Game-Kingsburg

 

Producer-Fantasy Flight Games and others

 

Set-up/play/take-down-~1 hour

 

Price– ~$50

 

TL;DR–  Good game of Kingdom building-80%

 

Basics-In Kingsburg, each player takes the role of different governors in border territories to a large kingdom.  Each year the players roll three dice and spend dice to influence different patrons.  Patrons are influenced by spending dice that exactly total a patron’s value.  Theses patrons give the players gold, wood, stone, military support, surveillance, dice change values, or victory points.  Each patron can only be influenced once per season.  After each season, each player can build different structures for his town.  After each season, the king helps the leading or losing player, and the process repeats.  After three seasons, monsters attack all the towns and each player sees if they were able to fend off the hordes or if the hordes destroyed part of his or her town.

 

Mechanics-The game is somewhat a eurogame, but with some strong American style themes.  The dice can be somewhat swingy, but the fact that the king helps each player really does help balance the game.  No one really spends to much time far behind the other players, and that is excellent game design.  My only major problem with the game is the way the king helps each player.  One player each year rolls a d6 and that much military aid come to all the players for fighting the hordes.  This really makes this part of the game swingy and can lead some lucky players to victory instead of smart players.  Also, some buildings are completely useless and far to overpriced.  3/5

 

Theme-This game has some problems with theme.  I like it, but I don’t completely feel like I’m a governor at the edge of the known world.  It’s not a major problem, but I don’t feel taken away.  Also, since this is a eurogame, the game has to use small wooden cubes.  Now I know it’s not a large thing, but why not use small things that look like what they are?  You never have huge piles of the resources anyway; why not give me something that makes me feel a bit more in the game?  Another problem is the swingy nature of the game.  Since you roll for what you can play, it does take a bit away from the nature of smart play, but could be interpreted as you harvesting what you can, when you can.  While I am complaining, I did like this game and really liked the fact that only one player can influence a patron each season.  It really does add to the theme of working in a feudal government. 3/5

 

Instruction-They game is well written, and the board and player mats are built to execute these instructions well.  I had absolutely no problems playing the game as written. 5/5

 

Art and Construction-The art isn’t bad.  It has a distinctive style and nothing is too small to be visible.  Everything is written in icons on the main board, so the board reads fast.  I liked what I saw and think it’s built pretty strong. 5/5

 

Final Thoughts-This is a pretty decent game.  I’m glad my wife owns it.  It’s one of the game we play pretty regularly, and I’m not disappointed when we bust it out.  It does have its flaws, but those are usually something I can overlook.  Good game that you should give a try if it comes to the table.  80%

Book-Pathfinder NPC Codex

Publisher-Paizo

Price-~$40

Pages-320

TL;DR-It’s an “OK” source book with some charms, but not enough use. 57%

 

Basic-The Pathfinder NPC codex is just what its name says: a book of NPCs.  Its only four short chapters: base classes, prestige classes, NPC classes, and iconic characters.  For the base classes, each class has write ups for levels 1 to 20 with every other level being a strange offshoot of the norm.  Prestige classes are several versions of the prestige classes from the base pathfinder book.  NPCs are the standard base book classes (expert, commoner, warrior, etc) from level 1 to 10.  The last chapter is the iconic Pathfinder characters (Kyra, Seelah, Ezren, etc) with several builds of these characters at different levels.

 

Use– This book will only help the DMs out there do game prep. And at that, the characters are only ok.  The presented characters don’t really feel challenging when I’ve sent them at my players as a GM.  However, they builds are not bad.  And, the fact that there is a book full of ok NPCs does give me at least some rough stats for what I want to throw at my players, so it will unquestionably save you prep time. 2.5/5

 

Execution-I have some gripes here.  I don’t really need 20 fighter builds.  What I really need is one build, ten times from levels 2 to 20 with some quick rules on how to change it from two swords to sword and shield.  This goes for the monks, rogues and almost all the classes EXCEPT the wizard and the sorcerer.  For these classes, I need builds for each school of magic and ten times levels 2-20.  For the NPCs, I don’t really need 10 commoners.  Four commoners is good enough.  Same goes for all the other NPC classes.  What I don’t need at all is the iconics.  These stats are presented elsewhere AND are given out for free as part of the Pathfinder Society stuff.  As a GM, I have never seen a wizard or a sorcerer not focus on a school of magic.  The book presents 20 different wizards who each have different focuses.  That makes the presented classes much less useful and really messes up my planning as a GM.  Again, nothing presented is “bad,” but it’s really not useful.  Even more distressing, there is absolutely no mention of any of the Advanced Character Guild characters like gunslinger, witch and the gang. 2/5

 

Art, Layout, and Book Quality-This part is the standard Paizo quality.  The art is standard pathfinder art.  Also, there are a bunch of new art here, so I do feel like I got my money’s worth with the art.  If you like the art from any other Pathfinder books, you will like this.  Layout is good.  The sections make sense and are put together with the standard Paizo quality.  The physical book feels like a decent value since it’s over 300 pages for ~$40.  I may not be enamored with the contents, but the book itself is at least close to worth the money. 4/5

 

Final Thoughts– This is an OK book.  Not good, not great, but OK.  It does give me some good NPCs to work with, just not the ones I really need.  Also, the random nature of some of the NPCs really doesn’t help me make the characters I need.  I’m glad I have this, but you need to really consider how many NPCs you will have in the future.  If you will mostly run monsters out of the bestiary, then this book is not for you.  It will save you time, just not all the time you hoped it would. 56%

Ring Side Report-Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG

TL;DR-This game is crazy, random fun-100% or 40% if you need modern gaming

Basics-Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) RPG is a retroclone of the old school (ADnD or 1st Ed) DnD Games by Goodman Games. That right there will either draw you in OR turn you off.  Let’s go into detail, but that first sentence really tells you all you need to know.

Mechanics-The game is basic RPG with dice rolling plus some numbers.  That’s for the Judge/DM and the players.  What makes this old school is the lack of much of the modern “innovations.”  Innovations like skill points, feats, party balance, player control, etc.  That’s not “bad” or “good”, but it’s just the games style.  Do you, as a player, need to know exactly what and how much you know about the monster ahead of you?  Then you will HATE this game.  Do you as a player not really care what the tentacle headed centipede centaur is, but just want to kill him and take his awesome bow?  Then this is the game for you!  Do you need to have absolute control of the situation based on the rules, so you can dictate what the GM can and can’t do to your character?  Then you will hate this!  Are you fine with building four completely random characters and having all but one die in what’s lovingly called a “zero level funnel?”  Then this game is awesome!  I LOVED my game, but I can tell that my wife will HATE this game.  I’m fine with random for everything and the loss of control, but my wife will feel cheated by the lack of control as a player  Which leads to the staggering amount of randomness built into this game.  Every spell has a table of events that can occur when you cast it and when you learn it.  One guy in our party shoots demons from his sleeves when he casts magic missile.  When another guy casts spider clime, someone he knows dies!  If the randomness and loss of control built into this game does not bother you, then its 5/5.  However, if you want a much more controlled game, then it’s a 1/5

Theme– Before you play this game, go to the back of the DCCRPG book and read Appendix N.  For you younglings out there, Appendix N is where Gary Gygax put all his literary references for the game he made.  His characters were not so much heroes as they were adventurers.  And this game reinforces that concept really well.  You can write adventurers where the characters are heroes with character arcs and personal growth, but in the adventurers I’ve seen, the players are more likely just randomly moving through the world, stealing, killing, and running away trying to get as much treasure as possible.  And that’s a whole lot of fun!  The world is a crazy, random place where you have very little control of it and will never understand much of it.  If the above annoys you, then DO NOT PLAY!  That’s the best thing I can say.  Like what I’ve said about the theme?  It’s a 5/5.  Hate the above?  It’s a 1/5

Art– Remember the 1970’s?  Then you weren’t there.  The art from the book is all old school. Don’t look for hyper realistic drawings of monsters or half naked people.  Look for stuff you’ve seen in the first ed. DnD book and on psychedelic posters.  Since the theme is old school revolution, the book art really helps makes this game amazing.  Again, it’s a divisive subject.  I liked the call back to the older art, so 5/5.  If you need your art to have, say, color and not have a crazy 70’s vibe, then 1/5.

Execution– Goodman Games is a great company, and they know how to set a book up.  They’ve learned from the failures of others and this book is great.  What really makes DCCRPG great is the idea of selling several different smaller adventures like in ADnD.  Right in the back of the book is a crap load of modules for you to buy and run for your friends.  Also, a nice touch is a level zero adventure as well as a level five adventure.  The long term basics of this game are a series of episodic adventures and Goodman Games is more than happy to provide the strange adventures for your friends to wonder through.  AND Goodman Games is not afraid of 3rd parties OR their fan base.  Right in the back of the book are advertisements for third-party publishers and the Crawl Fanzine.  I find this phenomenal!  While the randomness, theme, and art are all great, embracing their fans and co-publishers really helps makes this book great. 5/5

Final Thoughts-I loved this game.  I had a great time just sitting back enjoying the strangeness unfurl.  However, if you need an extremely modern game with a focus on mitigating randomness and wrestling control from the GM, then this game is not for you.  Love the strange, episodic nature of old school-100%  Hate the 70’s and need all the modern bells and whistles?-40%

Ring Side Report -Adventure Review -DCC RPG #79-Frozen in Time

Publisher-Goodman games

Price-$10

TL;DR– Fun adventure that I wish at just a bit more-83%

Summary-Think Expedition to Barrier Peaks. In this adventure, the PCs find “something” buried in the ice. What secrets does the ship in the ice hold?

Art-Its more 1970’s-tastic art.  Great for the theme.  I’d like a bit more art for some of the stranger scenes in the ship 4.5/5

Story-I like more of a story to my adventures.  DCC RPG tends to be more focused on a strange place with strange things in it.  That’s fine, but not exactly what I want.  It’s a fun adventure, but I didn’t feel like is was in an short story, so much as I felt like I was in just a random place with stuff to steal.  3.5/5

Execution-For what the adventure wants to be, it is exactly what it wants to be.  Here’s a crazy place with some crazy stuff.  Weird stuff happens and you get a bunch of shout outs to different games and time periods.  The module is a bit pricy at $10 for ~4 hours of adventure, but it easily beats movie prices for you and four to six friends. 4.5/5

Final Thoughts-I had fun.  I’d like a bit more story and art, but it was fun.  The price is a bit high, but reasonable.  I’m glad I had a chance to play it.  Great first adventure for my intro to DCCRPG.  83%

Publisher-Catalyst Game Labs

Price – ~$6

TL;DR- Good start to this season of Shadowrun Missions setting the stage for the rest of the season 90%

Art-This season actually has some amazing art.  I think it’s better than the last few seasons I’ve seen.  Good player handouts as well. 5/5

Story-It’s a short adventure that introduces the NPCs that the characters will interact with all season.  It succeeds at establishes the themes of exploring the burned out history of Chicago as well as showing the set pieces that the players get to play with.  The plot itself isn’t the most extraordinary Mission I’ve played/ran, but the mission’s main focus is to get the major contacts into the players mind as well introducing the character of Chicago.  And, at this, the mission does this extremely well.  4/5

Execution- Standard mission writing style and adventure setup.  Every portion of the mission has the same setup. I would prefer some italic text to help separate box reading text from gamemaster text, but that’s my own hang-up.  Once you get used to this style, it’s a good way to organize a living game.  Another problem is the way missions are reported.  There isn’t a web portal like some other Living games and the results are reported via a online forum. Again, it’s not a major problem, but it’s a minor annoyance.  4.5/5

Final Thoughts-Good intro game.  It’s a bit hung-up on needing some hardware expert skills, but otherwise every other character has a role to play.  Go get this and play it with your home group.  Looks to be a good season if this is the intro.  Welcome to Chicago! 90%

Game: Bioshock Infinite: The Siege of Colombia

Players: 2 or 4

Publisher: Plaid Hat Games

Playtime(setup/play/clean-up): 150 minutes

Set Ending: Yes

TL;DR– Smart, interesting twists on a standard war game. 92.5 %

How You Play: Think Risk+ on  3-D rails.  In this game you take the rolls of either the Founders of Colombia or the Vox Populi.  Turns involve revealing a victory condition, voting on a new option for the players/upkeep, buying new units/structures, then moving and battling.  This continues until the event deck ends or someone has ten points.  Each turn you get a hand of five cards that give you additional options and are spent for votes, money, or point in battle/abilities.  While all this is going on, Booker is running randomly through the city destroying all of your hard work as he move to get the girl and whip away the debt.

Mechanics:  The mechanics of this game are a mix of some newer ideas in the gaming world.  Players have a deck of cards that give votes/battle points/money that you draw from.  This deck gives a new mix to the basic Risk idea of place people/roll dice.  Also, since you NEVER have less than five cards, you don’t have a runaway victor problem.  Also interesting is the fact that when you win a vote you become first player.  I almost didn’t want to be first player because I want to react to what my opponent did!  Really complimenting the theme through mechanics is the upgrade system.  Each time you win a fight, get first player, or a few other  things, you get to upgrade your cards.  This gives you more money, votes, attack, or unlocks a special ability on a card.  Also, preventing runaway victor is you cannot have three more upgrades than your opponent.  Games that auto-balance show elegance in design!  Fights are a simple die rolls by building a die pool based on the number and type of  people in each attack.  A problem here is the winner can never choose who to destroy in an attack.  I would have liked a card power that allows this, but it’s a small problem over all.  A final mechanic that reflects a part of the game is the skyline.  Since you can only move one space over land and only move four people, troop movement is critical.  However, you can skyline as many spaces as you want.  When you do, you roll three dice and look for thumbs up.  If not, you have to discard cards to keep your unit you are trying to move.  Can’t?  Then your unit dies.  In my play through, I underutilized this and it cost me the game.  Just like in the video game, you can move behind your enemy’s battle lines and wreck his day!  The random deck of events and victory cards also gives a nice flavor to this game as well as the random timeline cards for Elizabeth.  Lots of replay in a well thought out war game.  I just wish it was more than two or four player.  4.5 /5

Theme:  This game oozes theme.  Plaid Hat was handed the keys to the kingdom and got the basis for a great video game and they ran with it.  Everything feels like it’s in the world of Bioshock.  Nothing is out of place.  The power-ups in the game make appearances as cards that tip battles just like the game.  Bookers/Elizabeth’s random movements feel like two people moving through a world as you and your friend battle over it.  Every piece of the game feels like it belongs.  It feels like it’s 1910 in this box.  5/5

Art/Components:  Everything in the box belongs.  The money looks like video game money.  The first player token is big and great.  The board looks good, although it is a bit cramped and I wish the lines between places were a different color to help delineate the different areas.  I wish some of the art was a bit different as some things only differ between the two sides in that they are either red or blue.  Also, Plaid Hat likes to sculpt different looking figures for units, but the units do not really differ.  It’s a nice touch, but I want the different figures to do something different, but they all roll the same simple die.  Besides that, I left the game happy, and I don’t really like war games.  I’d play this again   4.5/5

Instructions:  The game has good instructions.  Some events make understanding what happens a pain for order of operations.  Here’s an example:  I used a card that removed a card from my enemy’s deck.  He also used the same card.   My card happened first as I was attacking.  Then his card happened and he removed my remove card I just played.  Did my card happen?  There are a few corner cases where events get strange.  Besides not covering the strange corner cases, the rule book is pretty good and well laid out.  Also, BONUS POINTS FOR VIDEO OF HOW TO PLAY!    4.5/5

Final Thoughts:  All be honest, when I first saw this game, I thought it was a cash grab by both the game designer and the video game developer.  Having played this game, I have to happily say I was wrong.  This is an awesome game of sup’ed up Risk with hands down better mechanics and story.  I loved my play through.  The game feels like it’s a new game set in a world I love.  If you hate randomness in your battles, then you will hate this as dice rolls DO play a large part of the combat.  But, there is so much more to this game.  Smart tactics in three dimensions.  Clever deployment of troops, structures, and upgrades.  Political discussions that give you advantages but drain your recourses down the line.  I just wish I could use this with more people!  92.5%