Got a virtual ticket to ride

apps, Fenland Gamers, game night, iOS, online play, virtual game night

Last night our game club Fenland Gamers held another virtual game night.

We had a new (not new to the club) member join us for the virtual game night, so I added their Asmodee username to my Asmodee friends list. I do this through the Asmodee web page. It’s easier and quicker that way. It does make sending game invites a lot simpler if folks are in your friends list. Once that was done, it was deciding what to play based on the overlap between the apps everyone owned. Which was either Carcassonne or Ticket to Ride (TTR). There were other overlaps but not for everyone.

Our game for the evening was Asmodee digitals TTR. I’ve not played the TTR app in years, and even then it was just me against the AI. So it was a first for me to be playing it online. I definitely needed to remind myself of the interface. The last time I had played any version of the physical TTR was the New York version in 2018. The original TTR I last played in 2017, and the TTR UK was 2016 on 18th March. Literally a day short of being a full on 5 years to the day!

We started off playing the original base game of TTR because I didn’t know what expansions everyone had. Which I needn’t have taken into account. It was pointed out over discord during play that only one person (the one starting the game) needed to have the expansion.

I wasn’t doing amazing in the first game, I put that down to getting back into the swing of things. Even though I didn’t win, I wasn’t last, and scored more points than Jonathan.

The second game was using the TTR UK map. I think out of the versions of TTR that I have played so far over the years, this is one of my favourite maps to play. I like the having to purchase technology to open up various parts of the map, get extra points for competing routes etc.

One annoying thing did happen right at the end when I was going to share the detailed results for the TTR UK map. It crashed! And every attempt since to go back into the game (not the app) to get those results sees the app crash. So Jonathan kindly sent me the images you see above. Sadly the UK map does not show the completed routes at the end of the game. It’s the board state just as before I trigger the end of the game and the final round. But it does show that I got the New York route that was worth a massive 40 points plus the bonus points I had from the technology cards.

Despite that app crash at the end I think that the combination of using official app versions of a game along with discord for voice/text chat works really well, especially if using a tablet device. My experience with the virtual tabletop apps hasn’t been great. Especially their iOS versions. Nope for me official app version on the iPad, and use my iPhone with headset plugged running the discord app for the chat. Works a treat.

Anyway we all had a good time. That’s the important part.

Cool mystery tee gift!

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This morning I had a delivery that I had no clue was coming.

Why?

I never ordered it!

Some-one sent me the rather cool tee pictured below.

So just like the 16 odd one-shot adventures in the just released D&D book Candlekeep Mysteries, I have a mystery to solve.

I have no idea who the very kind and generous sender is. There was no invoice/receipt inside. Which would be possible if they ticked a box to say it’s a gift. The return address is to an industrial estate in Peterborough.

There are a couple of suspects but until life events allow it, a more aggressive investigation approach can not take place. Unless extraction teams are hired and rendition to another state with dubious questioning techniques is used. But that might by some seem to be on the extreme side of things.

But seriously whoever sent the tee I’m deeply grateful for their generosity and kindness. It made my day.

Discard 8!

apps, iOS, star realms

I’ve not done one of these Star Realms posts in ages. Mind you I haven’t had a great deal to shout about. Although a 4 game winning streak against one of the games top players was pretty cool, and should warrant a post normally. However it didn’t as that player is still winning 2 games to every 1 of my wins!

Today I finished a game against one of my regular opponents, and achieved a first for me in Star Realms. Yep after nearly 9800 games of Star Realms it’s still possible to do things for the first time.

In the past I have had it so that an opponent has to discard 5 cards on their turn. Which basically means they have no next turn, as they are discarding their whole hand of cards (although with the new docking mechanic in the Frontiers Promo expansion they could have a 6th card, or the right event card they may have drawn an extra 2 cards). I’ve been on the receiving end of this once (yep only once in that many games, plenty of times had to discard 3 or 4 cards though) and it’s not fun. Unless you are dishing it out, then it’s funny!

But as the screen shot below shows in this game if my opponent had gotten to taken their next turn, they would have had to discard 8 cards! Naturally that is not possible under normal circumstances. And these were normal circumstances. No event card or docking mechanic shenanigans going on.

I’ve never ever before today forced a player to discard more than 5 cards. This is most definitely a record for me.

So for those interested here is the video of the game just finished.

What’s the maximum number of cards you have made some-one discard in Star Realms?

Quick and Easy Dire Creatures

D&D, DM/GM Tips, RPG

I think it’s no secret to those that read this blog that I like the advice that Sly Flourish gives, and the whole Lazy DM approach to preparing for a D&D session.

A while back I was watching his YouTube video (embedded below) for the preparation he does for the weekly D&D session he runs.

These are great to watch because you get to see the Lazy DM approach in action, and pick up snippets of great advice about running D&D at the same time.

The video I was watching had a doozy at the beginning. As usual the start of the video Sly retells the events of the previous session. However during that retelling we get a great bit of advice about creating dire versions of creatures on the fly.

I liked that advice so much I thought I needed to write this down somewhere. Which brings us to the whole point of this post.

Before I note the simple steps used to create a dire creature, what is a dire creature? Up to this point like many the only other time I can remember hearing of one is from A Game of Thrones with the dire wolves. So a dire creature is a larger, tougher, meaner version of the creature (there is a brief interesting discussion about it here).

I think these following notes will be simpler to follow with an example. So I’m going to create a dire ankheg!

The first thing Sly does for a new dire creature is double the hit points of the base creature. So this dire ankheg would have 78 hit points.

Give it an extra attack action or double the amount of attacks it does. So the Ankheg can now do two bite attacks a turn.

Basically bump numerical things up a couple of points.

Give it a couple of points on the Attack & Damage, so the Bite is now +7 to hit and does 11 points of damage.

Or you could do as Sly so succinctly summarises in this tweet I stumbled upon yesterday.

I have plans for using this a lot, it’s a dire world we live in out there!

Belated Mar10 post

new arrivals, nintendo, switch

Yesterday was Mar10 day! I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen this as a thing. I hope it remains so and becomes the Nintendo equivalent of May 4th for Star Wars.

Below are the images I shared across social media via Instagram.

So that I don’t forget I’ve added a reminder to the calendar on my iPhone. Along with May the fourth.

I had been hearing good things about the roll and write Rome and Roll. And I have been known to enjoy the odd roll and write. I have a handful of them in my collection.

So when I investigated the game, which was basically looking to see how much it costs. I was pleasantly surprised at how relatively cheap it was.

And because there is a photo (above) and the fact I am briefly discussing it here. It is safe to assume a copy arrived yesterday.

I hadn’t realised this game doesn’t have the obligatory thick pads of paper to play with. But uses dry erase pens and shiny wipeable boards. The cards used in the game are not your regular MtG sized playing card, but more a larger tarot size. So if I want to sleeve them then I need to source an appropriate sized sleeve.

The game caters for 1 – 4 players. The likely hood I’ll play it solo. Slim. I like the idea of solo play. And more than a few of the games in my collection allow solo play. However the flaffing around setting up, and running some form of AI puts me off. Especially if there is a digital version of the game I can play. Although there is the lack of the tactile side of things with the digital version.

Rome and Roll does come with a reputation of being more thinky and complex that your regular roll and write. And I’m looking forward to sinking my teeth into it.

A boardgame in ACNH!

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Animal Crossing New Horizons (ACNH) has usurped Minecraft as my chill out game. I usually log in once a day around 8am, pick fruit, dig up fossils, then sell them to raise funds to fuel my Mario merch purchases (which Nook limits to 5 purchases a day) and buy stuff from the local store.

The goods that the store sells changes on a daily basis. This morning I was able to buy a boardgame!

The game doesn’t appear to be any game particular. Just general game components thrown together to look like a game.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could interact with the game in a limited way. That interaction was limited to throwing a die. But still I could imagine I was playing god knows what!

Here is a short video of my mii throwing the die in the boardgame. Yes my life would appear to be that sad that I get excited about this sort of thing, and even worse I put a video of it up on YouTube and share it!

Hopefully I’ll get a new life soon before the next post.

Triffids and co arrive

Last Days, miniatures

This will be a brief post for a change.

A parcel arrived this morning from my friend Duncan. As you can see below, it contained the 3D printing he’d kindly been doing for me. And no before ask Duncan did not send me instant coffee as well. That also contained 3D models he’d printed.

I have a lot of printing supports to remove now from the various models. As you can see below I have only got round to doing that to two of the triffids.

But once painted they will look soooo cool on the table.

Last Days: A Triffid Apocalypse! Updated

Last Days, miniatures, Skirmish

I did something brave and possibly foolhardy after publishing my post Last Days: A Triffid Apocalypse! I shared it on the Last Days Facebook page.

I was nervous about sharing my work. How would it be received? Luckily people seemed to like it and I got some useful, constructive feedback as well. Which I have included below. I was rather star struck that Ash Barker liked the Facebook post. Did he read the blog post? No idea.

I’m pretty sure I read that triffids can’t go indoors, and their size would hint at that. But can I find where I read that? Not a bloody chance.

Below are the updated stats for a triffid.

Please note: These stats have not been play tested. I repeat have not been play tested. They are my initial thoughts, and a work in progress. They are likely to change once I get a chance to play test them.

I’ve added a Sway and Hit the Head special rules for the stinger. And tweaked the notes on the behaviour and traits.

I don’t think that there needs to be a hidden rule as described above. I think this would be counted as cover. But I need to think more about this.

UPDATED: to avoid confusion over units used for range of stinger.

I think these take on board the advice given, and make the triffids feel on theme! Any character that becomes out of action from a triffid attack and part of a campaign still needs additions made to decide if they die, blinded or seriously ill for a period of time. But that’s for another day.

To do:

▪ Play test this!

▪ Come up with campaign additions to cover a character becoming blind if they survived an attack and got hit on bare skin.

Hope people like this update.

A new switch gaming project!

nintendo, switch

I started yet another game today! I still need to finish my revisit to Rapture. But that visit got interrupted by Animal Crossing New Horizons (ACNH) and the Mario + Rabbids game (currently a lot further into this than when I played it previously).

ACNH will be an on going thing as I will be visiting Acheron daily to do various tasks that need doing, such as pick and sell fruit. And I’m currently buying my daily allocated 5 Mario items from Nook’s shop.

But this new game just had to be fired up and played.

That new game (to me) was Final Fantasy VII and VIII Remastered for the Switch.

The plan is to play FFVII and also read the book 500 Years Later between sessions. Followed by watching the FFVII: Advent Children movie.

The book 500 Years Later is all about FFVII (naturally) and it’s development. I backed it on Kickstarter and it’s been sitting on my bookshelf ever since it’s arrival. Now seems the perfect time to take it off the shelf, dust it off and savour the words inside.

This also gave me an idea for a future project for when I replay the classic Doom. I have a couple of books about that, that I could read at the same time. Plus I have books on Mario and Zelda that could accompany a play through of one or two of the respective titles for those characters.

I have an admission to make about FF7VII. An admission that will make other gamers look down on me with distain and open me up to ridicule from them. But it needs to be said. I have barely played FF7VII. I hadn’t gotten very far into the game at all. But I have played FFI – III, plus the FF Legend on the GameBoy. And I still have nightmares of the 20+ hours of FFXIII that I played (god that game was boring).

So I’m pretty excited to be able to put time into playing the game now.

To help me through this project my latest delivery of coffee from Girl with a Portafilter arrived earlier in the week.

It always helps to have a good coffee to start the day off with. And this is good coffee. It’s leap and bounds above what supermarkets try to pass off as coffee on their shelves. Not even the same league.

Leave me a comment below if you have any ideas on how you want me to cover my journey with FFVII if at all.

My backlog of games to play

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There seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel in all of this darkness that has been plaguing the world for a year now.

Which means it’s time to remind myself that I have a list of games that I want to play once things become safe again to do so.

I have to admit it’s been frustrating not being able to play these games with my friends. Plus there has been more than a touch of envy seeing photos of people playing games with family/partners on various boardgame Facebook pages I belong to. The drawback of being single.

Below are collages of the games that make up my list of games to play once in person gaming is a thing again.

This list is just games that I have new expansions for, or are new to my collection.

Which means this list doesn’t even cover games that I’d like to get to the table again because I haven’t played them in a while like Scythe or Battlestar Galactica.

The list also doesn’t include RPGs either. Maybe I’ll do a separate list for those.

I think all these sort of lists prove is that even though not able to play games, this doesn’t stop people adding to their collection. And that when able to get together again we will all need a months holiday to get through the backlog.

What games/expansions are on your list?