I saw someone online asking for this feat. Let’s make it happen.
You’re as much of a student of the monastery as you are a student of the bar. Now you swing equally well with your fists as you do with a chair.
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Prerequisite: Catch Off-Guard, Monk unarmed damage Benefit: When you use an improvised weapon of small or larger, the weapon does bludgeoning damage equal to your unarmed monk damage. |
Thoughts?
Product– King of New York
Producer-Iello
Price– $50 here http://www.amazon.com/King-New-York-Board-Game/dp/B00KU9LQUO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429421137&sr=8-1&keywords=kings+of+new+york
Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 45 minutes (2-6 players)
Type-American
Depth-Light
TL; DR– A much improved second version. 95%
Basics-Time for a rumble in the Bronx! King of New York is a standalone game that builds on the popular King of Tokyo line. This game follows a very similar turn order with some significant differences. At the start of the game, all players choose which of the five New York boroughs they wish to start in, with the exception of Manhattan. Like in King of Tokyo, a player rolls six dice, and can reroll some, all, or none of the dice. Each die has six faces with players gaining different effects based on how many of each die each player rolled. Lightning gives the player energy cubes for each die result that can be spent on upgrades. Hearts heal the player one point for each heart result while not in Manhattan. Attack damages the player in Manhattan if the active player isn’t in Manhattan, or damages each other player not in Manhattan if the player is in Manhattan. If the player in Manhattan takes damage, that player can leave, and you have to enter Manhattan instead! If you start your turn in Manhattan, you gain energy as well as victory points. The major differences between this and Kings of Tokyo come from the final three dice faces. A new result is destruction. Destruction results are spent to turn over tokens in each borough. These tokens have two sides: red and blue. Blue sides are buildings that usually provide points or healing. Red sides are active military units that provide points or power cubes. Both sides have a number that must be spent to either flip the token or to remove the unit from the board. This brings us to the next result of Ouch! Ouch! causes the units to attack players depending on the number rolled. A one result causes the active player damage equal to the number of red tokens in the borough; two causes all players in the borough damage, and three causes all red tokens to attack all players! Rolling three Ouch! results will also earn the player the Statue of Liberty Card worth three points. This card can be stolen, however, when another player rolls three Ouch! results. The final result is celebrity. If you get three celebrity results, you gain the Superstar card, one point, and at the start of each round you gain an extra point. This can also be stolen. After all the dice are resolved, if no player is in Manhattan, you must move there. If there is one monster there, you can move there depending on the number of players, or you can move to another borough. Manhattan also has three areas that can be moved into over time, with the deepest area of Manhattan giving tons of points and energy at the start of each turn. Finally, you can buy any cards available before ending your turn. Play continues until there is only one monster standing or one player has 20 victory points.
Mechanics– Just like King of Tokyo, King of New York is about pushing your luck. But this game feels a lot less like Yahtzee! and more like rolling for specific results. The changes to attacking units, gaining celebrity, and damaging non-player characters massively change the results of this game. Honestly, it’s a much deeper experience and one that I enjoy better than King of Tokyo. Currently though, the monsters in each game don’t have any differences between each other. It’s important, but not world ending. This is just like the original King of Tokyo game, so I expect that an expansion is coming up very soon to fix that. Overall, this quick, easy to learn, fun game that plays well. 4.75/5
Theme– I feel much more like Godzilla in this game than I did in King of Tokyo. I don’t feel like I’m playing combat Yahtzee!, but instead I’m a 40 story mantis that is destroying New York. The addition of buildings to destroy and units to fight really drive this home as well as deciding when to just put a ton of enemy units on a friend’s space and then get out of that part of town! It’s not perfect though. I don’t have difference powers between creatures, and the basic mechanic still somewhat takes away from the basic monster feeling that I’m supposed to have. But, I don’t think that can be helped without a massive overall of the mechanics. 4.75/5
Instructions– Overall, the instructions are done reasonably well. My main complaint is how packed they are. I’d like more pages with more examples then the cramped four pages I get. It’s not unreadable by any means, and this game isn’t exactly the deepest game I’ve ever player, so overall the rules do a good job. I’d just like them to be easier to read. 4.5/5
Execution-This is a great game for how it’s handled. I love the art and the components. I love large chunky tokens as well as heavy dice. The box fits all the components well, and just like King of Tokyo; I think it will hold the expansions pretty well too. The cards are well done, and the tokens all feel nice. Overall, it’s a great box and presentation of what it contains. 5/5
Summary– I don’t think I’m going back to King of Tokyo. I like that game, but I really LOVE this game. I feel like a monster not a person playing Yahtzee! Yahtzee! isn’t bad, but this is much better. It’s got a few minor faults, but overall it’s a top notch game that represents the monster genre well. 95%
Some creatures are magic, but don’t want to be. Let’s do something about that….
Severing Magic Ties
Cost: 10 karma
You were a creature of magic and wonder, but you’ve changed that. It’s hurt you badly. Maybe not on the surface, but deep in your soul. Decrease your essence by 1, and reduce your magic rating by 1. If this would reduce your magic rating to 0, this does not kill you as it would normally. You no longer count as dual natured as you only count as a physical being. Any assensing test with three successes will determine that you used to be a dual natured creature.
Thoughts?
Let’s build on to the fighter’s maneuvers!
Tit-for-Tat. When you are damaged by a melee attack from an enemy, you may spend a superiority die to gain advantage on the next attack on that enemy as well as gaining bonus damage equal to the rolled result of your superiority die on that one attack.
Thoughts?
Let’s build on the idea of a feat tree to teach magic. Now with third level spells!
Magic Master
Prerequisite: Magic Initiate, Magic Adept
Be it from your own training or intense studying. Gain the following benefits for the spell casting class you choose for Magic Initiate:
Thoughts?
If you don’t want to multiclass, but you want some spells, let’s add some feats to build on this idea!
Magic Adept
Prerequisite: Magic Initiate
For the class you choose for Magic initiate, you gain the following:
Thoughts?
Product– Savage Characters Volume One
System– Savage Worlds
Producer– Dragonlaird Gaming
Price– $5 here http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/137955/Savage-Characters-Volume-1?manufacturers_id=6270
TL; DR-An excellent book full of useful Savage Worlds characters. 95 %
Basics– Need some characters quick for your Savage Worlds game? Dragonlaird Gaming provides several characters for fantasy, horror, western, and sci-fi settings for the Dragonlaird Gaming Savage Worlds settings. Each character get’s a full write up including a picture, a background, a character sheet, a novice character sheet, some character hooks for different character levels, and an advancement plan for the character. Some characters also get extra setting rules.
Mechanics or Crunch– The best comparison I have for this book is the NPC codex for Pathfinder, and honestly this is much better. Instead of providing several different characters at each level, this book provides less NPCs and gives you an easy way to drop each NPC into your game at any level. That makes this an easy to use resource for you game. Awesome. Even better, this book adds a few new traits for your characters to use. I didn’t expect to find new character options in this book, so that’s a present surprise! One bad thing about this book is, if you don’t know all the Savage World rules, then the character write ups will not be as helpful. Every character has a great write up with all their traits, but if you don’t know those traits off the top of your head, you’re going to be spending some time going back and forth between this book and your other Savage World books. 4.8/5
Theme or Fluff-Each character gets a full right up with a background, description, pictures, and character hooks. I’ve got a picture to show the players, and I can jump into that character on the fly as a GM based on the character hooks and story provided. These are well done complete characters that can help me carry the stories in my games. 5/5
Execution– Overall, this is a well done book. I have a few minor problems with the execution of the PDF. I would like the book to be hyperlinked. Also, the art is good, but some are not as great as others. One more issue I have is I’d like a bit more discretion of the different worlds presented in the book. The character presented work well in any setting, but a bit more description of the worlds would possibly entice me to pay in those places a bit more. However, overall the book loads quick, looks great, and reads easily. 4.5/5
Summary– Need some well done characters quickly for your game? This is the resource you should consider getting. It reads quickly, is well designed, and has some great characters for your games. I do have a few minor qualms, but these problems don’t hurt the overall presentation of the book. If you want to find out how to write a well done NPC book, this is the book to mimic. 95%
If you can gain an extra action, maybe you can loose it too…
Too Slow!
Benefit: 15 karma
You’re just too slow on the uptake. You may downgrade a simple action to a free action, but you do not normally get a free action each turn.
Thoughts?
Free actions are one of the most important aspects of this game…. if you know how to use them! Let’s give you an extra if you’re paying attention.
Fast Mind
Cost: 20 Karma
You’re extremely fast on the uptake. So fast that you’ve already moved on to the next quality in the list! You gain an extra free action each turn.
Thoughts?
Product– Machi Koro Harbor Expansion
Producer-IDW Games
Price– $20 here http://www.amazon.com/IDW-Games-AUG142812-Machi-Koro/dp/1631401688/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1429068035&sr=8-1&keywords=machi+koro+harbor OR WIN IT HERE! https://throatpunchgames.com/2015/04/10/machi-koro-give-away/
Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 45 minutes (2-5 players)
Type-Euro
Depth-Light
TL; DR– This is how you improve an original with an expansion. 94%
Basics-TO THE SEA! The Harbor expansion of Machi Koro adds several new things to the base game. I’ve previously reviewed the base game here (https://throatpunchgames.com/2015/01/29/ring-side-report-board-game-review-machi-koro/ ). First and foremost, the harbor expansion now adds a fifth player. Next, the game completely changes the card availability mechanics. In the base game, you roll a six-sided die, cards you or other players owned would trigger, and finally you could purchase any available building card or major landmark for your town, with the winner being the person who built all four major buildings. This addition now mixes all the building cards together in a pile. Cards are drawn and each different building is placed in a separate pile until 10 different piles are generated instead of having all the buildings face up and available at the start of the game. Otherwise the game plays the same as before with the first person to build all their landmarks being the winner!
Mechanics– This expansion adds a new player and new cards. That doesn’t sound like much, but adding the ability to play five people really makes this game that much more fun. I can get this to the table that much more often. Honestly, that’s awesome. Next, the change in card availability is small thing with a huge impact! Not being able to buy the same thing all the time massively changes the types of decisions made keeping you on your toes creating an atmosphere of positive stress. This game moved from a simple game to an exercise in smart choices with limited resources. Honestly, I WON’T play the basic rules again as this rockets the game from a simple Catan-ish game to its own stand alone masterpiece. It’s still a game where randomness can really destroy a player’s chance. That said, this game is even more fun now with the small changes added in the expansion. 4.25/5
Theme– The base game isn’t a theme powerhouse, but this game does build nicely on what was there. This game is called the Harbor expansion, and one of the new landmarks is, obviously, the harbor. What really improves the theme of this game is now some cards need other landmarks to function. You CAN’T fish with a tuna boat if you don’t have a harbor to fish from! It’s a simple addition, but now the cards make a bit more sense. Also, the random nature of what pops up does make this game feel a bit more like developing a town as different towns try to attract new businesses. It’s not perfect, but it’s much better! 4.5/5
Instructions– The rules are short, concise, and easy to read. If you can manage the base game’s pages, then this games short addition is no problem. It even clarifies some points from the original game that were somewhat fuzzy. Well done! 5/5
Execution– It’s time for another video! Watch my unboxing here: http://youtu.be/Dm8ZLiifjlA This expansion is more cards, some being new buildings, more landmarks, and an extra set of landmarks to add a fifth player. The art is still the Machi Koro style you know and love. Even, the box is well put together. This is basically more of what I loved from the original Machi Koro game. 5/5
Summary– Machi Koro is a quick, fun game to begin with. It might not be the eight hour Eurogame experience some players want, but thirty minutes for a four player game is pretty solid. The Harbor expansion honestly ups the game to a new level. It’s simple a better game by just changing the way buildings are reveled as well as the new thematic buildings. Also, for less than $20, it’s a no brainer. This is a great game with great additions that also allows for more players! 94%
We have some good news! IDW Games has given me a copy of the base game to give away! Want to win the game that started this all? Click here and follow the instructions- https://throatpunchgames.com/2015/04/10/machi-koro-give-away/
Throat Punch Games 