Author: The DM

In my last post, I promised to share my thoughts on Dead of Winter. Disclaimer: I spent the weekend of Origins demoing Dead of Winter for Plaid Hat Games, so I may be a bit biased.

Dead of Winter is the first in a series of games from Plaid Hat Games called Crossroads games. It was created by Jon Gilmour and Isaac Vega. In it, you and between one and four other players are survivors who have formed a colony in Alaska, after the zombie apocalypse has occurred. Now, before I go any further, I will say, I’m not a fan of zombie games. They’re just not my favorite thing. That said, Dead of Winter provides a great twist on the theme. Each player controls a number of survivors who will be their “team”. Throughout the course of the game, players may gain or lose members of their team. Each play of the game starts with an overall objective card. This is the main way the game can be won or lost. For example, one of the scenarios has the players collecting samples of the zombies, so the doctor in the colony can try to find a cure for the infection. Additionally, each player has their own secret objective that details how they personally can win the game. Most of the time, the secret object is “The players have completed the main objective, AND _____”. Maybe your objective is to hoard food cards. and you have to end the game with four of them in your hand. Or maybe your goal is have no wound tokens on any of your survivors. There *is* a possibility, that there’s a betrayer in your midst, who wants, for one reason or another, to see the colony fail. They will have a secret objective that details how they can win the game.

The board consists of 7 areas. The colony (main board), the gas station, police station, hospital, grocery store, library and school (location boards). The colony represents the collection of survivors that are in the colony (indicated by 45 spaces or so), the entrances that zombies can threaten (6 of them), the food reserves, the waste pile, turn and morale tracks, and a deck of cards that represents the crises (More on this in a moment). Each location board has its own entrance that zombies can threaten, a number of spaces that survivors can occupy, and a deck of cards that represents the things that can be found when that area is searched.

There are several things you have to worry about each turn of the game. First, you have to make sure there’s enough food in the colony. You play food cards to add food to the supply. Second, you have to make sure that the various entrances aren’t likely to be overrun by zombies at the end of the turn. Third, you have to make sure there’s not too much waste. Cards that are played leave waste behind. A tidy colony is a happy colony, and keeping the waste in check helps keep your morale from dropping. Lastly, you have to worry about the current crisis. Each turn, a crisis will be revealed with a requirement and a penalty. For example, maybe you have to contribute X medicine cards to the crisis, where X is the number of players. Each turn, you can contribute any number of cards from your hand, face down, to the crisis. At the end of the round, those cards will be shuffled and revealed, and if the requirement is met, nothing happens. If not, something bad will happen, probably resulting in a loss of morale. Note that anything OTHER than the required cards counts as a negative card, which is one method that a betrayer could slow down progress. If morale ever drops to zero, the game is over and the colonists have lost (though a betrayer may still win).

You start with a semi-random hand of cards that could be food, medicine, fuel, etc. These supplies will quickly run out, though. You collect the resources you need to preserve the colony by venturing out of the colony and searching for gear and supplies. Every time you travel to a new location (and every time you kill a zombie) you have to roll an exposure die, that could result in a wound (each character can withstand 3), frostbite (A wound that recurs each turn), or even being bitten by a zombie (death and possible spread of infection). When a survivor is bitten, they die. If anyone else is at that location, the survivor with the lowest influence has to make a choice: Sacrifice the survivor, and stop the spread, or roll the die, and repeat the process if anything other than a blank face turns up. As you search each location, you will draw cards from the location’s search deck. If you don’t like what you find, you can “make noise” to search further,but each time you make noise, there’s a chance of more zombies showing up at that location at the end of the round.

Let me take a moment to tell you about action dice. In Dead of Winter, you have action dice for your whole team. And you start each round with a number of action dice equal to the number of survivors you control plus one. You roll these dice at the start of the round, and the results of these dice determine what actions you can take during your turn of the round. Each survivor has stats that tell what number they need (or better) on a die to kill a zombie (combat rating) or search a location (search rating). You may spend these dice with whichever character you want, regardless of how many dice they’ve already spent. Dice can be spent to kill zombies, search locations, build barricades, clean up waste, and more.

This game has a lot of elements that really excite me. It’s a true cooperative/semi-cooperative game, that negates the Alpha Player problem, by giving every person their own special win condition. It has a potential traitor, with a solid traitor mechanic. While the method of contributing cards to the crisis isn’t new, it is wonderfully streamlined. The way that infection spreads is nicely done, by putting the decision into a player’s hand. The theme is very fitting, and the story elements really work well together. But the thing that really sets this game apart for me is the part I haven’t mentioned since the beginning of the article: The Crossroads cards.

Each turn, while you take your turn, the player to your right will be looking at a crossroads card. At the top of that card is some kind of criteria, like “If a survivor searches at the library” or “If the player has a survivor at the colony”. If that criteria is ever met, the player reading the card will stop the game, and read the crossroads card. Many times, the player is presented with a choice that could gain the party a reward at a cost, or the players as a whole will vote on something, and sometimes, something just *happens*. The crossroads cards add a twist to the whole gameplay experience that still manages to be thematic, engaging and fun.

I played this game twice at Origins, and demoed it for 8 hours over the course of the weekend. After I finished, I still wanted to play it again, RIGHT THEN. The game is tense, rarely gets repetitive, and every game I saw was pretty close. Only once did the party seem to have an easy time of it, and even then, a few twists cropped up that made it dicey.

My only concern is the potential for the crossroads cards to become repetitive after several plays, but I honestly don’t think that’s likely to happen, considering that crossroads cards frequently don’t activate.

Dead of Winter can be preordered from Plaid Hat Games, and should (hopefully) be released in July.

Sorry for the delay in posting the rest of my Origins experience. As I mentioned before, immediately after returning from the show, we started moving. While we haven’t finished, I’m making a bit of time to get some words out of me.

Day 2 is when things got busy. I spent the day demoing games for Plaid Hat Games. I admit, I was a bit on the nervous side, for some reason. It’s one thing to demo and teach games, which I do quite a bit. It’s another to do it when you’re worried that the guy that makes the game for a living will think you’re doing a bad job. I had a rocky start with Mice and Mystics, as it’s been a while since I’ve run it with any regularity, though I feel like it went well overall.

After that, I transferred to the VGHS table. Video Game High School is an upcoming game from Plaid Hat Games, that puts you in the role of characters from the VGHS web series. If you aren’t familiar with it, it’s ok, the game plays well even if you’re not, but I’m looking forward to checking it out myself. Imagine an alternate world, where one of the major sports is playing video games. VGHS is an easy to learn worker placement game, that I’ll undoubtedly be picking up when it releases, hopefully in August. I’ll do a bit of a write up on it later. I learned it, but didn’t get to demo it, as we switched the table to Summoner Wars demos.

Summoner Wars I’m pretty comfortable running, and the rest of the demo day went smoothly. The big hit of the show for Plaid Hat, though, was Dead of Winter. During the day Thursday, many people watched, waiting to get into a demo of it. Since I was scheduled to demo it on Friday, I made arrangements to borrow it Thursday night, and learn/demo it in the Board Room.

I learned a few weeks ago that an old friend, who was a regular at Ginny’s Midwest Comics, was living in Columbus, so I made arrangements to meet up with him, for the first time in around 15 years. He suggested dinner at The Melt, which I hadn’t considered, even though we’d walked past it several times on the way to and from the convention center. Meeting up with an old friend is great, but discovering The Melt was another show highlight for me. A phenomenal menu of signature grilled cheese sandwiches, and 40 beers on tap. I won’t go on and on about The Melt, but I will say I ate there 4 days in a row, 4 different sandwiches, and hand the same beer every time. I’m looking for excuses to take my wife to Columbus sometime soon.

On to the Board Room, where I found a table, and set up Dead of Winter. It didn’t take long to have a table of 5 ready to play, including my housemate Brian, Bill Reed, and none other than Eric “The Voice” Summerer. Dead of Winter is another game that I’m not going to explain in great detail here, other than to say that I played it twice on Thursday, demoed it the following two days, and I am still excited to get my hands on it and play it again as soon as I can. Our first game was a ton of fun, with Eric reading the story setup and some of the crossroads cards for great effect. After two games of Dead of Winter (at 1 to 2 hours each) and 8 hours of demoing, I was pretty beat, and retired to the house for the night.

Friday, I spent the first 4 hours of the con demoing Dead of Winter, and I’ve gotta admit, I had a blast with it. Again, I won’t go into great detail about DoW, as I want to do a writeup on it separately. But, when the Kodiak Colby promo crossroads card came up, I summoned Colby himself to read the card for effect.

After my stint at the PHG booth on Friday, I stopped by the Steve Jackson booth to get a T-shirt signed by John Kovalic. I worked at a convention in 2000 in Carbondale, IL, where John appeared, and he had designed the shirt for the show. I got it signed back then, and had it expanded upon, 14 years later. I also made arrangements with him to pick up the original for a piece of art I commissioned from him in 2012. Then, I joined 4 of my housemates at The Melt for lunch, as I had to share my find with them. We all had the Left Hand Milk Stout, and an amazing array of sandwiches (Ok, so I lied about not mentioning it again).

After lunch, I wandered the exhibit hall for the first time during regular hours. I was disappointed to not see WotC or Fantasy Flight Games, or several others, but I enjoyed what I did get to see. I ran into a few old friends, and caught up with them briefly.

After a brief trip to the Board Room, I retreated to the Big Bar on 2, to await the Secret Cabal Meetup. I believe I was the first one there, since I showed up 2 hours early. Mostly, I just wanted to start relaxing early. Another observation: Secret Cabal fans are a great group of pretty laid back people. I talked to several people throughout the event, and everyone was just really cool. This is an extension of my observation of my housemates, who were all, to a man, awesome.

Then we retired to the Cabalist House for a few games. Masquerade and Nothing Personal were my games of the evening.

Saturday saw me, once again, spending the early part of the day running Dead of Winter demos. Since this entry is running long, I’ll just say it was fun. I wrapped up my demoing experience with Plaid Hat, and said my goodbyes, and explored the Exhibit Hall again, after learning that the auction had so few items to sell that it ended 4 hours earlier than the estimated running time. Then I went back to the Steve Jackson booth to wait for John to finish his signings. Though I had waited out the line the day before, I wanted to get something for my daughter, even if she’s too young to appreciate it.

After he finished his signing, he ran to his room to get the artwork, and while he did, I sat at the booth talking to one of the guys from Steve Jackson Games for a while. 15 minutes into the conversation, I found out I was talking to Leonard Balsera, who is the lead developer for Fate Core and the Dresden Files RPGs, both of which I’m really into right now.

I ran into another old friend, whom I don’t think I’ve seen in probably 10 years, and chatted with him and his wife for a bit. By then, it was too late to join anyone for lunch, so I made my way to The Melt alone, for my 3rd such meal in as many days. Then it was off to the Board Room for some more gaming. Played Ascension with a couple of strangers, and then joined a few of my housemates for a The Great Heartland Hauling Company, followed by Rune Wars (Another partial game).

Finally, we wrapped up the evening back at the Cabalist House with several games of One Night Werewolf. The next morning, we saw 3 of our numbers off for their long road trip home, cleaned the house, and vacated our 5 day home-away-from-home, not entirely in that order. The last 4 of us made a final excursion to The Melt for brunch, and prepared to be on our respective ways back home.

All in all, I had a great time. I was a little disappointed in the vendor participation and turnout at the convention, but I enjoyed the company of the people I met, I played some great games, had some great food, and just had a wonderful time of it all. I will definitely return to Origins, but it may be a few years before I can.

As I mentioned before, as I add games to my collection, if they’re alphabetically before my current place in my list, I will jump back to include them.  This is the first of two such additions, before I get back into place.

I played Agents of SMERSH twice before buying it.  Travis (who posts the wonderful After Action Reports here) had picked up a copy, and we got to try this a couple of times before I moved away from that group.

In Agents of SMERSH, you play a U.N. “SuperSpy” trying to shut down Dr. Lobo before he does something to destroy the planet, or something to that effect.  You travel the globe and have semi-random encounters (based on your location, reaction, the state of the board, and a random element).  You’re given a scenario, and a test to perform (By rolling specialized dice equal to your rating in the skill to be tested).  If you succeed good things (usually) happen, and if you fail, Dr. Lobo gets closer to his goal.

I’ve played this game 3 times, with 4 players each time, and I’ve not succeeded yet.  That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it immensely.  I love the “Choose your own adventure” flavor of it, especially with the adventure book that (optionally) comes with the game.

The path to victory includes facing some heavy hitting “Lieutenants” several times, while collecting intelligence tokens with random symbols on the unrevealed underside.  Once you’ve defeated the lieutenants a number of times (5 in a 4 player game), you may reveal the intel, and if you have collected all the symbols that match the symbols on the current “threat” level, you win.  Else, you lose, and Dr. Lobo unleashes his own version of the apocalypse.

I’ve played this with both gamers and non-gamers alike, and have enjoyed it, though I’m not entirely sure the non-gamers were as thrilled with it as I was.  They said they had fun, and I think I can get it to the table again, but I hope we can win it soon, or I fear they’ll give up on it.

In that play, by the way, I streamlined things a tiny bit, by acting as “GM”, and read the adventures for each player except myself, so as not to have to pass the awkward spiral bound book around the table too much.

It all started with A Game of Thrones.  My friend Kent had collected the base game and the first eighteen (yes, eighteen) expansions because he liked the art.  He never played the game, just collected the cards.  Last summer, he traded the collection to me, so we reassembled it into the base set and expansions.  We then sat down with the rulebook and tried to get into it.  It was a bit daunting, especially after I looked for the FAQ and found it to be a larger document that the (large) rule book.  The book explains from the start, the 4 player setup, with all the extra trappings, but doesn’t point out how much easier the 2 player experience is, which the tutorial video does much better.  We came back to it from this angle, and eventually the 4 player setup made a lot more sense.  It also helped that between the first play and the second, I read the first three books in the Song of Ice and Fire series.  I’m not going to go too heavily into each system, but share some early thought, having played a few games of each, and planning to expand each game.  I will start with the oldest ones first, and finish up with the newest members of the format.

A Game of Thrones (1 Base Set,  6 Deluxe Expansions, 46 Chapter Packs) — This is a very cutthroat game, with a lot of focus put upon messing with what other people are doing.  It plays most thematically with 4 players, but more smoothly at 2.  My collection started with the base game and the first 3 cycles of cards, but we played several times with just the base decks that came with the Core Set.  I like this game a lot, but find it to be a tough sell to a new player.

Call of Cthulhu (1 Base Set, 5 Deluxe Expansions, 42 Asylum Packs) — My friend Shane brought this game into the shop the first time I met him, and left it for us to try.  We played a handful of times, again with just the base game.  This one has a more straightforward 2 player experience.  You’re trying to claim “story” cards by committing characters to them, and then facing off against your opponent.  There are a lot of cards in circulation now, though, and I’m not sure how much I should collect, to put together a decent handful of decks to play casually with friends.

Warhammer: Invasion (1 Base Set, 4 Deluxe Expansions, 36 Battle Packs)  — This one is probably the most “in your face”.  It allows for more than 2 players, but plays best as a head to head game.  Each player has 3 regions in their home that they are defending, as the other player builds up their forces, and attacks them.  Lose two of your regions, and you’re eliminated from the game.  This one probably plays quickest, and I’ve seen the balance of power change on a dime.

The Lord of the Rings (1 Base Set, 2 Deluxe Expansions, 2 Saga Expansions, 18 Adventure Packs, 2 Print on Demand Expansions) — The only cooperative game in the lot.  2-4 players play against a “Quest Deck”.  In theory, each quest has its own feel and play experience.  In practice, the game is a lot of resource management and number crunching.  I don’t dislike this game, but I think it’s the most difficult one to massage the theme out of.

Android: Netrunner (1 Base Set, 3 Data Packs) — One of the two newest members of the format, Android: Netrunner has been at the top of the BoardGameGeek “Hotness” for the last several months.  It features truly asymmetrical gameplay, with each side taking vastly different types of actions, as the noble corporation tries to defend its assets against criminals.  Or perhaps, as the digital freedom fighter tries to stick it to Big Brother.  It really depends on your outlook.  This is another game that I feel isn’t for everyone, but is probably the most unique of the six.

Star Wars (1 Base Set, 2 Data Packs) — Despite early claims that this would be a cooperative game, Star Wars released as a “light” versus “dark” game, with 3 different factions on each side.  This one probably has more similarities to Warhammer: Invasion than any of the others, but I feel it holds its own theme very well.  I’ve probably played this one the most, and have enjoyed it immensely.  It also features a unique deckbuilding method that I like a lot, though others have claimed it too restrictive.

One thing all of these games have in common is STELLAR artwork.   Granted, the Call of Cthulhu art gets reused throughout Arkham Horror, Mansions of Madness, and Elder Sign, but the artwork is good enough that I certainly don’t mind. The Star Wars art all has a great illustrated style, and really bring out the “feel” of the original trilogy.  Lord of the Rings uses all unique artwork, and pulls nothing from the movies, not even inspiration.  Considering how bad the art is on just about every other Lord of the Rings game these days, that’s a wonderful thing.

I’ve found myself to be a fan of all of these games.  I’m actively looking for people to play them with, though I’d likely have to play at home, at least for a while.

I will be touching on each of these games as I get to them in my regular “Collection” articles, but I wanted to say a few things about these now, and hopefully start a dialogue, that will give me more opportunities to PLAY these games.

Cheers!

I collect games.  Whether I like to admit it or not, I collect games.  My collection has grown so much over the last two years, I certainly can’t deny it.  I’m trying to limit my game buying to games I actually KNOW I’ll play, now, but that’s still a pretty big list.  I’ve been thinking about my collection lately, and how much of it has been influenced by what’s newly coming out. (more…)

I’m going to take a bit of a departure from my normal format tonight. I’ll be going back to it,but for now, I just want to share a few thoughts about my last couple of years as a board game enthusiast. When I started this blog, I didn’t ever intend for it to be read by anyone besides people who already knew me. To that end, I never really introduced myself. My co-contributors have all introduced themselves. I guess I should follow suit.

I’m a 38 year old new father. I’ve been gaming since the late 1980s, and have been involved in the industry, at the retailer level, since 1994. Like most people, I had games as a kid, but nothing more in depth than Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit. My first introduction to tabletop gaming really came in 1988 when I borrowed my uncle’s basic D&D set (which he’d never played). I ran the game for a few neighborhood kids, and was hooked pretty quick. This was the pre-red box version, and I only had it for maybe a couple of weeks.  Role playing remained a pretty strong hobby for me, and I found myself immersed in systems like Marvel Super Heroes, Twilight 2000, Rifts, and Vampire, as well as a regular ongoing D&D campaign.

In the ’90s, I went to work for a local comic shop, and was introduced to Magic: the Gathering. At the time, it was the only game they carried. I played heavily from The Dark through the Urza block. The store changed ownership in 1996, and eventually, we started moving more into games. When I took over ownership in 1998, we eliminated comics altogether, and became a full-blown game store. When I say game store, I mean CCGs and Roleplaying games, mostly. I remember seeing solicitations for games like Settlers of Catan, but not thinking much of them. We continued until 2002, and closed when the building we were located in was sold.

When I opened a new shop in 2003, we still followed the same model, though we carried some of the collectible minis games like HeroClix and MechWarrior. Sadly, that shop didn’t stay open very long either, and I missed the opportunity to expand my horizons. During this time, games like Raw Deal (the WWF/WWE card game), Star Wars d20, and Warlord: Saga of the Storm dominated my time. The shop re-opened in 2006, almost completely focused on Magic: the Gathering. In 2008, we moved to a larger location, and re-introduced comics to our lineup.

It was in this location that I started to see some of the great things that were going on. Finally, I discovered Settlers of Catan, and Carcassonne, and Ticket to Ride, and all the other great “gateway” games. Still, I moved slowly into board gaming as a hobby. Games like Pandemic and Forbidden Island became staples for us. Indeed, when Jamie and I got married in 2010, we had board games on each of the tables at the reception, and gave out custom d6s as wedding favors. I had personally drifted away from Magic as a player, but continued to run events on a weekly basis. I also had gotten into Warhammer Fantasy Battles and amassed a decent sized Vampire Counts army. I wasn’t very good at it, though, and never got knowledgable enough to teach it very well. Our latest D&D campaign had ended, as well, and the next one never quite got started.

I found myself without a steady hobby for the first time in a long time. I turned to board games as a “one-off” kind of thing, as I had access to a smallish collection, with a decent amount of variety. I can’t say there was any one specific board game that sucked me in, but in the last two years or so, I’ve really found a hobby that I can love.  All types of games, with so many ways to interact with friends and new faces. I also feel that I’m a passable teacher for these games, so in general, I really feel at home with board games. At the beginning of 2013, I started a quest to talk about each of the games in my collection. Give my thoughts on the ones that I’ve played, and at least talk a little about the ones I haven’t. I’m still in the As, so this might take a while. I don’t think I’m quite done with this interlude yet, however.

In my next segment, I plan to talk about new games, old games, and the direction I plan to go with my hobby.

I’m going to  change up my format for these entries.  I’m going to give a brief overview of the game in my own words, followed with my thoughts and play experiences.

Overview:  Ascension is a deck building game.  You start the game with two different types of resources in your deck, with a random assortment of these forming your hand.  An assortment of cards are at the center of the play area, that you may purchase with these resources.  As you buy cards with those resources, they’re added to your discard pile.  Once you run out of cards, the discard pile gets shuffled, and you have a new deck.  That’s the standard deck building game definition, more or less.

In games like Dominion, there are a number of piles in the center of the table for you to choose from and everyone has access to those piles.  Ascension differs in that there are 6 cards in the center row, and as each of those cards is purchased (or defeated) they are replaced by a new card from a central deck of cards.  There are also different types of cards.  Heroes and Constructs may be purchased with one of your resources and added to your deck, while Monsters must be defeated using the other resource, and give you a one-time benefit for defeating them.  You play until a pool of victory points has been exhausted, which happens as you gain victory from defeating monsters.  The cards you purchase also have a victory value, so there are multiple strategies to consider for victory.

Thoughts:  I was a few months late jumping on board with this one.  I didn’t discover it until attending the Alliance Open House in November 2011.  By then it was already a hit, and hard to get.  I played this a handful of times over the weekend, and have been a fan ever since.   The art isn’t great, though.  Later expansions and standalones have brought better artwork to the mix.

Granted,  I don’t get to play it as often, as it’s not a favorite for Jamie.  Since I’ve started recording my plays, I’ve only played it once, physically.  Digitally is another story.  It’s one of the first games I picked up for the iPhone and iPad, and I’ve played it several times.  It’s a great game to play against the AI, and I’ve played against online opponents a few times.

I enjoy this game, though I think I like the digital implementation better.  I think I’d like to try a live tournament, though.  I’m not a super competitive player, but I think I would enjoy trying my hand at two-headed competitive play.