While the staff tournament waits to wrap up, I thought I’d shine the light on a couple board games that have recently caught my fancy; first up: Middle Earth Quest!

Middle Earth Quest is a semi-co-operative game newly released from Fantasy Flight Games this fall (or thereabouts) which, at a glance, feels like it is a cross between FFG’s Descent and Arkham Horror games in that it combines the ‘team-of-heroes-versus-the-evil-overlord’ format that Descent has with the ‘running-around-the-game-board-trying-to-put-out-fires’ style of game play that powers Arkham Horror.

Before I knew anything about gameplay, I was excited as it (1) had to do with Middle Earth and (2) was designed by Corey Koneiczka –he did the Battlestar Galactica board game (which is PHENOMINAL). Did I mentin that early on I found out the game doesn’t use any dice? None. That also had me intrigued.

Middle Earth Quest takes place during the seventeen-year period from when Bilbo leaves the Shire to when Frodo leaves the Shire (so, the game follows the canon put forth from the books not the movies). Gandalf, aware that Sauron has re-taken Barad-Dur, has suspicions as to the true nature of Bilbo’s ‘magic ring’ and needs to keep Sauron’s shadow at bay in the world long enough to uncover the truth about the ring and(ultimately) get Frodo safely out of the Shire.

That’s where the unsung heroes of the Free Peoples come in: each player chooses one of the five possible heroes, and it’s their job to stem Sauron’s influence from spreading too quickly while at the same time, embarking on quests that further Gandalf’s goals. Though the players don’t get to play as any of the famous personages from the books, Tolkein’s characters are present and treated as a resources for the player-heroes.

GAME PLAY

The entire game is on a countdown to the end game, and there’s no real way to slow the game down (speed it up, yes; slow it down…not so much). This “count-down clock” is represented by the Story Track: eighteen squares that all the players move their markers on to show how much time is left in the game, as well who is currently winning. The Heroes get one marker to move along the track, signifying the passage of time (or, more accurately, the time it takes Gandalf to realise what he’s dealing with and formulate a plan).  Sauron gets three markers, signifying how close he is to: corrupting all the leaders of the Free Peoples, unveiling Gandalf’s plans, and mustering sufficient forces to wage open war. When any one of those four markes reaches the last spot on the STory Track, the game ends (more on that below).

Each game turn is split in half: Sauron’s phase and the Heroes’ phase. In Sauron’s phase, he takes actions to place influence tokens on game-board locations, summon/move/control his minions and monsters, or add more cards to his arsenal of plots cards and shadow cards (both can be used to make uncomfortable things happen to the heroes). Also in his phase, the Sauron player draws an event card (which can affect everyone on the board, good and evil, for good or for ill) and moves all the markers on the Story Track forward (the Good tracker always gets moved forward two spots; Sauron’s markers only get moved according to his Plot cards currently in play).

In the Heroes’ phase, the other players each take their turn starting with one player and continuing clockwise (not willy-nilly however-you-choose as in Descent). Players move across Middle Earth, trying to defeat Sauron’s minions, consult with famous characters, and complete quests to become more powerful and collect Favour tokens (which are spent to ‘foil’ Sauron’s plots ie: stall Sauron).

The central focus of the game is Sauron’s Plot cards: up to three can be in play and though each one can sometimes give Sauron an advantage in game play, it usually just speeds up the rate at which one of his counters moves along the Story Track (thereby making the game end quicker, ensuring the heroes can’t complete their objectives and aren’t powerful enough to stop Sauron’s minions). Each focus card in play has a corresponding location and Favours cost: if a hero travels to said location and pays the Favours cost, the Plot card is removed from play and Sauron is less likely to be able to end the game quickly (and thus, less likely to win).

To ensure that traipsing across the board and foiling his plots isn’t so cut and dry for the Heroes, Sauron can control his minions to harry the Heroes’ progress –but monsters can only move to locations that are influenced by evil, so it’s important that Sauron place sufficient influence tokens on the board every turn to ensure his monsters have freedom of movement. What all this turns out to be in actual game play:  Sauron is constantly juggling his resources keeping his Plots in play, placing influence tokens on locations  and moving his forces around to get in the way/combat the group of heroes he’s up against. And it’s quite the juggling act.

But the Heroes fare no better; they juggle completing their own personal quests (they get them at the start the game) with completing the quests that are geased to them during the game, while also trying to collect Favour tokens and also moving to Sauron’s different Plot locations (to get rid of said Plots). All of this is done while trying not to get killed by Sauron’s monsters and minions (the minions are Sauron’s hero-level monsters). Yes, the Heroes have a harder job; but  there’s two or three of them to share the load (heh).

Once a marker (any one) gets to the end of the Story Track, the game ends and a winning side must be declared.  The winning of the game rests entirely on the part during the game set up where each side draws a card from their respective Mission deck, with the card drawn revealing to its player(s) what needs to be accomplished by the end of the game for that side to count as having “won.” This objective is kept secret throughout the game.

The act of winning the game is not dissimilar to how close combat in Warhammer is done. This is the only part of the game that isn’t absolutely excellent –due mainly to the very “sudden-death-overtime” way it plays out: just like in Warhammer, where whoever gets the charge gets first crack at winning close combat, the side in Middle Earth Quest whose marker gets to the ed of the Story Track first gets first chance at winning the game by revealing his/their Mission card first. Once revealed, if said conditions are met, he/they win the game instantly. Just like that. Regardless of what the other side did.

BUT, if they FAIL to achieve their mission, as stated on their randomly-drawn mission card, the other side gets to reveal its mission. If the second-place side’s mission WAS accomplished, they win the game. Lastly, if neither side completes their secret mission, then the side of Good chooses which one of them will fight the Ringwraiths all by himself, with the game being won by the side who is vistorious in that fight.

The only reason I feel a little off-put by the way the game comes to a conclusion is because the rest of the game is SO well thought out –checks and balances abound throughout the game to ensure the game remains a neck’n'neck nail biter to the very end. It’s not a bad way of ending the game, it just doesn’t feel like the same sensibilities behind the game’s mechanics were used to create the end game.

Still, even with that criticism, the game is awesome. It was designed to always play out as a close game; it emulates a lot of the feel of Middle Earth found in the novels and its production values are top notch: plenty of counters, plastic figures, cards AND a wicked double-sized game board/map of Middle Earth with all its most interesting spots marked off as game-locatin places.

I feel like I’ve written wa-a-a-ay too much already and haven’t even touched on how the game uses NO DICE. I think I’ll leave that for the FFG website: they post the full rules to all their games, and the rules book does do a pretty good job explaining how the cards are used without one needing to “play” in tandem to reading that part of the rules.

Citadels (Fantasy Flight, 2007), like many other card games in the fantasy genre, takes some replay in order to understand strategy – but the investment is well worth it.

The game is played in rounds; during each round, each player takes on the role of one of nine characters (first picture, below). Different characters have very different roles, benefits, and effects. For example the Assassin simply prevents a character (not a player, but a character) of his or her choice from doing anything that round (since they have been assassinated); the player with the Bishop gets gold from “religious” districts they control and prevents the Warlord from destroying any; the Architect gets to draw two extra cards and build extra districts.

There is a set of 9 "basic" characters, and another set of 9 "advanced"

Players use these characters throughout the game to amass a set of district cards (second picture below), which is their “citadel”; the player with the most valuable citadel, as determined by the total number of gold coins on all cards, is the winner at the end of the game. During each round, players will claim gold, draw more district cards into their hands, play out their character’s ability, and pay gold to build districts.

4 of the 5 types of "districts," each with its own color dot

There are a few more, very important aspects that really make the game interesting:

A player has some control over the character they choose; whoever was King last turn chooses their new character first, and the remainder are chosen as the cards go around the table. Thus, each person has some idea of what their neighbors might have chosen, based on what they saw in the deck.

Each character card is numbered, and the number is the order of play each round. The Assassin goes first, so whichever character they choose to assassinate will not have a chance to play that round; The order of play has a definite impact on whether one might choose to take gold or cards (a mutually exclusive option), or to build, and, indeed, what to build.

Whoever plays the Thief in a round will have the 2nd turn; the Warlord 8th

Certain districts actually confer a bonus to the player who has built them. The Library, for instance, allows a player to keep two cards instead of just one when they draw.

The purple-dotted "domains" confer special advantages to their owners

There are enough rules and intricacies to make this game confusing at first, but the overall game is pretty straightforward, which becomes obvious after the first play. After about 3 plays, most people should be able to identify reasonable strategies and really enjoy the game.

A 6-player game, in progress

I recommend this game for any serious gamer – it is relatively affordable (or you can receive it as a gift, as I did!), it’s small enough to carry unobtrusively in a backpack or travel bag, and there is a large variety of pathways one can take to achieve victory. It is not for a typical first-time gamer, or even anyone who might simply have an interest in the theme, and I wouldn’t recommend trying to convince light-gamers to give it a chance. It isn’t fun to reluctantly try a new game that one can’t master a few rounds into it.

Buy Citadels on Amazon!

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all it’s contents 
H.P. Lovecraft, Call of Cthulhu (1926)

For me, October is all about horror.  This is due mostly to everybody’s favorite pagan holiday most endearingly referred to as Halloween.  It can be said that if we as gamers would have what could be called an unofficial mascot of horror and madness,  our guy would be Cthulhu (ka-thu-lou).  Born of from the imagination of one H.P. Lovecarft back in the 1920’s, he is a major part of and figure head of what is now an extensive Mythos filled with unseen and overwhelming horrors.  You can see his influence both directly and indirectly in a lot of tabletop games, video games, and movies even still today.  So why not get into the spirit, hit the jump, and look over some suggestions for immersing your self in the madness of the Mythos.

While you can honestly jump right into a lot of these games without any knowledge of Cthulhu and the Mythos, it definitely does help the experience to at least bone up with a collection of H.P. Lovecraft’s works.  While there are some really stand out short stories, all of them tend to at least be a good read.  While Cthulhu is mentioned often in a lot of Mr. Lovecraft’s short stories, you would at least want to pay particular attention to the short story entitled The Call of Cthulhu.  It can be found in most of his collections if you don’t care for my suggestion below.  Also, by no means is this a definitive guide to all things Cthulhu in the world of gaming.  These are all just merely suggestions to satiate your undeniable hunger for the macabre.

The Best of H.P. Lovecraft
Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and The Macbre

I recommend this only because it’s a collection I own and have read.  Some of the stories are a little dry and you’ll quickly catch on to how descriptive Mr. Lovecraft tends to be, but there are some real gems in here that I did not allow me to put the book down.  More importantly, it has the short story The Call of Cthulhu.

Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth

The Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth is only indirectly about Cthulhu.  The game is actually loosely based around another short story of Lovecraft’s called The Shadow Over Innsmouth but ties in with the Cthulhu Mythos in general.  Developed by now bankrupt Headfirst productions, it was released for the original Xbox (2005) and PC (2006) by Bethesda with numerous (often game stopping) bugs.  If you can get past the bugs, I’ve heard it’s not a bad game and stays true to the Mythos.

Arkham Horror

Arkham Horror is a PNG Staff favorite.  When we often talk about this game, it is done with a passionate tone and longing eyes.  While the game from Fantasy Flight is not centered around Cthulhu, it is knee deep in his Mythos even allowing you to go head to head against the Great Old One.  Various gods and creatures from Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos are smattered across boss cards, creature tiles, and the copious amounts of expansions.  Be warned, the basic game is large enough to cover a decent sized coffee table and still be tight on space, just imagine what getting the board expansions would require!

Call of Cthulhu, 6th Edition

While I have never personally played this RPG system by Chaosium, their game slots have consistently filled up at every Gencon that I’ve been too over the past 7 years.  It’s been around since 1981 and is currently in it’s 6th edition.  The system is completely skill based and is heavily focused on a sanity point system.  Much like in H.P.’s stories, the more your characters are exposed to the truths of the Mythos, the more their minds break an eventually succumb to insanity.  Characters typically die in gruesome deaths or end up checking in for an extensive stay at Arkham Asylum.

Call of Cthulhu: The Card Game

Warhammer: Invasion wasn’t Fantasy Flights first trip to the rodeo with their Living Card Game system.  While I can’t say I’ve played it, I’ve come to love the games designed by Fantasy Flight’s Eric M. Lang.  The Call of Cthulhu is themed heavily around the Mythos and has had numerous monthly boosters released so far.  The rules seem simple to understand and gameplay appears to be fun.  I might have to pick this up myself!

The Call of Cthulhu (DVD)

Dave isn’t the only one that can recommend a movie on this site!  It’s made in the style of an old school black and white silent movie and adheres very closely to the short story The Call of Cthulhu.  If you can get past the awesomely bad special effects, it isn’t a bad movie.  I do highly recommend reading the story before you see this movie though as I can see people not really getting it without some prior knowledge.

from Fantasy Flight Games

Part party game, part live action roleplay, part card game, this is a hard one to categorize.  I just picked this up at the recent NOVAG game day– so all I have are impressions, and the impressions are good.  Players take on roles of sniveling servants of the standard Dark Overlord.  They compete with each other to gain his favor and avoid the dreaded “Withering Looks”.

Cards are presented in three types: Overlord Cards (really, just an assortment of WITHERING LOOKS– more on that later).   Hint Cards (Read: STORY IDEAS) and Action Cards (Read: STAB THE OTHER SNIVELING GIT IN THE BACK actions).

One player takes on the Dark Lord duty– in the back story he is called “Rigor Mortis”, whom is a character in the storyline this game takes place in (and apparently another one called KRAGMORTHA, too, if one can judge by the artwork).  The rest of the players take the role of “sniveling underling”.

The story is set by the Dark Overlord player who starts the game by saying “Well, my loyal minions.. I ordered you to (perform this hideous task here)… Tell me how you succeeded!” or words to that effect.  At that point, the sniveling begins in earnest.

The player indicated must then create a brief EXCUSE – using the elements illustrated on the cards in the player’s hand — explaining why the task was not completed.  Hopefully the excuse will accomplish two goals: shift the blame for the failure to one of the other players, and avoid the baleful eye of the Dark Lord with his “Withering Glance”.

The player must also play an Action card (which resembles a pointing finger) indicating the direction in which the blame shift will move– so the person to the right or left of the current player will be the next one under the withering eye of the Boss.  If the player succeeds in shifting blame to the next hapless minion, she ends her turn by drawing a replacement hint card.  The new “target” has to come up with an excuse of her own, or suffer the Withering Glance.

There are many elements of this game that I love– the Storytelling aspect, the Roleplay/Acting aspect, the Cardplay and the rather open ended way of looking at “winning”.  Winning is pretty much up to the Dark Overlord, every time– and how he judges the story is based on how well the player playing his part gets into the role.   Clearly, the designers of this game meant it to be open ended and silly– I can’t see this game being that much fun with the wrong crowd of people– say, a group of engineers, but it would be just ducky for the right crowd.    Aye, Dark Overlord has much the same appeal as NANOFICTION or WEREWOLF does.  In fact, I look at it as a combination of those two games– Werewolf’s performance factor added into the open ended stroytelling aspect of Nanofiction or Once Upon a Time.

I haven’t tried it out yet; I’ve only had it for a few days– I suspect I will need to bring it to a convention to give it the play that it so richly deserves.  Still, I am very glad I bought this game, even if I only play it once a year.

Related:

• Aye, Dark Overlord! on BoardGameGeek website
• Nanofiction website
• Once Upon a Time (Atlas Games)
• Werewolf (Party Game)

Weihnachten ist gerettet….

Seit einigen Jahren ist es schon angekündigt, endlich geht es los…

Nexus wird das lange erwartete “Herr der Ringe Deluxe”, mit Beginn der Messe Essen 09, im Vorverkauf anbieten. Somit beginnen wir ebenfalls den Vorverkauf.

Das “Herr der Ringe Deluxe” wird weltweit im Dezember 2009 ausgeliefert. Wie in unserem Shop beschrieben, wird das großartig ausgestattete Spiel neue Dimensionen für “Herr der Ringe”-Fans eröffnen.

Herr der Ringe Deluxe @ Phalanx Games Deutschland

Weltweit wird es 2000 “Herr der Ringe Deluxe” geben. Insgesamt 1500 englische und 500 deutsche Exemplare. Diese Ausgabe wir NIE!!! wieder in dieser Art aufgelegt.

Wir beginnen die Vorbestellung Ende des Monats Oktober.

Die englische Ausgabe wird in den USA von Fantasy Flight Games vertrieben.

Die deutsche Ausgabe exklusiv von Phalanx Games Deutschland.

Ab dem 26 Oktober werden wir Euch zusätzlich mit umfassendem Material versorgen.

Mittlerweile gibt es einige handfeste Fakten bezüglich der schon seit längerem angekündigten Edelversion von  War of the Ring.

Pre-orders of the War of the Ring Collector’s Edition will officially open on thursday, 22nd at 10 am at the Spiel ‘09 game show in Essen, at the Nexus Games booth in hall 12 and at the Phalanx booth (for the German edition) in hall 9.

The selling price is E 299,99, which includes freight to any address in the European Union.

Each unit includes an individual numbered Certificate from 1 to 2000. Only 1000 units will be ready before Christmas.

Of these 1000 units, 400 english copies will fly to the United States (where they will be distributed by Fantasy Flight Games), 300 english copies will be distributed in Europe by NG International (Nexus Games), and 300 german copies will be distributed by Phalanx Games.

The War of the Ring Collector’s Edition is undoubtly an expensive item, but I would ask you to look at it before giving your final judgment!

Quelle

Ob sich der Preis lohnt, wird man die nächsten Tage feststellen können, wenn Bilder hochgeladen werden.

FFG Seite mit Infos

]]> http://geordicalrissian.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/android-satisfy-your-board-game-jones/ Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:22:31 +0000 Geordi Calrissian http://geordicalrissian.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/android-satisfy-your-board-game-jones/

Trailers for movies. Sure, been doing that for years.

Trailers for video games. Just as popular as movies.

Trailers for books. A new thing, gaining popularity.

Trailers for board games. WTF?!

A friend of mine who is an avid board gamer, pointed me to the Fantasy Flight Games site. FFG does not produce your Yatzhee’s and Sorry’s. No, these folks are serious and the games look awesome. I might have to break off a purchase. But only if I can find some board gamers to play with. Anyone want to play?

I have often times found myself wanting to take my digital conquests in games such as Civilization IV to my sizable coffee table.  Many a time has this simple piece of swedish furniture been transformed into a stage for epic battles and unspeakable horrors.  A lot of these times, it’s been with the help of a Fantasy Flight game.  We got a press release dropped to us with some info concerning their next epic-sized box format release. 

Scheduled for release this winter at MSRP $99.95, Runewars is a board game based around empire building, battles, quests, and resource management.  If your a fan of the setting for Runebound and Descent: Journey’s in the Dark, you’ll be happy to hear that Runewars is based in the same universe.  When they say epic-sized, they mean it as the game will contain nearly 200 plastic mini’s, 3-D mountain terrain, and hundreds of cards and tokens.   You might also want to check out this post by Fantasy Flight CEO and founder Christian Petersen with some background on Runewars. 

How they manage to fit all their pieces into one man made board game box is always a wonder to me.  I might just need to buy myself another piece of stylish swedish furniture and prepare myself and 2-3 other friends for merriment this winter!

When I had first heard about Warhammer: Chaos in the Old World, I was knee deep in the Warhammer Fantasy thanks to Warhammer Online.  Logan and I were agents of Chaos in this venerable franchise’s first foray into MMO’s and it felt good to be evil.  Imagine my glee when I heard that Fantasy Flight Games announced Chaos in the Old World, where you play one of the four gods of Chaos vying for control of some of the very lands my character was roaming in Warhammer Online.  While the previews that Fantasy Flight had on their blog were able to satiate my desire a little to play this game, the month of September felt too far away to get my hands on it.  Luckily, the game was being demoed and sold early at Gencon ‘09 and I was able to score a copy.  Shortly afterwards Dave, Logan, and I sat down to take up the mantles of Tzeentch, Khorne, and Nurgle.  Impressions after the jump.

Before I jump right in I just wanted to state that while this game is for 3-4 players, I was warned by one of the people demoing the game that it should always ideally be played with four.  The repercussions of only playing with three players was apparent almost right off of the bat.  It was explained that each of the four gods of chaos were built to be weak to one and strong against another.  Playing with just three of the gods might make it easier for one player and incredibly tough for another.  That is also why this is just a first impressions instead of a full blown review.  It wouldn’t be fair to grade this game until we’ve had a complete experience with it.  With that out of the way, let’s get down to what makes this game tick.

When you open this box for the first time, a lot of the game pieces need to be punched out of roughly four sheets of thick quality cardboard stock.  They have a nice feel to them, appear sturdy, and are textured much like Fantasy Flight’s other high quality games.   I did find that the power point trackers for the god character sheets were a bit tiny and seemed like they would be very easy to lose which led me to be careful with them during the set up and tear down process.  The board itself is, in the words of fellow author Peter Irace, very metal with the game map painted on what appears to be stretched out skin with hooks and patches in it.  The board also consists of four victory dials, a victory point track, ruination card deck spot, and an Old World deck spot & card track.

Set up of the game was surprisingly a breeze with each of us choosing a god to play, grabbing ruination tokens, shuffling our respective chaos card deck, and grabbing our conveniently color coded figures.  Since we were playing a three player game, eight cards were drawn from the shuffled Old World deck and placed in it’s marked spot on the board.  Nine Old World tokens are then shuffled and placed randomly on the boards nine regions.  There are basically two ways for a player to win.  One would either need to advance your victory dial to the end by fulfilling a certain goal each turn listed on your character sheet, or score 50 victory points through the domination and ruination of the 9 regions of the Old World.  Of course it isn’t going to be easy, as while we are fighting each other and attempting to achieve our win conditions, the game is also playing against us via the Old World cards.  If nobody has won the game by the time the Old World deck is exhausted, we all lose and the game wins.  With set up out of the way, Logan (Khorne), Dave (Tzeentch), and I (Nurgle) set out to ruin the world and bring the other gods to their knees.

A game round consisted of six phases: Old World, draw, summoning, battle, corruption, and end phase.  Running through each of the phases was quick, painless, and extremely fun due to the rulebook being well written and informative.  There was only one time where we had to make a judgment call on the wording on a card and interpretation of the rules.  Coincidentally, the issue we had was answered in the online errata/FAQ.  After a few full rounds, I found that we rarely had to look at the rulebook as the game was pretty easy to pick up.  The subtleties of each of our different gods play styles gradually became apparent to us.  Dave and I found that we had to either band together to destroy Logan’s figures or avoid him all together due to Khorne’s easily achieved victory dial advancement condition of killing enemy figures.  Throughout the course of the game, each of us found that we were making unofficial pacts with other players to either slow down someone’s progress, wipe out a victory dial advancement condition, or just plain spite them. 

Even though the game did feel a little tough with only three players, I can say that it was still a blast.  As a matter of fact, the day after we gave this game a go I found myself day dreaming of playing it again.  The rules felt complete, understandable, and almost easy.  The game itself looked gorgeous, played smoothly, and had an incredible amount of underlying strategic depth.  It almost felt like, with the exception of Khorne, there was an air of secrecy with your actions.  More importantly, this game was fun and over in about 2 hours.  If it wasn’t already midnight by the time we were done, we might have played another game.

Not everything is perfect with this game however, as it does have some minor flaws.  A few of the regions are very small and can quickly become cluttered with figures, corruption tokens, chaos cards, and old world tokens.  At times it can seem like some of the clutter belongs to a region that it actually doesn’t.  Also, while Chaos in the Old World doesn’t have as many pieces as PNG staff favorite Arkham Horror, there is are still quite a bit.  Where this begins to be a problem is when your tearing the game down.  I found that the box didn’t have adequate space or supplied bags to store the pieces.  This led to me having to fiddle with the pieces until the box could shut properly and also caused one of the little chaos stars to fall off of a cultist figure.

In the end, those minor issues were not enough to make me think ill of Warhmmer: Chaos in the Old World.  Even without someone taking on the role of Slaanesh in the fourth chair, there was a lot to love about this game.  I’m looking forward to playing it more and trying out the other three gods.  If you’re looking for a new strategy board game for 3-4 players, I can’t recommend Chaos in the Old World enough.  If you’re not… you should still buy this game.

Arkham Horror

• Designers: Kevin Wilson and Richard Launius
• Manufacturer: Fantasy Flight Games
• Artists: Brian Schomburg and Scott Nicely
• Year: 2005
• Players: 1 – 8
• Time: 120 – 180 minutes
• Ages: 12 and up

The town of Arkham, Massachusetts is in a panic. Horrific and bizarre events have begun to occur with increasing frequency — all seeming to point towards some cataclysmic event in the near future that may spell disaster for everyone. Only one small band of investigators can save Arkham from the Great Old Ones and destruction! No fan of the Cthulhu Mythos will want to miss this opportunity to acquire this classic Call of Cthulhu boardgame!

Fair warning- this is a tough game. We’ve only played a couple of times.  There are a lot of rules, which is tough for David, and his character spent two-thirds of the first game we played insane.

H. P. Lovecraft, 1934

I enjoy it, even if we don’t play it often.  Basically, each player has a character and all the characters work together to kill an assortment of monster, close the portals to the other worlds and defeat the Ancient Ones. No small task. There are several expansions, but we don’t have any of them.

Fantasy Flight Games, en colaboración con Q-Workshop, ha anunciado la próxima aparición de una serie de dados especialmente editada para jugar con el Arkham Horror.

En este juego de dados, a parte de la combinación y diseño de los mismos se cambiara los resultados de 5 y 6 por los de un Símbolo Arcano para indicar que las acciones han sido superadas. Estos dados estaran a la venta en la concreta fecha de “este invierno” según dice FFG.

El viernes estuve un rato curioseando en Camelot y también comprando un regalo, y ví que habían llegado unas cuantas novedades de ambientación cthuloidea, en concreto El Horror de Kingsport la nueva expansión traducida para el Arkham Horror. Y lo que nos viene al caso, la novedad: La Llamada de Cthulhu, el Juego de Cartas.

Hay que aclarar que este creo que es ya el tercer juego de cartas sobre los Mitos de Cthulhu. El primero es el Mythos, que editó en su momento Chaosium, el segundo que ya fue editado por Edge bajo la denominación de La Llamada de Cthulhu: Edición Arcana y este aparecido ahora, La Llamada de Cthulhu Living Card Game, que es una evolución del Arcana. El Living Card Game es el nuevo sistema de Fantasy Flight del que ya han salido tres ambientaciones, El Juego de Tronos,  Warhammer:Invasión y el ya comentado sobre los Mitos de Cthulhu.

Y ahora que hacemos? ¿vale la pena el juego? ¿alguién lo ha probado?, aunque lo más normal es que me lo pille…… caere en la tentación.

Fantasy Flight Games' Redline

Welcome back to the post-apocalypse! It’s like the end of the world, all over again. But this time we have fast cars, desperados and speed baby, lots of speed.

While most post-apocalyptic RPGs focus on a survival genre of play, scrounging for ancient artifacts and possibly rebuilding society, Redline from Fantasy Flight Games’ extinct Horizon series focuses on the classic post apocalyptic fast-cars and road-warriors movies like the Road Warrior, the New Barbarians, Survival Zone, Wheels of Fire and books like Damnation Alley. But really, all you need to see is the Road Warrior from that list. Most of the others (except Damnation Alley) are cheap knock-offs.

The Horizon series from FFG was a set of one-book d20-based RPGs in a nice, compact 64-page package. They weren’t technically full games, as they required the PHB to make characters and for most of the main rules, but each one changed the settings and rules enough that they were an awesome addition to any collection.

So, if I was going to throw down a character for a Mad Max style game, who would I want to make? The lone gunman / driver concept has been done to death because it is the theme of just about every western novel and movie and thus for most post-apocalyptic movies. And the other good guys seem to exist purely for saving. So lets look on the other side of the fence and make one of those goons who runs around in a combination of sporting gear, police uniforms and bondage hardware.

One of the bad guys.

First step is to pick a background – basically a race in any other d20 game. The options are Bornagain, Bygone, Drifter, Feral, Reject and Savant. While the Bornagain and Bygone appeal (religious nut and old-timer nut) the Drifter is probably the classic choice for such a goon, and it gives him a Constitution boost as well as some gun skills. (Drifter: +2 Con, +2 Scrounge & Survival checks, Knowledge (lay of the land) and Knowledge (folks) as class skills, Advanced Firearm Proficiency Feat, Longwalker Feat).

In homage to the first Mad Max movie, I’ll call him “the ToeCutter”.

For class, the Marauder gets my attention first, but it is really hand-to-hand oriented, and I like the idea of either being a driver or a leader of men, or something other than a brawler. The other classes are Redliner, Rigger, Trader and Walker. At higher levels, the walker gets nice shooting bonuses AND sneak attack. That appeals a lot. But I’m going to go with Redliner, because that starts him off with a car. And wheels are badass.

Redliners have d8 for hit dice (so I start with 8+Con bonus hit points), 4 skill points per level, and a pretty skimpy skill list. As a level 1 redliner ToeCutter gets his choice of Born to the Turret or Combat Driving feats. Since I don’t seem to have anyone else around to drive the car while I shoot, I’m grabbing Combat Driving. I also learn Simple Archaic Weapon Proficiency, Simple Firearms Proficiency, and All Vehicle Weapons Proficiency, as well as Proficiency in Light and Medium armor.

At this point, I should stop and generate his ability scores. I’ll run with the standard array of 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8. Dexterity is the key ability of the Redliner, and Constitution is a key ability for anyone to survive (but I get a Con bonus). I think I’ll put Charisma high up there too, so he can become a leader among wastelanders. Int goes average, and Strength ends up being his dump stat. Good thing he’s good with a gun and can hide inside his car.

ToeCutter gets 16 skill points to spend – with the class skill list of Build/Repair (simple), Clamber, Concentration, Drive, Heal, Intimidate, Listen, Scrounge and Spot. One thing I notice when hunting through the skills chapter is that the number of skills in the game is a LOT lower than in the standard d20 games – so this small class skills list isn’t actually as small as I thought. I’ll throw max ranks into Drive, Scrounge, Spot and Intimidate. But that leaves me nothing left to take advantage of his relatively high Charisma. So I dump 2 points out of Intimidate to put 1 point into Chatter. I also drop Scrounge and Spot each by 1 to get 1 point in each of Knowledge (lay of the land) and Knowledge (folks), his bonus class skills from being a Drifter.

As a level 1 character, ToeCutter gets one feat of his choice. Instead of specializing in his driving more, I’m grabbing Point Blank Shot so he is a more deadly shot at close range.

As a redliner, ToeCutter starts with an Interceptor (sweeeeeet), 450 Resource Units of vehicular upgrades & armament, and 30 Resource Units of personal hardware. For personal hardware, 30 RU is not a lot of cash. Light Plastic Armor (a combination in his case of a bit of football padding and some rubber from old tires) sets him back 5 RU and has an armor bonus of +2 (and is really the minimum of style required to look like a road warrior villain – unless he runs around in just bondage gear and assless chaps). He can’t afford any of the advanced firearms he’s proficient in, so a sawed-off shotgun just squeaks into his budget at 22 RU, leaving him with 3 RU for ammo and goods. The gun comes with 10 rounds, but another 10 rounds will cost another 22 RU or so (ouch).

The car… Again named for the original Mad Max movie, this Interceptor is called “Night Rider’s Redemption”. It’s a high-powered v8 interceptor – a real piece of work. But when I get it off the rack, it lacks a few key components to make it work (an engine, control system and fuel system), and has no accessories. I’m immediately going to throw in a sweet control system (top end steering wheel with all-leather cow covering, hot-rod stick shift, and all the goodies) for 50 RU. To go for that road warrior look, I’ll bolt on some extra metal plating on the body and the door from a jail cell on the windshield (+10 HP, 20 RU). Standard Fuel System gives it two gas tanks instead of one, and the ability to switch between them – but the discount minimal fuel system is all I need, a single tank and a prayer for 10 RU. A mounted machine gun sets me back another 250 RU, but puts some real firepower on the Redemption. That leasves me with 120 RU for the engine and other accessories. A decent engine is 250 RU, so a minimal engine is all I can get (it can’t even handle real fuel without burning out – biosoy is all I can take) for 50 RU. Headlights and a clock set me back another 5 RU. An offensive ramming guard (RAMPLATE!) is another 50, so I have 15 RU left. That picks up a basic sound system (I can play CDs!) and basic Air Conditioning.

And we’re ready to hit the bad roads of the post-apocalypse with Dyson ToeCutter and the Night Rider’s Redemption!

Dyson ToeCutter
Background: Drifter
Class: Redliner

Strength: 8 (-1)
Dexterity: 15 (+2)
Constitution: 15 (+2)
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 12 (+1)
Charisma: 14 (+2)

Hit Points: 10
Speed: 35′
Armor Class: 14
Initiative: +2
Base Attack Bonus: +0
Fort Save: +4
Ref Save: +2
Will Save: +1

Weapons
Sawed Off Shotgun – +2 to hit, 2d8 dmg, 19-20/x20 crit, 10 ft range

Skills
Chatter [1] +3
Drive [4] +6
Intimidate [2] +4
Knowledge (lay of the land) [1] +1
Knowledge (folks) [1] +1
Scrounge [3] +5
Spot [3] +4
Survival [0] +3

Class & Background Abilities
+2 Scrounge Checks
+2 Survival Checks
Knowledge (lay of the land) is a class skill
Knowledge (folks) is a class skill

Feats
Archaic Weapon Proficiency – Simple
Armor Proficiency – Light
Armor Proficiency – Medium
Combat Driving (+2 on Concentration checks while driving, twice per round can make a Drive check to avoid damage, effectively replacing the vehicle’s AC with the drive check)Firearms Proficiency – Simple
Firearms Proficiency – Advanced
Longwalker (half normal food & water needs. +5′ to speed. +4 on long-term skill checks. +6 on checks vs fatigue)
Point Blank Shot (+1 to hit and damage within 30′ with ranged weapons)
Vehicle Weapons Proficiency – All

Night Rider’s Redemption
Vehicle Type: Interceptor
Size: Large – 10′ x 15′
Folks: 3
Top Speed: 24
Accel: 3
AC: 18
Hardness: 6
HP: 50
Handling: +2
Passenger Vulnerability: 19-20
Communication System: Minimal (plays CDs and tapes)
Control System: Premium (+4 Drive Checks)
Engine: Minimal (minimal quality fuels only)
Environmental System: Minimal (basic climate control & AC – +2 on Fort saves vs environmental hazards)
Fuel System: Minimal (one gas tank)
Sensors: Minimal (headlights and clock)
Ramming Guard: Offensive (+2d6 damage)
Slamming Guard: None
Armor: 10 HP
Weapons: Machine Gun – 3d6 damage, x3 Crit, 100 ft range

Fantasy Flight Games ya ha colocado información sobre una de las nuevas expansiones que anunciaron durante las Gen Con Indy, Battlelore:Dragones.

En la Página de la Ampliación se pueden ver la descripción de los tres tipos de dragones disponibles, Dragón de Fuego, Dragón de Hielo y Wyvern del Bosque.

Durante la celebración de las Gen Con Indianapolis 2009  Fantasy Flight Games anunció que había adquirido los derechos para editar el sistema de juego de Tannhäuser, anteriormente publicado por Take on You Ltd.

Johm Grams, Vicepresidente de Desarrollo de FFG indicó: “Estamos muy contendos por incluir este gran juego dentro de la gran familia de FFG” y “Tenemos muchas ideas para el futuro de esta línea, y estamos seguros que los fans del juego estaran muy contentos con los nuevos contenidos”

FFG continuara sacando nuevos productos de Tannhaüser, incluyendo la próxima expansión Daedalus, y publicará una Segunda Edición del juego básico, totalmente compatible con el juego original. Todo esto esta previsto para finales del 2009.

Poco a poco vemos como FFG va creciendo a pasos agigantados, comprando licencias y afianzandose en el #1 de creadores de juegos Ameritrash, ya veremos cual será su siguiente paso!!.

Vía: FFG

I was able to sit down at the Fantasy Flight booth during Gencon for a quick demo of their newest LCG (Living Card Game), Warhammer: Invasion.  Do not consider this a full review, as the game was completely sold out by the middle of the 3rd day of the convention and will not be available until around October.  When the game releases, expect a full review (spoiler alert: It’s fantastic). 

 Set in the Warhammer Fantasy setting, the core set will give you four decks consisting the Empire, Chaos, Dwarf, and Ork factions.  The idea behind Fantasy Flight’s Living Card Game system is that it isn’t necessary to buy any cards beyond this core set.  They will, however, continue to support the game by releasing boosters that will all have the same cards in each pack, a huge difference between games like Magic and the World of Warcraft TCG.  You would only need to buy multiple boosters if you want duplicate copies of certain cards to build a more balanced deck for tourney play.  While the LCG format makes it economically attractive, the simple and fun gameplay is the real gem of this game.

By the time I was able to try out Invasion and fall in love with it on the third day of the show, it had already sold out making it impossible for me to let you know what’s in the box first hand.  I was able to sit down with a representative of Fantasy Flight to run through the rules and a few quick turns to get the basic feel of the game and ask some questions.  As I stated, the game will come with cards for four factions from the Warhammer Fantasy setting and it is possible to mix factions as long as you do not combine Order with Chaos cards and vice versa.  I was able to play my favorite (and best in my opinion) faction, Chaos, versus the Empire faction.  While the game has those four factions, it is only a two player game.  

To set up the game, you and your opponent place your “keep” in front of you.  The keep is a sturdy and very well illustrated gameboard about the size of a typical greeting card envelope that you use to keep track of your resources and damage to the three different zones represented on the card.  The zones are Kingdom, Quest, and Battlefield and represent the 3 different phases of your turn and have a power values.  Once a zone takes a total of 8 damage it is considered destroyed, if at any time two zones are destroyed you lose the game.  Note that a destroyed zone still allows you to collect resources and draw cards.

After you set up the game and draw 7 cards, you go to the Kingdom phase.  This phase allows you to draw resources equal to the amount of power that the kingdom zone of your keep has.  The power in that zone can be increased by playing units and support cards, therefore giving you more resources per turn.  Once you collect your resources, you move on to the Quest phase.  At this time, you draw an amount of cards equal to the power value in that zone.  Having more units and support cards in this zone will allow you to draw more cards.  This phase is also where you can spend resources to play your units and support cards in addition to laying a card face down to increase the hit points of any zone you’d like.  I can’t recall the name for this action, but it is only possible to do this once per turn and only during the quest phase.  The final phase is battle, where you declare where the units in your battlefield are going to attack and your opponent decides who would like to defend and then assigns damage to those units.  Once finished, your turn is basically over and you may use any leftover resources to play tactic cards at any time.  You’ll want to do this wisely as any unspent resources do not carry over to your next turn.

That is, of course, the quick and simple of the game.  There are of course other little rules that were explained to me such as loyalty costs that would increase the amount of resources to play a unit or the ability to corrupt units to stop them from attacking/defending, but I only got a little taste of it.  If you have experience with other collectible card games, you’ll find this very easy to pick up and enjoy.  I would even recommend it to somebody who either loves Warhammer Fantasy or is looking for an excellent card game that won’t break the bank.  Look for an actual review of the product after it is released as we will surely be picking this up!

Part of the PNG Gencon ‘09 Wrap Up series of articles.