Go ahead and jump!

magic, MtG, MtG Deck Building

I’ve not written anything for more than a couple of days. Even with the easing of lockdown, the opening of shops etc, I’m still observing it as much as possible to minimise the risk of bringing anything back that could be passed onto Nan or Mum.

There have been no plans yet discussed about holding club game sessions again. Our hosts aren’t open yet for instance.

So in reality there hasn’t really been much to write about. There is not a lot of gaming going on with others.

Although I did play a couple of games of MtG using a Core Set 2021 Prerelease kit Monday afternoon with a couple of friends using webcams. Or in my case a cobbled together setup of my iPhone showing my play area. And viewing my opponents play area on my iPad. The magic glue was a discord server, and for me two discord accounts!

That almost felt strange writing about MtG. I haven’t done that it a while.

Hitting the UK any day (hopefully, although I do believe WotC may have pushed the date back for reasons) is Jumpstart.

I think the easiest way to describe Jumpstart is WotC do Smash Up! for MtG. Or as WotC describe it “…mashes together themes from throughout the history of the game and lets you skip the deckbuilding part. … Grab two boosters, shuffle them together, and you’re ready to go.” So you can see why I compare it to Smash Up! Which builds its decks in the same way.

So what can you expect in a Jumpstart booster? “Each booster contains 20 cards centered on a theme. What theme each booster contains is randomized, but each themed 20 cards will be sealed inside the pack and labled.” Apparently “One in three boosters includes an extra rare.” But there are nearly 500 reprints, 37 new cards, and it also shares cards with Core Set 2021 but is a separate product. “Every pack includes one basic land with art that matches the pack’s theme. A few of them use thematically appropriate lands from M21, but most of them use brand-new themed land art created for Jumpstart.”

Some Jumpstart packs are out in the wild because they were given away with Core Set 2021 booster box purchases from stores. Reports have the print quality of the cards being poor. I’ve also seen it reported Jumpstart is not a limited run product and that WotC will keep printing it as long as there is demand. So as long as you are patient there is no need to pay through the nose for this set.

I like the idea of this set. It’s great for new and returning players. Buy two packs and play! It makes getting started very accessible. Like ninjas and dinosaurs? But the packs and go. Doesn’t get easier than that. I’m hoping it pushes Rhystic Studies prices down, and I pull one. There are certain themes I’m interested in as Commander deck material.

All I want to now is get some boosters and play some casual MtG.

Paranoia Friend Computer

Paranoia, RPG

I may have started repeating myself. Forgive me if I have I’m getting old and my memory isn’t what it used to me.

In the past when talking about the Paranoia RPG I may have mentioned possible influences to use when as the GM you play friend computer.

For me there are four famous or infamous computers that come to mind that can be channeled when playing the computer.

Those being GlaDOS from the Portal games, Eddie the computer from Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, Max Headroom from the tv series and the most obvious of all Hal9000 from 2001.

Choosing any of them as the inspiration for playing friend computer would be cool. But even cooler mashing up the personalities during a session. I like the idea of a multiple personality computer. You could use a die roll to choose which one makes an appearance when friend computer has to interact with the troubleshooters.

I think having a sheet or two of appropriate quotes for which one(s) you are using as inspiration is a good idea. For instance this website has all the lines of dialog for GlaDOS. Go0gle is your friend here, as is watching/reading the source material.

If you are a patreon of Matt Colville you can get a pdf of the computer dialog he wrote for the introductory mission [YOUR SECURITY CLEARANCE IS NOT HIGH ENOUGH FOR THE TITLE OF THIS ADVENTURE]. Which was by the way inspired by Eddie the computer. I’ve also included the streamed play through below. There aren’t many streamed play throughs of RPGs I can watch, but this is one of the few I can.

Mongoose publishing have an official product the RAM deck that is full of wisdom from friend computer for a GM to share with the troubleshooters.

Which ever way you decide to play friend computer, wherever you get inspiration from, it’s an opportunity to have fun.

Random Dungeon #10 AND Random Character #3

#randomcharacter, #randomdungeon, D&D, RPG

It’s been a little while since I’ve done one of these random dungeon posts, and also a day or two since I’ve posted anything on here. For the later it’s only natural that there will be gaps between posts due to world events.

The worm tunnels and the disturbed burrows got me thinking this random dungeon is crying out for a purple worm as the big bad.

I see this mini dungeon something an adventuring party stumbles across as they ‘explore’ the sewers of some city. They enter through the ratstink sewer, where they discover a cult that worship the purple worm.

I think the dice generated an interesting party if you wanted to use them as the inspiration for characters to play.

But they also work as a supporting cast to help take on the purple worm. This could be a party of adventurers that entered via the cave entrance and hired to hunt down purple worms by a local dwarven community that had their mining activities ruined by purple worms, the death toll to them had been numerous.

The Inspiration I’d Use For The Alien RPG

Alien, RPG

I have vague memories of watching Alien for the first time late at night on the tv in my bedroom. Obviously I wasn’t old enough to have seen the movie at the cinema. So I had had to wait for it to make it to television.

But I’ve been a fan of the movie and the franchise ever since.

It’s also why I jumped on the bandwagon for the Alien RPG.

The obvious jumping off point are the Alien movies (Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection) and the prequels (Prometheus and Alien: Covenant). As far as the RPG is concerned the Alien vs Predator movies are not cannon.

Within the Alien RPG core rulebook on page 219 they give a reading list that apart from three of the suggestions can be found on Audible. Which was handy for me with a few spare credits burning a hole in my virtual pocket. But the reading list is a great starting off point. Which is as follows:

ALIEN: THE COLD FORGE by Alex White, and OUT OF THE SHADOWS, RIVER OF PAIN, SEA OF SORROWS. The later three are available as audio plays, and really well produced. I’m a fan of audio plays so I jumped at getting them.

Also on Audible is ALIENS: BUG HUNT by Scott Siegler and others. However the graphic novel ALIENS: DEAD ORBIT by James Stokoe is obviously not. The first of two “technical” books in their list THE WEYLAND-YUTANI REPORT by S.D. Perry is unsurprisingly not suitable for the audio treatment.

ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES TECHNICAL MANUAL by Lee Brimmicombe-Wood is another of their suggestions. One that I’d add is the William Gibson script for Alien III that was never made, and for a long time lost. And has now been turned into an Audible audio play.

But I can also get inspiration from out side of the Alien franchise, the sci-fi horror genre is a rich one to draw upon. Naturally any list will never be comprehensive. But the ones below are movies I’ve enjoyed and think would make cool cinematic scenarios for the Alien RPG.

Yeah The Thing prequel that was done might be worth a look but it’s not a patch on Carpenters take on the book.

Obviously one or two of these suggestions have been influenced by the Alien movies.

But as you can see more than one of these films is set underwater.

Ok I lied about Underwater nobody liked that movie.

Inspiration for the campaign side is a different thing totally and something I’ll cover in a future post.

What movies would you watch to help inspire you for playing an Alien cinematic scenario?

My Top Ten Board Game Apps

apps

During the past week the Dice Tower did their top ten board game apps. It was an interesting list from the four presenters.

But you know what I thought the world needed to know what my current top ten board game apps are.

What follows and in no particular order are my current top ten board game apps on iOS. After all iOS is my platform of choice.

Starting in the top left of the grid below we have Epic the Card Game. This game scratches my MtG itch on iOS. It’s totally free to play, you get all the cards, the only thing you pay for is cosmetic stuff or entry into competitions. And I absolutely love playing dark draft against my friends. Dark draft is a fantastic format for drafting two players. It has a great air of mystery to it. You have an idea what cards your opponent could have but not exactly what they have.

Next to Epic is Lords of Waterdeep. The classic worker placement game. A great implementation that I love playing against the AI. And the nice thing is it has the Scoundrels of Skullport expansion. I love playing the game with the expansion even if it does increase the play time.

Finishing off the top row is another worker placement game Viticulture. One of the newer games on the list. Another good implementation of a favourite game. The only draw back for me is that there is no Tuscany expansion (yet). So it kind of feels weird playing just the original version of the game.

Middle row left is the two player game Jaipur. A really great implementation of a classic. Not much more I can say really.

Dead centre is the classic two player game Lost Cities. I’ve been playing this for years now. I love the game, and not having to do the maths for the scoring is a god send, as is having a count of the number of cards left in the draw deck. That alone makes life and planning so much easier when playing.

Carcassonne closes the middle row off. This is the new version of the game with the updated interface, which meant I had to rebuy everything. But it has my favourite expansions for the game so I’m happy.

Bottom left sees another new to iOS app Scythe. If you are a regular reader of this blog you know how I feel about Scythe. It’s my favourite game of all time. It’s been a while for this to be released on iOS and frustrating seeing it on the PC. But they have delivered a great version of the board game.

Tokaido sits in the bottom middle. An amazingly beautiful looking app that captures the art style of the board game. The app does something other adaptions rarely do, it doesn’t look or feel like a board game.

Finishing off the grid is Santorini. This app captures the amazing beautiful looking two player abstract game wonderfully.

Lastly rounding off the ten is probably the game I’ve played the most (with 9099 games played! and a 40.19% win ratio) Star Realms. I just love this deck builder from day one of playing the physical game to getting the app and the umpteen games I’ve played. With so many expansions now there is so much variety and replay ability I don’t get bored playing the game. Plus WWG don’t rip you off, it’s policy of pay once and have everywhere was ground breaking, tied in with games sync across platforms. So start playing on your phone, get home login on your PC and pick right up there.

One to watch out for once it is out of beta is Roll for the Galaxy. I enjoyed the board game, although like all the games in my collection it doesn’t see the table nearly as much as it should. But this app version of the game is something else. It’s become a perfect little filler game for me when I have 5 minutes spare. I fire the app up, play against the AI. The games are really quick.

I’m going to finish off this post with just a screen grab of the board game apps I have installed.

Hope folks found this interesting and maybe curious enough to try something new app wise.

Dune board game gets spicier!

RPG

Sadly with the current state of things out in the big bad world, getting the email from Modiphius saying I’d been chosen to take part in the closed beta/play test for the upcoming Dune RPG wasn’t as exciting news as it should have been.

Despite the relaxation of the lockdown going ahead (even if the what little evidence the Government has released doesn’t really back this decision up), I’m being a lot more cautious. I’m not going to put Nan or Mum in danger because Boris’s mates are losing money.

So in the interest of reducing the risk of exposure to them it’s going to be a few weeks before I’m going to be socialising in a public space, and therefore gaming. Which means I’m not in a position to help out Modiphius and get a sneak peak at a RPG I’m very keen to play.

In the meantime we have seen the release of an expansion for the Dune board game.

Over the years while the game was out of print the Dune board game became this mythic beast that people would speak in awe of, and how much they loved playing it. Last year saw Gale Force 9 reprint the board game with some game play tweaks. Naturally I got a copy and the game did not disappoint.

I’ve been a fan of the books for decades now, along with the David Lynch movie. For me the board game captured the spirit of the first book perfectly.

Last week saw the release of the Ixians and Tleilaxu House Expansion for the game.

So basically we have two more factions to choose from when playing the game.

The expansion has everything you need to add the two new factions to the game, cards, tokens, faction shields and player aids.

Understandably I’ve not played with these yet. Heck it popped through the letterbox yesterday. Plus the social distancing etc (see above). However I can’t wait to get the game to the table and play with these new houses. But there are so many games I want to get to the table when it’s safe to do so.

If you compare what you get for your money to say the Alien RPG Maps and Markers pack, this expansion is amazing value.

A look at the Alien RPG Maps & Markers Pack

Alien, RPG

More Alien RPG stuff, this time it’s the Maps and Markers pack.

The Maps and Markers pack consists of a large double sided map, and markers to use with the game.

Let’s look at the markers first.

The markers provided are meant to enable the tracking of characters, aliens, motion tracker pings, spaceships and and space combat actions.

As you can see below the markers are double sided cardboard. On the none spaceship/combat action markers one side is the tracker ping with a letter identifier. Whilst the other is an icon plus a letter identifier. The letter identifier is barely readable.

The maps or one side of the maps I have a big problem with.

The side I’m ok with is the star chart of the known charted universe. It’s a star chart.

The other side on the other hand is not as advertised. If you were buying this so that you’d have the required maps/floor plans to use along side the Cinematic adventure Chariots of the Gods. Which it is advertised as and even says so on the back of the packaging. Then you are are out of luck. What they actually give you is the maps for the sample Cinematic adventure Hope’s Last Day that is in the Alien RPG core Rulebook.

A bit of a big mistake. It looks like if you really want the maps for Chariots of the Gods you are going to buy the new boxed set in August.

The map is also not a battle map. As the photo shows below with a couple of tokens on it. The tokens look too big and cover up chunks of the map. It’s ok for showing a rough position.

I think this Maps and Markers kit is over priced for what it is. Especially considering you are not getting the maps you are expecting. I’d have liked to have seen bigger more useful maps. This is the only official product where I feel I’ve been ripped off.

Chariot of the Gods

Alien, RPG

The last three months or so have seen me resurrect my baking skills and extended them. I’m now baking two sourdough loaves a week (I love the toast it makes) plus until two weeks ago shortbread biscuits which have been replaced with pound cake. I’m developing a serious pound cake addiction.

Apart from the fact I’m enjoying the consumption of what I bake. What spurs me on and gives me a warm feeling is the joy my baking brings to Nan. She doesn’t eat much of it. But she loves seeing it straight from the oven, and having a small bit of whatever has just been baked once cool enough.

I have picked up a hard copy of the cinematic adventure Chariot of the Gods for the Alien RPG. This is technically the second published Alien RPG cinematic adventure if you count the mini adventure in the core rule book.

I’ve yet to run an Alien RPG game (hopefully once this pandemic has become safe enough to allow people to gather again). But reading this cinematic adventure it’s obvious they are at least on paper written differently from a D&D adventure.

A cinematic adventure comes with pre-generated characters, cast of NPC’s, agendas, maps, events and descriptions of key locations on the maps.

The pre-generated characters are the first difference. Cinematic adventures are the Alien RPG version of a one-shot. So the expectation is that the adventure is completed in a single session or possibly a second at most (depending on the duration of a session). They are also seen as a great intro to the Alien RPG and also for sessions at a con. With that in mind you get pre-generated characters for the players to choose from to play.

A cinematic adventure is split in to three acts, and at the start of each act players get a new agenda for their character to replace the previous acts agenda.

For me the biggest difference between this and say a D&D adventure is that within an act things are event driven. Some of the events may be mandatory, but the majority will not be, and may never be used. Very none linear.

The maps and the location descriptions are not any different from any other RPG.

With the act structure and events reading a cinematic adventure is a very different experience to other RPGs. Something that took me a little time to adjust to. It’s going to be very interesting to see what an Alien RPG campaign adventure looks like.

With the map and counters pack (on the way) that’s available, and the deck of cards this adventure is well supported for the GM and players.

The adventure is a softback, and 48 pages. And not bad value.

Core 2021 Prerelease & Chandra Spellbook

magic, MtG

Another pandemic MtG Prerelease is upon us. This time for Core 2021.

Thanks to my great FLGS my Prerelease kit was delivered today along with the latest in the spellbook series, the Chandra spellbook.

I’m pretty happy with the pulls I got from my prerelease kit and the additional 2 packs. I particularly liked how they used the b-side of the deck building advice for a prerelease for a timeline about Teferi. I kind of wished they did something similar in the spellbooks.

For me this is the first of the spellbooks that has been for a Planeswalker I like. I’m a Chandra fan. I’m assuming the next two years are going to be Nissa and Liliana. The other two big name Planeswalkers and part of the Gatewatch. Which I’m happy with this as they are the other two Planeswalkers I like. Although I am becoming a fan of Vivien Reid.

I’ll be glad when prereleases get back to “normal”. At the moment it feels like I’m getting half of the experience. Possibly not even that.

Naturally there is the addictive cracking of packs, and discovering the cards you have pulled. But the whole social side is missing. The excitement, even buzz as people are opening their booster packs and discovering what they have got. The catching up with friends, some that you only see at a prerelease. The deckbuilding with your pulls and playing some magic.

Because of all that it kind of feels a hollow experience.

Boom and slash!

Funkoverse

On the third attempt I managed to get the English version of the Catwoman and Robin Funkoverse stand alone expansion. Ok the German version was on me, I should have read the description properly. But the French version was on Amazon and the seller.

That expansion was joined by the four character Jurassic Park set. Which I needed to get the second member of the team I want to play.

The team idea I have is to play the raptor, t. rex, and jaws. I’m calling it boom, slash, splash!

I’ve no idea if the team is any good, synergises or even has any combos.

I’ve not even looked at the character abilities. I just think it will be fun to play. I’ve not even looked at which two items the team will be using.

Despite not having played the game yet. For me this game is all about throwing your favourite characters together and playing. In other words having fun.

It’s not about having everything, and building the strongest most competitive team. That’s a rabbit hole I don’t want to jump down. I’m not saying that can’t be fun. But that’s a side that at the moment I don’t see in the game. It might come with an official organised play scene.

I want to avoid the whole having to buy a set just for an item that works well with a different character. That was the sort of thing you were having to do in X-Wing or Imperial Assault to be competitive in tournaments. I hope Funkoverse avoids that.

There are sets I’m not interested in buying. I’m not a big Harry Potter fan, nor am I that nostalgic to play The Golden Girls. I’m just getting sets that are based on stuff I’m a big fan of. Hence why I have the Jaws set on pre-order (it is the final piece in this team after all). Plus I will get the Back to the Future stand alone expansion. And the newly announced/leaked A Game of Thrones set appeals to me (despite the last two seasons being a train wreck).

So when I play this game with friends who don’t have the game, I will just put the figures out that I have and we will draft the characters we want to play with. With friends into the game we can do the same, or use the official beta organised play rules.

Hopefully this will keep the game casual and fun for me and my friends.

In the meantime I’m looking forward to getting the third and final member of this team next month.