Family Game Night #1

(L-R) Auntie Chainsaw, Em, Aaron & Romeo

Last night Em and I had our first “family/friends game night” and I think it was a success.  We have decided to have one night a month dedicated to having friends and/or family and/or friends-who-are-basically-family over to enjoy tabletop gaming and food/drink.  For the first gaming night we invited four friends over, Meghan (Auntie Chainsaw), Dave (Romeo), Brando, and Sean.  Unfortunately Brando and Sean were unable to make the night but Meghan and Romeo were able to come over and enjoy some gaming.

We chose the game Zombicide Season 2: Prison Outbreak for a first gaming night and I think it was a success!  We chose a medium level scenario and started up the game right around 7:45PM.  After choosing our characters we set them up and started the zombicide.  For a while the game was going smoothly.  Romeo (as his character Grindlock) was able to find a concrete saw in order for us to be able to open the way into a well fortified prison.  With a little luck and some good weapon searches we made our way from the zombie filled street into the even-more-zombie-filled prison!

Around this time I (as my character Joshua) opened up some cell doors which held a ton of zombies and unfortunately killed off Grindlock.  The good news is we played in resurrection mode and he came back as a Zombivor (zombie + survivor…get it?) and was now even stronger!  Meghan (as Belle, the parkour star) was able to find a chainsaw (thus the new “Auntie Chainsaw” nickname) and start to empty the streets…or she would have if her dice rolls were better!  At one point some zombies moved a little quicker and were able to chomp her down as well.  She then came back as a stronger Zombivor and made quick work of the streets.

In an attempt to help out Grindlock I stupidly ran into a crowd of zombies and was unable to kill them all off with my claw hammer.  On their next turn the zombies finished Joshua off and on his next turn he also came back as a Zombivor.  While Grindlock (Romeo), Belle (Meghan), and Joshua (myself) were getting themselves chomped on by the crowds of rushing zombies, Em (as her character Shannon) quietly was killed off a ton of zombies with ruthless efficiency.  Her soldier background made her pistol use the best in the group and she made short work of most zombies.

Meghan sadly had to leave just before we finished the game to make her 2+ hour trek home but we took over for her and we were able to clear out the prison to create a safe place for our survivors (and now zombivors) and those who followed.  The last kill award goes to Romeo and he used his concrete saw to defeat a berserker abomination zombie before he got to the rest of us.  Woot!

Needless to say we had a ton of fun and can’t wait to have our next “family game night” where we believe we will be pulling out Munchkin.  Stay tuned to hear how that night goes.  Until next time, game on!

Mice & Mystics: Chapter One: Flight To Barksbury

Just a festival of geekery at our kitchen island last night (note the Tardis cookie jar we use to house our tea supplies)

All of my large game shipments have arrived and I now have a bunch of new games just waiting for me to play them!  My last post showed a quick preview of the different games that I now have in my possession so if you would like to see what they were just click back to my 7/7/14 post and ogle at the tabletop goodness!

This post is going to be the first in a series of posts that I will be creating that cover the story of one of my recent purchases titled Mice & Mystics.  This game is a “dungeon crawler” that is encapsulated in a ten chapter story.  The past two nights Em and I played through the first chapter.  I would say this chapter took us a total of about 2 ½ to 3 hours to complete and told the beginning of the story of our characters.

SPOILER ALERT!  If you are ever planning on playing this game you may not want to read ahead!  Otherwise enjoy the story.

Prologue:

This game tells the fascinating tale of a group of characters who live in an un-named fantasy kingdom.  They include Prince Collin, a warrior and son of King Andon, Nez Bellows, the tinkerer and forge worker, Tilda, the healer, and last but not least, Maginos, the king’s trusted advisor and mage.  These four friends come together when the king falls under an illness just as he is about to marry a mysterious and dark queen named Vanestra.  As the king’s illness progresses, Vanestra begins to take a greater hold over the kingdom, naming her own minions (including a man by the name of Captain Vurst) in charge of the house guard.  This is the point where Prince Collin and his three friends come together in order to create a plan to stop Vanestra from what her obviously wicked machinations.

Collin, Maginos, Nez, and Tilda meet in Maginos’s laboratory in order to formulate their plan.  Shortly into their gathering the door is kicked in and Captain Vurst and the house guard capture the four of them and throw them in the dungeon along with the worst criminals the kingdom had to offer.  While in the dungeons Maginos’s tiny ruby dragon, Meeps, brings a lock of Vanestra’s hair to the group.  Maginos proceeds to tell the group that with the power of her hair he can turn them into different creatures in order to escape.  However, as with most magic, it comes with a great price.  Whatever they turn into will be what they are stuck as for the rest of their lives as the spell has no counter.  A rogue, who is stuck in the same cell as them, a criminal by the name of Filch, suggests they turn into mice in order to sneak into the tunnels and escape.  It is decided that they will do just that and the spell is cast.

Chapter One: Flight to Barksbury:

The group now find themselves in the forms of mice.  They are able to collect their equipment (through an enchantment by Maginos) just as the guards notice them in their new bodies.  Vanestra turns her guards into rats and thus a chase through the undergrounds mouse-created tunnels ensues.

Story Break

At this point Em and I took control of two characters apiece (she chose the rogue filch and the mage Maginos while I chose the tinkerer Nez and the leader/warrior Collin) and played the game.  Perhaps in another post I will run through some gameplay, but now just now that we fought our way through the tunnels fighting rats (house guard), roaches, and centipedes as we went.  Halfway through we made the choice to do a side quest where we went back up into the castle to help an old friend.

Back to the Tale:

While fighting through the tunnels the group hears a shriek from the room above them and realizes that it is their loyal friend and the house cook, Miz Maggie.  The four friends and Filch choose to go up above and find Maggie screaming at a group of roaches that are trying to eat a wheel of cheese on the table.  As they poke their heads out Miz Maggie screams louder, “miiiiiiiice!”  Thankfully as Filch kills one of the roaches she realizes that they are dressed as her friends and she helps them by shooing the tomcat, Brodie, out of the kitchen.

The mice drop back into the tunnels and continue into the courtyards where they barely escape an old crow and make it to the safety of an old gnarled tree.  Inside the tree they find an entire bustling town of mice trading, working and living their lives out of the view of the human world.  They are brought to an elderly she-mouse named Linera who is lovingly called “Mother” by the other mice.  The group is fed and housed by the kindly Linera and it is during a meal that they realize something is vexing the mouse.  She then tells the group that many of her rangers have gone missing and included in them is her daughter, Lily.

End of Chapter One.

Thus ends the first chapter of the Sorrow & Remembrance book in Mice & Mystics.  As Em and I continue to play through this wonderful game I will post more of the story.  Until next time, game on!

Coming Soon...

This is just going to be a quick post letting you all know that I have a fairly sizable shipment of games coming in over the next week or so.  Below is a list of what's coming in so you'll know what to expect as you check out the blog.

I will be doing at least a small “unboxing” post for each of the games with possible reviews and playthroughs to follow.  As I continue to sell things and generate cash to buy new games, I will continue to grow my game library and post as this happens.

   

What follows is a list of the games that I have coming in soon:

• Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Rise of the Runelords Character Add-On Deck
• Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Rise of the Runelords Deck 2 – The Skinsaw Murders Adventure Deck
• Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Rise of the Runelords Deck 3 – The Hook Mountain Massacre Adventure Deck
• Hanabi
• Mice and Mystics
• Dungeon Petz
• Seasons
• Pixel Tactics
• Pixel Tactics 2
• Zombicide Season 2: Prison Outbreak
• Shift

This is a pretty good mixture of games and I intentionally tried to keep it that way.  Some of them are a lighter and quicker fare, while others are heavier and more in-depth.  I can’t wait to get my hands on them and will release a string of posts when I do.  Until next time, game on!

Unboxing: Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Rise Of The Runelords

One type of post that I hope to do every once in a while (money permitting!) is an unboxing post.  These posts will be done when I obtain a new game.  This will be my first, in what will hopefully be many, to come.  

So, lately, Em and I went through our apartment and did a “faux-spring-cleaning” where we chose to do away with many things that we just didn’t need any more.  With the extra money I chose to buy the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game from Paizo Inc.

This card game was created by the fantastic Mike Selinker and pits a bunch of fantasy characters against the world of the popular RPG Pathfinder series also by Paizo Inc.  The box contains over 500 cards which come together to create a rich world that you are able to take 1-4 characters through in order to fight and level up.  This box contains the beginning of the first adventure path which is entitled “Rise of the Runelords” and within that adventure path it holds a basic three scenario adventure and then a five scenario box that can be added in as the next adventure.

This box is overloaded with cards right from the get-go!  I love that you can choose from 7 adventurers (11 if you have the character add-on deck) and go straight out on an adventure.  I opened up the box and played two scenarios right away that evening when Em went to bed and loved every minute.  I chose to fight with Valeros (a grizzled, human fighter) and Seone (a seasoned sorceress) as my first two characters.  The first scenario took me a little while to figure out the card mechanics but once I did I was hooked.

Within the 500+ cards you get your 7 characters, items, weapons, spells, blessings, armor, barriers, villains (the big baddies), henchmen (the “mini-bosses”), monsters (the “common” baddies), adventure cards, and scenario cards.  This is a ton of goodies in one reasonably priced game (got mine for $60 but have seen it for $45 on Amazon) and I have no buyer’s remorse over it!

I may eventually do reviews and/or playthroughs on the blog, but for now I just want to give an idea of what you get when you unbox this game.  It is a game with beautiful artwork and fantastic “curb-appeal” and I think I’ll be enjoying it for a long time!  Until next time, game on!