Skip navigation

Category Archives: Play-by-Play

A Play-by-Play (or close to it) of our gaming session

Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: Local Heroes

This is the play-by-play version of the previously posted story mode.

Find an ally and close the location

  • Seoni – Rin figurine
  • Seelah – Saber figurine

Locations:

  • Academy  – Seoni start
  • Waterfront
  • General Store
  • Woods – Seelah start

Seelah opening hand:

  1. Blessing of the Gods x2
  2. Magic Half-Plate (favored card type)
  3. Longsword +1

Seoni starting hand:

  1. Blessing of the Gods
  2. Force Missile (favored card type)
  3. Acolyte
  4. Burglar
  5. Invisibility (favored card type)
  6. Sage’s Journal

Seoni 1st turn

At the Academy if you encounter anything other than a spell on your first exploration, you get to go again.

Encountered Mercenary – Combat 10

Adventure path adds +1 for an 11

Force Missile – d12 (+4 ), 2d4, rolled 15  (one 2, one 4, and one 9), total 19 Mercenary defeated

Attempted to recharge Force Missile – Arcane 6

d12 (+4), rolled 10, total 14, recharged

Encountered Frost Ray – Arcane 6

d12 (+4), rolled 11, total 15

Read More »

Yggdrasil Play by Play

Yggdrasil is one of our favorite co-op games, and we especially like that it’s based on Norse mythology. Usually we play a 2 player game, but we’ve played with up to 6 people. Maybe it’s just the way we play or our strategy, but we think a 6 player game is much more challenging than a 2-4 player game. I don’t think we’ve managed to win with 6 players. When you play with fewer people, the game can be different every time depending on which gods you play as.

No matter which gods you play as, we’ve found a few strategies that work for us:

  • We work to remove all the Fire Giants from the white bag and continually fill it with Vikings. This way when the Valkyries are sent back to the beginning, we don’t have to travel down the whole line of islands to find a bag with Vikings.
  • No matter how many people we play with we get weapons for more than just 1 enemy. In a 3 player game I’ll have two +3 weapons and one +1 or +2 weapon. That way we can help each other, especially when the shuffle puts 3 Surt cards in a row, for example.
  • We always try to have what we call “Elf Insurance.” We like to have an Elf we can use just in case we need it.

So it’s no surprise that we mostly visit Midgard, World of the Elves, Dwarven Forge, World of the Dead, and Asgard. We only go to the Ice Fortress when a Frost Giant really needs to be taken out, and I don’t think we’ve ever visited the World of Darkness because we never trade anything.

This time we played a 3 player game.

  • Space Cat: Odin – draw the top 2 cards of enemy deck and chooses which to encounter then places the other card either on the top or bottom of deck
  • Chubby Unicorn: Freyja – can perform two actions in the same world
  • Professor: Frey – can perform a total of 4 actions

Read More »

Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: Attack on Sandpoint

This is the play-by-play version of the previously posted story mode.
If you defeat a monster that has the Goblin trait, roll a 1d6. On a 1, each character at your location is dealt 1 Fire damage.

  • Seoni – Rin figurine
  • Seelah – Saber figurine

Locations:

  • Sandpoint Cathedral  – Seoni start
  • Town Square
  • Swallowtail Festival
  • City Gate – Seelah start

Seelah opening hand:

  1. Night Watch
  2. Blessing of the Gods
  3. Magic Half-Plate (favored card type)
  4. Magic Shield (favored card type)

Seoni starting hand:

  1. Blessing of the Gods
  2. Force Missile (favored card type)
  3. Acolyte
  4. Blessing of Irori
  5. Invisibility (favored card type)
  6. Sage’s Journal

Seelah 1st turn

Encountered Scout – Combat 8 +1 for Adventure Path 1

Encountering Scout

Before the encounter he does 1d4 -1 Ranged Damage – Seelah takes 2 damage

Recharges Magic Half-Plate to avoid damage

Strength d8 +3, used special to discard top card of deck for a d6 (Spiked Chain), discarded Blessing of the Gods for another d8, rolled 16 (one 3, one 5, one 8), total 19, Scout defeated

Drew Mace and Blessing of the Gods

Seoni 1st turn

Encountered Spectre – Combat 11

Used special, discarded Invisibility for d12 plus d6 (+3), recharged Acolyte for d4, rolled 8 (one 1, one 2, one 5), total 11, Spectre defeated

Drew Blessing of the Gods and Troubadour

Seelah 2nd turn

Encountered Crown of Charisma – Charisma 5

d10, rolled 3

Seoni 2nd turn

Encountered Blessing of Lamashtu – Arcane 5

d12 (+2), rolled 12

Discarded Blessing of the Gods to go again

Encountered Blessing of Pharasma – Arcane 5

d12 (+2), rolled 4

Discarded Blessing of Irori to go again

Encountered Shadow – Combat 13

Force Missile – d12 (+2), 2d4, discarded Blessing of Lamashtu for another d12, rolled 28 (two 4, two 10s), total 30 Shadow defeated

Attempted to recharge Force Missile – Arcane 6

d12 (+2), rolled 6, total 8, recharged

Drew Blessing of the Gods

Seelah 3rd turn

Encountering Frost Ray

Encountered Troubadour – Charisma 7

d10, rolled 4

Seoni 3rd turn

Encountered Frost Ray – Arcane 6

d12 (+2), discarded Blessing of the Gods for another d12, rolled 13 (one 1, one 12), total 15

Read More »

Shadow Hunters play by play

We picked Shadow Hunters up at a local game shop. We were looking for something new to play and asked for a recommendation. Without hesitation the owner said Shadow Hunters. He was so sure we’d like it, he said if we didn’t, he would buy it back from us. We didn’t need to take him up on that because it’s a great game.

The first play through was a little rough. Some of the Hermit Cards can be a little confusing at first, and since you’re supposed to be all secretive about who you are, you can’t really ask questions during game play. Most cards instruct you to do different things depending on what type of character you are. For example, if you’re a Shadow you take 1 damage. That’s pretty straightforward. We got confused on the cards that had more than one option. “If you aren’t X, discard this card,” isn’t written on the card, but that’s what you do. It took us awhile to remember that, which was why we got confused, I think. One player in particular decided that if she didn’t understand what a card wanted her to do, she would just discard it. It made it very difficult to figure out what she was.

Looking at the cards now that I’ve played more, they make perfect sense to me. It’s one of those instances where I wonder why we couldn’t see it before, but it’s probably just a matter of spending time playing the game.

You also have to remember a lot of information. Unless you get the super awesome Hermit Card that just lets you see another player’s character card, you have to remember what you’ve “accused” people of being and how they responded. This also caused a bit of confusion the first time we played. Someone mixed up their information and ended up attacking and killing their ally. Oops!

It gets easier after the first couple times. Luckily for Signing Monkey she got an easy character card for her first time playing.

A play by play doesn’t really do the game justice because we can’t know what Hermit Cards are given, so we don’t really know what the responses mean. In any case, this is what happened:

Read More »

Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: Black Fang’s Dungeon

This is the play-by-play version of the previously posted story mode.

When an Ancient Skeleton is encountered, everyone at that location encounters an Ancient Skeleton

  • Seoni – Rin figurine
  • Seelah – Saber figurine

Locations:

  • Shrine to Lamashtu – Seelah start
  • Desecrated Vault
  • Temple
  • Throne Room – Seoni start

Seelah opening hand:

  1. Standard Bearer
  2. Blessing of the Gods
  3. Spiked Chain
  4. Wooden Shield (favored card type)

Seoni starting hand:

  1. Blessing of the Gods
  2. Arcane Armor (favored card type)
  3. Acolyte
  4. Troubadour
  5. Invisibility (favored card type)
  6. Burglar

Seoni 1st turn

Encountered Mirror Image – Arcane 6

d12 (+2), recharged Acolyte for d4, rolled 3 (one 1, one 2), total 5

Drew Standard Bearer

Seelah 1st turn

Encountered Ogre – Combat 14

Spiked Chain – d8 (+2), 2d4, used special to discard top card of deck for a d6 (Mace), discarded Blessing of the Gods for another d8, rolled 19 (one 1, one 2, one 3, one 6, one 7), total 21, Ogre defeated

Drew Night Watch

Read More »

Oregon Trail play by play

I received The Oregon Trail game for Christmas, and I was pretty excited to play it. I remember all those times in the computer lab elementary school playing Oregon Trail. Sadly I never made it to Oregon. Not once. I probably died in all the ways you can die in that game: sickness, injuries, starvation (I sucked at hunting), dead oxen, broken wagon, drowning… Maybe I could survive the card game. Maybe.

Game play is simple. Everyone has trail cards and supply cards. If possible each player plays a trail card (the trail has to match and be continuous). If the trail card played has text written on it, you follow those instructions. If it’s blank, you count yourself lucky. There are also Town and Fort cards that can be played on the trail. Fort cards give you two supply cards of your choice, and Town cards give you one supply card or the ability to remove one Calamity card from play.

Many trail cards instruct you to draw a Calamity card which, unsurprisingly, are bad. Supply cards can help with Calamity cards. For instance if someone gets typhoid, they need medicine and clean water to get better. The player who drew the Calamity card can play the supply cards needed, otherwise she relies on the other players to save her. As a free action one or more players can turn in two supply cards for one supply card.

If a player either doesn’t have a trail card that matches or doesn’t have any trail cards, they draw a trail card as their turn action.

In this play by play, we’re skipping over a player putting down a trail card without text or drawing a trail card. We’re going to focus on the exciting stuff which is the stuff that could kill us.
Read More »

Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: The Poison Pill

This is the play-by-play version of the previously posted story mode.
The Poison Pill

Add 2 to checks to acquire allies

  • Seoni – Rin figurine
  • Seelah – Saber figurine

Locations:

  • Town Square – Seoni Start
  • Village House
  • General Store
  • City Gate – Seelah start

Seelah opening hand:

  1. Standard Bearer
  2. Blessing of the Gods
  3. Longsword
  4. Chain Mail (favored card type)

Seoni starting hand:

  1. Blessing of the Gods
  2. Arcane Armor
  3. Acolyte
  4. Troubadour
  5. Force Missile (favored card type)
  6. Masterwork Tools

Seelah 1st turn

Encountering Sage

Encountered Sage – Charisma 6

d10 rolled a 3, total of 5 (Poison Pill Scenario bonus), not enough

Seoni 1st turn

Encountered Ghost – Combat 12

If the check to defeat does not have the magic trait, the ghost is undefeated

Force Missile – d12 (+2), 2d4, recharged Acolyte for extra d4, rolled 16 (one 11, two 2s, one 1), total of 18, Ghost defeated

Recharge Force Missile – Arcane 6

d12 (+2), rolled 12, total of 14, Force Missile recharged

Drew 2 Blessings of the Gods

Read More »

The X-Files: Board Game

Space Cat is a HUGE X-Files fan.  I remember one day, long ago, Space Cat and I were hanging out in our dorm room (I’ve known her a LONG time).  She was playing around with some X-Files stuff on her computer and played two sound bites for me.  Both were Scully saying, “Mulder.” Space Cat asked if I could tell the difference between the two, and I said no.  Space Cat was able to tell me which episodes the sound bites were from.  They were not labeled with this information.  It was impressive, if a little disconcerting.

Given how much she adores this show, it was not surprising that she bought the board game.  It’s a five player game, so we saved it for Tabletop Day (Clumsy Ninja had to work on Tabletop Day).

President Gamer was elected to be the Cigarette Smoking Man (CSM) because of his experience as Mister X.

  • Chubby Unicorn – Mulder
  • Space Cat – Scully
  • Professor – Skinner
  • Shutter – Krycek

Read More »

Quarantine Z Play by Play

This is the play by play of the previously posted story mode.
Professor and I have played this game one other time, and he killed me first (he said he wanted me to be his zombie bride). We decided to try it out with Clumsy Ninja and Space Cat.

The Professor (Zombies)
VS
Chubby Unicorn, Space Cat, and Clumsy Ninja (Survivors)

Goals:

  • Professor wants to kill us (meaning he wants to turn us all into zombies)
  • Survivors need to deplete the Zombie deck

 

Town:

House Lake Hippy Farm
Gun Store Department Store Supermarket
Supermarket House House

The Town

When Survivors move, they each roll for noise. If they make noise, Professor draws a zombie card.

We started by moving to the Supermarket: Space Cat made noise (not sneaky), Clumsy Ninja did not make noise (sneaky), Chubby Unicorn made noise (not sneaky), so Professor drew 2 cards. Professor played a Basic Zombie, and combat began. Survivors secretly choose to Fight, Shoot, or Escape (Escape is 4+ die roll on a d6). Everyone chose to Fight, but no one has a weapon so we had to use melee.

  • Space Cat – 1 damage to zombie
  • Clumsy Ninja – missed
  • Chubby Unicorn – 1 damage to zombie

1st zombie fight

Zombie dealt 1 damage to Space Cat (Professor chooses)

We chose to fight the zombie again (instead of running away), and Chubby Unicorn did one more point of damage, killing the zombie. Then it was the Loot phase. Clumsy Ninja rolled a 3, so we got 4 supply cards:

  • Energy drink, provisions, backpack, and barricade

Chubby Unicorn took the backpack and provisions, Space Cat the barricade, and Clumsy Ninja the energy drink. Then we entered the Rest phase (play/equip/trade cards). Chubby Unicorn equipped backpack and running shoes and gave Clumsy Ninja shells, Space Cat equipped backpack and played barricade on Supermarket, and Clumsy Ninja equipped her shotgun. Because of the barricade, we were able to discard three provisions (we each had one), and Professor had to discard 14 cards from the Zombie deck.

Discarding provisions

We decided to move to Department Store, and rolled for noise:

  • Clumsy Ninja – not sneaky
  • Space Cat – not sneaky
  • Chubby Unicorn – sneaky

Professor drew 2 cards, and played another Basic Zombie, but then he added Vicious and Ravenous cards. Combat began and we choose to Fight, Shoot, or Escape:

  • Clumsy Ninja – shoot
  • Space Cat and Chubby Unicorn – fight

Zombie at the Department Store

Clumsy Ninja rolled for shotgun, got a  5 for 3 damage killing the zombie, which moved us into the Loot phase. Clumsy Ninja rolled so well for combat, we had her roll again for loot.  We got 4 supplies and 1 munitions:

  • Shotgun, energy drink, ninja spray, jumper cables, and C4

Chubby Unicorn took the energy drink, Space Cat took the shotgun and C4, and Clumsy Ninja took Ninja spray (of course) and jumper cables. We then entered the Rest phase, and Space Cat equipped her shotgun.

Loot from the Department Store

Next we decided to move to the Gun Store, because we didn’t have any shells for the shotguns, and Chubby Unicorn didn’t have a weapon. We rolled for noise:

  • Chubby Unicorn – not sneaky
  • Space Cat – not sneaky
  • Clumsy Ninja – not sneaky

Professor drew 3 cards and played another Basic Zombie and added Lucky to it. He also decided the Gun Store was haunted (he played Graveyard on it). Combat began, and we all chose to fight:

  • Space Cat – 2 damage
  • Clumsy Ninja – 1 damage

Chubby Unicorn didn’t need to roll because the zombie was dead. Now it was the Loot phase, and we got 1 supply card and 4 munitions:

  • bear trap, katana, baseball bat, hand cannon, and bullets

Loot from the Gun Store

Chubby Unicorn took the hand cannon and bullets, Space Cat took the baseball bat, and Clumsy Ninja took the katana (of course) and the bear trap. We entered our Rest phase, and Chubby Unicorn equipped her new hand cannon, Space Cat her baseball bat, and Clumsy Ninja equipped her katana and Ninja spray. Chubby Unicorn also discarded a Basic Supply to draw another munitions (bullets).

Our next stop was a House. We rolled for noise:

  • Chubby Unicorn – not sneaky
  • Space Cat – not sneaky
  • Clumsy Ninja – not sneaky

Professor drew 3 cards and played another Basic Zombie, which we all chose to fight:

  • Space Cat – 2 damage
  • Clumsy Ninja – missed
  • Chubby Unicorn – 1 damage

The zombie died, and we got loot! We got 3 supplies and 1 munition:

  • baseball bat, running shoes, provisions, bandages

Chubby Unicorn got the baseball bat (equipped in rest phase) and provisions and Space Cat got running shoes (equipped in rest phase) and healed her 1 damage with the bandages. We then decided to move back to the Supermarket because we wanted to get through some more of the Zombie deck. We rolled for noise, and we were all sneaky. Professor didn’t get to draw any cards, but he again played a Basic Zombie. We once again chose to fight. Space Cat used her baseball bat, rolled a 6, and killed the zombie. We then discarded 3 supply cards, and Professor discarded 7 cards.

We then decided to move to the other Supermarket because it had the best chance for the most supplies. We rolled for noise:

  • Chubby Unicorn – sneaky
  • Space Cat – not sneaky
  • Clumsy Ninja – sneaky

Professor drew one card and played an Exploding Zombie! (Basic Zombie + Exploding – explodes if dealt 3 total damage in combat). Combat began:

  • Chubby Unicorn – shoot
  • Space Cat – fight
  • Clumsy Ninja – fight

Exploding Zombie

Unfortunately, Chubby Unicorn missed (Professor got to draw a card because her hand cannon made noise), and Space Cat  missed. Clumsy Ninja used her katana and managed to do 2 damage to the zombie, but then she took 1 damage from the zombie. We fought again, and Clumsy Ninja finished off the exploding zombie (without it exploding). We got 6 cards in the Loot phase:

  • backpack, provisions, running shoes, noisemaker, jumper cables, football pads

Chubby Unicorn took provisions, football pads (equipped in rest phase), and noisemaker, Space Cat took the jumper cables (in case Clumsy Ninja needed to be revived), and Clumsy Ninja took the backpack and running shoes (equipped in rest phase).

Next stop was another House. We rolled for noise:

  • Chubby Unicorn – sneaky
  • Space Cat – not sneaky
  • Clumsy Ninja – not sneaky

Professor drew 2 cards and played an Exploding Ex-Survivor (5 life, drops 2 supplies and 1 munitions when killed, and explodes if dealt 3 total damage in combat)

Combat began:

  • Chubby Unicorn – shoot
  • Space Cat – fight
  • Clumsy Ninja – fight

Again Chubby Unicorn missed, and Professor drew a card. Space Cat dealt 1 damage as did Clumsy Ninja, who again took 1 damage from the zombie. We chose to go again, and this time Chubby Unicorn’s hand cannon did 3 damage (Professor drew a card) and Clumsy Ninja’s katana did 2 damage, which meant the zombie exploded! Clumsy Ninja rolled for damage and died! Space Cat didn’t take any damage, so she attempted to revive Clumsy Ninja with jumper cables.  She rolled a 4, and Clumsy Ninja regained 1 life. Woo! The zombie dropped bullets, smoke bomb, and football pads. For loot we got 3 supplies and 1 weapon:

  • baseball bat, bandages, ninja spray, energy drink

Chubby Unicorn took bullets and ninja spray (equipped during rest phase), Space Cat took the energy drink, and Clumsy Ninja took bandages (used to heal 1 life), football pads (equipped during rest phase), baseball bat (equipped during rest phase), and smoke bomb.

We decided to hit up the last House, and rolled for noise:

  • Chubby Unicorn – sneaky
  • Space Cat -not sneaky
  • Clumsy Ninja – not sneaky

Professor drew 2 cards and played a Basic Zombie but added Mutagenic and Thrilled (5 life)

Combat began:

  • Chubby Unicorn – shoot
  • Space Cat – fight
  • Clumsy Ninja – fight

This time Chubby Unicorn’s hand cannon did 3 damage (Professor drew a card), Space Cat’s baseball bat 1 damage, and Clumsy Ninja’s katana 2 damage. We got 4 supplies:

  • noisemaker x2, zom-b-gone, provisions

Chubby Unicorn took provisions and zom-b-gone, and Space Cat and Clumsy Ninja each took a noisemaker. Chubby Unicorn now had 3 provisions, so we headed back to the Supermarket. Chubby Unicorn didn’t roll well for noise, but used her ninja spray, so no one made noise. Professor played Triple Threat which meant he got to play 3 Zombies: 1 with Burning (if fight misses, take 1 damage). Everyone chose to fight:

  • Chubby Unicorn – baseball bat 1 damage
  • Space Cat – baseball bat 3 damage to burning zombie
  • Clumsy Ninja – katana 2 damage

We killed 2 of the zombies, which left 1 zombie at full health, so Clumsy Ninja took 1 damage but used football pads to absorb it. We chose to fight again:

  • Chubby Unicorn – baseball bat missed
  • Space Cat – baseball bat 2 damage
  • Clumsy Ninja – katana missed

Again Clumsy Ninja took 1 damage and used football pads to absorb it (football pads discarded), and we had to fight one more time to kill the zombie. Space Cat used her baseball bat to kill it. Chubby Unicorn discarded 3 provisions and Professor discarded 14 cards. He revealed that he only had 12 cards left in his deck, so we hunkered down, and Chubby Unicorn  discarded 3 basic supplies to make Professor discard 7 cards. We hunkered down once more, and Space Cat discarded 3 basic supplies to make Professor discard the rest of his cards.

Back to the Supermarket

Survivors win!

This is a really fun 1 vs all game, and it’s simple game play means it’s easy to learn. There was some confusion at the beginning on when cards could be played and the difference between provisions and basic supplies (all supplies can be basic supplies if played/discarded face down), but we quickly sorted all that out. It gives the zombie apocalypse a sense of humor. The text on the Ex-Survivor zombie card reads “So that’s what happened to Bill!” Of course your ability to survive heavily depends on the supplies and munitions you can get. Space Cat and Clumsy Ninja just couldn’t get ahold of any shells for their shotguns (I was lucky to get all those bullets), but they did some good damage with their baseball bat and katana. It’s definitely a game we’ll play again.

Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords: Brigandoom!

This is the play-by-play version of the previously posted story mode.
Brigandoom!

If a monster’s power requires you to discard one or more cards, do so, then draw the same number of cards

  • Seoni – Rin figurine
  • Seelah – Saber figurine

Locations:

  • Waterfront – Seoni start
  • Farm House
  • Wooden Bridge
  • Woods – Seelah start

Seelah opening hand:

  1. Standard Bearer
  2. Blessing of the Gods
  3. Cure
  4. Chain Mail (favored card type)

Seoni starting hand:

  1. Blessing of the Gods
  2. Invisibility
  3. Guide
  4. Troubadour
  5. Force Missile (favored card type)
  6. Sage’s Journal

Seoni 1st turn

Encountered Night Watch – Charisma 7

d12 (+1) rolled a 4, total of 5, not enough

Seelah 1st turn

Encountering Goblin Commando

Encountered a Goblin Commando – Combat 9 Before the encounter the Goblin does 1 Ranged Combat Damage to you (discarded Chain Mail)

d8 (+2), used special to discard top card of deck for a d6, and discarded Blessing of the Gods for extra d8, rolled 9 (two 2s and one 5) for total of 11, Goblin Commando defeated

Drew Blessing of the Gods and Mace

Read More »