Going Underground – a first look at the new D&D DM Screen Dungeon Kit

D&D, first look, RPG

Whilst everyone else is doing back flips and cartwheels over the latest WotC D&D 5e adventure The Wild Beyond the Witchlight.

The new Dungeon Master’s Screen Dungeon Kit (DMSDK) seems to be flying under everyone’s radar. I’m not seeing any of the “BIG” D&D names talking about it. It’s all about the feywild or the upcoming Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons previews that are dripping out.

Don’t get me wrong I’m pretty excited about what Fizban has to say about dragons. Well as excited as I can muster considering. I have little to no interest in Witchlight. It’s just not for me. Which is fine. Not everything WotC does has to be.

However I do like a good DM screen.

With the arrival of DMSDK I now have four (if you don’t count the thin cardboard one from the Essentials Kit).

When buying a DM screen I tend to avoid adventure specific ones (although if I was running the adventure I might be tempted to get the matching screen) and go for the more useful for me general ones.

Naturally my first DM screen was the official WotC Dungeon Master’s Screen Reincarnated (DMSR) for 5e. Which I really like and is the screen I use the most.

However nearly a year ago WotC released the Dungeon Master’s Screen Wilderness Kit (DMSWK). I did a pretty bad unboxing video for it here. Which focused on running wilderness adventures.

I also have the Galeforce 9 DM screen for the Ghosts of Saltmarsh adventure book Of Ships & The Sea. Remember what I said earlier. Yes that breaks that rule. But mainly because this is aimed more at running campaigns that are at sea, so is more generic.

Which brings us to the latest addition to my DM screen collection.

  • Front cover
  • Back cover
  • Inside

As the name suggests the DMSDK is focussed on running adventures/campaigns in the depths of the earth. You know the dungeon part of D&D.

The player facing side of the DM screen has some beautiful art by the artist Greg Rutkowski that just evokes going into a dungeon.

Player side of the DM screen has art by Greg Rutkowski

Even if I didn’t need the tables on the DM side I’d quiet happily double up on the DM screens with this on the outside and most likely the DMSR behind it for me to use. I have done that before with the Saltmarsh screen and used the art to help invoke the mood and setting for the session and used the tables from the other screen.

On the DM side we get tables geared towards dungeon delving, along with the usual condition reminders. The tables look useful. But the real test to this is when you have to use them in anger.

Maybe in another post I should compare the information on the official WotC DM screens and see how much over lap there is. Definitely a project for another day.

DM Side of the DM Screen

After the DM screen there is a doubled sided sheet dry erase sheet which has a summary of actions players can take during combat. Then on the other side a blank grid for drawing on.

  • Front
  • Reverse side
Dry erase sheet

Unsurprisingly there is only one of these included in this Dungeon Kit. A second would have been nice for those that don’t have the other kit. I think this is a handy DM tool to include.

There are two sheets of condition cards included. Each sheet is nine cards. Giving a total of 18 condition cards. Three of those cards are tailored towards a dungeon adventure (brown and yellow mold plus green slime).

  • Example reverse side
Condition Cards

These condition cards use the same art as those from previous kits, just scaled and toned differently. Best I can say about this art is it’s functional.

I think these cards are so handy to have to pass to a player when they get that condition. It doesn’t just remind them and you they have that condition. But the reminder text on the reverse about the condition is very useful for the player to refer to.

I’m getting a nice little collection of these cards now.

As I am of the initiative cards that are included. These like their wilderness kit versions use the art from their respective DM screens.

You can use these a couple of ways. The first is as reminders to players and you where they are in the initiative order after everyone has rolled for initiative. Or taking a leaf out of the Year Zero system, shuffle and deal out randomly to determine players initiative order. Either way works.

  • Front of the Initiative Cards
  • Deck box

The included deck box also uses the DM screen art. But like all other WotC deck boxes they include in products (especially on the MtG side of things) you have to “assemble” the box. Describing it as flimsy is being generous.

Now onto the real star of this kit for me.

Included with this kit are four sheets of Dungeon Geomorph cards. We all know what a fan of this sort of thing I am. So nine cards per sheet, which gives us 36 Geomorph cards.

With the cross hatching, these cards have a Dyson Logos feel to them. I don’t know who created these. But they are nice.

  • Front
  • Reverse
Dungeon Geomorph Cards

These can be used while preparing for a session or on the fly at the table.

I’m a fan of these focused DM screen kits WotC have produced. I really like the little extras they add to them. Personally I think they are great for new and old DM’s.

P.S. for the record I was never a The Jam fan. Luckily one of their more popular hits gave me a song title I could use in the title of this blog post.

Dune Imperium

Fenland Gamers, Game day

Yesterday Jonathan and I met up for a learning game of Dune Imperium at The Luxe. It was also a chance to use the new 4ft diameter round table I got for club use.

I’m not going to write much about this as I’m not really in the mood for obvious reasons.

Ideally Dune Imperium should be played by 3 or 4 players. However it does have a deck of cards to provide an AI for a simulated third player (this is also used in solo play as well). There is also a free app that can be used instead of the cards. The app does the heavy lifting of shuffling the deck and interrupting what each card does. And that is what we used in our play.

Photos taken by Jonathan

All I’m going to say is I liked Dune Imperium, and not just because I won.

At the moment I’m processing a lot of guilt over being away from Nan for a couple of hours gaming. It’s during this time that she passed away in her sleep. I know even if I’d been there I couldn’t have done anything.

My only comfort is that the fur balls were with her. They have been her guardian angels since we got them.

Any way the posts will be infrequent for a while I think.

What attracted me to the RPGs I own (despite not having played them yet!)

RPG

Yesterday the legendary Matt Colville uploaded another YouTube video. I’d like to say it’s part of his Running the Game series. But in reality it’s not.

The video is entitled “Talking About RPGs: Mechanics vs Setting, and Styles of Play”, and it’s embedded below for your viewing pleasure.

I think this video is a first for Matt as it is a response to someone else’s video. However what interested me about this video is it’s focus on other non-D&D RPG systems and in particular what Matt liked about the Warhammer Fantasy 3rd Edition RPG. Which I believe was by FFG and used the dice system that went on to power their Star Wars RPG, Genesys RPG and L5R RPG. Spoiler it’s those dice that Matt really likes.

Although I haven’t gotten them to the table I do have a few none D&D RPGs. So why did I buy them? What is it that attracted me to them? Below I talk briefly about each RPG in my collection trying to answer those questions.

Genesys (Terrinoth, Android, Keyforge) – I can’t remember exactly what attracted me to the FFG Genesys system. I want to say it was the dice system used. But it could also have been it was a generic system. The fact it eventually had an Android setting sourcebook was icing on the cake.

Judge Dredd and Worlds of 2000 A.D (Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper) – this was initially purely the theme. I’m a Judge Dredd fan. I owned the original 1985 RPG. So for me this was a no brainer. However reading the rules I like the d6 dice pool system it uses.

Paranoia – Fond memories of playing this in the late 80’s whilst a student in Brighton, coupled with knowing James Wallis one of the folks responsible for the new edition saw me backing this on Kickstarter. I love the sci-fi setting, but more importantly the tone. This is a fun, humorous game. It’s not meant to be taken seriously.

The End of The World (Zombie Apocalypse, Alien Invasion) – This was entirely the theme and the fact players played themselves in the game trying to survive in whichever town you all lived in. The d6 system kind of reminds me a little of the narrative dice system used in Genesys. But one aspect I love about this is a players starting equipment is whatever they have in their pockets or the room you are playing in at the time! How cool is that?

Alien – apart from the fact I love the movies, what attracted me to this game was the stress mechanic. Or more exactly the stress dice and the push your luck element they introduced.

Cyberpunk Red – this was 100% bought based on the theme. If you haven’t guessed I love the cyberpunk genre. And this oozes theme.

Star Wars RPG 30th Anniversary edition – this was a nostalgia based purchase. We know I’m a Star Wars fanboy. So this reprint was a no brainer.

Thunderbirds – Although I grew up watching Thunderbirds, and love the show. I never actually went and bought this! This was part of the Kickstarter for the board game by Matt Leacock (creator of Pandemic). I went all in on my pledge, and this was part of that. It might have even been a stretch goal. It does come with some cards that aid in creating emergency/rescue missions for International Rescue to react to. Which is pretty nifty.

Elfquest – I’ve owned this for decades and never got it to the table. I loved the comics, so it was definitely the setting that attracted me to this.

Fate Condensed – another on a whim purchase. But it’s the fact this is a generic system geared towards telling a shared story with the players that attracted me to it. I suppose it’s the complete opposite to D&D and I’m curious about how that’d work.

Zombie World – apart from the theme, I do like zombie movies and have one or two zombie themed boardgames. What attracted me to this RPG was the fact it is a card based RPG. There are no dice what so ever. And that intrigued me.

Alice is Missing – the novelty of this RPG is what attracted me to it. A silent RPG where the players communicate with each other using only their mobile phones. Plus there is no GM! Colour me intrigued.

Jim Henson’s Labyrinth The Adventure Game – It’s pretty obvious the theme initially attracted me to this. But I like how you are jumping around the book from one location to another based on how well you did or on a die roll. So no two plays are the same.

I hope you find the above enlightening, maybe interesting.

FFG In-flight Report 2021 Reaction

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In the middle of last night FFG streamed this years In-flight Report from the safety of their headquarters instead of from a hall at GenCon. Which considering the state of things (especially over there) is a wise decision.

Having watched the stream this morning. I have to say I’m pretty glad I didn’t decide to stay up and watch it live.

My overall opinion of the announcements is meh! I was really left feeling underwhelmed.

This In-flight report was all about expansions and repackaging stuff. Apart from Unfathomable, which they are hoping will be out by the end of September (but we all know what a mess shipping is, so that may slide) we are looking at all this stuff coming out sometime in 2022. I know they said Q1 or first half. But let’s be realistic here. Even with such general indications of when stuff will be coming out. I can’t see the shipping problems being resolved that soon, and expect most of 2022 to be much like it is now. Full of good intentions, but lots of delays.

Arkham Horror lcg, Marvel Champions, and Descent Legend of the Dark got the expansion love. There was a brief recap of the Keyforge hiatus announcement from the other day.

The LoTR lcg core set is getting a revision to make it easier for new players to get into this 10 year old game. Which will also see select story arcs from over that period get reprinted using the new expansion format introduced for the Arkham Horror lcg. They are also making the campaign cards in this revised edition available as a print on demand for existing long term players. Plus two scenarios from a limited edition of the game are getting a reprint.

FFG announced that Twilight Imperium celebrates 25 years next year. Which is pretty cool. How are they celebrating this awesome achievement? They have teamed up with CMoN to produce some graphic novels. There will also be some graphic novels set in the Android universe. And these will be coming to Kickstarter at some point. Which going by the latest CMoN Kickstarter means those of us in Europe are screwed.

The other “big” thing FFG announced is their partnership with a company to run web stores selling official FFG swag based on their IP. With the first web stores being for Legend of the Five Rings. Followed by Arkham Horror, then sometime after that Twilight Imperium.

The whole thing was wrapped up with a teaser for a much requested expansion. A fact the teaser played into.

I did like how the teaser was presented. But still it’s another expansion. And we will have wait for further details. Maybe there will be a bit more at Origins in a couple of weeks. One thing we can be sure of this will be a 2022 release.

know they spent 10 minutes talking about their R&D. But I’d prefer if they had spend that time announcing new games or just done a blog post. This was just filler.

This was FFG just treading water. A holding pattern. Resting on their laurels. It felt like FFG are stagnating. A pity they used to be an exciting company.

You can watch the full In-flight Report here.

Vampire Wednesday Morning on a Tuesday madness!

Rivals, Vampire the Masquerade Rivals, vampire the masquerade: rivals, Vampire Wednesday Morning

Tuesday morning was this weeks Vampire Wednesday morning!

It threw out my usual weekly routine of doing the weekly shop on a Tuesday morning. But sacrifices have to be made for the greater good. And that greater good was I needed a break. Especially after having to miss the club night last Friday.

This weeks Rivals game would be a three player game.

Our third player was a friend of Diego’s Peet. He had never played the game before. But had done his homework and watched some of the how to play videos on YouTube.

This is how the clans broke down for the game:

  • Brujah – Peet (rival me)
  • Ventrue – me (rival Diego)
  • Malkavian – Diego (rival Peet)

As you can see from the fact I played Ventrue, that I continued to work my way through the core set clans. I just need to try Malkavian (so Diego won’t be playing them again next session). After that I’d like to try some deck construction using the core set, before trying the two clans in the Blood & Alchemy expansion.

Diego wanted to try the Malkavians in multiplayer to see if they worked better than in a two player game. And Peet got Brujah because they are a easier deck to pilot for a first game.

  • The Victor

I think one of the hurdles for new players to a card game like Rivals, and this is so true in something like Android Netrunner is learning the terminology.

In Rivals it’s things like Haven, Torpor and Coterie. Netrunner it was such terms as clicks, runs, and ice.

Unlike Diego who has played in the World of Darkness in years gone past. Rivals is my first time experiencing this world. I have no allegiance to a particular clan. At the moment my decision process is based on do they look cool, and mechanically/tactically do they fit with play styles I like?

At the start of our game Peet warned us that he’s a competitive player. Sadly he didn’t play the Brujah deck aggressively enough. Which allowed Diego and myself to get our slower decks going.

Agenda wise I was in the lead. I had two titles attached to two vampires. Boosted my havens secrecy to 2. Had a vagrant attached to my leader. I was ready for the appearance of an S.A.D. Agents in the street.

Peet finally started to attack my leader. Which I was more than able to handle. However he left one of his vampires open to attack from Diego. Which was enough of an opening for Diego to drain Peet’s remaining prestige whilst attacking that vulnerable vampire. And that gave Diego the win.

It was a fun game. I need to look at the Ventrue deck and see what cards are there, and the synergies. I would like to have hit more titles and have more ways to gain extra prestige. Which it might have and I just didn’t draw into them.

Catching my eye – pre-GenCon post

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I’m not sure where this post is going.

A quick Nan update. Nan improved a lot yesterday. It was easier getting food and drink into her. She was brighter. More herself. I think she has started to get over the urinary infection. The medicine from the doctor that she started taking yesterday afternoon will make sure of that. So good news.

Now onto game stuff.

Tail end of last week I found out that unsurprisingly there is an expansion for Dune: Imperium coming out called Rise of Ix.

Rise of Ix will give us 3 new houses to play. “Acquire technological innovations from the planet Ix for a lasting strategic advantage.” which will be via some sort of board extension I assume. The expansion will also have a new epic game mode.

Pretty excited about this expansion, despite not having got the core game to the table yet! I’d also like to get the deluxe upgrade kit, but not seen that for sale in the UK. But then again with the expansion coming out you’d think they might offer a deluxe upgrade for that too. Otherwise there will be a mismatch in player components when using the upgraded core game with the expansion.

I’ve mentioned previously (a long time ago) that Lost Ruins of Arnak was getting an expansion. That should be out pretty soon. It was given a GenCon release date. But with the mess shipping is at the moment it’s possible there might be a delay.

The expansion introduces six unique leaders that have their own unique powers and starting decks. So basically introducing an asymmetrical element to the game. It also brings in an alternative research track, new item and artifact cards, plus more guardians, assistants and sites.

Another no brainer. Luckily I have got the core game to the table. Guess what I liked it a lot. As did those I played it with. Within the week Gavin had his own copy!

One game I will be getting once it’s possible to order it is Rolling Realms by Stonemaier Games.

Jamey created Rolling Realms as a free print and play at the start of the pandemic. It stands out from other roll and writes in that it has no maximum player count!

However Jamey listens to his fan base that asked for a commercial release of the game. Which this is. Although this version of the game has a player count maximum of 6. It will play more with more copies of the game. So you are basically increasing the maximum player count by an additional 6 players per extra copy.

But like all things these days Rolling Realms release has been delayed by the world wide shipping issues.

There is also a new Tapestry expansion due to come out before the end of the year. But whether that happens is due to the shipping gods. If delays to games is our only problem in life the we should count ourselves lucky. However I still need to, you guessed it, get Tapestry and the first expansion to the table.

With GenCon next week there are bound to be lots of announcements about new games etc by the companies there and those that are not attending this year (of which there are a few).

First out of the block was this post by R Talsorian Games creators of Cyberpunk Red RPG. Funnily enough this post is about that RPG and their The Witcher RPG.

I’ll let you go read the post for The Witcher stuff. But I’m very interested in the Cyberpunk Red stuff they have coming out, such as the Data Pack (GM tools), Netrunning Deck (deck of cards), and Interface Red (a collection of the free articles). Plus an update on a couple of Cyberpunk Red projects that are currently being worked on.

The interesting thing other than the product info is the information about how not only the already mentioned shipping issues are affecting them. But also how world wide shortages of materials such as paper and cardboard are also having a knock on affect on production and release schedules. Let alone the difficulty of getting a slot in the over busy production companies production runs.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg in the UK. We are experiencing the perfect storm here of the above issues, plus the effects of the pandemic and the fallout of Brexit (self inflicted). Which adds up to it being harder, more expensive and slower getting stuff into the UK.

There will be implications to the consumer in the UK in the form of price rises. Asmodee UK has never been shy of passing these on as quick as possible. Funnily they don’t seem to drop prices.

There will be another post after GenCon about anything that caught my eye. Until then stay safe.

May be irregular posts for a while

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What does board gaming mean to me?

I love it.

For a brief time the stuff going on in life is not wearing me down. It’s a break. A distraction. My social life.

I got a similar benefit from another activity I love backpacking/hiking. Sadly life over the last decade has meant that was not an option. But playing board games is.

Both activities have lead to great friendships, and great memories.

That break I mentioned, it is so important as a full time carer. A couple of hours here, half a day there. It might not seem like much. But it makes all the difference. Believe me.

So deciding not to go to this evenings club gaming session is a big thing for me. I didn’t make the decision lightly.

But considering how my Nan has been the last couple of days, and is today I can’t go.

I’ve tweeted about the emotional toll that Mum and I are paying caring for Nan. Especially over the last few weeks. It’s a price we gladly pay. After all it’s my Nan.

However watching her slowly decline, refuse to eat, not even open her eyes, or speak clearly (she barely mumbles now). It’s hard.

As I write this post we are awaiting a nurse visit. But you know there isn’t much that can be done.

UPDATE 10/9/21 15:30 : the nurse has been and checked Nan and seems happy Nan doesn’t have an infection (after listening to chest and taking temp). She has a urine sample to get tested. So we await the results. Which will be next week sometime I assume.

To paraphrase a popular saying, we are praying for a miracle but expecting the worst.

So if it’s quiet on here for a while, it’s most likely because I’m not up to writing anything. I’ll pop in with the portal posts if that’s the case.

Be safe folks.

UPDATE 10/9/21: part 2. It’s been a tough day emotionally. Not just with what’s going on with Nan but today is also the anniversary of my dad’s death. Which ironically is a hash tag day for World Suicide Prevention Day. So socially media today has helped make the day extra painful. 33 years since dad took his life and it doesn’t get easier.

UPDATE 11/9/21: we didn’t have to wait for the results of the pee test. Within an hour the nurse had called back and said Nan has a urinary infection. I would also be able to pick up from the pharmacy a prescription for liquid antibiotics. Sadly when I went to pick the prescription up they had none in stock. So I have to go back later today to pick it up. It won’t be easy getting Nan to take this but much easier than a pill.

A problem to solve by Friday

Fenland Gamers

There is no mid week games this week. No Vampire Wednesday Morning with Diego. No Commander with Gavin and Diego.

There is however a club night this Friday.

The first club night since world events meant they had to be stopped.

I’m pretty excited about it but also a tad anxious.

If all come who said they are coming, this will be the best attended Friday night session ever. Plus there is also the possibility that the numbers may be more if we get members turning up that hadn’t replied to the event.

With so many coming I don’t think we have enough table space.

There is our 6ft x 3ft folding club table. Which even splitting into two groups would be cramped. Ideally we would be three gaming groups on the night. Which means three tables.

The club table could get six round it, three each end, as long as the games being played are not space hogs.

Hopefully Jonathan, the manager of The Luxe (our hosts) and myself can work something out.

Portal finally release their version of Neuroshima Hex

apps, iOS, neuroshima hex, news

The weekend saw Portal Games finally release their in-house developed port of their classic board game Neuroshima Hex.

I was wondering how Portal would handle the free update for existing customers. And it appears that when Portal took back the rights to the digital version of their game, they got the iOS dev account for the previous version as well. Which makes life so much easier for this sort of thing.

On a side note it’s no secret what my opinion on board games that rely/require apps to play. I don’t mind companion apps that are not integral to game play, but are optional and enhance the experience. It’s a subject that Ignacy Trzewiczek and I do not see eye to eye on. Why am I bringing it here? Well Ignacy or whoever at his company wrote the app release notes made my point for me!

Before this new version was released players of the app have been in limbo for about 2 years (I think that is correct, it’s definitely over a year). In that time we have seen os updates that have broken it. It has been unplayable. It’s nice for Portal to admit this, and prove one of my points.

I have to say this new version looks beautiful. I really think the game screen pops!

I do have a major criticism of this initial version. There is no in app help. It’d be handy for the iconography used in the Create Game menu option. It’s very much stumble around, trying things to work out what they are.

Plus I’m not too impressed with how to set up an online game via the Create Game screen and the Join the Game menu option.

To play with a friend I need to know their id first. I can’t just set up a private game and have them join. There is no friend list that I can see.

For me setting up an online game isn’t well thought out. Hopefully future updates will remedy this.

I look forward to playing this once more on a regular basis, and getting all the extra armies I had back.