I let Chi’s Sweet Home set the tone for my birthday

 I recently had one of those birthdays that’s supposed to make you think about your life. Since I’m not interested in having a midlife crisis, I don’t know how necessary that is.

But I did decide to make a point of making the first thing I read something that would set the tone for this year of my life. I do the same thing for the new year. Really, though, any book you read is the first book you read for that chunk of time. Or the last book. I guess last book makes more sense.

After contemplating reading something heavy and ‘meaningful’, I actually went with the next volume of Chi’s Sweet Home.

I’ve already written about Chi’s Sweet Home. It’s a slice of life manga about a kitten adjusting to being adopted by a family after she gets lost from her mother. (Chi didn’t actually lose her mother. She’s still alive, somewhere out there. Don’t get all dark about it)

Chi’s Sweet Home might be fluff but it might be more about the life of a fluff. It isn’t grandiose but I think it actually accurately reflects the life that we spend most of our time living.

And that’s why I decided it was a good ‘tone’ read. To remind myself that life is full of little wonders.

Finally actually looking at Battle Card Series 1

 Last year, I tried out Battle Card Marker Garden, which effectively was the prototype for the Battle Card series. (Come to think it, it also made me look at the Postcards From the Front contest)

I bought the Battle Card Series 1 at the start of the year as part of my buying the Post Mark Games catalog but I’ve only now played the first game in the series, The Malaysian Campaign.

Okay, the Battle Card series is a set of simple PnP solitaire one-page war games, although you can print the map and the rules on separate sheets and make them a two-sheet war games. You use dice as counters, with the pips being the strength of the unit, as well as a die for the timer and another for actually rolling on the Combat Results Table.

(As a longtime D&D player, I am found of CRTs. (Yes, I know D&D doesn’t use CRTs) Take care of all the math and try to make it work in your favor before you roll the die)

Each map has its own rules so is basically a standalone game. And each one is about a specific military action from World War II. I put it that way because I’m not sure what the line between a battle and a campaign is. 

The Malaysian Campaign has reinforced the opinion I got from the Market Garden prototype.

Okay, negatives first. As far as actual game goes, I don’t think there’s a lot there. The decision trees have been fairly limited. There seems to be really one course of action in each map and the dice have to be really nice to you to pull it off.  

Which sounds like a complete condemnation but that’s not the whole picture.

As history lessons, the Battle Card series are very engaging. And that is one of the goals of historic war games in general and I’m pretty sure the Battle Card series in particular. From that standpoint, the series works and works well enough to make the games worth experiencing.

Yes, even though I am not even close to an expert on WW II history, I am sure they heavily simplify the events. They are five minute games that play out in a maximum of six turns. They are clearly showing history in broad strokes. And I am sure that historians can show where they are wrong.

However, the Battle Card series gives you an interactive overview of battles and campaigns, a Cliff Notes version. They are very accessible, even to someone like me whose war gaming experiences are limited. And they point me in the direction if I want to do more reading, research or  gaming.

I don’t know if people who are active war gamers would get much out of the Battle Card series. But I think they are ideal for casual gamers like me. I can honestly picture them as ideal for class room use.

I feel that the Battle Series is the weakest product from Post Mark Games. Because Voyages and Aquamarine and Waypoints are very good and very accessible games with a lot of nuance and replay value. However, I will also stand by my continued recommendation that folks should just buy their entire catalog.

Drakard- a retro adventure full of palindromes

My first impression of Drakard was that it had a very strong retro vibe. That it felt like a game you’d have bought in the 80s that was sold in a ziplock baggy. Which isn’t a knock. Some cool games came into the world that way. At the same time, it also has more modern streamlined gameplay.

It’s an adventure game where you play an elven ranger who has to cross the wilderness to kill the drakard and then make it to the elven fortress.

  

Its origins are from a palindrome-themed 24-hour design contest. The palindrome comes in for the combat. You roll a die pool and try to make number palindromes like 5-1-5 or 2-2-2-2. Fortunately, all the monsters just require one hit. Higher level monsters just require more numbers on their palindrome and do more damage when you fail.

After playing it a couple times, I learned I was playing the second edition. So I looked at the contest edition and there is quite the contrast. The contest version is effectively a track of monsters while the second edition is a full wilderness map. 

And that makes a huge, beneficial difference. It adds a whole new layer of decisions to the game. For, you see, Drakard also involves resource management, looking after health and money and weapons and magic and food. And the make-or-break resource of the game is food. 

Movement is entirely food-driven. Every time you make a move action, you have to pay a food. And that move can be modified by low health and terrain. Forget the monsters. The real tension and terror of the game is trying to avoid starvation. In fact, killing monsters for food is a definite part of the strategy.

Honestly, the resource management is Drakard’s strongest and weakest point. It drives the game. On the other hand, it also limits what paths you take since you can only get one food at a time. You have to plan each movement around getting more food, which can make choosing your path become formulaic.

More than that, you randomly roll for resources at the start. Which is weighted towards higher numbers but if you end up with a low food, I am pretty sure it is mathematically impossible to win.

For me, Drakard is a net positive. The palindrome combat system is fun and I like that it’s not weighted towards high rolls. I really like the retro feel of the game as well. There’s a definite narrative in the play. And, yes, being a free download helps me accept the flaws.

There are a lot of fantasy adventure games out there that you can print out for free. While it has its flaws, Drakard manages to be distinct and engaging.

Fliptricks is silly but makes sense

I find it amusing and telling that the first game I taught myself after the school year started and I got back in the saddle substitute teaching was Fliptricks. It is definitely a game that you can learn while deep in brain fog.

It is a dexterity game that uses cards, which is a genre that I’ve seen more misses than hits. Honestly, FlowerFall is the only one I thought was really brilliant.

I got Fliptricks as a PnP which comes with enough cards for four players. But if you wanted to have more players, just print out the card sheet again, particularly since each player just uses one card.

Said card has a whole skate board on one side and a broken one on the other. You hang the card partially off of a table. You then use your index finger and middle finger to flip it and then use those two fingers to land the card. If it’s non-broken side up and both fingers are on the card (with being on the board as a more challenging version), you keep going. A full round is balancing the card vertical edge, horizontal edge and diagonal. See who can keep going the longest.

I initially thought that this was incredibly dumb. Then, when I tried it out since laminating four cards isn’t really that much work, I realized that this was a card adaptation of those fingerboards that I sometimes have to tell students to put away. When I came to that realization, the game made sense. 

Fliptricks isn’t just tossing cards in a hat with a theme. (I swear there was a dolphin-themed version of that from Adlung-Spiele but I can’t seem to find any evidence of that) The theme and the mechanics actually tied together and duplicate a form of play that I have seen an action.

And once I understood what was going on, I actually had fun with it. By no means is it a brilliant work of art and nor is it going to FlowerFall. However, I understand what it is trying to do and I think it succeeds.

Fliptricks is simple, silly fun. Sometimes, that’s what you want.

Alexander Shen makes an addictive little Spooky Forest

 Spooky Forest is a recent game/puzzle from Alexander Shen. I’m scared to say the latest game since Shen so routinely publishes quirky, charming PnP games that I can’t keep up lol

I’ll be honest. The last few games I’ve learned by Shen haven’t really engaged me. They’ve been interesting and I will play them again but none of them have been games that will make regular rotation. Spooky Forest, though, that’s looking to be a regular game for me.

It’s a flip-and write where you are filling in a four-by-four grid. There are four symbols: rocks, trees, ghosts, and skulls. Symbols can _not_ be drawn next to the last symbol drawn. Except for rocks, which must be.

The game ends when you’ve either filled in the entire grid or you can’t make a legal move. Ghost and skulls are worth two points when paired together (and each symbol can be part of multiple pairs) and negative three points if alone. Blank spaces are also worth negative three points. Trees are worth a point as long as they are in a group of at least three. Rocks aren’t worth anything.

Spooky Forest is very simple but the placement restrictions are enough to make it work. While you know the kind of patterns you need to make to optimize the score, the restrictions, particularly the rock one, keep you from mindlessly filling out the grid.

The game also has a puzzle option. Instead of using the deck of eighteen cards for the flip-and-write option, there is a fifty-four card deck, each with a pre generated draw. I didn’t expect the puzzle deck to interest me but it effectively allows me to reduce the game to two pieces plus a dry erase marker, which makes a quick game/puzzle really convenient.

Shen works with these small spaces, puzzles and games that fit into coffee break time frames. Not all of them take off but some of them just really balance simplicity and whimsy and actual decisions. And Spooky Forest is one of them.

While brevity is one of Shen’s virtues, the cramped grid actually is one of the keys to making Spooky Forest not a mindless exercise. The restriction on placing a rock is the other key. If it wasn’t for rocks, you could just make a checkerboard of skulls and ghosts with an outline of trees. Rocks not only ruin your carefully made plans, they can end a game early.

Don’t get me wrong. Spooky Forest is a very simple game that uses mechanics and paradigms that are well worn. It’s a comfortable pair of old shoes that you wear for a nice walk around the garden. It’s got just enough going on to make the couple minutes of play fun.

Spooky Forest is an example why I always look when I see Alexander Shen’s name.

Thoughts on the preview for Greatest Beach Vacation

 I picked up the Kickstarter preview of Greatest Beach Vacation, which will be part of a set of three vacation themed Roll and Writes. 

This is one of those R&Ws that consists of different mini-games. In this case, six: jet ski, snorkeling, gift shop, surfing, sand castle, and volleyball. I’m not going to go into details on each of them but they are all distinct. I will note that most of the items in the gift shop give you bonuses in other mini-games.

Each turn, you roll six dice with two rerolls. You can then assign the dice to ANY of the mini-games. Most of the time I see a setup like this, you have to put all your dice in one mini-game. That said, two of the mini-games, gift shop and volleyball, require you to complete each section in one turn.

And the game only last five turns. Which makes getting that flexibility not just nice but possibly essential for game balance. It’s definitely an example of not being able to do everything you want to do.

Some of the spaces in each mini-game have one of three different sea shells. Each set of three different shells gets you five points.

Okay. My first reaction to playing Greatest Beach Vacation was to play it again. It does a really good job of having multiple paths to (hopefully) victory. I will say that changing horses midstream is going to not be pretty. And the scoring guide offers some real challenge.

I did feel a few of the rules were a little unclear. It also is listed for 1-100 players but the fact that you get rerolls means you can’t use Take It Easy simultaneous play. So, does that mean everyone has their own set of dice and lets everyone else know when they’re done? 

Eh, it’s a prototype. The final version might clear all that up.

The biggest hurdle that Greatest Beach Vacation has is that it’s got a lot of competition. There are a LOT of one-page Roll and Writes. Even taking being a collection of mini-games and being aimed at a family audience into account, there’s a lot out there.

The game that it really reminded me of was Beach Life from Dark Imp. Beach Life is my second favorite of Ellie Dix’s designs. (Restaurantreprenuer is my favorite, by the way) It also consists of mini-games and has a beach theme, albeit about sea life, not recreation. 

Playing the two games back to back, Greatest Beach Vacation held up better than I expected. I would rather play that game solitaire more. On the other hand, Beach Life is much stronger multi-player. Not only does it use simultaneous play, there are multiple points of interaction, bonus points for finishing mini-games first and player action determines the end game. 

So, while I would suggest Beach Life for a family game night (I am starting to think that a printer generated family game night is becoming a viable idea), Greatest Beach Vacation is what I’d pick for a casual solitaire game. 

When the Kickstarter for the Greatest Vacation collection hits, I will seriously be considering it.

A pocket full of games for no space or time

 I have found myself throwing together another little case of games, this one for lunchtime gaming.

You see, I’ve found I often work through lunch, which means I don’t have time or physical space to game with. I already have Alexander Shen’s Potato Carrot Tomato in my bag and sometimes I don’t have space for that tiny tile-laying game.

So I made copies of In-Hand games that are super quick to play. How quick? Palm Island didn’t make the cut and that’s a ten minute game at best. That said, very few surprises. Almost all the games I picked are ones I’ve been playing for years.

Right now, it consists of:

Flipword

Elevens for One

I Am Lynx

Labyrinth Runner 

Down

The Star Speaker

Flipword got added in because I’ve had great luck teaching to folks so it goes in every travel case from now on. I Am Lynx and Elevens for One almost didn’t make the cut because they are on the longer end for what I am looking for but I wanted something with at least a little meat.

The other three games? Well, sometimes I can get in a play of any of them in like a minute. I hit over a hundred plays of Down just using it as a game to play while waiting for someone in the car. Which might say more about me than the game.

Sometimes, a couple minutes is all you have to work with. So I want to make sure I have something that will work. And every game I’ve added, except for Star Speaker, is one I’ve played off and on for years. And Star Speaker, while not challenging, has proven to be engaging.

I’m sure I’ll rearrange this little collection over time but it’s a start.

A memory of GenCons past

 It’s now been over a decade since I’ve been to a GenCon. Admittedly, a huge part of that is that I don’t live in Chicago any more. Milwaukee and even Indianapolis are relatively easy to get there from there.

That said, a lot of my gaming friends have stopped going to GenCon. The cost has something to do with that but apparently the ability to get in casual gaming also has been a factor.

With another GenCon behind us, I asked myself what do I miss the most about GenCon?

The carpet in the convention center in Indianapolis.

When I close my eyes and try to picture GenCon, the visceral memory that comes to me is that carpet and the not unpleasant scent of whatever industrial cleaner they use. I have read that scent is the sense that is the most directly hardwired into the brain, the one that invokes memory the strongest. So maybe that’s part of why the carpet is so striking to me.

Yes, I have many GenCon memories and experiences. But that carpet, that is my sense of place. 

Of course, it’s been long enough that they’ve probably renovated the place and there’s a new carpet.

How my appreciation of My Hero Academia has grown

This month, Kohei Horikoshi will be finishing My Hero Academia. Ten years worth of weekly chapters and I think it will end up being 42 volumes. 

While there are works like One Piece that are over a hundred volumes, that’s still ten years and a lot of pages. And it’s clear that My Hero Academia is telling a single complete story.

I’ve read thirty-five of the volumes and only stopped because that’s how much the library had lol And my enjoyment and appreciation of My Hero Academia has only grown as it has gone on.

And, as I keep reading it, I kept adjusting my expectations and impressions of the series.

Spoilers

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I had initially described My Hero Academia as school for superheroes. I ultimately feel that I was wrong. It is an inter-generational saga where some of the action takes at a school. I’d actually say it’s less about good versus evil and more people who want to help versus people who want to hurt.

And the concept of Superhero is central to the work. Not just the concept of super powers but the idea of using them to help people. At first, in a world where 80% has super powers, the government is actively involved in licensing heroes and super heroics is big business, it felt like Horikoshi was deconstructing Superheroes. However, after the setting was established, he began reconstructing the concept.

 

And the centerpiece to that reconstruction is Midoriya, the protagonist but still part of a sprawling ensemble. Basically, personality-wise, he is Superman. The Superman of My Adventures with Superman, not Zack Snyder’s Superman. (Although, to be honest, given the timeline, I wouldn’t be surprised if My Hero Academia influenced My Adventures with Superman) Midoriya is empathic and caring, even when in life and death battles.

In fact, the two students who get the second most focus, Bukago and Shoto, are different flavors of anti-hero. Mind you, they are both shown to be able to grow and be good people (Bukago hides his better side very well) But it is

Midoriya’s compassion that is a key component to his ability to make a difference. That and incredible powers.

And this is what ultimately sold me and got me hooked. Midoriya may have a silver age outlook but he isn’t in a silver age world. The villains are absolute nightmares whose actions have serious body counts and cause societal collapse. There are serious stakes in My Hero Academia.

I feel the Dark Hero arc has been the most striking for me so far. Midoriya has left the academy because he is so dangerous to be around. And, at his lowest point, when he is neglecting basic hygiene and nutrition, Midoriya is relentlessly trying to help people, fighting violent criminals and rescuing people. Even at his lowest, Midoroya still needs to save everyone but he needs his friends to remind him that he also needs save himself.

I don’t know My Hero Academia will end. (I’m mean, I’m pretty sure it will be a happy ending) Considering it’s become a multi-media franchise with spin-offs, this month isn’t the end of the setting. But I hope Horikoshi will end the central story well.

Monster Healer and an Etsy design aesthetic

Monster Healer Solo IIDX (Monster Healer from here on out) is a solitaire Roll-and-Place game. You don’t have to write anything down. You just have to get dice in specific spaces.

It is another game from the fascinating mind of Alexander Shen. I am a fan of their works. Shen has a real knack for creating quirky games that fit in small spaces and short times. Not all of them work but they always demonstrate a willingness to experiment and a desire to get ideas out into the world.

Monster Healer has you trying to trap monsters so you can heal them. Monsters aren’t keen on that and will either get rid of traps or even try and kill you. One odd bit is that it takes more than one trap to catch a monster.

What the game actually comes down to is trying to lock five dice into specific pips. You get two actions per turn, which include rerolls, placing traps and a couple of special actions like healing yourself. Then the monster gets a go, rolling on a table which includes hurting you, getting rid of traps or just doing nothing.

Monster Hunter isn’t one of the Shen’s hits for me. All the game’s parts work but the odds do seem to be in your favor. The monsters can bug you but you’ll usually win.  The theme carries the game more than the mechanics. It works well enough to make for an amusing diversion but I won’t get it out often.

Over the last ten or so years, Print and Play as a medium has come a long way and gotten some real spit and polish. There are publishers that do nothing but. (I don’t think they’ve quit their day jobs but they can compete)

When I first looked at PnPs, that wasn’t the case. PnPs were much more hobby projects. (Yes, exceptions did exist) Really, when you look at design contests, the hobby level of PnP creation is probably stronger than ever. But back when Fred Flintstone was my neighbor, that was what you were finding.

Alexander Shen feels like a visitor from an alternate timeline where PnP developed differently. Their games have a hobby designer vibe but a modern, professional sensibility. It’s like Etsy as a game designer. (To be honest, itch.io is kind of an Etsy of game design. Which is probably why I spend so much time there)

Back to Monster Healer. I got it as part of a big game bundle on itch.io and I got more than my money’s worth.

My July Gaming

 July was a month for learning quiet games for me. Well, not all of them but a lot of games that fall on the meditative side. I learned:

Paper App Dungeon

Evil Lab

Around the World in 10-15 minutes

A Gentle Rain

Monster Healer Solo IIDX

Mysticana - Curse of Dragons

Battle Card - The Malayan Campaign 

Drakard

Easily the most significant game I learned was A Gentle Rain. The philosophy behind the game, playing for decompression and not to win, isn’t a unique one but A Gentle Rain presents it very well. I made a homemade copy but I’d really like to get a published copy. So it worked out for me and the creaters lol

I had tried out My Little Evil Lab in June and liked it enough to move on to the other games in that family. Evil Lab, the core game, proved to be more challenging, enough that I will keep on looking at the other games in the series. The core concept is simple but the designers find ways to make it difficult.

I also enjoyed the basic map of Around the World in 10-15 Minutes. While a simple game, it has a real family game feel and I can see it doing well as a casual game. Printing out some sheets and calling it a family game night is becoming more and more viable.

I also realized that I had only tried the first two maps of Voyages. I decided to try the third map and ended up playing all six maps by the end of July. And each one is remarkably distinct. I keep changing my mind about which is my favorite Post Mark Games R&W but they are all top notch.

I don’t know of what August will bring but I have at least a couple games on my To Do list.

My July PnP

I didn’t think July would be that heavy a Print and Play month for me. However, one thing led to another and I ended up finishing a lot of projects. Many of them were just laminating Roll and Write sheets but there was some cutting in there as well.

I made:

A Gentle Rain

Elevens for One

Labyrinth Runner 

The Star Speaker

I Am Lynx

Down

Desert Sabre

Mysticana (playtest version)

Curse of Dragons (playtest version)

Rove JR

Evil Lab

My Little Evil Lab

Evil Lab Biohazard Zone

Evil Lab Bio Split

Greatest Beach Vacation

Battle Card - The Malayan Campaign

My ‘big’ project was A Gentle Rain. I’m glad that the creaters gave permission for the files to be posted. Now I want a published copy so it worked out for everyone lol

That said, Rove JR also counts as a big project by my modest standards. I remember liking the original game but I can’t remember what it was like. The Junior version might be what I need to play the system enough to really get into it.

And I made copies of Elevens for One, Labyrinth Runner, The Starspeaker, I Am Lynx and Down to make a game pack for my work bag. I wanted games that were really short and In Hand because sometimes I do paperwork during lunch so brevity and no table space are essential.

I think August is going to be a much, much busier with other life stuff month but I also feel like my July crafting will set me up for August gaming.