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All posts for the month September, 2014
Klaus Teuber has reformatted his classic Settlers of Catan to bring gamers a new goal : Settle the Nile and build the Pyramids. Any fan of ancient Egypt will be excited to see this classic game redesigned to fit their interests. After you re-master the core game that we all know and love, variants and scenarios come to turn the game into a brand new adventure.
There are 10 god cards in Catan Ancient Egypt that grant players new options during the gameplay. You are depending on your oxcart in this game to build villages and temples while collecting resources from cattle pastures, quarries, and papyrus groves. The theme carries strong in this game with the Largest Mercanary Army and Longest Trade Route cards replacing the Largest Army and Longest Road cards. I’m looking forward to seeing more photos come forth about this new version of Catan. Contents of Catan: Ancient Egypt include:
- 19 Terrain Hexes
- 6 Frame Pieces
- 18 Number Tokens,
- 95 Resource Cards
- 25 Development Cards
- 4 Build Cost Cards,
- 2 Special Cards “Longest Trade Route” and “Largest Mercenary Army”
- 16 Temple Cities
- 20 Settlements
- 60 Oxcarts
- 1 Robber
- 2 Dice
- 2 Card Holders
- 1 Game Rules
- 1 Almanac
Additional Scenario Contents:
- 12 Papyrus Boats,
- 1 Pyramid Building Site
- 60 Pyramid Blocks
- 10 God Cards,
- 4 God Summary Cards
- 4 “Pharaoh’s Blessing/Curse” cards,
- 1 Vizier’s Favor Card
The game is scheduled to release in November 2014 and will retail at $75.
This week’s backpack pick is Council of Verona from Crash Games.
Designer Michael Eskue invites us into the world of Romeo and Juliet in this entertaining little card game. The main objective is to gain the most influence points by manipulating cards in order to complete your hidden agenda. The game is for 2-5 players and can be played is about 30 minutes or so. There are not a lot of cards in this game so setup is very quick. There are separate rules two-player games vs. three to five player games. There are also variant rule options including pub rules and there is even a Poison expansion available as well.
Council of Verona is set in the world of Romeo and Juliet with the two rival families The Montagues and the Capulets being present in the game. There are also some neutral characters making their appearance as well. Players take on the role of citizens of Verona, under the order of Prince Escalus to work to either add characters to the Council in Verona or exile them from the land in order to mediate the conflict between the rival families and bring peace to the land. This game employs a card drafting mechanic and the main elements of the game are bluffing and deduction.
A round takes place like this: For a normal 3+ player game, each player is randomly dealt on card. The first player then takes the remaining cards, chooses one to keep and then passes the remaining cards clockwise. Each player will continue to do this, selecting cards and passing them clockwise until the last player receives the remaining 2 cards. That player selects one card to keep and discards the other as it won’t be used in the game. Once the cards have been selected, place the Council and Exile cards on the table in the center to form the playing area in the shape of a T.
On a player’s turn each player will play one card, placing it into either the Council or Exile. If the card has an ability, you have the option to use the ability on that card as you play it. Other cards have Agendas on them. This is how you can score points. You can wager influence points by placing an influence token onto an agenda card on one of the open circle spaces. The numbers next to the circles represent point modifiers for end of game scoring. All cards that have been played either into the Council or Exile, become accessible to all players, meaning they can be moved around by card abilities, and can have influence tokens placed on them. Placing influence tokens is optional, and they are placed face down.
Once all cards have been played and the last player takes their turn, players have one final influence token, in turn order, if they have one remaining. Unused influence tokens have no point value. Next, all of the agendas on the character cards in play are evaluated to see if their condition is met. Any characters cards have agenda conditions that are not met, any influence tokens placed on them are discarded. The influence cards that have agendas that are met, are scored at the value of the influence token +/- any modifiers on that space.
The player with the most influence wins. In the case of a tie, the win goes to the person who had the earlier turn order.
This is a nice fun, light game that includes, card drafting, some wagering, and some bluffing as well. The mechanics of the game allow for a nice level of tension and excitement as card abilities are used to shift characters between the Council and Exile. The game has a very casual feel to it and it is perfect for couples all the way up to 5 people to play as well. The fact that it has a variant for pub play, makes this a perfect game to bring along there. With a short playing time, this game can be enjoyed at school during lunch or in a period between classes, or in the workplace with co-workers during lunch. The ease of play and simple rules, makes this game easy to learn and teach and can get even your non-gaming friends involved. #backpackpick
In a previous post, I reviewed the D&D Starter Set for 5th Edition, and i recommended it. Now the Player’s Handbook has been released and it brings you into the full player experience for the game. The 5th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons stands on the 3 pillars of adventure: exploration, social interaction, and combat. Dungeons & Dragons is a game that is driven by imagination where players are members of a party participating in various adventures. Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is a role-playing game where players assume the role of a character that they create on paper and bring to life during the adventures. The players take that role and interact with one another as their character, as well as with the Dungeon Master who is a narrator of sorts and controls the actions of the environment, creatures and non-player characters (NPCs) in the game. Over the course of many adventures, the characters gain experience and advance levels, giving them new, better, and stronger abilities. There are some new concepts introduced in this edition and some refinements made over previous editions, specifically ability advantages and disadvantages, movement of the game from tactical back towards theater of the mind, and some changes with spell slots and rituals. I will cover those more in a little bit
With the 5th Edition materials released so far, the first thing that impresses me is the presentation. The artwork on the covers has been amazing. The font, layout and artwork gives a very “experienced” game a fresh and modern look. The cover art for the player’s handbook has a party having an encounter with a fire giant. The starter set had a character engaging a dragon. So the theme so far is bringing in the “BIG.” so far covers for the 5th edition have had dragons and giants. Even though the cover looks awesome, what’s inside is what matters most.
Cracking open this new edition of the Player’s Handbook (PHB), the overall look and feel is high quality. There are 316 pages of information that is useful to players while experiencing Dungeons & Dragons. My first impression of the pages was this: Nice page layout with the columns, nice font selection, line spacing and use of bold type. The pages have this nice parchment appearing background that gives the look of an old tome without being distracting to the eyes. There are lots of well-layed out tables and charts and example text boxes that have a complementing highlight that adds to ease of use. Plenty of full color artwork is spread throughout the pages to draw you deeper into the D&D multiverse.
The book is divided into 3 parts and has 5 appendices, an index and a character sheet that can be reproduced. One thing I like is that there is a color difference in the bottom margin for each section. So you can easily move between sections of the book. The three main sections are: Creating a character, Playing the Game and the Rules of Magic.
The first section on character creation gives 170 pages of information on creating a character. This covers everything from choosing a race and class, to describing traits, to developing personality and background including bonds and flaws. Bonds are there to tie a character to the multiverse and some adventures offer specific bonds that can be used as well. There is a new concept called inspiration. It is a rule where the Dungeon Master can reward a player for playing a character in a way that’s true to his or her personality traits, ideal, bond and flaw. The inspiration award can be expended as an advantage roll, meaning make 2 rolls and keeping the higher of the 2, when making attack rolls, saving throws, or ability checks. With 170 pages of information and the added incentive to play out your character fully, really drives the heart of a role-playing game. It allows for players to really take on the role of their character and let the imagination do it’s work. This section also includes equipment for your character and feats that give them extra abilities. A nice feature I found in this section, was a quick-build option for each of the classes to quickly generate a character to start playing.
Moving on the the section on playing the game, this section covers the rules that govern how everything takes place. In Dungeons and Dragons, dice are used to determine certain outcomes for encounters and events. This section covers the rules for using the dice for checking abilities, initiative in combat, attack rolls, and saving throws. The concept of advantage and disadvantage is in here. This is a new rule that affects special abilities or spells that come up. With an advantage, 2 rolls are made with the higher roll being used, and with a disadvantage, 2 rolls are made and the lower roll is kept. I like this new rule. I think it brings more to the character, exploiting either strengths or weaknesses that a character has in a way that has more of an impact of certain ability checks. The book does a nice job of explaining this concept. There are good explanations for adventuring, covering time, speed, movement. Movement is measured in feet. The 5th edition rules do not focus on a grid system like 4th edition did for determining movement and position, rather it works at moving the game back towards the theater of the mind, making it less tactical. Personally, I prefer the theater of the mind because that is how I recall playing D&D as a kid back with 1st edition. However, page 192 of the PHB does give a variant for playing on a grid. The PHB also covers resting and what to do between adventures.
The third section covers the use of spells in the game. Several classes of characters are able to use magic and cast spells and this section covers that. One nice thing that is included here is rituals. Certain types of spells are considered rituals and can be performed as a ritual by taking time in advance to prepare them, and then it does not take up a spell slot. This is great for players who can anticipate things to come and can prepare certain rituals to keep the rest of their spell energy available by keeping the slots open.
Finally, there are a number of appendices that cover different things. Appendix A provides detailed descriptions of conditions characters may be in. For example, a frightened character has disadvantage on ability checks and attack rolls while the source of its fear is within the line of sight. These conditions incorporate the use of advantage and disadvantage. Appendix B covers the gods of the multiverse and Appendix C covers the Planes of Existence. Appendix D covers some creature stats that often times, through the use of magic, characters can transform themselves into. They can also be used as a micro monster manual for common creatures. Finally, Appendix E offers inspirational reading.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
The Player’s Handbook is a no brainer when considering a purchase. This is a wealth of information that is easy to navigate and understand. I love the layout of the pages and the color division of each of the sections. The large section on character creation, really drives this game to use the imagination and offers so much information to incorporate in playing out your role. To me, I like the new rules of advantage and disadvantage as well as the inspiration rule. This just helps to further flesh out the characters and allows the full character to be experienced and played out. The improvement on the rituals for spellcasting is huge. Being able to keep spell slots open is very important for magic using characters. The 5th Edition moving towards the theater of the mind and less tactical to me streamlines the game. I am not opposed to grid play, but I like to use my mind more. I highly recommend this new edition for players who are ready to jump in to the 5th Edition rules as well as those who got the Starter Set and are ready for more.
This week’s backpack pick is Fairy Tale: A New Story from Z-Man Games.
This is the second edition of Fairy Tale and is being distributed by Z-Man Games. In this edition there are 10 new cards, bringing the card total to 110 cards, and there is a variant rule from Richard Garfield that pertains to team play. The game is for 2-5 players and can be played is about 20 minutes or so. The basic game, uses only 80 cards and is only for 2-4 players, but the expert rules uses all 110 cards and increases the player count up to 5 players. The game also has rules for playing as teams.
Fairy Tale is a quick-playing card drafting game where players compete with one another to draft cards from various factions to earn victory points. Sounds simple enough right? Each card has a faction icon that it belongs to and also a card type. These faction and card types can affect certain cards’ scoring abilities. Each card not only has a point value attached to it, but it also has an ability that can cause cards to flip, putting them out of play, including your own cards.. Plus you draft more cards than you play each round, making every card choice very important.
Over the course of 4 rounds you will draft 5 cards each round. Once you draft the 5 cards, BUT, you are only allowed to play 3 of them and the remaining 2 cards and discarded face down. As cards are played, they are placed face up in front of you in your play area. These cards remain in play until the end of the game. Each card as it is played has it’s effect resolved. This can result in cards being flipped or unflipped. You want to have your cards face up for them to be worth points. Some cards have Friend Icons on them, where the point values are determined by the quantity of a friendly card you also have played. Other cards have point values determined by the quantity of a specific card you have in front of you.
There are some cards that have a conditional score value attached to them, meaning they are only worth points, if you meet the requirements.
At the end of the 4th round, all face-up cards in your area are scored. The player with the most points wins.
This is a very satisfying card drafting game. It is a lighter-style game that can be played almost anywhere because it does not take up a lot of room. This is a quick-playing game with enough strategy to keep players engaged over multiple games. The basic rules are fine to teach new players, but you want to play using the expert rules. Using the expert rules brings in those 30 extra cards that give the game what it needs. #backpackpick