60 degree increments).

Here are a few shots of the action:

The two rockets approach

They zoom in for head-on shots. Both ships are damaged.

Trying to turn around

The red rocket gets the advantage and tried a deflection shot. It misses.

After some more maneuvering, the rockets find themselves separating. They decide to break off.

I ran into a few issues:

• I used a smaller board than usual. This board was 8 x 8 inches. Yesterday I used a 10 x 16 inch board.
• My grid uses 1" squares whereas I use a scaled down ruler (20 cm to an inch) for my S&L games. As a result, the craft moved further on the board.
• The modified maneuver table drastically affected maneuverability. Here's a comparison of the allowable turns based on a die roll:
• S&L - 1-2 = 45 degrees, 3-4 = 90 degrees, 5-6 = 135 degrees, 7+ = 180 degrees
• Modified - 1-3 = 60 degrees, 4-6 = 120 degrees, 7+ = 180 degrees

Thus, for rolls of 3-6, the craft turns less than standard S&L.

As a result of these issues, the craft were far less maneuverable and tended to fly away from each other and off the board. I'll have some work cut out for me if I want to hexify S&L.

Pirate Plunder

My wife and I have been a bit lazy with gaming lately, We've been reluctant to pull out games, especially those with hefty set-up. As a result, we've been tending toward card games lately. Alas, I miss dice sometimes.

Anyway, I've been toying with the idea of designing a simple game using cards and dice. Last night I had an idea for such a game with a pirate theme. It takes some ideas from One Deck Dungeon. On the table, there will be 3 cards representing locations (such as a town, a deserted island, a fat merchant ship, etc.) Each card has a challenge that requires rolling dice. Win the challenge and you can draw from a treasure deck. There are 5 special treasures; get 3 to win the game. When a location is defeated, it is discarded and can be replaced by another from a locations deck. Players keep taking turns until someone gets 3 of the special treasures.

I'm currently working on the rules.

Killing Cthulhu

Last Saturday, we belatedly celebrated my birth with a game night. My brother and father-in-law joined in as we tried to stop Cthulhu.

Alas, we failed to keep him from entering our world, leading to an epic showdown with the fate of humanity in the balance. My father-in-law was devoured, and my brother was on the verge of death, when somehow I managed to score a hit, sending Cthulhu back to whence he came!

Twelve Games of Christmas - 2017 Edition

It has begun. For the fourth year in a row, we have begun the Twelve Games of Christmas.

Dec 22
It was actually a spur of the moment decision to start this night. My brothers ended up coming over for the evening so we decided to pull out a couple of simple games.

First up was Welcome to the Dungeon.

It is a push-your-luck card game. Each turn you can add a monster card to the dungeon, remove equipment from the hero, or pass. Once all other players pass, the last remaining player takes control of the hero and tries to make it through the dungeon. My brother Brian made it through in the first round but later failed 2 dungeon delves to get knocked out. My wife also got knocked out. My brother Brett then managed to defeat 2 dungeons to win the game.

Next was Zombie Dice, another push-your-luck game but this time using dice.

Your goal is to roll brains while avoiding shotgun blasts. Brett managed a run of 6 brains in one turn to rush (or more appropriately shamble) to victory!

Dec 23
This night featured a solo play of One Deck Dungeon. Sad to say that the dragon ate my paladin.

Dec 24

Decided to experiment with some bomb run rules (a la B-17: Queen of the Skies), albeit set in space.

Check out the game report

Dec 25
Merry Christmas!
Sadly too sick (very bad cold) for a game.

Dec 26
Another night. Too sick for a game.

Dec 27

Finally got to visit with my brother and receive my gifts from my family. Got Exploding Kittens and had to try it.

It's a very light card game. I played vs my brother earlier and then with my wife. I think it will work better as a party game with 3+ players.

Dec 28

Now my wife has the plague so she was not up for a game. Instead, I pulled out Castle Panic and played solo.

The monsters managed a rush early in the game and managed to knock down 2 towers. Then I lost a third to a giant boulder. My defenses then stiffened and I managed to save the last three towers.

Dec 29

No game.

Dec 30

We played 2 rounds of Exploding Kittens. Elizabeth won both games.

We did an experiment where we increased the number of Exploding Kitten cards. Typically, there is # of players - 1 cards placed in the deck. We added an extra. I think it made it a little more intense.

My wife then suggested adding in all the kittens. As I predicted, however, the game ended way too soon.

We followed that up with some Holiday Fluxx. I won the first hand but cannot remember who won the second.

Dec 31

I fell asleep early so my wife took up the mantle and played a game with her brother. More Exploding Kittens.

Jan 1

I didn't expect to play a game this evening, but Thomasina was in her game spot. We had to indulge her. this time with a round of Love Letter.

My wife won this time (7-4)

And that wrapped up the 12 Games (although we fell short by a couple of games. I'm back to work today so I don't expect any games until the weekend.

A New Game

What do you do when the game you want to play is at the bottom of a stack of game?

BOARD GAME JENGA!

One Deck Dungeon - My Thoughts

Previously, I described the basic mechanics of Asmadi's solo/cooperative dungeon crawl game, One Deck Dungeon. So what did I think of it?

Throughout play, I kept comparing it to a favorite game of mine - Four Against Darkness, Obviously, both are solo-able dungeon crawl games so they have their similarities. However, there are some distinct differences. Let's go over them.

In some ways, I like One Deck Dungeon better:

• Physical components - ODD is a boxed game, complete with cards, dice, tokens, etc. so it naturally wins on the components front. Furthermore, those components assist with the next point.
• Ease of play - ODD is a bit more abstract than 4AD, which makes the game a bit simpler. For example, there is no mapping of the dungeon. The encounter cards really make things easy; you just flip over a card to search a room - no rolling on multiple charts.

In other ways, I prefer Four Against Darkness:

• More flexible - It is very easy to modify the charts in 4AD (and even to create your own new monsters). This allowed creation of distinctive adventures. I can't envision doing that with ODD because it seems that the game is highly dependent on the card mix. There is an expansion that can add variety to ODD but it is still less flexible than 4AD.
• Less randomness - Actually, both games have a large degree of randomness. This makes dungeons seem like an illogical hodgepodge of encounters. I mitigated this in 4AD by customizing dungeons based on a specific theme. As I noted in my previous point, ODD seems less flexible in this respect, therefore I expect it will feel more random.
• More character - Both games offer archetypal character classes with opportunities to improve. However, adding skill in ODD is done per dungeon.When you start a new dungeon you pretty much start back at square one (there is a campaign mode that allows you to gain some permanent skills, but you still lose the cards you acquired in previous sessions). As a result, 4AD provides a better sense of character development. I have provided lengthy accounts of my 4AD characters' adventures. I just cannot imagine doing that with ODD.

Overall, I like both games and expect that they will serve different purposes. ODD is great if I want a quick game without much effort or prep. 4AD will serve when I want a bit more immersive solo RPG experience. My verdict is to get both!

One Deck Dungeon - Overview

Last week I mentioned that I picked up a couple of quick play dungeon crawl games. My wife and I played both of them over the weekend and enjoyed both of them. This morning I played another run-through of One Deck Dungeon by Asmadi Games.

One Deck Dungeon (ODD) is a dungeon crawl game for 1 to 2 players. It uses cards to build the dungeon and dice (lots of dice) to adjudicate encounters.

Below is a photo of the play area. There is a deck of cards with encounters listed on them. As your character explores the dungeon, the rooms are revealed (a maximum of 4 is laid out at any one time).

Here is a hero card. One can play as a warrior, mage, paladin, rogue, or archer. The icons on the left represent attributes and items. For example, the warrior starts with 3 strength, 1 agility, and 4 health. Strength, agility, and magic (none for the warrior) translate to dice that are rolled to overcome encounters. Health works like standard hit points; don't fall to 0!

 Here is a combat encounter card. To defeat the goblin swarm, the player rolls their dice pool (which can also include black "heroic" dice that act as wild cards) and tries to fill in the boxes on the encounter card. Boxes are color coded - yellow requires strength; pink = agility, and blue = magic. The numbers represent what needs to be rolled. For example, to fill the bottom right box requires a roll of 5 on a strength die.

Once the dice are rolled, allocate them to the boxes (note that you can use multiple dice to fill in the larger, rectangular boxes). In this case, I failed to fill a pink box, thus I must take damage (red heart icon) and lose time (yellow hourglass).

So that's the basic mechanic - roll dice and cover boxes. I kind of think of it as yahtzee, in a dungeon. Hey, that's not a bad thing - I like yahtzee. If you are looking for a more traditional dungeon crawl (roll dice to hit, record damage, rinse and repeat), this isn't it. Nevertheless, the core mechanic allows you to breeze through encounters very quickly. ODD also requires a lot of decisions, which makes the game interesting. Decisions include:

• How to allocate dice during combat
• Whether to enter or flee a room
• What kind of loot to take (there are multiple options per encounter - more on that in a moment)

There are different dungeons, each with a unique main boss. I played the Dragon's Cave. Depending on the dungeon and floor, you'll have additional boxes you need to fill. For example, on the first floor of the Dragon's Cave, you need an additional 3 strength per combat encounter (you also need to fill the yellow box)

You don't need to cover all the boxes to succeed in an encounter; you just need to survive. If you do, you keep the encounter card as loot. There are 3 possible types of loot (you can choose). The icons on the left represent additional items that boost your abilities. For example, you can use the goblin card to boost strength by 1 die. The bottom box represents either a skill (shown) or a potion that provides beneficial effects. Finally, you can apply the encounter to experience (icons on top). Gain enough experience to level up, which allows you to apply more items or skills to your character.

Here is the warrior with an additional item (left) and skill (bottom). Your loot is kept under the character card, with the relevant info peeking out.

(Note: You may notice that the warrior in this photo has more dice than the picture above. That's because I started my solo game using the 2-player side. The 1-player side gives you more dice)

There are also perils (e.g. traps). You will always have 2 options to deal with the peril. For example, you can use strength to climb around the pit of spikes or use agility to jump it. I used strength, and boy did I roll poorly!

Once you get through the floors of the dungeon, you come to the main boss. Here is the dragon!

Boss battles proceed over multiple rounds. Fill in the boxes with the skull icon to inflict damage on the boss. But first you must get past its defenses (fill in the boxes with the green shields). If you inflict damage equal to the number in the bottom box (6 for the dragon) then you kill the boss and complete the dungeon!

So that's an overview of how to play ODD. For more info, I recommend checking out some of the walk-throughs on YouTube.

What are my thoughts on this game? I'm going to do another post with my thoughts.

Cat City in Carcassonne

Tonight my wife and I played a quick game of Carcassonne.

I started out quickly, completing a bunch of small cities. Meanwhile, my wife was working on a large, meandering metropolis. As a result, I built up a nice 30 point lead. Elizabeth was at the point of conceding, feeling that she could never complete the city.

Well, she managed to finish it. My 30 point lead turned into a 6 point deficit.

She called it Cat City because she said it looked like a cat.

Elizabeth's "Cat City" (circled)

We then were in a neck-to-neck race for the rest of the game. However, I had one more farmer than her and racked up 12 points from him to pull out the victory.

More Ticket to Ride

Last night my wife and I wanted to play something patriotic to celebrate Independence Day, but we don't really have anything appropriate. So we played Ticket to Ride with the US map.

First we had to survive a Cat-zilla attack.

Here is the final board. My wife (the brown trains) completed 9 routes for 83 bonus points. She also got an extra 15 points for completing the most routes. Needless to say, she handily defeated me.

6 by 6 Challenge - 6.4 complete!

Making America Great Again . . .

By bringing in a LOT of coal.

At least that's what happened with tonight's session of Ticket to Ride, 10th anniversary edition. Mu wife chose the black coal trains and then proceeded to blanket the USA.

She scored more points for routes, more bonus points, and she got the bonus for longest route. The picture above shows the glaring disparity in the score (approximately a 40 point difference).

And here is the resident miner, obviously covered in soot :), as he watches the trains expand the coal empire.

Actually Onyx our black cat

Six by Six Challenge 6-3 complete

Tonight's Game

My wife and I played Ticket to Ride tonight. Here's the final score (add 100 to the score shown):

Elizabeth completed the most routes, earning a 10 point bonus. However, I completed longer routes, earning more points. The longest of these went from Bergen to Tornio (the stars below). This earned 17 points.

This pulled me ahead by 4 points for the win!

And Another 6 x 6 Game

And another 6 x 6 game complete. This time it is our first game of the year for Ticket to Ride (my late entry to the 6 x 6 list of games).

It is a very close game. We were running neck-and-neck all game. Elizabeth (the brown trains) ended up with some long routes with high point values. I (with my red trains) completed more routes but with less points.

However, I gained an additional 25 bonus points (for most routes and longest path). I ended up winning by 10 points.

Still Can't Save the World

Tonight's family game night choice was Pandemic. It's not a game that we play very often because it's rather depressing. It is a cooperative board game where the players try to cure four plagues that are ravaging the world.

Unfortunately, we have never been able to save humanity. We are getting better; tonight we were one turn from victory before time ran out.

The board at the end

One thing that has helped is playing the game correctly. We erroneously thought that we had to wipe out all diseases to win. That is not the case; the players only need to find all the cures. So, for example, Santiago, Chile has 3 yellow cubes. Because yellow has been cured, we don't need to worry about Santiago.

Because we played correctly this time we focused on finding cures and did much better . At the end of the game, there are very few diseases (colored cubes) on the board and we had no outbreaks at all. We managed to cure 3 of the 4 plagues and were 1 turn away from curing the last. Then the deck ran out and the game ended.

We're still trying to get the knack of this game. Obviously, we managed our hands inefficiently. We used some red cards to fly to Asia and treat some diseases. This left us a bit lacking in red cards near the end of the game. If we were a little more conservative, we may have won. Still, this is a very annoying way to lose (and it's the second time in a row its happened). The board looks like we were doing well, but we still lose. Probably why we don't play this game very often.