“Hey, not too rough” #4

Doom, fps, nintendo, switch

Welcome back to my exploration of Doom the video game on the Nintendo Switch through interpretive dance.

You can find all my previous posts in this project here if you are interested or need to catch up for some reason.

E1M9 Military Base

I’ve taken the path less trodden!

Well for me it’s not I always take this diversion from the sequential flow through the levels.

Imps imprisoned in the middle of a court yard start firing in my direction as soon as I step out into the open.

They are easy targets, like shooting fish in a barrel.

Once they have been silenced it’s time to take one of the exits and start clearing a safe passage round the level.

Believe it or not there have actually been two movies based on Doom.

Doom the movie (2005)

When you consider the source material, and how this is not a narrative driven game. Doom and it’s backstory is no Last of Us. However it does have a paper thin backstory setting up the game. Which is more than the “classic” boardgame Battleships has, and they managed to make a movie out of that!

For the Rock aka Dwayne Johnson, Doom the movie is one of his early Hollywood efforts in the journey from WWE megastar to box office stardom.

But his isn’t the only “big” name on the credits. Starring along side Dwayne are Karl Urban (who at the time had LoTR recognition with audiences) and Rosamund Pike (who had been in a Bond movie a couple years previous). Plus a solid supporting cast with the likes of Richard Brake and Dexter Fletcher.

I’d sum the cast up at the time as semi-household names, not big box office stars like a Cruise or the Rock (now).

Naturally at some point in the movie you have to give the audience that fps camera. And the director does not disappoint.

To be fair to the movie the special effects don’t look that dated watching the movie now. Sometimes the special effects of movies don’t age well. These surprisingly hold up!

Back in 2005 I was still the family man. I didn’t see this at the cinema for sure, and most likely watched this on dvd with the kids. For sure this is the sort of movie I would never have got my ex-wife to go and see on the big screen. I think it would have been a struggle to get her to watch it on the small screen.

My ex-wife was, and still, is not a video game player. When it came to an fps she had no spatial awareness, and wasn’t able to process where she was on a map. It was painful watching her attempt to play the most simple of level designs.

So I think it is most definitely not doing her a disservice to claim she was not a fan of the Doom video games. I’m not even sure she would even have been familiar with the name.

I suspect my copy was region 1. At the time the majority of my dvd purchases were from the US. The region 1 version of a movie was often cheaper (even taking into account postage) and available months before the UK was due to get it. Once or twice the region 1 dvd was out before the movie had even hit the cinemas in the UK. Yes sometimes I got hit with import duties. But that was like a mini game I was playing with the taxman. The majority of the time I never got hit.

Let’s face it this movie was never going to get an Oscar nomination, or any other prestigious award. At best it might have been in the running for a raspberry.

The version I’m watching on Amazon is the extended edition that runs at 113 minutes. Back when I saw it originally that run time was 104 minutes for the theatrical release.

At best the movie can be described as average. Which is more than can be said for an awful lot of video game based movies.

After watching the movie I am no closer to understanding the psyche of the human soul. However I had an enjoyable time. Which is the best you can hope for with this type of movie.

As a final aside I think this movie has to be considered a box office flop. Going by the cost to make the movie (excluding the marketing budget) it barely made that at the box office. For a movie to be considered to have broken even it normally has to take at the box office the production budget and marketing budget combined. Doom the movie did not get close to that figure.

Doom Annihilation (2019)

I don’t remember Doom Annihilation having a cinematic release. Which doesn’t mean it didn’t. It just means it wasn’t a massive hit if it did. I suspect this was a straight to dvd/streaming service effort.

So watching this now will be a first for me.

I’m setting my expectations to low.

The Military Base introduces another new monster to slaughter with one of my arsenal in the form of the Spectre. Spectres are partially invisible demons. You get to see their “shimmer” often too late.

But a couple of shotgun blasts makes quick work of them. Although that’s often at the last moment as they appear out of nowhere in the dim light.

I’m pretty sure the last time I played this on the 360 I had the lighting turned up so it was not as dark, and I had less surprises. In fact I’ve done that more than once. Is it cheating? The game lets me do it. But that’s more to take into account the variability in monitors/televisions.

There’s a sweet spot on the brightness. I seem to remember on one game (probably one of the Resident Evil franchise) they recommend adjusting it until you are just able to see a certain object.

But alls fair in the extermination of these demon spawn. Sadly I’ve not played around with these settings on this play through. They are the default, so I have to contend with spectres being harder to detect at times.

It’s a good job my expectations were low. I can’t help watching the opening few minutes without comparing it to Aliens.

The scenes are similar, marines waking up from stasis as they near their destination. But it’s the set design, costumes, and acting. You believe that they are marines in Aliens. They look, feel, talk like a unit of marines.

Sadly these marines in Doom Annihilation look and sound more like children in fancy dress.

There is a reason this has gone straight to streaming. With an obvious low budget, poor script, at best run of the mill direction and editing, no name cast.

There are obvious nods to the video game source with use of the chain saw and blowing up of barrels.

But I go back to my Aliens comparison, or with zombie movies. Even when it’s meant to feel like the monsters are over running the marines it doesn’t. You wish that the director had watched other zombie movies or Aliens so he could be influenced in a positive way.

I think it wants to be Aliens, so many scenes seem similar. Making me think I could be watching Aliens.

This movie is just a stinker.

Time to return to the flow of things and E1M4 Command Control in the next post.

Little life update

life, the universe, and everything, still alive

As I’m working on the next part of my Doom epic for this weekend I thought I’d just ramble on about stuff.

I’m getting the board game side of the Doom project in place so that I can get it to the table. Which naturally will then feed into the posts.

I’m not sure what folks think of the Doom posts they are a bit out there for this blog.

The latest Tapestry expansion and folded space insert have dropped through the letter box. So I have an excuse to get that back to the table but before I do I have an insert to build.

A few Marvel Champions also arrived. Which means I have all the big expansions now along with a few more heroes. But I’ll talk about that once I’ve finished organising the cards I already have. Which I’m in the progress of doing.

A lot of card sleeves are on their way so I can sleeve the Doom games when they arrive and the just arrived Tapestry expansion.

I’ve got the expansion for Deep Sea Adventure (Charlene got me a copy while at Airecon). Well I will have once I see Charlene. I owe her one Hostage Negotiator play mat too.

That’s about it for now laters.

My Weekends Gaming

bgstat, Fenland Gamers, Game day, game night

Just a brief post to share which games I played this weekend.

Friday was club for Fenland Gamers and I got to not only meet Dave and his partner Clack. But also got to play a couple of games with them.

I had a blast introducing them to Libertalia Winds of Galecrest and Survive Escape from Atlantis.

Libertalia was a four player game that saw the first two days with three of us playing the same cards. But more worrying for Clank was we played the same cards for the whole of that first voyage. No one wants to be on the same wavelength as me! That way leads to madness.

I did manage to scrape the win by a point, and introduced Dave and Clank to the name “first loser” for the runner up/second place. Jeff I will forever be grateful that you introduced me to that name.

Survive for such a mean game is so much fun for everyone playing. But I guess that does depend on whose playing to some extent.

All I know about our game Friday night was we had great fun playing the game. What’s more I some how managed to win! That’s back to back victories for me playing either of the Survive games. I’d like to claim it was due to skill but considering I don’t have a clue about the value of which survivors I get to safety it’s pure luck.

Saturday illness human and canine took out two of the three of our D&D group that could make the planned session.

So Luke and I met up, grabbed a burger (double quarter pounder with cheese, and cheesy chips), before playing Red Rising.

I really do like Red Rising and the choices you have to make during the game. How I ever thought this wasn’t for me I don’t know.

In our two games that we played (we both won one a piece) I needed a red card to trigger the end game bonus on one of my cards. Did any come up during either game? Not one. Between games I had to check the deck to make sure there was some there. Luckily I had a card that allowed during the end of the game allowed you to choose a colour.

I did use some new functionality within the bgstat app that is in beta testing and that is score sheets.

For some of the games in bgstat with the score sheets functionality enabled when recording a game play or viewing one you will see the little score sheet icon (see magnified bit in the image above).

Click on that icon and you are taken to the score sheet for the game, where you can enter or view the score sheet for that play.

I really liked how the score sheet worked for Red Rising. This is really cool. If they end up charging me to use this in the future when it’s ready for prime time (which it seems it is) I’d happily pay for it.

Bgstat just gets better and better.

Right got to end this post, plan next weekends gaming (hoping to get Doom to the table) and rearrange D&D.

Happy Mario Day

Uncategorized

Thanks to the Americans writing dates incorrectly and bad licence plate style spelling we get to celebrate Mar10 day.

I’m not complaining really, it’s nice to have an excuse to talk about that legendary Italian plumber Mario.

I’m not going to lie, and what I’m going to say may be considered by some as heresy. However my favourite Mario game might just be the GameBoy classic Super Mario Land.

This along with Tetris, and Zelda Links Awakening were games I played a lot at the time.

You’ve read about my Doom memories from my time working in Byfleet. But before Doom back in 1990 when I first starting working there my lunchtimes were playing on my GameBoy. During that time Donkey Kong joined the games I’d play to death.

Despite not finishing Super Mario Land (I got close) it still has a special place in my gaming memories.

But today I’m not firing up my GameBoy with Super Mario Land in it.

I’m going to celebrate Mario Day by playing my Super Mario Bros Game & Watch.

Laters.

Grp2: When last we left our heroes… #12

D&D, D&D Grp2, post mortem, RPG

A bit late. But better late than never.

The party woke up to their neighbour telling them that she was unable to find the jewelled idol she was planning to sell to pay them for getting rid of the rats. She suspected it had been stolen and had reported it to the authorities.

Further up the street there was a commotion and wailing when a dead body had been found in one of the houses. It was a mystery as to what had caused the death. But foul means were suspected.

The streets were also abuzz with the rumour that Rullus Hobb had kidnapped members of the Golden Council.

After a shopping trip to stock up on supplies the party headed off to the Endless Warrens in search of the hideout where Rullus Hobb was hiding with his hostages.

The party found an entrance to a cave that they suspect was the hideout. After fighting an undead drake, the party continued exploring the caves.

Post Mortem

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following part of the post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this part of the post and join me in a future one. Don’t give in to temptation go read something else.

Has it been two weeks already? Time flies by.

But it’s nice to be back to a regular time to meet up.

On a practical level our session was less than ideal with things being a bit cramped. As the photo below shows instead of our usual two big tables giving us space to spread out. We were down to small tables and using chairs!

This was a session that was very much made up as I went along.

I seeded some plot lines such as the Bagman. But the one the party decided to go with was pursuing Rullus Hobb. Especially as it transpired he now had some of the Golden Council hostage. Which might also mean that Adel is amongst the hostages.

This has seen the party enter the Endless Warrens. For this I needed a map so I used the Caves of Chaos map from the classic Keep on the Borderlands module. I keep an A3 copy of the Caves of Chaos in my DM folder along with a two or three others just for this sort of situation. The version of the map I use is the one by Dyson Logos.

Obviously I needed to populate the section of the cave they were exploring. For this I was using the Objects of Intrigue – Underground deck. Along with the fumbled searches deck.

I like these two decks a lot.

The Objects of Intrigue deck did allow me to fill the rooms with “interesting” encounters that weren’t all about combat. From this the party have ended up with two large mushrooms that they haven’t discovered are rather beneficial to them if eaten.

I didn’t get a chance or more likely didn’t need to use the Pathfinder NPC deck.

I did use the jewelled owl puzzle which seemed to work ok.

Before the next session I need to stat out the villain plus the Bagman.

Not the worlds greatest detectives

game night

Friday evening was not a club night but still gaming took place.

I like to think we had a themed game night. The theme being deduction games. In particular Awkward Guests and Cryptid.

After seeing a review, albeit an old review from the Dice Tower, for Awkward Guests I purchased a copy.

I knew Jonathan was a Cluedo fan. He has one or two versions in his collection. Awkward Guests was billed by the reviewer (Tom Vassel) as a Cluedo killer.

Jonathan would love this game I thought.

So having ordered it, I messaged Jonathan.

It turned out he owned it already, had played it once, and didn’t have a good experience.

Oh.

That kinda deflated my bubble a little.

But that didn’t put me off organising Fridays gaming session. I just knew that Jonathan most likely wouldn’t come.

So I was a little surprised when Jonathan said he was coming. Also a little relieved because until then I only had one person commit to coming along. Three was the minimum needed for the evenings gaming to go ahead.

The new normal for me is to go straight from work to the game night. I’m there early enough to not only set up the tables but to grab a bite to eat also.

So by the time Anthony and Jonathan turned up everything is set up waiting, and I’m well fed.

We started off our evening of deduction with Awkward Guests.

As I mentioned previously Awkward Guests is meant to be a Cluedo killer.

Now I don’t have any particular strong feelings about Cluedo one way or the other.

During my formative years aka as a child I remember playing Cluedo once or twice. But memory fails me as to if it was a copy we owned or a family members copy we played.

I certainly don’t have fond memories to reflect back on playing the game. At best I know I played it.

However we do know I enjoy deduction games. So the glowing reviews did make me curious to try it.

I actually liked the game. I particularly like the hand management side of it. Having to decide which clues you want to keep from the other players (and then bury in the discard pile), which you are happy for others to know.

The only real criticism I have of the game is the map of the house and suspects on the back cover of the rulebook should be a separate sheet/board. That way players can just check a rule without disturbing a players turn and moving the markers. A single card player aid summarising the turn structure would also have been nice.

We played using the official companion app. Which meant if you guessed wrong you weren’t eliminated from the game. However you were not allowed to make a guess at the end of the next turn.

The companion app is just that. It’s not needed. But it’s handy and offers many more scenarios to solve.

What I’d like to see for this and Cryptid is a cheap expansion that just adds more physical scenarios. In the case of Awkward Guests a pdf or booklet. With Cryptid a deck of cards.

That’s all these games need just for those that don’t want to use the app or can’t for some reason.

Jonathan solved the case. I’m sure Jonathan will read this post at some point and hopefully share his updated views and what initially put him off the game. Until then the tl;dr is he enjoyed the game this time around.

Next up was Cryptid. We actually played three games of this in a row. These were pretty quick games. Maybe twenty odd minutes each.

I wasn’t using the companion app (it’s not really an app more a website). Plus we were playing basic rules not the advanced. Jonathan doesn’t like the advanced rules with the negative clues. So we play the rules he enjoys. For me it’s a fun game either way. Besides Anthony had never played the game before so made sense sticking to the basic rules.

I faired much better at Cryptid by winning two of the three games. And Jonathan winning the third.

This was a fun evening of deduction. It’s nice to get these type of games to the table. It’s almost refreshing to play something that’s a bit more thinky.

Can’t wait until we have a similar themed evening again.

“Hey, not too rough” #3

Doom, fps, nintendo, retro gaming, switch, video games

Welcome back to my dramatic play through of Doom the video game on the Nintendo Switch.

You can find all my previous posts in this project here if you are interested or need to catch up for some reason.

Knee-Deep in the Dead

I don’t think over the numerous times I’ve played Doom I’ve ever played it on anything but “Hurt me plenty”.

There might have been one occasion when I tried “Ultra-Violence” out of curiosity. But I quickly returned to the comfort of “Hurt me plenty”!

For me “Hurt me plenty” offers the perfect mix of difficulty and challenge.

But I’m older now.

Will this difficulty level still be that perfect mix. How will age have affected my reactions?

The other choice is whether to go to the dark side and use any of the available cheats.

Cheats that are made easily accessible from the pause menu.

Thinking back I’m pretty sure back in those early days of playing Doom for the first time I was aware of the cheat codes you had to enter to get one or two of those power ups. Memory fails me as to how I knew about them. It was either from a gaming magazine or a player guide at the time. Not knowing for sure which it was will haunt me. It will eat away until my mind convinces me that I had the player guide. I think it was a player guide, a small pocket one that was once on the cover of one of the magazines at the time. Just not that fancy official one.

I’m not going to succumb to the dark side. I don’t need cheats to be with my old friend.

I press start, and select almost without thinking “Hurt me plenty” and “Knee-deep in the dead”. It’s almost second nature. Muscle memory.

E1M1 Hangar

The screen fades away…

“Hello darkness, my old friend” Sound of Silence, Paul Simon

Within moments an alien corpse, and a barrel lie in front of me. A view that has greeted me countless times.

“And the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains” Sound of Silence, Paul Simon

It seems strange that I can remember this first level along with the next two perfectly. The remaining levels I remember but not in as much detail.

I pick up the stat bonuses lying around the room and it’s connecting chamber. I take the chance to look out the window onto the Martian landscape and the beckoning “courtyard” promising a reward if I can get there.

After opening the first door I need to take out the marines in the next room with the pistol I’m armed with. I pick them off at a distance. Dodging any bullets they manage to fire off in reply before dying.

I need to take a raised path through acid pools that has an imp firing fireballs at me from a ledge at the far end of the room, and a marine charging towards me.

I dodge the fireballs and take out the marine, and then the imp.

It’s now safe to cross the room and take the secret exit outside to collect that promised reward.

Back indoors I open the door and take out the awaiting imps before they can land a fireball on me. I press the button to lower the platform the imp was on in the previous room.

Back tracking to the previous room I can now get the spoils revealed by the lowered platform. I have the shotgun.

Returning to the other room I press the button to open the exit and trigger the end of the level.

Still after all these years I only get a 66% complete on the secrets. There is one secret room I always miss. You’d think after all this time I’d be getting 100% and remember where that remaining secret room is.

E1M2 Nuclear Plant

The door opens and I have a room full of marines to clear.

I shoot the barrels. It’s a cliche decades later. But I still shoot the conveniently placed barrels in the room to help reduce the number of marines I need to shoot.

After I clear the room of threats I find the secret room before taking the stairs.

I like the way you can look out side and see tantalising power ups or cool weapons like the chainsaw sitting seemingly unreachable on top of pillars. Usually guarded by numerous enemies that you will have to fight through to get them. The hard part? Finding the secret door to allow you outside.

On reflection I think this is my favourite level of Doom. I get a lot of satisfaction playing it. Whether it’s the level design itself, or just the way it makes me feel. Maybe it’s the familiarity. I just find the level so comforting and enjoyable.

With the chainsaw in my weapons inventory it’s time to move onto another great bit of level design.

E1M3 Toxin Refinery

After blasting the marines that were waiting for me after I opened the door I head to the left and the only door I can open.

This first part of the level introduces the pinkish coloured demon. But before I get to meet this new hellish adversary I have to fight through a classic bit of game design that sees me grabbing a blue key card, the room going dark, and imps appearing en masse from secret rooms.

Doom isn’t one of those games you can play in silence.

The audio design is just as important as any of the visual clues.

For example on this level as you enter the passage way leading to one area you trigger a secret door opening. But your only clue this is happening is the audio of the door opening and closing in the distance.

Unless you run, you can’t get to the open door in time to get the revealed secret room.

But other audio clues you get are the almost grunting like noise the imps make. Often that’s the first clue you get that somewhere in front (or behind) of you awaits a fire ball.

“Set the demons free and watch ’em fly” KISS, War Machine

I love the level design in Doom. From the moment you start the game in E1M1 Hangar, where you are introduced to some elements of the game such as the use of height, lighting, lifts/platforms that go up and down. Which historically tell you this ain’t no Wolfenstein 3D.

Each level introduces some new hellish enemy, some new mechanic. It’s almost a gentle introduction that culminates in the later more complicated and deadly levels.

During the week it strikes me I played Doom on one platform I’d forgotten about.

I think describing it as played is a bit misleading. I had a play around with the Doom piano.

Me as the Fist of Awesome bear playing the Doom piano.

The Doom piano was this incredible project where a real piano had been converted to play Doom. Pressing the keys on the piano controlled what happened you did in game.

I think it was the Eurogamer expo or something like that down in London circa 2013/14 when I helped promote a video game called Fist of Awesome by being dressed up in a bear outfit.

Throughout the weekend folks could have a photo taken fake punching me the bear. Which was then shared on social media promoting the game.

Oh the game was a retro style side scrolling beat ‘em up in the style of Streets of Rage, where as a lumberjack you fought against the ruling bears!

It was a great weekend. I met some awesome developers. Plus I got to play around on the Doom piano.

For the first time in the game I have a decision to make that effects the path I take through the game. Press the button in front of me or track back and press the other one. If my memory isn’t letting me down I haven’t back tracked to the other button in a long long time.

I know the buttons take me to different levels. But which ones I can’t remember. Like so many times before I press the button in front of me instead of back tracking to the other one.

Onto the next level…

Two Kickstarter no brainers for DM’s

D&D, DM/GM Tips, news, RPG

Just thought I’d share a couple of no brainer kickstarters a DM should be backing at the moment.

The first is by Kelsey at The Arcane Library who has created her own rpg called Shadowdark RPG: Old-School Gaming, Modernized.

The tag line goes “Classic adventure gaming for 5E and old-school players alike! One book, all you need to play.”

I’ve wanted to try the old school stuff with some of the classic D&D adventures I have. I think this is the system I’m going to go with.

It looks rather cool. Plus you can try before you back as well with the FREE Digital Shadowdark RPG Quickstart Set that is available on DriveThruRPG.

You can back it here on kickstarter.

The other no brainer is the latest in the Lazy DM series of books, Forge of Foes.

This is not a bestiary. This is a 128 pages by Mike Shea and friends that is all about creating your own monsters and running them.

Just like the Lazy DM Companion Kickstarter there is a 30 page (can’t remember the exact page count) sampler that is useful and allows you to create your own monsters right away.

You can back Forge of Foes here.

Both of these kickstarters are at a point where they are virtually ready to send to printers. So I’m expecting to get digital copies of these goodies not long after the campaigns complete.

D&D Grp 2 Session 13 Planning #1

D&D, D&D Grp2, RPG, session planning

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign/session. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one. REMEMBER you have been warned.

So the Bagman has been seeded in the campaign. Which means I will need stats at some future session.

In Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft (where they introduce the Bagman) they use the stats for a troll (from the Monster Manual) as it’s base.

Taken from the srd 5.1 2023 covered under the Creative Commons

Then they do the following to make the Bagman unique, and feel like the Bagman.

“With tactics and traits in mind, you think of your troll as an abductor and give it the Grappler trait of a mimic and the Amorphous trait of a black pudding so it can sneak in anywhere. Finally, you don’t think of the troll as a minion, but you give it the Alien Mind trait to reflect its tormented psyche.” Page 225,Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

Here are the relevant bits from the srd and Van Richten’s for those traits.

“Grappler. The Bagman has advantage on attack rolls against any creature grappled by it.”

With this trait I do need to remember this rule from the Monster Manual for any player the bagman is trying to abduct and is trying to escape.

“GRAPPLE RULES FOR MONSTERS
…
A creature grappled by the monster can use its action to try to escape. To do so, it must succeed on a Strength (Athletics) or Dexterity (Acrobatics) check against the escape DC in the monster’s stat block. If no escape DC is given, assume the DC is 10 +the monster’s Strength (Athletics) modifier.” Page 11, Monster Manual

“Amorphous. The Bagman can move through a space as narrow as 1 inch wide without squeezing.” Taken from the srd 5.1 2023 covered under the Creative Commons

“Alien Mind. If a creature tries to read the minion’s thoughts, that creature must succeed on a Intelligence saving throw with a DC equal to 10 + the minion’s Intelligence modifier or be stunned for l minute. The stunned creature can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success.” Page 225,Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

However in the Dragon+ issue 37 article about the creation of the bagman they drop the following that the “bagman should be an entity with high Stealth”.

So in addition to the additional traits that the WotC designers gave the Bagman I’m tempted to also give the Bagman this additional trait.

“Sneaky (Trait). This creature has advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks.” Page 12, The Lazy DM’s Forge of Foes sampler.

Plus an additional skill of Stealth +7

Which I think gives the Bagman that high stealth ability they thought he should have. So that the Bagman can recreate the idea of “nothing’s more disturbing in a horror movie than when something horrible is in the background and the main characters don’t see it.” Dragon+ 37

Going by the “MONSTER STATISTICS BY CHALLENGE RATING” table on page 274 of the Monster Manual the proficiency bonus for the Bagman is +3.

But does the Bagman need to be an “elite” monster? An “elite” monster as described by Mike Shea in his uncovered secrets volume 2 (a pdf for patreons of stuff that didn’t make it into the Lazy DM Companion) “elite monsters are equivalent of two characters of their level”.

“Elite monsters have the following additional traits:

  • They have double the listed hit points.
  • They inflict double the listed damage.
  • They have one use of legendary resistance per day, letting them turn a failed saving throw into a success.

For that last one Mike describes Legendary Resistance as:

“Legendary Resistance (3/Day). If the monster fails a saving throw, it can choose to succeed instead.”

Let’s face it the Bagman will not be taking on the party with the aid of minions or any other creatures. So when they do finally face off against the Bagman he needs to be tough enough to last longer than a single round.

I think making the Bagman “elite” does that.

So that’s my initial thoughts for a hopefully easy to run Bagman. Now to just fit that all onto an Arcane Library blank monster card!

Cake, Mars, and Crows

Fenland Gamers, game night, life, the universe, and everything, still alive

I know my usual posting schedule has once again gone out the window.

Despite having had a half term to recharge the batteries. This past week I’ve been particularly tired in the evenings. Often falling asleep whilst watching something.

I’m not sure folks appreciate how draining the day can be. Especially when you are still adjusting.

However yesterday was the end of the week and once again the fortnightly Fenland Gamers Friday game night.

Which means I go straight from work to where we meet up and play some games. Well that’s the new routine for club night considering the time I finish on a Friday, and it’s on the way home.

Plus it means I get there early, and have time to get something to eat before the majority arrive. I also get to set up the tables ready for some gaming.

Last night I got to play a four player game of Portal.

I’d been wanting to play the game with more than two players.

Our game was shorter than I expected and not as cut throat. But I put that down to one of our players not being a “gamer” and not really paying attention to what was going on. More importantly putting all their eggs into one basket so to speak by having both of their test subjects in the same test chamber. Which opened them up to Ben placing a turret in that chamber and ending the game. At that point in time Ben had the most slices of cake out on the laboratory. Giving him the win.

The second game of the evening saw Ben grab his second win of the evening when he won Alien Frontiers.

The latest edition to the collection, Murder of Crows was my final game of the evening.

The game had only arrived the day before. So naturally I hadn’t had time to read the brief rulebook.

So as I shuffled the cards Ben quickly read the rulebook, and was first player. After all first player was meant to be the most shady looking person!

Murder of Crows is a nice light take that card game, that plays in less than thirty minutes.

It definitely has a spot in the roster of filler games in my collection.

Harrison won the game.

It was a good evening of gaming.