Claustrophobia: De Profundis

Here is a musical video (poorly filmed) of De Profundis.

Video Review #11: Dorn

Reprinting already?

I want to thank all the Blueprint Vocational users out there.

 Liber sent me a letter last week stating that they don't have enough books to last out the year, so they are preparing a reprint. Since the book has only been out for a month and a half, that's a good sign that people like it.

Video Review #10—Discworld: Ankh-Morpork

Is it just me or are my video reviews getting worse? I seem to forget everything I wanted to say.

Oh well, Discworld: Ankh-Morpork is a fantastic game! It's currently my favorite game to play.

Written Game Review: The Hobbit

The Hobbit (2010)

Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games
Designer: Reiner Knizia
Price: 280–299 SEK

So you've read everything penned by J.R.R. Tolkien at least three times, watched the Peter Jackson movies over and over, and given each of your children elven names. Naturally you're going to want Reiner's Knizia's The Hobbit published by Fantasy Flight Games, or are you?

In The Hobbit, each player takes on the role of a nameless dwarf who is escorting the adventuring hobbit, Bilbo Baggins. Along the way, you will be bickering over food, magical items, experience and treasure. While the dwarves are bickering amongst themselves, Smaug is slowly heading toward Laketown.

The game is broken into four stages which end in adventure circle: Battle the Goblins, Fight the Wargs, Escape from the Mirkwood Elves and Kill Smaug the Dragon. The players have events that can build up their characters before reaching the area where they will have a series of adventures. Completing adventures rewards the dwarves with gold. Failing adventures leads to injuries, lost provisions or Smaug moving closer to Laketown. After the last adventure card from the fourth stage is resolved, the dwarf with the most treasure wins the game. However, if Smaug has moved to Laketown, everyone loses.

Events generally use a bidding system to see who gets what. Each dwarf has five cards numbered from 1–60 and choose one to bid with. When the event says "The party advances," the players advance the Bilbo figure on the playing board one space for each player (3 space, however, for a 2-player game). Each space holds a reward or curse representing experience, insight, or an accident which affect the dwarves' three stats (initiative, cunning and strength) and their provisions. 

Players bid one card on which reward/curse provided by the spaces Bilbo just moved through. The lowest bid gets the first step, the second lowest the next step and so on. Some events grant all dwarves increased abilities for free (or paid for via provisions) or offer a powerful item that is only given to one character (either the highest or lowest bid, depending on the card).

Eventually the dwarves will reach the adventure circle at the end of the stage. Then the players will take turns drawing adventures cards. Each adventure cards has a challege and a treasure reward. To complete the adventure on the card, the player must roll five special dice with axes (Strength), provisions, and a shield (Initiative) and get the required result (e.g., 1 shield, 4 axes and 3 provisions). High character stats for initiative and strength provide some automatic shields and axes. As your cunning increases you get an increasing number of reroll attempts. Provisions can be spent to help fulfill the provision requirement. In addition the player holding the Ring gets to set one die to any result.

If you succeed, you get the treasure and the adventure card is discarded. If you fail, you have to take a Smaug tile and apply the "bad stuff" (e.g., lose two provisions and move Smaug one space) and the next player can try to get the treasure. Players can pass on an adventure, but if all players fail or pass on an adventure, Smaug moves a step closer to Laketown.

There are some tactics and negotiation during the game, but in general there is little depth or immersion. Every dwarf is the same (although you could agree that players start with differing stats—maybe by giving everyone 2 or 3 points to spend however they wish at the beginning), and to me, the theme doesn't come through unless you read all the fluff text. With the right group; however, the negotiation and minor back-stabbing aspect could be very entertaining.

So what is The Hobbit? It's a fun family game. It's also a great gateway game for Tolkien fans, who think that War of the Rings and Lord of the Rings: the Card Game are too confusing. If you only like deep Euros or tense thematic adventures, you might want to look elsewhere.

Island of Wak-Wak Video Review #9—The Hobbit

Island of Wak-Wak #9 The Hobbit from TS S. Fulk on Vimeo.
My look at one of Miles's favorite games.

Island of Wak-Wak #8: Space Infantry Video Review

A look at the solo squad-level wargame, Space Infantry.

Note: I had a lot of problems with the camera turning off all the time and for some reason on Marco, it didn't film what it showed on the screen (or else I was looking at the tiles and not the screen). Hopefully, things will go better next time for The Hobbit.

Latest video review.

Author insight: Blueprint Vocational

Why Did You Choose That Book?

Readers of Blueprint Vocational might want to understand why we included certain stories and movies. First and for most for BP Voc was the need to have exciting and engaging texts that vocational students would enjoy. Secondly they had to fit the theme of the chapter. So let’s take a closer look at each text.

Chapter 1

Free Fall by Joyce Sweeney

This novel excerpt was chosen simply because it involved a scary meeting, not between two people but between a human and a rattlesnake. This was generally considered the most tense and page-turning text in the book.

Falling Down

I couldn’t think of a better scene from a movie that demonstrates the principle “The customer is always right.” If you are wondering what happens to Bill Forster, rent the movie and watch his violent downward spiral.

Chapter 2

Until Proven Guilty by Nigel Hinton

Could my dad be a murderer? How many times have you thought that? Probably not very many. Nathan Holden probably never thought that either, but now he’ll be wondering that everyday. An interesting text that makes you wonder if anyone you know is criminal. Maybe you nice English teacher is hiding some dark secret in their closet.

Chapter 3

The Devil Wears Prada

Interviews are very nerve racking. If you say the right things, the job is maybe yours. If you come off like a baboon in the zoo, well … there’s always McDonald’s. Most of you haven’t had an interview yet, but it’s good to start thinking about what to do and what not to do. Learn from Andy’s mistakes.

Chapter 4

Trying to find a good text about advertising seemed impossible. I first thought about including an excerpt from e by Matthew Beaumont, but the texts were too difficult to follow for English 5 students. Then I happened to stumble across Canadian author Peter Seller’s “Advertising Hell.” Here was very interesting idea. So the devil comes to your ad agency and wants you to sell Hell as a tourist destination. How on Earth can you sell the devil. If you can find the out-of-print book, Whistling Past the Graveyard: Stories of Bizarre Crime and Dark Fantasy, you can read the entire story and sell how the devil traps these two hot-shot ad peddlers. This was my personal favorite text in the book.

Chapter 5

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie

I studied Native American literature in the US and Canada, so I was happily surprised when Monica suggested this text. Sherman’s book poignant, humorous and insightful. I know there aren’t many (if any) Native American’s in Sweden, but Arnold’s school troubles should be familiar to any minority in Sweden. Those of you who are in the majority, might want to read this text to see what it feels like to be shut out on the outside looking in.

Extreme Measures

I haven’t seen this film, but the excerpt clearly defines a life-and-death moral dilemma. If you could save only one person which one would you choose. For some it’s an easy question for others, it’s not so black and white.

Chapter 6

Totally Joe by James Howe

This one’s mainly for the manly vehicle program guys (and gals). But everyone, no matter what your program, should think about gender roles and stereotypes. What is a boy-boy or a girl-girl? Why does our society make such stereotypes? 

Dear Nobody by Berlie Doherty

This may seem like a girl-only story, but even any guy who has heard the phrase, “My period is late,” should be able to relate to this story too. A touchy subject, but Berlie handles it well as you get to go into Helen’s confuse and bewildered mind.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian

Again! Yes, this text was the best we could find about a common situation we’ve all faced at one time or anther: to lie, or not to lie. Arnold’s getting along better with his white classmates and is even dating one. Will he still be dating her if she finds out he’s been lying? 

Review: Space Infantry

Space Infantry

Lock n’ Load Publishing

Number of players: 1

Time: 20–30 mins.

Web: http://zak965.it/spaceinfantry/

Price: 399 SEK

Space Infantry is a solo, squad-level,  sci-fi wargame. Gottardo Zancani has tried to make a fast and easy game that simulates space marines on various missions against 6  different alien enemies. The game comes with 8 standard missions and 6 special Hive missions. Your squad is chosen from 14 different soldiers and specialists (e.g., medic, demolitions, scout).

The components have nice realistic illustrations that should appeal to people, like me, who find GW’s space marines too comic-booky. The game looks nice even if it only has cards, chits, tiles and paper. Most of the components are of very high quality, with glossy coating. However, the mission and enemy sheets are printed on low-quality paper. 

The quality of the bits was tested by my 7-year-old son, Miles, when he spilled milk all over my Hive tiles and numerous chits. While screaming and cursing, I frantically cleaned off all the bits and pieces with a microfiber washcloth. Nothing was damaged due to the quality of the bits. I posted a comment about the incident on boardgamegeek.com and the owner of Lock n’ Load offered me a replacement. I declined his offer, but was pleasantly surprised to receive it. Since then I have laminated the sheets. 

There are three ways to play the game. You can play a standard mission, a Hive mission, or run a campaign. For most missions, you have only 30 turns to reach your objective. 

A standard mission feels like puzzle. You have the map with all skill checks (e.g., Advance, Science, Repair, Melee, Fire), resource caches and most of the objective information (depends on the mission) shown right on the map. After you randomly pick the enemy, all you need to do is study the map and enemy well before picking squad members and 8 resources. You should be able to plan exactly where you will go and what skills and resources you will need to reach your objective. Then it is just to play the game watch your plan unfold. 

Hive missions, however, are much trickier, since there are many unknowns. The map is made by placing tiles as you explore. There are strict rules for tile placement that can force you to place a favorable tile far away from your marines. You need to prepare for different contingencies and be ready to backtrack to get to a different tile. Time is more of an enemy than the aliens during Hive missions. 

When playing in campaign mode, you go through 8 different missions randomly chosen from both standard and Hive missions. Squad members earn XP that they can spend on special traits, becoming veterans or increasing skill levels. Before starting a mission, you can also choose to use up to 2 strategic options, like giving 2 marines power armor, recruiting a new squad member to replace someone who has died, and extra resources.  You earn victory points for achieving the objective, saving resources, getting it done quickly, using few points worth of soldiers, and using less than 2 strategic options. You will lose victory points for aborting and failing (especially if everyone dies). The invested interest in your troopers and the risk involved in trying to get more victory points adds a great deal of tension to the game.

The game uses numbered chits that you draw from a cup to created a random number instead of using dice. There are 20 different chits for this: 1 zero, 3 of every number from 1–6 and 1 + that allows you to pick to more chits and add them together. “Okay,” you think, “they could have just used a special 20-sided die.” However, in the game, all numbers are unique and are placed on the squad member’s card or by the enemy on the enemy sheet each time a skill check or firefight is made. So during a battle between 5 troopers and 5 aliens, you take out 10 (or 12 if the + was drawn) chits and place them in order on your troopers and then the aliens. This is much quicker than rolling the die 10 or 12 times. Also if you draw lots of high numbers and the + for your guys, the enemy will have worse number to choose from (the reverse is also true). Having the numbers right there on the cards allows you to very quickly see how many successes you got. 

So if you love solo games, Space Infantry is a fantastically fun game when played in campaign mode, in which you have an invested interest in your soldiers. You have to take risks by bidding low (fewer marines) and not using strategic options to gain victory points, but you don’t want you newly buffed-up vets to get wasted either. However, if you just play an isolated mission (especially a standard mission), the experience will not be as rewarding. This game has kicked Space Hulk: Death Angel out of my gaming shelves. 

Blueprint Vocational!

My latest book, Blueprint Vocational, has been out for several weeks now. I still haven't been paid for it. Grr.

You can buy it here: http://www.adlibris.com/se/product.aspx?isbn=9147092165.

Oh well. At the end of a grinding rewriting period, I really started to hate this book. I can't even read it now.  However, it should be a better teaching tool for all the hard work Christer, Monica and I put into it. I think it's the best textbook for vocational students in Sweden, but then again, I'm a little biased. :-)

Video Review #7

Island of Wak-Wak #7 Space Hulk Death Angel from TS S. Fulk on Vimeo.

Back from vacation!

I tried to sneak this review in while all the kids were out. Marek came back in and wasn't happy with his papa.

See why we think Fantasy Flight Games's Space Hulk: Death Angel the Card Game is a total dude and the winner of the 2010 Turkey Award.

Maybe we just don't grok this game, but for us it is absolutely no fun and a frustrating waste of time.

Cthulhu Hex Prototype

Here is a sneak peak at the first prototype for Cthulhu Hex. I'll make color prototype in July when I have access to a color laser printer.

Overview

The high priest for the secret cult Cthulthu’s Dreams approaches you with a mischievous smile. “Acolyte, I need to talk to you,” he says while putting his arm around your shoulder. “Now is the time for you to show your worth to our order and your willingness to further Cthulhu’s great will. You have been chosen to enter the Dreamlands to recruit creatures for our cause. When the stars are right, there will be a great battle and we need to make sure our forces will come out on top.”

“B … b … but … how can I do that?” you ask while hoping that the high priest doesn’t notice the large drops of sweat that have started dripping down your forehead.

“Easy, my son. You’ll convert them by force.”

Cthulhu Hex is an abstract game between two players. Each player fields a force of monster tiles to place on a hex map, trying to convert each other’s tiles by inflicting enough damage to make them “see the light.” When all the hexes are filled, the player with the majority of tiles in play wins.

Playtesters Needed

Let me know if you want to playtest this game.

Video Review #6

Island of Wak-Wak #6 Tannhaeuser Equipment Cards Challenge from TS S. Fulk on Vimeo.

Marek and I take a light-heart approach to seeing how much time is saved when using the Equipment Cards to set-up the game.

This isn't really a review, but a light-hearted look at the Equipment Cards that should have come with the base game. If you play Tannhäuser, you really need to get this pack to speed up set-up and game play.

Okko Era of the Karasu review and more

Here is a link to Marek and my video review of the expansion for Okko (Era of the Karasu).

Island of Wak Wak #5 Okko + Era of the Karasu from TS S. Fulk on Vimeo.
Marek and I give our opinions on how Era of the Karasu improve the tactical miniatures game, Okko, which is based on Hub's graphic novels (Okko, the Cycle of Water, the Cycle of Air, etc.)

Next we'll be going over how Equipment Cards affect Tannhäuser.

I've also received many custom-built hex tiles that I'm using to make a protype for a new game: Cthulhu Hex. I'll post a how to play video about the little abstract game soon as well.

Video Review #3

Here is the third boardgame video review. This time I'm taking a trip down memory lane and revisiting a game that I bought when I lived in the Czech Republic—Vladimír Chvátil's Arena published by Altar in 1997.

Island of Wak-Wak #3—Arena from TS S. Fulk on Vimeo.

Here's a quick look at Vladimír Chvátil's first game.

Modular Terraformation Tiles

Hell Dorado has some very interesting terraformation rules for setting of the terrain before the game begins in earnest. You divide the 30" x 30" table into nine 10" squares and bid on which squares you wish to terraform. The player with the highest bid for a given 10" square gets to spend terrain points on some terrain feature (a well, rain of frogs, crevasse, lava, etc.).

Game maniacs were selling 1' x 1' EPS boards (actually it was 30 cm x 30 cm) that were 70 mm thick. So I ordered 9 of them. A foot is close enough to 10" in my book (plus, that extra length helps my Westerns against Marek's Lost, hehehe). I didn't realize how thick 70 mm was until I saw them, however.

So now I've been sawing the boards in half, which will eventually give me 18 double-sided modular playing boards. I'm making one set a typical desert/underground setting with one side blank and the other featuring a river. The other set is going to be more hellish, with a black basalt on one side and a river of lava on the other.

To make the modular rivers work, I marked off 2 cm in the middle of the sides the river would flow to. Then I drew the river and cut it out with a knife.

It's taking a long time, but I hope to have one set read by the time the rule book is released.

Here are pics of the work in progress.

Hey, That's on My Mac!

I recently saw Hey, That's My Fish in the boardgame category of the Mac AppStore. That was an instant buy.

I've thought about buying this game before for the kids but never pulled the trigger. Being able to get the game for only 38 SEK and having the computer deal with set up and tear down was the clincher.

We've played this game over and over and the kids love it. Since the computer highlights your moves, Saga is able to easily play this game too, at the tender age of 4.

Here's hoping that FFG releases more of their simpler games to the Mac AppStore. There are also iOS and Android version (no Windows, that I know of--haha!).

Hell Dorado Cipher vs. Asmodée

A couple of weeks ago I received my first recruitment packs for Hell Dorado made by the American company Cipher Studios (of Anima Tactics fame). Marek was very disappointed when he opened the less than spectacular packaging and looked at the card (Cipher left, Asmodée right). First they have a generic picture for all the Damned of Wraith (why “Damned One”?). Second they printed on much cheaper card stock than Asmodée’s cards are and the new ones have pointed corners instead of rounded ones! Grr.

You can take or leave the new graphic design, but I hate the cheap feel of these cards. I don’t understand why Cipher didn’t choose to make cards similar in quality to the French ones.

Then when I finally opened a pack to put together a model, I was very disappointed with the quality of the casting. I have never seen a mold line on a French Hell Dorado figure, but there was a good amount on several of the American models. The only flash I filed on Asmodée’s figures were on some weapon blade and from the spruce. Cipher’s required extensive filing.

Another disappointment was that I was missing a body piece. I’ve read on Cipher’s forums that Cipher has good customer service. We’ll see if they’ll ship a tiny body part to Sweden for free or not. I’ll report later.

Asmodée Editions had an elegant product that was the epitome of good design and quality production. So far Cipher is not measuring up. I hope that will change.

Video Review #2

Island of Wak-Wak #2—Battletech from TS S. Fuik on Vimeo.

Marek and I give our thoughts on the 25th Anniversary Introductory Box Set for Battletech.

Video Review #1

I've started using Vimeo (longer videos allowed) to host video game reviews. Here is the first one: Yggdrasil.

Island of Wak-Wak #1 from TS S. Fuik on Vimeo.

Oops!

I just found out the other day, via a forum post, that we’ve been playing Claustrophobia wrong. We were playing correctly that you roll all your combat dice at one target; however, we forgot the line that says to treat all troglodytes on the same tile as one target.

No wonder Marek always whamped on me.

Anyway, here is a WIP of a conversion of a Damned of Wrath (Hell Dorado) into a Demon of Destruction (Claustrophobia) and a brief video of my daughter and I opening Claustrophobia.

Marek's Gaming Birthday

Marek had his 10th birthday recently. Since he’s a gamer I got him several boxes of Hell Dorado Recruitments (for the Lost—75% off at Ludik Bazar), a pack of CoC CCG cards, a monster and comic for Monsterpocalypse, a Wings of War WWI mini and a huge Lego Atlantis set (50% off).

Witch of Salem

Mayfair Games—Michael Rieneck

I’ve been buying several co-operative games of late. Mainly because Miles, my 7-year-old son, gets so incredibly angry when things don’t go his way. You can never play any “mean” cards on him, because he absolutely freak out. So we’ve been playing Forbidden Island (no monsters), Castle Panic (too easy) and Ghost Stories (played too much) a lot after the New Year. We also have Arkham Horror (too long), Castle Ravenloft (too much reading), and Space Hulk: Death Angel (too abstract and too much reading). But Castle Panic and Ghost Stories were the only games that really interested him. They were simple to learn and understand and require no reading (he’s just learning to read Swedish).

So I bought Witch of Salem to see if that would also work for Miles. Well, after playing it with my older son, Marek and solo, I felt it was just too hard. But not hard in a good way like Ghost Stories. I seems that the only way you can win is to have both perfect strategy and perfectly good luck. If you fail on one of these two points you will lose the game.

The game also is rather boring, despite its theme. All the characters are the same (except their picture). The locations are all the same (except for item costs). Neither characters nor locations have special abilities to set them apart. Since I’m an RPG/miniatures/thematic gamer, theme is very important. Both Marek and I thought the game was quite dull.

The game, however, is gorgeously produced. The theme is one that we love. It’s just that the game rules don’t bring out the theme. In essence this is a boring Eurostyle game that is mostly multiplayer solitaire. The only co-op aspect of the the rules, as written, are trading items if you are in the same location and requiring one person to banish the big guy while someone else seals the last portal.

I decided to change the rules to see if the great components could be salvaged. The two rules set are listed below and can be combined.

Ghost Stories version

Play with the original rules, but add character and location abilities.

Choose 1 of the 2 possible character powers before the game starts.

Orange

The Church is my Sanctuary: Pick up all played location cards after moving to the Church and put them back into your hand. You must play a different location card next turn.

The Witch Listens to Me: After the Witch of Salem moves due to an Event card, you may move the Witch of Salem 1 location forward or back.

Green

I Am Blessed: You never roll the Loss Die.

Knowledge is Power: You may reroll the Loss Die (you must accept the 2nd roll). You may carry 4 items and 1 artifact.

Yellow

Family Heirloom: At the beginning of the game. Choose 1 item token. Place it next to you picture. You can never lose, use or discard this token. It does not take up one of your slots. But it counts when you try to defeat creatures, shadows and the ancient one.

Good Credit Rating: You can get 2 items per turn (slot rules and item costs still apply).

Blue

Expert Shopper: You can trade 2 items and use 2 items per turn.

Frugal: You can use items and artifacts twice before discarding them. After the first use, turn the token sideways. Discard after the second use.

Locations:

Step 3.5 (between Monsters and Using Items) You may ask the townsfolk of Arkham to help you by invoking the power of the location.

Sanatorium: Discard a Potion to restore an insane character. Place their figure in the Sanatorium. They have their full hand of cards (but most play different location next turn) and 3 Sanity.

Arkham News: Discard a Glasses token to flip over a portal token that you have previously examined. If it is unsealed when a Witch is activated, the token is shuffled with the rest and placed upside down again.

Witch House: Lose 1 Sanity to move the Necron marker back 1 space.

Hotel: Move the Necron marker up 1 space to place the Witch of Salem anywhere.

Cemetery: Discard a Knife to move one monster to another open location.

Church: Discard a Necronomicon to become blessed. You cannot lose items due to the Loss Die in the next round.

Lower Difficulty Levels

This version adds easier difficulty levels that make the game winnable by minimize the luck factor.

Innocent:

1. Shuffle the Necron card with 4 other creature cards. Shuffle the remaining creature cards. Place the 5 cards with the Necron card at the bottom of the other creatures.

2. You may use a glasses token at Miskatonic University to examine one of the Portal Tokens in the box.

3. If you have the items to defeat the creature or shadow in your location in step 3, do not roll the loss die. Then discard the creature.

4. If you defeat a shadow, roll the Bonus die (looks just like the Loss Die, maybe your package didn't come with both ). Apply the positive result of the die roll. If you gain an item, you may choose who receives the item.

5. Reveal the portal after sealing it. If it is a wall, you lose the game.

6. Do not place new monsters into locations with a sealed portal. Instead place the creature in the next open and non-sealed location. If there are no more open locations, the follow the rules for when all 6 locations are full.

Psychological Weakling:

1. Shuffle the Necron card with 7 other creature cards. Shuffle the remaining creature cards. Place the 8 cards with the Necron card at the bottom of the other creatures.

2. If you have the items to defeat the creature or shadow in your location in step 3, do not roll the loss die. Then discard the creature.

3. If you defeat a shadow, roll the Bonus die (looks just like the Loss Die, maybe your package didn't come with both ). Apply the positive result of the die roll. If you gain an item, you may choose who receives the item.

4. Do not place new monsters into locations with a sealed portal. Instead place the creature in the next open and non-sealed location. If there are no more open locations, the follow the rules for when all 6 locations are full.

Normal Sanity:

1. Shuffle the Necron card with 11 other creature cards. Shuffle the remaining creature cards. Place the 12 cards with the Necron card at the bottom of the other creatures.

2. If you have the items to defeat the creature or shadow in your location in step 3, do not roll the loss die. Then discard the creature.

3. If you defeat a shadow, roll the Bonus die (looks just like the Loss Die, maybe your package didn't come with both ). Apply the positive result of the die roll. If you gain an item, you may choose who receives the item.

Nervous Wreck:

1. If you have the items to defeat the creature or shadow in your location in step 3, do not roll the loss die. Then discard the creature.

Bound for the Sanitarium:

The rules as written.

We’ve won using Ghost Stories (plus the rule that allows you to defeat a creature before rolling the lose die), Innocent, and Psychological Weakling. I lost today play a 2-player solo on Normal Sanity, because one of the investigators went insane. With the new rules, this game is much more fun. I still like Ghost Stories better, but it’s hard to make a better co-op than Ghost Stories.