It’s that portal song title post again

D&D, Fenland Gamers, magic, MtG, new arrivals, news, vampire the masquerade: rivals

Time sure flies.

Before you know it over a week has passed since the last post.

Not much has happened to share on here. Obviously world events are still putting a dampener on things like playing board games in person. Plus there hasn’t been much online gaming using apps (outside of Star Realms and Epic the Card Game) either.

My “secret” project is going slowly. I’m not sure what folks will make of it. It is a departure for me and this blog. Which I hope folks will like.

On the Kickstarter side of things Vampire the Masquerade: Rivals finally landed (after it hit retailers).

Naturally I’ve sleeved it all up with the official sleeves that came as part of the Kickstarter. I’ve even used a couple of the Stonemaier token containers to surprisingly store the tokens for the game.

From a recent Renegade live stream it was revealed what the next expansion will be after the first expansion Blood & Alchemy comes out. It will be called The Wolf and The Rat. But it was also revealed they have a third expansion that has finished production and a fourth currently being worked on. Both of them currently remain unnamed.

And yes for the record I have pre-ordered Blood & Alchemy. The bonus for doing so are a couple of alt art vampire cards, one for each clan.

Vampire the Masquerade: Rivals first 3 OP kits

Another big reveal from the stream were the contents of the first three OP kits for Vampire Wednesdays. These will be available for your FLGS to order, or for those that can’t get their local store interested, or get to a store to participate you can order direct from Renegade. These OP kits introduce three new vampires that will eventually be available on the Renegade website to purchase.

I got the season 0 OP kit as part of my Kickstarter and plan to get these as well. These will form part of my attempt to kick off a Rivals scene in Wisbech once Fenland Gamers starts up gaming sessions again. Although my track record in doing that sort of thing is pretty poor.

Which brings me nicely onto the news that Jonathan and I have had chats between ourselves and also with our hosts The Luxe about when and how we will start gaming sessions back. Taking into account current world events we are eyeing September as our target month for once more holding meet ups.

Hopefully in the meantime those corrupt, lying bullies in charge of running our country will not screw things up (although history is not on their side on that front) and we will indeed be able to safely once more gather to roll dice, shuffle cards and move pieces of plastic around a board.

On the D&D news front apparently next week (Tuesday) instead of releasing stories setting up the next MtG set, because that set is a D&D/MtG standalone crossover set, WotC will be releasing five free D&D adventures for players to download. These 15 to 20 page adventures are aimed at tier 2 characters, specifically levels 8 – 10.

Hopefully the next thing you read on here is the “secret” project. But you know me!

A crazy turn 1 play in Star Realms

apps, iOS, online play, star realms

Yesterday I had one of those insane starts to a game of Star Realms.

For those interested all 18 expansions are in play for this game.

I’m the starting player, which means I have an opening hand of three cards.

One crazy turn 1!

This may have not been the most optimal play, and as usual against this player I may go on and lose. But that doesn’t matter I managed to do this insane start buying the 8 cost Command Ship on turn 1. That’s just not possible normally.

As I’ve said on numerous occasions it’s crazy cool stuff like this that keeps the game fresh and surprising.

Now I just have to hope my opponent doesn’t see this little clip!

Command Decks Come To Star Realms App

apps, iOS, star realms

Last week saw an update to the Star Realms app released. Which saw the 18th expansion Command Decks introduced to the game for £6.99.

“Each Legendary Commander has a unique starting deck (that replaces the normal hand of Scouts and Vipers), and has two unique Gambit cards. They also have different starting Authority values and hand sizes. Each Command Deck has a powerful 8-cost ship that gets added to the trade deck at the start of the game.” (https://www.starrealms.com/star-realms-command-decks-now-in-star-realms-digital/)

This is the first time that I will have played with the Command Decks, despite owning the physical decks. The only time I seem to get to play the game in real life is with Nathan. And that hasn’t happened for a long time. So I’m pretty excited to be able to play with them now.

As stated in a recent post I’ve played over 10k games with the app now, and the expansions have helped keep the game fresh. Although I tend to play with every expansion selected, which allows for some crazy starts and plays. Sometimes it’s refreshing to play with just the core set, or with only a couple of expansions selected.

The least used, ok not used at all, side of the expansions for me is the campaign missions. So I can’t speak for that side of things. It could be argued I’m not getting maximum value out of my purchases. But the campaign side just doesn’t interest me.

What isn’t obvious when selecting the Command Decks expansion when making a challenge to another player is how to select which of the seven Command Decks you play with.

When you select the Command Deck expansion in the bottom left corner an avatar of the current selected Command Deck appears (shown above).

If you click on that avatar you are taken to the Command Deck selection screen (see below) where you can select the deck you wish to play with.

On that screen pressing the little question mark and you get the specific rules for that Command Deck.

It should be noted that which ever deck you select will be the default Command Deck you get whenever you accept or issue a challenge until you change it.

Compared to the other expansions and the cost of the full game this expansion is on the expensive side. But as with the others this is buy once and have everywhere! Which takes the sting out of it for me. This is one of my favourite things with Star Realms that my games in progress and purchases follow me to which ever platform I’m using. No need to buy again.

I’m sure that there will be one or two Command Decks that I will prefer over the others. But that’s something to discuss for another day (once I’ve played them all for starters).

Right I’m off to take my turns…

Spanner in the works

nintendo, switch

I thought in the past when I first had a Nintendo Switch and played Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle for the first time that I had given my impressions of the game here. Sadly after searching this very blog I was unable to find evidence that I had done that.

Which buggers things up for me.

I’m currently slowly writing a rather long (even for me) post on another game on the Switch. It’s using a “new” approach for me that is taking much longer to put words together for. It doesn’t help that apathy, getting diverted with other ideas and this game get in the way.

Now I’m going to have to make some notes and add the post for Mario + Rabbids: Battle Kingdom to the growing queue of unfinished posts. Which diverts me from that other massive post.

The good news! Is that this extra time gives me an opportunity to explore some of the DLC now that I’ve finished the Main Story Mode. Another distraction from the other post!

D&D Product Round Up

D&D, news, RPG

Yesterday saw the start a week long “celebration” of all things D&D by WotC with their “Week of Legend Lore”.

I’d like to say yesterday’s announcement of the next campaign book “The Wild Beyond The Witchlight” was a big surprise. But it wasn’t. A couple of days earlier a leak on Amazon happened giving brief details about this book and one other.

The two covers for The Wild Beyond The Witchlight

The Wild Beyond The Witchlight takes players and DM’s to the Feywild for the first time.

WotC are pushing D&D Live 2021 on July 16 and 17 for the reveal of more details including new characters, monsters, mechanics, and story hooks. The book itself is due out on 21st September.

Next up is the other D&D book that was leaked early. On 16th November the third MtG crossover with D&D will drop called “Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos”.

I’m expecting “Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos” to be similar in format to the other two crossover books. So new character options, world info, adventure hooks and a sample adventure, plus new monsters and npc’s.

With its 5 schools of magic, and wizard world theme Strixhaven has been compared to a certain intellectual property featuring wizards. And it is this that WotC are hoping will appeal to young players, and attract them to the game. So there will apparently be advice included on running a campaign that appeals to all age groups included.

We getting our first sneak at this new books contents when some stuff to test drops on Unearthed Arcana later today. But also expect a bit more info to be forth coming at D&D Live 2021.

I’m not sure when this dropped last week, but on the 17th August WotC release a new DM’s Screen called the Dungeon Kit. Similar to the Wilderness one last year, this new kit will be aimed at dungeon delving.

“The Dungeon Master’s screen features a painting of a fantastic vista that plunges into the deep reaches of a mountain. Useful rules references cover the screen’s interior, with an emphasis on dungeon-delving.”

  • “DM screen specially designed for dungeon delving, with tables for encountering monsters and exploring ruins and dungeons
  • Features 36 punch out dungeon geomorph cards with pathway connection points, perfect for planning a dungeon during game preparation or for coming up with a map in the middle of play
  • Customizable double sided dry-erase sheet offers unlimited versatility for tactical game play. Numbered grid for sketching maps on one side, and summary of the main actions a character can take in combat on the other
  • 18 illustrated punch out condition cards, including mold and slime cards for dungeon encounters
  • 9 punch out numbered and illustrated initiative cards to easily track the turn order for players, monsters, and nonplayer characters”

I think I’m most excited about the geomorph cards. I like my Deck of Many Dungeons and Map & Dice Playing Cards for generating random dungeons. Whether it’s in advance acting as inspiration for writing/prepping an adventure or using to create a dungeon on the fly during a session, they are damn useful.

And oh joy my third set of initiative cards! But more condition cards are always welcome. They are very handy.

Hopefully with such a strong start to the week WotC will be able to keep the momentum and interest levels up.

10k Games of Star Realms

apps, star realms

This morning I hit a major milestone in playing Star Realms using the rather excellent app.

I hit my 10,000th game of Star Realms.

I mainly play against friends. Hardly ever random opponents. Although from time to time I have partaken in the odd Arena game or two. Some of the rule changes used in Arena have been wild, and fun.

My stats for 10k games of Star Realms

I’m reasonably happy with the win percentage. Although I’d love it to be higher. But the cards hate me, and my friends happen to be really good players. Heck one of them is one of the games top players (they have two cards named after them in the game).

Having played so many games of Star Realms I can honestly say I still love the game. The addition of the expansions over the years has helped keep the game fresh.

The aim for the next 10k of games improve that win percentage.

If you fancy a game hit me up with a challenge.

Goodbye Toby

Uncategorized

I had intended to do some work on this massive post I’ve been working on, and/or look at bit more at horror within D&D. But life has thrown more obstacles in the way. Or excuses for doing neither, depending on your point of view.

Yesterday we said good bye to a much loved furry member of the family Toby.

He had lost weight, and recently been less than solid in the number 2 department. But at the weekend Toby started struggling to get up without help, and had little energy to go out to answer the call of nature.

It was time to make that heartbreaking decision. It’s one of the hardest decisions a person who has dogs has to make. But as strange as it may seem it’s the loving decision to make, repaying all that love and devotion that they give.

Toby was a gentle, mischievous soul. Who will be greatly missed.

My notes on ideas for a campaign in the Domains of Dread

D&D, RPG, session planning

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft (VRGR) as I mentioned in the previous post hit FLGS and online retailers last week.

Since then I’ve listened to a couple of podcasts reviewing the tome (The Tome Show and The RPG Academy). The consensus seems to be VRGR is a pretty good book.

Whilst listening to these shows and the odd skimming of pages, ideas started to flow through the ol’ noggin. Hence this post to capture them before I forget them.

The first was I’d love a party of adventurers in a horror/Ravenloft campaign/one shot to have an illrigger amongst them.

An illrigger is a new class created by Matt Colville for one of his players and released to the general public (you can buy the pdf on the MCDM webstore). Illriggers are “elite shock troops, the terror-commandos of Hell,… . Knights of Hell, they are high charisma counter-paladins who master devils and cast their own unique spells.” (https://mcdm.fandom.com/wiki/Illrigger) And yes it’s also crying out for use in an Avernus campaign.

The way the mists are described and used within the Domains of Dread had me instantly thinking of the small and big screen adaptations of Stephen Kings story The Mist (sorry not read the words themselves). So this is such an obvious source of inspiration for using the mists within a campaign. I like the idea of a Dark Lord using the mist to terrorise and subjugate the population of their Domain of Dread. But James Herbert’s The Fog could also be another influence here, along with John Carpenter’s The Fog (not the 2005 remake, ok if you are desperate to make it a teen horror story then maybe!)

Mist talismans, which are used to navigate through the mists to the Domain of Dread it is for/from, also present interesting opportunities for the adventurers. I see these allowing influences such as Stargate SG-1, The Fantastic Journey, The Time Tunnel, where the party are traveling from one Domain of Dread to another as part of some larger campaign story line. Whilst in the current location one of the party’s objectives is to find the next mist talisman, and possibly get the Dark Lord to open up the mists. Although I do like the idea of a generic mist talisman that works with any Domain of Dread, but its random which domain it guides them to. Or they can chose the domain but it’s “glitchy” and the majority of the time takes them elsewhere.

It’s hard to list or suggest inspiration for a campaign as it all depends on the horror genre(s) being used.

My teenage years were the Eighties. Which included the whole video nasty thing. I saw most of those movies that the moral minority had banned, and frankly the acting in most of them was awful. Worse than the actual plot of the movie. I particularly enjoyed zombie and slasher movies such as Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween and the Living Dead movies.

So I know that they would influence my suggestions. But that session zero and the results of the content and themes questions (chapter 4 of VRGR) will have a major impact on suggestions for inspiration.

Although I’d love to do something based around Alice Coopers classic album Welcome to My Nightmare. Or even using Coopers The Last Temptation (along with the accompanying Neil Gaiman graphic novel) for the Carnival Domain of Dread.

Talking of graphic novels the classic Hellblazer comic and it’s antihero John Constantine would definitely be an influence. Although the dire Constantine movie and watered down single season tv series are best avoided.

I hope this brain dump given you some ideas for your own campaign in the Domains of Dread.

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

D&D, first look, new arrivals, RPG

Yesterday saw the release of the new D&D source book Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft (VRGR).

Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft Alt FLGS Exclusive Cover

VRGR takes players and DMs back to Ravenloft and the Domains of Dread. But this isn’t an adventure like the Curse of Strahd. This is a campaign source book.

A campaign source book that gives players and DMs the tools to run horror themed D&D campaigns.

Contents page (Image taken from EN World)

As the content page (above) shows those tools include new options for players such as lineages, dark gifts, new backgrounds and subclasses.

For the DM there is a chapter on creating your own Domain of Dread that also covers the various types of horror. Followed by coverage of the Domains of Dread that make up the Ravenloft setting. DMs also get a chapter on running horror games that also includes an adventure “The House of Lament”. This adventure is for first level players and takes them up to level 3. From a cursory glance over the adventure it looks like a haunted house type of affair.

This brings me onto a minor criticism, and I know that page space is an issue in these sort of things. But considering the advice earlier in the chapter about session zeroes etc, you would have thought there would be a paragraph or two that a DM could use summarising the themes and content for the adventure. But to be fair I’d like to see this sort of thing in all of the official D&D books.

I’ve not run the Avernus campaign, so was shocked when I saw in a Sly Flourish video that it uses body horror in part of the campaign. There needed to be some sort of paragraph at the start of the book, and also at the start of each chapter similar to what I suggested above. If nothing else it forewarns the DM that there might be problematic content for their gaming group.

The final chapter is the good ol’ bestiary for the Domains of Dread. More monsters is always a good thing.

VRGR is the latest instalment in what seems like a fixation with horror for the WotC D&D crew. Since the release of Avernus, we have had Icewind Dale, Curse of Strahd Revamp and now this. It will be interesting to see if they lighten things up.

I’ve been looking forward to VRGR since it was announced. And apart from the comment above, my initial look through the pages hasn’t disappointed.

I’d like to run a campaign in the Domains of Dread. But luckily the way my current campaign is structured I can introduce horror elements to it using VRGR and Tasha’s as well. Naturally before doing so there would need to be a conversation with the players. (Is there a name for a mid game session zero? ) And although this book is specifically for D&D some of the information like horror genres, or running that session zero are applicable to other systems. Horror Cyberpunk Red anyone?

My Current Top 10 iOS Board Game Apps

apps, iOS

Yesterday I wrote about the disappointing and uninspired top 10 favourite board game list that was featured on the iOS App Store home page.

I also threatened to share with you my top 10. Today I carry out that threat, and present to you my current top 10 iOS board game apps.

Disclaimer: This list is fluid. It does change. Although it wouldn’t matter when I did the list one or two entries would always be there. This list is also in no particular order. Meaning I haven’t ranked them. Also it should be noted I usually play these games online against friends. Very rarely do I play against an AI opponent or random opponents online.

Also remember that this is iOS games. Hence why Wingspan is not on this list. At the time of writing it does not exist on iOS.

My Current Top 10 iOS Board Game Apps

Star Realms: If you like deck builders then this is the game for you. It’s great value for money with the Wise Wizard Games (yes they changed their name recently) of buy once play anywhere. There are a lot of expansions for the game now. Which may put people off. But they are not needed to enjoy this modern classic. Did I say I love this game?

Epic the Card Game: for that Magic the Gathering fix Epic scratches the itch for me. It’s totally free to play! You only pay for cosmetics, or to enter tournaments. No grinding or splashing out lots of money to get cards. My favourite way to play is Dark Draft against my friends. Which is an amazing draft format for two players.

Lost Cities: Another two player game, but this time the classic Reiner Knizia card game about exploring for ancient lost cities.

Carcassonne: the classic tile laying game. I love playing this with the expansions. In fact I hardly ever play this without them.

Ticket to Ride: the classic board game. There are several maps/expansions for this to buy. But the cool thing is when playing against friends only one of you needs to own the map you want to play.

Tokaido: a beautiful version of the set collection board game about having the best experience possible as you travel the road between Edo and Kyoto in Japan.

Roll for the Galaxy: an amazing port of the board game that changed how I view the game! Well digitally. This as an app turns the game into something I can play when I have a spare 5 minutes to fill, waiting in line or something.

Scythe: All I’m going to say is this is the digital version of my all time favourite board game. And probably the only game on this list I play against AI opponents.

Onitama: a lovely version of the two player abstract game.

Splendor: a great implementation of the gateway game.

Below are some honourable mentions of games that nearly made the list.

Honourable mentions aka games that nearly made the list

What are your top 10 board game apps?