tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11683398305185375372024-03-18T15:18:57.022-07:00A Gnome's PonderingsLowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.comBlogger1461125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-33258846494217210812024-03-18T15:18:00.000-07:002024-03-18T15:18:06.176-07:00Outdoor Survival wishes it was Waypoints<p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Ah, Waypoints. The third game that Matthew Dunstan and Rory Muldoon designed for Postmark Games. I really liked their other two games, Voyages and Aquamarine, so I was curious to see how Waypoints would go.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Waypoints is a game about hiking in a park. The boards are topographical maps with a grid overlay. Each turn, you get a certain number of action points. You draw your path freehand and it costs an action point to cross any line. Which means both topographical lines and grid lines.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The map has a variety of waypoints, which are actually just dots with different symbols by them. They are also where you have to end each leg of a hike. (If you can’t reach one, you have to rest, which gets you a water but what you really want is to hike) Collecting symbols is how you get points and bonus powers.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">So here’s where it goes interesting. You roll one six-sided die to determine how many action points you get each turn. Now, you don’t get the number you roll. Instead, you move that many spaces on the weather track. The space you end on tells you how many action points you’ll be getting.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Now, anytime a Roll and Write has me use just one die, that’s a red flag. Only one die flattens the odds and limits the outcome. Even two dice, just one more die, makes a big difference in decision tree. I’m not saying there aren’t good Roll and Writes that use just one die but I definitely view it as a design obstacle.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">That said, Waypoints has a number of ways of letting you deal with random luck. Water lets you get additional action points. Jackets give you bonus action points on cold weather (which is when you get only one or two points) Kayaks and hang gliders give you special movements. Later maps add more stuff.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The only actual problem that I have found, and this has happened to me, is that I have had hiking days that only lasted three turns. The number of turns you get can be pretty variable.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I have only played the game solitaire, which requires you to end each day at a campfire, a requirement that you don’t have in multi-player games. I lost my first game because I couldn’t do that. I don’t view that as a bug but a feature. The soliatire game would be too easy without that extra challenge. That said, I have had to hustle on some hikes.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I honestly feel Waypoints is a very close third behind Voyages and Aquamarine. The theme is very strong and well connected to the mechanics. The action points make the freehand drawing work well. Waypoints is engaging and interesting. It feels both innovative and intuitive, at least to me.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">However, the variable turn factor is a ding for me. I can see how it might be a plus for some folks, since it definitely adds tension to the game. And I think it might be less of a problem with multi-player games where you don’t have to end on a camp fire.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Waypoints is gojng to see regular play from me. It is what people who actually wanted to play Outdoor Survival wanted Outdoor Survival to be.</div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-84424960570531665712024-03-16T15:50:00.000-07:002024-03-16T15:50:35.372-07:00Barely scratching the surface of Island Alone<p><span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">After months of really planning on learning Island Alone, I have finally sat down and played a game. It’s been on my list for what feels like forever and I’m glad to finally cracked the ice.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">And I knew it wouldn’t be a hard game to learn. The basics are quite simple. However, the simple actions of movement, collecting resources, and building stuff unfold into a heck of a decision tree.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Island Alone is one of Radoslaw Ignatow’s designs. I have become a big fan of his work and Island Alone feels like a watershed game for his work. It is a step into creating a system that can sustain a wide variety of scenarios and content, something he has kept on doing.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The idea behind the game is you’re on a desert island and you have to do stuff to survive and accomplish other goals. Let’s be honest, the basic idea is not anything new, but it’s also very easy to understand and a classic. Hey, I still love games about trains and trading in the Mediterranean.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Island Alone is a Roll and Write since it’s dice powered and you annotate the player sheet constantly. You do have a pawn that you’re moving around so I can see an argument that it’s not a ‘pure’ Roll and Write. But when nobody wins when it comes to purity tests so that doesn’t matter to me.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Where the game kind of explodes is the amount of content. The base game comes with more than thirty different scenarios and seven different maps. And then there are three expansions that are campaigns.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I have played what is clearly an introductory scenario and I haven’t even scratched the surface of Island Alone. You could spend some serious time with this game system before getting bored.</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" />Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-46605021401454151302024-03-13T14:36:00.000-07:002024-03-13T14:36:21.329-07:00Why the Sun and the Star matter<p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The Sun and the Star was actually the first book I read this year. However, I had just blogged about the Heroes of Olympus and the Chalice of Gods so I wanted a break from blogging about Rick Riordan’s books.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">That said, The Sun and the Star is one heck of a read.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">*</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">*</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">*</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">*</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Spoilers</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">*</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">*</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">*</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">*</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"> </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The Sun and the Star was co-written by Mark Oshiro because Riordan wanted to make sure that relationship between Will and Nico’s relationship was done right. And, possibly because of another author, I have to say that this book has the most unique tone of all of Riordan’s young adult books. </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The actual plot is about Nico (son of Hades, goth boy and beloved of fans) and his boyfriend Will (son of Apollo, nature boy and generally cool guy) going to Tartarus to save their friend Bob the Titan. Bob the Titan might sound like a Deadpool joke but he’s a well established character with depth and pathos.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">(Oh, and additional spoiler, Little Bob the Sabre tooth kitten ghost comes back as well. I really like Little Bob)</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">However, the focus of the book is on the boys’ relationship. Their connections, their insecurities, their hopes, their issues, their love. And they are a cute couple. One of my favorite lines was, after Will agreed something with no negotiation, Nico telling himself that he will do all the talking when they buy a car. It’s snarky but sweet because it reinforces how Nico sees them having a future together.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The Sun and the Star is chock full of Riordan’s signature fun but faithful takes on mythology. (Really, I grew up with the cleaned up versions of the myths through the D’Aulaires. Is Riordan's way of cleaning them up any less honest?) But, more than any of Riordan’s previous work, the Sun and the Star feels like a young adult novel. It focuses on growing up, coming to terms with your flaws but also what’s good about you.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">There are two Riordan books that I cannot help but compare the Sun and Star to: The Gates of Hades and The Chalice of the Gods.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The Gates of Hades is, honestly, possibly Riordan’s strongest book and the Sun and the Star is very much a sequel. They both deal with journeys through Tartarus and the earlier book is better. It is so very desperate and dire. However, the Sun and the Star doesn’t try and compete with the earlier book on that level. It succeeds on its own merits.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The Chalice of Gods was published after the Sun and the Star and I assume it may have been written at the same time or very close together. And I feel Chalice resembles the Sun and the Star in a very good way. It’s a smaller scale conflict with a much more nuanced emotional arc. And I really wonder how much working with Oshiro influenced Riordan.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">While there are some odd touches in the book (part of Nico’s resolution feels much more urban fantasy than mythic, which I don’t want to spoil, but if you’ve read the book you know what I’m talking about), I think the Sun and the Star is both a great book and an important milestone for Riordan.</div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-83901805420142627602024-03-11T15:54:00.000-07:002024-03-11T15:54:35.578-07:00The worlds Grant Howett builds with one page<p><span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I was vaguely aware of Grant Howett as a game designer but it took Bundle of Holding’s 2024 Birthday Bundle for me to view his work as a singular vision.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">He’s been pretty active as a designer and one of the things he does is make one-page RPGs. I’d seen some of them before, looking for oddball indie games. The bundle collected sixteen of them, which isn’t even most of them as it turns out.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Isaac Asimov once described the vignette as the dart gun of fiction. You just get one shot and if it doesn’t hit, well, that’s it. One-page RPGs? Same deal.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">In my arrogant opinion,a one-page RPG needs two things. Mechanics that actually work and a hook that makes people want to play. Quite frankly, the more ludicrous, the more likely the hook is to work.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">One of the best one-page RPGs out there, again in my arrogant opinion, is Lasers and Feelings. It’s got simple but clever and flexible mechanics. And the hook is that it’s really Star Trek so everyone knows what kind of story you’re telling.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Despite the simplicity that’s baked into just about every one-page RPG, I don’t think they are aimed at non-gamers. There are a lot of unwritten bits to them. How to actually run or play an RPG, that kind of stuff. Things that experienced gamers can fill in without even thinking about it but will confuse non-players.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Since one-page RPGs tend to be one-shots, they really feel like they were designed for convention play. As I read Everyone is Seagulls (which reads like an adult reimaging of Mo Willems’ Pigeon books), it felt like it was designed to annoy the next table over with all the shouting.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I have to admit that I found the bundle to be a mixed if fascinating bag. Some of the games simply have too many of those unwritten elements in them. And yes, that could be overcome, particularly by experienced gamers. However, when you can pick something that doesn’t require that, particularly if it’s for a one-shot, why wouldn’t you?</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">My favorite game in the collection was Crash Pandas both for the concept and the mechanics. The players are a group of raccoons working together to drive a car in illegal street races. The core mechanic is having everyone decide what they want the car to do and simultaneously revealing it. Look, you know what the game is about and how it can all go crazy.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">It might sound like I’ve been harsh to Grant Howett. But damn, now I’m looking for more of his stuff. Because having something that is a good one session experience is really valuable. I can’t imagine being in a never ending campaign again. But occasionally a one shot? Yeah, that would really work. In fact, before I moved away from my old gaming groups, some of us were already moving towards that.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">So, yeah, Grant Howett’s game are totally worth looking at.</div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-79640049146998051072024-03-08T19:21:00.000-08:002024-03-08T19:21:12.780-08:00The Suika Game - a master class in fidgeting <p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Lately, our household has been unwinding with the Suika Game, a fruit-themed video game.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">It’s certainly an example of a little game that could. It was originally developed by the company Aladdin X for a digital projector. Customers liked it so they released in Japan for the Switch. And exposure via social media led to wider Switch release.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">It’s a puzzle game where you are dropping fruit into a container and the game ends when the container overflows. The puzzle bit is that when two fruits of the same touch, they combine to form the next largest fruit, with the watermelon (Suika in Japanese) being the largest.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">A big part of the appeal is that the fruits follow physics, at least to a certain degree. Fruit will bounce and roll after they are dropped. I am not convinced that the fruits’ masses are all that realistic but the shifting fruit definitely makes the game more interesting.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I was actually quite shocked that the Suika Game wasn’t designed as a mobile game. It’s exactly the kind of casual game that you can easily waste hours on your phone with. It totally fits that model.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">There have got to be hundreds of games like this. Probably thousands. Human beings love pattern recognition and fidgeting and that’s all these games really are. They tap into something that is hardwired into us.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I know Tetris didn’t create this genre but I do think of it as the definitive example of it. I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t the most successful example. Six shapes. Utter simplicity. Endlessly fascinating. The Suika Game doesn’t have that simplicity but it does inspire that compulsion.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I don’t know why the Suika Game clicks so well, although the uber cute fruit and the physics has to be a part of it. It’s got plenty of competition. But it succeeds in entertaining and relaxing us.</div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-22106853538774170952024-03-06T15:54:00.000-08:002024-03-06T15:54:14.032-08:00The Continental Op is the original bastard<p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Dashiell Hammett's Continental Op is one of those pieces of literature that I find fascinating. The Maltese Falcon and Sam Spade is what everyone thinks of when they hear Hammet's name with the Thin Man being a close second. With that said, The Continental Op was his most reoccurring character and is widely regarded as an essential piece of the development of the noir genre.</span></p><div class="elementToProof" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Continental Op was a nameless agent of the Continental Detective Agency, a thinly disguised Pinkerton Detective Agency. He describes himself as short and fat and demonstrates a perfect willingness to use deceit and corruption to serve his own needs.</div><div class="elementToProof" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></div><div class="elementToProof" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Hammett described his later creation Sam Spade as an idealized detective, what real detectives wish they could be. If that's the case, the Continental Op may be what Hammett felt actual detectives were like.</div><div class="elementToProof" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></div><div class="elementToProof" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Part of Hammett's street cred came from the fact that he had been a Pinkerton detective. Those experiences clearly influenced the creation of the Continental Op, which makes me often wonder what some of Hammett's experiences in the agency were like.</div><div class="elementToProof" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></div><div class="elementToProof" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Continental Op wasn't the first hardboiled detective in fiction but the character did a lot to help develop the idea. It helps that Hammett was one heck of a writer. His own experiences with the Pinkertons apparently left him jaded and cynical and that bled into the Continental Op. That definitely gives some heft to the Continental Op and his bleak world.</div><div class="elementToProof" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></div><div class="elementToProof" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Some folks believe that Kurosawa’s Yojimbo (which influenced plenty of later works) was based on Red Harvest, the first Continental Op novel. Kurosawa, on the utter hand, said it was based on the Glass Key. So Hammett wins no matter what lol.</div><div class="elementToProof" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></div><div class="elementToProof" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-family: Aptos, Aptos_EmbeddedFont, Aptos_MSFontService, Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Compared to Sam Spade, the nameless Continental Op seems faceless and invisible as well. However, he helped create a world where the Maltese Falcon could get written. And, while, lets be honest, the Maltese Falcon is Hammett's masterpiece, his Continental Op stories and novels are still great reads.</div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-11739999104696428232024-03-04T16:14:00.000-08:002024-03-04T16:14:54.971-08:00My February Gaming<p><span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">In February, I learned Aquamarine, Tape Jam and Apropos of Board Games.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">And, I’m going to be honest, Aquamarine is the big deal for me. Oh, I’ll play the other two games now and then but Aquamarine is the game that I can see myself regularly playing.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Truth to, while I like Postmark Games Vouages better, I find Aquamarine easier to play after a long day. It is so simple and intuitive but also has such a good decision tree. It’s very chill.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">And my plan in March is to learn Waypoints. After Voyages and Aquamarine, I have very high expectations for it. And even if I hate Waypoijts, Postmark Games has done me well regardless. I feel like I have been an unpaid advertiser for Postmark Gamea this year lol</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">All that said, I would mind learning a greater number of games in March.</div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-23575011349615450162024-03-01T05:45:00.000-08:002024-03-01T05:45:14.701-08:00My February PnP<p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">While February was busy like life tends to be, I was able to plan ahead enough to make some PnP projects. I made:</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Tape Jam </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">assorted One Card Mazes</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Aquamarine (maps 1-4)</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Apropos of Boars Games</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Tape Jam was my ‘big’ project for the month. It’s a game that feels like the epitome of a traditional solitaire game but, despite an amusing theme, doesn’t rise above that. Which still is enough to get an occasional play. </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Because there are a lot of One Card Mazes and each one is, well, one card, they are good for filling in extra space in a laminating sleeve. I have a feeling I’ll be regularly making one or two, just to make better use of my materials. And they do see use.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">However, the definite highlight was Aquamarine. Yes, it just meant laminating some play sheets but the game has really proven to be rewarding. Those sheets will get used.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Not bad for a busy month.</div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-791851641089832102024-02-28T16:20:00.000-08:002024-02-28T16:20:02.933-08:00Is Drops of God THE wine manga?<p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I’ve been meaning to read Drops of God for years and I’ve finally started doing that. Actually, I’m halfway through and taking a break.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Drops of God is a Seinen manga (which means it’s aimed at men between the ages of 18 and 40 basically the next step up from Shonen and is, in many ways pretty arbitrary) about wine. And, while the plot is about Shizuki Kanzaki and Issei Tomine in a wine identification contest, a _lot_ of time is spent discussing real wines and vineyards.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Drops of God is epicurean in a way that I don’t feel I’ve seen in a western work. As far as I know, no vineyard sponsored it and it isn’t in the style of a documentary. It is this blend of fiction and actual factual information.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">And, for what it’s worth, red wine gives me headaches so a lot of what I’m reading about is purely theoretical for me. (Although I’m sure every member of the cast would tell me I just haven’t had the right red wine)</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">That said, it’s the fictional stuff that actually drives the story forward. </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">While the story frames Shizuki as the hero and Tomine as the antagonist, they are really deuteragonists. More than that, at least in the first half, they seem to be in different genres.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Shizuki feels like a Shonen protagonist who has stumbled into a Sienen work. He is a plucky newcomer to wine but one with an almost supernatural palate. (Justified by his father putting him through an insane regiment as a child) And he some definite moments of being an awkward goof. </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">More than that, a lot of his side adventures, involve him helping out other people. In general, there are a lot of altruistic elements to his part of the story.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">On the other hand, Tomine feels a lot more like a Sienen protagonist. He is a much more brooding, troubled character. He’s the one who gets the racy sex scenes. His side adventures have more danger but it’s danger that he often brings on himself.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Shizuki’s flaws are those of innocence. Tomine’s flaws are from the loss of innocence. But Drops of God asks for us to be invested in both of them.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I do plan on reading the second half, particularly since I don’t think it’s guaranteed that Shizuki will win. And I’ll learn more about wine I’ll never drink.</div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-72975266004196198292024-02-26T17:21:00.000-08:002024-02-26T17:21:23.636-08:00A game about games? Meta!<p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">A couple months ago, I tried out Apropos of Movies, a cute little trivia game. It’s a deck of sixteen movie qualities and you have to determine movies that either have or don’t have them.</span></p><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">It’s a clever little game, and I like how there isn’t a single right answer so you can get a lot of mileage out of such a small deck. You really just have to add a house rule of not reusing the same movie in the same session and you’re good. I am even planning on making a spare copy For potential classroom use. </div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Well, Apropos of Board Games is the same deal… only for board games! </div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">(Yeah, probably not that big a surprise)</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">You have a Must Have and a But No cards that you’ll be forming rows next to. Draw a card and place in the Must Have line. Figure out a game that has that particular characteristic. Draw another card. If the last game you picked has that characteristic, put it in the Must Have line. If it doesn’t, place it in the But No line. Five cards makes a game. You set a timer for five minutes and you need to beat the clock to win.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">One interesting change from Movies to Board Games is that the Movie version has rules for higher difficulty by adding more cards. The board game version doesn’t have that option. Maybe the world of movies is vaster than board games?</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">(Nah, that could never be)</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">I rather like trivia games that have you find ideas that fit into categories rather than have a single right idea. I feel they have more replay value and have more scope for imagination. And the Apropos family definitely fits that.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">With that said, Board Games are a lot more niche than movies. I can’t see pulling out this version for group play, even with dedicated gamers. On the other hand, it will probably see a lot more solitaire play by me lol</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br /></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">I do wonder if there will be more Apropos games. Literature or video games seem like fertile media for it.</div><div style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(26, 26, 26, 0.3); -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"></div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-1510161625074911612024-02-19T09:35:00.000-08:002024-02-19T09:35:45.697-08:00Looking at the second maps of both Voyages and Aquamarine<p><span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">After I played the second map of Voyages, I really wanted to blog about it. However, I didn’t want to go down the road of writing about every single map in the series. Pretty sure I’d really start boring people.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">So I decided to wait until I played the second map in Aquamarine and compare the two. Same publisher, same designers, both R&Ws I think that’s fair.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Voyages - Marauder’s Reef</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Ho boy. I quite liked the learner map, Trade Winds Blow. But Marauder’s Reef takes the core concepts you learn in Trade Winds Blow and makes them razor focused on one concept. Beating people up.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Trade Winds Blow did have one hex that involved combat but Marauder’s Reef adds fuller (but still very simple) combat rules and makes them the centerpiece of the game.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The other major change is the duty chart. In Trade Winds Blow, you filled lines to get bonus items. In Marauder’s Reef, it’s a flatout tech tree that lets you get permanent upgrades. This is a literal game changer.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I have been playing Voyages as a solitaire where games are only 16 turns and if you don’t earn three stars, you automatically lose. It is definitely harder to earn stars in Marauder's Reef, creating a more tense game.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Marauder's Reef isn’t a more advanced Trade Winds Blow. It is a different experience.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Aquamarine - Apex Predators</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">This map makes two meaningful mechanical changes to Aquamarine’s first map, Exploratory Expeditions. It replaces the shipwreck and their bonuses with research magnifying glasses and it adds in caves.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The research tracks are a very nice addition. Filling out a complete track gives you points but certain spaces give you special moves. Unlike the wrecked ships, you have more choices in how you use the research check marks.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Plus, most of them are in caves with the new giant squids, tying almost all the new elements together. </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Caves are special spaces that are restricted. You can have them in a box if it’s daytime or if you use a torch. And you have a very limited number of torches. Between the sharks (which take up more space than map one’s jellyfish) and caves, this map has more bottlenecks and tough choices.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Apex Predators isn’t just map one with a new arrangement. It’s a definite step up. With this one provision, I think you do have the focus on the giant squids to get the best results.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Overall Conclusions</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">When I first played both Voyages and Aquamarine, I was really impressed. I mean, it’s one thing for a Roll and Write to work for me since I’m kind of an R&W addict. But I think anyone would have fun with both of them.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I felt that Marauder’s Reef definitely affirmed my feeling that Voyages is a game system. I was working with new goals and new mechanics. It could have been marketed as a different game. On the other hand, while Apex Predators definitely showed new things Aquamarine could do, it didn’t push it to that extent. And it doesn’t have to.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The second maps in both games affirm my first impressions.</div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-80775192099865164122024-02-16T18:24:00.000-08:002024-02-16T18:24:07.623-08:00Revisiting One Card Mazes<p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Last august, I found out about the One Card Maze collection. I printed out the promos and found them interesting but I was good. Since then, I’ve gotten more invested in the series and even bought the first season. (Which was released on PnP Arcade a month later, which I found hilarious)</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Okay, there puzzles are just what they say on the tin. There are mazes that fit on the two sides of a card. Part of the idea is that paths that lead off the edge will take you to the flip side. The other major mechanic is that certain areas will let you change the orientation which determines which paths are open.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">As I have mentioned in the past, the One Card Mazes remind me of the Flipuzzle collection. And, as I have said before, from a sheer technical brilliance, Flipuzzles have the edge. There is some amazing creativity going on there.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">However, One Card Mazes are better for casual play. Flipuzzles can be hard to parse, particularly if you get distracted. They reward, maybe even require, constant concentration. One Card Mazes are much easier to just figure out where you are.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Another big plus is that One Card Mazes are available and I’m pretty sure Flipuzzles aren’t.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">So here’s what happened. For years, I kept a copy of the nine-card game Down in my wallet. THEN I discovered Flipword (yeah, same designer) and that lived in my wallet. And then I switched to a smaller wallet lol.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">While I can no longer carry Down or Flipword, I can carry a One Card Maze or two around. There are the four initial demos that I looked at and got me interested. The first collection is 18 more. And there are more clearly being designed.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">And, what’s hilarious is that I am _terrible_ at them. I can fidget away on one forever and it doesn’t click. Still, they are for moments like waiting in the car so they still work perfectly.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I prefer games over puzzles but puzzles are great too.</div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-2222097142807718572024-02-12T16:28:00.000-08:002024-02-12T16:28:36.210-08:00The flawed beauty of Radiant Black<p><span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I read a lot of manga and a decent number of horror or crime drama graphic novels. But it had been a while since I’ve read any super hero stuff and that was all I read comic book-wise when I was younger.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">So when Humble Bundle had a bundle of Massiverse graphic novels from Image, I decided that it would be a chance to go back to my roots. Which is actually pretty fair since there is clearly a lot of influence from Marvel Comics.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">If I were to describe the Massiverse in one sentence it would be ‘A superhero universe where every hero is Peter Parker in super sentai armor’</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Which actually sounds pretty awesome.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Peter Parker isn’t the first example of a superhero with normal people problems but he has become the quintessential example. That’s a big part of what makes everyone love Spider-Man. And, really, Power Ranger outfits look cool. (The creators previously did a Power Ranger comic book so this choice makes sense)</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Unfortunately, I don’t think the Massiverse lives up to that potential.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The series that got the line started is Radiant Black and I think it really highlights the strengths and flaws of the line overall.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">After failed writer Nathan Burnett has to live back in with his parents, he discovers a mysterious black hole that lets him transformed into the armored form of Radiant Black. A side effect of this is that he is drawn into a cosmic conflict involving other colors of radiant and the potential destruction of the Earth.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The visuals are really good. I particularly love how the creators lean into the radiant helms being expressive. There is clearly a bigger picture and I honestly feel like this is designed to be a single story and not a never ending serial. And the creators are clearly intent on having their heroes be flawed human beings.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">However, one of the downsides of the line is that flawed human element can be pushed too far. The second Radiant Black (won’t explain any further to minimize spoilers) is pretty much a copy of Randal from Clerks who is an antagonistic glory hound trying to monetize Radiant Black. He stops being relatable or sympathetic and I don’t think that’s intentional.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">(On the other hand, in another series in the line, Rogue Sun, the fact that everyone who has been Rogue Sun is a total jerk does seem to be the point)</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Another problem, arguably even greater, is how poorly they show or explain the characters powers. A problem that goes across pretty much every series in the line. Having an a character can do doesn’t just give a reader a sense of their limits, it informs them what the heck is going on.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Just the Radiants alone are confusing. They share some powers but exactly what those are isn’t explained. I didn’t understand Radiant Red’s powers until she got a mini-series. And I had to go to outside sources to find out what Radiant Yellow’s powers were.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The one character where this approach works Bibi from Dead Lucky. Some elements of her powers may actually not be powers at all but side effects of her mental illness. And I still understood what she could do better than characters from other books.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I enjoyed my read. Good graphic design goes a long way in a graphic medium. However, it can’t be a coincidence that, after I finished, I started binging manga.</div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-18235255945237046232024-02-09T07:23:00.000-08:002024-02-09T07:23:57.660-08:00Tape Jam is just okay… but I keep playing it<p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The theme was the only reason I decided to make a copy of Tape Jam. Untangling an unspooled cassette tape? I feel like half the audience that’s going to see the game will have no idea what we’re talking about.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The game consists of a deck of cards with wavy lines, recalling magnetic tape, and numbers on the top and bottom. The numbers go one to nine. If someone told me the game was developed with a set of dominoes, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">You are building a tableau of ten cards. Your goal is to get either runs (numbers in order) or sets of numbers (the same number over and over) And that counts both the top and bottom of the cards.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">You draw two cards and place them in a, oh, let’s call it a market. You then pick a card from the market to play in your tableau. The market can only hold five cards so when it gets to four, you only add one card.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">You can place a card on either side of the tableau or in between cards already in the tableau. However, once a card is placed, you cannot change its position or orientation.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">A run or a set has to be at least three cards. Then it’s worth three points. If it’s more than three cards, it’s still worth three points. A run of one to nine would be worth three points. Numbers that aren’t in a scoring group are negative one point. </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I have a mixed opinion about Tape Jam. It feels like a pretty run-of-the-mill solitaire game. As I’ve said before, you could play it with a set of dominoes. While I don’t remember playing a game just like it, every single mechanic is familiar.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">And the other hand? I do find myself getting Tape Jam out and playing a few games. It’s honestly not that different than playing a solitaire game with a regular deck of cards but it’s Tape Jam I’m playing.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Earlier this year, I learned games like Voyages and The Royal Limited that I felt were really great games. Tape Jam isn’t one of those games but it’s okay.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">It’s pedantic of me but I am amused at how the theme doesn’t really work. I have plenty of memories of respooling cassette tapes (and trust me, I do not miss cassette tapes. I can see the appeal of vinyl but I’m glad cassette tapes became obsolete) Tape Jam is about splicing tape and I don’t know anyone who did that.</div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-46846542399820676202024-02-07T17:36:00.000-08:002024-02-07T17:36:52.691-08:00Aquamarine - Postmark Games knocks it out of the park again<p><span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Yes, if I was going to learn Poatmark Games’ Voyages, I was going to learn Aquamarine as well. (And, yes, Waypoints and Battle Card are also on the list)</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Aquamarine is a Print-and-Play Roll-and-Write that is designed to be a multiplayer solitaire. Which means you can shove in as many players as you want without slowing the game down. That seems to have been Postmark Games general model, making games that are Covid friendly. </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"> </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">(Meaning low-cost-point games you make yourself and play via video conferencing or solo. Games you never have to leave the house for, as long as you have a printer)</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">In Aquamarine, you are diving and looking at marine life. The board is a grid with features like fish and rocks and beacons. It also has layers. The deeper you go, the more oxygen you need to use. You get three dives per game but you are limited by both turns and oxygen.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Here’s the core mechanic. Each turn, you roll two dice. You’re going to draw a shape that’s as many squares as one of the dice. But, if you pick the larger number, you have to pay the difference in oxygen. The first shape has to touch one of the boats at the top of the board. Every following shape has to touch at least one side of the last shape you drew.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">So you aee drawing a path of odd-shaped boxes. And you score points for the sea life you enclose inside the boxes.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Other tidbits: there’s a day cycle and a night cycle, which affects some of the scoring. If you roll doubles, you not only don’t have an oxygen penalty, you draw a shape with two extra squares. </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">There are four official maps, including one that takes up two sheets of paper. Each one has its own tweaks and there are fanmade maps as well. I’ve only been playing the first one so far but I’m already planning on laminating _at least_ all of the official maps.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The core idea, drawing in a path of boxes, is very simple but works very well. I have seen the mechanic of being able to adjust the shape of the boxes before but very rarely. It’s easy to understand and intuitive but it also gives you a lot of interesting choices.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The end result is a really good game.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I can’t help but compare Aquamarine to Voyages. Same designers, same publisher, same mission statement. And I think Voyages is a little stronger. The duties charts allow for greater customization of boards and I find the game play more tense. Voyages feels like a game system to me while Aquamarine has, so far, felt like a game with multiple boards.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">With that said, Aquamarine is still an amazing game. It’s really fun and the mechanics are really flexible. There are times when the more relaxing game play is what you are looking for. And there are definitely people who I’d recommend Aquamarine over Voyages to.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"> </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Between Voyages and Aquamarine, Postmark games has hit it out of the park twice for me.</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" />Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-28317926699038292322024-02-05T13:27:00.000-08:002024-02-05T13:27:26.127-08:00Fun with randomly generated boards <p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I play a lot of short, itty bitty games and, to be honest, a lot of them are guilty pleasures whose chief virtue is brevity. The nine-card game Down, for instance, is a game I only play while waiting in the car.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">13 Sheep, a tiny roll-and-write that only uses one die and can end in seven turns, is not a game whose chief virtue is fidgeting. I will cheerfully argue it is worth playing for its game qualities as well as its brevity.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">And a lot of that comes from the fact that the number of fences you are able to draw is a lot smaller than the field of sheep and bushes you are drawing them in. For a game that has so many limits, it has a good-sized decision tree.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Anyway, the reason I felt like writing about 13 Sheep some more is randomly generated sheets.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">When I first started playing 13 Sheep, the official website (<a href="https://www.moritzdressler.de/en/13_Sheep" style="color: #454545; text-decoration-color: var(--accent-color) !important;">https://www.moritzdressler.de/en/13_Sheep</a>) had a feature would randomly generate boards for you in three different sizes. Then, the generator went away. I assumed it was because 13 Sheep has been published.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Which didn’t make me cry too hard since it generated the boards as PDFs, which meant that I had saved the ones I had had it make. I got a hundred plays out of the official two boards before I felt the need to look into the random boards. So I knew I had enough to keep me occupied for a while.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">And then I saw the generator had been returned to the site. So, of course I generated more sheets and saved them lol</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The randomly generated (okay, procedurally generated if you want to be precise since there are clearly parameters in place) boards don’t have as much value as the original boards because they can be unbalanced. If three or four sheep are clumped in relatively close proximity, that part of the board is going to be what you focus on.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Still, all these bonus boards add a lot to a game I already was enjoying.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I’ve also taken to printing a low-ink 18 board sheet to put, unlaminated, in my bag for lunch gaming. I normally don’t go for disposable game sheets but this way I don’t have to count on having a dry erase marker.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">13 Sheep has been a game that’s entertained me for years. I’ve used it in holiday cards and as a gift. I’ve used it in the class room. Honestly, it’s one of the best minimalist games I’ve found.</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" />Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-38361789908474881992024-02-02T16:14:00.000-08:002024-02-02T16:14:54.946-08:00My January gaming<p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I didn’t learn a lot of games in January but I did learn a game I’d been meaning to learn and a game I should have been meaning to learn.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I learned the Royal Limited, Janky Blades and Voyages.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I’ll get Janky Blades out of the way first. I try and learn a Roll and Write every month and I was worried I wouldn’t have the time to do that. Janky Blades is a perfectly serviceable and pretty forgettable game. I don’t regret learning it but it’s not going to get much more play from me.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The Royal Limited and Voyages, on the other hand, those are games that I want to add to regular rotation. They jump past being serviceable to being really good. Learning these two games meant that I made good use of my game learning time.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">As I’ve commented elsewhere, The Royal Limited may be the simplest of the Simply Solo line but it’s also incredibly intuitive and engaging. It is game that is so easy just shuffle and go. And, at the end of the game, play it again.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Voyages’ core mechanic, drawing a line in a grid, is one I’ve seen plenty of times. I’ve even seen the compass rose element of it plenty of times. But the extra touches, the ones that make each map into their own distinct experience, those really make Voyages into one heck of a game system. After playing the first map, I printed and laminated all six of the official maps.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I won’t be surprised if I’m still playing The Royal Limited and Voyages in December. That’s a good start to the year.</div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-4112779826945932952024-02-01T04:18:00.000-08:002024-02-01T04:18:01.449-08:00My January PnP<p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">January is always a month that encourages Print-and-Play for me. Fresh start to the year. And I did make a number of projects, more than the last couple of months. However, I also prepped for the rest of the year.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I made:</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The Last Lighthouse (demo copy)</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Waffle Hassle</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Potato Carrot Tomato </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">One-Card Mazes (different sizes and mazes)</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Voyages (maps 1 -6)</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Ninja vs Robot</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The Last Lighthouse was my ‘big’ project for January. The only reason I haven’t played it yet is that I just learned the Royal Limited and I want to spread my learning Scott Almes games out. His Simply Solo series has been a great one for me.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I made a second copy of Waffle Hassle with the backs properly lined up this time. The card backs form the board so having the backs right is nice. I made another copy of Potato Carrot Tomato as a lunch game for those times I only have ten minutes for lunch. And I’m really looking forward to trying all the maps for Voyages.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">However, what I really spent January doing as far as PnP was concerned was printing, cutting and laminating stuff I had gotten from the PnP Arcade Black Friday sale. I have a folder of laminated card sheets that I can trim over the next few months.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Yes, part of this is the mindset of having projects I can finish and check off the ‘made a game in February, March etc’ However, there is an emotional reward to finishing a project. And I also want to pace _learning_ games as well.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The last several months have been crazy with not a lot of gaming or crafting time. I’m preparing for that trend to continue and that’s why I filled that folder. </div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" />Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-91497963166893177762024-01-31T07:21:00.000-08:002024-01-31T07:21:29.859-08:00Hazy memories of Cowboy Bebop <p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I had been thinking of watching an episode of Cowboy Bebop or two since it’s been at least fifteen years since I watched it. However, after giving it some thought, I’m not sure it’s possible to watch that show piecemeal. My memory is that the entire show is one single complete thought. </span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I distinctly remember when I first watched the series was initially wondering what was the big deal and why did so many people rave about it? Other than the soundtrack, of course. The music is clearly awesome and the people who worked on the show clearly dug the tunes.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">But what I learned was that Cowboy Bebop is a slow burn. It takes its time to let what it’s telling you sink in.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Spike Spiegal isn’t just the protagonist of the show. He is also the central theme. The other characters, particularly Jet and Faye, are counterpoints to him. Which is pretty impressive since they are also fully realized characters.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">But being fully realized characters is what makes them foils to Spike. It is what makes them so powerful. Jet and Faye are able to come to some level of resolution with their pasts and their flaws and who they are. And Cowboy Bebop is a tragedy because Spike cannot.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Does Cowboy Bebop have a killer soundtrack? It does. Does it have solid animation that is enhanced by incredible designs? Yeah. But I think its biggest strength is that it tells a tragedy that never flinches from.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">(And, yes, I am sure people have put together a select viewing list so you can watch the series in a time budget. I don’t think it would be the same)</div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-12758134667677004912024-01-29T19:29:00.000-08:002024-01-29T19:29:47.078-08:00The eternal war of pencil versus dry erase marker<p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">This feels like it might be one of the silliest topics I’ve written about. However, it’s one that I do find myself thinking about. And, as it’s getting time to order more toner, it’s definitely on my mind. </span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><div>Pencil versus Dry Erase marker lol</div><div><br /></div><div>I play a lot of Print-and-Play Roll-and-Writes. Easy to make, easy to have the same quality as a published copy and there’s plenty of interesting games that use that medium.</div><div><br /></div><div>And if you laminate a game sheet or even just put it in a page protector or a ziplock gallon baggy, you can use it over and over again with a dry erase marker. Over the years, it’s pretty safe to say that I have saved a lot of ink and paper that way.</div><div><br /></div><div>But dry erase markers tend to draw thicker lines, even the finer tip ones. (And I’ve found the fine tip ones wear down but maybe I press too hard) And there are some games where thicker lines just don’t work.</div><div><br /></div><div>For example (and there are many examples), Utopia Engine has you filling in lots of small boxes with numbers. I need a pencil or pen to play the game (and if you don’t, I’m jealous) Even with writing lightly and erasing after the game, that seriously limits the use of a game sheet compared to lamination.</div><div><br /></div><div>It feels shallow, even silly, to judge a game on the basis of whether or not I can laminate it. However, PnP R&W gaming is definitely a form of budget gaming. There are games that I would have played a lot less if I had had to constantly reprint game sheets. It does make a real difference.</div><div><br /></div><div>And it’s a similar line of thinking of that makes me go for the low ink option (well, not necessarily if it’s for a multi-player game). Material costs are real costs.</div><div><br /></div><div>Over the last few years, I must have played over a hundred different games that I could use a dry erase marker on. And I will definitely play games that need a pencil. But I do choose those games with more scrutiny.</div></div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-42917981168993706782024-01-24T11:29:00.000-08:002024-01-24T11:29:48.078-08:00Blackjack: VillainIsn’t super but it has promise<p><span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I have found that Capepunk is a genre that I find myself actively looking for in books. I blame a childhood of reading comic books and the Wild Card series for that lol</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Blackjack: Villain by Ben Bequer is a book that felt like a mixed bag, albeit mostly positive, to me. In fact, I found myself sometimes wondering if some of the flaws were actually authorial intent.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Blackjack is the first person narrative of a super villain who starts off as the equivalent of a Spider-Man villain of the week who gets pulled into bigger, more cosmic events. In doing so, we see how he changes in the progress.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Spoilers </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Spoilers</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Spoilers</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Spoilers</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Spoilers</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Spoilers </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Spoilers </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Blackjack starts off as a mildly unreliable narrator because he is clearly more arrogant, more immature and more self-destructive than he is willing to admit. He starts off as a gadgeteer archer who robs banks while he has apex level super strength and durability and is a scientific genius who can keep up with the equivalent of Lex Luther.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">In other words, he is falling completely short of his potential.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">In fact, most of the super-powered characters in the book clearly have psychological issues. It’s less super powers drive you mad (Brandon Sanderson does a wonderful job covering that in his Reckoners Trilogy) and more what happens when a normal person gets this much power and responsibility. And Bequer spends more time showing than telling that.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">With that said, it did feel like Blackjack was sometimes rewarded for his behavior, particularly in the section where he and his compassions go to the Shard World, which is also easily the weakest part of the book.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">At that point, the genre changes to planetary romance and Blackjack goes utterly John Carter. And by that I mean an unbeatable barbarian warrior who treats alien life forms as cannon fodder. Admittedly, it is war but his compunctions about killing go out the window without any commentary.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Fortunately, the book goes back to Capepunk for the ending and, while Blackjack of course saves the world, it is also clear that his decisions caused a lot more death and collateral damage than had to happen.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">In the end, Blackjack: Villain was good enough that I do plan on reading at least the next book. The question is if Blackjack’s character arc is done or will he keep developing?</div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-49471148346703758122024-01-22T13:42:00.000-08:002024-01-22T13:42:58.246-08:00I was a good dad and played Super Mario RPG<p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Our son enjoyed Super Mario Wonder so much that he wanted to try the next ‘new’ Mario game, the switch version of Super Mario RPG. However, he got bored with the JRPG elements. Since daddy loves RPGs, it fell upon me to play through the game.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Well, I do love RPGs. Tabletop RPGs are my true love but I have played the odd JRPG in my day. So playing Super Mario RPG wasn’t a painful experience.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Super Mario RPG started out life on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1996 and was developed by Square, the same company that created Final Fantasy. No, I didn’t know any of that when I started playing.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I have dabbled with the RPG side of Mario before with Paper Mario 64 and Paper Mario Origami King (please refer to the first paragraph about why) but apparently Super Mario RPG is where it got started.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">And Super Mario RPG may be the shortest, simplest JRPG I have encountered. Heck, there are even some straight up platforming sequences. (That I did abysmally at) Super Mario RPG isn’t just built for folks who have never played an JRPG before. It’s built for folks who don’t have any interest in playing another one.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">With that said, an RPG of any kind lives or dies by its story. You don’t play D&D for the minis or the dice. Well, you might but you’d be in the minority. You play it for the story.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">And, yeah, Super Mario RPG’s story is a solid reason to play the game.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Even by 1996, the basic pattern of Super Mario games was established and worth poking fun at. And Super Mario RPG lovingly makes fun of how often Bowser kidnaps Peach and also has a lot of fun with the idea that Mario has been become famous for all of his heroics. The cutscenes depicting Mario as a heroic mime are hysterical.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Yes, the actual story involves a big bad who is mean enough that Bowser signs onto Team Mario (Having both Bowser and Peach as party members is a high point) and you do have to restore the cosmic balance. But the tone remains jovial rather than dire. Of course, world shattering threats are pretty routine for Mario, which the game cheerfully points out.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I played the game in easy breezy level and I also didn’t play clever. I fought everything to level up the party and constantly stocked up on mana potions so I could spam the biggest attacks. And that worked just fine. I may have missed some items but we got to see the story.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Super Mario RPG is pretty lowkey and pretty simple. It’s not Final Fanrasy with a Mario reskin. But we enjoyed it.</div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-9092631918517158952024-01-19T04:33:00.000-08:002024-01-19T04:33:30.753-08:00Why Voyages is an amazing system <p><span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I became interested in Voyages because I liked Postmark Games’ free game Battle Card: Market Garden and I was curious about how it would approach Pick Up and Delivery in a Roll and Write format. Plus, I’m always looking for more Print-and-Play Roll-and-Write games lol</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">In a very real sense, instead of a game, I found that Voyages is really more of a game system. The actual core mechanics are very simple but each map adds a bunch of extra cogs and wheels that make for the actual game. There are six official maps and at least fifteen fan maps (<a href="https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hv19mg9pa9gckik/AAAq-gs5IeyR9QmByTqUMns0a?dl=0" style="color: #454545; text-decoration-color: var(--accent-color) !important;">https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hv19mg9pa9gckik/AAAq-gs5IeyR9QmByTqUMns0a?dl=0</a>)</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">This is the core idea of Voyages. You are drawing a line on a hex-grid map. Each turn, you roll three dice. One die determines the direction. One die determines the distance. And the last for is used to fill in a box on a duties chart. (The chart is different on every single map and, quite frankly, can add a lot to a map)</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">It’s not a new mechanic to me. It’s pretty much the mechanic of Go Goa, for instance, which I played a lot of last year. It also brings back memories of Outdoor Survival, whose first scenario is the stuff of legends and nightmares.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">And, to be fair, it’s not a bad mechanic. But on its own, it’s pretty meager. You need more. Fortunately, Voyages delivers.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">All over the maps are special hexes. Land (not pass through) on a special hex and you perform its action. It often is get something but it can also be fight something or sell stuff you picked up at other hexes. </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Your most crucial resource is sailors. Sailors can be used to modify dice. They can also be upgraded and they can be spent to perform some actions, like defeating enemies.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">And the duty charts that I already mentioned can really affect how maps work. In the Trade Winds map, which is really the tutorial map, you just get bonus items. However, looking ahead, the duty charts can become tech trees or even hitpoint management.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The maps also have achievement stars that also work as a timer. In multiplayer, anyone getting a third star triggers endgame. In solitaire, you play sixteen turns and not having a third star by the end means automatically losing. You can earn them via the duty chart, exploration, trade or winning combat. But they all take planning and investment.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I have only played the Trade Wind map so far. And, if that was the entire game, we would still be looking at a strong piece of work, one with a lot of replay value. However, looking at how the other maps create new goals and mechanics, Voyages as a product is top notch.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">My only disappointment is that it really isn’t a pick-up-and-deliver game. The Trade Winds map is the only official map that uses the mechanic and it doesn’t feel like the efficient way to play or the primary goal. That said, some of the fan maps might address pick-up-and-deliver more. And this is really about my expectations, not an actual game issue.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Over the last few years, I have played a lot of Roll-and-Writes. As a PnP option, they are incredibly rewarding. And Voyages is a game I would recommend to anyone who has access to a printer.</div>Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-14902509051960897792024-01-17T13:04:00.000-08:002024-01-17T13:04:32.278-08:00Janky Blades is… okay<p> <span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I might have never noticed Janky Blades if it hadn’t been designed by Robin Gibson. However, their track record on Print-and-Play Roll-and-Write games has been solid for me so Janky Blades got printed out.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The theme of the game is that you are drawing a jagged sword with many different grains, indicating the artisan craft put into its creation. The reality is that you are drawing shapes on a six by eighteen grid.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Gameplay is simple. Each turn, roll three dice. One die will determine the column you are drawing a shape in. One die will determine the grain of the shape. And the last die determines the shape you are drawing.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The game last thirty turns. After you are done, you score the shapes that are contiguously connected to the handle at the bottom of the board. Each shape earns one point for every adjacent shape that has a different grain. And if you completely enclosed an empty space, it counts as a shape with its own grain.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Janky Blades is billed as a solitaire game but I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t play it as a multiplayer game Take It Easy style. There isn’t a dice manipulation mechanic and the decision tree is wide enough that you won’t end up with identical janky swords.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Janky Blades has two touches that I found interesting. First of all, as opposed to the Tetris shapes I’m used to using in a draw-shapes-on-a-grid, it uses more pointy shapes, triangles and rhombuses and the like. I wouldn’t be surprised if Tangram puzzles featured in the development. I also like how negative space can become a part of the blade.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Those two elements made Janky Blades better than I was expecting. Because, quite frankly, I was expecting a completely forgettable game who’s best feature would be drawing a pretty picture . Instead, I found the decisions actually interesting.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Ultimately, though, I have to damn Janky Blades with faint praise. It isn’t bad but there are a lot of Roll-and-Write games I’d rather play, a number of them also by Robin Jarvis.</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" />Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1168339830518537537.post-22910397510657739782024-01-15T16:06:00.000-08:002024-01-15T16:06:33.245-08:00All aboard the Royal Limited and other dad jokes <p> I <span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">started my game learning for the year with The Royal Limited.</span></p><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><div>In actuality, my current copy is the demo from the Kickstarter campaign. I made it at the time but moving distracted me . I did back it and I do have the final files. And, yes, I plan on making a fresh copy from them.</div></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The Royal Limited is part of Scott Almes/ButtonShy’s Simply Solo line, a series of solitaire games that only uses small decks of cards. No dice or tokens or tiles or pyramids. The Royal Limited is themed around filling up a passenger train.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Not counting the conductor card, which serves as a timer, the deck consists of twelve train cards and five double-sided special passenger cards. The train cards have three bits of information on them. A color (red, yellow or blue), a number (0-3) and a special power.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The game lasts four turns. Each turn, you draw a hand of five train cards. You can either place a card sideways as a car or tucked under a car as a passenger. </div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">You are placing the cars in a line. The placement rules are that the next car can’t match the color or number of the last train and you have to discard the same number of cards as the card’s number.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">You don’t have to discard any cards to tuck passengers. They do have to match the number or color of the card. Special passengers (each game will have two) have specific placement requirements. And, when a train car gets a passenger, its special power goes off. And if you can’t do it, the turn ends immediately.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">Points are bad in The Royal Limited. Every card in your discard pile, every unplaced special passenger and every empty train car is a point. The idea is to use every card and a full seven-car train is a perfect play. Haven’t done it yet.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The key to what I think makes The Royal Limited work (and I very much think it works) is how intuitive it is. Not only do all the mechanics work, they all make sense. The game practically teaches itself.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">And I have to admit that I really like the theme. Train-themed games and train games have been a part of my gaming life pretty much since I started looking beyond D&D. Games of Station Master were practically a GenCon tradition with long distance friends. There is something about trains that is like comfort food for the mind.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">I do wonder if it has a simpler decision tree than any of the other games in the series. The biggest twists are the special powers when you add passengers. That said, there’s still a lot of play in it, plenty of meaningful decisions.</div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;"><br /></div><div style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 17px;">The Royal Limited, more than any other Simply Solo game since Food Chain Island, is a game that you can sit down; shuffle and play. </div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;" />Lowellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04856158225971433103noreply@blogger.com0