Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of New Dawn

November 29, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-New Dawn

Producer-Stronghold Games

Price– $60 here http://www.amazon.com/Artipiagames-ARP01008-Dawn-Board-Game/dp/B00QHJCUE2/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1448827799&sr=8-5&keywords=New+Dawn

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 90-120 minutes (2-4 players)

Type-American

Depth-Medium

TL; DR-Eclipse by way of Among the Stars. 90%

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Basics-We’ve gone Among the Stars, Expanded the Alliance, sent Ambassadors, and now have a New Dawn for the galaxy. In New Dawn, players take the roles of the same alien races from Among the Stars, but now have moved from the joint space station to exploring the galaxy for resources.

In terms of overall play, New Dawn plays a bit like Eclipse. This game has three resources that players must spend to dominate the galaxy: economic, science, and military. Each race/player starts with a player board with 15 bases in their color. Each base covers up a resource of that type with the fifth base covering up a resource and a victory point. Players choose one base to uncover and place on the central alliance start point. Then, each turn goes as follows: 1) draw up to four tiles to explore 2) place one tile and get its placement bonus 3)buy a research card 4)Move one of your military headquarters to any space 5) take three actions in turn 6) Send aid to the alliance. The tiles are the different sections of space to explore and are split between science, military, economic, and hostile (a mix of all three that is high risk/high reward). Each tile has a placement bonus which ranges from getting resources, placing more tiles, or attacking a tile for free. Research is interesting as each race has its own deck of cards that allows each player to customize how each race plays in each game and allows limited responses to other race’s/player’s actions. Military headquarters are the main movement pieces of the game. You start with one and use it to buy or conquer other tiles. You never lose them, but you can buy more to give you extra power and points. This all said, the main game itself is the actions. Actions are as follows: gain one resources of any type, buy a tile, seize a tile, use an ambassador, or buy a new military HQ and move all the HQs you have. The resources are self explanatory, but the ambassadors are new. Ambassadors are tokens that you place on any tile and then do the ambassadors action. These actions are all written on the cards themselves, but are mostly better versions of the actions discussed above. Of the actions you have, the two biggest and most important are the buy or seize a tile. Buying a tile is simple. Each tile has a cost in economic resources and a victory point cost. You just pay the economic cost. Seizing is more interesting and MUCH more random. If a tile is is not controlled, you add the victory points and the cost and then roll dice according to where your Military HQ’s are. For each military HQ’s on a tile you roll the yellow die (a d6 with numbers 2,3,4,5,5, and 6) and for each military HQ adjacent you can roll the white die (a d6 with numbers 1 through 6). Some powers and abilities give you a green die (a d6 with numbers 0,1,1,2,2, and 3) or the RED AWESOME DIE (a d6 with numbers 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, and 6). The attacking player must beat the defence, not tie. If he/she wins, then that player places a base on the tile of the same type as the one from his/her player board. Combat against a player works exactly the same way with a base on a tile giving you a yellow die in addition to all the Military HQ on or around the tile as above. This can lead to some epic dice roll offs as player can also get rerolls and bonus dice from other powers as well. If the defender loses, the he/she takes his/her base of the tile and covers up the right most resource on the player board and the winners get to place a base as before. In addition, at the start of the game four random bonuses are placed around the board. These bonuses range from extra defence, free movements of Military HQs, to rerolls and extra dice. Each tile typically has some arrows on it. When a tile is bought or seized, the player gets to change the direction in which it is facing, and the arrows the tile points to give a bonus to the owning player. The last action of each turn is to send aid to the alliance. This is buying victory point cards using the three different resources as printed on the card. After five rounds, the points for bases, aid, uncovered resources, and purchased tech and military HQs are added up, and the player with the most has conquered the galaxy and provided the most aid to the alliance!

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Mechanics-First thing first, let’s deal with the elephant in the room-Eclipse. Eclipse is a great game, but not my favorite 4-X space game. This game and Eclipse both have the multiple bases and resources concept, tech trees, exploration, and color-based dice combat. And all of that is done a bit different but well by each game. However, Eclipse goes about one turn too long. This game is MUCH shorter, easier to recover from some early game problems, and actually provides much more player control. AND, this game at it’s highest price is $60 while Eclipse still retails for about $100. How New Dawn handles everything is fun, fair, and a great way to manage a galaxy. It’s something that new gamers can handle, and older gamers will enjoy. It’s not perfect as the randomness can honestly destroy your enjoyment of a game and combat is a bit more powerful than other strategies, but if you play American-style games, you know that pain all too well! Don’t let those minor problems keep you from this game. 4.75/5

Theme-This game changed a few key things that I think hurt the game a bit. The theme of the first game was alien races working against each other, but not on an overly aggressive scale as the war was fresh in their mind. This game is all about combat. It will be extremely difficult to win the game without conquering a single base or engaging in combat. It’s a massive departure from the first game. The second is the race descriptions. The first game Among the Stars is a pretty simple drafting and tile laying game, so the designers spent the second half of the rulebook describing the universe and the races within. This game is a bit more complicated, so the rules need a bit more description. But the races and world only get about a half pages description on the first page. I really miss the world building of the first game. The game itself is well done and you do feel like you’re conquering space and your friends’ bases. But, I’m not sure that’s exactly what I wanted from the second game in this series. 4.25/5

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Instructions-I mentioned in the theme section, the rulebook doesn’t have as much description as I would like, but overall the rules are well explained by the book. There are a few problems that I think need a tiny bit more explanation like the arrows on location cards. The rules tell you about the different cards placed on the board at the game start, but they don’t give you as deep a working description of that mechanic. You will figure it out on your first play, but it’s a slight problem. If you can apply your best logic to the game, you will do fine with the rules in the box. 4.5/5

Execution– This game doesn’t come with a ton in the box, but what’s there is done reasonably well. To see all the pieces in the box, see my unboxing video here: https://youtu.be/EnMeLhB9Ods The board is two sided with a simple and complex game, which is a nice added layer of gameplay and replay-ability. The tiles all look like the same tiles from Among the Stars which is a nice call back to the first game. I even like the new plastic tokens in the game. What I don’t like is that the gameboard isn’t big enough. There are spots for some tiles but not others. I’d like one more row on all the sides to give enough places to place all the parts that game has. Also, I’d like the box to be a little thicker cardboard. Stronghold Games typically makes their game boxes of a lighter material which is nice when I carry five of them to a con to demo them, but the boxes don’t stand up to too much punishment. These are minor quibbles, but there are things to consider. Overall, it’s a beautiful game that has some good parts to it. 4.5/5

Summary-This might not be my favorite 4x game, but it’s quickly made a spot in the top few of them. It’s got all the things I love in a game: strategy, depth, speed, and ease of learning/teaching. I’d like a bit more story and cardboard, but that isn’t any reason to not pick this one up. If you like Sci-FI games, 4x games, or simply want a good game to play at any gameday that won’t eat the whole day, then this is an excellent game to buy. I can’t wait to play this again and to see the expansion that will come and further develop the ideas that came out of this game. 90%

Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Coup: Rebellion G54

November 15, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Coup: Rebellion G54

Producer-Indie Board and Cardboard

Price– $30 here http://www.amazon.com/Coup-Rebellion-G54-Card-Game/dp/B010HEZHII/ref=sr_1_3?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1447554861&sr=1-3&keywords=coup

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 10 minutes (3-6 players)

Type-American

Depth-Light

TL; DR-Simple, social, dystopian fun! 96%

Basics-Who will reign supreme? In Coup, each player uses their influences and perceived influence to do various actions in an attempt to outmaneuver and out right eliminate their opponents. Players are dealt a number of cards that indicate who they have guaranteed influence with. These cards are dealt face down. Each turn a player chooses one action to take among the seven different actions available. Two of these actions are either gain 1 credit or spend 7 credits to hurt a player. When a player is hurt, they reveal one of their cards, and that card no longer counts as under their influence. The other actions are all represented by different personalities in the world, and you can select any of those actions to take However, any player may challenge who you are. If you can show that you have the face down card for the action you took, the challenger loses a life, you reshuffle the displayed card into the deck of remaining cards, draw one, and take that action. If you can’t show the card or won’t, then you lose a life! If there is no challenge, then the action occurs. Play continues with each player taking one action each turn, possibly resolving challenges, killing other players, until there is only one man or woman standing!

Mechanics-Coup is a quick game! You only have seven actions to consider each turn, so it moves really fast, and you have to stay on your toes as players challenge one another. But it works well. The game comes with a ton of different roles, so few if any games can really be the same. How the different roles play together and apart is a really an interesting dynamic. I normally don’t like elimination games, but this one plays in under 10 minutes even with high player count, so a new game is about four minutes away at any given time. It’s not perfect as players have to balance the game itself. Victors can run away really fast in this one! But that is a problem of all social games. 4.75/5

Theme-This version of Coup is set in a cyberpunk dystopian setting, and it works really well! Players vie for power under the watchful eye of an all powerful government, and you constantly feel like you’re on shifting ground. Getting called out on a role you have feels like you called in a mark and now they might not help in the future. Bluffing feels like you’re using smoke and mirrors to intimidate your opponents into thinking you have more power than you do. It feels like a compact political thriller-watching House of Cards at 90x speed since you get done in 10 minutes or less! 5/5

Instructions-The instructions to this one are not that bad, but it buries a few leads. Something really important to note is how challenges work if you reveal a card. If you have the role card in your hand, and you show it, you shuffle and redraw a new role card. You may get that card back again. That’s really important because it’s a one off line in the rules, but it’s one of the most important parts of the game’s mechanics and theme. Overall the rules are compact enough to explain the game, but not large enough to be intrusive for a game that will take you more time to open than play. Maybe a tad more detail would help, but in general it’s done well enough. 4.5/5

Execution– This game gets a five out of five for a few reasons-most of them for being smarter than me. When you open the box, there will be two cardboard hunks you won’t know what to do with. These hunks are card dividers. It took me a few minutes, but once I understood their brilliance, I was amazed. The game has solid, chunky cardstock to divide the randomizer cards from the role cards. That is absolutely simplistic smarts that many much more expensive games leave out. Also, this game is set up for expansions to fit in one box. If you’ve seen base Coup, then you know the astounding number of expansions it has. And, Indie Board and Card built this game to be ready for more. Aside from that, the art is amazing. I like what I see here. Want to see all the pieces in the box? Here is a full unboxing of the game: https://youtu.be/UwFf7454gMs 5/5

Summary-So here is the rub-this is a phenomenal game that some of you will only despise. This is a great game, but it is a social game. If you don’t like social manipulation, then you will absolutely hate this game. I had amazing games of Coup, but some people have left the table because they can’t manipulate others well. If you like social games, but want a bit more strategy than “Are you a Werewolf?” this is a great, short, and cheap game you should get to the table. 96%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Out of the Abyss

November 3, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Out of the Abyss

System– DnD 5e

Producer– Wizards of the Coast

Price– $ 50 here http://www.amazon.com/Out-Abyss-D-Accessory/dp/0786965819/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446560418&sr=8-1&keywords=out+of+the+abyss

TL; DR– A few rough spots on a great piece-88%

Basics-It’s going to be a bad day when the players find themselves prisoners of the Drow, and that’s the high point! The players find themselves at the tender mercies of the drow, and eventually undercover that the underdark just became an even deadlier place as demon lords now roam the caverns. Will you be able to save Faerûn and yourselves from the creatures Out of the Abyss?

Mechanics or Crunch-What is here is a bit of a mix. DnD 5e has a bit of a problem serving two masters: 1e sensibilities of life doesn’t come always in achievable pieces all the time and 3.5’s challenge rating so the players survive setup. Some of those parts crash into the PCs early on, and that can make a DM have to dance a bit to avoid a TPK. That said, overall, it’s a well designed adventure with lots of fun new mechanics, great exploration and team management options, and some fun fights to keep the PCs on their toes and enjoying things. The struggle is a bit real, but a good DM will be able to keep the game going. 4.5/5

Theme or Fluff-This is an amazing adventure for it’s story, but almost eight levels until you hit the main story stride is a bit much. I’m not spoiling anything when I say that demon lords prowl the underdark. However, you don’t really get to deal with them until you are about halfway to the max level of the campaign. Then, this adventure turns into a classic Bioware game. Players then find out about a plan to fix things, chase down items in any order across several different set piece locations, put out underground fires, and save the day. That part is amazing! Getting there is a bit boring. But, every group of players I’ve run this game with have found their most favorite NPC of all time in this adventure, so it has some phenomenal high points along the way. 4.25/5

Execution-I like what’s here, but there are many pages with walls of text. The art that is here is amazing, but I want/need more of it. The text is written well, but there is so much it’s not as much fun to read, since this isn’t just a fantasy novel, but a gazetteer and a bunch of stat blocks as well. Overall, it’s good, but not my most favorite RPG adventure layout. 4.5/5

Summary-I like what’s here, but it needs a bit of work to really be a knock out. The starter town is a good example of the amazing and the problematic. It has a great description, introduces some amazing adversaries, and provides a place for the PCs to cut (some of) their teeth. However, it’s also got some fights that a DM will absolutely have to pull their punches on to keep the adventure going. After the players escape, the chase rules are good, but the players will most likely end up doing the same fight again in a few days regardless of their choices. That one area kind of give some of the amazing and off putting that define this adventure. It’s close to being the greatest things a player and GM will get to play, but has a few rough spots that keep it from a smooth performance. 88%

Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Space Cadets: Away Missions

October 29, 2015October 29, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Space Cadets: Away Missions

Producer-Stronghold Games

Price– $ 100 here http://www.amazon.com/Space-Cadets-Away-Missions-Board/dp/B01068EDBW/ref=sr_1_1?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1446045035&sr=1-1&keywords=space+cadets+away+missions

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 60 minutes per scenario (1-6 players)

Type-American

Depth-Light

TL; DR-Simple, Sci-Fi Fun! 96%

Basics-And now another thrilling tale of the ROCKET PATROL! Enter the worlds of 60’s Golden Age Sci-Fi with Space Cadets: Away Missions. In this game, the players take the role of different members of the Rocket Patrol as they undergo some of their most famous missions. At the start of each game, a scenario guide instructs the players how to set up the game, what parts to use, what aliens will be necessary for this adventure, and an intro paragraph to set the mood of the game. After set-up, turns are pretty simple. First, players decide the player order, and then they take the tokens to signify that order. Next, players perform actions based on their available actions on their player board. Once all players have acted, the monsters all act in order of intelligence typically attacking the closest player and then attacking close players in reverse turn order. Each player has a different member of the Rocket Patrol who has a number of health and oxygen, action tokens, a IQ score, and a special ability. If ANY Patrol person runs out of health or oxygen, that player dies and all players lose the game. A player’s action are: move, attack, subdue thrall/brain-in-a-jar, heal, open/close/lock hatch, and some scenario specific actions. When you attack, subdue, heal, or do scenario specific actions, a player rolls a number of dice equal to the weapon strength at that range of the enemy (attack) or IQ (subdue, heal, som scenario actions) and counts the 1s, 2s, and 3s. Monsters attack in the exact same way. The key mechanic of the dice is overkill. For any action to succeed, you only need one success. However, if you roll more successes, you can spend these overkill successes to activate extra abilities such as one patrol person being able to take a free move action and another can attack another adjacent enemy. The enemies even have some overkill options that can be activated based on who the player hit. But, when the enemies score overkill, the also have options they can take to hamper the heroes. Play continues in these rounds until the heroes achieve the scenario goal or one player dies!

Mechanics– As you saw above, the rules are not complicated. They might even be a bit too simple, but that also means a much larger audience can play the game. I’ve already seen a six year old play this game and have a blast. In terms of difficulty, I would place this game solidly in the company of Mice and Mystics. That’s a good place to be! However, I do have one semi-serious complaint-this game doesn’t really do a campaign mode. There are some connected scenarios as they tell the story of the Rocket Patrol, but no real character progression and building. The items you get at scenario start are dictated to you (with some wiggle room), and you won’t really get a chance to keep anything cool you find. That does enhance a story a bit as you don’t have the crazy random events in some other boardgames, but you won’t find awesome stuff to carry with you or have a way to better your character over time. But without that, each scenario feels a bit like an old school Star Trek episode-you can jump in at any point, play, and not have to know an absolute ton of background to be involved. It is a double edged sword to not build character progression as the easy of jump in play and play, but hampers the hard core set as they lose a bit of their involvement. I’m a hard core RPG player, so I need my character improvement over time. That said, it’s a more minor thing. What is here is phenomenal and a blast to play through 4.5/5

Theme– This game oozes theme. You have awesome cards, sculpted figures, great tile art, and just enough rules to make things work. You feel like some old timey announcer will read out the intro paragraph to each adventure. Everything looks amazing, and that really puts you on board a old school rocket driving through the galaxy. The game itself feels like it should. Everything works together well making you feel like you’ve been sent out on an away missions to save the universe or destroy an alien menace. It feels like I’m riding shotgun with either Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon! 5/5

Instructions– This game has some great instruction with lots of explanation, but the length will intimidate a few people. What’s here is great, but then again, the rules don’t really need to be the complicated. The game has an absolute ton here, but it’s mostly compartmentalized. The rules explain it all, and that depth might put a few people off. However, don’t let it! The rules are honestly covered by two amazing inserts that the players use as a reference. If you can get past the fact that there is a ton of rules, you will see that it’s mostly clarifications of the fine points. There are enough pictures to help you understand how to play as well. I like what I see here. 4.75/5

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Execution– 100 bucks for 100 minies is a price Reaper can’t match. Now throw in an entire game beside that. Add on top of that the art is great, the materials well constructed, and sparkly dice(!), and you have an amazing product. Heck, FOR THE MINIS ALONE YOU’RE MONEY AHEAD! The one minor criticism I have is I’d like a few more colors than green. Maybe a blue for thralls? That’s such a minor point, it’s barely a whisper. Even the brains-in-a-jars are green, but they come with some awesome plastic around them so they look like a brain-in-a-jar! Furthermore, this game put so much thought into the game that you don’t even realise when you start to play. Overkill is the big, cool mechanic for this game, so you need to know what dice came from whose attack. Normally you’d have to roll all the dice pairs separately, but in this game you get five pairs of differently colored dice. So, you can roll your dice pool and look to see if red hit you twice, once, or not at all. It speeds up the game in such a smart way, you won’t even notice it if you’re not careful! If you’d like to see all the part of this game, I did a unboxing of the game here:https://youtu.be/J4igYLjvVzU 5/5

Summary-I’ve never been a miniature gamer. Sure, I do like the co-op games out there, but I don’t like getting bogged down in a ton of random rules (I’m looking right at you Warhammer 40K!). This game has just enough rules to make it fun. You don’t need to break out some string to find range or if your shot is blocked. You get to take quick, fun turns to attack the alien menace as a team. This game doesn’t need a GM so everyone can play and be on the same side, and that right there sold me on this game. Everyone get’s to play, try to win, and have an awesome time. It has an amazing theme and a beautiful execution. My only real problem is a bit with the rules and no real progression. I’d like to build my character like in a RPG, but that would take away from the plug-and-play nature of the game. The problem I have with the rules is that some players will get frustrated before they begin, but if you crack the cover of the rule book, you clearly see that 70% of the rules clarify sticking points about otherwise simple rules. Overall, if you’re in the mood for an awesome, simple, and retro sci-fi game, Space Cadets: Away Missions is a great game to bring to the table. 96%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of The Served Brandolyn Red

October 16, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ 2 Comments

Product-They Served Brandolyn Red

System– DCC

Producer– Goodman Games

Price– $7 here http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/159410/Dungeon-Crawl-Classics-2015-Halloween-Module-They-Served-Brandolyn-Red&affiliate_id=658618

TL; DR– An awesome starter adventure! 95%

Basics-It’s a good day for a white wedding! Until the groom’s head is chopped off and the bride is poisoned. Then, players and the guests of the wedding have to find out all the twists and turns in this adventure and recover the groom’s head to properly bury the man. Why did this happen? Only you can find out!

Mechanics or Crunch-Ah, the DCC RPG funnel! Hit the players hard and see what falls down. It’s a time honored tradition. This adventure has all the great pieces of one, and the mechanics match enough to challenge first and zero level players as well as bringing enough weird to the party. 5/5

Theme or Fluff-This adventure is one that you as a GM have to bring to life. There is a lot going on here, and it kind of goes in two directions. Only one direction gets the PC’s paid, so they won’t care about family struggles as longs gold happens. If you can bring that part to life, it’s a fun side of the adventure. But, most parties and games won’t even care about some below the surface details that the adventure has due to the second part being a bit off base. It’s fun, but a bit too unwieldy with the second story not bringing as much to the party as the first. 4.25/5

Execution– This is a DCC RPG book put out by Goodman Games themselves, so it’s going to be good! The art is great, the pictures are phenomenal, and the layout is simple enough to help every GM run a fun adventure. The book even has detailed family trees that you can use to enhance the substory that I complained about in the theme section. Even the hex crawl simple map is a great addition to the game! This simple adventure has the tools and talent needed to really help you make a great time for the players. Also, it’s out in time for Halloween, so get this now! 5/5

Summary-I love this one so much it might become my new favorite funnel. My players get a place to explore. I get some story to build off with a subplot that is fun, if a bit of a strange addition. The mechanics of the adventure are built well enough that it’s got enough challenge to keep things interesting, but not a killer curve to destroy a party. From the art to the layout, this is a phenomenal adventure and an excellent introduction to DCCRPG, and if a group was looking for a place to start, this is probably the best adventure to throw your friends and yourself as the GM into. 95%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Pathfinder Player Companion: Melee Tactics Toolbox

October 14, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Pathfinder Player Companion: Melee Tactics Toolbox

System– Pathfinder

Producer– Paizo

Price– $12 here http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1601257325?keywords=melee%20tactics%20toolbox&qid=1444860587&ref_=sr_1_1&sr=8-1

TL; DR– a one-feat-book 77%

Basics-Why do it from afar when you can hurt them up close! Melee Tactics Toolbox provides every up close and personal character with several new options ranging from spells, items, feats, class options, and even new archetypes much live every other player companion product.

Mechanics or Crunch-This is a major crunch book for players, but I wasn’t amazed. There are several new options, but nothing here immediately made me want to build a character based around that theme. Some of the new options seem like new expectations just for expansion sake as the archetypes underwhelmed me like the rogue archetype that strips out all the rogue powers that make a rogue a rogue. Nothing here is objectively bad, but it’s not as amazing as I expected. 4/5

Theme or Fluff-This book has a bit of theme, but not as much as I wanted. You get a few bits and pieces but not near as much as the world books the Paizo puts out. It feels light. 3.5/5

Execution– This book has a ton it it, but it feels a bit overstuffed. There are many things in the book, but it feels a bit like things were thrown in because of the melee thing and that was the sole reason that they made the cut. So, things didn’t flow as well as other books. Also, much of the execution was a bit off as there were a few too many walls of text to really draw me into and through the book. But, as a counterpoint, the book does have a nice font, decent layout aside from a few too many text walls, and some nice art. However, as a counterpoint to that, the book still has the standard Paizo price for its splatbooks which is a little high anyway. 4/5

Summary-This is my least favorite Paizo Pathfinder book to date. Overall, it’s not a horrible book, but compared to Paizo’s other products, I wouldn’t suggest you start with this one. Honestly, this is a one-feat-book meaning that you will find exactly one thing from this book that might, sometimes, help you PFS character. And, you will buy it so you can show your PFS GM the feat/spell/item, so you can legally use it in your game. But, truth be told, you can pass this book by and be ok even if you are a greatsword only fighter. Too many options that are not worth the price, little world and character story, and a less than stellar execution make this a book that won’t find its way into many Pathfinder collections. 77%

Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Pathfinder Adventure Card Game—Skull & Shackles Adventure Deck 6: From Hell’s Heart

October 7, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Pathfinder Adventure Card Game—Skull & Shackles Adventure Deck 6: From Hell’s Heart

Producer-Paizo

Price– $ 20 here http://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-Adventure-Card-Game-Shackles/dp/1601256949/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1444228580&sr=8-1&keywords=From+hell%27s+heart

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 60 minutes per scenario (1-6 players, 5 scenarios)

Type-American

Depth-medium

TL; DR-The ships paid off! 98%

Basics-Do you have what it takes to take the crown? From Hell’s Heart is the conclusion of the Skull and Shackles Adventure Card Game, and it’s a doozy. Players have to contend with an invasion from the devil worshipers from the north, then fight it out to become rulers of the Shackles. To play, you will need the base Pathfinder Adventure Card Game as well as the first five adventure decks.

Mechanics-SHIPS! If you’ve played the first five adventure decks, you keep getting ships. From the outside, they just look like another way your character can level up as you become increasingly awesome. However, when you get to second scenario in this pack, you get to fight all the ships you DIDN’T take as they are invading the Shackles! That right there makes everything completely forgiven. This adventure pack has many of the same mechanics you’ve come to expect, but the crazy sea battle is just phenomenal. It’s quickly done, easy to pull off, and an absolute blast. This pack isn’t a slouch by the way. No monsters will pull their punches here. You have to earn the crown, and it feel glorious when you do! 5/5

Theme– I keep complaining that this isn’t the most theme orientated American style game out there. However, the mechanics really drive home some of the more awesome points. Sure you don’t get a full introduction of all the people, but the varied encounters and the setup of each scenario really provide the atmosphere that will keep you in the game as a pirate. It’s not perfect, but it’s as good as you’re going to get without a guide. 4.5/5

Instructions– The game has set itself up well, and at this point is just taking a victory lap. All the previous adventure packs and base game set up the pieces and instructions, and this one just knocks it out of the park. All the rules are easy to follow, and the scenarios fall into piece from there. 5/5

Execution-I like the art to this game, the cards are in good shape, and I don’t have to destroy the packaging to get at the components. That’s all I can ask for in a card game! 5/5

Summary-Paizo had me hooked a long time ago when I bought this adventure path’s starter set. Once you’re in for $60, unless something is completely horrible, you’re going to pay the additional $100 across five other packs to get the whole game. Since I was $80 in before the last pack, this one could have been absolute crap and I’d most likely still have bought it to complete my set. However, this one is the best part of the whole path. You have ship battles, you have mass naval combat ( something I didn’t think i’d see!), secret missions into the heart of the fortress, a stalking dragon (that makes the blessing deck a terrible, mind numbing, scary ordeal!), and an epic final battle with the pirate king. This is everything I wanted this AP to be, and I got more. If you were not sure about playing the Pathfinder adventure card game before, this is the reason you play this game. I promise you will enjoy it! 98%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Data Trails

October 4, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Data Trails

System– Shadowrun 5e

Producer– Catalyst Game Labs

Price– $25 here http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/150001/Shadowrun-Data-Trails?affiliate_id=658618

TL; DR– Great flavor, but almost no crunch! 82%

Basics-Want to ride the matrix? Want to be a digital cowboy? This is the new book for you covering how the matrix of 2076 works and the new toys to play on this matrix. It also provides a brief history of AI. The book adds new cyberdecks, add-ons to all the matrix toys out there, new qualities, and even has a section on how to play an AI character.

Theme or Fluff-Let’s start things a bit different than most of the reviews I write. Let’s focus on the theme first. Of all the things Catalyst does, covering the story of their world is the absolute best thing they do. This book has tons of world building elements: all the fiddly bits of the 6th World’s wide web, covering how the matrix works, how it’s made, how to interact with it, its history, and providing me with extra story bits for any games I run. Every aspect of the world gets a bit built on it. For the SR vets out there, this book might be a little overkill. However, for anyone who hopped on in Shadowrun 5th edition, this is an absolute essential to provide some much needed history and context to how people use the internet of the future. 4.75/5

Mechanics or Crunch-I started with theme, but theme shows how much this book is missing from its crunch. The book adds an impressive amount of story but doesn’t really have the mechanics to back it up. For your average decker, what’s here is good. You get new toys and add-ons to all the old toys to keep you fairly happy. However, even there you don’t get near as much as the other gear books. Technomancers get even less. For the rest of the 6th world, it’s not entirely worth it aside from a good reference on how the basics of the matrix work. But the best example of how mechanics don’t back up fluff is in how different matrix hosts work and defend themselves. A good chunk of one chapter is spent on how different companies defend their hosts. But, no real mechanics are given either identifying what type of ICE is used or how they attack. Furthermore, I’m glad I got a good briefing on how AI altered the matrix, but including a section on how to play them is pretty much useless for the majority of GM and players. If they included that as its own small book, I’d buy it in an instant. As a section in a core book, it’s just not a great use of space. 4/5

Execution– The thing Catalyst doesn’t do well is format their books. First and foremost, a book by Catalyst is only useful if you’ve completely read the book before and memorized the general locations of things in the book. As a quick reference to thumb through, you will be lost. The chapters are not named in a way that helps the reader, the book doesn’t have an index, and none of the new additions have a quick reference area to speed use later on. Catalyst knows how to write fiction, but their fiction bleeds a bit too much into their mechanics. In sections discussing how to create an AI or a host, the first part of the chapter will be the world story of it, and the second part will be the mechanics of it. But, nowhere in the middle will it give the firm shift of when one section ends and the other begins. All of those things are hard negatives, but what is here does read quickly and is enjoyable. The back and forth of the characters is fun while drawing the reader in deeper. This isn’t the best book I’ve read, but it’s a decent overall book. 3.5/5

Summary-Here is the quick question to help you decide if you need this book: do you spend most of your Shadowrun time in the matrix? If yes, then you buy this book. If no, maybe you’re good with what’s in the base book. As someone who’s deeply invested in the 6th world, I loved learning about the new wireless net. I just wasn’t overwhelmed by some significant parts of the book. I’m glad I know how to run an AI now, but odds are good I never will, especially as someone who almost exclusively focuses on Shadowrun Missions. I’d also like Catalyst Game Labs to overhaul their books a bit and really change some aspects of production to help the readers find what they need more quickly. Making those changes will really make me love their books. With that said, as someone who loves Shadowrun and the matrix in particular, I’m glad I got this book, even if I can’t use chunks of it. 82%

Ring Side Report- RPG Review of the Advanced Class Guide

September 22, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ 5 Comments

Product– Advanced Class Guide

System– Pathfinder

Producer– Paizo Publishing

Price– $ 40 here http://www.amazon.com/Pathfinder-RPG-Advanced-Class-Adventure/dp/160125671X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1442939514&sr=8-1&keywords=advanced+class+guide

TL; DR– This books walks the balance, mostly. 90%

Basics-Why not a wizard/sorcerer? Why not a ranger/rogue? The Advanced Class Guide is the book to make that happen. This book has 10 new classes, archetypes for almost every class, feats, and new spells. This book is a giant resource of new ideas and abilities for the Pathfinder RPG focusing on hybrids of the other classes. Here are the new 10 classes and the classes they come from:

Arcanist (wizard/sorcerer)

Bloodrager (barbarian/sorcerer)

Brawler (fighter/monk)

Hunter (druid/ranger)

Investigator (alchemist/rogue)

Shaman(oracle/witch)

Skald(barbarian/bard)

Slayer(ranger/rogue)

Swashbuckler(fighter/gunslinger)

Warpriest(cleric/fighter)

Mechanics or Crunch-This book has a hard job here, but it does it pretty well. Every one of the new classes feels balanced if a little more powerful than the original classes. It’s a fine line to walk, but overall it did it well. Sometimes a few concepts are thrown in that muddy the water, without adding as much as you would expect. A key example is panache, grit, and luck. All three of these subsystems are almost exactly the same with characters gaining any combination of the three are able to combine the three into one giant pool. That’s good for theme, but bad and confusing when players have to build characters. The other extra additions like feats to splash new half classes into the original classes are done well, and the new archetypes and spells all feel fresh and new. 4.5/5

Theme or Fluff-This isn’t a book full of stores for the world of Golarion, but it does have some fluff. Each class has a bit of story to it that helps introduce and mold the class and its use. However, the stories are in a bit of a vacuum. What’s there is great, but this book is designed to be plugged into any world. It works well in that respect, but it’s a bit sterile. Other books from Paizo focus on the story of each class in Paizo’s world, but this book doesn’t really do that. 4/5

Execution– It’s Paizo-they know how to make a book. Maybe a few more pictures, but for the amount of information, it reads quick and is entertaining. Paizo-they make good books! 5/5

Summary-I liked this book, but as the system grows, it get’s a little heavy and unwieldy. This book adds an astounding amount to the system and keeps it all in balance relatively well. This is not a book to build stories off of though as what’s here is ok, but think of the addition in this book more like Legos-no real ideas by themselves, but together and with your own imagination they become awesome creations. As for the book itself, it’s a Paizo book, so it’s done well. If you want more character options in your pathfinder game, this is most definitely an awesome addition to your game but something that might upset the power level a bit. 90%

Ring Side Report-Board Game Review of Wordariffic

September 20, 2015 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Wordariffic

Producer-Gorilla Games

Price– $ 15 but not available yet SOON! http://gorillaboardgames.com/our-games/wordariffic-the-partyword-game/

Set-up/Play/Clean-up– 20 minutes (3-9 players)

Type-American

Depth-Light

TL; DR-Boggle and Cards Against Humanity’s baby. 98%

Basics-Do you find Scrabble too easy? Do you want a party game that has the challenge of a word game and the fun of Cards against humanity? Then, try Wordariffic. This is an amazingly simple game that combines the two beautifully. Players start with 10 cards. Each of these cards have a letter in the corner and a list of 10 words. Then, one player will flip a card from the draw deck face up and roll a 10-sided die. The flipped card’s word that the 10-sided die rolled is the word of the round. Next, players scramble to create a word that best describes the word of the round using the different cards from their hand of cards. When each player finishes, they yell “WORD!” to show they are done. Last player to do that is the judge for the round and is ineligible to win. A player can also simple opt out and just discard cards to get new cards instead of trying to win that round. The player with the longest word is awarded one chip, and the judge will award three chips to the best created word describing the round word. Players discard the cards they used for the round, draw back up to 10 cards, and play continues until the pile of chips rounds out. Player with the most chips wins!

Mechanics-I’m not a word nerd, but with this game, you don’t have to be. Words can’t be longer than 10 letters, and for most words and rounds, the winner only spelt a four letter word. That levels the playing field in a big way. Also, the overall mechanics are simple enough that your average fourth grader could easily play this game, making this a surprisingly educational game. Randomness and luck will determine the day, and just like Cards Against Humanity, the judge’s opinion might sway the vote far more than the word you put down. But, this is a party game that plays in 20 minutes, so even a game that goes badly doesn’t necessarily mean a game that won’t be fun. 4.75/5

Theme-This is a party game, so it doesn’t really aim for a theme.-/5

Instructions– The rules are a page, not even a two-sided page. What I described above is about as much as you need to know. It’s easy to read, quick to understand, and fast to play. 5/5

Execution-I made an unboxing video of the parts here https://youtu.be/r1DCS1LvMPA. Overall, it’s top notch. What you get in the box is amazing. The cards are good quality. The chips and dice and nice, and everything fits back in after you open the box and components. Also, THE GAME COMES WITH A BAG FOR THE CHIPS! I can’t stress enough how much that makes me happy to see the components have a bag to put it away quickly. 5/5

Summary-I love this game, but a good chunk of you won’t. Not because it’s a bad game, but because it’s a word and party game. If you love Scrabble, want a party version for a ton of players, and the silliness of Cards Against Humanity, then this is the game you need to get. If you don’t like Scrabble, Boggle, or especially Cards Against Humanity, then you will loathe this game. For me, this is a great game. I’m not a word nerd ( I love books, but I’m not an English PhD), but this is short enough for me to enjoy what’s here, and not long enough to overstay its welcome. It’s a great addition to any party game line up. 98%