Dracula meets Frankenstein

Almost.  As it turns out, I was hoping our monthly group would get to play both Fury of Dracula and Fearsome Floors this month, but it didn’t work out.  We only managed to get in the former, which is one of my all-time favorites.  Rather than give a full review, I am going to give two mini reviews of these games.

Image by Brian (ColtsFan76)

Fury of Dracula’s storyline has its roots in the original novel.  In this game, Dracula has come back from the grave (again) some years later, seeking once again to establish his vampire brood.  He also has sought revenge against those who brought him down in the novel, turning two of them into his minions (Jonathan Harker and Quincey Morris).  The remaining members of that group have reformed to bring down the Count again: Dr. Van Helsing, Dr. John Seward, Mina Harker and Lord Godalming (aka Arthur Holmwood).  The game sets one player as Dracula, moving in secret throughout Europe as the four other characters hunt  for him, attempting to attack and kill him.  Dracula is more powerful at night than during the day, loses life when travelling by sea, and card play provides information to the hunters as well as arming them against Dracula and his accomplices.  This game is one of the most thematic games I own, and like so many other thematic games, the card play adds much to the theme by interrupting the normal flow of the game.  It is worthy to note that all five characters are in the game regardless of how many players are playing, leaving a good game for anywhere from two to five players.  (This is accomplished by players playing more than one role if necessary.)  It also means that it is a good game for someone to show up late to, or leave early from, with his or her character is picked up by another player.

That said, this is NOT a casual game.  In fact, I believe it is more complex than many of my other games.  The hunter roles are somewhat complicated, particularly with the impact of the cards, but they have each other to rely on.  Dracula is on his own, and is doing things in secret, so the potential is there for a completely screwed up game.  As it takes two to three hours to play, this can lead to a very frustrating evening.  This game is published by Fantasy Flight, and is typical of their style: very high Awesomeness Factor, but very complex.

(For those of you have been reading along, I never did paint the figures for this game.  My artistic skills are at the “paint by numbers” level, so I am incredibly nervous about trying to paint them.)

Promotional Image from publisher

I haven’t played Fearsome Floors at all, but that’s not going to stop me from reviewing it.  I have read the rules, and I slept at a Holiday Inn Express last night.  In this game, the players have been imprisoned by an evil lord while trying to rescue a damsel in distress.  Now, they are poised for a massive breakout, but must avoid the monster that guards the exit.  Players have three or four disks each which represent their characters; the number of disks depends on the number of players.  The movement mechanics are simple, and the monster moves by its own rules.  As such, kids under ten could definitely play this, although they probably won’t play well.  The art is cartoon-ish, and isn’t really scary at all.  This is a good game for all players.  The one warning I have heard repeated  is that it can bog down in analysis paralysis, since the monster's movements can be figured out with enough thought.  The key is to play this as a light race game.  This game claims to take an hour to play, and can handle up to seven players, so it will fit most families and casual groups.

Below will be links to other reviews on this topic, including these games.  Personally, I am pretty selective about horror themed games, as well as movies, so Fearsome Floors is probably one of the very few “family horror games” I would play.  Other perspectives would be good.

The monster can be configured to look like the Frankenstein Monster -- or other horrors! (Image by Jesper Amstrup)

Okay, now that you have made it this far, I am going to add a few things about the Dracula and Frankenstein novels.  Dracula is in my top five novels of all time, and Frankenstein is also well worth reading.  They can be downloaded from Amazon or B&N to an e-reader for free, as they are in the public domain; they can also be downloaded as PDFs from the Gutenberg Project.  Similarly, LibriVox, a public domain audio book source, also has them.  I am currently listening to their dramatized version of Dracula as I drive around town, and it is excellent.  Do yourself a favor and read at least Dracula if not both novels.

 It's Your Move!

Related Posts:

• Publisher Profile: Fantasy Flight Games
• Never Underestimate the Awesomeness Factor

Links:

• Mary Dimercurio Prasad: A Haunted Halloween Game Night
• Bruno Faiduiti’s Review
• Project Gutenberg - free ebooks 
• LibriVox 

Three Years of Gaming!

I think the schedule is back to normal – at least for the moment.  No, that’s not it either.  In reality, I have adjusted to a new “normal”, which will last until the end of October.   At that point, football will end and “normal” will be redefined again!

This past weekend saw the three year anniversary of our gaming groups formation.  When we started in September 2008, it was just three of us:  Geo (my wife’s brother who I am close to) and Spud (one of our neighbors).  Others were invited, but didn’t come but once or twice.  Tom, our next door neighbor, started coming shortly thereafter, though he tends to come only during certain parts of the year.  As time went on, the group has expanded and contracted, but Geo and your truly have made every session.  There was even a session where it was just the two of us.  Now there are four regulars, and a few that come when they can.  The time we had twelve was a little crazy, but my wife, Kay, played so that she could help teach.  She’s better at that than I am anyway!

So it was fitting that Geo spent the night after my son’s football game Saturday.  (They won and are 4-0!)  The rest of the family was out of town, so it was just the two of us.  After watching Notre Dame dismantle Michigan State’s running game, we had dinner, finally breaking out a few games when we probably should have been thinking about going to bed.

First, we played The Kingdoms of the Crusaders, which I received a review copy of, and which will get a full review shortly.

Next we played Risk: Star Wars; The Clone Wars Edition.  This game is out of print, but can easily be found on eBay for a reasonable price.  (I would love to have the Original Trilogy Edition, covering Episodes IV-VI, but those are going for over $75 USD).  This is game that I really enjoy, and certainly does feel like the movies.  With Risk being the core game, the rules are familiar to many, which allows everybody to start playing quickly.

Image by Amazon.com

Next, we played Triumvirate, a two player trick taking game.  We walked away from that figuring it needed more play.  However, since it was 2:00am, we decided we were too foggy to really grasp any strategy.

Our gaming session started at the normal 2:00pm on Sunday, with two games of 7 Wonders, then a game of Ticket to Ride.  We had new players at each game, so things took longer than usual.  Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun.  These fall sessions are just about the only gaming I get right now, so having the extra time before was great!

Over the next couple of weeks I will also be talking about a new adventure in gaming.  I am going to start painting my figurines for some games.  Specifically, we are coming up on that time of year that calls out for Fury of Dracula, and I need to paint my miniatures to add to the Awesomeness Factor.  I am one of those rare people that can paint as well with my feet as with my hands – which is to say I can’t paint at all!  Hopefully, when I am done they look as good as these:

Image by Jacob Stormo

 

I will post pictures of mine when I get that far, with tales of how I am doing.  For now,

It’s Your Move!

Educational Games – An Incomplete Grade!

This past Sunday was the monthly meeting of our gaming group, 3^rd Sunday Gamers.  Several of the members teach at my son’s school.  One of them brought a new game, Numero, and we played 10 Days in the USA.  I realized that I missed a few great games that really need to be mentioned when talking about educational games.

Photo by Tony Archer

Numero was very interesting and very good.  Essentially, players are attempting to lay down numbered cards into multiple piles from their hand to make matches.  Once a match is made, the matching player takes that pile and set it before them, sort of like taking a trick.  Rather than create a new pile, players can change the value of the pile by adding numbers to it.  There are also “wild” cards that allow you to perform other arithmetic operations to a pile.  In this way, the value of the pile can be matched and taken.  Not only were there the basic operations (adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing), but with percentages and a cube root thrown in, this game was a math refresher in a box, yet actually was a lot of fun.  It could be tuned to younger players by taking out some or all of the wild cards.  I had never seen it before, but it definitely bridges the “educational” vs. “fun” divide.

Photo by Nathan Morse

To start things off, though, we played 10 Days in the USA, which is part of a larger series of games that I should probably write about.  I actually gave this game to my wife for Christmas a few years ago because it reinforces United States geography, so I really had no excuse for missing it.  In this game, you are attempting to create a trip throughout the states by walking, driving or flying.  Walking and driving requires you to know which states touch or are close together.  A map board is provided.  This game not only bridges the gap, but builds a autobahn between “educational” and “fun”!

Photo by Z-Man Games

We closed the night with Pandemic, which thinking about it, also has a map board as part of play.  It shows the major cities around the world, and therefore would also be educational to some extent.  I miss that because this game is so much fun!!  Honestly, this is one of my favorite games.  It is also a big hit in our group, with roughly 20 plays in the group.  Beyond geography, it really teaches teamwork.  I won’t go into it more; I will put a link to my previous review.

We also played 7 Wonders.  While thematically based on history, game play really doesn’t teach history.  There might be some background on the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World somewhere in the box, but then I missed it.  It was a very good game; everyone liked it.  I had prepared much more than the last time I tried to teach it, which was a disaster due to lack of preparation.  We managed to get in two plays, a learning game and a real play.  I will review it in the future.

Playing four games, and one of them twice, made for a great day.  Any of these games would be great in a family or casual setting.  I’d love to be able to tell you who won what, but we really don’t care that much.  Hey, we have enough trouble keeping track of who’s turn it is!  But now,

It’s Your Move!

Related Posts:

• Educational Games
• A Second Chance at a First Impression 
• Saving Humankind from Death and Disease: Pandemic

Third Sunday Gaming - Notes from the Weekend

A few things of interest this weekend:

First of all, we played the revised edition of Risk this weekend, and really enjoyed it.  The game lasted just over 90 minutes with four of us, and no one was out of the running.  Two players had a good shot at winning until the game ended.  Like most of the times I have played this game, the game was about opportunistic play, and it ended somewhat abruptly.  That's not a bad thing, just one of the differences from classic Risk.

We played Bang! also, which was new to the group.  This is a game that needs to be played a few more times to get a feel for it, but it certainly is a family style game.

My son and I were out and about after football practice Saturday, and stopped by the newly minted game store in our area:  Epic Loot Games (website below).  In my opinion, they had a nice selection of games which was very current; there were no stinkers that I saw.  The owners are boardgamers, which is not true of every store in our area, so they are a little more in touch with our world.  They are also they only game store in town that even knows what BoardGameGeek is!  It's more of a drive for us, but it's now my go-to game store.  Check it out!

We bought The Lord of the Rings: The Card Game there.  We then arrived home to find the box with Midgard and Phoenicia had arrived; these are two games I won off eBay for $10 plus $11 shipping.  It was listed at that price, and I threw in a bid on a lark.  Apparently I was the only bidder.  With those and Memoir '44 showing up on the doorstep as part of a game trade, I had a busy week with games!

It's Your Move!

Related Links:

• Epic Loot Games

Related Posts:

•  Gaming Resources – BoardGameGeek: the Doorway to My Demise

Good Camping Game ≠ Good Scout Game

I spent the first half of this week at Boy Scout Summer Camp with our troop.  It was a great experience, despite the rain.  There is no better way to see how the future of our society will react to adversity than watching patient, yet determined young men (or women, your mileage may vary) work through mud, wet gear and soaked wood to build a fire in the pouring rain.  It makes me proud to think maybe I have some slight influence for good there.

Yet, all is not perfect.  One of the things I learned in the course of this week is that games that are good for camping, which I have discussed before, are not necessarily good for Scouts.  I had a deck of cards and several games with me at camp, three of which came out: Hive, Bandits, and one of my travel chess sets.  All were put to good use; putting them away was the issue.

Image by David Detwiler

Looking around the table, it was easy to see that playing cards were not given much respect.  In fact, the deck of playing cards that I brought had a few bent cards after just an hour.  I don’t particularly care about that; standard playing cards are cheap and easy to replace.  However, Bandits is a card game that uses its own cards, not standard cards, and would not be as easy to replace.  The game never really caught on in the gaming world, since it is a little simplistic and without a whole lot of choices.  Those facts make it great for young Scouts with little gaming experience; however, it also makes it a game that didn’t stay in print.  If I want it for future events, I need to keep it safe.  It went to bed when I did.

A took a bit more of a chance with my chess set.  Some of the boys were still up when I retired, and chess, unlike Bandits, is a well known game.  One of the new boys was playing, but with an older Scout, so I figured it would probably be okay.  I was wrong.  One knight was lost in the mud.  Since the pieces are less than a half inch tall, and the knight was maroon in color, it was never found.  The new Scout felt pretty badly, but disappointingly the older Scout was pretty cavalier about it.  I knew it was a risk, and I chose to take it, so I am not horribly upset.  I guess for each of those determined and patient Scout there is one who still needs work.  Well, they are boys after all.

Hive is always a huge hit! (Image by Richard van Vugt)

With Hive, I am taking an even bigger risk.  I left it at camp to be returned to me at next week’s troop meeting.  This game was once again a huge hit, and several more boys were introduced to it and loved it.  I left it with a new Scout, and left an older Scout to follow behind him.  The pieces are big and few in number, so I am confident I will get it all back.  Honestly, it was too good an opportunity to teach responsibility to one and leadership to another, so I couldn’t pass it up.  The senior Scout loves games, so I think he will place a little more value on the game coming back whole.

What makes a good Scout game?  First of all, it really needs to be fairly durable (or disposable), just as any other camping game.  Secondly, it really needs to have fairly simple rules.  Some of these boys find Egyptian Ratscrew, a variant of Slapjack, to be a good game, and that (along with Pokemon cards) may be the limit of their gaming experience.  A game like Pandemic may be asking too much, even if it is a good teamwork game.

I will be keeping a separate game bag for my Scout games.  What about you?  After all,

It’s Your Move!

P.S. - Yes, I know that right now Brandubh is also showing as a game I played recently.  I played it with one of the camp councilors.  Afterward I gave it to him, since they can never have too many games and they may need something to do on a rainy evening too.  It's an ancient game that can be made from a board printed on cardstock and aquarium stones.  Let me know if you are interested, and I can shoot you a copy.

Memorial Day Gaming - Aliens vs GameGeeks!

I was all set to do a series of reviews covering the games we played over the Memorial Day weekend.  There were new (well, new to us) games we were going to try as preparation for our gaming group.  It never happened.

As it turns out, work around the house on Saturday meant travelling late to see my wife’s family on Sunday.  By the time that gathering was over, about the time the games come out, I was falling asleep.  Watching Pirates of the Caribbean was all I could muster up.  I was prepared for a shut-out when we finally managed to get in a game early yesterday afternoon.  Funny though – I doubt it’s a good game for the group.

Image by Jesus Perez

My wife’s brother, who is my most regular gaming partner, joined my son and me in a game of Space Hulk: Death Angel - The Card Game.  This is a spin-off of the classic Space Hulk, but done as a multi-player cooperative game rather than a head-to-head match.  Think of the movie Aliens played out as a game, and you have the theme down.  It’s an American style game in a co-op format, which I have not seen before.  The first and only game we played was a little rough.  I did follow my rules for learning/teaching a game outlined about a month ago in a previous post.  Nonetheless, the first time was definitely a learning game.  It nearly always pays off to play a first game with a few willing test subjects even after being fully prepared.  Lesson re-learned.  Death Angel had enough special character powers and rules exceptions that even my first solo play through did not hit everything.

I am not ready to give a verdict on this game.  My 13yo son has given it a thumbs-up, and I am leaning that way for casual adult gamers, but I am not sure about families.  While it will certainly appeal to testosterone-laden boys, those with less aggressive tendencies may not like it.  I really need a couple of smooth plays to decide this.  I will let you know.

In the meantime,

It’s Your Move!

Lighting My Fire – Games Good for Camping

I mentioned camping with our Scout troop the other day.  It was supposed to be pretty rainy the whole weekend, (thankfully it was not!) so I planned my games for the weekend around those that can get wet.  In reality, though, it isn’t just rain that is bad for games.  No matter what the weather is supposed to be like, dirt, mud – even a little breeze – are all environmental considerations when you combine gaming and camping.

What game components are not good for camping?  There are really two characteristics that define this.  You wouldn’t want those which can soak up water.  That rules out anything with paper money or cards. (Though standard playing cards are cheap enough to be an exception.)  The second problem type is anything that might catch the wind.  These rules eliminate a lot of games, since so many of them have cards in them.

Promotional Image

Good components are ones that can get wet, since this allows not only for rain, but for cleaning them up at the end of camp too.  They should be chunky, too, since this helps keep them from getting lost in the grass.  Less common, except with games having homemade components, is having a vinyl or cloth  board (like a handkerchief) if any at all.  Dice and craft stones are the key.

Dice games are great, since they can always be washed off.  If they are standard dice, they can easily be replaced if needed.  On this outing I took GoLong!, an American football game, which is a fun little dice-fest.  These dice are not standard, but then I picked it up at the thrift store for $0.69, so who cares.  Since the game is out of print, I won’t do a full review, but I will say that while it was very light and had nearly zero strategy, it was a fun game.  It comes with a dice cup, too, so I could easily take a couple of standard, six-sided dice to use with the cup for a game or two of Mia, a variant of Liar’s Dice.

Game stores have 12-sided dice, but not with these icons. (Image by Donal Dimitroff)

There are places online that sell handkerchief type boards for Nine Men’s Morris.  Different colored craft stones could be used for the playing pieces.  I am having a friend of mine print a board for Brandubh, another ancient game, on white cloth and I hope to have it matched with stones for the next camping trip.  Not that cloth is needed; printing a board on a piece of paper or even drawing the board in the dirt would work since craft stones can be washed.

My two “games for all seasons” are Hive, which doesn’t have a board and has big chunky tiles, and a travel chess set.  (I took Hive on a Scout outing this winter, and talked about it then.)  I usually take a deck of standard playing cards and a little cribbage board as well.

With those games and the two other copies of Hive other leaders brought, there was plenty for everyone to do during the couple hours of rain we did get.

Quick – what would you bring to a campout or picnic?  Do you already own it?  It is amazing to me how weathering a storm by playing a few games as a group can bring people together.  I would certainly suggest having a few “games for all seasons” in your closet.

Do me a favor and drop me a line:  What games would you take?

It’s Your Move!

HunterCon and 3rd Sunday Gaming

This weekend I gamed more than I have in a long time.  Friday night and Sunday were both great sessions.  Saturday was spent with the Scouts, orienting the new boys coming in, so the whole weekend was pretty tiring.  No gaming with the Scouts, but the list of games I played Friday night and Sunday follows.

Promotional Image from Z-Man Games

I will start with Sunday, since it covers a game we have played and I have talked about before.  There were only four of us from the group who could make it.  I started to teach 7 Wonders, but I really wasn’t prepared.  After a few minutes of fumbling around, I put the game away.  Teaching a new game well is so important that I didn’t want to keep stumbling forward.  Instead, we pulled out Pandemic, and let it beat us up some more.   (For those of you who are new to this blog, I reviewed Pandemic last week.)

We took six beatings.  Pandemic is a really difficult game to win with four players.  We were so close in two of them, but then this game always seems to be close to me.  It is one of the things amazes me with this game.  The good news is that we really learned some things about the various roles, and so should play better next time.

Friday night I was invited to HunterCon.  This is “house convention”, in which someone has an invitation-only event.  I am not sure how many were actually invited, but at least several dozen people were on the list.  Friday night there were only a little more than ten attending.  Considering I had only met our host once, and no one else, smaller was probably better for me.  The entire group was very welcoming, and I felt at home right away.  These good people confirmed what I have seen in the board gaming hobby community at large; they are a caring and helpful group of people who love playing games.  I am glad to be one of them.

Image by Ender Wiggins

I learned two new games Friday night.  The Resistance is a game for up to ten players, playing in 30 minutes or so, in which all the players are part of a resistance group going on missions.  A portion of the players, however, are traitors to the Resistance, secretly sabotaging the missions.  The object of the game is for those who are loyal to the Resistance to successfully complete at least three of five missions; the saboteurs are trying to prevent it.  Each side wins or loses as a team.  After only one play, I will say this would be a good family or casual game for older kids and adults, but keep in mind that I have only played it once!

 

 

Image provided by Surya Van Lierde

The second game was Battlestar Galactica, which is based on the newer TV series.  (For a plot synopsis, go this Wikipedia article.)  This is once again a semi-cooperative game with traitors, but is more elaborate than The Resistance, since it creates a narrative that parallels the TV show.  Up to six players are on the Galactica attempting to get to the planet Kobol to win the game.  Some of those players secretly act as Cylon agents attempt to stop this.  Players win or lose in teams.  The game we played had elements of some expansions in it.  Since this was my first time playing it, (even though I own the base game!) I wasn’t exactly sure which rules were from what.  Nonetheless, from playing and from reading the base game rules, I think this game is probably longer (3+ hours) more involved than many people would enjoy.  I am pretty sure there are those in my 3^rd Sunday group who will have fun with it.  For casual and family play, I have to give this one a thumbs down.

All-in-all, it was a great weekend spent playing great games and meeting new friends.  Games tend to provide an opportunity to make friends, since we can get to know each other while having fun.  This is one of my favorite things about the hobby.

If you played games this weekend, I would love to know what you played.  Drop me a line, or put a comment at the bottom of this post.

It’s Your Move…

3rd Sunday Gaming Group – March

Yesterday was our monthly gaming group day.  We started off with seven players, which can be an awkward number.  Most gaming groups split into two games at that point, with some playing a four player game and others in a three player game.  Sometimes it will split 5/2 instead of 4/3.  However, our group generally wants to be all inclusive, so we looked for a seven player game.  I had hoped my copy of 7 Wonders would have arrived by now, which plays up to seven, but my understanding is that the US distributor is waiting for the shipment to clear Customs.  That wasn’t an option.  We played a few other games instead.

We started with Pit.  I hadn’t played this since high school, and our game wasn’t as rowdy as I remember it.  You are commodity traders on the floor of the exchange, and you are trying to corner your market.  There are no turns.  You are trading in real time by just shouting the number of cards you have available for trade.  There really isn’t much strategy here, it’s just rowdy fun.  It feels a lot like a party game.  In the end, it wasn’t really a hit with the group.

Next we moved on to Citadels, which is a game I like less and less as time goes on.  With three or four players, there are better games to play.  With six to eight players, there is too much time waiting for your turn.  Additionally, there is very little control.  At that point, the game just outstays its welcome.

Dinner was the next agenda item, and then one of our regulars had to go.  At six players, we went with Carcassonne with several expansions:  The River, Inns and Cathedrals and Traders and Builders.  This is a typical European style game, in which the object is to score the most points.  Some points are scored during the game, and some are scored at the end.  This session was interesting in the various approaches people took.  I concentrated on in-game scoring opportunities, and was the leader after play stopped.  Meanwhile the person in last place had concentrated almost exclusively on end-game scoring (though I am not sure that was intentional!).  That player scored roughly 125 out of 140 points all in the endgame, and very nearly won.  It made the end of the game pretty exciting!  The winner blended the two scoring opportunities.  (I came in fourth, if you are wondering.)  This is a game that deserves a review for family and casual gamers, and is on my list.  In the meantime, I will just give it a thumb.

Three more left, and we broke out Pandemic.  This game is designed by the same person who created Forbidden Island, which I have reviewed.  Pandemic is a little longer and a little more complex, though certainly still good for families and casual players.  It is another cooperative game, where everyone is playing as a team against the game mechanisms, trying to cure the world of diseases that are threatening to wipe out the human race.  To put a positive note on it, we solved the world overpopulation problem, since the diseases wiped out the world’s population!  We lost two close games.  This game is also a great one, and is in the hopper for a review too.

By this point, it was getting late, so we called it a night.  For those of you who are curious, I won exactly zero games.  I said I love to play games; I didn’t say I was terribly good at them.  Of the games in this session, my recommendations are:

Pit 
Citadels

Carcassonne

Pandemic

 Until next time,

Keep on rolling!