But the point of this post is to share what D&D books I’ll be taking with me.
You’ll notice in the photo below showing the books I’m taking there are none of the monster manuals. They are not needed for a session zero, they are a session prep thing. So they stay on the bookshelf.
But what I am taking covers most of the settings I can run a campaign in.
The books inside my DM bag for the session zero
I’m deliberately not taking the adventure books I have incase that puts the idea of running the written adventure into their heads! Although I would use them as material about the setting if they wanted to have the campaign set in say Avernus or Ten Towns.
I’ll also have these two MtG/D&D books that won’t fit inside the bag.
The two MtG/D&D books I’m taking
If the party are happy to be based in the City of Arches then all the books come into play!
Whilst we are looking inside my DM bag here is the top compartment that is meant for minis.
Inside the top compartment
But I’m using it to keep my dice, quest decks, dungeon geomorphs, dungeon decks, status cards, spare initiative cards, and inspiration tokens. To be added a dice tray.
Right next time I talk D&D it’ll be the post mortem of the session zero. See you then.
About two weeks ago Jonathan sought players to play Search for Planet X.
I was one of those that were interested in trying the game.
With enough people interested in playing a four player game a date and time was set, tutorials and apps linked to.
Last night was the agreed day for playing the game.
Jonathan and I met up about an hour earlier than the planned time to play the two player game Mr Jack.
I’d never played Mr Jack before.
We played the game twice. In the first game I was the detectives trying to identify and capture Mr Jack played by Jonathan. Then in the second game the roles were reversed and Jonathan was trying to capture my Mr Jack.
Mr Jack
I really liked this two player deduction game. And not just because I won both games.
Our first game was longer than the second. But I did manage to capture Mr Jack. Whilst I won the second game with a great bit of misdirection and had Jonathan arresting the wrong character.
I do like how which character is Mr Jack is selected randomly at the start of each game by drawing a character tile.
I like the way actions/characters are chosen each round, and how it flips each round. So the detectives may choose first at the start of a round, then Mr Jack chooses twice, leaving the detectives one tile to play. Then it gets reversed next round. This is so tactical, especially if you need a particular character and you don’t get a chance to chose it before the other player. This happened twice in our second game. Jonathan kept choosing the character I needed to get an even earlier win!
I like how the number of lamp posts gets reduced during the early rounds. It makes the deduction harder. As apart from the Sherlock character and Watson they are the only way to eliminate suspects.
Yeah a nice game. Could easily see it added to the collection. It’s gone on the wish list.
After a small delay to the agreed time for playing the Search for Planet X we started playing.
Another game I really liked.
Now we know where I stand on games that are only playable with an app. I’ve rant lots about it in the past. I’ll happily play them but I won’t own them! Unless there is a way to play without the app.
Search for Planet X currently doesn’t play without an app. It works really well with the app. The app is put to great use providing clues.
Search for Planet X
This is a logic game pure and simple. Using clues given to you in the app based on the type of action you performed you deduce which sector Planet X is. You can see the starting clues I had in the photo above.
During our game I knew the planet could be in one of two sectors. After Jonathan revealed where the dwarf planet was in a peer review I knew exactly where it was. I just wasn’t sure what was on one side of it.
For me this game was a game of misplays! Well two to be precise. The first was playing the correct tile in the wrong sector. I misread my sheet. That cost me 4 points.
The second was forgetting I had to say what was either side of the sector with Planet X in. Which meant I was guessing one sector. That got compounded by forgetting there were only two empty sectors, and I’d already identified them! So there couldn’t have been a third.
That gave Jonathan a window to guess himself. Well he was kinda forced to. He knew I’d guess it my next turn. Luck was on his side. He guessed right.
Despite having worked out where Planet X was FIRST I came last. My mistakes were my undoing.
Final scores for Search for Planet X
With the games played last night another two new to me games were added to the challenge.
I’m beginning to think I might have set the target for this challenge too low!
Current progress on the new to me challenge
It’s insane or so I thought to have already played 13 new to me games in two months. I might have to revisit this and set a new larger target number.
Previous years new to me games played
If my fading memory hasn’t let me down I think I might have just looked at the last two years numbers before deciding on the target for this challenge.
Maybe I should have looked further back. But I think my thought process at the time was “who knows what this year will be like? The pandemic is still on-going.” So I decided to look at just the numbers for during the previous two year of the pandemic as my guideline.
Raw numbers
I certainly think at the current rate of play the numbers I achieved in 2018/2019 are certainly achievable.
And here we are at the end of the post and the photos taken by Jonathan.
Playing Mr JackPlaying Search for Planet XPhotos taken by Jonathan
Not even a couple of days since I posted about Kelsey adding to her series on writing adventures with a video on creating dungeon maps. Then Mike aka Sly Flourish releases another video creating an adventure using random tables.
It’s almost as if they have to respond to each other’s content! A crazy conspiracy based on nothing but coincidence.
In the video I’ve embedded below from Sly Flourish we see Mike create a heist adventure using the tables from his latest Lazy DM book, The Lazy DM’s Companion, and his latest Patreon exclusive content City of Arches.
Sly Flourish Create a D&D Heist adventure using random tables
City of Arches is a city setting that can be dropped into any D&D campaign. It’s currently a 12 page document that includes a city map, one page players handout, and all the information you need to run your adventures there.
It’s videos like these, and the Lazy DM books that give me the confidence to run my own D&D campaign, run the session zero this weekend, and know I have the tools (maybe not the skill) to create something that the players will hopefully enjoy based on our discussions.
Anyway I hope you found the video interesting. I did.
Last week Diego and myself had arranged to visit Jeff to play some Vampire the Masquerade Rivals. Yesterday was the prearranged day.
I’d stopped at Asda on the way out and picked up some pastries to go with our beverages.
When it came to choosing our clans I decided I wanted to sit safely in my haven replacing the blood of my rival, so I chose Tremere. Jeff went with Brujah because he knew that clan from his learning game in the later months of last year. Diego went Gangrel. You can see who our leaders were below.
Who played which clan and their leader.
My rival was Jeff, Diego was Jeff’s, and I was Diego’s.
Multiplayer is such a different game to a two player game.
I needed Jeff to be more aggressive towards his rival Diego. But Jeff spent too much time early on taking out mortals in the street. Leaving Diego free to annoy me.
Luckily I had a ritual out that increased my havens secrecy, which bought me breathing space from Diego.
Jeff only had two vampires out. So when he did eventually start taking on Diego a window was starting to open for me. Which became wide open when Jeff attacked Diego in his haven and both the target and attacker got taken out and sent to torpor. Leaving Jeff with a solo vampire on three blood in the street.
I was able to knock out Jeff’s only remaining vampire to grab a victory by KO!
It was an opportunistic win. Next turn Jeff would have grabbed the win.
The final scores for VtM Rivals
After my glorious victory in Rivals we played a game of Potion Explosion.
This has been a game I’d wanted to try since it came out a few years ago. However as far as I knew no-one I knew had a copy. But that changed last Friday when Diego bought it along and played it. So I commented at the time I’d like to try it and could he bring it along Monday.
Which brings us nicely to our time after our three player game of Rivals and a coffee and cake break.
I’m not sure how I feel about Potion Explosion.
I enjoyed the game. But did I like it? I didn’t hate or dislike it. I’d play the game again.
The game has that table presence, that wow factor, which has people not playing saying “what’s this game?”
Which is why I’m unsettled by my reaction to the game. I like it when games make you feel strongly about them even if it’s a negative reaction.
I can’t put my finger on why Potion Explosion makes me feel this way.
As you can see compared to the others my final score was not even close.
Potion Explosion Final Scores
I had a great morning gaming with two amazing friends. A fantastic way to end the shortest month of the year.
In a previous post “How to random table adventure ideas” I shared some videos by Mike aka Sly Flourish and Kelsey of Arcane Library that show them using tables to create D&D adventures.
Now I could go back and update that post with todays video that I’m sharing. And I have done that in the past when new relevant videos have come available.
But not today.
Today it’s a new post. A new post to share a great video from Kelsey that continues her series on writing a D&D adventure. Plus a great way to remind interested folks that there are other useful videos they can watch (if they click on the link above).
Part 3: How to design a D&D map!
I hope folks find the video interesting. I did. I find it very interesting to see other DM’s thought process. Plus I usually find one or two ideas that I can borrow and add to my creative process. That’s a win for me.
Yesterday we held an open Saturday gaming session. The first in a long long time. Usually if we game on a Saturday it’s a prearranged thing to play a specific game. But this time we were holding a session so that the barmaid could try our modern boardgames. She’d been interested on a normal gaming night but not able to join in as she was working. Hence this session on her day off!
We split into two groups.
Jeff, Ben and myself started our gaming off with a game of Three Sisters. Whilst Jonathan’s table started with Karuba. Which after checking the bgstats I have played. I wasn’t sure if I had. And it looks like I won that time I played it to.
Our game of Three Sisters had a surprise winner.
Both Jeff and I thought Ben was going to be the winner. He was comboing off so early in the game compared to us.
So once the final scores had been tallied I was pleasantly surprised that I drew for first loser with Ben, whilst Jeff claimed the spoils of war and victory.
Three Sisters Scores
Our second game was Survive Escape from Atlantis. A game that Jeff warned us was a mean game.
Survive has been sitting in my collection for easily 5 or 6 years unplayed! I’m not proud of that fact. But it’s not the longest inmate in my unplayed pile of shame.
Wow Jeff was right this game is mean and cut throat, but in a fun way. But I think who you play with also helps a lot.
It’s not a complicated game. But has surprising depth right from the start. Like where to place your high value meeples on the island. Or which tile to move, or when to play a tile.
In our game I placed a low value meeple in the middle of the island. Which instantly got dumped in the sea, was next to the kraken for most of the game. As soon as a path out by sea was available I used a dolphin tile to move it to “safety”. The meeple then proceeded to swim towards shore, but sadly was one move away from making it to land when Jeff triggered the end of the game. It was so nearly the heroic story of the game.
What can I say this game is fun.
It’s not going to be another 5 or 6 years before Survive hits the table again.
As you can see I won by a single point.
Survive Escape from Atlantis Scores
Our final game was classic Splendor.
Once again I wasn’t even close to winning.
Splendor Scores
Finally we are back to wrapping up the post with a photo by Jonathan.
Earlier in the week I had an epiphany whilst walking upstairs!
“Why if I’d rather play Dune Imperium every time when given a choice over Lost Ruins of Arnak should I keep Lost Ruins in my collection?”
I even shared this insight on Instagram (which then pumped it out to the other “big” two social media platforms).
Now don’t get me wrong, I really like Lost Ruins. It’s just I like Imperium more. I’ll still happily play Lost Ruins.
This is Inis all over again for me. I enjoyed Inis. But there were three games in my collection that I’d rather play over it if given a choice. So I sold it on.
Was this the time to do the same with Lost Ruins?
Naturally I got some blow back from those that preferred Lost Ruins over Imperium. But their opinion on the matter was undermined considerably by the fact they liked “not a game” Barenpark.
But it was Diego’s reply that sealed Lost Ruins fate in my collection. All he said was if I did decide to sell it he was interested.
So we chatted at work about the game. I came up with an asking price I thought was fair for the base game and expansion that I was selling to a friend. I don’t like ripping friends off. Diego agreed with the price, and a deal was struck.
That little bit of business was concluded at last nights fortnightly meet up. Where goods were exchanged for cash.
We split into three tables. Jonathan leading one of them with Pandemic. And Diego had the other with Potion Explosion (a game I’d like to try).
The game I was playing and with who was decided earlier in the week on our discord server.
Dune Imperium with the newly released first expansion The Rise of Ix was our main game of the evening.
We played with three of the new leaders (you can see who played which below).
Our characters for the game
Wow! I loved Dune Imperium before. But this expansion. Wow!
First off more intrigue cards, more leaders, more conflict cards, more Imperium cards, and for solo/2 players more House Hagal cards. More variety on that side is so so welcome with any expansion. Plus we definitely got to see some of the new cards during the game.
I liked my leader Tessia Vernius. To make use of her ability I really did have to progress on all the influence tracks.
An early tech tile had an end game scoring where I could get a victory point if I had at least 3 influence on all four influence tracks. So I leant heavily into progressing up the influence tracks. That victory point might be the difference between winning and losing. Scores are so tight in this game.
By leaning so heavily into the influence tracks I managed to get 3 out of the 4 faction alliances. Taking into account the earlier victory points for getting 2 influence on a track, 7 points of my final score came from the influence tracks.
Below you can see the 9th rounds conflict card that gave me the final 2 victory points needed to trigger the end of the game. If Julie hadn’t accidentally blocked me with her final action I would have had enough spice to get another victory point. But that’s being greedy.
I do feel that these new leaders you have to lean heavily into their abilities. For example I don’t think Julie was aggressive enough and winning enough combats. She was the first to get a dreadnought but didn’t get the second. I think only one of her victory points was from combat!
I love the new interstellar shipping spot. What a great addition. Plus it makes getting Solari much much harder by removing the sell spice action. So getting the third agent/swordsman is much more of an effort to do. Still necessary but harder. Plus to get the more powerful action spot you need 2 influence with the spacing guild. Making the influence track more important.
I like the tech tiles. I ended up with 3 in the end. One early one as I said above synergised really well with my leader.
Dreadnoughts very cool. I like what they bring to the table for combat. Probably the lesser of the three new changes to the game. But still pretty good.
Our game made it 9 rounds before I grabbed victory and control of Arrakis.
Final scores
I really like what Rise of Ix brings to Dune Imperium. Can’t wait to play it again. I’d love to try the new Epic game variant in the rulebook. Plus using the official Direwolf app there are two further variants! to try.
After my glorious victory Diego’s table and ours joined together to play Perudo.
It was fun to get this to the table again. It was “too noisy” for our previous hosts. No such restriction here.
In the end it came down to a head to head showdown between Diego and myself. My two dice to his one. Then it was one a piece. But for once I was able to pull off a win. Historically if memory doesn’t fail me, more often than not I’ve lost more than I’ve won in these stand offs.
Back to back wins! It truly was a good evenings gaming for me. So I called it a day while I was ahead! Plus I’d told mum I’d be back by about 9:30pm.
No photos from Jonathan, however we do have a new photographic correspondent from last night and now proud owner of Lost Ruins of Arnak, Diego!
Before we get on with the main post a little life update considering I have been sharing on that side more than usual lately.
Yesterday I tested negative for the second consecutive day using a Government/NHS sanctioned/approved lateral flow kit.
Which under the current guidelines means I am allowed to rejoin and once again become a productive member of society. It also means I’m all go for the gaming sessions at the end of the week. Rest assured I’m still going to be testing daily (while it’s still free to do so).
My big game challenge only has nine games in it. And what I’m thinking is now a ridiculously short time scale, with a deadline of the end of this year to play them all.
As you can see I’ve only played two of the games on the list.
I am not confident this challenge will be completed by then.
I am hoping that Star Wars Rebellion, Scythe and Xia: Legends of a Drift System will be ones I get to play with Nathan. Only Rebellion is a true two player game. Which will be perfect for us. However although both of the other two games are better with more players. I think Xia most definitely with it’s npc ships controlled by players will be just as much fun for him.
Looking at my stats I have played Scythe as a two player game. Both times with Jeff. Plus it looks like they were early games. If not learning games. However these two plays would have been on the full game board. Since then the modular game board has come out that makes the map much tighter at lower player counts. I think promising a different experience.
I think meeting the challenge with the remaining games will be easier with our new hosts for our gaming sessions the Wisbech St Mary Sports and Social Club. I don’t think getting players for the games will be an issue either. The main issue will be co-ordinating schedules for players to meet up and play.
Plus I’d want to get the games already played back to the table. And that’s the age old problem for gamers, too many games, not enough time to play them. So often we have great games just sitting in our collections feeling unloved and unplayed. It’s why I’ve set up challenges like this one to help get some of those games back to the table, getting some of that love back.
