The Gamefound Feast

Gothic: A Shadow’s Quest by THQ Nordic

This one is based off of a video game. And THQ Nordic is actually the company who is the creator of the video game, so they are doing their own game. It’s interesting to see them doing it themselves. The only other thing I know like this is when Riot Games made Mechs vs Minions. So I find it cool. I don’t know a ton about Gothic or really anything. But this looks like my type of games, a lot of minis, standees, monsters, and it looks fun. I like a dark gothic setting for a game.

The video game is an adventure RPG, so the board game is going to be like that as well. And that sounds like a lot of fun to me. I like that you play on three different levels in this game, explore the world, get missions and level up in camp, and then if it’s a combat quest, you are going to be doing more tactical combat. It’s extremely interesting to me because this is really my type of game.

Follow the Gothic: A Shadow’s Quest here.

Sword & Sorcery on Teburu

This isn’t a new game, it’s Sword & Sorcery a campaign game that I like. However, Teburu is a digital board for your game. That means that with the app and Teburu you are going to be play it without all the book keeping that was part of Sword & Sorcery. However, I will say, this one isn’t that much for me. I thought that Sword & Sorcery was fine, but I didn’t love it. Maybe it would make it easier, but you’d still have so much stuff to pull out and set-up. But if you’re up for it, it’s going to be good for a lot of people.

And while I’m not going to get it because there is the cost of the Teburu system. But the enemy AI definitely was a bit annoying. So maybe it would make it smoother and make it simpler to get to the table. But like I said, it’s rebuying a game that I sold and it’s buying technology which I’m interested in, for the Vampire the Masquerade game, but less so for this.

Follow the Sword & Sorcery Teburu Campaign here.

The Megan 2.0 Gaming Table from Geeknson

Not a board game, but Geeknson is one of the big board game table company out there. I don’t need a board game table, I have a Jasper from AllPlay/BoardGameTables, and it’s great. So I will just say this, I like board game tables. And I think as long as you get one from a good company, Geeknson, AllPlay, Wyrmwood and others, you are going to get something that’s great and that’ll help.

Follow the Geeknson The Megan 2.0 campaign here.

Empress Deck and Companion Book for 5th Edition D&D by Weird Works

This is going to be an addition for D&D. It’s just going to be a way to mess with things like initiative, and more as well. This sounds like an interesting addition but not something that I feel like I need. It’s basically a custom tarot deck that is going to be able to help with “problems” but it’s something that could be a bit of fun to do. Like I said, though, not going to be for me. The companion book sounds slightly more interesting, but not that much more interesting. It’s going to be some more content with probably how to use the deck.

Follow The Empress Deck & Companion Book here.

Ascendency: Underworld from OneMoreTurnGames

This is an expansion to Ascendancy. This game looks like it has a lot going on with it. Ascendancy is an area control 4x style of game. And it is a game that can play solo. For me, it’s one that I looked at when the first campaign came out. I’m not super sold that it’s going to be a game for me, but there are elements that are really interesting about it. But do I need a huge game like this, maybe? It’s so tough because I want to play games like this, but there is so much.

Follow Ascendancy Underworld here.

Nanty Narking: Rise of Cthulhu from Phalanx

This is bringing back the game Nanty Narking. I know really nothing about this game. It was originally Discworld, then it became Nanty Narking. I don’t know much of anything about the game which is interesting. Mainly because I feel like I know about so many different games. From what it looks like, this is still a competitive game, now the players can lose together with Cthulhu driving madness. I’m not feeling this game too much though.

Follow Nanty Narking: Rise of Cthulhu here.

Dark Rituals Malleus Maleficarum from Maki Games

I am not familiar with Dark Ritual. This is a reprint of the game. It’s a one versus all game and it’s not super interesting to me. Yes, the game is cool and dark looking, but if you like one versus all games then it might be for you. But it’s an easy pass for me.

Follow Dark Rituals Malleus Malefacarum here.

Grimdark Future: Broken Truth by One Page Rules

This is going to be a miniatures game. I know nothing about this setting or system of the Grimdark Future universe. This is the first time that they are doing minis. It’s a miniatures war game which is not my cup of tea. So sure, it’s probably interesting and the minis look very solid. But it’s not for me. If you want a one page rules to get into the game, it’s going to be an easy one to get into as the rules are free online.

Follow Grimdark Future: Broken Truth here.

Starside: Promethean Crusade from Archon Studio

This is another miniatures sure. If I wanted to jump into a miniatures game, there are a lot of options. This is going to be a fleet command game, so that’s different. I do like the idea of a space game I think more as a miniatures game. That said, I’m not diving into playing miniatures game. But with Starside and Grimdark Future there are two solid options for people who want to jump in.

Follow Starside: Promethean Crusade here.

Dare the Unknown: A NASA Board Game from Space Delirium

This one is interesting, this is one that is based on reality. The crazy part is that is truly NASA licensed. You want to bring back your rockets to earth, be the first one to get them back. It is their first board game, though they have done other crowdfunding campaigns. I like that it’s licensed by NASA but it’s not going to be game that I’m super excited for. I do think it’s going to be a nice family weight game potentially or at least that is going to be the target, which is great for a theme like NASA.

Follow Dare the Unknown: A NASA Board Game here.

Fear Itself – Shattered Veil Edition from Pelgrane Press

This is another table top RPG game. I think this is going to be a chance for people to play in their favorite horror films. They say that it’s great for a one shot game. I know it’s not going to be one that I want to back. I like my D&D and I want to keep it at that. And really, I don’t have much time to dive into more when it comes to RPG, D&D keeps me plenty busy. But if you want to play a horror film as an RPG, Fear Itself is going to be great, from the sounds of it, for that.

Follow Fear Itself – Shattered Veil Edition here.

Lying Pirate – Cities of Greed Expansion from Nordic Pirate Games

Okay, first off, isn’t that company name mainly Vikings? I am not familiar with the original game, though it had about 5,000 backers. This is going to add more to the game. The aesthetic looks great to me. The game is going to be party weight game with some deduction to it, which I’m guessing is going to be like a Liar’s Dice elements to the game. The one thing that concerns a little bit about the game, which does have a good BGG ranking, is that the game, as a lighter/party/Liar’s Dice style game is that it’s an hour in length.

Follow Lying Pirates – Cities of Greed here.

Star Realms Conquest from Wise Wizard Game

This is going to be one that you know if you want or not. This is a deck building game. It’s going to be a core set. This is going to be a game that you can jump into at this point if you want. Or you can mix it in if you are already familiar with the game. That’s fun that they keep on giving new launch in points. I need to play more Star Realms before I’d consider backing this one. The nice thing is that this is a pretty small box and that means that it’s easy to get and keep adding to the game that I already have.

Follow Star Realms Conquest here.

Which Excites Me Most?

I think it’s the first one. Gothic looks like my type of game a lot. There are some other fun ones, but with more of a mix of RPG, the table, and then miniatures games, this is one where there were fewer that I was interested in. Ascendancy is probably the next highest for me, or even Sword & Sorcery Teburu, though, like I said, I thought that Sword & Sorcery was just fine. It’s more, I want to get a Teburu game sometime. The Vampire the Masquerade one is probably the spot that I’d jump in at though.

Let me know which one interests you the most.

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Crimson Peak is the story of Edith Cushing, an aspiring author, who has her world turned on it’s head through a series of tragic events and the introduction of a mysterious stranger, Thomas Sharpe. Falling in love with him, she returns to the family manor and clay mines which had brought them to her town and her father in the first place. Things aren’t going well there, the manor is falling apart and Thomas’ sister Lucille is not welcoming of her. Then, she starts to see ghosts who are wandering the manor and tormenting her. Something is very much not as it seems, but can she find out in time?

Guillermo Del Toro is a master of a beautiful aesthetic, and this film is no different. Everything is shot amazingly for a nice creepy factor but still has almost a haunting beauty to it. The manor is amazingly done, and the aesthetic even before and just the costuming makes everything stand out in this film. The horrific elements even have what is an interesting aesthetic to them and are almost beautiful in their own way.

But, for me, I don’t know that was enough to save the film. I liked the acting in the film, Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, and Mia Wasikowska do a good job in this film. I think that Jessica Chastain in a lot of ways steals the show, though, I won’t say why as that will spoil things. In terms of a horror film, the acting generally much much better than you’d see. But in terms of overall acting, it is just good, nothing that stands out so amazingly, but also nothing that is wrong with it. I think that they work for the aesthetic that has been created, but, and I’ll get to it next, I think that the story doesn’t do them a ton of favors.

In terms of the story, the issue is that this is a movie that doesn’t do anything unexpected. I think that for me was what really disappointed. It follows a lot of horror tropes, but it doesn’t really have any of the predictable twists, but that’s because it just doesn’t really have any twists in it. I think that the story just ends up feeling flat which causes the rest of the film to suffer. It feels like it’s a bit of a waste when it comes to the aesthetic because nothing stands out as that amazing a horror element. Instead it’s just an average story that bounces between feeling like half a period piece, half a horror film, and generally fairly unfocused. Del Toro has blended two elements well before with Pan’s Labyrinth, but this one ends up not having the same heart and depth that one does. And in some ways, that makes it more disappointing. I like a lot of what Del Toro does, I’m a big fan of Pacific Rim and Pan’s Labyrinth is great, but this movie just lacks the heart that those have, and anything that feels that interesting, beyond the setting. It feels like it should do so much more than it does, instead ending up a beautiful hollow shell.

Let me finish up by saying that when this movie came out originally, I was very excited for it. I’m glad that I didn’t see it in theaters, but I’m also not sorry that I’ve watched it. Like I said, Del Toro nails the aesthetic for this film, there is the right amount of creep and gore, but it’s lacking the heart. And I think for a film that takes itself seriously, it needs that heart, otherwise it feels, as I said before, like a beautiful but hollow shell. If it was more of a B film feel, it’d need other things as well, if it was going for more of a suspenseful story, it’d need other things. Overall, an enjoyable watch, but in the end, just missing that final little bit to put it over the edge.

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Forgotten Realms
This is a high fantasy setting where you’re going to see all the content (almost) from Wizards of the Coast coming out in. It’s your typical fantasy setting where Dwarves act like Dwarves and Elves act like Elves. This setting can be seen as a little bit vanilla in how standard it is, but it also makes it an amazing jumping off point for new players because it has a level of familiarity to it. The main cities in the Forgotten Realms are going to be Waterdeep and Baldur’s Gate.

Eberron
Eberron is a very different setting than your typical fantasy setting. Magic is basically used as technology in this world. And it isn’t just a world where you have your standard races that you can play, there are shifters, changlings, and monstrous races that you can play as well. What also makes this setting unique is that the setting and call the adventures are set after this great war has ended when a country wiped off the map do to some cataclysm, but it’s never stated what it is, so it leaves it open for players and DM’s to decide for their campaign. The setting is very pulp and noir in it’s feel.

Ravenloft
Another different sort of setting where it’s less your standard fantasy setting and more focused on a Victorian Gothic setting. It is also going to be focused on a lower level of magic. The land is ruled by a vampire, Strahd, that is basically locked into the cursed land and most adventures set in Ravenloft are going to be about finding out Strahd’s history and then dealing with him. In 5th Edition the Curse of Strahd adventure pulls players from the Forgotten Realms and sticks them into this setting that is different than the world that they know and they are stuck there until they can defeat Strahd, if they ever leave.

Dragonlance
One of the first, if not the first D&D setting, Dragonlance is going to be another epic fantasy setting. The world is greatly influenced by the deities and a lot of the stories revolve around the good deities fighting the evil deities or the return of dragons after centuries of absence. It’s going to be much more in the standard version of fantasy and another good jumping off world that you could use to introduce Dungeons and Dragons.

Grey Hawk
As compared to the epic fantasy settings, Grey Hawk is more of a sword and sorcery setting. It is going to be darker and more dangerous for your characters. Magic is going to be less common than some settings. Grey Hawk is more of a world that is on it’s way out and the adventures that you might be more about keeping the world going versus bringing the world into a new great place which some Epic Fantasy stories can focus on more so.

Spelljammer
Now, if you want something completely different. Spelljammer is kind of a setting, but it can hit up most settings as you have magically powered space ships. This is going to be a game where you want to hop between a lot of worlds, have grand space exploration sort of adventures, versus a more traditional traveling adventure like Lord of the Rings. It really isn’t something that they’d call it’s own setting anymore, but it’s something that you could easily focus on to move between the worlds in your own campaign.

Dark Sun
This used to be a great world, but now, magic has defiled and the land and use of magic can make it even worse. And there is a god-like Sorcerer King who is ruling and can you stay out of their wrath or will they crush you and your party as you try to survive the harsh lands. Dark Sun is going to be a lower magic game that is much more focused on the survival throughout the lands and avoiding the halflings who are jungle cannibals. There are some new races that you can play in this setting as well and one of the biggest types of magic is psionics.

Birthright
If you want to play that extremely epic nation level game, Birthright is going to be the setting of you. In Birthright every player is going to be connected to a nation and have some sort of royal blood. These campaigns are going to be more about that nation ruling, epic wars, versus that smaller adventuring party. Birthright is a setting you’re going to have to come up with or tweak combat for to make it done at a bigger scale.

Planescape
This setting wraps several planes of existence into a single setting. It also takes it out of the normal medieval fantasy setting and puts it into a more Victorian and pseudo-steam punk world. There is a city of Sigil which is the home base for the players and is generally where you are going to be sending them out to the other planes to have their adventures and then returning back to Sigil to resupply, recover, and get new adventures.

Now, that’s just the start of Dungeons and Dragons settings. There are new ones being created as well as old ones that might come back. Most of these settings don’t have official books for fifth edition, but if you find older world setting books, you’d be able to turn them into something that you can use in 5e.

Do you have a favorite setting or is there a setting that you’ve really wanted to play in?

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The Dresden Files

These are also good Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and 4th of July books. Okay, maybe not, but I just really like this series, and the supernatural aspect with the fae creatures, demons, vampires, zombies, werewolves, and more showing up throughout the series, every book in the series is a good Halloween book. I’m currently reading through the series again, and it’s one that I suspect I’ll do that quite often. Harry Dresden is a Wizard PI in Chicago, and Chicago is a hot bed of trouble for the supernatural. How will he almost fail at and then eventually solve the problem that he’s being faced with? The Dresden Files aren’t a scary series, but they do have that monster feel that you generally associate with Halloween.

IT

Definitely my favorite Stephen King book, and I like most of his books, in fact another will be showing up on the list. One of my knocks from just putting Stephen King completely down as the list as any of his books is that some of them suffer at the end, they just don’t wrap up as well as you would hope that they would. It, however, wraps up the best, in my opinion and makes a very well told story. The interlacing of the two timelines also works so well in the book. Most people probably have some idea of what this story is, but in Maine there is a town, Derry, that has a monster in it, and while people don’t really think about it between when it strikes, it’s always there ready to come back. They were kids when It happened to them the first time, and now as adults they are going to put an end to it.

Firestarter

Probably not the Stephen King book people would expect to see on the list, but it’s one that I enjoy a lot. It’s an interesting balance where it isn’t just normal Stephen King horror, but has a good amount of suspense and craziness. Anything by Stephen King, at least that I’ve read, has some horror feel to it. A girl who is born with powers, because of some crazy experiments done on her parents is on the run with her dad as the government tries to chase them down. It’s an interesting concept and I feel like Stephen King was channeling Robert Ludlum for some of the writing as it has some more of the intrigue feel that you get from Ludlum. Probably not a story for everyone just because it isn’t as much horror, but I’ve enjoyed it.

Under the Dome

Last Stephen King work on the list, and I know there could be a ton of other options as well for Stephen King, like I said, it could be a whole list. In Under the Dome, a city is completely surrounded by a dome, and no one knows why, where it came from, or how to get rid of it. The horror shines through in this one a whole lot more then Firestarter because it really looks at the horror of what people might do in that situation. One thing that I really like about this book is how King manages to make his bad characters really bad, but the good characters definitely are more shades of grey than they are the knight in shining armor. That makes the characters much more compelling to me, and definitely has my most hated bad guys in King’s writing.

Coraline

So a major departure from the things I’ve written about before as Coraline is definitely leaning towards a children’s or young adult book, but Neil Gaiman’s story, definitely has that Halloween feel to it. From the talking cat which feels very Halloween like, to the other mother in the story, there are great nods to horror in the book without being too scary and without having the feel of blood and gore. I would say that this is a book that a parent should probably skim or read (it’s a short book) before giving it to a child because it might be much for some children while others might be able to handle it. If it is too much, you can always start with Gaiman’s Wolves in the Walls.

Neverwhere

Another Neil Gaiman book, and you can probably now tell some authors I like quite well, Neverwhere was originally a mini-series (which is okay), but was then turned into a book. This is definitely less horror and closer to the Dresden Files where it is more urban fantasy than anything too scary. However, the story, like The Dresden Files, does have some of that feel where there’s enough unsettling or fantastical things going on that it just matches the Halloween spirit. It’s been a while since I’ve read or watched this one, I should probably do that again sometime.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone

Again, an urban fantasy series, but there is so much going on in this story, it has more of a gothic feel than it does horror, but that still fits well in Halloween for me. What makes this series really interesting is the fact the fantasy isn’t the standard, New  York, Chicago, London story, it’s set in Prague, and the monsters aren’t the standard Vampire, Zombie, and Werewolf. While this does run into the issue of information dumping and going a little off the rails at the end of the series, it’s still really well written and does something that is very unique. Both Kristen and I like this series a lot.

What are some books that I could have mentioned? I know that there are classics out there, which I’ll mention right now such as Frankenstein, Dracula, and The Portrait of Dorian Gray that also all deserve to be on the list. I don’t want to completely gloss over them, but at least Frankenstein and Dracula should be two of the books that people first think of when it comes to Halloween books and that people might generally know more about.

I’m not sure that there will be any more Halloween lists like this, but I will continue next week doing more Halloween posts, just not sure what they’ll be yet, they might be more in depth reviews of things, like I did with iZombie, or it might be ranking various Halloween things for the fun of it, or maybe even a battle between Vampires, Werewolves, and Zombies? If you have any ideas, let me know!

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In a Halloween game, you’re obviously looking at a few basic ideas. You either are going with a monster situation, so something like a vampire, Frankenstein’s monster, werewolves, or zombies – the classics, or you might be looking at a cult, or you might be going with something more twisted and sinister, but it isn’t going to be a story about picking daisies in a meadow somewhere. The story ideas are going to be a bit more grim, a lot of the time. But before you go making the darkest D&D game possible for Halloween, we get to our first point.

If you think about D&D as a movie, what sort of Halloween movie do you want this to be like? Are you going to go with something dark and gritty like Repulsion, see my Halloween Movies Post for what it’s like, or something that’s a little bit more off the wall like Repo! The Genetic Opera or Cabin the Woods? Both of these are fun things, and you can go quite goofy with the latter. But it depends on the feel that you are going for. So, as you’re planning picking which type you’re going for will determine a lot of other things.

From here a lot of your game building is going to be fairly similar to a normal one shot. Think about what sort of encounters you want, keep them varied, do combat, social, investigative, even skill challenges. Try and focus the theme down more so onto the game that you are going for. Also, plan out some more description than you might normally. The more you can describe, the more you can set the theme for your game. If you’re going for something that’s more serious, set it with description that demonstrates how the world seems off.  Plan this out ahead of time, because it’ll be tricky to do it all on the fly and it’ll be one of your bigger tools to use.

When it comes to the actual session, there are things you can do to reinforce the scene. If you normally play in a well lit room or during daytime, move it to a darker location or at night. Running the game outside can even be fun. But, for example, if you are playing a Gothic style of vampire game, play at a table light in a room that is primarily lit by candle light. Just have enough light that you can see the player sheets. Music is also going to be nice and easy to create the feel that you are going for. It can either be ambient noises like a woods if you are hunting down werewolves in a dark forest or it can be be organ music for when you come to the vampires castle. It might be cheesy, but if that’s the type of game that you are going for, it’ll work out just fine.

That’s how I’d run a one shot for Halloween. I wouldn’t recommend doing it at a convention, unless you have your own room where you can control the atmosphere, a big convention hall just won’t work.

But what are some ideas, because that’s what I really like coming up with:

Dracula’s Lair

Your players are a team of vampire hunters who are pretty skilled at what they do. They’ve managed to figure out when the vampire lord Dracula lives. It’s a pretty straight forward murder Dracula game. What I’d do is create it into a house of horrors, the castle that Dracula lives in. Start with the players getting social interactions with some villagers who can help them find a “secret” entrance into Dracula’s lair. Then once in the lair, have Dracula show up and taunt them, throw Renfields at them, other vampire spawn they have to deal with, and traps and puzzles they have to figure out. None of the combats/challenges should be too hard, but the players shouldn’t have a chance to rest. Make it about resource management for them, and let them figure it out as they go along, and then allow creative solutions to problems.

The Last Night

A zombie outbreak has happened and only pockets of nomadic people are still around. The adventuring party has banded together and is being forced to defend a small tent town from a horde of zombies that is coming over the hill at them. Another game idea where you’re trying to keep enough resources in reserve in some ways, but I’d probably borrow from my Pride, PrejuDICE, and Zombies game where there is one head zombie. The players have to make rolls for the army of humans or for themselves to take out a large horde of zombies, but mainly, they are trying to take out the necromancer who is controlling the zombies. But if rolls are going poorly enough, have some way to track if the zombies are getting closer to the civilians or not. Lots of women and children in that group will probably mean that the players try and stop the attack. So dealing with the horde is a skill challenge whereas dealing with the necromancer or head zombie is going to be straight up combat. You could also make this on the road and the players being harried by zombie attacks as they try and keep the civilians safe and make it to a safe zone.

Love Bites

A werewolf is madly in love with a village boy and they enlist the adventuring parties help to get the boy to notice the werewolf and possibly agree to become a werewolf. This game is clearly on the sillier side of things, but it would be a number of quick quests that the players can do. Vary them up from collecting a certain flower or weapon that is lost deep in the woods, finding a master poet to write a poem for the werewolf to give to the boy, fight through a band of goblins to keep the boy safe while they are out hunting in the woods, etc. Find a few of those and make them fairly absurd how the players have to do it so that the game has more of a lighter feel to it.  Maybe even hold off on the werewolf reveal until a few minutes into the game when the players have already agreed to help. They shouldn’t attack the werewolf because the players have agreed to play in the game, and you can also create PC’s for them to play who aren’t going to be apt to kill the werewolf as a monster.

Have you ran a horror through D&D before? How did that work, would it work well for a Halloween game?

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