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.

#RPGaDAY2019 Day 22 – Lost

D&D, RPG

I’ve talked about MtG today so I suppose I should talk about #RPGaDAY2019 and not just bury my head in the sand and avoid today’s theme.

So here is today’s theme…

When I see the word lost I instantly think about the tv show. About how hip and cool it was. How every one was discussing it, looking for clues about the island and it’s secrets. Almost every other person who watched it had their theories.

For at least 3 or 4 of the seasons it was must see tv. But then it started to lose its way. Until in season 6 we end up with probably one of the all time most disappointing ends to a series ever. A Game of Thrones did it’s best to try and match that honour. Both in the last couple of seasons and it’s final episode.

So what has this got to do with D&D and RPGs in general?

I think it serves as a warning. Something that should be studied and learnt from.

As a DM we want our campaigns to be like those first 3 or 4 seasons. Compelling, must watch, not to be missed. Have our players talking about the campaign and what they have just done in that session. Discussing theories and what they want to do next session. That water cooler moment.

But a campaign like any story has to end. We want our campaign to end more like Battlestar Galactica, M.A.S.H. or Twin Peaks: The Return. We want to try and avoid the last two seasons of Lost or that matter A Game Of Thrones.

In A Game Of Thrones they rushed things, didn’t take the time to set things up for particular plot pay offs. So when certain events happened the fans/audience felt cheated because often they felt they came out of nowhere for no reason. Basically things were truncated when they didn’t have to be.

With Lost they were doing the opposite trying to stretch things out, even when the story should have ended earlier. I read somewhere that you could watch the first couple of seasons and the last and get the whole story. The inbetween was just fluff.

So in our campaigns I think it’s important to avoid fluff. Try and keep things tight. Of the encounter doesn’t advance your story/plot, then cut it. You can always throw in a random encounter to break things up if need be. But we have to be on guard about being too ruthless and not having enough encounters to tell the story we want to tell.

Lost also never really established a main antagonist. It was fluid from season to season who the bad guys were. A good antagonist just makes memorable moments. It’s conflict. It’s good storytelling.

Lost also never ended story arcs. Viewers were just left hanging. Poor storytelling. I think when it comes to running a campaign, of the party get sidetracked from the current story arc or splinter off on another for some reason, it’s important that at a future point the story arc is concluded. So it could be they return to a inn and hear how the events of the abandoned story arc finished. That the bad guy they left massacred a village. You get the idea.

Lost also had lots and lots of unanswered questions. It’s good to have unanswered questions, they are future adventure hooks. But not the share number Lost had.

The hardest one to judge is the satisfying ending. You won’t know that until it happens and how the players react. But I think if you avoid the above the likely hood of the ending being a damp squib is greatly reduced.

The creators and writers of Lost were brave. They obviously knew the rules of storytelling. They had to to break them. Sadly the implementation was poorly executed. Which is lucky for us, as we can learn from what they did and their mistakes.

Hopefully my fading memory of the series, hasn’t faded too much. And I’ve remembered enough detail to make the points above correctly.

I think this might just be a very unique take on the theme for the day. Why do you think?

My planned instant upgrades for Faceless Menace

Commander, Deck tech, magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

It’s Commander Christmas tomorrow. Yep the Commander 2019 pre-con decks hit your FLGS. We finally get our hands on the decks.

Commander content creators like The Command Zone and MtG Goldfish have already put up posts/videos on budget upgrades that can be done to these decks.

I’ve decided to share my planned upgrades but using cards from the current Standard legal sets. There have been some great cards that I think warrant the label of being a Commander staple. Naturally if you have the likes of Cyclonic Rift, Rhystic Studies, and Sensei’s Divining Top put them in. I will be. But for this post they fall outside the selection criteria for talking about.

Out of the four decks the one so far that I’m most excited to play in it’s straight out of the box form, and also upgrade is Faceless Menace and the morph mechanic.

I will say this does not mean I’m not excited to play the other decks. It’s just Faceless Menace appeals to me the most.

For any post like this bare in mind the cards are subjective, selected based on my local meta (your local meta will most definitively be different), what I have in my collection and can afford (which is also very very subjective).

So let’s look at the cards I plan to upgrade the deck with from the current Standard legal sets.

When this years decks were being spoilt with their graveyard shenanigans such as flashback and that madness mechanic I kept thinking where is the graveyard hate? I like graveyard hate. These three cards do a pretty awesome job of shutting down that shenanigans. Plus the nice thing about Grafdigger’s Cage is that it stops also those decks/cards that allow/treat the library as an extension of the hand, with casting the top card of your library.

Flash is a great mechanic. Being able to flash out those 2/2 morph creatures each player’s turn for free with the Commanders ability is amazing value. The Leyline and Vivien give me that ability. Lotus Field is a nice land.

I like tutors. Scheming Symmetry is a great Commander card especially if you can cast it as if it has flash.

I love Immortal Sun, plus it doesn’t switch off the 2 Planeswalkers I’ve included here. They were included for their ongoing abilities. If I get to use the activated loyalty abilities that’s a bonus. It’s extra card draw, spells get cheaper, and a buff to creatures. Amazing value. Plus with Ugin it means casting a morph card is free.

Well you already know why this Ugin is here. It’s that discount. The other stuff is just gravy. I like Bag of Holding. That maybe an unpopular opinion. But I like that I can dump cards into it to use later in the game.

If you are going to be able to play cards as if they have flash, then you need the mana. I loved playing Wilderness Reclamation in Standard in my Simic deck. And I love it in Commander.

So they are the Standard cards I am going to upgrade the deck with. The bigger question is what goes? I know the alternative commanders are first for the chopping block. But after that I’ll decide once I have the cards in front of me.

What do you think? Did I miss any?

Official MtG Companion App Released

magic, MtG, news

Yesterday WotC released on Android (get real I’m an Apple fanboy, I’m not going to share an Android link) and iOS their official MtG Companion app.

So why should you be bothered about this?

Well over time this I believe is the app that WotC want you to have as your go to app for paper MtG. I’ve seen talk of eventually at store and Magicfests that you will be able to submit match results, see pairings, and standings for tournaments. Which will be pretty cool.

But before we get to that stuff and any other ideas they have planned we get this open beta that is aimed at the kitchen table players at home.

Wisely I think WotC are keeping it simple, by giving players a way to run events/tournaments at home amongst a group of friends.

There are apps and websites already out there, and have been for years that allow you to run tournaments. Such as Tourney on iOS or Challonge that is web based. Naturally being more established applications they offer more functionality, most of which is relevant to MtG players. They also have their advantages and disadvantages.

So at the moment you can create a home tournament for between 2 and 16 players. Which can be constructed, sealed or draft. With rounds that are either best of 1 (yeah WotC still hold out that this will take off, but what you do in the privacy of your own home is up to you, freaks) or best of 3.

Nitpicking but I dislike the splash screen art. The screens have an awful lot of dead space. A great example of this is the leaderboard. It looks like the name and position has had an argument with the win/loss/draw stats.

On the other hand I do like the pairings screen and how easy it is to update results.

But this is cosmetic stuff really. Easily fixed.

Functionality I’d love to see is being able to select between round robin and swiss for generating the pairings. I’d love to have the save functionality expanded from just groups, but the results of the tournaments for that group.

For me this companion app truly warrants the beta tag. Unlike Arena.

As the start of a conversation during the beta phase of this apps development, it’s a pretty good start.

You will need TestFlight installed to get this on iOS during this open beta period.

Oh and here is the original post on the WotC website announcing the app.

#RPGaDAY2019 Day 21 – Vast

D&D, RPG

After yesterday’s brief look at Generation Decks, and skipping another day of #RPGaDAY2019 (it’s just a coincidence that it was a hard theme) we are back on the month long bandwagon.

So let’s see what today’s theme is…

Vast, such a big word! Sorry couldn’t help that.

After that poor attempt at a joke, what does vast mean to me?

I think it describes the Forgotten Realm perfectly. It’s a word that pops to mind when I think about it.

The map below of the Sword Coast is a tiny part of that world.

Despite that, even that seems overwhelming in it’s size.

You can narrow in on any area, and be blown away with the share amount and richness of ideas that will be inspired.

I think of where my homebrew campaign is taking place around the Moonshae Islands and Mintarn and the share volume of adventure ideas that I have for that small part of the Sword Coast.

Adventures based on classical literature such as the Greek stories and legends. Encounters at sea with pirates and monsters, and also on the sea bed. Islands inspired by movies like Jurassic Park or the Island of Dr Moreau. Then you get on the Moonshae Islands themselves and all that they inspire above ground and below in the under dark.

It almost seems overwhelming.

I just love how the Forgotten Realm is such a vast and rich realm to base a campaign.

Generation Decks

Uncategorized

As a break from all the boring #RPGaDAY2019 stuff I thought I’d share some thoughts about my current reading material.

As you may have guessed it’s MtG related.

Thanks to my friend Duncan I was put onto this a couple of weeks ago.

Generation Decks by Titus Chalk brings to the collectible card game world it’s version of Masters of Doom and Jacked by David Kushner from the videogame world and The Monopolists by Mary Pilon.

Where Generation Decks differs from those books, is they are more biopic with a sprinkling of dramatic license? Generations Deck is more factual events broken up by the authors personal journey and memories of playing MtG.

I’m about three quarters through the book, and it’s enjoyable. The factual parts are part retelling the key events from MtG history peppered with quotes and recollections of events. I think it would be fair to describe the style of writing as very journalistic. Unlike the books already mentioned above or the likes Of Dice and Men, I don’t come away from this book feeling that I know anything more about the brains behind the game than I already knew.

The personal reflections of the author are interesting, and do a good job putting over what the game means to so many. That sense of belonging, community and friendship, all bought together by these bits of rectangular cardboard.

I have spotted the odd annoying grammatical error, that should have been picked up in proof reading and editing. But long suffering readers, and ok even recent ones, will know that’s a bit hypercritical of me to mention that.

Overall this has been an interesting read so far. Definitely worth picking up by fans of the game. Can I recommend it to a wider audience? I’m not sure I can.

#RPGaDAY2019 Day 19 – Scary

D&D, RPG

After the only gaming thing I did over the weekend was finally getting round to sorting my Star Realms collection (actually got the cards in the official big storage box now) I’m back once more for this #RPGaDAY2019 thing.

Today’s inspiring word for #RPGaDAY2019 is…

Today’s theme is a toughie.

Mainly because I’ve not played a horror or scary RPG. Or a scenario that is meant to be either.

There are plenty of opportunities to play a system where horror and being scared are a major element or the basis of the theme.

The image below shows a handful of them. So whether you want that Lovecraft mythology or more vampire/zombie theme there is a system or setting for you. You can even go Stranger Things inspired with Tales from the Loop.

I’d like to run a scary/horror one shot around the traditional time of year for such things (although I hate the commercial Americanisation that over shadows our traditional Guy Fawkes celebrations). My leanings at the moment are either The End of the World or Curse of Strahd.

The End of the World is a zombie apocalypse themed RPG. The hook is you are playing yourself in which every town/city you are living in. Your starting equipment is whatever is in your pocket and around you in the room you are playing.

The Curse of Strahd is set in Ravenloft and is a D&D fantasy horror setting. There are already all the creatures needed for the traditional classic horror setting, such as vampires (the main villain of the setting is one), werewolves and zombies.

A setting and theme alone do not make a session scary. I think good horror or scary movie is not just about the gore. It’s about the shocks, build up of suspense and sometimes not so subtle social commentary. Plus the many tropes such as the final girl or vengeful spirit.

So the problem is how to transfer these over to the tabletop?

If I run The Curse of Strahd then I have to hope that all this has been done already. Or I could take the book as inspiration and roll my own one shot in that setting, and attempt to do the job myself of including that stuff. Which I have no idea how to do (at the moment).

The End of the World is a great opportunity to explore social issues. Zombie movies, especially the Romero ones are great at embedding them into the setting. Considering that this setting is current day using current events is pretty easy.

The easiest thing to include are the tropes (apart from the final girl).

But I think the fact players playing themselves along with the traumas (ones they are happy to talk about publicly) is a great opportunity to dial up the suspense, and shocks. Especially if you know the players really well. Although I think this system really needs a good discussion before the game starts about peoples no go areas. What are they not comfortable discussing or dealing with. Not just the personal traumas but also situations. A player may not be comfortable dealing with family members dying and becoming zombies.

The decision about which system to go with may come down to the simple fact that I have The End of the World already. But having written all of the above, my curiosity and need to just buy stuff because, that may not be the deciding factor nearer the time.

Ok now go off and find some proper words on this theme.

#RPGaDAY2019 Day 17 – One

D&D, RPG

Having skipped a day to tell you about the Fenland Gamers monthly meet up and have some technical issues with the blog. It’s time to write a little bit as my contribution to day 17’s theme for #RPGaDAY2019.

Today’s theme is…

The number one has a special meaning in D&D particularly.

Roll a 1 in combat and this is what the Players Guide says happens…

“If the d20 roll for an attack is a I, the attack misses regardless of any modifiers ar the target’s AC.”

But roll a 1 in an ability check, contest, whatever. Despite any modifiers you have basically failed.

Personally I use the 1 to aid storytelling. A natural 1 means that not only have they failed, but they have failed royally. So I try and add a twist to the outcome. It could mean they get lost, or drop an item, or smash the lock. A dramatic twist that is not in the favour of the player.

Naturally there is an exception. There are always exceptions. This time my favourite race Halflings are the exception with their racial trait of lucky. This is what the Players Guide says about that trait…

“Lucky. When you roll a 1 on an attack roll, ability check, or saving throw, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll.”

The times that trait has been a life saver. A second bite at the cherry. Ok roll a 1 again and you are foobar just like everyone else. But still you’d have to be a pretty unlucky halfling for that to happen.

I hope you all enjoyed these short and predictable words on today’s theme.

Fenland Gamers August Monthly Meet-up 2019

Fenland Gamers, game night

“Do we have a venue this month?” asked adult man child Gavin (he will give me grief for that. Oh wait he already gave me grief on the Wednesday).

Such an innocent question. But relevant.

The “refit” at The Luxe has been a tad longer than the estimated 1 week when it was started at what now seems an eon ago. So we have been improvising with using a local school on an adhoc basis. But it’s use is reliant on a club founder/member.

It also helped remind me if we had a positive answer to the question that an event needed setting up pretty quickly.

After a group messenger chat between Gavin, myself and Jonathan we had a venue for the Monthly meet-up. It was time to get the word out to club members.

Wednesday evening, Jonathan had unlocked, and was ready for members to arrive. But he’d forgotten one important thing on Monday when he answered in the positive. No kids at home, meant his partner was expecting to go out. You know, be adults for a rare occasion. Apparently playing board games isn’t on the radar for going out. Hopefully Jonathan wouldn’t be residing in the metaphorical dog house too long.

Not long after my arrival. Katie and the usual suspect arrived.

Whilst waiting for their other members to arrive we started a game of No Thanks! I made a major boob at the start of the game, I hadn’t realised Katie hadn’t played before! The number of games we have played and with who, I had just assumed we had played the game with her before. So after a quick run through of the rules play started.

While we were playing the other members arrived. One of whom bought a very pleasant surprise with them. That surprise being in the form of Ice Blasts, packets of sweets, tea bags and coffee for those that wanted a hot beverage. Wow! Colour me grateful and impressed. So I think a big big thank you is in order for Nathan and The Luxe Cinema for their generosity.

The new arrivals formed a second play group and after some chat and a sushi supper for a couple of them , started playing some games (and you can see which ones at the end of this post along with some photos).

After 2 games of No Thanks! the honours where shared between The Usual Suspect and myself.

Our groups second game of the evening was Men at Work. Which Jonathan had tried at UKGE and liked so much he bought a copy.

Jonathan and I disagree about this game. But there is also some common ground. Which is we both think that the game is fun. Where we disagree is that I prefer Tokyo Highway. I think Tokyo Highway is more tactical. And I enjoy that element more.

Don’t get me wrong there are some nice extra elements to this game. Such as the deck of cards that control what action you have to do on your go. Some of the actions can be quite fiddly. Basically you are either placing a worker or a girder on your go. But placing that worker could be made more complicated by the fact you have to also balance a brick and/or a steal bar on that worker. The cards also tell you the colour of girder(s) that you have to use as well. So the worker may have to be placed on only a white girder on your turn.

I like how you have 3 lives, that you track using little card board contract tokens. You lose a life if anything touches/falls to the ground on your turn or you control the building site. As soon as something falls off, control passes to the next player, you lose a life, and the next player has to clear up the debris before they can take their turn.

Not sure how I feel about the bonus point mechanic, that kicks in once a particular card appears in the deck. You earn these points for adding a new highest point to the structure.

The records show that Katie won this without losing a life. She was the last one standing.

Our next game was a blast from the past, a game that hadn’t seen the table for 3 years. That game was Traders of Osaka. It’s still a good game. I still think that the payday scoring is over complicated. But from last place The Usual Suspect managed to grab the win with a couple of really well times paydays that saw him grab lots of victory points.

Whilst the others played Throw Throw Burrito (it looks a very exhausting game, and not my cup of tea), Katie and I played Penny Lane. For much of our game Katie had the lead on victory points and I thought I was going to lose the game. But I did manage to catch up and trigger the end of the game. My last action was the top decking of a building that allowed me to complete a victory point icon, taking me to 11 points. Katie sitting on 8 points at that moment, managed to then grab a final 2 points taking her to 10. Talk about lucky. I basically top decked the win with my last action.

Thanks to Nathan I can share some of his photos that he took from the evening as well.


A great evening, I think everyone had a good time. Once again a big thanks to The Luxe for their generosity for providing the refreshments for the evening.

Games Played: No Thanks!, Men at Work, Traders Of Osaka, Penny Lane

Games Played by others: Get Bit!, Dead and Breakfast, Throw Throw Burrito