Today we are looking at something a bit more uncommon for the world of Tabletop Games; a movie. I’m not even looking at a movie that is the component to a game such as is common with murder mysteries, not a movie based on a game in the manner of the 1985 masterpiece that is clue. Today we are looking at a documentary following a man attempting to sell his first game to a publisher in The Next Great American Game.
I will attempt to avoid too many spoilers but I will warn you that I may give away a few minor details; but due to the movie’s nature I do not think that should be an issue, but as is customary the warning should be issued.
The movie; directed by independent movie maker Doug Morse; follows...
Tag Archives: board
Worker Wednesday – Stone Age
Welcome back to the day we look at one of my new favorite mechanics; worker placement. We have thus far looked at a great selection of games within the genre of worker placement, but today we shall look at the one that has, to some of my friends, Jones Ruled out many of their old favorites as well as a game that was recently on TableTop - Stone Age.
Released 2008
Designer: Brend Brunnhofer
Plays: 2-4
EPT: 60 minutes
In Stone Age each player is guiding a community with the goal of having the most developed or most inhabited village at the end of the game… personally the theme is kind of week here and I was stretching just for that, but as is often the case in these games the winner is the person who accumulates the most points....
Follow Up Tuesday – Forbidden Island
Yesterday we took a look at the mechanic of cooperative play; a mechanic that must rely entirely upon other mechanics and yet when used tends to be the identifying mechanic. Having looked at the sub-mechanics of all-vs-one and betrayers; today we will follow up the pure default mechanic of all-vs-game as we look at a cooperative classic; Forbidden Island.
Vitals
Released: 2010
Designers: Matt Leacock
Plays: 2-4
EPT: 30 minutes
Since the mid 2000s the cooperative game has been becoming more and more common, and Matt Leacock is partially to thank. With his 2007 release of Pandemic followed up by the 2010 Forbidden Island and now the 2013 Forbidden Desert.
In Forbidden Island the players act as adventurers seeking to claim four great artifacts that have the power to control the elements. As the players move about the island they find...
Mechanic Monday – Cooperative Games
Once upon a time in a far off kingdom players would gather and enjoy crushing one another in a competitive game of intrigue, conflict, and deceit. One day a man was sitting below the oppressive fist of his component and a thought struck him, ‘I always lose.’ He thought as another of his armies was removed from the board; ‘wouldn't it be better if we were all on the same team?’ and thus the Cooperative board game was developed.
For the record; that may or may not have been the way the idea of playing as a team was developed, but I like to think it is. The mechanic of Co-op play is not new, though in older games it was represented more as a team-vs-team than an all-vs-game. For the last few years, however, there...
Favorite Friday – Legend of Drizzt
The year is 2000, the season summer, and my freetime plentiful. My brother had previously picked up the PC adventure game Baldur’s Gate and I had watched him play it some but had yet to dabble much myself. I decided it was time. The world of Faerun instantly pulled me in and hasn’t let me go since.
Baldur’s gate lead me down the path that would eventually lead me to meet the dark elf ranger Drizzt Do’Urdan. When I learned Drizzt was going to get his own game in the tabletop space following the novels I was excited; even so it was not until a couple years after the games release that I finally had the joy of picking up a copy and bringing it to the table. Before I jump into the game’s...
Wild Card Thursday – Game of Thrones (second edition)
Every once in a while a book, movie, show, or some other form of media takes the world by storm and the next thing we know there are posters, comics, games, toys, and various merchandise galore; one of the current hotnesses is Game of Thrones; the books as well as the show. In April of 2011 a hoard of new fans entered the fandom upon the release of the HBO show and thought man, someone should make a game about this. Low and behold, eight years earlier, Fantasy Flight had the same thought. FFG released the second edition of the Game of Thrones to coincide with the shows release and the game was suddenly a hit all over again.
As a fan of the fantasy genre I had been familiar with Game of Thrones for a...
Worker Wednesday – Russian Railroads
Monday we looked at the mechanic of Worker Placement and we have thus far looked at two other worker placement games; Caverna and Lords of Waterdeep. In today’s installment of Worker Wednesday we will continue our journey into the land of meeple management as I review Russian Railroads!
The vitals
Released 2013
Designer: Helmut Ohley & Leonhard Orgler
Plays: 2-4
EPT: 120 minutes
Many of my gamer friends know I am a sucker for train games; be it the train rails system, Ticket to Ride, or the 18xx series I love locomotives. Partnered with my love for train games comes a love for Russia; this can be blamed on having lived in Russia for a year while growing up. When I thus learned to love worker placement games I knew I had to give Russian Rails...
Mechanic Monday – Worker Placement
Worker placement; a mechanic that I have been referencing all year... or at least the two Wednesdays we have had thus far in 2015, and yet I haven’t dedicated a Mechanic Monday to it yet; that is what we in the biz call an oversight... or clever planning for the sake of building anticipation... I’ll go with the latter...
Today we shall delve into this mechanic to the full. What is worker placement? How does it work out in game? Why does it it work, or why may it not work? Thus far I have looked at two games that use this mechanic Caverna and Lords of Waterdeep. Both blogs are, in my biased opinion, worth taking a look at.
Let us first define the mechanic of worker placement. Keydom is the game...
Favorite Fridays – Dead of Winter
Zombies. Post apocalyptic conditions. Arctic cold. A group of survivors that have broken into sub groups following their own leaders with varied goals. These are all elements of a fantastic horror movies and shows; they are also all elements of this weeks installment of Favorite Fridays; Dead of Winter.
The vitals
Released 2014
Designer: Jonathan Gilmour & Isaac Vega
Plays: 2-5
EPT: 100 minutes
Dead of Winter is one of the few games I learned about well before its release; arguably since early on in its design thanks to the awesomeness that is The Plaid Hat Podcast (which I would highly recommend). I recall many days listening to the guys discuss the next game in the Vegian cannon; not City of Remnants 2 or an expansion, not another video game adaption like BioShock Infinite, but a new IP using...
Wild Card Thursday – Voice of the Mummy
Like most children I grew up familiar with Milton Bradley and their games. Sadly I was not familiar with their 1971 record player based game Voice of the Mummy until my cousin and co-host Sean introduced me to it many years into my gaming life. The idea of the game intrigued me as he explained it; I had heard of games that are soundtrack reliant, but a game from the 70s that was soundtrack reliant… that was shocking; especially when the soundtrack is on a plastic record!
The vitals
Released 1971
Designer: Unknown - released by Milton Bradley
Plays: 2-4
EPT: 30 minutes
As the game was explained to me I envisioned a giant old school record player sprouting out of a small game board with a candylandesque map. Then as I researched the game I was amazed at its...