Solo vs Fett

Game day

The yesterday morning started off so well with bacon sarnies. I’ve not had one of these for breakfast for a long time. It was washed down with coffee. But I’ve been slumming it while visiting Nathan by having to drink instant coffee! It was Kenco Americano instant coffee. Which to be fair is on the top end of the instant quality scale. But still instant!

Our first game of the day was Star Wars Outer Rim.

I bought Outer Rim during the first lockdown in 2020. It seems so long ago now. Obviously it hadn’t made it to the table since gaming in person has become a thing again. We (I’m including other Fenland Gamers here) have so many games to play that we purchased during the last two years of global events it’s just not possible to get them all to the table so soon.

Luckily I knew the theme of this would appeal to Nathan and be a good game to learn with him.

Nathan chose Boba Fett to play as. Whilst I naturally had to go for Han Solo.

Despite everything being bagged and in deck boxes setup is still pretty long. It’s mainly all down to the many decks you need to separate out and shuffle.

The game is also a table hog. Not only the space required for the board and decks, but also for the player boards too. Luckily we had a pretty large kitchen island we were playing on.

We naturally were playing a two player game which meant there was very little player interaction throughout the game. At the higher player counts I’m hoping that improves. The encounter cards certainly imply that it should.

Star Wars Outer Rim

As a two player experience the game was ok. We had a good time. Nathan enjoyed it. We were playing to eight fame points as recommended in the Learn to Play rule book, instead of ten. Nathan during the game asked if we could play to ten fame points. Which is a good sign he was enjoying the game.

I did like that both our chosen characters had unique abilities that were thematic to the character. Plus our characters both had personal goals that if met allowed you to flip them over to a more powerful side. And the goals were also very thematic to the character.

I did manage to get a YT-1300 which also had a thematic shop goal that if met allowed me to turn it into the Millennium Falcon.

The goals were pretty cool and something else to aim for whilst playing.

In the end I managed to not only hit the required eight fame points but also hit ten, for the win.

Final scores

Naturally playing a new game bought during the pandemic has helped progress one or two of my current gaming challenges.

Challenges

Our second and final game of the day before I had to leave was Onitama.

Another new game for Nathan. Another game that he beat me at. Which will cheer Jonathan up (see his comment on yesterdays post).

Onitama

Sadly after being beaten by Nathan it was time to leave. It’s always the hardest part of visiting him. But at least now I’m in a position where I can visit him more regularly.

I had such a great time with Nathan. I always love playing games with him, it such quality time. Plus so far I haven’t introduced him to a game yet that he doesn’t like.

I can’t wait until my next visit (hopefully the start of March).

100000 Years

game night

It’s been a really long time since I’ve been able to see Nathan in real life. Between caring for Nan and that world event (still ongoing) it just wasn’t possible to visit him.

We’d speak several times a week thanks to the magic that is modern communication devices. Or less so if Arsenal (the team Nathan supports, I know I call it bad parenting) loose (which they do quite regularly). Nathan does take bad results rather too personally.

Nathan is currently house and dog sitting for his mum. We won’t even go into the weirdness factor about me staying at my ex’s house whilst she is not there. Don’t worry she knows I’m here. It was her idea for me to visit whilst he was here.

After having tea (pork with cauliflower cheese, and garlic bread) , we watched Nobody. Which is an amazing movie and probably my film of 2021. Nathan really enjoyed the movie.

I then taught Nathan how to play Wingspan (with all the expansions) and royally got my butt kicked.

But Nathan playing a turn three Common Raven did make any chance I had of winning much harder.

Wingspan with all expansions

I think this was a first for me having end of round goals that came purely from the expansions. The end of round 4 goal was very “interesting”, most cubes on the play a bird action!. It meant doing something I rarely do that round to even qualify for points from it. Round 4 is all about eggs on birds, and hopefully tucking some cards and caching food. Basically getting points on the birds. To play a bird in round 4 it basically has to be worth more points than you’d get from doing the lay eggs action. It’s not a simple decision, you need to take into account any egg cost (losing points) plus any point gain from the bonus cards you have. Often it just isn’t worth playing a bird in the round.

I followed Wingspan by introducing Nathan to Splendor Marvel. A game that I was humiliated in. Yep Nathan destroyed me 16 points to 6!

Splendor Marvel

We finished the night watching the first episode of Reacher on Amazon Prime. The trailer had made it look like Reacher was constantly making wise cracks. Which isn’t the Reacher of the books. Luckily the fears were unfounded. The first episode and I’m guessing the rest of the series are an adaptation of the first Jack Reacher novel Killing Floor. I enjoyed the first episode so will watch the rest.

The post title? Naturally it’s the KISS song (from their self titled debut album) that sums up how long it’s felt not seeing Nathan.

January 2022 Gaming Stats

by the numbers, gaming stats, stats

It’s a new month, and it means it’s time to share my gaming stats from the bgstat app for last month.

I’ll stick to the “new” format of just presenting the stats with no rambling commentary that was just waffle anyway.

3×3 games played

Here are the “raw” stats for the month. Don’t forget the time stat is b.s. as I don’t record this. It’s what ever the app uses as a default.

January bgstats

Now for the challenges summary.

Summary of progress or lack of for my gaming challenges

Happy Birthday Nan

Uncategorized

It’s Nans birthday today. The first since she died.

She would have been 95.

To mark the occasion and to celebrate her memory we got Nan some flowers.

I still miss her everyday.

I thought the wolf pack left pretty big holes in my heart but nothing compared to the one left by Nan. At least they are looking after her for me.

The Lighter Side!

Fenland Gamers, game night

The Fenland Gamers Friday night gaming comes around quickly.

Unlike the test session I was there first, and tried the burger and chips this time. That was much better value for money, and hit the spot. It was also followed by sticky toffee pudding with custard (the only way to have it).

Whilst eating the planned player count fell from twelve down to nine. Life happens and throws curveballs to disrupt even the best made plans.

With nine gamers eager to game we split into three tables of three.

My table was definitely playing what can only be described as games being on the lighter side. Quick to teach and quick to play. But definitely fun to play.

There were no new games played by me. I’ll just put the bgstats summary below to list what they were.

I think it’s suffice to say we all had fun, some giggles and a big laugh at Colin scoring over 140 points in the second round of No Thanks! It was pointed out the idea was to get the lowest score.

Whilst our table where playing “light” games. Jonathan and Gavin where on a table playing Cape May (photos below). The third table led by Diego was playing Snow Tails (sorry didn’t get a chance to get any photos).

As I left a game of Splendor was being started by those that had more stamina than me. Ok I was knackered. It’d been a long day.

It’s that part of the post where I finish with the photographic efforts of Jonathan.

Photo by Jonathan

Vaesen One-Shot Session Planning #1

RPG, session planning, vaesen

Just like my D&D session planning posts there has to be some house keeping.

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming Vaesen One-Shot. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.

As I said in the short (for me) post about where our D&D campaign currently is, the current plan is to run the introductory mystery from the Vaesen RPG, The Dance of Dreams.

This will be an interesting first for me as a novice GM as I haven’t run a published adventure before, nor run a none D&D game either.

There is also the added pressure of this is a completely new system not just to me but also to those playing.

I have the Vaesen bundle that Free League sell. Which is the rulebook (plus a digital copy), GM screen (it finally arrived yesterday), initiative and Vaesen cards, 6 d6 dice, and a map.

It’s going to be a safe bet that I will have the only copy of the rules. So I will need to teach the basics of the version of the Year Zero system that Vaesen uses. I have found some cheat sheets to give to the players to aid them. I also plan to print out the pages of the mystery so that the rulebook is freed up for reference by everyone.

Unlike the starter kits for D&D, Alien RPG, The One Ring or many other systems Free League have not put together any pre-generated characters to be used with this introductory mystery.

The only stuff Free League have for downloading on their website are blank character and HQ sheets, handouts for the introductory mystery and one other mystery (you can get them here).

So my first task for this one-shot other than reading the rules is to create some pre-generated characters for use with the one-shot.

We can visit character creation as a group if we decide to run a campaign or further one-shots at a future date. Using pre-generated characters also means that more time of the session will be spent playing.

I’m planning on our session being about three hours in length, and aiming for us to wrap the mystery up in a single session.

Free League suggest at the start of The Dance of Dreams that it “…should take approximately two to three sessions to complete.” However “If you would rather finish the mystery in a single session, you may skip the first steps and start with the journey to the location. Simply recount how the player characters got the Invitation instead of playing it as a scene. You can also skip the part where each character gains an Advantage.”

Which is great advice. Although I’d love to know what duration they are using for a session. I have an idea for the Advantages which I’ll expand on in another post if after reading the rules I think it’s do able!

I think that’s enough for the first session planning post. I’ll leave you with the official Vaesen teaser.

Update on planning session 8 #8

D&D, RPG, session planning

Let’s get this next bit out of the way.

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

As you will recall one of our group is now recuperating from a pretty major life event and March is most likely the earliest they will be able to make it back to the table.

So basically our campaign is still on hiatus until then.

However in the meantime we will still meet up but play a one-shot instead.

A none D&D one-shot!

The plan (at the moment) is to meet up in February and play the introductory mystery, The Dance of Dreams from the Vaesen RPG rulebook. I’ll warn you now there will be a separate series of planning session posts for that.

The following weekend will see a new D&D group starting up that I’m going to DM. That first “session” will be a getting to know you sort of thing and finding out what sort of campaign people want. And yes this too will have its own series of session planning posts.

That’s where we are at the moment see you in the next session planning post for whichever session it’s for!

A splendid afternoon gaming

Game day

Yesterday was a rare day off for me at the moment.

I’d spent the morning tidying up an area in my bedroom to have my Raspberry Pi P400 set up for a project. I hadn’t long finished when I saw a message from Jonathan asking me if I fancied gaming that afternoon.

Naturally I responded positively. A time and place was agreed.

At the appointed time I joined Jonathan at the Wisbech St Mary Sports and Community Centre to play some games.

In my bag was the still in wrap Splendor Marvel. Yep I’d been so tired since getting it I hadn’t even opened it up.

Jonathan suggested we give it a play. I was up for that.

It was nice to see Space Cowboys have used a heavier poker chip again. I have a first printing Splendor which also had a heavier poker chip. I prefer the heavier chip. They feel better in the hand. Why am I going on about this? Later printings of Splendor had lighter poker chips in them. There was a lot of criticism about this at the time when it came to light.

There are some differences between Splendor and Splendor Marvel. Not major but some.

The gold poker chip has been replaced with a grey S.H.I.E.L.D. Token. There are four Location Tiles that are double sided and replace the noble tiles.

A new Avengers Assemble Tile has been introduced that is worth three points. This is an interesting addition. On some of the cards is an Avengers symbol. The first person to have three of those symbols gets the Avengers Assemble Tile. However if another player gets more of the symbols in front of them they get the tile instead. So this tile will move around the table. It also introduces the possibility of untriggering the end of the game!

There is a sixth poker chip called the Time Token that is green. The only way to get one is to buy a level three card. You can’t spend the token. However you need one to trigger the end of the game!

There is also an Infinity Gauntlet Tile that acts as a reminder of the end game trigger. To trigger the end of the game you need 16 Infinity Points AND 1 bonus of each color AND 1 Green token.

Splendor Marvel

One thing I wish there was for this version of the game is a play mat. I do like the official Splendor play mat. And yes I could use that. But it’d look odd without Marvel art work on it.

Sadly Jonathan beat me despite me having the Avengers Assemble Tile.

So I have both versions of Splendor (at the moment). But is there room for both in my collection? A bit of me says yes. I don’t have the expansion for Splendor. So Splendor Marvel gives me more bang for my money. I like the additions made to the game, especially the Avengers Assemble Tile and the majority gets it. If I had the original with the expansion I might find it a tougher decision. But theme and the changes mean Splendor Marvel is the one I’d keep out of the two.

We followed Splendor Marvel with one of Jonathan’s games, Tobago.

I’d never played Tobago before. So Jonathan did a rule rundown for me.

How best to describe the mechanics? There is definitely deduction as you try and work out where the treasure is hidden based on the clues for each treasure.

Hand management is there to as you manage your hand of clues, and deciding when and where to play them to help find the treasure.

There is definitely some variety with the use of a modular board.

Manipulating the clues so that treasures are located near to you and not near you opponents is key.

I liked the landmarks and the random placing of them following placement rules, tied in with the modular boards means no two games are going to be the same layout.

Tobago

I enjoyed the game and managed to amass a lot of the high value treasure cards.

Just so you know how comprehensive my victory was I’ve included the final scores below.

The gaming session was great for a couple of the challenges. But you’ll see that in a future post.

It was great getting some gaming in with Jonathan. It was just what I needed on my day off.

And here we are once more at the end of another post and the photos taken by Jonathan during our gaming session.


Photos taken by Jonathan

My week

new arrivals

It’s been a very very hectic week at work.

To say I’m knackered each evening is an understatement. My body is sore and stiff. And not in a good way! The harsh reality is I’m old. Well my body is. Somehow my mind still thinks it’s a teenager.

Not much gaming has been going on this month. If I was still sharing the stats each month they would be abysmal.

However a couple of Kickstarters have arrived, as have a couple of promos, a new rpg, and a rethemed game.

The Vaesen rpg bundle arrived or part of it did. It was missing the GM screen and map. So far I have not been overly impressed with the Free League customer support.

However another Free League rpg just arrived! Last year I did back The Lord of the Rings rpg The One Ring Second Edition on Kickstarter.

The level I backed it at got me the core rulebook, starters kit, and GM screen, plus a set of dice. However there appears to be an issue with the dice.

“Now, the dice. Sadly, we have realized that the Feat Dice (the twelve-sided ones) are misprinted, having the number 11 where there should just be a 1. The dice are of course still perfectly usable – just count the 11 as 1 (perhaps while exclaiming that you rolled eleventy-one!)” from a recent Free League The One Ring Second Edition Kickstarter backers update.

Free League have a solution. “We will reprint the faulty D12 Feat Dice and send them to all backers who want them, at no extra cost. We will offer you a choice of replacement Feat Dice or a 100 SEK personal discount voucher in our webshop.” from a more recent Free League The One Ring Second Edition Kickstarter backers update.

However the solution will take a while.

The second Kickstarter to arrive was Gloomier: A Night at Hemlock Hall. This is a “full stand-alone game that includes 6 new Stories and 14 new Guests that can be used with any edition of Gloom.”

The pledge got me Gloomier: A Night at Hemlock Hall standalone card game, Gloom Grief Case deluxe storage box, and The Gloom Chronicles campaign-style mini-expansion.

The latest (second) promo pack for Rolling Realms dropped through the letter box. As did the three promos bgg are selling for Fields of Green.

Finally the Marvel themed version of Splendor arrived. Is there room for vanilla Splendor and Marvel Splendor in my collection? I don’t know. The answer is probably no, and why Gav and me are going to come to an “arrangement” at the next Friday evening gaming session.

Now I just need to get some gaming in!

Bamboozled

Fenland Gamers, game night

Last night a new potential host for the Fenland Gamers gaming sessions was tried.

A handful of us gathered at the Wisbech St Mary Sports and Community Centre to try their menu (yes they do food), sup a beverage or two, and naturally test the gaming facilities by playing a game or two.

After consuming our food orders (I tried their steak, whilst others had burgers) we split into two groups to play games.

Our group, Ben, Rachel, Colin and myself played Ben’s copy of Takenoko. Whilst the other group were playing a bluffing card game of some sort (I’m sure Jonathan will leave a comment sharing which games they played).

Records show that I last played Takenoko back in June of 2018. They also show that out of the four times I’ve played the game I have not won a single game.

The current printing of Takenoko is slightly different to the one I had owned (now in the possession of Jonathan after some dodgy back alley wheeling and dealing). Ben had also got a “deluxe” upgrade pack from our FLGS when he purchased it. I believe the upgrade pack had alternate models for the panda and gardener, plus clear blue plastic for the irrigation instead of wood.

The bit I didn’t remember and think is a new addition to the game are the improvement rings. But this could just be my poor memory here.

Apparently adding the wrong improvement ring to a bamboo shoot, or eating a shoot to remove it from a space so nothing grows there again to stop others scoring is a dick thing to do! Ok it might be. But that’s all part of the friendly banter at the table.

Here is the evidence that I suffered my fourth defeat in Takenoko, and that Ben managed to grab victory.

After wards we all gathered round a table to discuss our thoughts about using the place as our regular Friday meet up. I think everyone was happy with the place.

It’s nice that there is the option to get food there as well as beverages. Although I thought the steak I had was over priced for what it was. But that was me testing the skill of the chef. An expensive test for sure.

I had to go at this point (I had been up since frickin early o’ clock) leaving the rest to play a game of Saboteur 2.

But it looks like we have found a new home for Friday night gaming and to hold our D&D sessions. Which is quite exciting.

Well you know how this post is going to end. Here’s Johnny!

Photos taken by Jonathan