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. Just say no to metagaming!
Over the course of this campaign we’ve had one founding player leave (personal reasons). Plus two new players join. With one of those briefly with us before our schedule got back on track and clashed with other stuff.
So we had space at the table for a new player.
Graham is a friend of Shane’s who he plays in another group with.
He’s playing a cleric sent to look after Jeb.
I think the session went well with Graham and looking forward to adventuring with him.
The session itself was once again wandering around the endless warrens looking for Rullus Hobb and his hostages.
The party awoke from their long rest to lizard folk holding the hostage Luke’s character Drenol and Grahams. This was the best I could come up with of introducing a new character to the game mid dungeon.
I think this could have been better. Especially if I’d made the game of Life or Death best of three for the freedom of the hostages.
I’ve tried not having this dungeon crawl be one where the players are fighting for every foot they explore. However I think the players are not enjoying the exploring side based on comments like “not more tunnels and doors”.
Despite that major drawback. I think using the Caves of Chaos map, alongside the dungeon encounters deck has worked well from a DM make it up as you go way.
The dungeon encounter cards have been interesting especially in seeing how the players react or interpret the cards encounter. Sometimes they read too much into the encounter and I’ve just rolled with it.
The big combat encounter at the end was a “swarm” of skeletons. However with the rogue character using psychic blades from a distance I decided to introduce a second threat (a basilisk) coming in behind the rogue.
The reason I went basilisk was because one of the encounter cards had one on, I had the 2D standee handy too.
I think it went ok. The basilisk did some damage. The rogue learnt hiding and throwing psychic blades is not always going to be safe.
Right I’ve got some prep to do for the next session.
You can find all my previous posts in this project here if you are interested or need to catch up for some reason. I’ve written a lot of words now about the game so would totally understand you wanting to skip them.
Ok with that bit of housekeeping out the way it’s time to continue this meandering journey through playing Doom on the Nintendo Switch, it’s boardgame appearances, and some brief reflection.
E2M4 Deimos Lab
These later levels are certainly harder. I’m dying more often. Having to utilise the ol’ save game regularly tactic.
“Day and night, baby, night and day All hell’s breakin’ loose” All hell’s breakin’ loose, KISS
Cacodemons are more frequent, as are Lost Souls. It’s not just the odd one, but groups of three or more. Last seen at the end of Knee Deep, Barons of Hell are now making a more regular appearance on a level.
Demons are being thrown at me in even bigger quantities. Portals are more frequent as a means to move around the map.
E2M5 Command Centre
The decor of the base is starting to get more corrupt and horrific. Evidence as if we needed it that hell was escaping into our world.
I love how a large carving of the Baron of Hell’s head in the walls foreshadows (or should that be warn?) of the immediate appearance of said being.
E2M6 Halls of the Damned
Getting my hands on a 2016 edition of Doom the board game was more eventful than it should have been.
The online retailer Boardgameguru had a copy which I ordered over a weekend. I knew they would not be sending the game straight away. They were at the end of a warehouse move.
Communication from the company said they would be business as normal that Monday.
I thought allow them a day or two to catch up with any orders. I should with a fair wind have the game by the following weekend.
However it did not arrive.
Another week passes and nothing.
So the following week I sent an email asking for an update. I was greeted by a wall of silence. Well no reply. A couple of days later I sent a follow up email. Still nothing. Not even tumble weed.
But that Friday afternoon I got a marketing email from them.
That infuriated me. It got my hackles up.
I replied to the marketing email with a blunt angry response.
Third time a charm. There was a reply this time.
Allegedly they are were unable to find any trace of my emails.
Apparently in the warehouse move they missed my order, and lost the only copy of the game!
I was given the option to wait for another copy to arrive (not likely for a seven year old game that is basically out of print) or have a refund.
I went the refund route.
But even that took a while to acknowledge. However eventually they did and a refund was issued.
While I was waiting for the refund to be done I posted on a boardgaming Facebook group looking for a second hand copy.
I got lucky. Within minutes some-one I had bought from before had a copy they were happy to sell to me.
That copy arrived whilst I was visiting Nathan.
Now I just need to get this edition to the table.
Another rarity I finished this level with 100% across the board.
This was a hard level. At times I just wanted to get to the exit.
But in doing so somehow I ended up finding and killing everything.
You can find all my previous posts in this project here if you are interested or need to catch up for some reason.
“I won’t take no prisoners, won’t spare no lives … I got my bell, I’m gonna take you to hell” Hells Bells, AC/DC
I have no bell but I do have a gatling gun, shotgun, and rocket launcher. They will have to do.
The Shores of Hell
Finally I start the middle setting of the three that make up the original Doom.
After the way Knee-Deep in the Dead finished I’m frankly shocked to be standing.
E2M1 Deimos Anomaly
There’s no exposition as to how I got out of that sticky wicket. All I know is I’m back taking on the forces of hell with just my fists and a pistol.
It feels right from the go that the stakes are higher.
I’m teleporting around the level. Cacodemons are being thrown at me. There’s something satisfying when they melt to the ground after taking that final shotgun blast.
This level is a rarity for me. It’s 100% across the board when I complete it. Yep kills, items, and secret rooms!
“And I’m goin’ down All the way I’m on the highway to hell” Highway to Hell, AC/DC
E2M2 Containment Area
I love this level. It’s mainly because I’m running round at one point what is obviously a warehouse, slash storage area of some kind picking off imps hidden amongst the crates.
For me there is something satisfying clearing the area of threats, getting on top of crates, finding hidden areas.
The level design is superb. I picked out the above couple of examples. But all of the levels so far are text book examples in good level design.
One last surprise on this level is the appearance of the Lost Souls. These flaming skulls like the Cacodemon are classic. I just love the look of these two enemies.
E2M3 Refinery
Caged Cacodemons in front of me, imps, demons, and marines to the left and pouring in from the front. Fire, dodge, fire, dodge, is the order of the day until it goes all silent.
There have been two board games based on Doom. Both from FFG. The first came out in 2004 and had an expansion released for it in 2005. An updated second edition came out in 2016.
To be fair and I’m laying the blame for this series of posts squarely at the feet of Marcin. These posts and the replay of Doom would not have happened if Marcin had not been selling his 2004 edition of the Doom board game.
A couple of months back now I saw some-one local was selling a copy of Doom on the Facebook marketplace. So I messaged them that I was interested. It turned out to be Marcin selling it.
After Marcin checked that I knew it was the 2004 edition he was selling and not the 2016 one. Which was perfect as that was the edition that I wanted. We exchanged money for cardboard and plastic the next time we saw each other.
I wasn’t worried about the 2016 edition as that seemed easily available.
Harder to find was the 2005 expansion.
There is a copy of the base game and expansion, both in shrink, on eBay where the seller is looking for £1000! Yes you read that right.
So I offered them what I thought was a reasonable offer of £60 for the expansion only. Not surprisingly that offer was turned down.
In the meantime my search turned up a second hand copy of the game with the expansion on bgg for a much more reasonable price of 99 of the Kings coin.
So I went back to the eBay seller and made my case for an improved offer of 80 quid. More than fair I thought.
However the reply was very aggressive threatening to report me to eBay if I contacted them again. Honestly I was taken aback by the reply that seemed a tad of an overreaction.
The following couple of weeks since, I got more than one email from eBay encouraging me to make another offer!
I am now the proud owner of a second copy of the 2004 Doom with the expansion, because yes I did buy the bgg one.
Which means I have two copies of the core game. I’m keeping both. No wait hear me out. It means I can play just the core game or with the expansion without having to unsort or add the expansion. I just have to grab the right box.
Doom (2004) Knee-deep in the Dead scenario being played
So I got Doom (2004) the board game to the table for a full four player game.
I enjoy one vs many style games, add in that I like dungeon crawls and Doom was ticking a lot of boxes for me.
Usually I’m the one playing on the side of the forces of evil. So it was refreshing that this time Dave kindly took on that role.
We were playing the first scenario of the five that the game has called Knee Deep In The Dead. Each of the scenarios is named after one of the ones in the video game.
We had a blast despite the eventual demise of our marines.
Diego and Gavin left me with the chainsaw as my weapon as they grabbed the shotgun and machine gun. I felt cheated.
But as they ran out of the scarce ammo I was cutting away all before me. I even lobbed the odd grenade that I picked up to great effect once or twice.
After a very deceiving start to the level things started to get tougher. More, bigger, tougher opponents started entering the battlefield.
However it went totally wrong when the blue key we found was broken. Unable to open the door we had to double back through a horde of monsters.
That was the start of the end. Ammo was almost out, we were clearing a slow path through the bodies but at a great cost.
In the end it was too much. We were overwhelmed by the hordes of hell.
The big question did it feel like we were playing a physical game of Doom?
Yes it did to some extent. Especially the scarce amount of ammo. The running out of ammo, having to resort to using fists. Then there is the respawning after dying. Although it’s not quiet like the video game as you keep all your stuff!
As for the wave after wave of monsters to kill as we worked our way through the level map. Not knowing what was waiting round the corner or on the other side of the door. Yeah that was captured very well.
I can’t wait to play more scenarios from the game, and to throw in the expansion as well.
I’ve waded through pools, no rivers of acid. Fought off the horrors hidden in the maze by the strobing lights. Somehow I’ve made it to the exit.
With Saturdays D&D session now behind me, my thoughts are now turned towards Wednesday and the Shadowdark one-shot.
As hinted in the initial post that prep involves watching some videos by Kelsey (the games designer). Which I’ve embedded below for easy reference and rewatching for me.
These videos are great as a resource for some-one looking to try Shadowdark, and particularly the Quick Start kit with it’s included adventure.
I know that one player has already created a human priest character for the session.
I’m not sure which direction the other players want to go, whether that’s using precons or roll their own. I’ll find out on the night I suppose.
In meantime I need to try and create a version of the Shadowdark GM cheat sheet that I did for D&D.
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.
It’s the morning of game day. So it’s time to go through the Lazy GM (rebranded during the OGL Fiasco of 2023) steps to get ready.
But before I do that I was processing some last minute ideas for this session and future ones.
Yesterday I went to the online printer in the UK that I found (Doxzoo) and had the WotC plane shift booklets for Ixalan and Innistrad ordered along with a copy of a book I got off the DMs Guild on harvesting monsters (there is no print option).
I’ve been on the edge of pulling the trigger on purchasing the latest D&D adventure compendium Keys from the Golden Vault to get the gambling games rules.
However a quick Google got me those rules. So I can punt that decision into the future. So I have the ability to run Three-Dragon Ante and Life and Death during a session.
I like the idea of having this as an option to make visits to a tavern more interesting. I’m also toying with the idea of possibly using Life and Death today!
It’s possible that the lizardfolk the party will bump into will challenge the party to a game with some reward other than money as the prize for winning, such as a map.
I’ve also this morning ordered a copy of Three-Dragon Ante off Amazon along with a wooden box to keep the deck of many things in.
Obviously with Three-Dragon Ante arriving tomorrow playing that will be an option in future sessions. Whilst I could use the deck of many things today if I so wished. I think the mystery box will add to the theatrics when it is final found. Although I do like the idea of using it for the deck of illusions as well.
I’m also working on my own cheat sheet, slash riff on the generator tables by Sly Flourish for harvesting based on the pdf book I bought on harvesting. As I want to use harvesting of monsters more productively with the party seeing as they have been harvesting corpses! The hope of this sheet is that it will help me improvise harvesting during a session. Or during planning for a monster I stat out using the Folio of Fiends.
I also whilst skimming through the stuff about the latest WotC adventure thingy got reminded of the arcane lock spell. A spell that will be used either in this session or the next I think.
Our morning started off with us learning War of the Ring the card game.
We played the two player Fellowship of the Ring scenario. It’s slightly less complicated rules wise. Only uses paths and battlegrounds that cover the first book, and the battlegrounds are not chosen at random but played in order. The decks are also constructed differently, taking out certain cards from the factions, or missing a faction altogether.
After a slow start as we learnt the rules as we played we soon got into the swing of things.
Oh Nath played the part of the Fellowship, while I played the Nazgûl.
It was interesting that early on I had card advantage, was drawing more cards. But that flipped in the later stages to Nath having the card advantage.
It’s certainly a very nice game, with interesting choices to be made every turn. Which starts with which card to discard and which to play. As you can’t play a card without discarding one.
Then you have to decide to whether play the card to a path, battleground or into reserve.
As the forces of darkness I was cycling through my deck a lot, and I didn’t take advantage of certain card abilities to thin out my opponents cards.
I’m pretty sure we had rules errors whilst playing. But who cares? we had fun.
Somehow my Nazgûl won by a single point.
After visiting the game shop in Basingstoke (I left with War machine, Iron Heart, and Green Goblin scenario pack, and got Nath a MtG Challenger deck) we saw the new Super Mario Bros movie.
Wow I’ve not laughed like that during a movie in a long time. It’s a great movie. Although I may be biased as a Mario fan.
Obviously my age means I got to play Mario back in the day when he was just Jump Man and not the main attraction, just a supporting act.
My first real Mario game though was Super Mario Land on the GameBoy. Yeah I missed the main Mario games on the NES/SNES because I didn’t own either. I loved the original Mario Golf on the GameBoy too.
At the time as you know from my Doom posts I was on a pc mainly playing stuff there. The GameBoy was my “console” at the time. For some reason I love portable gaming systems.
I’m currently reading a book about Super Mario Bros 2. I find these sort of books about our gaming history interesting and add to my enjoyment of the game in question. And yes I will be going back and playing the game once the Doom project is finished.
Back to the movie. There is so much fan service here and it’s a delight as you spot the Easter eggs such as the NES console, or Punchout being mentioned.
I loved the humour, and was laughing a lot during the movie.
This was the perfect Mario movie! It did exactly what the games do, bring a smile to the face.
Certain scenes made me want to play a Mario game. A weaker soul going into Game afterwards would have caved and bought another Mario game. However I did play Mario Kart 8 later in the evening to get the “craving” out of my system.
Later in the evening Nath and I played a couple of games of MtG with him using his new deck. We shared the honours.
An uneventful drive down saw me arrive mid afternoon at Nathan’s.
Yep it’s holiday time and a chance to spend a couple of days with my son.
We played a couple of games of MtG using two of the Pioneer Challenger decks (Gruul Stompy vs Mono Red Burn).
Nathan started off playing mono red. A simpler deck I thought for refreshing your memory on how to play. However getting mana screwed certainly slowed the deck down, and allowed me to stomp to victory unchallenged.
After the first game we swapped decks. Despite eventually losing playing red, I did a lot better. Hitting land drops, getting creatures out, just not doing damage quick enough. With both of us having a good presence on the battlefield, one of us was waiting until they could get the edge in the impending reckoning. That was until Nath was able to board wipe my forces and swing in unchallenged for the win.
This morning Nathan and I played a game of Deep Sea Adventure with the die expansion, and two promo meeples!
I like what the die brings to the game. That chance to move three times the value of the second die is a huge attraction for using it. Plus gives a glimmer of hope when trying to get back up to the surface, however slim.
Although the side that gets its value from the number of players sharing the direction you are moving is less helpful in a two player game.
And yes the dice tray is pointless and will just get stored in a box somewhere and never used.
I did win our game by being the only one managing to get treasure to the surface.
We followed up our underwater adventures with some more MtG. This time we used the game night kit decks.
I have to say the elf deck is most certainly an elf deck. It ramps quickly, it gets lots of elves out, you get value from having lots of elves out. It’s fun to play. But not sure it is being on the opposite side from it.
I like playing MtG this way. Grabbing a deck or two and just playing a game or two.
After Nathan had his driving test. Which he sadly failed. We went and saw the new Dungeon and Dragons Honour Among Thieves movie.
It was very enjoyable.
Some of the sfx could have been better (especially the halflings). I think the mix of humour was just right. It had its hulk smash moment taken straight from the first Avengers movie.
I think the performances were fine. Plus the odd guest appearance.
Have I said how bad the halflings were? They were pretty awful.
The story isn’t the greatest, but very standard D&D fare for sure.
I (a D&D player) enjoyed the movie as did Nath (a non-D&D player). So it has that sweet spot of appealing to both types.
Plans are afoot to run a one-shot using the free Shadowdark rpg QuickStart from Arcane Library (and available FREE on DriveThruRPG).
I’m a fan of Kelsey’s work. Like many others I backed her Kickstarter for the Shadowdark rpg. I went all in. That’s the rulebook, lots of additional content, GM screen. You know everything I could get basically.
Naturally I want to play Shadowdark.
Somehow Fenland Gamers has grown a small group of players interested in playing one-shots or short campaigns that are not only D&D 5e, but other systems. I think the driving interest is that they love playing RPGs however life doesn’t allow for the commitment to a regular campaign.
It’s that group of players that I’m arranging a session or two of Shadowdark.
I’ve had the fore-mentioned QuickStart guide printed out, along with the first three monsters Kelsey did as part of the Kickstarter, blank character sheets, and the precons. Oh and I nearly forgot an A3 copy of the map from the included adventure.
Now I’m busy reading the rules, and adventure. Plus watching the videos Kelsey did during the kickstarter.
I’m sure there will be another post (or two) before we get Shadowdark to the table. I’ll share initial impressions about the QuickStart then.
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 I have a stat block for the Bagman (see last planning post) but I’m pretty sure that before I need that I’ll need a stat block for Rullus Hobb.
As the back of his npc card shows he’s a sorcerer. Sadly there are no official npc stat blocks!
The ideal time to use the Folio of Fiends preview.
I’ve also spent a morning playing with heroforge to create my take on an avatar of death, and one or two different Harengons.
I just need to buy the stls and get them printed.
My priority is multiple angels of death to use with a certain deck of cards!
I’ve also been approached by a player about another player joining the group.
We have room for one more. The group is currently five in size. A player has dropped out because of life stuff. Plus we are looking like we will lose one more due to other commitments that clash with the game now regularly happening on a Saturday again (thanks to my life events changing).
I kinda like the group size at four. It’s a nice size.
So this session will see a new player come along for a trial session to see if our game is a right fit for both parties.
Now I just need to work out how they can join mid dungeon!
Last night Jeff, Diego, Charlene, and myself gathered together to play the ttrpg Alice is Missing.
Alice is Missing has become this mythical like experience that if you enjoy RPG’s you have to try. I think a combination of reviews and word of mouth have contributed to it achieving this.
A lot of this buzz is based around its unique mechanic of being a silent RPG played solely through text messages, plus the emotional experience the theme and collaborative storytelling give.
I’ve had the Alice is Missing rpg in physical and digital forms for nearly two years. I just never got a chance to play it.
Well that was until last night.
Plans were made, interest noted. Eventually after the usual song and dance to negotiate a date, we had all could make.
As the day got closer I watched and rewatched videos of the rules on YouTube.
The excitement and trepidation was building up.
Game day and I’m reading the rulebook.
“Oh bugger I need to print stuff off.”
Then my next thought was “have I got enough ink?”
Luckily this was not a last minute realisation and I had time to find out I barely had enough ink in the printer. I got the blank character sheets printed along with the game sheets and five of the posters before there was not enough ink.
I was spared a dash to Tescos. I had enough to go with.
On the drive over to Charlene’s humble abode my mind started to ponder things about our game that evening.
Was I in a good enough emotional place to handle the sort of subjects that could crop up during the session?
I’m still a bit fragile from the passing of Nan. Talking about her can be quite hard at times.
Just the previous day a friend told me they had cancer and was starting a course of radiotherapy. During our time together I couldn’t help noticing that I thought they looked a bit frail. It was certain moments. Not all the time. Maybe I was reading too much into what I thought I saw. I have to admit I was hit hard by the news. Obviously memories of my friend Ben came back to me.
Back when I did the first aid course for Tesco and we did the resuscitation bit of the training it really hit me hard. Memories of trying to resuscitate Dad and Nan came flooding back. I couldn’t fight back the tears. I had to leave the room.
I’d never for the life of me would have thought I’d react like that.
So knowing the sort of things Alice is Missing could go into, would I have a similar reaction?
I didn’t feel I was in the strongest emotional state for this game.
Sitting in the Asda car park near to Charlene’s I ordered Dominos pizza for us all as I waited for our agreed time to arrive. I’d said I’d provide snacks and pizza as Charlene was hosting.
That snack bit had seen me making a last minute dash round one of the stores I used to work in before it closed.
After a warm welcome from Charlene’s two dogs and the others arriving we setup.
I really like the setup process. The rulebook talks through the whole process for the facilitator, highlighting which bits need to be read out aloud etc.
We covered the important X cards, lines and veil’s safety tools. In a game like this they are a must.
The pizza arrived just before we recorded our messages for Alice.
After having our fill of pizza we finished off the setup and started playing in silence.
Wow!
The 90 minutes flew by.
It was such a compelling experience.
With the only sound being the official soundtrack that the timer plays it felt so weird initially playing in silence. The only communication via WhatsApp chat.
The silence added to the impact of a certain event.
I was surprised that I didn’t seem to have had the same emotional experience as others had had.
Maybe that was due to our personal histories or we didn’t go into graphic detail on what could be described as the more triggering subjects. Or the cards that we drew for the key moments. Or all of the above.
I was expecting a Twin Peaks or 13 Reasons vibe to the session. They start off with the death. Which isn’t how this plays out.
Whatever the reason we had a good time. We really enjoyed ourselves.
I’m glad it was Jeff, Diego and Charlene who were the ones I experienced Alice is Missing with, and it was not at the community centre. The place where you play it and with whom is key I think. There needs to be that element of trust and safety because of the games themes.
Anyway I’ll definitely play again, and glad I backed the expansion on kickstarter.
