In Which The Warlock Expands Upon an Unloved Position...

Friends and neighbors, if you're a frequent reader of this blog, you know something about me that puts me in a distinct minority of gamers. I don't like Eurogames.

Lots and lots of fiddly bits in Archipelago.

I bring this up because a weekend or two ago, the PlatinumChick and I spent some time up with some friends in Columbus playing games.  I introduced them to Sentinels of the Multiverse, while they returned the favor with a complex Eurogame called Archipelago.  I had a reasonable time, primarily because I was among friends that I rarely see, though I was swiftly reminded of all the things that I can't sand about Eurogames.

Unfortunately for me, Eurogames occupy a pretty pervasive position in gaming culture.  Mayfair Games, creator of the mother of all Eurogames, Settlers of Catan, is easily one of the biggest gaming companies worldwide.  Asmodee, as well, has made an empire on Eurogames, with thousands of players pushing small cubes and meeples to and fro with abandon.

So what don't I like about these games?  Let me set the record straight and count the ways...

1) The ability to play for hours, doing nothing.  Sonya got to experience this firsthand after being put in a precarious position at the various start of the game.  By chance, her starting location ended up being one rich in ore, one of the randomly-determined victory conditions.  Naturally, this caused a rush on her location, driving her out of the area before her turn even started.  For the rest of the game, Sonya was playing from behind, unable to contend in any reasonable way.

Precisely this.

2) Passive-aggressive conflict.  In Archipelago, players are supposed to be rival colonists exploring the New World, in an attempt to build successful towns, markets, and the like.  However, there's next to no ability to actively confront a rival colonist!  You can't sink ships, you can't declare war and conquer your enemies.  The worst you can do is the aforementioned "move into their territory", kicking them out.  Without the threat of actual, head-to-head conflict, not only does the theme suffer, but it limits significant options that would be otherwise interesting or entertaining.  Catan falls in this same trap with the Robber; the game becomes a match of bouncing him back and forth, with the character who can manage him best usually winning.

3) Theme.  With little fail, Eurogames tend to rely on the same theme over and over:  build civilization.  Either you're building a farm, building a castle, building a state, building a space empire.  In all cases, your entire point is to grow bigger and bigger, with victory points as secondary objectives at best.  There's no variance, there's no change.  While your resource cubes might represent ore in one game, chickens in another, and dilithium crystals in a third, in the end they're all the same:  X wood plus Y clay makes a city/woodshed/starship, while Y clay plus Z uranium makes a city/farmhouse/capital fleet.

Great theme, great PvP gameplay, with none
of the problems of a Eurogame!

There's simply nothing unique.  Arkham Horror and Mansions of Madness use primarily the same foes and even theme, but their mechanical differences make them unique animals, even as both are cooperative games.  And, in both cases, they're rich in the 1920s Lovecraftian theme.  A game like Chaos in the Old World utilizes unique mechanics and direct conflict to establish different victory conditions for each player...without resorting to X+Y=victory points. And, when playing, you feel like a Chaos God, spreading your tendrils throughout the Warhammer universe. 

4) Standing on the fence.  This one's a matter of taste entirely.  You see, I love Player vs Player games.  I have a reputation in Munchkin, simply because of my cut-throat tactics.  Ninja Burger is a perennial favorite, simply because of the balance between personal motivation and sheer dickery.  But, concurrently, I love cooperative games.  As I've mentioned, Arkham Horror and Sentinels of the Multiverse are fixtures at my game table.  But, Eurogames tend to ride an uncomfortable fence between the two that makes playing them unpleasant.  Settlers of Catan is a killer here, where the trade economy involves a passive-aggressive balance of self-improvement and prevention of others from doing the same.  That balance is rarely executed well and I find that devotion to one or the other provides a better game experience overall.

Obviously, I'm not the be-all and end-all of gaming.  People have different things that they enjoy.  I simply haven't come across any Eurogame that really scratches any itch for me, while most have the same flaws over and over, which tend to get my goat.  But, to each their own!

The Warlock's Review: Pirates vs. Dinosaurs!

(Aside:  Just a few days left to enter my 400th Entry Contest!  Three simple questions separate you from a pair of great PDFs!  Enter now!)

Unfortunately, due to my spring/summer hiatus, I didn't get a chance to do my traditional Origins recap as in past years.  I'm pleased to say that the con went spectacularly, with nearly every Cold Steel Wardens event going off, with players excited to see the book in print!  Plus, I actually got a chance to play my own game for the first time, as the PlatinumChick had an open slot in one of her Saturday "Birds in Flight" sessions.  It's a unique thing to sit down and play your own creation, rather than GM!

Pirates vs. Dinosaurs!

But, I didn't spend the whole convention behind the GM screen; I did manage to pull myself away from the big chair long enough to try out a few new games, including Jolly Roger Games' Pirates vs. Dinosaurs.  Created by revered game designer Richard Launius--creator of Arkham Horror and contributor to Greater Than Games' Infernal Relics expansion for Sentinels of the Multiverse--Pirates vs. Dinosaurs provides a fun little romp through a dinosaur-infested island in search of booty!

The game itself has two primary phases:  the "exploration" phase and the "dig" phase.  During exploration,  your pirates search the island for hidden landmarks necessary to find the treasure dig site.  Exploration phase is marked by Dinosaur encounters (facing off against nasty Velociraptors and the like) and Other encounters (which range from quicksand to cliffs to native islanders).  All encounters are inflicted by your fellow pirates, though you can encounter one dinosaur and one "other" encounter per turn, which keeps any one player from being saddled with tons of encounters.  Encounter cards are also used as personal one-shots granting additional dice, rerolls, or allowing for additional successes on the dice.

Sample encounter cards from Pirates vs Dinosaurs.
Note the bomb icons on certain cards:
Those indicate one-shot discard effects!

Defeating encounters hinges on your relics and equipment (chosen round-robin at the beginning of the game) and your crew, which attack as a series of dice.  While you never "lose" to an encounter, you do lose crew members, which mean less dice to roll--weakening you for future encounters--and limiting the amount of treasure that you can possibly carry during the "dig phase".  I would have liked to see some incentive or benefit gained for not losing crew members, but that would mean numerous changes to the game mechanics.

After finding the necessary landmarks, your pirate enters their "dig" phase, which is a "Press Your Luck" sort of mini-game in which your crew might unearth spectacular treasures, ancient curses, or inadvertently trigger a volcanic eruption.  The "dig phase" is neat concept, though it often ends up that the first player to reach the dig site garners the most treasure, ending up in a win for them.  Treasure is randomized by amount, so that's not always the case, though more treasure chests unearthed almost always equates to more treasure in tallying victory.

The board for Pirates Vs. Dinosaurs.
Not shown are the hidden "landmark" tiles,
which direct your pirate to the dig site (top right).

While Pirates vs. Dinosaurs is nominally a race game, it does include numerous player vs player elements.  In addition to playing encounters on one another, players may even have their crews battle one another, if in the same location, including the dig site itself. Unfortunately, there's just not a lot of incentive to actually fight one another. If you want to stay ahead of the competition, it's almost always a better choice to simply explore or dig, rather than actively fight one another.  If there were a more tangible benefit to PvP, I could see it becoming more viable.

As with pretty much any game by the esteemed Mr. Launius, Pirates vs. Dinosaurs does have its share of fiddly-bits.  Crew tokens, cards for equipment and relics, encounter cards, landmark cards and such seem like they would become overwhelming, though each pirate's placard helps keep these elements organized and straightforward.  I honestly wish that Arkham Horror's character placards were as well laid out as those for Pirates vs. Dinosaurs, to keep equipment and spells organized.  I was impressed with the quality of the game pieces overall, with clear, easy to read cards and easily interpreted symbols.

Most important of all:  is it fun?  Yes, yes it is.  There's really nothing like siccing a charging triceratops on a fellow pirate crew, driving them out of the swamps so that you can explore the area uninhibited.  While there are issues with the endgame--particularly the "first person there tends to win" problem, the game works actively to keep players engaged and interested even when it's not their turn, which is the hallmark of a great game.  Plus, it plays fast:  a single game rarely takes more than 90 minutes, counting set-up and tear-down.

Pirates vs. Dinosaurs is a spectacular little diversion well worth the sticker price.  Pick it up if you're a fan of Launius' other games, pirates, dinos, or any combination of the above!

In Which The Warlock Tosses in Everything (Including the Kitchen Sink!)

(Aside:  Have you entered into my 400th entry contest yet?  Three simple questions might be all that's keeping you from a PDF prize pack!  Deadline is September 1st!)

This summer has been somewhat brutal on my gaming schedule.  In addition to our usual convention circuit, two of our usual crew have been finishing up their doctoral degrees, which has put a damper on our usual dice-slinging.  We've gotten in quite a few rounds of Sentinels of the Multiverse and Arkham Horror, but neither of those scratches that omnipresent itch to roleplay.

The Lady of Pain
Ruler of the City of Sigil

With ChaoticFrederick's 4e mini-campaign petering out, I offered to take up the reins for a foray into one of my favorite settings:  Planescape!  However, I decided to do something that flies in the face of traditional "game balance".  You see, I told my players that they could play anything they wanted, as long as they could relatively legally stat it up using d20 rules.

Most GMs, I'm sure, are slapping their heads right now.  And, truth be told, the usual suspects around my game table were taken slightly aback at the myriad of opportunities.  "Can I play Cthulhu?" one asked me.  "Why, yes.  Yes, you can.  Straight out of the book, even!" I replied, as I passed them the d20 Call of Cthulhu book.  "Can I play a Pokemon master?" another retorted.  "Sure.  Go for it," I responded.

Don't tell my players this, but their actual choices in character aren't going to matter much in the scope of the ongoing campaign.  Not to say that they won't have massive input (and plot hooks) hanging on their characters, but rather that the nature of Planescape's oddity will let them fit into the City of Doors with no ill effects at all.  Plus, it gives me a chance to flex my GMing acumen by accommodating a party of wild diversity in terms of both mechanics and background.

So, what did my intrepid players end up choosing?  Let's have a look, shall we?

• A time-manipulating child, claiming to hail from the Lost City of Carcosa, which was drowned beneath the waves of Lake Hali.  With an air of innocence, he claims to know nothing of the sanity-blasting horrors which overtook that dread city in the name of The Yellow Sign. (Level 8)
• A massively powerful centaur scout stricken inexplicably with amnesia, now following a pseudo-Buddhist philosophy of balance, passivity, and non-violence. (Level 26)
• A shifter bard, alternating between charm and grace and phenomenal martial arts prowess, varying only on the beast within her. (Level 7)
• Queen Lilioukalani, the last queen of Hawai'i, gifted with Pele's blessing to control fire and lava.  Lilioukalani believes herself to be the very embodiment of Pele herself:  a goddess given mortal form. (Level TBD)
• Jim Bob, a non-descript farmer...who may have a unique destiny all his own. (Level 2)

My intent is to run "rings around the ring"--one session featuring each Sigil's noted factions, culminating with a chance to escape The Cage, while simultaneously providing a grand tour of Sigil itself.

What do you think, friends and neighbors?  Am I mad?  Am I biting off more than I can chew?  Time will tell, I suppose!

In Which The Warlock Returns to Blogging!

Wow.  Four months goes fast, doesn't it?!

While I'm still in the full-time job hunt, I've decided to refocus my writing efforts and get back on board the blogging train.  Maintaining a blog has been one of those routines that have kept me (relatively) sane over the past few years, so I'm hoping that I'll be able to provide my usual offbeat perspective once again in my scrolls.

On the home front, we haven't actually been doing a lot of serious gaming recently.  ChaoticFrederick ran a short 4e campaign, but mainly we've been subsisting on a steady stream of board games:  mainly Arkham Horror and Sentinels of Multiverse (which I now own every expansion for--thank you, Amazon gift cards!).  I'm looking to start a Planescape game in the near future and may be playtesting an upcoming Cold Steel Wardens campaign when Wittenberg is back in session.

Great for reading;
Even better as inspiration!

Speak of the devil, there's big news for Cold Steel Wardens!  We're forging our way through layout and gunning hard for a GenCon 2013 release.  Buzz has been really spectacular for my debut solo game and I've actually sold out of my five GenCon events!  For only running games on two days, that's a spectacular turn-out!

I'll be running the same two scenarios at GenCon that I ran at Origins:  "Needles by Moonlight", our two-hour demo session, and "We're All Mad Here!", my homage to Grant Morrison's classic Batman storyline, Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth.  Unfortunately, the PlatinumChick will not be joining me at GenCon.  That's a real shame, as her Birds of Prey-themed adventure, "Birds in Flight" was a huge hit!

One of the best parts about Origins, though, was meeting so many spectacular gamers.  Some of the newest ones that I've met, in fact, were the Rule Zero Podcast gang, who sat in a "Needles by Moonlight" demo game.  I made such an impression on them that they wanted to interview me!  Check out this interview, where we chat about comics, my gaming origins, some of the neat mechanics of CSW and more:  Rule Zero Podcast: Andy Klosky and Cold Steel Wardens

The whole publishing process has been a blur thus far, though the biggest surprise for me has been the phenomenal work my artists have done.  First up, take a gander at our cover art, done by the phenomenal Talon Dunning!

Cover art for Cold Steel Wardens
Created by Talon Dunning

And, we even have a spectacular logo, created by the enigmatic (though equally talented) Cheshire!

Trust me when I say this:  CSW is becoming a gorgeous book.  I can't wait to see it in print, and the days are coming very quickly!

As a last bit, so you know:  this entry marks my 398th blog entry.  Could it be that I'm gearing up for something big for number 400?!  Stay tuned, lovely readers!