Plan B is always twice as much gunpowder as plan A!
Big Boom!
Prerequisite(s): Alchemist 8
Benefit: When the alchemist creates a bomb, she can choose to have the damage d6 dice relaced by d12 at the cost of two bombs for one bomb use. Double all splash damage delt by the bomb as well. If effects would change the dice to other damage values, double the dice sides as normal following the dice damage progression for larger creatures.
Thoughts? To powerful? Just enough?
How about we focus some fire with an alchemist?
Focus Fire
Benefit: When an alchemist creates his bomb, he can choose to have the bomb only effect one square. This bomb does not deal splash damage to any squares next to the target.
Thoughts?
Let’s try something COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! I’ve been playing with video editing freeware, so today we’re dropping a video review of CLANK! Enjoy!
Let’s play with Alchemy some more!
Healing Splash
Prerequisite: Healing Bomb, Directed Bomb
Benefit: When an alchemist uses the healing bomb power, the bomb can heal all creatures in a 15-foot cone instead. This heals all targets including enemies.
Thoughts?
Saw a alchemist playing with cure, let’s make that player get some bonuses!
Prerequisites: Throw Anything
Benefit: When you use a potion you use a potion of cure light wounds, cure moderate wounds, or cure serious wounds, you can throw the potion at a target with a range of 20 feet. You must hit AC 10 to hit the target. Alchemists can use this for any potion they brew that normally has a range of touch.
Thoughts?
We’ve got movies baby!
TL; DR-good, with an asterisk. 81%
Basics-You know this drill-spaceship, people mean monsters, aliens come out of people, more people die, some mystery robot, people die. This time is a group of colonists in the 2100’s who check out the mysterious signal, are attacked by different monsters, and then escape.
Story–This is the low point, but I can’t hate what’s here. Overall the story is a C. Its compelling, but has some choices happen that just shouldn’t and parts of the movies own logic just stopped happening. Find an alien plant? No helmets and touch everything! Some dude just shows up out of nowhere and is creepy as hell? He’s our new best bud-ALL THE TRUST! Facehuggers need less than 20 seconds to do their job now! Aliens mature in about the same amount of time! But, I followed what the laid out, saw the turns coming, but enjoyed the ride. It’s a rollercoaster, but maybe one I’ve either ridden too many times. You’ll enjoy what you see, but don’t think too much or your enjoyment will not survive the experience. 3.25/5
Acting– The people in this act well, but not perfectly. Overall all the characters are believable. There are a few moments where people do things like the new captain being mad people are mourning the death of some people early on due to some solar weather (not a spoiler, it’s two minutes into the movie), the seem to just be there to make him seem like a dick. The humans act smart enough but they fail some of the basic logic checks like let’s touch all the strange stuff without gloves or abandon our friends in a room to die! The heroes at least pass the smart test, so you feel they are moving in the right direction. 3.5/5
Cinematography–Film looks amazing. I like all the stuff they have to show with stunning visuals. The creatures look amazing, and even though you know jump scares are coming, you still jump. The creatures are mostly CGI, but it’s hard to tell, so I’ll take it. 4.5/5
Sound-This movie sounds amazing. The aliens sounds like they should. All the standard sounds come back in the right ways. The ships sounds like you’d think ships should. The environments sound right. Everything felt and sounded like it should. 5/5
Summary–I want to like this more, but I also kind of want to hate this more too. These movies explain the origins of the xenomorph. That’s not a surprise, but this is one of the reasons I really, really want to despise this movie. The logic of where the alien came from kind of falls apart. If they xenomorph is from around 2100, then how does predator, AvP, and anything else work? If preditors hunted aliens for centuries before the Aztec empire, how do they come from the future? What I’m seeing with this movie is what happened to the Star Wars fandom. The fans kept the idea going with comics, books, and games, but when popular culture comes back to it, those comics, books, and games are all abandoned. I don’t like the feeling I have of being abandoned by the people who make the stuff I like. But, I also want to like this more as now I’m getting more Alien movies! The movies is a strong OK. I get some great visuals and sound, ok acting, and a story that kind of works. But the ultimate question is this-When the next sequel comes out, will I go? And the answer based on this movies is a yes. Here are my predictions: this movie was fan service in strange way. It answered plot holes from the original. Now, the next movie will fix plot holes in this one, while making fun new ones! It kind of feels like an expansion pack to a computer game that hot fixes issues the fans found. But, I’ll still go see it. It’s the next Alien movie! 81%
More Savage Rifts! How about some love for Juicers!
Half Full/Half Empty
Requirements: novice, Juicer
Why not burn at both ends to burn twice as bright! Your Burn die becomes a d12. But this is also the same die you roll each game session to see if you Burn each game session.
Thoughts?
Originally posted at www.throatpunchgames.com, a new idea everyday!
Product-Rome
Producer– R & R games
Price– $31 here https://www.amazon.com/Rome-City-Marble-Board-Game/dp/B015QGG7PO
Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 30-60 minutes (2-4 players)
Type- Euro
Depth-Light
TL; DR-An excellent intro eurogame with no randomness. 94%
Basics- Rome WAS built in a day! In Rome-City of Marble, each player takes the role of different Patrician family in Rome. Through public works you demonstrate your power and influence in the city. Who ever ends the game with the most victory points is the most power family.
This game is pretty simple. Each turn a player can the following actions twice: draw tiles, play tiles, recall a magistrate, and expand an aqueduct. When you select your action, you place a marker on your board over that action, and you can take the same action twice.
Drawing and playing tiles is the lifeblood of the game. The most simple action is drawing tiles. When you draw a tile, you draw two of the four types of tiles: temple (green), baths (blue), theaters (yellow), and arenas (red). You can not draw the same tile type twice in one action. But, if you use your second action to get tiles, you can draw more of the types you drew the first time. You can not use the tiles you gain this turn on this turn.
Playing tiles is where the game gets interesting. The game board is divided into a number of triangles. Player must set tiles next to other tiles or one of the three random starting locations in these triangles, and they may play one of their three magistrates down when they play a tile. The goal of setting down the tiles is to complete a hexagon between the tiles. Each tile has two triangle colored sides and two colored rhombus sides. When the colored sides form a hexagon, game pauses as the players see if they formed the correct color and who has the most influence. Temples can only be made from three tiles,so only the colored rhombuses can form the hexagon. Arenas can only be formed from six tiles, so they can only be formed from the colored triangles. Baths require four tiles, and theaters require five tiles. If you build a temple with six temples, then you don’t score for that building. If the correct types of buildings are in the hexagon, then the players may score for that site. Here is where magistrates come into play. Magistrates are placed on a tile when you place the tile. If the proper number of tiles is in the section, then the players count who has magistrates on the right type of tiles. If someone builds an arena, but doesn’t have any magistrates on red tiles, then they have no influence. Whoever has the most influence on the right types of tiles for the construction then builds that type of building by placing a marker on the tile to claim it as his or her own, the also earn victory points depending on the structure with arenas worth the most, and temples worth the least. If there is a tie or no one has influence from magistrates, then a fountain is built and no one gets points. Once the construction is done, every player who helped build the construction, with the right influence or not, may remove a magistrate and put it on the imperium space of the building just constructed. If you built a fountain, you can still recall your magistrate, but he goes to the treasury instead. At the end of your turn, you recall all magistrates from the imperium or treasury space and take one imperium or coin from the space they came from. Imperium can be spend during your turn to take an extra action on your turn, or saved till the end of the game. The player with the most of imperium of each type earns extra victory points. Each coin is worth one point at the end of the game.
The next two actions are not as complex as building, but are equally as important. If a player builds a tile next to a aquaduct, then they get to place three aqueduct pieces without spending an action. As an action you can extend the aqueduct as well. When you extend an aqueduct to a fountain, you score a point. At the end of the game, each building that has an aqueduct to it scores two points. Recalling a magistrate is simply moving a magistrate from the board to your player board that can be used this turn. This way you can recall magistrates from tiles you know will never score.
After three of the four stacks of tiles are empty in a round, the next round each player gets only one action where they can’t use imperium to take more actions. Then players score for coins and aqueducts. The player with the most points is the most influential family in Rome!
Mechanics-I love the way this game plays! After five minutes of explaining, you will master the game and can deep dive into the strategy. It a euro, but not one that will destroy you mentally or takes five hours. Honestly, a hour might be the longest you will play this game. It’s deep for its simplicity, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. My one weird complaint is there isn’t resource management, but adding a subgame where you have to earn tiles might make this one a bit too complicated. 4.75/5
Theme-This game feels like I’m building in ancient time. Each player gets to build Rome, and I do feel like I’m trying to out maneuver other players as the best moves reveal themselves through play. If you see a small opening where you can drop two tiles and earn an arena while your opponents never saw this coming, it feels awesome. Other games have ruined me though as I wonder why I can’t hurt my opponents than peacefully coexist and build with them. 4.75/5
Instructions-The instructions are deceptively long, but that’s because they are four different versions of the rules in one book. The book is short when you read the language you need. And it does well by showing lots of pictures. As you can see above, it’s hard to describe polygons and shapes with words! I like how this book is written and how it teaches the players. 5/5
Execution– I love what’s here, but I do have one semi-small complaint. The parts all look nice and pretty. It’s chunky cardboard so I get nice tiles to play with and feel. What I hate is the player board that don’t have spaces for all your stuff. I hate having to set stuff to the side like with your tokens. That’s my own small level of crazy, but if you can put my neuroses aside, it’s a fantastically made game. You can see all the pieces in our unboxing at https://youtu.be/eCUn3hVJzg0 4.5/5
Summary-Rome-City of Marble is an amazing intro game. It teaches itself well. It’s parts are nice,and the rules are slick. If you want five hours of math on Saturday night, then this is not the game for you. It’s a great game, but not that game. If you want a tight hour of fun or want go get new players into the hobby, then this is the game for you. 94%
Let’s keep going with Savage Worlds/Rifts!
MASTER PSI-Shield
Requirements: Heroic, PSI-Shield
In addition to bonus armor for the PSI-Shield, the PSI-Shield also provides +2 M.D.C. Armor, which stacks with any other armor the character wears.
Thoughts?
Book-Freeway Fighter #1
Author and Illustrators– Ewington, Coleby, O’Grady, Campbell
Book- ~$3.99 here https://www.amazon.com/Freeway-Fighter-1-Andi-Ewington-ebook/dp/B06WWGCJGV
TL; DR-I wanna play the old games now! 91%
Basics-The world has ended and those left fight to survive. That’s a standard intro to everybody’s favorite post-apocalyptic freeway franchise, but this one is based on the Fighting Fantasy game called Freeway Fighter! In this comic we meet Rose, a former not-NASCAR driver who survived a massive plague and now fights in a world where only the fast survive.
Characters-You can’t really say characters for this one as you really only get to meet Rose, the main character of this series so far. She’s described more in actions than in words as she speaks in a few monologues to the audience but mostly is alone in the issue. She spends lots of time behind the wheel, and does a bit of outside the car actions. I’m intrigued by her, and do want to know more about her. So good job here. 4.5/5
Setting-I’d say this is a ripoff of Mad Max, but both Mad Max and Fighting Fantasy date back a long time. This is a good reimagining of the Freeway Fighter books from FF. The world looks and feels dirty and harsh. What’s here shows a good contrast between the world of today and the world of Freeway Fighter. 5/5
Story-This isn’t a story heavy book, but that doesn’t make it bad. When I first read the book, I felt the writers tipped their hands too quickly by telling the reader how the world went to hell, but then I realized, this is not that kind of book. This is straight up action. And it’s good at that. The book’s main goal is get the word out about the world and introduce Rose. It does that well. I know a bit about who she is, and what is going on. The book sets the stage for a race that happened long ago, and now I want to know what happens in that race and what’s going to happen to Rose. Well done! 4.75/5
Execution-Oh comics…I love comic books. This one is well written, and the art is great. What does hurt this a bit is the price. It’s $3.99, and the book isn’t an extended issue. I love what’s here, but it feels a bit too much for it’s current price. 4/5
Summary-I grew up in a pretty rural area in Wisconsin, so geek culture didn’t really make its way out to my home town. This books makes me want to find and play the old Fighting Fantasy Freeway Fighter books. The comic looks awesome, is well written, and makes me want to know what happens to Rose in issue 2. All those are great things, but the major problem I have is price. $3.99 is a bit much for this book. That hurts a bit. But, get this one through your pull program, so you get a bit of a price break and it’s well worth you time. 91%.
Throat Punch Games 