Monthly Archives: April 2020

The Labyrinth Adventure Game

Labyrinth RPG, RPG

I think anyone growing up during the eighties has an affection for the movie The Labyrinth.

It’s a classic fantasy adventure movie by the genius Jim Henson with a script by Terry Jones (of Python fame). It stars David Bowie as the goblin king, who also wrote and performed the soundtrack.

It has memorable characters bought to life by the Henson Workshop. Plus with the exception of one scene actually still holds up today.

I think because of this love for the movie I was a bit disappointed by the rather poor effort (going by the reviews) that was The Labyrinth board game. It had amazing miniatures but wasn’t backed up by game play.

But now we have something for the fans that from my initial impressions doesn’t look like disappointing in the shape of Labyrinth Adventure Game.

This just oozes quality when you open it up.

The actual sleeve for the book is above and beyond the sleeves I had on books before. It’s actually cardboard instead of a glossy paper. And although I love the art on the sleeve. I actually prefer the book without it. As you can see below you get this red fabric with gold lettering. It takes me back to some of the books my parents read to me from as a kid in the early seventies (yep I’m that old).

You open up the book and inside as the photo below shows are two dice to be used playing the game, plus a book mark with useful info on to be used by the goblin king (that’s what this system calls the game master).

So except for pencils, and printing out or photocopying the player sheets and goblin king sheet (you can get these from the publishers website to download and print) you have everything needed for a group of friends to have adventures in the world of the Labyrinth.

As you can see the book,looks beautiful inside. I really like the art style used.

Looking through the rules this morning during my daily soak this is a simple system, rules light even.

Character creation is basically choosing a race, a trait and a flaw. Followed by deciding what the goblin king has taken.

The actual adventure through the Labyrinth is split into chapters that represent zones within the Labyrinth. And these chapters consist of a number of encounters. Which I believe are mainly puzzle oriented. Reading the rules combat is very simple when it does happen.

Tests and combat/action revolves around the rolling of a d6. With a natural one being a fail. But roll a number equal to or higher than the difficulty set by the goblin king and you succeed.

There seems to be a bit of replay ability through the adventure built in, with no two adventures being the same. This is due to that when moving on from an encounter the next one is decided by rolling the d6 and adding the result to the current encounter number. Also,when revisiting a location/encounter there is a table to roll against to help decide what has changed.

At the back of the book is a chapter with tables to help a goblin king come up with their own encounters. Plus a chapter of photos from the movie.

This is a really lovingly produced product that does justice to the movie at last. I can’t wait to run this.

Tokaido App

apps

Back with a quick look at another app version of a board game. This time it’s the beautiful and serene game Tokaido.

In Tokaido you are a traveller trying to have the most interesting journey as you wander along the road between Kyoto and Edo over a four day period.

Tokaido ticks all the boxes when it comes to game modes. As the image below shows. I’m not a big one for playing with random strangers online (I do believe I have said that once or twice before in the past). So I really like that I can play just against my friends.

The app it self looks beautiful. It continues the art style of the board game which I love.

The developers also when implementing the game didn’t try and do a virtual representation of the board itself. But played to the strengths of the media and came up with a look that doesn’t feel like a board game.

One advantage the app has over the physical is in a two player game the app via an AI opponent controls the dummy third player.

For me this is a perfect digital version of the physical game. A must add to the collection, and a great game to play with friends during the lockdown.

A possible house rule for Last Days

Last Days, Skirmish

I’m pretty close to actually playing a game of Last Days! Once the current lockdown restrictions allow I have a friend who also has the rules now (although they are finding them confusing) to actually play a game or two with.

In the meantime while I’m soaking like a beached whale in the tub I like to dip into the rule book from time to time.

This time I was rereading the rules on playing the game, and the phases that make up a turn of play.

During the Action Phase I came across the following:

“Both players take turns activating models to completion, passing back and forth.

If a player runs out of models to activate before their opponent, then the player will simply wait while the other side continues activating his remaining models.” Last Days Zombie Apocalypse Rulebook

But it’s the same rule in the Shooting and Close Quarters Combat as well.

I can’t believe I’ve had the rules for so long and it has only just struck me that this was also the same/similar rule in the FFG game Imperial Assault and their skirmish rules when the game first came out.

Later on FFG tweaked the rule to be the following:

“Then, starting with the player that has initiative, the players take turns activating deployment groups and performing actions with the corresponding figures. If a player has fewer ready Deployment cards than his opponent, that player can choose not to activate a group and pass play back to his opponent.

Once all Deployment cards are exhausted, players proceed to the Status Phase.” Imperial Assault Skirmish Rulebook – FFG

This is how the FFG design team explained the change at the time:

“When a player passes, his opponent immediately takes another turn, choosing and exhausting one of his ready Deployment cards. A player can pass as many times as he wishes, so long as his opponent has more ready Deployment cards. If a player ever has the same amount of ready Deployment cards as his opponent, he must take a turn.

This rule was implemented because we believe that the activation advantage created when one player has more activations than his opponent has become too powerful, and we needed to recalibrate. With the new rule, a player with fewer ready Deployment cards has the opportunity to pass his turn, which negates the advantage of several low-cost groups.” FFG blog post (2015)

So it got me thinking why don’t I House rule Last Days to do the same?

I’ve not built many squads for the game. Well one actually. So I have no idea if this is even an issue, or if the designer has thought of this.

But if you do find or think that there is an activation advantage when one player has more activations than the opponent then you might want to consider this FFG solution.

The Day The Law Died Comes To Judge Dredd RPG

Judge Dredd, news, RPG, W.O.I.N.

One of the things I think that EN Publishing are doing right for their Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 A.D. RPG are the campaign settings they publish.

So far we have had The Robot Wars, Luna-1, and The Cursed Earth. Each covers a major storyline from the early days of the comic strip.

Stories I grew up reading in the pages of 2000 A.D. Stories that I have many fond memories of, and dare I say it love?

I really like that EN Publishing are enabling players of their system to recreate these classic stories.

Naturally after The Cursed Earth there is only one storyline you can do next. That storyline is the one that started right at the end of The Cursed Earth with the return of Judge Dredd to Mega City One, The Day The Law Died.

And that is exactly what EN Publishing announced yesterday on their Facebook page for the system.

The story has many memorable moments and characters, such as Fergie, Judge Fish, Judge Cal, the Kleggs and the Klegg hounds.

After this campaign what next? Well I’m assuming we will get The Judge Child, followed by Block Wars/The Apocalypse War. Plus we have the Dark Judges to squeeze in as well.

Plus we still have the much anticipated Strontium Dog rule book to look forward to later in the year also. Which I’m hoping will also get the same treatment campaign wise, with campaigns covering major storylines.

A Single Go To Map

D&D, RPG

Yesterday Sly Flourish put up a very interesting post called The Only Dungeon Map You’ll Ever Need.

Sly’s post itself was inspired by one by Dyson Logos (he of those awesome maps).

Having a default multi use dungeon is a great idea for a DM/GM to have in their toolbox.

As Sly says in his post “Which map is your go-to map when you don’t have anything prepared and need a map to run your game right now? What map can you print out, stick in your kit, and use for the next 40 years?”

Sly then goes on to present a list of criteria that should help you selecting your ideal map. Before then suggesting one or two maps that are worth considering.

And I will be choosing one or two to add to my DM’s folder.

However Sly does raise the question about why limit yourself to one map. And I do keep my copy of the Lazy DM Workbook with my DM folder. Plus the maps I have used previously during the campaign. This fits in with a bit of advice that Jim Murphy gave in one of his videos about being a minimalist DM and being a magpie for maps.

Also with either or both of the decks that allow me to generate random dungeons I have the ability to create a dungeon on the fly no matter what the party decide to do. Potentially this does away with the need to have one of these go to maps. However I don’t see them being an either or situation. Both could happily be in your DM toolbox.

What do you think? Is this something you’ll be adding to your DM toolbox?

Random Dungeon #7

#randomdungeon, D&D, RPG

Thought it was time to create another random dungeon. Once again using the latest addition I have for doing this The Deck of Many Dungeons.

Whilst I was creating this one it felt like I was doing a magic trick. The deck had been given a good shuffle before use.

I selected the starting/entrance card at random. Then before drawing a card cut the deck each time. And I be damned I drew nothing but spades.

Once again it came out as a small dungeon. Which I thought looked like it worked out nicely with out using any of the king cards to act as the stairs down to another level or completion of the quest. Although if I was going for a multi level dungeon the eight of spades is the card I’d replace with a random King.

I do like these little dungeons that are being created. They can be side quests, little distractions. Just something the party stumble upon.

The Voracious Goddess #1

7th Continent

Having reclaimed my dining table from the MtG cards (an act that should worry WotC but doesn’t) I’m ready to start playing once again The 7th Continent.

It’s been nearly three years since I last played this game. Which is a shame. It really deserves having the love that playing it gives it.

Since I last played it there has been a new expansion What Goes Up, Must Come Down. Which adds two new curses plus a hot air balloon, a raft, three new explorers and a goat. It was joined by two smaller expansions as well (The Flying Roots and Creature Comforts).

Having been an original backer when I backed the new expansion I was also given an upgrade kit that replaced a handful of cards to make my original version the same as the reprint (ie 2.0).

Yesterday I spent the afternoon replacing cards, adding new ones, and undoing my previous saved game state.

I wanted to start afresh with all the new stuff mixed in.

Naturally I’m going to be boring you with my tales of exploration and adventure on here. I’ve got nothing better to do, have you?

So before I set off on my travels across The 7th Continent I thought I would document the setup for this curse.

In to the action deck are the four cards that come with the new Flying Roots expansion. Plus the new Comfort Creatures (not sure what that adds but it will be interesting to find out). Which with the Face the Elements and Fear the Devourers from the original Kickstarter make up the extra stuff I’m likely to bump into.

Because this is my first play in such a long time I’m using the original games easy mode (card 777) plus the new Prodigy Mode (5 learning from mistakes cards added to the action deck) PLUS the new Immortal Mode (card 888). This later mode is aimed at those more interested in exploring than surviving.

I’m also using the Pocket Watch from the base game.


With the What Goes Up, Must Come Down expansion we also got this rather cool fake leather binder to use instead of the Satchel and Journal card. So all the cards that would normally go under the said card will go in this instead.

Oh and the dice I will be using to track the usage of items will be the cool bone looking dice from the original Kickstarter.

I’ve decided to go with one of the new explorers from What Goes Up, Must Come Down, Anjika Patel.

The curse chosen is the one advised in the rulebook for first plays “The Voracious Goddess”. I didn’t get very far into it anyway three years ago, and can’t remember what I did. So it’s a good starting point.

Right that’s the setup time to go off into the unknown…

Some inspiration for campaigns from MtG

D&D, RPG

It’s taken me two days. But I’ve freed up my dining room table from all the MtG cards on it. I had been using the table as a “staging” area for my deck building efforts.

But considering my lack of playing and deck building I finally gave in and tied up the space. I’ll stick with my Commander decks and just tweak them for the time being.

But whilst I was tidying up the table I came across the following two bits of cardboard from the Amonkhet and Hour of Devastation Pre-release kits.

I immediately after looking at them felt these are pretty good ideas to to use in a campaign.

Forget the MtG small text for each challenge. It’s the titles.

I love the idea of sending a party on five trials to earn favour from a God. Each trial faced being themed around it’s title. Each one testing the members of the party as a group and individually.

A harder one to work in is the other card with The Five Hours. At the moment this speaks to me as being event based around time. I need to think more about this one.

I might have to go back and look at the lore for this block to see what ideas get created.

Ruined Farmhouse

Uncategorized

Yesterday after sitting on a shelf since I bought it over two years ago, I finally built the ruined farmhouse.

Naturally the plan is to use this in a game or two of Last Days.

Smaller than I thought for sure.

I think it needs a barn to go with it. I’ll have to try and find one.

Onitama App

apps

Here we are once more with yet another quick look at an app version of a boardgame. This time it’s the really awesome two player abstract game Onitama.

The app version of the game implements the base game and the 16 card Sensei’s Path expansion (an in app purchase, the other in app purchase you can make is basically a couple of themed skins.)

Naturally the game looks nice. Although for me playing on an iPad would have liked the game to use landscape mode and not portrait. Or at least swap between the two intelligently depending on the orientation of the screen.

I’m fine with the top down view of the board. But a 3D view would have appealed more.

I’ve played this both online with Jonathan and solo against the AI. Naturally my preference is against friends. But the AI was a cool alternative with the option of setting how difficult the AI opponent is.

This is a solid implementation of the board game. If you are a fan of the game it’s worth getting.