Octopus Overlords

Century Spice Road sold out at Origins, but I was able to get in a full game during a demo.

The basic rules are very simple. Turns go by very quickly. There's no shuffling. You build a resource engine. While doing all of this, you need to keep in mind the end game is about making buildings for Victory Points. They'll end up within a reasonably close range, and good timing will make the difference. I was blocked and ended up jumping the gun when buying my first building. The lower VP cost and another player snatching a high-value building worth an extra 3 VPs due to positioning put them just ahead of me by 2 points.

I am waiting for my copy to arrive by FedEx this week.

hentzau wrote:So really what you need is a secondary screen that just shows the player map on the second screen and allows you to manipulate it on your primary screen, right? Interesting. I wonder if Fantasy Grounds could handle that? I don't have any experience, just mumbling outloud here. I'll do some research, because the idea is intriguing.

Yep.. that's it .. not too complex of an issue I hope.

It's on sale on Steam, so I picked up Fantasy Ground there. Thankfully I had a backlog of Steam gift cards (I tend to buy stuff normally and save up the cards for big purchases where it's harder to justify) and splurged on the ultimate version. Haven't tried it yet, but supposedly you can run 2 copies of the client on the same PC so one is GM client and the other is the demo client. With the Ultimate version, I can be the GM/Host and it will let demo clients fully participate, so that's cool. If I can get some of the older laptops working, everyone can use the demo client to play and I can leave the 2nd client up on the TV as a big overview.

Let me know how it works!

Kicked ass on a 4-star difficulty MANSIONS OF MADNESS scenario last night. It was the Silverwood Manor one, and to date is probably one of my favorites I've played so far. Really cool mechanics and challenging without being frustrating. One of us was wounded and the other insane, but we still managed to pull off the victory.

Because we had some limited time left over, we broke out PANDEMIC: CONTAGION. This was the first time playing for 3 of the 4 of us, and was a refreshing break from our typical co-op games. I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I wasn't expecting much since I'm not a big fan of PANDEMIC: THE CURE, and I thought this would be similar but with cards instead of dice. Instead, I really enjoyed the on-the-fly strategy changes that the Event cards forced, and the careful timing in order to maximize score. I wound up losing by a hair, but was happy with my second place finish. We all enjoyed it enough that it will probably be brought to future game sessions as a spare when we have 30-45 minutes left over.

We currently have the following games locked in and pre-ordered:

- Adventures on the Red Planet
- Gloomhaven
- Black Orchestra

We'll also be picking up Pandemic Legacy: Season 2 day one. So plenty of stuff to keep us slammed throughout the rest of the year.

Anyone want to help me mess around/learn Fantasy Grounds? The license I bought allows demo players to connect and play.. Tomorrow is no good, but looking at Sunday afternoon/early evening...EST...
Could be a decent opportunity if someone wants to see how the software works...
Forewarning...I'm still shaky on the use so not sure how well this will work out.
We'll have to use built in chat or 3rd party voice stuff.

Punisher wrote:Anyone want to help me mess around/learn Fantasy Grounds? The license I bought allows demo players to connect and play.. Tomorrow is no good, but looking at Sunday afternoon/early evening...EST...
Could be a decent opportunity if someone wants to see how the software works...
Forewarning...I'm still shaky on the use so not sure how well this will work out.
We'll have to use built in chat or 3rd party voice stuff.

I was just looking at this software, did a quick search here to see if anyone ever used it, and low and behold I see your timely post.

I'm interested in seeing how this works. It's been a long time since I've played D&D but I bet the rules come back quickly. My buds who I used to play are spread across the map now so this is the only real hope of ever doing it again. I figured if I learn enough on how to DM then maybe I can talk them into trying it. Anyway, let me know the details and I'll try to join you.

edit: FYI, I started creating a character using the demo but it became clear that you need to have access to the other resource material to do that.

Smutly wrote:

Punisher wrote:Anyone want to help me mess around/learn Fantasy Grounds? The license I bought allows demo players to connect and play.. Tomorrow is no good, but looking at Sunday afternoon/early evening...EST...
Could be a decent opportunity if someone wants to see how the software works...
Forewarning...I'm still shaky on the use so not sure how well this will work out.
We'll have to use built in chat or 3rd party voice stuff.

I was just looking at this software, did a quick search here to see if anyone ever used it, and low and behold I see your timely post.

I'm interested in seeing how this works. It's been a long time since I've played D&D but I bet the rules come back quickly. My buds who I used to play are spread across the map now so this is the only real hope of ever doing it again. I figured if I learn enough on how to DM then maybe I can talk them into trying it. Anyway, let me know the details and I'll try to join you.

edit: FYI, I started creating a character using the demo but it became clear that you need to have access to the other resource material to do that.

The demo is limited, plus anything you do in the demo won't be saved.
I have the ultimate license (It is on sale at Steam). This allows me to host/dm a game with user who are only using the demo version. Once a user connects to me, the user gain access to the player resources I have purchased (modules, players handbook, etc..) I ended up buying the players handbook, DM guide, and monster manual...
I am heading out for the day, but will post back here later tonight on the details for anyone that wants to join.

[redacted] is a social deduction board game, where players are spies infiltrating an embassy party. There are different scenarios, but the basic idea of the scenario I played was that there were three teams (US, China, Russia) of two players, plus we had a seventh person on their own (Interpol). Players only knew what team they were on, not who else was working with them. The teams were each trying to look for a piece of intelligence (one available) and then escape from the embassy with it (via helicopter or car). You could also, if you could find it, bombs that you could use to bomb helicopters or the car. (A second way to win the game was to destroy the pair of helicopters for each of the two other teams - so four total). Interpol's mission was to try to catch people with a bomb red handed (and win if they catch two of the bombs).

Only one person could be in a room at a time, and when you enter a room with another person, you interact with them, where each side picks the card for either a friend or neutral interaction, or one of three weapons for a fight. Friendly interactions allow you to give items or heal each other, whereas a fight might allow the victor to steal an item, hurt the person (make them slower) or get a chance to see what team they're on. fighting works like rock-paper-scissors, but after every use of a weapon, you cant use it until you've used all three (which might mean that depending on the situation, you might know what weapons they could still use).

Rooms have different powers. Some allow you to pick up items or an additional weapon. One room allows you to call one of the helicopters (you select which teams helicopter, and it could be another team if you plan to blow it up). An X-ray room allows you to search peoples items whenever they go through certain doors. Another gives you more chances to see a players team, and so on. An infirmary allows you to heal yourself. There's a room where you can lock off part of the house and another allows you to turn off the lights (which prevents interactions in dark rooms).

So it's an interesting game, and it could be very, very good, but it's got some flaws. One is the complexity, but that wouldn't be so much of a problem after a play or two. Another is that it seemed a lot more efficient to just try to achieve the goals and not try to bother to find out people's teams, and just figure it out by their behavior (or once they said it out loud).

But the really weakness in the game is that after an interaction happened, one person would get kicked out of the room, and, if there was a person in that room, another interaction would happen. Given that people would cluster around in some areas, and the map wasn't really all that big to begin with, especially for 7 players, that would usually mean that several interactions would happen in one turn. It seemed kind of absurd, really slowed down the game, and all the fighting didn't seem in the spirit of the spy theme.

The game did have a fun (if pretty silly) chase at the end as everyone tried to grab the intelligence from one spy, and it would go from one team to another to the third, etc.

For those interested, I will probably do a test of Fantasy Ground around 5PM or 6PM EST tomorrow... Assuming I can get it working properly over the Internet.
Any preference for talky talky software?

Punisher wrote:For those interested, I will probably do a test of Fantasy Ground around 5PM or 6PM EST tomorrow... Assuming I can get it working properly over the Internet.
Any preference for talky talky software?

I'm game. No preference on voice software. I'd be downloading and configuring whatever you suggest.

I have a live D&D game going this afternoon/evening, but I'll be interested in your AAR...

Just finished a test session with Smutly..
Overall I think it went well. This software has a lot of potential for me. it will take a bit before I am fully comfortable with it,but since I will be playing with family, that will be fine.
Lots of little things we were able to figure out through trial and error/googling...
A big thing for me is that it does all the calculations for me. This is important since I am not familiar with the rules enough. For example, if I need an NPC to attack a PC, I drag the NPCs weapons ATK to the PC and it rolls the dice for me and lets us know if it hits or not. If a critical roll is made it takes that into account when it is time to roll for damage as well.
Once a character loses its HP, it will also automatically roll the death saving throws for them...
It is not perfect though... movement doesn't seem to have any limits regardless of speed for example... and we weren't sure if a PC that had no HP was still allowed to fight (i just looked it up and 0HP =unconscious, so no), but the game allowed us to without warning, so keep that in mind, it won't let you know if something is against the rules..
This is purely to help facilitate a game and make some things easier, which so far, it appears to be doing.. It is not a replacement for learning the rules.
I'll let everyone know how my first session goes with the family.. So far, no regrets though.

Punisher wrote:Just finished a test session with Smutly..

Thanks for letting me check things out with you, Punisher. It was definitely educational.

From my perspective, I think this has a lot of potential -- especially for those of us who have been away from the game for a while. I think the good news is that we were able to answer most of our questions as we stumbled through it. I can definitely see how this could be a good tool once everyone gains proficiency with it. As Punisher said, it doesn't stop you from doing something against the rules. It just facilitates groups playing who actually know how to play.

My interest is playing with a group over the internet. Punisher's is to use as an aid while playing face-to-face. In either case, seems like it would work once you can get past the learning curve.

Finally played Mansions of Madness (been wanting to check it out for years), playing the intro scenario. It says it's 60-90 minutes, but it was two and a half hours. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot more than Arkham Horror, Elder Sign and Secrets of the Lost Tomb. I'm not sure whether to judge it better than Betrayal (It's a lot more structured and story rich than Betrayal, but that's lighter and quicker and far more replayable.


The story wasn't too heavy - I can imagine the other scenarios have better stories, but it was pretty good. OTOH, I liked the length and especially the difficulty level, and the others look to be far harder and much longer.' I also like how other events can happen (eg, it seemed like there was some sort of deadline to do something, with a branch in the storyline depending on whether you complete the task by the deadline or not)
It really does seem like an RPG in board game form (and playable in something like 2-6 hours or whatever) with the app as DM. The app is very cool, as are the puzzles needed to be solved at some points. OTOH, there doesn't seem to be very many scenarios.

Also, it seemed like the developers could have just taken the app a little further to make the whole game a computer game.

In celebration of the 4th of July (somehow related I guess)... I played another game of High Frontier. Slowly adding more modules to the game, this time I added freighters. Next time I think I am going to add everything but futures and combat. Not sure I will ever add the combat, it just doesn't really fit the space exploration theme I am more going for.

Anyways this time I set my goal of getting a factory built out as far as I could. I first set my sights for the asteroid belt, hoping to build something out on a metallic site since I had a M class freighter. However I failed my prospecting on these planets and finally had to change plans. I had to leave my crew on Ceres for... some 12 years. I had miscalculated and was going to be unable to refuel my rocket so... they had to wait for a rescue rocket. I'm not going to lie, I felt a little bit bad about that. In my mind I created some stories about what the crew was going through. It wasn't pretty, but eventually the rescue crew was able to make it and rescue them. So instead I made my way for Ceres. Once my crew arrived at Ceres I was able to prospect, stake a claim, and build a factory. This factory was eventually able to produce a freighter that transported lots of really great technologies which then allowed me to make it to Comet Halley.

I was unsuccessful building a factory on the comet, but I was able to use it as a pit stop... for... years honestly. Like near 5 years of refueling. Hope my crew liked chilling on the comet... probably was quite a ride. Then I made my way over to pluto over the course of... I'm not sure, maybe another 15 years. But I needed another quick stop to refuel for 2 more years before finally being able to safely land on Pluto. And then once I did I easily claimed it and started a factory up.


Factory established on Pluto, mission success. Finally.

All in all the game went great, although... I think 80 years to set up a factory on Pluto seems a little long.

Also got a chance to try out my new ships and freighters to upgrade the base game ships.


New ships and freighters, a nice looking upgrade on the table. Upgraded Bernals arriving soon.

Now that Little B 8.4 is old enough, I'm starting to take my first tentative steps into the board gaming world. It's a little intimidating, but I've received some good recommendations from friends and OO'ers.

I picked up King of Tokyo and Dragonwood for us to play over the holiday weekend, and both were big hits. Of the two, I think we both enjoyed Dragonwood more. We even taught Mrs. Skinypupy (who doesn't typically enjoy games at all) to play it, and we all had a blast.

Now to figure out what game is next...

Recommended:
Munchkin Treasure Hunt
Monster Factory or Kids of Carcassonne

Chrisoc13 wrote:I played another game of High Frontier....

Thanks for all these writeups. I'll have to start working on trying to find a copy. : )

Skinypupy wrote:Now that Little B 8.4 is old enough, I'm starting to take my first tentative steps into the board gaming world. It's a little intimidating, but I've received some good recommendations from friends and OO'ers.

I picked up King of Tokyo and Dragonwood for us to play over the holiday weekend, and both were big hits. Of the two, I think we both enjoyed Dragonwood more. We even taught Mrs. Skinypupy (who doesn't typically enjoy games at all) to play it, and we all had a blast.

Now to figure out what game is next...

Any of the following will likely appeal to an 8-yr-old: Ticket to Ride: Europe, Love Letter, Sushi Go, Splendor, and Formula D. And perhaps a good co-op game, such as Castle Panic and its expansion, Forbidden Island or Forbidden Desert, or Flash Point: Fire Rescue. If possible, I suggest visiting a Friendly Local Game Store (FLGS), where you can try before you buy to figure out what seems most appealing.

Anonymous Bosch wrote:And perhaps a good co-op game, such as Castle Panic and its expansion, Forbidden Island or Forbidden Desert, or Flash Point: Fire Rescue.

On the co-ops, don't be a Coop. Let her make her own decisions. Advice and all is cool, but let her control her side of things.

Also, if she is sensitive, Flash Point could be bad. I stopped using animal tokens as victims in that game because my kids flip out if a cat or dog dies (screw the human corpses littering the house though).

Another fun option is Cardline: Animals and Cardline: Dinosaurs, bonus they are really cheap too! Basically you take turns building out a line of animals by length or weight. The more the line is built out, the harder it gets as the ranges become smaller. It's also really easy to handicap the game. If you start with 6 cards, have your kid start with 4 and she will likely kick your ass.

Zarathud mentioned Monster Factory, but I think that's a bit simple for an 8 year old. I sold our copy because my 7 year old had moved past it. Kids of Carc might be too simple as well, but that's more questionable. I guess you can't go wrong though. If they don't work for her, save them for the twins.

Thanks for the recommendations, very helpful. Castle Panic was high on the list already. She loved the Batman version of Love Letter, but it's stupid expensive compared to the regular version. We'll see on that one. I have the iPad version of Splendor, will see how she likes that one.

Chrisoc13 wrote:Also got a chance to try out my new ships and freighters to upgrade the base game ships.

Those look fantastic!

Skinypupy wrote:Now that Little B 8.4 is old enough, I'm starting to take my first tentative steps into the board gaming world. It's a little intimidating, but I've received some good recommendations from friends and OO'ers.

There's also a kid version of Ticket to Ride called Ticket to Ride First Journey if you want something easier to digest. Might possibly be too simplified, depending on your kid, but its working well so far for my 7.0-year-old.

Castle Panic has been a huge success with my kid, though I did manually dial down the difficulty a little bit after the first few games were horrible losses. I'll up the difficulty again once I see her making more strategic decisions with her moves.

King of Tokyo has been a big hit with my kids so far.

I have the Forbidden Desert/Island games ready to go but I haven't tried them yet with my kiddos.

I see Mice & Mystics recommended a lot for playing with kids. I think it'd be too complex for my kid at this point but might be worth considering for yours. The theme has a lot of kiddo appeal for sure.

I just ordered Near & Far (sequel to Above & Below). I'll have to give the rulebook a readthrough but I'm hoping it's something my kid could handle.

Skinypupy wrote:Thanks for the recommendations, very helpful. Castle Panic was high on the list already. She loved the Batman version of Love Letter, but it's stupid expensive compared to the regular version. We'll see on that one. I have the iPad version of Splendor, will see how she likes that one.

I play with my 10.11 and 7.10 year olds. They like Castle Panic, Settlers of Catan, and surprisingly (because we always get creamed) Pandemic. Blokus is good for quick fun as is Hive.

When you are looking for games, are you aware of camelcamelcamel.com for tracking prices on Amazon? I only learned about it in March and it has shocked me how much prices vary throughout the year.

Played a 2 player game of One Deck Dungeon tonight. Very fun! Light little dice chucker. Looking forward to more.

I decided to go (REALLY) old school and taught my daughter Backgammon last night on the PC. She loved it. So I guess we're going Backgammon shopping this weekend to find an actual set. I didn't realize how pricey those things can get.

hentzau wrote:Played a 2 player game of One Deck Dungeon tonight. Very fun! Light little dice chucker. Looking forward to more.

I just picked this up myself, and I was pleasantly surprised how meaty the game play could be for such a small package. It's definitely going in my suitcase when I head out of town next week.

YellowKing wrote:I decided to go (REALLY) old school and taught my daughter Backgammon last night on the PC. She loved it. So I guess we're going Backgammon shopping this weekend to find an actual set. I didn't realize how pricey those things can get.

Head to the thrift stores and see if you can find an old briefcase version.

Fishbelly wrote:

hentzau wrote:Played a 2 player game of One Deck Dungeon tonight. Very fun! Light little dice chucker. Looking forward to more.

I just picked this up myself, and I was pleasantly surprised how meaty the game play could be for such a small package. It's definitely going in my suitcase when I head out of town next week.

I want to pick up another set so you can play with more than just two. And I need to see if it's too late to get on the pre-order for the next version, since I missed the kickstarter. I must admit, we won fairly handily on the beginner dungeon...both of us were only down one wound when we beat the boss. But I just now realized that we screwed up one of the rules pretty big time...on Perils, you can't trade in two dice for a heroic die, and I'm pretty sure we were doing that. So, I need to put a big old asterisk next to our win.

They're taking preorders for the expansion here:
https://one-deck-dungeon-forest-of-shad ... ders/85998

Hmm. Plastic cards...I need to investigate this.

hentzau wrote:Hmm. Plastic cards...I need to investigate this.

Plastic cards are waterproof, durable, and still very smooth to shuffle. Most people say that they feel like normal cards! You should never need to sleeve plastic cards, but avoid getting acidic foods or drinks on them. That can damage the coating. Both types of cards fit safely in the box (normal cards fit with sleeves, unless they are very thick sleeves)

I think you'd want to match your card material for the base game, though, so you can mix'n'match components from both sets.

hentzau wrote:on Perils, you can't trade in two dice for a heroic die, and I'm pretty sure we were doing that. So, I need to put a big old asterisk next to our win.

You're also not even supposed to roll dice that don't match the color of the peril, so there shouldn't even be the possibility to combine dice into a hero die.

wonderpug wrote:

hentzau wrote:on Perils, you can't trade in two dice for a heroic die, and I'm pretty sure we were doing that. So, I need to put a big old asterisk next to our win.

You're also not even supposed to roll dice that don't match the color of the peril, so there shouldn't even be the possibility to combine dice into a hero die.

Yeah, just figured that out too.

And even though the rules don't come right out and say it, you do roll dice that match the dungeon-supplied challenge as well, I'm assuming. So if I'm going after an agility challenge and the dungeon level has a yellow 5 that I also have to overcome, you get to roll your yellow dice as well. It's with those extra dice that you could theoretically discard dice to get a hero die.

wonderpug wrote:

hentzau wrote:Hmm. Plastic cards...I need to investigate this.

Plastic cards are waterproof, durable, and still very smooth to shuffle. Most people say that they feel like normal cards! You should never need to sleeve plastic cards, but avoid getting acidic foods or drinks on them. That can damage the coating. Both types of cards fit safely in the box (normal cards fit with sleeves, unless they are very thick sleeves)

I think you'd want to match your card material for the base game, though, so you can mix'n'match components from both sets.

I'm crazy enough I thought briefly about dropping another $20 on upgrading the cards from the base game to plastic, though...but then I'm looking at $65 spent on a filler game. Wait, closer to $80 including my original copy of the game. OK, just the base game it is, and let the cards fall where they may!

hentzau wrote:

wonderpug wrote:

hentzau wrote:on Perils, you can't trade in two dice for a heroic die, and I'm pretty sure we were doing that. So, I need to put a big old asterisk next to our win.

You're also not even supposed to roll dice that don't match the color of the peril, so there shouldn't even be the possibility to combine dice into a hero die.

Yeah, just figured that out too.

And even though the rules don't come right out and say it, you do roll dice that match the dungeon-supplied challenge as well, I'm assuming. So if I'm going after an agility challenge and the dungeon level has a yellow 5 that I also have to overcome, you get to roll your yellow dice as well. It's with those extra dice that you could theoretically discard dice to get a hero die.

The boxes on the peril side of the dungeon challenges (the left side) are all grey, and are assumed to be the same color as the peril card choice you make.

wonderpug wrote:

hentzau wrote:

wonderpug wrote:

hentzau wrote:on Perils, you can't trade in two dice for a heroic die, and I'm pretty sure we were doing that. So, I need to put a big old asterisk next to our win.

You're also not even supposed to roll dice that don't match the color of the peril, so there shouldn't even be the possibility to combine dice into a hero die.

Yeah, just figured that out too.

And even though the rules don't come right out and say it, you do roll dice that match the dungeon-supplied challenge as well, I'm assuming. So if I'm going after an agility challenge and the dungeon level has a yellow 5 that I also have to overcome, you get to roll your yellow dice as well. It's with those extra dice that you could theoretically discard dice to get a hero die.

The boxes on the peril side of the dungeon challenges (the left side) are all grey, and are assumed to be the same color as the peril card choice you make.

Seriously??? They looked very similar to the Yellow boxes to me. I'll have to look under better lighting at home. That makes the perils way more...perilous.

Yup, check "Step 3: Roll your Dice" on page 13 (I have the v1.5 manual) for peril encounters:

"In a peril check, only gather dice matching the color of the challenge box for the chosen option [and heroic dice from your feat and level bonuses]."

Also on "Encounters (part ii)" on page 29:

"In a peril encounter ... the boxes on the left side of the dungeon card are grey, but are considered to be the same color as the box of your chosen option."

Terry from our game group got in on the plastic card upgrade for One Deck Dungeon. He's just going to give me his old set which is the only reason I haven't picked it up yet. I've never seen him turn down a component upgrade.