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%

Publisher-Paizo

Price – ~$13

 

TL;DR-Great, well-done book, but you have to ask yourself if you will EVER use it- 98.75%

 

Art-Basic Pathfinder art.  If you like what they’ve put out before, you will like this too.  Well-done, clean, and non-obtrusive. 5/5

 

Mechanics or “Crunch”-This book is basically a well done splat book.  It adds to your character’s options pretty comprehensively.  Something to note, most of the book focus on divine characters.   There are non-divine options in the back, but much of the front of the book is spent focusing on giving divine options for each major god.  However, if you will not use the Mythic rules, this is not the book for you. 2.5/2.5

 

Story or “Fluff”-Well done again with an asterisk.  If you want more divine stuff, this is the book.  Learn about your gods and how you came from them.  Great.  If you want to be something non-divine, there is not as much for you.  This is right in the description of the book, so no surprises, but still a little disappointed. 2.25/2.5

 

Execution- This book has a nice, clean Pathfinder setup that really helps with finding anything as well as deciding if you need this book right from the front of the book.  If you like the previous books like I did, this is well done. 5/5

 

Book Quality- Again well-done.  Nice glossy paper with good binding and no ink smearing. 5/5

 

Final Thoughts-This is a good companion book.  My only problem is I will NEVER use this book since I usually play Pathfinder Society which doesn’t use Mythic rules.  I know this going in, so I’m not surprised.  I would want a bit more non-divine fluff/cruch, but all my negative comments are basically small things.  Well done, just make sure you are going to use this book before you buy it!  98.75%

 

Game: Elder Sign expansion Unseen Forces

Players: 1-8

Playtime(setup/play/clean-up): 60 minutes

Set Ending: Kind of

TL;DR- A fun game expansion that’s worth it only if you like the first game.  85%

How You Play: Think Cthulhu Yahtzee.  Players take the roles of different investigators in a museum trying to prevent the emergence of an old one.  Players roll dice on six different spaces trying to meet all the dice needs of a spot.  Can’t make a roll based on the what’s on the space?  Then you lose a die.  A player keeps playing until he rolls all the needed symbols or he/she can’t succeed.  Player keep playing until they get enough elder signs to seal away the evil or until the evil arises and kills them all.  The expansion adds new places, new evil monsters/ grand enemies, and the blessed/ cursed dice.

Theme: This game is a alternating awesome and horrible at theme.  On the grand scale, I feel Lovecraft through and through.  Each game feels tense and your life is on the line.  HOWEVER, no game is really that different.  The places that come up don’t change between Cthulhu or Yig.  The enemies you fight don’t really matter if its Azathoth or  Yog-sothoth.  And the events are a random pile of anything.  This isn’t bad, but its American style.  Its easily fixed, but that’s for down below.  2/5

Mechanics:  Roll dice, look at card, repeat.  That’s it. If you can play Yahtzee, then you can play this.  Nothing is too crazy.  The cards help when you need them.  Nothing seems overly broken.  Its hard, but its the kind of came where you cheer each other on as you lose as a group.  The expansion add just more stuff to play with.  I like the new mechanics of baring places from the players for the game.  5/5

Art/Components:  It’s Fantasy Flight, so it’s good.  Also, for a simple card and dice game, you get a crap ton of stuff.   5/5

Instructions:   Again, it’s Fantasy Flight, so it’s good.  And, the game just isn’t that hard to explain.  Even the added curse/bless die is pretty easy to figure out and comes with its own cards to help.  5/5

 

Final Thoughts:   If you like Arkham Horror and Elder Sign, then this is an auto add.  There is no question.  The new stuff is great, and the stuff they did add makes me pretty happy.  Its a bit more challenging, but I almost never lost the old game.  The theme is still the major problem as with the base game.  This won’t make you  instantly love the game, but it will give you some more hours with the game if you do love it. 17/20-85%

The Fix for Theme-There is a crap load of small cards and locations.  Why not label them with different icons.  Then have each elder thing have a icon list for me to make the decks with, exactly like Mansions of Madness?  Now the game I play drags me kicking and screaming into something!  Done and done!  Then you get a 100% rating from me!  Speaking of a game that does that a bit more….

And now the second review!

Game: Elder Sign: Omens

Players: 1

Playtime(setup/play/clean-up): 20 minutes

Set Ending: Kind of

TL;DR- An excellent iOS/Android game!-90%

How You Play: See above!  It plays almost exactly like the real game.  AND THAT IS AWESOME!

Theme: Remember above when I got mad and I wanted a smaller pool of cards for each monster?  THIS GAME HAS IT.  The card pool is limited for each monster.  Its not perfect because no cards directly reference the big bad, but its a hell of a lot more.  Also if you play a bit more, you get games that are crazy full of theme as you go after Cthulhu in a separate game board entirely!  4/5

Mechanics:  Roll dice, look at card, repeat.  That’s it.  It was awesome before, its awesome now!  I with I could go back a bit and look at some of the cards in my hand when I make some decisions on the iPad, but that’s an iPad/android  problem.  It’s caused me a make a few mistakes and cost me a game or two.  4.5/5

Art/Components:  Use many of the in game art stuff from the board game and adds excellent sounds! Creepy as all hell. 5/5

Instructions:   It’s got video walkthroughs. DONE AND DONE!  5/5

 

Final Thoughts:   If you like Elder Sign, then this is an auto buy.  There is no question.  Get the expansions because they are worth it!  Great game, with lots of theme.  New game modes for the expanded old ones.  Great graphics and music.  FANTASTIC! 17/20-92.5%

Publisher-Paizo

Price – ~$50

Pages-576

 

TL;DR-This is the basic rule book for the amazingly popular Pathfinder role-playing game.  It’s an phenomenal book that is well executed.  I have a few problems, but nothing that isn’t easy to overlook. 5/5

 

Art-The art style in this book sets the pace for all the other books in the Pathfinder RPG.  Its a nice style that always looks heroic and fits well with the world they created.  Damn fine stuff.

 

Mechanics-The mechanics of pathfinder are basically DnD 3.5.  Nothing too risky here.  If you liked 3.5, then you will like this game.  Any problems in 3.5 show up here.  That’s part of the good and bad with building of an established OGL system.  However, Pathfinder is worth the price of admission alone for simplifying the grapple rules.  That right there makes the game worth it.  HANDS DOWN!

 

Execution- The book is well organized with nice tables of contents and indexes to help you find what you need.  It describes the mechanics well, but as before, some of the minor problems from 3.5 creep into the execution of the book.  These are smaller issues, but they will end up making you go to the Paizo forums to get help.  Another problem I have is the lack of a bestiary in this book.  Most books at the $50 price typically include a small bestiary.  I know that many more will follow, but why include the GM guide and the Players guide together if you don’t include a smaller bestiary too?  Again, it’s a minor problem, but some food for thought.

 

Book Quality-  This book is well done.  Its heavy, and it should be for the price.  You feel like you get your value for the price.  The paper quality is high, so no smudging!

 

Final Thoughts-This is a good book.  The problems I have are nit-picking.  Good value for the money.  If you like 3.5, you will love this!

This was the last day of the con.  The whole con just came off the high of day two, and it was a much lower key day.  I was scheduled to help run demos at the Passport press booth, but due to how slow it was I wasn’t needed.  Seeing as I had a free day at a con, I made the most of it.

 

First Game-Qin by R and R games-Qin is an area control game.  Each player has a number of pagodas that they play on the board when you connect at least two tiles of the same color.  Each turn you place a tile, see if you get to place a pagoda, and then see if you connected a larger area then your opponent and thus steal his land.  Connect five areas of the same color and you get to put a double pagoda that lets you keep an area permanently. When a player plays his last pagoda, he wins.  It’s a pretty simple game.  I won, but it wasn’t a runaway victory.  I had some fun and we played a three player game in less than 30 minutes.  Good simple design.  I may pick this one up.

 

I then checked the dealer room if I was needed, saw I wasn’t, and then proceeded to buy a crap ton of stuff.  The winner of this con has to be Passport games for me.  There were some amazing deals at this con.  From Passport games, I bought Castaways (based on my play the night before) and Trajen (which was a steal at $40 bucks!).  Then, from AEG, I picked up Trains (last copy for $10 off), and Guild Hall.  The last purchase was the Conquest of Kumanjaro from Mage Wars.  Honestly, if there was more Mage Wars, I would buy more stuff.  I think I will make it my goal to get this game rolling in Jackson.  I love the format of a non-random CCG.  Then the wife and I moved to our last game before heading home.

 

Last game of the Con-Guild Hall by AEG-It seems stupid to buy a game before you play, but I had played this before with some friends and my wife hadn’t.  The game is very simple but deep!  Each player places two cards each turn.  These cards give up special abilities that are based on the number of same card you have in your guild hall.  Get a full color set and you get to trade them in for points.  First to 20 wins.  What makes this game deep is the number of combos you can build based on a simple deck of cards.  I lost this one, but it’s still a great game that I can’t wait to play some more.

 

Final thoughts on GrandCon-First things first, this con can NOT be at the same place next year.  And that has nothing to do with the place!  The expected Saturday numbers were ~250.  Actual Saturday numbers?  1200-1500!  That is amazing for a first time con.  Then again, Ed Greenwood way playing charity Lords of Waterdeep all day, the Hickman’s (Is the plural of Hickman Hickmen?) were doing panels and signing autographs all the time.  It looked like the entire Pathfinder army was out in force.  The GenCon Game library was in town.  There was NEVER a chance to not do anything.  For three whole days I gamed!  That is amazing!  This is a win.  Now this might not be GenCon or Origins, but man I had fun.  Great venders with amazing deals.  Got to see a bunch of my friends from the major cons.  My wife was a little big traumatized by the sheer number of people, but that’s just because there were WAY too many people in the small area of the con.  That said, I can’t wait till next year. I’m going.  I may try to get there earlier to join the Mage Wars Tournament and game a whole lot more.  My regret this year was I didn’t play that many RPGs or do any demos.  Next, year I will fix this!  See you guys next year at GrandCon!

The strange was I didn’t see a DnD presence at all.  There was a few scattered 4e and 3.5 games, but no DnD Next.  Maybe it’s me, but this should be at cons like to keep the interest up.  Food for though.

Game: Castaways

Players: 1-4

Playtime(setup/play/clean-up): 120 minutes

Set Ending: Yes

TL;DR-An awesome game that REALY needs a new instruction manual 77.5%

How You Play: Players take the role of castaways on an island.  Each turn they assign two meeples to different activities such as finding food or wood, resting, taking camp actions, building, or exploring the island.  The players must build enough objects to be rescued as well as fully explore the island to get free.  The players must work together to succeed, but one player with the most impressive story will win the game at the end.

Theme: This game oozes theme.  Every action you take feels like something you need to do and are things that feel right.  The only problem is the mechanics of the win and that will be below but that’s as it detracts from the theme.  I felt invested in my survival on the island.  I was sad when the tidal wave washed away the goat.  I fought the rest of the group when they voted to eat the dog.  I was scared when a shark ate my leg.  This was awesome!  4.5/5
Mechanics: The general mechanics of this game is a “choose your own adventure book” meets a Euro worker placement game.  That’s it.  There are decks of cards much like Agricola that are semi-random but seeded with different cards for each play through.  There is a bit of a random mechanic for getting lost on explorations, but you can mitigate that through giving up story point.  I like how the mechanics work.  The one area that doesn’t make much sense is that someone can win.  I loved the co-op nature of the game right until the end.  As a strait co-op game, this game is an instant hit.  However, the end point comparison feel a bit tacked on.  Honestly, when we played we decided to drop it as it really only serves to divide the players.  4.5/5

Art/Components:  It has good art that’s only a little racist.  You can tell that this game came from “Not America” because some of the things on it might not pass modern American sensibilities.  That said, it looks like old school Robinson Crusoe art.  The board is good quality.  The game has lots of fairly well designed cards (see instructions for why their only fairly well designed) and cute components.  Nice, plastic meeples, but as a board gamer, I’m not sure why these are plastic.  It’s not bad.  However, I want some wood!  I do not like chance!  4.5/5

Instructions: Here is where I whine.  This game was made by a guy in Spain, translated to German, then translated to English.  And the majority of the instructions are ok.  They get their points across, but the set up part is HORRIBLE!  The instructions are really only one page of a 10+ page book, but it took my group of college educated friends over an hour of reading and rereading to understand what they were trying to get across.  Holy cow!  Maybe you can “Rain Man” these instructions out, but honestly, it’s a major turn off.   As a point of advice, there are 105 cards marked 1-105, but these cards come from every deck in the game.  Make the deck of numbered cards FIRST AND SET THEM ASISE FACE UP.  Take all the cards marked “0” and set them aside.  Those “0” cards you will shuffle and draw a pile of eight from to add a few random story seeds to your game.  THEN separate the number “0” cards into their proper decks based on the back of the cards and then mix these new decks to randomize the exploration cards.   There.  I just explained that first set up page better than the instructions! 2/5

Final Thoughts: All and all a pretty good game.  I enjoyed it, even after the rocky start.  I had lots of fun and still miss my goat and dog!  Give this one a try, but have someone experienced with set up be your teacher.  77.5%

The obvious comparison-Robinson Crusoe: Adventure on the Cursed Island vs. Castaways-Ok this debate is best summarized by the phrase: American Style vs. Euro game.  Robinson Crusoe is a great game also, but it’s very American Style.  The island set up in Robinson Crusoe is completely determined by random tile draw.  It’s not a “bad” mechanic, but in the game I played, the random really screwed over the players.  Also in Robinson Crusoe, all events are resolved by custom dice.  Again, not “bad”, but if you hate that then you will not enjoy that game.  Also Robinson Crusoe is also a fully co-op game while Castaways is has a competitive difference at the end.  A final difference is difficulty.  Robinson Crusoe has PUNISHING difficulty, while Castaways was relatively easy.  That difference in difficulty can drive players away.  My wife wanted to play Castaways again, but based on my play of Robinson Crusoe, she will not even touch that game.  If you can only buy one, then maybe my collection is the best reference.  I own Castaways after one play, but don’t own Robinson Crusoe after one play through.  Food for thought.

Having spend the day at the convention hall and night at the hotel, here’s my thoughts…

 

First event of the day-Narosia https://sites.google.com/a/legendsmiths.com/legendsmiths/ -My wife saw this one and thought, let’s do this!  This game is Hero system, and neither of us have ever played that system.  Its a great system!  It has some of my favorite things: action choice that affects time, speeds for characters that reflect extra actions, randomness that is mitigated by skill.  I loved the game.  Lots of great times here.  As for Narosia itself, its a setting that is designed to harkens back to the old games of yore.  Old school dungeon crawling with a compelling back-story reason for why your doing things.  It was a lot of fun.  The GM for the game was the main game designer, and that is always awesome!  Give this one a look make, some facebook/twitter/G+ friends and keep the pressure on these guys to make their game come out soon!

 

Next- Smash Up by AEG-I’ve seen this game explode on the convention scene, and I’ve wanted to play this for a while. I got my friend together and joined a group at the con.  The basics of the game are: take two different decks of creatures, smash them together, and play for terrain control leading to points.  First to 15 points wins.  It’s pretty easy mechanics wise and its theme is crazy and fun.  The differences come into play as each creature deck play drastically different.  Think of one deck that might work better if you have no cards in hand and a second deck that works by moving enemy’s around to different areas.  All and all, I wouldn’t turn this game down if it was brought to the table.  However, if you are looking for an eight hour Eurogame experience, this is not the game for you.  You have choice, but your choices are usually pretty limited.  Keep that in mind going in for a much better time.

 

Aside time with designer!-This is one of the major reasons I go to cons.  I LOVE meeting new game designers and hearing why they did what they did.  Plaid Hat Games is on the scene and they are selling their games at a discount.  They made the City of Remnants game.  I met with the main designer and when his words are “glad you’ve heard of my game, I made this, and we’re selling this at a discount” you get money.  The part of my brain the controls logic and finance shuts down and I just had my money away.  Take note game designers and game companies…..

 

After dinner, I demoed Sentinels of the Multiverse to my wife and a friend at the con.  This game is a complete co-op game where every person is handed a deck of cards that represents their hero; a villain plays a bad event/cards, the heroes respond with cards/powers, and then the environment does “something” (usually bad).  And this is how the game is played.  I love co-op games that are simple and fun with lots of replay.  Great game even though we were DESTROYED by Citizen Dawn at the Mars Base.  When we talked with some of the demo team about this game, they suggested that Citizen Dawn was the WORST villain to start with, and we should have started with the Baron.

 

The last game of the night was Castaways by Passport Games. I’m going to be working at this booth today and wanted to try their newest game, so they let me play a demo copy.  It was a bit of a problem setting-up the game because of some English language translation issues.  However, when we got rolling the game is amazing.  The best way to describe this game is a Euro worker placement game combined with a choose your own adventure book.  All players play castaways on an island.  You must work together with some options giving you narrative points.  The narrative points let you win, but if you only focus on points, everybody will lose.  Lots of fun, and I can’t wait to play again.

 

Well that was day two of Grandcon.  I can’t wait to see you all in the demo hall tomorrow.  Look for me at the Passport Games booth.  Hope to see you there!