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Category Archives: Overview

Overview of a game or game session

Pathfinder: Choosing my Character: Seelah

In our first play through I chose the Rogue (Merisiel) without hesitation. I’ve always loved rogues for a few reasons: Lots of Skills, High Dexterity = Hard to Hit, and the ability to do well on their own (usually via Sneak Attack)
Merisiel had 4 skills (Acrobatics, Disable, Stealth, and Perception) and a D12 for Dexterity with the option to get it to +4. She also had the ability to Backstab in the form of when she is “the only character at [her] location, you may recharge a card to add 1d6 (upgradable to +2) to your combat check, or discard it to add an additional 1d6.”

As Chubby Unicorn mentioned, we followed the Suggested Deck Lists in the rule book, so Merisiel started with:

  • Weapons
    • Dagger
    • Dart
  • Armor
    • Leather Armor
  • Items
    • Caltrops
    • Crowbar
    • Potion of Glibness
    • Potion of Vision
    • Thieves’ Tools x2
  • Allies
    • Burglar
    • Guard
  • Blessings
    • Blessing of the Gods x4

Some things I didn’t like about her:

  • Favored Card: Item – with only 2 weapons to start with, I sometimes had to scramble to find a weapon.
  • Starting Weapons – if I was playing her again, I would have dropped both of those weapons for a pair of Light Crossbows (1d8 > 1d4)
  • Starting Items – in hindsight, I would have dropped the (single use) potions for a Codex and a Sage’s Journal

After completing Adventure 3, I chose the Thief role. This opened up some great additional powers. My favorite? When you play a blessing to add to your Dexterity check, you may recharge it instead of discarding it. I grabbed the Use Magic Item power (You may use Charisma in place of any skill on any check to recharge an armor, item, or weapon with the Magic trait.) early and never got a single successful use out of it. I didn’t realize how useful the Sabotage Location power (Add 2 to your noncombat check to close a location.) was, but once I got it, it proved a big help.
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7 Wonders: Cities, Leaders, Wonder Pack, and Babel: Initial Set-up

7 Wonders is one of our favorite games to play. It is a very complex game (especially with all the expansions), and we’re constantly having to look at the rule books to make sure we understand the cards we’re about to play (we plan to make “cheat sheets” so we’re not all fighting over the same book).  Despite all that, it moves fairly quickly because everyone plays at the same time.

This time around, The Professor explained the new Babel rules which added Great Works and the Tower of Babel.  The Professor and I tried these out (just the two of us) and didn’t find them too difficult to understand so we felt we could add both at the same time.

Initial setup:

  • Clumsy Ninja – The Lighthouse of Alexandria
  • Shutter –The Colossus of Rhodos
  • President Gamer – The Temple of Artemis in Ephesos
  • Space Cat – The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
  • Professor – The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
  • Chubby Unicorn – Hagia Sophia of Byzantium

We chose our Leaders, Babel Tiles, and first hand of cards.

7 Wonders: Cities, Leaders, Wonder Pack, and Babel: The Beginning

“A glorious vision came to me in my dreams,” President Gamer declared as he seated himself at the table.
Without needing to be asked a serving girl brought him a mug of cider. The others looked at him, waiting for further explanation.
When one was not forthcoming, Professor cleared his throat and spoke. “Pray tell, what was in this vision.”
President Gamer’s face brightened. “A grand temple devoted to Artemis. I have already contacted the builders to have the plans drawn up.”
“Wait,” Space Cat interrupted, gesturing with the scrolls in her hands. “I thought we were ready to move forward with my plans.”
At this the table erupted into an argument. It appeared everyone had a different plan for their city.
“No one cares about your ridiculous dream.”
“I have already found a trader willing to bring in the special marble needed.”
“The plans are finished. We should begin immediately.”
“Enough!”
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Pathfinder: Choosing my Character: Seoni

Previously for Pathfinder I played Kyra (female, human, cleric), and this heavily influenced my decision to play as Seoni (female, human, sorcerer).

For cards, Kyra begins with:

  • 2 weapons
  • 3 spells
  • 2 armor
  • 1 item
  • 1 ally
  • 6 blessings

Starting Deck:

  • Weapons
    • Mace
    • Quarterstaff
  • Spells
    • Cure
    • Guidance
    • Mending
  • Armor
    • Chain Mail
    • Wooden Shield
  • Item
    • Holy Water
  • Ally
    • Guard
  • Blessings
    • Blessing of the Gods x6

I ended up with:

  • 4 weapons (max)
  • 5 spells (max)
  • 3 armor
  • 2 items (max)
  • 2 allies (max)
  • 7 blessings

Ending Deck (Adventure Number in Parens):

  •  Weapons
    • Runechill Hatchet +2 (4)
    • Greatclub +3 (4)
  • Loot Weapons
    • Mokmurian’s Club (4)
    • Karzoug’s Burning Glaive (6)
  • Armors
    • Magic Full Plate (3)
    • Reflecting Shield (4)
    • Invincible Breast Plate (5)
  • Allies
    • Charmed Red Dragon (4)
    • Sacred Killer (5)
  • Spells
    • Holy Light (B)
    • Swipe x2 (3)
    • Major Cure (3)
    • Sign of Wrath (6)
  • Items
    • Belt of Physical Might (6)
  • Loot Items
    • Ordikon’s Staff (5)
  • Blessings
    • Blessing of Sarenrae x4 (B)
    • Blessing of Sarenrae (C)
    • Blessing of Pharasma (B)
    • Blessing of Abadar (2)

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Story War Super and Deluxe Round 5 Play by Play and Overview

This is the play by play of the previously posted story mode.
Judge: President Gamer

Clumsy Ninja and Shutter vs Chubby Unicorn and Professor

Arena: Sewer

Initial cards: Clumsy Ninja and Shutter played Gardner and Floating Brain. Professor and Chubby Unicorn played Banshee and Cyborg.

Special cards played: Towel and Portable Hole

Arguments: The Floating Brain was lost in the Portable Hole. The Gardner used the Towel to protect her ears from the Banshee’s scream (which was judged to not be powerful enough to get through the Towel), and used her plant powers to keep the Cyborg busy. Cyborg’s laser defenses were not enough to defeat the plants.

Winners: Clumsy Ninja and Shutter

Round 5

Winner of the Game: Clumsy Ninja

Winner’s Cards

Unless you’re used to telling crazy stories, it takes a bit to get into this game. There are the basic rules about how many cards are played and how game play shifts around the table, but all other “rules” are decided on by the Judge. It wasn’t until President Gamer was the judge that anyone ruled something as impossible which changed the arguments. For the most part we were willing to accept anything as possible.

For the more creative people, being the Judge can be difficult. The Judge only rules on the arguments and cannot add to them or just in general comment on what’s being said. If everyone enjoys the first run through of the game, it’s probably a good idea to play again immediately. Then everyone already has a feel for the game and creative juices are flowing. President Gamer said the game wasn’t really his thing, so we switched to a different game.

Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords

Professor and I recently finished playing Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords (the Adventure Card Game, based on the RPG Campaign of the same name). Before we started playing, we had to each pick a character. For me, it was tricky because I didn’t really know what to expect. I think I mostly chose based on the character’s story instead of stats.

There were many, many times the dice tried to kill me, and sometimes we forgot about special abilities or conditions of a particular location or scenario. We failed a few times (amusingly we failed the Local Heroes scenario), but thankfully we didn’t die.

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Ticket To Ride with Asia Map Expansion #1

Ticket to Ride plus Asia Map Expansion #1

Teams:

  • Yellow: President Gamer and Shutter
  • Blue: Clumsy Ninja and Space Cat
  • Green: Chubby Unicorn and The Professor

This Ticket to Ride expansion adds an interesting new element of game play: teams. Each team is given two card holders, and each team member receives 27 trains, 4 train cards, and 5 destination tickets. The card holder is for the cards the team members will share. All other cards are to be kept secret, and players are instructed to not talk strategy during the game. Each team member begins by choosing at least three of the five destination tickets, and places just one on a card holder. As in the original rules, players can either place trains or draw train cards, but a third option is now available. Players can share their other two destination cards with their team by placing them on the card holder. This takes up the player’s entire turn. When a player draws train cards, she draws them one at a time (unless she takes two of the same color from the visible cards). She has to decide if the first card will go in her hand, or on the card holder. Seems simple enough.

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7 Wonders just the base game

7 Wonders is a big favorite in our gaming group. Whenever an expansion comes out, we have to buy it. This means the game has gotten more and more complex as time has gone by. It’s been what seems like ages since we played just the base game of 7 Wonders (it seemed so small!), but we were at a gaming event with a friend who had never played, so we decided to give it a go.

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StarCraft Risk

While Risk isn’t really my game, it was my husband’s birthday and his brother and cousin were visiting, so we spent an evening playing StarCraft Risk. I’m not terribly good at strategy games like this. Something like checkers, no problem. There are only so many moves you and your opponent can make. In a game like Risk with four people… I don’t even want to think about the number of possible moves. I’m also not terribly good when it comes to rolling dice. I know that’s all about probability, but I really think sometimes the dice just hate me.

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One Night Ultimate Werewolf Game 3 Overview

This is an overview of the previously posted story mode.
This round we included the Masons and the Drunk. By this time, we had started to figure out why discussion would be useful. I initially wondered what the point of the Masons were, but then proposed that if the Masons revealed who they were, we could potentially narrow down who the Werewolves were. President Gamer was against this saying that the Masons are a secret society, so their members wouldn’t just reveal themselves like that. When Shutter freely admitted to being a Mason, and President Gamer groaned in outrage, we figured he was the other Mason.
 
The Professor tried the logic that maybe President Gamer was lying to throw us off track, but when President Gamer genuinely said “That’s a good idea!” we knew he was a Mason. We then voted, and The Professor received the most votes, so he died. He was a villager. I was the Drunk, but became werewolf when I randomly switched my card with one in the middle. We thought that made sense. The town drunk is wandering around at night and gets turned into a werewolf. I was the only werewolf. Team Werewolf won.

  • Professor – Villager
  • Clumsy Ninja – Villager
  • Space Cat – Villager
  • Shutter – Mason
  • President Gamer – Mason
  • Chubby Unicorn – Drunk (then later Werewolf)