Dwarven Miner

I was recently at the Origins Game Convention, and I picked up my copy of Dwarven Miner from Rather Dashing Games while there. Let’s have a look:

Art and Theme-The theme is pretty simple. You’re a dwarf, so you do Dwarf-y stuff like mine and make stuff. It’s pretty classic, but that doesn’t make it bad. In fact the theme and art are very well done. I like the box, card, and placemat art. Everything does feel sufficiently Dwarf-y. As I played and keep looking over the art and cards, I thought this was a fun universe and would love to play more games or RPGs here. Some of the art is somewhat simplistic, but this is mostly on the art for the resource cards and on the dice. It gets the point across, but its not as in-depth as the art for the item. All and all a solid theme with great art: 8/10.

Mechanics-The goal of this game is to get the most number of points that you earn by satisfying victory point cards. Simple enough, but not bad. Points are scored by crafting all the items for a patron. Patrons will want between 2 and 4 items. Each turn, you get six dice. You roll the dice and can reroll the dice as many times are you want. However, if you roll an ork face, you cannot reroll that die. The die faces generate resource cards that you can store or trade in for items. In addition, you can also roll a stealing symbol. When that occurs, you steal a card from a player of your choice. More symbols means you can steal rarer items. This and some additional card effects are really the only way to interact with other players. When you craft the items for a patron, you get the points for the patron. In addition, some patrons give you extra powers or affect the table in some way. The rogue will kill another patron, thus depriving someone else of a power. The engineer will give you extra storage space for items for free. There is a good variety of patrons and they really drive the game with their effects. Also, you can see some time went it to this design as the higher point characters help the other players so the game has an auto-balance built in. It tends to fight the runaway victor problem and all players end up with a close game when someone finally ends the game. You can learn the game in five minutes and play a full game in ~45. That’s the mark of a good game: 9/10

The Good: Solid Gameplay with good art. Well thought out with nice cards and cardstock. Well worth my kickstarter money! I was also able to meet the guys who made the game and their pretty cool. So, good all around.

The Bad: The game feels kind of short. I like the length, but the goal is 30 points. This isn’t a problem, but some of the cards give you 15 points at a crack. Good to see some high point cards, but since patrons are secret you might just have a person win in less the 4 turns. I would almost like the game to be 60 points.

The Ugly: STICKERS! The game comes with 6 blank dice and a page of stickers. You have to make the dice. There are nice directions for that, but still…stickers? You guys get a pass on this one as you are a smaller company, but one day when you have your yacht and you’re summering in the Mediterranean due to the board game fortunes you’ve amassed, I want a deluxe edition with nice carved or painted dice.

So in the end , Dwarven Miner is a great game that plays quick and is fun. Give it a try! For me it’s a solid 8.5/10.

The Origins Rundown

How I spent my time

At the Origins Gaming Convention, I worked for Baldman Games.  If you get a chance and love DnD (4e or DnD Next), check them out.  Wednesday I was almost late for my first slot.  After a frantic drive across Ohio, I made it to the show just in time.  I ran Show Special 5-3 Wednesday night.  Spec 5-3 and Spec 5-4 are adventures set in the Living Forgotten Realms (LFR).  LFR is an awesome living campaign that features a large catalogue of free adventures set in the faerun.   Afterwards, I went and met my roommates and passed out.  Thursday, I ran Special 5-3 at 8am.  In between slots, I ran as fast as I could to the con floor to get the most exclusive item of the con:  the Shadowrun 5e rules!  I was able to get there in time and get my books signed!  At 1pm and 7pm, I ran a new adventure, Show Special 5-4.  The next day, I ran Spec 5-4 at 8am and 1pm.  That night I ran Living Divine Intro 1-7.  Living Divine is another 4th edition living game.  In this game, players take the role of goddlings who are discovering their power.  Check out the games here.  Saturday, at 8AM I was back to playing LFR with SPEC 5-4.  That afternoon and evening, I ran my first battle interactive.  For those who have never played in a living campaign, a battle interactive (BI) is when several tables are all playing concurrently on a joint adventure where they can interact with one another.  Holy Cow, that was the most fun and stressful time I have ever had while DMing.  We stated at 1PM and went till 12AM with an hour break.  If you get a chance, try a BI.  Its a great feeling of community when everybody is working together at a hobby they all love.  Sunday, I was off!  Great working for Baldman Games, but I wanted to spend a bit of time seeing the sites.  First things first, win a con exclusive for my brother at Kings of Tokyo.  With that done, I headed off to the sales floor.  Here I spent way to much money and talked to a bunch of different companies.  Great to see so many high ups at the con.  I learned a bunch of information about the con and had a ton of fun seeing how the business works.  I had a blast, but eventually had to head home.  I can’t wait till next year.

My thoughts on all the companies I met along the way

Wizards of the Coast and Paizo

The big two!  Its kind of sad, but neither had a sizable presence in the dealer hall.  Both had their wares on display as local dealers sold both stuff, but I like to see high ups in the company.  Next year be here!  You being here is 10 times better than having your grunts like me run your living games.  It makes me think you care if you talk to me at the smaller of the big cons.

Catalyst Games

These guys won Origins.  Hands down.  Why?  Well they got the most of my money.  They released a small print run, only for Origins, of the new 5e rules.  Heck, the guy who sold me my copy was the guy who wrote the damn book!  Seeing a big company have that much interaction with the fans; you win.  That’s it.  I plan to run more of your living game (Shadowrun Missions), especially because the guy who sold me the adventure book for Shadowrun Missions 5th edition wrote the book and worked the register.  I also met Talon the Catalyst booth guy and gave him some crap as I bought at T-Shirt.  He took it in stride and that kind of fun always makes me like a company.

Rather Dashing

I was about to write these guys off, but they made me love them so much harder.  I joined their kickstarter and was waiting for my game copy in the mail.  I saw them selling copies in the dealer hall and had not received my copy yet.  I was about to start some serious crap in the dealer hall, but when I mentioned I kickstarted the game they asked to see proof.  I showed them my phone and they gave me a copy.  NO QUESTIONS ASKED.  That made me love them.  No run around, no emailing, done!  I talked about the steampunk motif of things and they told me about an upcoming novel.  So here’s the deal Rather Dashing, you kickstart that, you get my money.  You make an RPG in that world you’re making, you get more.  Great guys, heads of the company shilling their stuff.  Win all around!

Albino Dragon

Here is the first small company I want to highlight.  These guys were great.  Cash Only, but great.  They were marking down items on the last day of the show and that drew me in.  I bought a T-shirt and Cthulhu playing cards from them.  Then they told me about some of the games they have previously made.  They offered a deal on Ace of Spies and Genegrafter.  I bought them right away.  I can’t wait to check them out.

Z-Man Games

Here I got to meet Zev Shlasinger head of the company.  Remember what I said about meeting company heads and me buying things?  I recently heard about Dungeon Petz and I wanted to buy a Vlaada Chvatil game.  They had it and they were marking things off.  Done and done.  Can’t wait to play it.

Stronghold Games

Here I got to meet Stephen Buonocore.  More company heads!  I wanted to buy CO2, but they were out.  I will have to wait till later!

Iello Games

Great games from these guys.  My brother LOVES Kings of Tokyo.  Took me 5 times, but I won the con exclusive standie for the game.  Great game.  Looking for more and will buy the expansion for his birthday.

Ubisoft

Well this is new.  They guys had a online card game.  I’m somewhat conflicted on what I think about this.  Its called Duel of Champions.  They gave away cards with in game gold.  I’ll give it a shot.

Gamelyn Games

I met Michael Coe.  He’s the founder of the company of the company and he sold me a copy of Dungeon Heroes.  Its a simple dungeon crawler.  I can’t wait to play it.  Good times.

And that was my con.  Looking forward to seeing the games I bought and can’t wait to play the RPGs.

I’ve been playing a few games of The Doctor Who Card game by Cubicle 7.  Here is what I think

Mechanics-This game is pretty simple to play and easy to learn.  What makes this game interesting is you don’t get to keep all the cards you are dealt.  You MUST pass a number of cards to the player on your right.  This means you know you will give great cards to your opponents, but you have to by the rules.  Every turn you start with five cards in your hand.  With these cards you have a few options.  You can play location cards that give you points at the end of the game.  You can play enemy cards to attack other players’ locations and gain their points.  You can play heroes to defend locations.  Attack and defense cards are played face down with higher number winning a combat.  This aspect makes both sides gamble to see who will come out on top.  You can play support cards to give effects listed on the cards.  You can discard cards to gain time points that allow you to buy extra cards.  The final option is to place cards in your reserve.  Since the only thing that really ends your turn is handing three cards to the player on your right, reserved cards basically function as extra actions in later turns.  Attacking and defending is a simple  The game runs till you run out of cards or one player has defended five locations or taken over five other players’ locations.  My Thoughts-This is great.  Game runs quick and is easy to learn.  Doesn’t need a whole large back story of Dr. Who to play, but it does make the game more fun to see who fights and think up what episodes that came from.

Theme-The game does reflect the Dr. Who world very well.  Its harder to defend places and save everything while destroying things is much easier to do.  I’ve won two games so far and both victories came from capturing other player locations.  As that’s a theme in the Dr. Who Mythos, it reflects the TV show pretty well.  However, don’t expect any characters from beyond the current seasons with emphasis on the Matt Smith Doctor.  My Thoughts-Good execution of the show on a small scale.  The Mechanics and theme work well together.  I’m pretty much up for this game whenever I get a chance.  I would like to see more Doctor Who enemies and characters, but that might be the realm of other expansions.  There is a free idea Cubicle 7!

Art-The cards are nicely done, but they used a painted art style.  The paintings are semi-realistic.  My Thoughts-I don’t hate the art style, but some of the paintings are juussst slightly off.  You know who it is, but you do a double take when you see them as you think something is up with the character.

My one problem with the game-A major part of this game is handing your hand to another player.  While this sounds simple, I’ve found I’ve become confused a few times.  If there was an insert or a direction of play vs direction of passing card, I would be less confused.  But this is nit picking.

Final Thoughts-Great game!  Go get this.  Its less than $30 on Amazon or in your friendly local game store.  Go give this a try.  If you are a Whovian, then this is a must! 9/10.