Remember my Neverwinter Nights on Facebook review? Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter is a huge step up. It has music! And awesome graphics!

Okay, here’s a run through:

I create a new character. Choices are arranged by height: Fighter, Wizard, Cleric, Rogue and Custom. Curious, I click on “Custom.” Although I can create my own character and stats, I opt to go with an Eladrin Wizard.

STR 10
INT 20 (+5)
WIS 10
CON 11
DEX 16 (+3)
CHA 8 (-1)

Character name: Sha’Relea. Approved! I have some customization, which I take advantage of. When I’m done, a companion pops up with the words: “Whew! You blacked out on me back there. I thought you were a goner.” Come to find out the person speaking to you is Edrick, a scout who was guiding you through the goblin woods. You wind up on a strategy grid where you can move about. Edrick leads you to the next board and the first round of combat.

Combat is really easy. You need to pick the option you want and then once you’re done you end your turn. After combat, I got to pick a treasure! Then, I go on to the next board. There’s a mini-map at the bottom of the screen and the ability to play this full screen. I proceed through level after level until I get to the Goblin Camp. After slaying a few goblins with Edrick, I grab some treasure and wind up in Neverwinter where I can continue finding quests, buy equipment, meet other adventurers and more!

I go to my house. There I find gifts from friends and unlock achievements. To upgrade my equipment, the game uses a drag-and-drop method which I didn’t grasp right away. I buy a new staff and upgrade my armor. Now, I’m ready to fight again! Whoo-hoo! Only, it’s not a good idea to go off by myself. So I head to the Tavern where I learn I can go on quests with up to three other adventurers. I click on some familiar faces and head back out to see what quests there are. I’m headed beneath Neverwinter to sift through the catacombs. I opted for two Dragonborn and two wizards and have been making a lot of use out of the Magic Missiles.

Combat and movement are both color-coded. Corpses you can loot are denoted by sparkles (which helps me!) and the mini-map shows you how long it takes for you to finish the adventure. This time around, I didn’t need a rogue but that doesn’t mean I won’t pick one next time. I manage to head through the catacombs and fight several corpses, face a necromancer, and live to tell another tale.

As far as Facebook games go, this is exemplary. I’m so glad I played the other Neverwinter Nights game because there truly is no comparison between Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter and the other one. This is a professional presentation with decent graphics and soundtrack, good social mechanics, and engaging stories. I’ve played a lot of Facebook games over the years, including some other turn-by-turn based games, and this still has the illusion of being social without any of the usual hang ups. You don’t need to wait on other players to stick around and shoot, but you can still offer gifts and other goodies to your friends.

I had a lot of fun playing this game and think it’s easier to play than other, similar strategy games designed like this (on sites like BubbleBox.com) because there are messages and signals to help any transition. When someone’s health is in trouble it flashes red. Practically everything is clickable and pop-ups are on hand to tell you what to do, so if you’re new to gaming there’s plenty to help ease you through the adventure.

So go have fun!

Review by Monica Valentinelli

Related posts:

1. Heroes of Neverwinter Interview and Giveaway!

Available at RPGNow.com

In his Foreword, lead author Mike Selinker tells a tale about a rather hot Thai curry, and thus gives an insight into how his mind works. You may or may not like your curry hot, but reading this book will give you an insight into how a whole bunch of successful game designers go about designing games that people will buy and play. If you want to turn inchoate ideas into workable – and saleable – board games, or just want to know a bit more about how your favourite games came to be, and about the underlying concepts that make good games, read on.

The book is made up of four sections, and a mastery of ALL of them is necessary to create a successful game. Some fortunate souls may manage that for themselves, others need to develop the ability to find others who can fill in the gaps. First is actually coming up with a concept, which then has to be designed, developed, and finally presented: first to a publisher and then to the paying gamer public. Each section contains several essays by the people who made some of the games that sit on your shelves and which you enjoy playing.

Part 1: Concepting is all about what sort of games you might want to make, and who is actually going to play them. First, a board and card game designer called James Ernest (think Kill Doctor Lucky) draws the important distinction between a game and its rules. However vital they may be, a game’s rules are just one part of what makes up the whole; and if the whole package isn’t fun, that game won’t get played. Moreover, although you can break down a game into its component parts, and even take its ruleset apart to see how it works, that probably won’t help you design a different game – you need components for the game you are thinking of, and whilst you may well be inspired by something that works well elsewhere, you cannot guarantee that it will be as good with the concept you are kicking around. Right at the beginning you need a child-like imagination of what sort of game you want to play and why… but that needs to be the real reason. Some games make the players feel smart, some make you laugh, others let you imagine that you are something that you are not, some are familiar and comfortable because you don’t need to worry how to play them.

Next, Richard Garfield (Magic: The Gathering) states that the best way to understand games so as to design your own is to play loads and loads of other games, thinking about what works, and why, as you do so. And don’t just play the sort of game you’d like to make, play any sort you can get your hands on, watch game shows and more. Inspiration can come from the strangest and most unlikely places! (My family complain that I seem to reduce everything to ‘How would this work in a game?’…) Then Jeff Tidball muses on how each game tells a story, and gives guidance on how to develop it, drawing on classical influences. One thing that’s been mentioned is how game design has not been as subject to critical analysis and study as has music or literature. To understand and appreciate game design, you need a measure of such an academic approach. This is followed by Matt Forbeck comparing mechanics and metaphor, showing how both are important; and Mike Selinker discussing game ownership. This may sound woefully dull, the sort of class you might doze through, but it’s not. Each essay is well-written and entertaining as well as informative and thought-provoking.

Part 2: Design moves on from these underpinning but quite general comments to look at the methods of deciding how a given game is actually going to work (and how to determine if it actually does as intended!). It opens with Andrew Looney (Fluxx) describing his own thought processes, how he goes about that strange activity of designing a game. Oddly, it sounds a bit like what goes on in my head, then it turns out that he’s also a software designer which is one of the things I’ve done in real life… Fascinating stuff, though, even if your mind doesn’t work this way. Next up, Rob Daviau talks about intuitive design, how with many of the best games it’s just plain obvious how to play – even if you spend the rest of your life figuring out how to play it really well! Lisa Steenson next contributes a piece about ‘gateway’ games – the ones that sucker people into the hobby of game playing – and how to make them. Mike Selinker is next with a look at some of the all-out show-stopping game mechanics, a fine tour of what’s outstanding in gaming. It’s noticeable that most contributors (except Lisa Steenson) tend to spread their net wide and talk about other people’s games as much as they do about those they’ve written themselves. This is followed by James Ernest again, talking about strategy, skill and luck within your game mechanics; closely followed by a second piece from the same pen about decision-making in gambling games… which are not all to be found in the casino!

In some ways, Part 3: Development, is where it gets tough. Coming up with ideas, working out mechanics and testing them, those are fun activities and because we like them, we are reading this book. But this section looks at the grunt-work that takes something that’s fun and turns it into a robust game that’s ready for the final step to take it to the marketplace, the hard work that turns ‘good’ into ‘great’ and is why most ideas for games stay just that: ideas. Dale Yu kicks off by looking at the development of the game Dominion, for which he was part of the development team, and extrapolating from that to discuss the very essential role of ‘development – the honing of the original design – in the creation of games people will want to buy and play. Fascinating reading, as in the next piece by Paul Peterson about balance – and the creative uses of the lack thereof – in collectable card games. It is these details that make all the difference between something that is fun with your friends and something that can be sold to, and played by, gamers worldwide. Then Dave Howell focusses on the vitally-important point that must not get lost amidst the search for game perfection: it must remain FUN to play! He looks at some of the pitfalls that can spoil the game for at least some of the players. Delving deeper, Mike Selinker writes on the topic of writing precise rules: the sort that make sense at the first reading, and still do after hours of gameplay and a few beers. They don’t only need to be clear, they also have to enable the game to be played with minimal effort – you’re not there to apply rules, you’re there to play a game! Teeuwynn Woodruff finishes this section, with a look at playtesting and how to make sure it’s done to good effect.

Finally, we come to Part 4: Presentation. This is all about converting your fun, playable game into a saleable commodity, and then selling it. It opens with Steve Jackson (of GURPS and Steve Jackson Games fame) on the trials of prototyping. Your prototype is what you tout around publishers in the hope they’ll want to take your game on. Steve goes through some of the awful mistakes he’s seen in a long and profitable career, in the hopes that we’ll avoid them. Next, Dale Yu is back with some of the things that you should do with your prototype. So, with your nice prototype getting potential publishers slavering, read Richard Levy’s piece on pitching and turn the interest into an actual sale. Finally, Michelle Nephew writes on the processes involved in getting your game from proposal to print, all the tough (and expensive) things that it is far better for a game designer to have his publisher do for him. Stick to what you know and are good at, and let others contribute the things that they do well.

Even if you never design a game, you will look at every game that you play in a different light. If you really absorb the wisdom herein and apply it to your killer game idea… your game will be welcome on my review pile!

Review by Megan Robertsen

Related posts:

1. Van Helsing Board Game Review
2. Martians Board Game Review
3. A Touch of Evil Board Game Review

Available at Amazon.com

To celebrate Lovecraft’s birthday this year, we went over to a friend’s house and popped open our shiny, new copy of Cthulhu Gloom from Atlas Games. Dubbed “the game of unspeakable incidents and squamous consequences,” our group consisted of five players — two of which weren’t as familiar with the Lovecraft mythos as we were.

So before we began, we attempted to channel Kenneth Hite and explain who Lovecraft and Cthulhu were. It was interested to see their reactions when they learned that one man inspired so many popular horror authors like Stephen King, Brian Lumley, etc. That, for me, was the best part about the game because then the cards mean something beyond their pretty pictures.

And pretty they are indeed. Instead of families, you play investigators ranging from those who work at Miskatonic University to the Village of Innsmouth. Since we played with five players, we each paired down our investigative group by one and gave that character to the fifth player.

It took a little getting used to the enhanced rules for this edition. Many of these rules have debuted in the expansion packs for Gloom (which makes me think I need to get a new core set of cards), but truth be told I wasn’t as familiar with some of the shiny bits. Here, you don’t just make your characters suffer — it’s about their particular story. The Story Cards were an interesting twist because one card can change the outcome of the game on-the-fly — which they wound up doing in our game.

In this set, there weren’t as many positive cards as in the previous decks and you can only give a character an Untimely Death if they have negative Pathos Points. Both of which make total sense for a Lovecraft-themed game. We also liked many of the cards that weren’t Untimely Deaths that seemed like they were. Some effect cards like was stuck in a sanitarium had the image of an Untimely Death on the back. So this whole card counting business (for those of you who do…) is drastically reduced. You don’t know what cards are in someone’s hand.

We made it through the deck a few times, but then we started running out of cards. The more cards that are placed as modifiers on the twenty-five characters around the table, the smaller your deck will be. By the time that became an issue, however, we were close to finishing the game.

Both of our new players found the game pretty easy to pick up on — and one of them won by taking a huge gamble. As it turns out, there were a few cards that had a big impact on our game. Went mad at the mountains forces the recipient to discard their hand and doesn’t allow them to draw up on that turn. This card, while it’s worth fifty Pathos points, removes that player from the game for two turns because they have no cards to play. (Incidentally, I did play this ON another player who was beating me up with Untimely Death and event cards…)

The second card, which pretty much solidified a new player’s sanity-risking, game-changing experience was this: The Festival, an event card that allows you to set aside your hand, draw three cards, and use all of them on your family if you can as free plays. Since there weren’t as many positive Pathos cards by the time he played this? He had some nice, sanity-sucking cards and the negative effects didn’t mean as much because his group of investigators were mostly dead already.

The artwork is fun, the cards are great quality and the game? The game has some very witty references (*coughs* Even D&D…) that will leave Cthulhu aficionados rolling in the aisles. We didn’t take any pictures, but we did have one player (who shall remain anonymous) who bust out laughing in the middle of the game for no apparent reason whatsoever…

Madness, madness I tell you. Which is precisely why Cthulhu Gloom is a great game to introduce people to Lovecraft or facilitate a snicker or two from existing fans of the mythos. Why should you play? Well, you only have your sanity to lose…

Review by Monica Valentinelli

Related posts:

1. Cthulhu Week: Cthulhu’s Reign Anthology Review
2. Cthulhu Week: The Calling: Cthulhu Chronicles 1 Comic Review
3. Happy Birthday H.P. Lovecraft

Available from Amazon.com

Zombie Dice
Steve Jackson Games
Designed by Steve Jackson
MSRP: $13.13

Steve Jackson has dominated the games industry lately with a seemingly endless supply of Munchkin-related games, accessories and knick-knacks. Just to prove there’s more going on at Jackson Labs than Munchkin, Steve Jackson Games released Zombie Dice last year to great acclaim. That acclaim is well-earned: Zombie Dice is fast, fun and addictive, and it’s cheap to boot.

Zombie Dice includes 13 dice, instructions, and a dice shaker/storage container in the package. The instructions are very simple: you (as the zombie) roll three dice at a time, and pick them out of the cup without looking at them. If a brain logo comes up, hooray! – you’ve successfully eaten some brains; set those aside. If the explosion logo is showing, too bad – the intended victim had a shotgun, and fought back; set those to the other side. Get three of those shotgun blasts in one turn and you lose any accumulated brains and your turn ends. Also marked on the dice are footprints, indicating your victim escaped. If you decide to keep rolling, you will re-roll any feet dice, plus enough new ones to add up to three. If at any point during your roll you wish to stop, you “bank” those points and begin from that score next turn. Once you “bank” points, they are safe.

There are three colors of dice, indicating how zombie-friendly they are: the six green dice each have three brains, one shotgun blast and two feet. Four yellow dice each show two blasts, two brains and two feet. The three red dice have three blasts, two feet and only one brain. This is important to know when you’re deciding whether or not to push your zombie luck. If red dice are left in your hand, the odds of a blast coming up are pretty good; you may want to rethink that next roll.

Seven of us played three games of Zombie Dice while eating and watching a baseball game at the local ballpark. There aren’t many games that can lay claim to being such a laid-back – yet still competitive – endeavor, but Zombie Dice certainly can. Not only that, it travels well and can be explained to even a non-gamer in under two minutes. There really aren’t any downsides to Zombie Dice – get out there and buy a copy! I guarantee you’ll have fun.

Five out of Five Stars

Review by Bill Bodden

Related posts:

1. Sneak Peek at Zombie Chibithulhu, Munchkin Axe Cop, Munchkin Conan and more!
2. SJGames Week: Interview with Munchkin Illustrator John Kovalic
3. SJGames Week: Awful Green Things From Outer Space Review

Available at Amazon.com

The crew of the exploration ship Znutar just wanted to cruise around the Galaxy, discovering strange new worlds and playing pool. But then their ship was invaded by the Awful Green Things . . . and suddenly they were fighting for their lives!

I recently had the chance to try this game. Amazingly, I had never even demoed the Awful Green Things From Outer Space before. I’d seen it sitting on the shelves of the local game store before and thought it looked like fun. Naturally, I played the role of the alien monsters the first time out, but both sides are just as fun in the end.

Before game play can begin, there’s a little set up involved in this primarily two-player (or two teams) game. First, the Znutar crew has to be placed into different locations on the ship. Then, players need to resolve the starting locations for the Awful Green Things, weapons, etc. Once you’ve played a few times, the set up will go fairly quickly. It took us about five or ten minutes to set up the game the first time we played.

Whether you start on the Awful Green Things side or the Crew side, the game mechanic works best if you plan ahead for your next moves. Both opponents share similar “stats,” which are indicated on their counters:

Movement Allowance: The number of areas the crewman or alien may enter on a given turn.
Constitution: The number which must be rolled or exceeded by attack dice in order to “kill” the counter.
Attack Dice: The number of dice the crewman or alien may roll when involved in hand-to-hand combat.

Now, the alien crewmen can pick up various weapons that are scattered about the ship. Some are actual weapons such as knives and stun pistols. Others include a welding torch, a fire extinguisher and a can of Zgwortz. The aliens don’t exactly know what effect these items will have on the monsters, so the first time one of them is used in play the player draws a random weapon effect chit. This will determine just what happens to the monster when the alien successfully hits it.

The effect could be powerful, giving that particular crewmember four attack dice to hit or it could cause the monster to fragment into little alien monster bits (which can then grow into more monsters later on).

To me, I felt this random effect is one of the cooler parts of the game, because it means you don’t know what is going to happen. These effects can quickly force a player to change tactics and get creative if they don’t want their side to be destroyed quickly.

The most powerful alien crewman is definitely the robot. It has a powerful Constitution, which makes it rather difficult to defeat unless you have lots of alien creatures attacking it as a team. Should the alien monsters overcome the robot, one of them must immediately try to eat him, which may end badly since a random weapon effect chit is drawn once the robot is destroyed.

Eventually, one side will obviously be in control of most of the ship. This is usually when one player is declared the winner. There is a point system, but it appears to have been written into the rulebook mostly for the humor value rather than any meaningful count.

We didn’t get the chance to play them, but there are missions and alternate rules included with the game that offers a clearly-defined escape or more opportunities for the Awful Green Things to take over the ship.

If you’re looking for something fun to try that’s a hybrid between an RPG and a board game, you might want to check out Awful Green Things From Outer Space.

Review by Matt M McElroy

Related posts:

1. SJGames Week: GURPS Monster Hunters Review
2. SJGames Week: Zombie Dice Review
3. SJGames Week: Interview with Munchkin Illustrator John Kovalic

Available at Amazon.com

Van Helsing Board Game
Mayfair Games
Designer: Frederic Moyersoen
for 2-5 players, ages 10 and up
45-60 minutes playing time

Let’s be honest; who doesn’t love Count Dracula? The cape, the sex appeal, the slick hair, eschewing modern dentistry – he did it all, including upsetting more than a few well-to-do British noblemen. In Van Helsing, one player gets to play the toothy Count, while the remaining one to four players take on the roles of Jonathan Harker, Mina Murray, Lord Godalming and Abraham Van Helsing – the Hunters.

The board is a loose grid of spaces showing three levels of Dracula’s castle. Hunters move around the board looking for Dracula and his brides. The object of the game for them is to destroy five of the eight brides, or destroy Dracula himself if they like doing things the hard way. For the Count, his goal is to either transform all four of the Hunters into his minions or kill them, or to get four of his potential brides to the coffin space in his castle.

As the game begins, the Hunters are woefully weak, and must find weapons and other items along the way. Luckily, the Count was never one to soil his hands with housekeeping, so there’s plenty of things – from crosses and holy water to rifles and first aid kits – lying around waiting to be picked up. If the Hunters are lucky, they will stumble across one or two brides in the random assortment of tiles and take them out before the Count can find them. Even though the Brides are relatively weak, they can be dangerous when assisting Dracula’s attacks. Dracula – and anyone with him – may move invisibly. That is, the player announces that Dracula is moving, then takes the Count’s marker off the board, keeping track of the ending space on a secret movement sheet provided. The Dracula player must reveal the Count’s starting location at the beginning of his turn, and if any Hunter is unlucky enough to stumble into a room with Dracula, he is revealed then as well.

The rules are brief, and English, French, Dutch and German translations are included. The translation to English is not the best; mostly these are simple word-choice mistakes that don’t detract from understanding the game. It is important to note, however, that the rules governing the use of items are covered in the Description of Objects section a the end. This is an crucial step in knowing what the objects that one starts with can do, including Dracula’s pet bats.

If Dracula is successful in turning any of the Hunters into vampires themselves, they then must work together to insure the downfall of the remaining Hunters. While it is possible for Dracula and his minions to simply kill the Hunters, it’s obviously more useful early in the game if one or more have been made into vampires. To do this, the vampire must use biting to attack the Hunter’s last remaining Blood Point. If successful, the Hunter becomes a minion. If not, the Vampire loses a Blood Point himself. In the case of Brides – who only have one Blood Point – or if Dracula or a Hunter-turned-Minion is down to they last Blood Point and fail an attack – this destroys them.

The only thing about Van Helsing that made me uncofortable is the hidden movement of Dracula. Hidden movement is, in my opinion, too vulnerable to accidental or intentional abuse, and this situation can often bring a game to a screeching halt. A word to the wise should be sufficient: Dracula players, be scrupulously careful counting spaces when using hidden movement.

Strategically, the Characters need to stick together for protection while they gather up a couple of useful items apiece. They have to destroy five brides as one way to win, so flipping over as many item tokens as they can is a sensible strategy. The Count needs to collect his brides as quickly as possible by turning over the same item tokens the Hunters are searching through. The down side to this for the Dracula player is, of course, revealing where potentially useful items are in the castle. That also allows the Count to use those tantalizing items to lure or trap one or more Hunters. The Count would also be advised to take out one of the Hunters immediately, before they can arm themselves adequately, but this will depend largely on luck – whether they move close enough to Dracula’s starting point for him to reach them in one turn, basically. If the Characters get lucky on their initial item draw, they could begin the game well-armed, so the Dracula player should be cautious of making frontal assaults.

Van Helsing is a fun romp through gothic horror, and the fast pace of play keeps things moving along nicely. Veteran gamers may recognize some similarity to the game Scotland Yard, and this observation wouldn’t be far off. At an MSRP of $49.00, the price for Van Helsing is in line with similar board games. The components are solid and colorful, and the included plastic tray keeps everything organized and well-protected. If you’re a fan of the vampire/gothic horror genre, Van Helsing is well worth your time to check out.

Review by Bill Bodden

Related posts:

1. The Kobold Guide to Board Game Design Review
2. Martians Board Game Review
3. A Touch of Evil Board Game Review

Available at Amazon.com

Imagine sitting down at a diner and breaking out…CTHULHU! Well, to play this game that’s exactly what we did. Produced by Steve Jackson Games, Cthulhu Dice is a rapid descent into madness. You can literally lose your mind during this game or, as our waiter put it: your lunch.

We played with three people. To set up, each player gets three tokens which are included with the dice. Those beads represent your sanity. Then, the owner of the game (Moi, in fact) gets to choose who casts the first curse. Player A rolls to curse Player B and gets a tentacle. Player B loses one point of sanity to Player A and gets to roll a response. Player B rolls a Cthulhu. Now everyone loses a point of sanity. The turn has thus ended and the next player gets to go.

The game’s winner is either Cthulhu (e.g. Everyone has gone mad and has lost all their sanity points) or the last player is left with all their faculties and has not run screaming in terror. This is determined by whether or not you have any tokens left.

I had a lot of fun with this game because I can take Cthulhu Dice anywhere and it’s a fast game. We blew through four rounds before our meal popped up and were laughing at the table. The set comes pre-packaged with a ziploc bag and the twelve-sided die is really well-designed. I had no trouble reading the symbols and was happy it was a little bigger than a regular d12.

If you follow my board game and card game reviews, you know that one of my main requirements is to ensure that all the pieces fit back in the box after I take them out. I’m also happy to report that even the instructions fold up nicely here and I have no problem carting the game around in my purse. For me, that’s a huge bonus because it’s nice to whip out a game like this on-the-go that multiple people can play. My only sticking point, if I had to have one, would be to have a smaller, more durable instruction sheet. Even if I don’t need to read them every time I play, I like to keep all the pieces to my games in their original packaging. Call me anal-retentive I know, but it’s also the collector in me talking.

Still don’t get how Cthulhu Dice works? I did a little homework and found a cute (I mean, really scary) Cthulhu Dice demo where you can play through a sample round.

If you’re looking for something fun, short and family-friendly, then this game has a lot of long-term playing power. It’s not overly complicated and it’s so easy, even a cultist could play it.

Related posts:

1. Trail of Cthulhu: The Rending Box Review
2. Celebrating Lovecraft’s Birthday with Cthulhu Gloom
3. Cthulhu Rises…and rolls some dice.

This week we take a look at some horror-themed card games that deserve more attention. All are card or card/board hybrid games and all can be played in a relatively short (one hour or less) period of time.

The Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow

Published by Asmodee Editions

WoMH is a party game, and follows the lead of popular convention games like Mafia. In Werewolves, players are dealt a character card – either villager or werewolf – which is kept secret. During the day turn, the players discuss who might be a werewolf and designate someone, suspected of being a werewolf, to be “executed.” The poor unfortunate is out of the game, and in revenge should feel free to laugh uproariously at any future decisions made by the group. During the night turn, everyone closes their eyes, and the werewolves pick someone to (figuratively, of course) devour.

The game ends when either all the werewolves have been killed, or when only werewolves survive. The truly fun part of this game is the villagers’ discussions, where everyone can watch each other for signs of Lycanthropy. Simple psychology comes into play here; is the player a bit too eager to implicate someone else as a werewolf? Do people die in the night after accusing a particular person of being a werewolf? First game will be longer as players figure everything out, and one player always needs to act as referee to maintain pacing and facilitate turns. Expansion New Moon also exists that adds event cards, new bonus roles for villagers, and tons of suggestions to build atmosphere and drama. For 8-18 players, ages 10 and up. Playing time estimate of 20 to 30 minutes per game is reasonably accurate.

The Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow is available at Amazon.com

Are You The Traitor?

Published by by Looney Labs

Much like Werewolves of Miller’s Hollow, Are You The Traitor is a game where player’s must guess who the enemy(s) are. Players are either on the good team or the evil one, and roles consist of Good/Evil Wizards, Key Holder, Guards, and the Traitor. The turns here are not divided into day/night, but rather involve unstructured conversation until one player yells “stop” and points at the person they think is holding the role that the pointer must target. If that player is correct, everyone on their team gets a treasure card. If they’re wrong, everyone on the opposing team gets a treasure card. Players continue until one or more players have ten or more points worth of treasure. The one with the most treasure wins! For 4 to 10 players, ages 13 and up. Playing time is 10 to 30 minutes per game.

Are You The Traitor? is available at Amazon.com

Spooks

Published by Steve Jackson Games

Resembling a trick-taking game, Spooks challenges players just to keep up. The object is to empty your hand of cards first, but complications arise as players try to follow the lead. Five suits – Spiders, Goblins, Ghosts, Bones and Bats – all do something different. The last card played in a hand affects the next card; the Spider and Ghost suits for example, require the players to play the next number in sequence or pass. The Bats and Bones suits require a card that matches to be played next – either matching the suit or the number- or the player must pass. When a Goblin card is played, players step outside of the hand for a moment and each lays down a single card face down. Highest Goblin wins this side hand, though this is also a good opportunity to shed useless or weak cards. The Black Cat is wild, but passes the lead to the next player when used. A bit tricky to get the hang of, but loads of fun. For 3 or more players. No suggested age range — probably 10 and up. Playing time not suggested; probably 15 to 20 minutes per game.

Spooks is available at Amazon.com

Zombie Fluxx

Published by Looney Labs

For those familiar with Fluxx, the idea of adding zombies probably appeals; for those who aren’t Fluxx is a card game with a simple, basic rule – Draw One, Play One. To win, you need to meet the conditions of one of many goals in the deck. Goals cycle through rapidly, so the victory conditions change often – sometimes on every player’s turn. Zombies add a new mechanic to the game: the Creeper. You can’t with if you have a Creeper in front of you (in this case, one or more zombies) unless you draw a card that says otherwise. There’s also a way for all players to lose the game if the Ungoal comes into play – also a new mechanic. Fluxx is basically a game of organized chaos, but it’s insanely popular, and that counts for a lot. For 2 to 6 players, ages 8 and older. Playing time is roughly 10 to 40 minutes.

Zombie Fluxx is available at Amazon.com

HeroCard Nightmare

Published by Tablestar Games

HeroCard Nightmare takes the concept of the classic board game Clue and dumps it on its ear. Players take turns trying to ferret out which character is afraid of what monster combined with which setting – the Zombie in the Forest, perhaps, or maybe it’s the Beast in the Farmhouse. Players use their actions to move the monsters to different locales, then move the sleeper figure there and make an “attack to scare.” If successful, characters who are afraid of either the setting or the monster must declare that they are afraid, but need not specify further. Players must eliminate other possibilities until they’ve narrowed down both aspects of one character’s fear, then make a successful attack to Kill that character.

HeroCard Nightmare uses the clever HeroCard mechanic; characters have a base rating in three attributes: Body, Mind, and Attribute X – representing chance or Karma. Cards are played that add points to an attack, and these cards have a second point value based on one of the three attributes reflecting the characters’ ability to use them. Characters must spend an action to remove used cards from previous rounds, making it important to time attacks carefully. For 2 to 4 players ages 13 and up. Playing time approximately one hour.

HeroCard Nightmare is available at Noble Knight Games

Related posts:

1. Flash Fire Mini-Reviews (Back from the Dead)
2. Flash Fire Mini-Reviews! (Hunters & Slayers)
3. Flash Fire Mini-Reviews! (Contest Edition 2)

Available at DriveThruRPG.com

Hoodoo Blues RPG by Carl Warner and Brian St. Claire-King

Advertising will sometimes try to sell a movie as the funniest of the year . . . during the third week in January. I think that’s a fairly short-sighted marketing approach, but maybe people don’t remember that eleven more months will doubtlessly have contenders to the self-proclaimed title. Why even bring it up? Because I want to explain my take on this RPG. I’m not going to call this the coolest RPG I read in 2010 . . . yet. This is what I’m considering to be my Eclipse Phase for this year, the game that just grabbed my throat until I tapped out admiration for it on my keyboard. There are other shadowy games just off the horizon that could be more, but right now this is the game I’m watching. The game in question is Hoodoo Blues (Vajra Enterprises, 312 Pages), which takes a look at the rich myth and history of the American South.

The layout of Hoodoo Blues looks great on-screen or printed (I personally will not read 312 pages on a monitor). A mix of whites, blacks, and grays makes the large undertaking a little less Herculean. The upper borders contain a mix of images – gris-gris, candles, and pictures – that are accurate enough, but not particularly interesting. The mesh of images along the outer border is much more intriguing and creative. The sidebars are set apart in a non-distracting way; however, they lack the pizzazz some others possess. Black text with white background means it is the core text; Black text on gray background establishes a sidebar. It’s a perfectly fine way to go about things, it’s just not the most artistic. There are many asides throughout this book, which I believe to be necessary. Some of the asides are blurbs of the upcoming sections. The authors realized they were dropping a massive amount of information into the minds of would-be game masters and players, so they established many one-page or one paragraph explanations throughout the book. Just reading these will still be a decent undertaking because you’ll want to read more; however, this set-up does create the sole possibility of making this a pick-up game (and that’s through a sheer stretch of the imagination). I’ll talk more about this game in a one-shot versus campaign mode later.

Much of the artwork and photography to this game comes from historical open domain. There are some original pieces (Shoe Fight!), but they are the exception. Art is plentiful throughout the book and many pieces will be familiar. These images, while sometimes graphic (such as the beaten slave on page 148), are perhaps necessary to make this book breathe. The authors are careful to point out their sensitivity to the language, subject matter, and artwork within Hoodoo Blues (page 5). There are many things to get upset about within this RPG; however, it’s nothing one wouldn’t find in a history book. The pieces created specifically for the text are above-average and help fill in the “creepy” factor that a game seeped in magic and the
supernatural does require.

Introduction (pages 1-5)
We won’t dwell here. What readers get out of the introduction is a one-page “in brief” of the game. This details the key factors of the game’s setting and system. There is also a brief bit of flash fiction, a quick discussion on the book’s language, and two notes about historical, social, religious accuracy and sensitivity to the material within the book. The introduction wastes precious little space before shuffling into . . .

Chapter One: Character Creation (pages 6-116)
Character creation in Hoodoo Blues is a nine-step process that is mostly familiar. Come up with a concept (step one), divide points among attributes (step three), and so forth. A few novel steps do exist such as decide on your character’s primary musical tastes (step two). The idea behind the musical step is to aid developing your character. A great deal can be said about a person by their playlist. While the options are a little limited (punk is mentioned whereas rap isn’t until much later in the book), there are enough choices for most groups. Besides, it is easy enough to go beyond the book for musical choices. Step six allows the players (who are immortals of one kind or another) to detail what they were primarily motivated by during each decade of their existence. I’ve seen a few games that use a concept like this; however, it’s usually something devoted players opt to do on their own.

There are eight Attributes which are given scores from a pool of 80 points. A 1 is feeble while a 20 marks the other end of the spectrum. Other factors such as Class, Advantages, and Disadvantages may affect those totals. Skills come from a pool of 100 points and contain enough options to guarantee a variety of characters with differing skill sets. Advantages cannot be gained until there are Disadvantages to pay for them. This is mostly familiar ground with some interesting flavor mixed into it. The Classes available in the game are one of those differences. Vampires are not one of the immortal races available. No, these creatures are Hags, Voodoo practitioners, the deal-making Crossroaders, and more.

One final note on character creation goes to the treatment of XP. Gaining and spending XP work as usual in games; however, Hoodoo Blues also offers ways to lose XP. Failing horribly at goals, making the world a worse place, or splitting up the party for reasons that hurts the party are the three ways detailed to lose XP (also players cannot go into negative scores on their XP). First, I love the idea of losing XP, but I’m not enthralled with the three means of doing so. For me, splitting up the party usually affects the game for everyone involved. People feel left out. Attentions waiver and chaos emerges. I am for this application of losing XP and would have liked to see more reasons like this detailed. The other two generally are learning experiences on their own and shouldn’t take away from one XP. Getting defeated actually works as a good motivator.

Chapter Two: Organic Rule Components (pages 117-140, 141-144 are dedicated to a flashback table)
The nuts and bolts of this system is right here: Roll attribute + d20 vs. difficulty.
From this simple mechanic, the authors are free to get much more creative. The first bit of inspiration is “chance rolls” versus “deliberate rolls.” Before I go into them, let’s talk about our good friend the botch.

Botches are those funny little guys at the table who can really make players squirm, especially in the middle of a fight. Botches are sometimes strange, though; they show up at odd times when you really don’t expect them – times when players would have warded them off successfully. Well, these two rolls deal with these kinds of botches. “Chance rolls” are always made at sudden instances, such as a fight, the sudden need to protect a computer from a hacker, and so forth. These rolls have automatic failures when a one is rolled and an automatic success when a twenty is rolled. “Deliberate rolls” are rolls made for a controlled minor surgery, hacking into someone’s computer, and so on. These rolls never have automatic failures or successes (once the two characters on both end of the computer/hacker equation start working against each other, it becomes an opposed action).

Skills have ranks in the game (one through six), but offer bonuses. A skill that a person could attempt to mimic by attribute alone (brawling) offers a +3 bonus per level. A skill that cannot be attempted by someone without that knowledge grants a +4 bonus. These bonuses are required to make the impossible “difficulty 40″ level less impossible. The remainder of this chapter focuses on detailing Attributes and skills, how to handle combat, and Flashback play (immortals have long stories to tell).

Chapter Three: The South (pages 145-242)
Readers are treated to just under a hundred pages of Southern American history, society, and more. The authors managed to offer a detailed, meaningful history while keeping it interesting enough for a game book. My love for history may have created a little bias for me; nevertheless, I feel like the end result is successful.

Chapter Four: Adventures (pages 243-282)
This chapter is a little oddly named as it is also where game masters and nosy players will find monster stats (and there are so many odd additions within this book), discussion of the “thin places,” and, oh yeah, two adventures. The “thin places” are an interesting concept involving “almost” time travel. It works like this: sometimes something important happens that just sticks to the place almost like a haunting. Years and years afterward, there exists the possibility that people can fall into that moment again as it is always occurring.

Perhaps the player falls into a “thin place” where an old enemy doesn’t have their powers yet. They opt to kill them on the spot. Once they return, nothing has changed. If the player had gone back to get information from that version of their enemy, they could bring that back with them (though the enemy would never remember giving it to them). The entities are fully functional versions of those people up to and at that particular moment the “thin place” is created. Could be quite useful. The threats in the book are a great mix of new and old (much like the whole book). Heck, even the lowly mermaid proves a little dangerous in this book!

Appendices (pages 283-308)
This section is full of cheat sheets for Southern terms and slang, game terms, and game master or player aids. These twenty-plus pages are probably pound-for-pound the most needed within the book. I like the look of the character sheet. It’s spacious for all the notes you’ll have to make about your burnt-out immortal.
Advertisements (pages 309-312)

My scores for Hoodoo Blues are:

Layout: Three out of Five Dice (Strong choices for such a massive book)
Artwork: Four out of Five Dice (Excellent usage of Open Domain materials)
Writing: Five out of Five Dice (I was sucker-punched by the coolness of this book)
Overall: Five out of Five Dice (Maybe the math doesn’t add up, but the writing pulls up the average)

Thanks to Vajra Enterprises for providing a free reviewer’s copy of this interesting game.

Review Todd Cash

No related posts.

Available at Amazon.com

Deadlands, a mix of classic Western, science fiction and alternate history, has gone through a few changes and several editions in its 14-year history. A miniatures battle game and a pen-and-paper RPG of the Deadlands setting – the Wild West with magic and the supernatural in an alternate history timeline – have both been popular and successful, and last year a new addition has been added to the fold: a board game of the Deadlands world, produced by Twilight Creations.

Deadlands: The Battle for Slaughter Gulch pits two to six players against each other in a struggle for control of a small town. Each player leads one of the factions in town: The Agency (think precursor to the Secret Service), The Texas Rangers, The Blessed (Missionaries bringing the Good Word to the uncharted West), Hucksters (spell-slinging dudes from back East), Shamans, and Mad Scientists. Each also has a set of Objectives – from small to large – that provide benefits and bonus victory pints if achieved. Each player starts the game with three “Dudes” from their faction, and each dude may perform an action each turn. Players receive a set of tokens for their faction to mark what each dude is doing. Only one dude can perform a specific action, so two Shaman dudes couldn’t both try to cast a spell on the same turn. This limiting factor forces players to prioritize their actions as part of their strategy.

The board comprises a small, Old West-type town with the Mine at one end and the Rail Station at the other. Running in between the two is a single street lined with ten assorted locales: the Church; Doctor & Undertaker; Hotel & Saloon; Graveyard; General Store; Jail; Telegraph Office; Bank; Theater; and Stable. The faction markers and townsfolk are nicely sculpted plastic miniatures, and are clearly distinguishable from each other for ease of play. Players each have a small, folding cardboard screen to hide the disposition of their faction’s resources, and a miniature map of the town on which the faction’s action tokens are placed to indicate who is doing what on each turn.

There are several ways to win the game. Players roll a six-sided die to determine the specific end goal, but if any three of the six goals have been met before that, that ends the game as well. Goals are such things as the last card of the Event deck being drawn; the mine being depleted of its supply of Ghost Rock; all outfits having five dudes on the board, and so on. At that point, players add up their victory points – and this is where specific faction Objective cards come into play. Each faction has six Objectives that will reward them with bonus victory points if their conditions have been met at any point during the game. The mix is three Small Objectives (generally worth one VP each), two Medium Objectives (Worth two or more points each) and one Large Objective (worth between three and five points). Players also get points for the Ghost Rock they’ve amassed. Ghost Rock has peculiar properties in the Deadlands setting; in this case, it counts only as raw currency without any other special benefits. A worthwhile strategy involves leaving one dude at the mine to continually harvest as much Ghost Rock as possible; there is a finite supply, for one thing; for another, it’s worth victory points at the end and for a third, Ghost Rock is the stuff you use to buy equipment – like better (and more) guns. Such a strategy is not without danger; mine accidents are frequent events in the deck, and result in a roll to see which of the characters at the mine dies from the accident. On the other hand, there are very few events in Slaughter Gulch that aren’t dangerous, so take that into consideration.

There is one problem with this game; development could have used a bit more time to iron out a few ambiguities in the rulebook. There is an extremely useful, extensive FAQ on the Twilight Creations web site; it contains a substantial number of clarifications to the rules which should help players immensely. I highly recommend downloading this PDF for easy reference during the game:

The Battle For Slaughter Gulch seems a hybrid – part RPG and part board game. It captures well the cutthroat, competitive spirit of the Old West, as well as the feel of the Deadlands setting with it’s walking dead gunslingers and Hucksters performing miraculous magic using decks of ordinary playing cards. I found Slaughter Gulch to be a highly entertaining game that works best with four or five players. The “60 to 120
minutes” suggested playing time isn’t far off, but it will very likely take longer the first or second time through. The $44.99 MSRP may be a bit off-putting for some, but The Battle For Slaughter Gulch will provide hours of fun for any gamers who enjoy Deadlands, the Wild West, or just a fun, no-holds-barred, resource management board game.

Review by Bill Bodden

Related posts:

1. Witch of Salem Game Review
2. Martians Board Game Review
3. Deadlands board game to be released in 2009

Available at Amazon.com

The forest is filled with all sorts of Monsters. They watched and waited as you built your Castle and trained your soldiers, but now they’ve gathered their army and are marching out of the woods.

Can you work with your friends to defend your Castle against the horde, or will the Monsters tear down your Walls and destroy the precious Castle Towers? You will all win or lose together, but in the end only one player will be declared the Master Slayer!

Castle Panic is a cooperative board game where players work together to protect their castle from an invading horde of Orcs, Trolls and their little Goblin minions. These monsters are bent on destroying what the humans have built and have a few nasty tricks up their sleeves to help them breach the castle’s defenses.

A Turn sequence in Castle Panic goes like this:

The image of the board above displays colored areas, labeled rings, and a castle in the center. The monsters move in from the Forest during each turn; once they reach the castle they start to do damage to the walls and can move in to take down the towers. During their turn, the players get a chance to slay the monsters using various cards. Using the Archer, Knight, Swordsman and Hero cards, players typically deal out a point damage to the monsters each time they play a card. There are several bonus cards such as Barbarian (automatically kills one monster) and Nice Shot (kills one monster when combined with another card). Players can combine multiple cards per hit to do even more damage to the monsters. For example, a player can play two red Swordsman cards to slay an Orc who is just a bit too close to a Wall for comfort.

As I mentioned earlier, Goblins, Orcs and Trolls are the standard types of creatures that attack the castle. Each character type has different hit points that the players attack. If a character has 1 hit point, then the player only needs to attack them with one card. A character can also lose a hit point if they hit the castle’s defenses or towers, but those hit points also remove the structures from the game until you’ve had a chance to rebuild them with the Brick and Mortar cards.

Mixed into the Monster Tokens that you could draw are Plagues which can force all players to discard a certain type of card. For example, the Plague on Swordsman would force everyone at the table to discard any Swordsman cards currently in their hand. Another type of token are the bonus movement tokens which can make the monster move forward or to a new location on the board. For example, the Blue Monsters Move token allows all monsters in the blue area of the board to move another space closer to the castle.

The Giant Bolder could either be the worst or the best Monster Token that a player might draw. The Giant Bolder come crashing out of the Forrest destroying everything in its path, including Monsters and Walls. So, depending on where the dice tell you the rolling destroyer is coming from, it might just save the day by squashing all the monsters in its path. The Giant Bolder can only be destroyed when it hits a Wall or Tower, taking the structure out of the game.

The various “boss” monsters that are leading the horde against the castle can randomly be drawn just as any other Monster Token in play. Each of them has an extra feature or two that can really change the course of battle. For example, the Goblin King is a nasty little brute who has considerably more health than the rest of the goblins in the game, and once he’s placed on the board the Player has to draw and resolve three more Monster Tokens. Depending on when a boss monster enters the game, they can really do some damage to the castle and tip the battle in favor of the monsters.

My favorite element of Castle Panic is the teamwork players need to have in order to win the game. With a little strategy, plenty of communication and a little luck, players can defeat the Monsters with most of the castle intact at the end of the day. The Trade portion of the player turn becomes very important as the game continues. Having the ability the plot where the monsters will be ahead of time (they normally move one ring closer to the castle each turn) allows players to make better use out of the various cards. The other thing I’ve noticed, is that it’s pretty important to resolve the monster tokens in order. This is especially true when you end up drawing special instructions.

Castle Panic is a fairly simple game that is easy to learn and fun to play. Since it’s appropriate for ages 10 & up, it’s also a pretty decent family game. I feel it’s an excellent addition to any game library and offers a quick bit of fun when your group does not have the time for a more involved strategy game. Setting up the board only takes a minute and you’ll be killing monsters right away.

So, draw your swords and defend the walls!

Fireside Games has some excellent downloadable resources on the Castle Panic page of their website. There is a FAQ, downloadable rules PDF, alternate rules and other goodies.

Review by Matt M McElroy

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1. Van Helsing Board Game Review
2. A Touch of Evil Board Game Review
3. Monster Mayhem Game Review

Available at The-Ancible.com

November 2009 has seen the release of one of the most well thought out and put together magazines for Sci-fi and Fantasy Wargaming ever. ‘The Ancible’ is the dream and creation of Kenny Robb, Managing Director of the magazine. At first glance the cover alone is enough to inspire purchase with a magnificent painted miniature by Adrian Walters. The magazine, from the time you open it to the last page, is a visual masterpiece designed with thought, purpose and function. Phil Cunningham is the man to thank for that. This is not a magazine designed by beginners or ‘fly by night’ fans. Every article and piece of artwork is well thought out and placed for visual appeasement. The usual overabundance of retail advertisements and promotional material is not present; having just enough to wet the consumers’ appetite.

The first game review is by the well known Ian Barstow, whose credits include former editor of Mongoose Publishing. Ian’s review of ‘Secrets of the Third Reich’ is informative and thorough, providing details and explanations that even a non-wargamer would understand. The sheer knowledge he has of the game coupled with the layout and design of this article makes it a must read. After reading about Atomic weapons, Zombie Soldiers and UFO’s I believe that even the pickiest wargamer will give this game a try.

Chris Duncan provides an excellent summary of ‘Urban War’. A detailed premise and description of the game along with extensive background gives someone who reads this article the burning desire to play. The miniature artwork/photographs are also well done. Alan Oliver provides a short but powerful article on ‘Future War Commander’ proving, at least to me, that the games strongest point is flexibility. Mr. Oliver also gives us another look into ‘Battletech’ and some house rules, which as he explains, are fun variants on an old game.

The Adrian Walters review is another reason for making this magazine the number 1 wargamer magazine of all time. The creativity of Mr. Walters, through the use of his painting skills is unmatched and each miniature looks as if it would leap off the page and come to life. Kenny Robb does an excellent job of asking all the right questions and providing a detailed look in Mr. Walters’s background. The sheer passion of Adrian Walters work is evident in his creations and life and presented in this article. Ian Cook’s article on ‘Colours 2009’ is also a well written article that gives all the ‘meat and potatoes’ of the show. After reading this article I truly felt as if I had personally attended. The items and details he gives, along with his personal outlook, make this a valuable article for anyone that is ever considering attending.

The ‘Battle Report’ on Privateer Press’s Warmachine by Jez Fairclough and Simon Parkinson is of the highest quality. I have always been fascinated by this game but have never taken the time to sit down and actually play a game and learn the rules. Jez and Simon’s simple yet thorough Battle Report has changed my mind. I just want to know who’s going to paint the miniatures for me? Lastly ‘A Beginner’s Guide to AT-43’ by Spencer Taylor is a good way of summing up a great magazine. Another great game that is visually stimulating as well as very playable, this article gives the average person, who knows nothing about the game a complete breakdown of everything ‘AT-43’. Once again the artwork, superior layout and a greatly written article make this a perfect addition for an awesome magazine.

To be blunt, how could you as a serious wargamer not subscribe to this magazine? A few wargamers have suggested that they do like to occasionally do Role Playing Games, and that this magazine really doesn’t support that; this is not a correct statement. The Ancible has plans for RPG articles and adventures and in Issue #2 this will come to light. In summary The Ancible provides everything that a wargamer and more importantly consumer would wish; quality for their hard earned money. Take a look, you won’t be disappointed.

Review by By Eric K. Rodriguez

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Available at Amazon.com

Cooperative games are popular these days. Playing against the game so that the players win or lose collectively is appealing in a day and age when people even compete with each other for the best Christmas light displays. In Witch of Salem, the players take on the roles of occult investigators working against the evil sorcerer Necron, who intends to open inter-dimensional gates to allow the Great Old Ones into our world to wreak havoc. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? Trust me, it’s never that simple.

The board shows a representation of the fictional city Arkham, Massachusetts. There are eight locations the players can visit; Miskatonic University (also the starting space), the Sanitorium, the Arkham News offices, the Witch House, the Hotel, the Cemetery and the Church. The eighth location is the sunken city of R’lyeh, which players will only visit in the end game phase to prevent the Great Old One there from bursting through. The object of the game is to find the hidden gate locations on the board, ward them so they can’t be opened by Necron and his minions, and return to Miskatonic University to close the final gate, foiling Necron’s foul schemes.

Players on their turn may move to any location still present in their movement deck. Each player has their own deck showing each of the seven main board locations, plus a “secret passage.” The “Secret Passage” card may be used to visit any location on the board, and is also the only way a player may get to R’lyeh. Once a player has spent the card for a specific location, she may not visit that location again until she returns to the Miskatonic University space, at which point her entire location deck is refreshed. At the start of the game, a first player is chosen; that player remains the first player throughout the game. On the first player’s turn, two monsters are drawn from the deck and placed on the first available locations – in ascending numerical order. There are two of each monster in the deck. The monsters are something of a distraction, but a powerful one; if at any time the second copy of a monster already on the board is drawn, that creature becomes “activated;” players must collectively discard specific items listed at the bottom of the monster card as a penalty. Items are used to destroy monsters, including the Great Old Ones, and there is a finite supply that is refreshed only seldom during the game; losing items therefore can be costly, but not closing gates is costlier!

Each of the six main locations has the potential for a gate. There are six locations needing a potential gate token, and there are four each of brick walls and gates. Sealing a brick wall results in actually opening a gate, so players must first peek at the counter using the magic glasses (one of the items) before deciding whether or not to seal it. Miskatonic University has a gate already in place; in can only be closed once the Great Old One has been banned. The other gates can be sealed using one of three warding devices keyed to that location. The warding devices like the rest of the items in the game, can be picked up at the six main locations. Items are drawn from a bag and seeded at each location to start the game. Only when a location’s item supply has been exhausted may more item chits be drawn from the bag to replace them. Each location has three potential items. Generally, the first item costs nothing to pick up; the second and third usually require a sacrifice on the part of the player – the loss of one or more points of sanity or allowing the cultist marker on the Necron Track to advance.

This is a challenging game with a great deal of replay value. Winning isn’t easy; in fact, players can expect to lose the first couple of times through as they get used to the way the game works. There are many different elements to keep track of in the game, any of which can hurt the players if left unchecked. Players have to work together to achieve victory over Necron. When I first saw the title, I was curious to see how similar it really was to Arkham Horror; aside from the setting and general subject matter, the only real similarity I encountered is the need to close gates. Even though we got soundly spanked the first game we played, I found this game intriguing and enjoyable, and am more than ready for round two. Watch your back, Necron!

Published by Mayfair Games, Witch of Salem is a game for two to four players of ages 12 and up. Mayfair Games graciously provided me with a free review copy; even though we got soundly spanked the first game we played, I found this game intriguing and enjoyable, and am more than ready for round two. Watch your back, Necron!

Review by Bill Bodden

Flames Rising is happy to include this review in the Game Cryer Gift Guide for 2009. Stop by the Gift Guide for more reviews and gamer gift suggestions.

Related posts:

1. The Battle For Slaughter Gulch Board Game Review

Available at Amazon.com

THE STARS ARE RIGHT is a board game produced by Steve Jackson Games. Inspired by the Lovecraft mythos, the object of the game is to “summon” ten points worth of servitors and gods before your opponent.

After playing through the game multiple times, I feel that in order to get a sense for what the game is about, you really need to play through it twice. To set the game up, you place the cardboard stars in rows of five by five, for a total of twenty-five. Each player gets five cards to start; I highly recommend giving each player a Turn Sequence card to help keep the movements straight.

On the card there are a series of symbols that are used at different points in the Turn Sequence. There are two types of symbols, primarily. The directional symbols allow you to change the way the board is arranged; the pieces are double-sided so there’s a lot of different variations on how the pieces are set up. The other symbols indicate constellations that need to be arranged in particular order before you can Summon a Minion, Servitor or a Great Old One like Hastur.

As part of your turn, you can sacrifice a card from your hand (e.g. Invoke) and use the “powers” on the bottom of the creature cards you’ve already summoned to provide you with a series of movies to change the tiles laid out in front of you. After you swap, turn over tiles or push the rows, you can Summon a creature provided the “stars are right.” Once you Summon, you can discard one card (or two if you have the appropriate Minion in play). After drawing back up to five (or six, depending upon what you have in play) your turn ends.

Once you start to Summon creatures, your options for re-arranging pieces on the board during your turn increases. The more cards you have on the table, the more challenging it is to visualize what patterns you can create to bring out more creatures. Each creature is worth a certain number of points and powers; the “greater” the creature, the more points it’s worth. The first person to reach a combined total of ten points wins.

As a strategy game, I feel that THE STARS ARE RIGHT is pretty challenging because you have to think several moves ahead. Since your focus is on how the stars are arranged for you, rather than on what’s happening to the other players. In the process of playing the game, players have the potential of changing the board every turn, which can make it difficult to plot ahead several moves. The more players you have, the more frequent the board changes and the longer the game might take.

The artwork and the card design is really easy to understand, but this is not an easy game to pick up. It does take a little bit to work out the movements and get in the habit of visualizing ahead. Since the board is never the same way twice, there’s a lot of options for game play and experimentation with different strategies and cards.

In terms of balance, I felt the game was extraordinarily well structured – it’s impossible to cheat or to guess what could help or hurt your opponent. When two people play, the game can take about a half an hour.

If you’re looking for something different to play that requires a fair bit of concentration, then THE STARS ARE RIGHT is definitely the game for you. It’s different enough from other games on the market and definitely gives your brain a work out. The game can be used for a family night of fun, but I recommend following the age guidelines of twelve and above.

Review by Monica Valentinelli

Related posts:

1. Castle Panic Game Review
2. Martians Board Game Review
3. Cthulhu Rising Game Review

]]> http://www.flamesrising.com/stars-are-right-review/feed/ 0 http://www.flamesrising.com/something-wicked-review/ http://www.flamesrising.com/something-wicked-review/#comments Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:33:08 +0000 Flames http://www.flamesrising.com/?p=4282 I was destined to be a game geek. Back when I was but a wee Stevie, my folks introduced me to board games early. It was a fun and cheap family oriented activity we’d partake in when we could. My folks were big fans of the classics like Monopoly, Clue, Battleship and Trivial Pursuit while occasionally picking up a new “fad game” here and there like The A-Team, Pac-Man and Frogger. As I got older and found ways of making my own coin, I started buying my own board games, the kinds that caught my interest more than the rest of the clan. These were games with more strategy and story/themes added to them, many of which you fellow board game geeks might recognize. Titles like Risk, The Omega Virus, Dragon Strike, Nightmare, oh yeah… let’s not forget a personal favorite of mine, HeroQuest and its expansion packs. My love of games in general led me to eventually discover RPG’s, which led me to start attending cons, which in turn opened my eyes to a ginormous cornucopia of gaming opportunities! And I dove in head first. Related posts:

1. The Stars Are Right Game Review
2. Haunting House Game Review

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Available at Amazon.com

Expansions for the A Touch of Evil Board Game

I was destined to be a game geek. Back when I was but a wee Stevie, my folks introduced me to board games early. It was a fun and cheap family oriented activity we’d partake in when we could. My folks were big fans of the classics like Monopoly, Clue, Battleship and Trivial Pursuit while occasionally picking up a new “fad game” here and there like The A-Team, Pac-Man and Frogger.

As I got older and found ways of making my own coin, I started buying my own board games, the kinds that caught my interest more than the rest of the clan. These were games with more strategy and story/themes added to them, many of which you fellow board game geeks might recognize. Titles like Risk, The Omega Virus, Dragon Strike, Nightmare, oh yeah… let’s not forget a personal favorite of mine, HeroQuest and its expansion packs. My love of games in general led me to eventually discover RPG’s, which led me to start attending cons, which in turn opened my eyes to a ginormous cornucopia of gaming opportunities! And I dove in head first.

Today, as I sit and type this review before you, I’m a gaming geek in my mid 30’s, a geek who was lucky enough to marry a gal who also enjoys board games and I’ve spawned a single larva that’s already starting to join the ranks of the next generation of gamers. While they don’t quite share my joy of RPG’s, we all still enjoy pulling out the board games for some family fun. My daughter is now in her mid teens and like me, she’s started to enjoy board games that have more story and theme behind them. This made my black heart gush with excitement, for it means I was able to start adding story/theme games to my massive collection of board games again.

My return to the “story game” genre started a year ago at a local convention. I got involved in a zombie apocalypse game called “Last Night on Earth” by Flying Frog Productions. It was well designed, well crafted and was so much fun that I picked up my own set AND its expansion pack “Growing Hunger”. While glaring at all the available board games at the dealer’s booth, I spotted a new game by F.F.P. titled “A Touch of Evil”. Looking over the box, it had all the right ingredients to catch my interest. So I went home with a bunch of expensive games, immediately pleaded for mercy from my wife as I spent way more than I’d planned. Once I was out of the dog house, we all sat down to a game AToE to see how fun it is. To put it in one word… “YEEHAW!”

I won’t go into details about “A Touch of Evil” itself. Billzilla wrote a very good review about this swank game back in March. While I love flapping my digital gums all day, I’m not a fan of beating a dead horse. So please, feel free to check out B.Z.’s review for more details in you haven’t already (click here to read it). No really, go ahead and read it… I’ll wait till you get back, pwomise!

Now, onto the point of this review; two weeks ago I attended to latest local convention. And the same dealer who stung me last year had returned, and he came armed with two expansions for AToE. The large expansion is titled “Something Wicked” while the smaller box is titled “Hero Pack One” (which leads me to believe that more Hero Pack’s are on the way, but I digress.) And of course like the sucker I am, I purchased both without sets without resistance. As Billzilla mentioned, these are pricey games and no one wants to plunk down their hard earned dough on something that’s not worth it. So are these new sets worthy of their costs? Was AToE a fluke, never to be repeated? Let’s light a lantern and crack open this crypt, starting with “Something Wicked”.

First off, the quality craftsmanship of Flying Frog’s previous efforts immediately shines through again. More of the “Colonial America” setting, more heroes (and plastic miniatures for each one), more villains, more quality artwork, more thick glossy laminated cardstock, a greater variety of cards to create even more randomized actions… its all included amigo’s. With all this additional material, the expansion literally doubles the size and scope of the game!

There is also a new board that you place adjacent to the right of the original board (turning your square playing field into a rectangle). This board adds new locations like the Inn, the Monastery, the Bog, the Forgotten Island and the North & South docks to take you to and from said island. Similar to the first board, the road at the lower right goes off the end of the board and includes a note that reads “to the coast”, implying that there will be another large expansion in the future.

One of the best selling points of the expansion set is its new heroes and villains. The four new heroes include a militia captain, a monastery monk, a witch hunter and a monster hunting vampire. Like the main set, they each possess a list of stats and advantages unique to them and have their own story blurbs in the new rulebook. The new villains include The Banshee, The Bog Fiend, The Gargoyle, and my new favorite “The Unspeakable Horror” which is basically a cousin of Cthulhu. And like the original set they all have their own stats, minions to control and unleash upon the heroes and new ways of causing evil mischief.

Other highlights of the set included LOTS of new cards. They include cards for new items (bombs are a new favorite of mine), new locations and new events and mysteries to add onto the decks that came in the original set. The randomizing of these new cards are just as theme heavy and interesting as the originals; some of them are particularly helpful, clever or wicked and add new angles to the game play. There are new features like adding “resolve points” to the Town Elder NPC’s which help them survive longer or become more resistant to the temptations of evil. On the other hand, there is a new secret masked cult called “The Order of the Crimson Hand” who enjoys influencing the elders to work against your party amongst other things.

And speaking of newly added game play, there is a new fourteen page rule booklet included. Within it, you’ll find additional rules to spice up the game play (especially the cooperative game play) and new “Solo Play” rules for those who desire something wicked can’t round anyone up to join in. While my wife remains skeptic while she watched me give the sole play a test run, I found the mechanics worked well and was a lot of fun (although I will admit that its still more fun vanquishing evil with friends.)

Any issues to whine about? I have two worth mentioning, but they’re only minor gripes. The back of the expansion set repeats the first set concerning game time which is slated at 60-120 minutes. Don’t believe it my friends! It takes about fifteen minutes to set the board up and another fifteen to take down afterwards, and my average play time on solo play alone was between three and four hours. This works great if you’re playing at a con since most game time are slotted at these lengths, but if you’re looking for a quick game at home, I don’t see how you’ll find with AToE.

My second gripe are how the inlays are set up. Don’t get me wrong, as far as board game set trays go they are pretty well designed. But in this case, there are so many tokens and pieces to try and place throughout both boxes that it becomes a hassle. However, I found a solution that worked for me via the Hero Pack. And speaking of…

“Hero Pack One” is just that, a pack of new heroes. This box includes four new heroes to choose from (and their miniatures) a new villain and 10 new game cards to add into the various decks. I was concerned at first that these might be the heroes (and villain) that didn’t make the cut for “Something Wicked” and got dumped into this box. I hate sounding so cynical but this seems to happen all the time with expansions (I won’t point fingers, but you game companies know who you are and you know your shame!)

But I’m happier than a tornado in a trailer park to tell you that this was NOT the case! The new heroes are some of the best yet, including a foreign traveler, an inventor, a highwayman called “The Scarlet Shadow” (who’s become one of my favorites) and in a neat twist is the addition of “Lucy Hanbrook”. Lucy had merely been an “ally” when you could pull her card and didn’t offer much help (which was strange to say story wise as she’s the daughter of two of the town elders). But now, she is her own dog and a very capable hero. The new villain in this pack is “The Necromancer” who brings a “dead man’s party” with him wherever he goes. Last but not least is a new booklet that tells the story behind the new heroes & the villain and a list of FAQ’s and clarifications.

NOTE: For the issue of so many tokens taking up space in the large boxes, I found a solution. I took out the inlay from the hero pack, placed the tokens into more organized sets via Ziploc’s and then placed them in the box. Then I took the contents of the Hero Pack and placed them in the “Something Wicked” box where there was plenty of space for them. Perhaps it’s not the best way to deal with this issue, but it works for me.

In the end, I really hoped that something wicked would come this way, and it did! Both sets are worthy additions to an already worthy game. AToE plays like a “lighter” version of the Arkham Horror board game, because unlike Arkham’s sweet expansion sets, AToE doesn’t really evolve the game mechanics or requires you to change the way you think about the villains. This keeps AToE more in line with family game nights and casual players than the die hard types that Arkham Horror and similar games cater too. But if you’re looking to add something wicked with a touch of evil, you’re golden with these expansions.

Review by Steven Dawes

Related posts:

1. The Stars Are Right Game Review
2. Haunting House Game Review

]]> http://www.flamesrising.com/something-wicked-review/feed/ 0 http://www.flamesrising.com/city-in-the-sand-larp-review/ http://www.flamesrising.com/city-in-the-sand-larp-review/#comments Thu, 08 Oct 2009 12:29:28 +0000 spikexan http://www.flamesrising.com/?p=3622 It’s been too long since I took part in Live Action Role-Playing. It was the mid-nineties at Egyptian Campaign in Carbondale, Illinois. The Southern Illinois University’s Student Center was the perfect setting for a session of the Masquerade. There were outdoor and indoor sets. Hectic Narrators bounced all around in attempt to keep the action controlled. It was a great night, but I’m reasonably sure there wasn’t a story to speak of. Yeah, I recall a handful of werewolves being found dead outside the building. There was also something about the Prince being mad. To be honest, the game was an excuse for the largest number of gamers at the convention to cut loose and have fun. After reading City in the Sand, I have to wonder how much better that night would have been with a story underlying everything. I guess I should say a “good story that people were interested in” underlying everything. City in the Sand takes an interesting bit of cinema’s history and applies a little Vampire bite to it. Related posts:

1. An Interview with the authors of City in the Sand
2. Book of LARP Review
3. Shining Host LARP Review

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– Available at RPGNow.com

It’s been too long since I took part in Live Action Role-Playing. It was the mid-nineties at Egyptian Campaign in Carbondale, Illinois. The Southern Illinois University’s Student Center was the perfect setting for a session of the Masquerade. There were outdoor and indoor sets.

Hectic Narrators bounced all around in attempt to keep the action controlled. It was a great night, but I’m reasonably sure there wasn’t a story to speak of. Yeah, I recall a handful of werewolves being found dead outside the building. There was also something about the Prince being mad. To be honest, the game was an excuse for the largest number of gamers at the convention to cut loose and have fun. After reading City in the Sand, I have to wonder how much better that night would have been with a story underlying everything. I guess I should say a “good story that people were interested in” underlying everything. City in the Sand takes an interesting bit of cinema’s history and applies a little Vampire bite to it. It’s a wee bit more successful than the Sci Fi Channel’s attempt to do the same thing (minus vampires) with Sands of Oblivion.

White Wolf really can’t get away with lousy layout. When you establish expectations for your projects, you can hardly undercut yourself. Each of the four files within this PDF package are treated to the Vampire: the Requiem layout. Skulls lurk in the corners. Sidebars are fenced in with iron wrought. There is a little bit of blood red fonts scattered throughout the text to get your attention. Fonts are otherwise readable, but not drab. We’ll call it stylish. The graphic artists are keeping with their successful theme. The character sheets for this LARP look really good and are plump with information.

Artwork is a rarity in these files. We see a picture of the monster. There are some graphs, but not much to distract from the details. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but it turns out that several thousand words is still worth more. I didn’t need artwork in this. As it turns out, the creative minds behind this project felt the same way.

What about the writing? If the layout is a given and artwork is a no-show, then everything must bank on the writing. First, let’s talk about what the four files are in this PDF package. The main file is the game itself, a fourteen page set-up to a story about a forgotten Hollywood set. The second file is a nine page primer for new players. Third is thirty-eight pages of character sheets. The fourth and final file is ten pages of reference sheets. Considering that the new player primer and reference sheets may have to be printed multiple times, storytellers may want to charge admission to this game to off-set printing costs. Yep, I’m still seeing no printer friendly options despite all my “helpful” suggestions with my reviews.

I find the story intriguing because it taps upon a time in Hollywood when it was still fascinating. Many of the Kindred feel the same way, ushering in the story. The thirty plus characters in this adventure (a social/mental adventure with next to no physical altercations) are a properly conceived and diverse mix of film makers, lawyers, criminals, veterans, and more. This packet is meaty in its brief span, but sticks to all the parts it requires. Too much story will never be followed by a cast of three much less thirty. Broad strokes. No railroading. No Whammies.

The new player’s primer irks me a little bit because new players may likely be overwhelmed by this intense booklet. I realize that many LARPs take place at conventions (this very PDF was born out of a SoCal GenCon convention). I also realize that, because of this, the Storytellers and Narrators don’t have time to babysit new players. Nobody would want to rehash this information multiple times. The first four pages of the booklet are things the players need to know. There may be a few too many examples of various Tests, but that would basically trim it down to three pages of hard core information. Pages five through nine are full of good information, but I’m not sure it’s required for newbies. Give the new players the younger kindred and let them learn through the game. It’ll stick with them longer that way.

The reference sheets and character sheets are required reading of course. The cheat sheets are handy little guys. The character sheets are split between the cold stats and some personality/background information about the character. I think the materials on these sheets are extremely helpful to players.

This adventure is quite different than what players would get sitting around the table for a typical RPG. I’m a social gamer, which is one reason why I’m inclined to enjoy LARPing. It’s the same theory as Halloween–come as you aren’t. What better way to meet new people than pretend that you’re somebody else? It’s a tried and true method formed in taverns centuries ago.

This social-heavy adventure is laced with a good story and plenty of entertainment for competent Storytellers to keep running for a night’s game. I’m offering these scores to City in the Sand:

Layout: Four out of Five Dice (Vampire’s layout is one of White Wolf’s best, but not its
pinnacle)
Artwork: No Score
Writing: Five out of Five Dice (Good stuff. The new player’s booklet may be guilty of
information overload, but at least it’s interesting information)
Overall: Four out of Five (Great Adventure)

Review by Todd Cash

Related posts:

1. An Interview with the authors of City in the Sand
2. Book of LARP Review
3. Shining Host LARP Review

]]> http://www.flamesrising.com/city-in-the-sand-larp-review/feed/ 0 http://www.flamesrising.com/innsmouth-escape-review/ http://www.flamesrising.com/innsmouth-escape-review/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:46:08 +0000 Billzilla http://www.flamesrising.com/?p=3638 In Twilight Creations’ board game Innsmouth Escape, one player takes on the role of the human trying to free her friends and flee from the accursed town infested with frog-like worshipers of Cthulhu, while the rest play the nefarious Deep Ones themselves, intent on keeping their dark secret away from the prying eyes of outsiders. The board is a simple six-by-six grid. Some of the squares are marked with symbols indicating places to rescue human captives, obtain equipment and have encounters (all for the human player) and to spawn Deep Ones, summon a Shoggoth (more on that later) and draw cards for the Deep One player(s). Related posts:

1. Cthulhu Week: A Note from the Editor at Innsmouth Free Press
2. Munchkin Cthulhu Review
3. Zombies!!! Review

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Available at Amazon.com

In Twilight Creations’ board game Innsmouth Escape, one player takes on the role of the human trying to free her friends and flee from the accursed town infested with frog-like worshipers of Cthulhu, while the rest play the nefarious Deep Ones themselves, intent on keeping their dark secret away from the prying eyes of outsiders.

The board is a simple six-by-six grid. Some of the squares are marked with symbols indicating places to rescue human captives, obtain equipment and have encounters (all for the human player) and to spawn Deep Ones, summon a Shoggoth (more on that later) and draw cards for the Deep One player(s).

The object of the game for the Human player is to spend a full turn with her pawn in a space on either the western of southern edge of the board, while having at least eight victory points in hand. Victory points are gained by rescuing human captives and by holding any of several encounter cards that are worth victory points. The Deep One player(s) win if they kill the lone human.

The Human player moves using a series of three cards chosen from a deck of nine cards. As the cards are used they are set aside, limiting the Human player’s movement options until all nine cards have been used, in which case the deck is reshuffled and the player again has a full slate of movement options. In this case, options are moving one, two or three spaces. Movement is entirely at right angles – like a rook in chess — so changing direction can be tricky and requires planning. I liked this mechanic a lot; the human player often has many options, but finds herself limited from time to time as well. Except for the occasional break to rest and heal, the Human player must keep moving at all cost; once boxed in by Shoggoths, it will be difficult – if not impossible — to escape.

Shoggoths; the Cthulhoid creatures we love to love. Giant masses of protoplasm, Shoggoths are formidable and terrifying foes. In game terms they effectively block a space so the human player cannot pass through them, save with the use of special equipment cards. The Deep One player must summon as many as possible early and use them to restrict the Human player’s movement, potentially even boxing the human into a corner. There is apparently no way for the Human player to kill a Shoggoth, which follows the mythology pretty closely. This tenacity goes a long way toward counteracting the fact that the Deep Ones in Innsmouth Escape die after they attack. Deep One spawning is a critical and ongoing need for the Deep One player. The Deep One players must co-ordinate their efforts closely to have a good chance of winning; wearing the human down works well, but preventing her from moving effectively is better. Using both in concert can be a winning strategy for the foul fish-people.

Designed by Darrell Hardy, Innsmouth Escape is a heavily card-driven game, which is neither a bad thing nor good. What is important is that both sides are subject to the luck of the draw, which can have a powerful impact on the game. Even the best-laid strategy turns sour if the other side has the right cards to counter any moves you make.

Several things come to mind on playing this game. First, it reminds me of the old classic board game Scotland Yard by Ravensberger, and seems weighted towards the human player. I managed to win playing the human despite several blunders, not the least of which was miscalculating my ending space more than once! All in all, Innsmouth Escape is a fun, challenging game. Replay value is solid (particularly for Lovecraft aficionados) and the game is reasonably well balanced. It’s a game for two to five players ages 10 and up, and is playable in 60 to 90 minutes. At a $39.99 suggested retail price, Innsmouth Escape is a bit pricey, but Lovecraft fans will very likely find it well worth the money.

Review by Bill Bodden

Related posts:

1. Cthulhu Week: A Note from the Editor at Innsmouth Free Press
2. Munchkin Cthulhu Review
3. Zombies!!! Review

]]> http://www.flamesrising.com/innsmouth-escape-review/feed/ 0 http://www.flamesrising.com/zombie-mosh-review/ http://www.flamesrising.com/zombie-mosh-review/#comments Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:01:31 +0000 Billzilla http://www.flamesrising.com/?p=3650 With the runaway popularity of Zombies these days, it isn’t surprising that we’re seeing the shambling undead teamed with nearly every other concept imaginable, from video games to Jane Austen. Even lighthearted zombie treatments are gaining a strong foothold, like Shaun of the Dead, the upcoming film Zombieland starring Woody Harrelson, and, of course, Zombie Mosh from Bucephalus Games. Zombie Mosh is exactly that, a game about zombies bashing each other apart in a mosh pit. Players select one of six different character cards, then shuffle the Zombie cards and deal four to each player. The dealer then draws two cards and randomly places them in the “damage” row of each player, including himself. Each card has two different results, facing the top and bottom of the card, so orientation of each card matters. Related posts:

1. All Things Zombie Review
2. Zombie Cinema Game Review
3. Michael Erb talks Zombie Fluxx with Andy Looney at Origins

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Available at Amazon.com

With the runaway popularity of Zombies these days, it isn’t surprising that we’re seeing the shambling undead teamed with nearly every other concept imaginable, from video games to Jane Austen. Even lighthearted zombie treatments are gaining a strong foothold, like Shaun of the Dead, the upcoming film Zombieland starring Woody Harrelson, and, of course, Zombie Mosh from Bucephalus Games.

Zombie Mosh is exactly that, a game about zombies bashing each other apart in a mosh pit. Players select one of six different character cards, then shuffle the Zombie cards and deal four to each player. The dealer then draws two cards and randomly places them in the “damage” row of each player, including himself. Each card has two different results, facing the top and bottom of the card, so orientation of each card matters. The starting player then begins by playing a card, either to damage another zombie or to fend off damage to his own. Each player only has four cards per turn and starts with those two cards of damage, so it’s likely that more than one player will have damage they can’t fend off. Any zombie that has three or more limbs (including heads!) damaged beyond use is out; the winner is the last zombie standing – so to speak. Our gaming group really got into the pounding we were dishing out, even to the point of describing the dance moves we were laying on one another.

The components of Zombie Mosh are of good quality. The cards, damage tokens and character plaques are sturdy and heavily laminated for increased durability. Sadly, the box itself is also heavily laminated, which makes it tough to pull open, particularly if you’re foolish enough to nest the bottom cover inside the lid.

Each zombie card is double-sided, including a “basic” (side A) and ‘advanced’ (side B) face. The advanced side is only different in that one more dot of damage potential is added, and the dots are shuffled around. On side A, for example, each limb (two arms, two legs and the head) has three dots of damage potential for fifteen total points. On side B, some have three, some have four and some have two dots, and in each case the total number of dots is 16. Honestly, if you’re planning on developing an ongoing “campaign game” of Zombie Mosh, you might want to take a long look at the rest of your life and see just what the hell went wrong.

Zombie Mosh is fun. The 15 to 30 minutes playing time is spot on, and probably even six- or seven-year olds could pick up how to play this game in no time – though the game is recommended for ages nine and older. The game requires little luck, very little strategy, but does require the players to enjoy themselves and lighten up a little. What Zombie Mosh is not is a complex strategy game. It does indeed invite repeated playing, but spending too much time analyzing tactics and searching for deeper meaning is a waste of time. And when you’re dancing the night away, time is of the essence. At a $24.99 suggested retail price, Zombie Mosh is perfect, even for those down-on-their-luck hipsters with more time than money.

Review by Bill Bodden

Related posts:

1. All Things Zombie Review
2. Zombie Cinema Game Review
3. Michael Erb talks Zombie Fluxx with Andy Looney at Origins

]]> http://www.flamesrising.com/zombie-mosh-review/feed/ 1 http://www.flamesrising.com/all-things-zombie-review/ http://www.flamesrising.com/all-things-zombie-review/#comments Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:58:34 +0000 spikexan http://www.flamesrising.com/?p=3602 All Things Zombie comes from Two Hour Wargames. Wargaming is a very different hobby than role-playing, which I take part in most often. I’ve tried a few games over the years with minis. Some were true wargames like WarZone while others were toned-down versions like Savage Worlds or HeroClix. The deciding factor for these games to win me over was speed of play. I don’t want to check charts constantly when I’m playing a game. A character sheet and perhaps a index card-sized grouping of key rules is more than sufficient. I’ll allow for each player to work with their own screen because some games dictate that. At the end of the day though, a game system better have something backing it up if it plans on being convoluted. I realize that some people want as much realism as possible in their miniature combat. I’m not writing this review for those people. I’m writing from the other side, the side where realism takes a backseat after a spell. I’ll elaborate more as I continue. Related posts:

1. SJGames Week: Zombie Dice Review
2. Zombie Week: Zombie Tramp Comic Review
3. Zombie Week: Nox Arcana’s Zombie Influx Review

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Available at RPGNow.com

All Things Zombie comes from Two Hour Wargames. Wargaming is a very different hobby than role-playing, which I take part in most often. I’ve tried a few games over the years with minis. Some were true wargames like WarZone while others were toned-down versions like Savage Worlds or HeroClix. The deciding factor for these games to win me over was speed of play. I don’t want to check charts constantly when I’m playing a game. A character sheet and perhaps a index card-sized grouping of key rules is more than sufficient. I’ll allow for each player to work with their own screen because some games dictate that.

At the end of the day though, a game system better have something backing it up if it plans on being convoluted. I realize that some people want as much realism as possible in their miniature combat. I’m not writing this review for those people. I’m writing from the other side, the side where realism takes a backseat after a spell. I’ll elaborate more as I continue.

I have to assume that Ed Teixeira was the sole creator of this game as no credits page exists to refute the theory. The layout in the book, which is just under a hundred pages, is straightforward and clear, despite the immense number of graphs scattered throughout. Some of the graphs have uneven black bars, but all are easy to read. There is very little “wrong” with the layout; nevertheless, it fails to inspire. All the fonts are a dull standard font. There are no borders. There is no excitement. This was a textbook read for me.

The cover art enticed me. It reminded me of 80s zombie movie posters I used to see daily when I worked at a movie rental store. It’s a cool close-up of a zombie with the game’s title running along the bottom alongside a landscape of woods and escaping birds. Haunting and cool. The interior “artwork” consists of photos taken of miniatures. Some of these did make me laugh, but I don’t suspect that was the intention. One picture depicted a mini wielding a gun in one hand and a bottle of liquid courage in the other. That’s how I’d fight zombies too! These clear photos are expertly taken, but they remain close-ups of minis. Unless you’re a fan of photos of minis, I can’t imagine anyone being excited about these additions.

We now come to the writing. I mentioned earlier that this reads like a text book. I should point out that my belief is that all game books are essentially text books. Yep, even the setting heavy material qualifies. Game books may and should entertain the reader; however, the paramount goal of the book is always to educate. Education about the setting or system is simply the groundwork to these books. All Things Zombie didn’t entertain me in the least. I couldn’t figure out why someone wanting a RPG wouldn’t go with All Flesh Must Be Eaten; likewise, I had no answer to why Savage Worlds wouldn’t be explored for mini rules. There is a great adventure called Zombie Run that is much more the page turner than this.

Putting entertainment
aside though, how well did the game educate? Teixeira does a decent job of unloading a tremendous amount of game rules. There are still problems. In places, the writing says there will be two reasons for something, but only one is given. Since the book is laid out more like an ashcan than a finished product, it’s also difficult to find your place. I know bookmarks are wonderful little devices, but at a game table a book full of bookmarks is hardly helpful. There are rules like “Larger Than Life” that all but prevents “character” death. If that doesn’t make you feel safe enough, you can always use the “cheating death” rules. Neither of these really matter since most things can’t kill your characters anyway. You can’t be killed by those with a Reputation less than yours. Stars (you) have a reputation of five. Zombies have a reputation of four. What’s the point?

There are eight pages of charts in the back that players will want to print out for this game, this so-called “RPG-Lite” game. I do appreciate the fact that these are combined together for ease, although some of the space on these pages are a type of short-hand index (the book has an index. The charts just needed a smaller one).

All in all, I felt like this is an unfinished product that needs a great deal of further playtesting. I’d only suggest it for gamers who like to tinker with systems. My scores for this game are:

Layout: Two out of Five Dice (Bland)
Artwork: One out of Five Dice (The cool cover gives this one Die)
Writing: One out of Five Dice (A book three times larger than it should be)
Overall: One out of Five Dice (Trim this down, make it exciting, and make me eat my words)

Review by Todd Cash

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3. Zombie Week: Nox Arcana’s Zombie Influx Review

]]> http://www.flamesrising.com/all-things-zombie-review/feed/ 0 http://www.flamesrising.com/martians-review/ http://www.flamesrising.com/martians-review/#comments Thu, 27 Aug 2009 11:45:26 +0000 spikexan http://www.flamesrising.com/?p=3371 Twilight Creations earns the distinction of being the first board game I review. I’ve been familiar with the company since Zombies, moved through When Darkness Comes, and looked forward to their Deadlands release (I didn’t get a chance to play a demo, but I did hover for a little bit while a quartet enjoyed a brief visit to the weird west. Today, I’m reviewing Martians. Martians is a tile-based board game similar to Zombies. The game is intended for two to six players, ages thirteen and up. I should go ahead and point out that my five-year-old son, a board game enthusiast, wanted to try out this game. After reading the rules and deciding to go with the cooperative version, I told him he could try. Except for reading the cards, he quickly grasped the fundamental concepts of the game. He places little green men and tokens accurately; furthermore, he understood the turn sequence just as well as his dad (who had to sometimes look at the rules). Related posts:

1. Van Helsing Board Game Review
2. The Battle For Slaughter Gulch Board Game Review
3. A Touch of Evil Board Game Review

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Available at TwilightCreations.com

Twilight Creations earns the distinction of being the first board game I review. I’ve been familiar with the company since Zombies, moved through When Darkness Comes, and looked forward to their Deadlands release (I didn’t get a chance to play a demo, but I did hover for a little bit while a quartet enjoyed a brief visit to the weird west. Today, I’m reviewing Martians.

Martians is a tile-based board game similar to Zombies. The game is intended for two to six players, ages thirteen and up. I should go ahead and point out that my five-year-old son, a board game enthusiast, wanted to try out this game. After reading the rules and deciding to go with the cooperative version, I told him he could try. Except for reading the cards, he quickly grasped the fundamental concepts of the game. He places little green men and tokens accurately; furthermore, he understood the turn sequence just as well as his dad (who had to sometimes look at the rules). The artwork is probably a bit too intense for some parents, so approach this with caution. I’d personally rather him look at cartoon monsters than the Jonas Brothers (who I find really frightening).

Let’s talk artwork first. Dave Aikins artwork for the cards is perfectly demented.

Gruesome fates meet both Martians and humans on the cards. Some remain a bit neutral. Some of the cards are rather strange. “Four-sided Dice” depicts a dead alien. What killed it? D4s have been chucked into its exposed brain. That card works to prevent Martians from attacking your character. The cards and cover art possess high energy and manage to be somewhat creepy too, such as the card “This is not Happening.”

The artwork for the tiles has improved some since their first release. I personally prefer grids separating all nine segments of the board; however, I may feel differently the more I play this game. The tiles seemed a little too dark. The Crop Circle disks is way too dark. I would have liked more color contrast to make things stand out a little bit better. I did think the cinema marquee was a nice nod to both The X-Files and ET.

Bullets and Hearts return in this game. These are the same as in their other games. As long as they don’t go back to all black pieces for bullets and hearts, we are good. There are 100 Martian pieces that come in three poses. There are six player pieces that come in male and female variants. These little adjustments are a big win when these games can, on occasion, last an insane amount of time.

Writing-wise, I found no typos in either the rules, cards, or tiles. Clear details allowed me to set up the game and play in five minutes. Knowing Zombies didn’t really factor into things as my wife jumped right in too without ever having played their earlier release. The game allows for competitive or cooperative play. When our son played, we opted for cooperative. The game lasted about an hour. In co-op mode, you have to meet the winning criteria (blowing up the mother ship with three separate item disks) before all the Martians are placed on the board. In Competitive mode, you can win by the same means or be accumulating thirty kills. My wife and I played the Competitive mode later that night (it took roughly as long, but game play went
faster).

A fear some may have for this game is that it is too much like Zombies. This fear is remedied by the Martian Deck. You know all the cool things cards let you do to enhance your stats or screw over your opponents. The Martians get them too in this game. Certain tiles have an alien head watermarked into the center of them. When players hit these tiles, the Martians get a card. These cards are horrible, horrible things. For example, “This is Nothing Like the Video Game” forces players to discard down to three hearts and three bullets (In competitive mode, a single player is targeted). The Martian deck is terrible enough in co-op. In competitive, each card threatens to be a killer.

The disks also change the format of the game a little bit by forcing players to go to certain places. The disks are required to win (unless you’re feeling spry enough to off thirty Martians), so you have to traverse the board in order to collect all three types. Also, crop circle and the mother ship disks have to be investigated.

All in all, Martians ranks as my favorite game from GenCon. It demands as much strategy as players want to put into it while being rules friendly enough for a beer and pretzels night. My scores are a little different for a board game, but here goes:

Rules: Five out of Five Dice (Quick to learn/Makes sense)
Artwork: Three out of Five Dice (More color and distinction on the tiles/cards and pawns are good)
Playability: Five out of Five Dice (Engaging play/Creates good table banter)
Overall: Four out of Five Dice (Solid game)

Review by Todd Cash

Related posts:

1. Van Helsing Board Game Review
2. The Battle For Slaughter Gulch Board Game Review
3. A Touch of Evil Board Game Review

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