All posts by Darren

Grifting in the foothills!

Game day, game night

So last week I did get to play some games.

Last Tuesday I finally got Grifters:Nexus to the table. With my friend Nathan being the unfortunate individual coerced into playing.

Grifters: Nexus is the stand alone follow up to the original Grifters. Although they can be combined, and they rule book explains how to do this.

So what does Grifters:Nexus bring to the table? For starters “15 new specialist cards, new mechanisms and a new job card system.”

Naturally the theme remains the same, you are still running a criminal gang in the Dystopian Universe (also shared with Coup and The Resistance) pulling off jobs. The cool down mechanic is still there (which I really like) as is the handbuilding and set collection.

The art is fantastic. I love the art, the characters feel gritty and dystopian.

The job cards are now organised as an inverted pyramid. Which takes up a bit more table space. You can only complete jobs that are completely uncovered. I prefer this to the original piles of jobs. Not all the jobs get put out each game. So this impacts the number of cards that can be collected in a set, and the sets available. It gives a bit of variety.

If I had one complaint it’s that the rule book needs a keyword/mechanic section that explains how that keyword/mechanic works. It wasn’t exactly clear how the abduct mechanic worked from the card itself. But I did manage to work out what was meant (take a random card from an opponent’s hand).

You now have the option when stealing to take the money from either the opponents stash or if they have a specialist with money on them in the hideout from that specialist.

Grifters: Nexus is an enjoyable game. If you liked the original you’ll like this.

I narrowly got the win. Nathan liked the game also. So much I believe he might of added the game to his wish list.

Friday saw Jonathan and me at The Luxe for some gaming. After getting a sneak peek at a game prototype he’s working on, we played Foothills.

Foothills is all about building railways in Wales. Oh and getting the most victory points!

Each player has 5 double sided action cards. On your turn you select a face up action and do that action. You then flip the card, which makes a different action available to you. The nice thing about this is that the mix of actions are not the same for each player. The actions you can take allow you to gain resources, clear subtle, build tracks or stations, use unlocked action spaces or put an action card in front of you in a scoring pile.

Apart from scoring points for clearing a space with rubble on it, or building tracks and stations the end of game bonuses you score are taken from your personal scoring pile. No cards in the pile, no bonuses. So you have to time when to add an action card to the pile. It does get replaced by an action card from a generic supply. But the two sides may not be as sweet as the card you just replaced. Or the scoring bonus might not be as much use.

As a two player game I liked this a lot. It does need space to play. Which we nearly didn’t have enough for on the table we were using.

Ours was a close game, with John winning by a single point, after he got his maths right that is. Otherwise the gap would have been bigger!

Games Played: Grifters:Nexus, Foothills

Song for my era

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The early hours of every Sunday, which people would commonly describe as Saturday night. BBC Radio 5 Live host Dotun Adebayo runs a segment of Up All Night called the Virtual Juke Box.

For a couple of hours listeners call, text and email in musical suggestions to be considered for the Virtual Juke Box based on the theme for the week. The song with the most votes at the end of the segment gets added to the said Virtual Juke Box.

Over the years I’ve texted in suggestions. But never had one used. I have a lot more success with other shows on the network. I even got to ask Stan Lee a question on air back in 2009.

In last nights show the theme for the Virtual Juke Box was, “what is the one song that defines your era?”

So I sent the text below in. Fully expecting my usual lack of success.

As I was listening to people’s choices, I started to drift back to sleep. Suddenly I was wide awake. There coming out of my phones speakers was the Thing on a Spring theme.

I had finally had a text used for the Juke Box.

As my tweet straight after shows, I was a bit happy.

Let me expand a little on my reasoning.

As I said in the text to the show, I could have easily chosen a heavy metal song as my song for my era. It would most likely have been a KISS song, probably Detroit Rock City or I Love It Loud. More likely I Love It Loud.

Back in the early 80’s before MTV and satellite tv, all we had in the UK were 4 channels! Seeing my favourite group on any of those was a rarity. In fact extremely rare. It wasn’t until a tv show called Entertainment USA was on the BBC (which was a Friday evening iirc) that I got to see them. And the first video of theirs I saw I Love It Loud off the Creatures Of The Night album.

However during my teenage metal years the British home computer revolution was taking place. My parents had bought me a ZX81 for Christmas one year. Which within months I had replaced with an Oric-1 (that I later on had upgraded to an Oric Atmos). From there I went the Commodore 64 route whilst my brother got a ZX Spectrum (that I would later own as well).

Some of my favourite gaming memories are on the C64. And a major part of those memories are the iconic 8 bit chip tunes created by the under appreciated genius of Martin Galway, Rob Hubbard, Ben Daglish, Whittaker et al. What they did in 5k or less with the SID chip on the C64 was amazing.

My era was the home computer boom of the 80’s, I am the first generation of gamer. I had to choose a tune from those memories.

The first one I thought of last night was Thing on a Spring. So instead of thinking it over, and trying to decide what was the “best” SID tune from a game (there are so many great tunes) I went with my gut and first thought.

It’s a fun bit of music. Even decades after it was written it brings a smile to my face. And when I create a SID playlist is always included. And yes I have CDs of their music from C64Audio.com and other places.

Thing on a Spring was a great platform game (ZZap64! Sizzler iirc). The titular character from the game went on to join Rockford (from the Boulderdash games) as humorous margin art in ZZap64!

How impactful was this music on me? Even now I can’t watch the 80’s action movie classic Commando without the music from the C64 port of the unrelated arcade classic with the same name.

To this day I still remember loading Hyper Sports on the C64 and hearing the Chariots of Fire theme blasting from the tv speakers as the game loaded. Or ghostbusters being shouted out as the game Ghostbusters played the theme tune from the movie.

And the C64 demo scene was amazing at extracting the music and sfx from games so that you could listen to just the music from a game. And thanks to CNet (I think it was called that) the Commodore bulletin board I had a few 5 1/4 ” floppies worth of those demos.

So you can see I had to no choice but to nominate a SID chip tune as my song of my era.

What would be your nomination for the Virtual Juke box?

#RPGaDAY2019 Day 31 – Last

D&D, RPG

With mixed emotions we have arrived at the last day of #RPGaDAY2019.

The last days theme is…

Wow this is a hard one to finish on.

What lasts can we have in an RPG?

  • Last in combat turn order.
  • Last in party order.
  • Last to survive.
  • Last in a competition against other players/NPC’s.
  • Last to solve the puzzle/mystery.
  • Last to arrive at the session.
  • Last to leave the session.

#RPGaDAY2019 Day 30 – Connection

D&D, RPG

It’s the penultimate #RPGaDAY2019 post.

Here is the penultimate theme for the day…

For me this is all about the connection between a player and their character.

What is it about the character created that resonates with the player to form that connection?

For me with Dram the halfling wizard there were several connections I had with the character.

The first was the character’s name. Back in the late 80’s when I was at poly, studying for my HND, I played MERPS (Middle Earth Role Playing Game). In the campaign I played a halfling warrior (I think that was his class) called Dram. I have very fond memories of playing that RPG and Dram. So when it came to naming my new halfling character it could only be one name.

I’m also a big Tolkien fan, and within the Middle Earth universe the Hobbits are my favourite characters in the stories. So naturally when I create characters in a fantasy setting I create characters that are the equivalent race to Hobbits. In D&D that’s halflings.

I also like wizards, Gandalf is also another Middle Earth character I love. So combining my favourite class with my favourite race seemed natural.

When it came to playing Dram I had another connection/influence. Another fantasy series of books I enjoyed, and have fond memories of are the Dragonlance Chronicles. Unsurprisingly my favourite character from those books is Tasslehoff the kender so when it came to playing Dram I tried to use elements of Tasslehoff that I remembered. Particularly the always getting into trouble.

So I had a few connections to Dram all personal in some way or the other. And those connections made Dram fun to play. More importantly they made it easier to play Dram and decide what he would do in situations.

#RPGaDAY2019 Day 28 – Love

D&D, RPG

Let’s jump straight in and see what today’s theme is…

Oh this is a good one, and extremely hard.

Let’s some stuff out of the system first before getting on with the post. Otherwise it’s just going to be hanging there in the background. Over shadowing everything I write, waiting to interrupt and distract from whatever poor point I’m making.

“What’s love got to do, got to do with it

What’s love but a second hand emotion

What’s love got to do, got to do with it

Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken…” (Tina Turner)

and

“I wanna know what love is

I want you to show me

I wanna feel what love is

I know you can show me…” (Foreigner)

Lurve in RPG’s. This is something you don’t often see in an RPG. It’s very player dependent. It can be something that would make the players very uncomfortable. Especially if we take a literal, carnal interpretation of the word. There are systems out there that have that element (Vampire I believe does). But generally it’s third party adventure ideas that explore this.

But love can be included in a campaign that doesn’t involve the players directly. NPC’s can be in love with each other. And what the players see is a love story unfold in front of them, maybe a Romeo and Juliette plot line, with the players helping the main NPC’s meet in secret. Or we see love as a major motivator for an NPC. I’m just spit balling ideas here of how I’d include it in a campaign.

The other interpretation of love for today is, I love RPGs and being a DM/GM. I love the creative process, the generating ideas. The plotting, discovering new things as you do the research. Seeing those ideas come to life at the table, the enjoyment the players get.

Phew I’m glad this ones over.

Valley of the Kings Premium Edition – A first look

first look

“I’m surprised you backed this Kickstarter” was the comment Jonathan left me on a shared Instagram photo to Facebook.

Jonathan then went on to ask what was different about this edition.

The easiest and most obvious answer is that it is all three editions of the game, Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Kings: Afterlife and Valley of the Kings: Last Rites in a single box.

The image below (extracted from the Kickstarter page) shows some of the other differences.

The size of the game has also increased! Before each version of the game in these nice portable, throw in a side pocket of a bag, boxes. Now the game comes in a much larger, regular size game box. The cards in the game have also gone up in size from a magic the gathering sized card to a tarot card size. The pictures below give you a more accurate comparison of the size differences.

There is also this cool pharaoh first player marker. Plus I’m not sure if this will be in the retail edition but in the Kickstarter edition there were enough clear sleeves to sleeve all the cards, and have a few spares left over if needed.

As the photo above there is more than enough space in the box to store all the sleeved cards.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention that the art has been upgraded as well. Well upgraded in my opinion. The style is completely different. And I like it.

Having the player’s and rules guides is a nice touch. The player’s guide focuses on how to mix and match the versions together, with some suggested sets to use. Those suggestions were created by the designer and some bgg folks. It also has the rules for the pharaoh cards (player abilities), solo game play, and a card supplement explaining the cards. And naturally the rule book covers how to play the game.

So why did I back the kickstart of a game I already had? Well I did only have the base game, and wanted the other two versions. So this was a really nice way to get them, along with the little additional extras not in the other versions. Yes it looses that portability aspect that was a big advantage of the game. But that completionist part of me (that seems to be in every gamer) would have wanted those extra bits as well. And they were never going to be available in the original smaller versions.

Now I just need to get this to the table and enjoy this really nice deckbuilder.

#RPGaDAY Day 26 – Idea

D&D, RPG

Having avoided another couple of difficult themes by boring you all with basically diary updates of game sessions, I’m back with the #RPGaDAY2019.

So let’s jump straight in with today’s theme of…

This theme seems on the surface a softball. But that’s misleading. This is the #RPGaDAY2019 theme version of an iceberg.

For me this theme is synonymous with my first and current homebrew campaign.

I think as a DM and creating your own campaign it helps to generate ideas from as many sources as possible.

For instance my In the wake of Pytheas campaign has a big clue in a major influence for ideas I will be using in the campaign. Despite being a D&D Forgotten Realms campaign, I will be using not just ideas from the said Pytheas and his journeys. But also from other Greek mythology such as Jason and the Argonauts, Theseus and the Minotaur, and the epic poem Odyssey. Add in some fantasy inspired films like Clash of the Titans, the 1970’s and 80’s Sinbad movies.

But my misspent youth sat in front of a tv watching whatever tv series and movies I was deemed worthy to watch by the three tv channel gatekeepers, and later during the home video explosion. Is now paying off! Just not financially.

Other ideas I want to use inspired by movies I watched growing up that would fit in nicely with this nautical island hoping theme are Warlords of Atlantis (actually saw this at the cinema, and yes I’m that old), The Island at the Top of the World. More modern films such as Jurassic Park has also sparked an idea for an island. Although I spent the last post in this #RPGaDAY2019 criticising Lost, the theme is great for using in this campaign. The semi recent Kong Skull Island is also a great source of ideas. As is Wonder Woman. I like using the premise of Waterworld, if not the idea of having a floating humanoid/magic created floating island.

Krull is a movie from my teenage years which I’m definitely taking the plot from. It’s a variation of the Clash of the Titans plot. Taking the plots of films outside the fantasy genre is also a great idea. The Magnificent Seven, The Dirty Dozen/Inglorious Bastards, Kelly’s Heroes, great movies, great plots that can be transplanted into a campaign. Or keeping with the nautical ship based idea for the campaign The Poseidon Adventure and it’s sequel would make a great adventure.

I enjoy playing Magic the Gathering and I’ve also taken ideas from there. Especially the Ixalan block. Ixalan is an island that has dinosaurs, merfolk, pirates and vampires. And is a great rich source of ideas to also use. In fact I’m using a couple of Planeswalkers from these as antagonists for the campaign on the pirate side.

Treasure Island and Kidnapped are the main sources of ideas for me on the pirate front and the news about modern pirates.

From comics I like the idea of Ka-zar and the Savage Land. Which kind of crosses over with the Jurassic Park and Ixalan stuff. But there is plenty from there plot wise I can borrow.

I could also use other mythology other than Greek. For instance Arthurian Legend and the sword in the stone, Beowulf, Norse mythology, even Roman.

So as you can see by exploiting my wasted misspent youth, I have more than enough ideas to run a very very long campaign. And that’s without even touching any of the many source materials for D&D both official and unofficial.

The ideas and inspiration can come from anywhere. By breaking out of your comfort zone and usual media and genres you can find a rich vein of ideas for campaigns.

Another Awesome Jeff’s Birthday Boardgaming Day

Game day

Each year my friend Jeff holds a boardgaming day to celebrate his birthday. I’ve been to the last two (not including this one). And as you will have guessed I was invited to this years celebration.

These game days are used as an excuse to get one of the “big” games to the table. By that I mean games that take possibly lots of table space, but require a few hours to play, such as Twilight Imperium (we played the third edition last year) or Memoir 44 (not usually a long game) as a multiplayer overlord game (the first time I was invited).

This year there were two or three candidates to play depending on the number of players able to attend. The final decision was made Friday evening by Jeff. We were playing five player Civilisation.

I was real happy with that decision. I hadn’t played Civilisation before, and was a game I had wanted to try. Especially with Tapestry going on pre-order in just under 2 weeks time (4/9/19). So when I bore you all with my thoughts on Tapestry I’ll be able to compare the two games.

As you can tell from the photos below Jeff’s copy of Civilisation is a few years (decades even) old. It’s aesthetics have that retro feel to them. And frankly it added to the games charm.

Early on I struck a deal with Jerry agreeing not to attack each other. We were right next to each other and I didn’t want to waste time and resources fighting on that front, when we both had to contend with the others.

I think the politics is an important part of a game like Civilisation. And despite Jeff’s best efforts to disrupt my agreement with Jerry, it held for the duration of the game. I even had a temporary truce with Gavin for three rounds.

The politics and banter are useful tools to get another player to not target yourself, or just as importantly to target a rival.

Around 1pm we stopped for lunch. We were in for a much anticipated treat.

For months like clock work on a Monday evening (after he has consumed it) we get teased with Jeff posting photos of his curry journey. Jeff gets home from work, and cooks a home made curry. And I can tell you now those photos of his food are mouth watering. Trying not to sound crude or imply an innuendo or double entendre, I’ve been wanting to taste Jeff’s curry for a while now. And yes I failed miserably there.

Friday evening we had been teased with “the curry is going to be achari murgh which is a traditional Indian curry rather than a BIR style.” This was Jeff’s own recipe, and for a first effort flippin’ awesome. It was really really tasty, and the spice/heat level was perfect for the hot day of gaming. By that I mean you were left with a nice warm tingle in the mouth after the delicious taste of the curry had left. You don’t want something that is going to leave you sweating and feeling the burn for the rest of the day.

The last few turns conflict was thrown out of the window, and people concentrated on getting cities built for the trade card draw, even if they knew they couldn’t support them, and would lose them.

I really enjoyed playing Civilisation. There is a reason it’s a classic. For me it has one of the important traits of a good big game. That is time just flies by. We may have been playing over 7 hours but it didn’t seem like it. You are engaged through out.

History will show that Jeff once again won on his birthday gaming day. It’s the law that this is the case, and we put up a good showing to make him earn that victory.

I had a most excellent time as Bill and Ted would say.

A big thank you to Jeff for inviting me. Also a big thanks to Gavin for the lift, and I didn’t even have to put out.

Silly Large Atraxa

Commander, magic, MtG

Yesterday was Commander Christmas.

I picked up my new Commander decks from my FLGS and got some games in as well.

The first couple of games were with the Faceless Menace deck, with a handful of cards swapped out. The graveyard hate really does slow down those madness decks.

One player particularly was getting through their deck fast (I hadn’t realised the madness deck was capable of that), hunting for solutions. Which meant they had many more cards in their graveyard than the rest of us. So although it seemed like targeting it wasn’t, just the obvious choice when it came to deciding which graveyard to exile when I was able to exile a graveyard.

It also helps that when playing a morph deck that you draw morph cards. Which I was having a hard time getting. Despite not touching that side!

But still I enjoyed playing the deck. It has potential.

Our third and final game saw me testing my modified Atraxa precon.

I took an early lead that saw me becoming a major threat.

After casting Atraxa using Opal Palace to get a +1/+1 counter on her when she enters the battlefield. Doubling Season and Corpsejack Menace kick in.

You play Vorel of the Hull Clade. Then end turn. Proliferate. Which puts 4 more counters on Atraxa.

Next turn, you activate Vorel. Which after the other triggers becomes an extra +32/+32 counters going on Atraxa.

At this point Atraxa is a 44/44 with flying, vigilance, lifelink, and deathtouch.

If a player who had been shown mercy hadn’t killed Atraxa on their turn (the ungrateful so and so) then Atraxa was going to start getting into silly numbers. It’s a shame I couldn’t protect Atraxa by say making her also indestructible. One shot kills are cool.

But after Atraxa getting killed, a board wipe taking out the rest of those nice cards, I was not able to reestablish a boardstate to get a win.

I didn’t win a single Commander game during the afternoon. But cool stuff happened. It was fun seeing other decks going off. A most enjoyable afternoon.