Lunch Time Gaming At Work

I’ve started a new job so this has gone away, for now, but maybe once a week at my old job, I’d bring in a game and we’d play it. It was just a nice chill time and it was fun to introduce people who maybe hadn’t played many board games, some new board games. Plus it was a chance for me, and I need them, to play a game that I hadn’t played before. Biblios and Arboretum stand out as some of the favorites of the group. And then there were some duds like the Copenhagen: Roll and Write, or Hexroller. They were worth trying, but not great games.

GenCon

I could break this down even further, but the whole experience was amazing. And I can’t wait until the 2023 GenCon. But having some people I knew there was fun, and I got to chat with them some. Plus then Discord communities. I got game with people from Man vs Meeple and Tablenauts and their discords and it was just a great time. Plus I got to play so many different games. GenCon is an amazing experience every time and I think that I found a rhythm that I like for being there. Though, we’ll have to see what might be fun to try next year.

10 Minute Marvel

This one is more recent, but getting a co-host for 10 Minute Marvel has been amazing. Yes, it makes more work for me editing, but it’s just to have a scheduled nerdy Marvel conversation every week. And I want to have more of them, maybe without the editing all the time. But it was great to get a co-host and a friend to go to the movies with and just dive into all of the fun nerdy stuff. And I’m excited to see all the new stuff coming out and talk about that as well.

Getting a Gaming Table

It feels like it’s been longer but that was this spring that I went through, found a lot of games to sell, sold them, and got a gaming table. I love my gaming table. It makes playing campaign games so much easier since I can leave it set-up. I sometimes wonder if I could leave one game set-up on one half and another on the other half. But then again, a lot of them take up more than half of the table. But I basically always have whatever campaign game I’m streaming set-up on there.

Stars of Akarios

Speaking of Streaming, Stars of Akarios. I figured I’d like the game, but I didn’t realize I’d like it as much as I did. The game is just great, the story is fun, and that tactical space combat really shines. So an easy pick, it was hard to take it down. I kind of wanted to continue, but also, it is good to show off more games than just one.

The Dragon Prince, Locke & Key, and Stranger Things

I put them all in one because, well, they are all Netflix shows. And all of them are some of my favorites. I feel like I’m probably missing a show, but these three were great. Locke & Key ended strong. The Dragon Prince, it had been a bit but used it as a chance to watch the whole series again. And while, Stranger Things, Season 4 was the best one since Season 1, and I think it’s really close between those. There were just a lot of really good and fun shows that Netflix put out. And then GBBO is always good, but I kind of consider that to be a little bit of a different thing.

Campaign Games

Technically Stars of Akarios would have fallen into this group, but overall I had an amazing time with campaign games. Sleeping Gods, even though I played it wrong, was so much fun. Tainted Grail, we finished up the second campaign and are into the third. Pathfinder Adventure Card Game was great. Spire’s End and Spire’s End Hildegard have been a ton off un. Even the weird campaign from Paper Dungeons was a lot of fun to play through. So lots of campaign style games that were fun.

Final Thoughts

I don’t think that 2022 was completely a normal nerdy year. I have a four year old now and that means that some nerdy things happen less often or at least getting out for them does. On the flip side, I got to do GenCon and I got to play a lot of Tainted Grail and get a lot of games in. So it’s been a very fun and fulfilling year of nerdy things. And I didn’t even touch on the anime that I’ve watched, not all of which have been great. But there are a good number of fun ones of those as well.

I am really looking forward to what 2023 has as well. Like I said, we’ll talk about some of those things coming up. But it’s going to be another fun year. And hopefully you’ve had good nerdy things happen to you in 2022 as well.

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Gloomhaven

Gloomhaven, and I’ll include Jaws of the Lion, is going to be a campaign game for the person who wants a lot of control over what they are doing. The card play in Gloomhaven is great and really smart. I love picking two cards, one to use the top of and the other to use the bottom. But if I’m slower than other players or the enemies, now I need to put flexibility into what I’m doing. Gloomhaven also provides great character progression. It isn’t too fast so you learn and can use and enjoy the new cards but then be gaining XP for the next new card.

I also think that Gloomhaven, the big box, works well for players who like the change it up. You retire a character after some time. You’ll hit your secret goal and it’ll be time to retire them and move on. If you get really attached to a character or a way to play the game, Gloomhaven won’t be for you. It is better for a game that changes everything up as you get new characters with how you play them.

Sword & Sorcery

As compared to Gloomhaven, Sword and Sorcery is light and small. Now it’s still a big box with a lot of minis in the box. But Sword and Sorcery is all about the dice chucking. The story is pretty light, the decision making space in where the story goes really doesn’t exist. But when it comes to optimizing how many dice you can have and roll, Sword & Sorcery does that.

Stars of Akarios

Stars of Akarios is an interesting hybrid. I would say that this game is for people who want something like Gloomhaven, though the game is very different, but set in space. You can watch game play here. But this is going to be your big space epic game, and probably the biggest space campaign game, at least until ISS Vanguard comes out soon.

But this is also the game for the person who wants a little bit of everything. There is some choose your own adventure. Tactical space combat and then space and planet exploration. So really a little bit of everything that you could do. And they manage to make all of them work, though you need to be in for the space combat because that is the biggest piece.

Pandemic Legacy

This is one I’d say three introductory campaign games. And Pandemic Legacy is a legacy game on top of that. This one, though, might be the best, because in Pandemic Legacy Season 1, if you’ve played Pandemic, you can basically jump in and play the game. If not, it’s an easy teach and a cooperative game.

This is really just a story driven version of Pandemic. It does introduce rules as you go along. But it ramps up players slowly. So if you know someone who is interested at all in gaming, this is a great option to start.

Tainted Grail

Moving to the other extreme, this is not introductory friendly. There are rules you kind of need to look up to figure out what is going on. And there will be situations where the rules maybe don’t explain everything. But Tainted Grail offers some of the best story experience I’ve had in a game.

The story is dark, the story is adult. And the game has a strong survival element as well. I really recommend this one on story mode. The game is still very hard at times. There are going to be combats where you just look at it and run away. But when you dive into the story, it is just so good. So much depth to the world and every expansion gives even more story that is just amazing.

Charterstone

Charterstone is a euro campaign game. It’s one that I think euro players will like, it is a campaign game, and it adds in things. I also think that Charterstone is also a good one for a budding euro player. It’s pretty simple to start and definitely adds in a lot as you go along.

The story for me on Charterstone is very weak, and I honestly thing it pretends too much with it. But the game play is solid. It is a good euro game. And for a legacy game, you can still it after. They even offer a recharge pack, as does the next one on the list as well. But I don’t know what I’d want it.

Aeon’s End Legacy

Aeon’s End Legacy is another one with a weaker story to it. But a story that I sound fun. You can watch the whole of the game over on Malts and Meeples, I’ll put the first part down below. But if you like deck building or are interested, this is a great spot to start.

I also think that this is a great game for players who want to make their own character. As a legacy game it allows you to build up your breach mage with the cards you want the way you want. Other games allow you to customize somewhat, here you really get so much choice over that. Deck building helps provide some of that, but also with the powers you get, it works nicely as well.

My City

Another legacy game on the list and another one that is really easy to get to the table. It is a tile laying game where everyone has their own set of tiles and a card if flipped over to determine which one to put down. There are additional rules that are added as you play further into the game, but it is never too much.

This is also a great campaign or legacy game for people who don’t have that much time. Or don’t have a big block of time. It’s easy to pull out and play a game that takes maybe 30 minutes. Then you do that again two nights later, and so on and it’ll never take you that long to be back up and running.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

Another one that I played on Malts and Meeples. This one is kind of like Aeon’s End Legacy, but instead of deck building through game play, this offers deck construction. So if you like optimizing your character to be good at some things, Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is good for that.

I also think that this works well for maybe the person who doesn’t have time to play Pathfinder. If you’ve played Pathfinder and done the adventures, you’ll get more into the story, recognize characters and places. But it’s less of a commitment than jumping into another campaign and planning out 3 hours every week or two to play, at least.

Paper Dungeons

Paper Dungeons is an odd one on the list. It is technically a campaign game, you play through cards with monsters to fight. But it doesn’t need to be, it can be a one off. Nor do I think the campaign is all that great. But if you really like roll and write games, and Paper Dungeons is a very good roll and write game, this is going to give you a heftier roll and write to play. And also one that I played on Malts and Meeples.

Sleeping Gods

Alright, one more that is on Malts and Meeples. Sleeping Gods is for the player who wants a weird fantasy world but also wants to be able to do whatever they want. All the other campaigns on the list give you a general order of doing things. Some might have side missions but generally they’re about the main story that is going through.

Sleeping Gods gives you fun card play and a lot of interesting powers and decisions. Now, I’d recommend that you get the sequel one, it’s coming out sometime probably next year. It’ll make a few things cleaner, like not having to control as many characters. But the one you can get now is great as well and the story tends to be one of the lighter ones and more fun. And the story works as well which is impressive with no real direction.

Risk Legacy

Another legacy game on the list and only one more after this one before the list is finished off. But Risk Legacy is going to be for the person who likes that in your face game. But whereas Risk can be annoying and take forever. In Risk Legacy the games are much faster, so it’s also for the person who likes that in your face but finds Risk way to long. I’m one of those people, so this one is a lot of fun when you want something very competitive.

Seafall

Finally, I had to put it on the list because I technically did play probably half of it or a bit more. This one I don’t really recommend. I think that there are elements of the game that work but most don’t. If you go back to Sleeping Gods where I talk about open world, that one tells a great story in spite of that. Seafall is also open world but it doesn’t tell a good story.

Also the games are just too long, so I really don’t recommend it for that. The longer you play the higher the points get, plus you unlock things so that means there is even more to think about. I want this to be so much better than it is, it had potential and it just falls flat.

Final Thoughts

13 campaign games on the list. And I thought about adding in Arkham Horror the Card Game, and when I get around to a campaign box for Marvel Champions. So clearly I love campaign games, but like I said, not all of them are for everyone.

If you are looking to dive into a campaign game, I really recommend probably three games as my top choices. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion is a great small box version of Gloomhaven. And it’ll give you the exact same game just with less stuff and less cost. Pandemic Legacy is a good one to jump into as well because a lot of people know Pandemic. Start with Season 1 and it’ll be an easy way to see how much you like legacy games and campaign games. And finally, I think that if you want something bigger and maybe a bit more challenging, I recommend Sleeping Gods. I like it solo, but I think most people will like it at three players.

But let me know what your favorite campaign games are? And how do you play them?

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Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Mini Review

So, I like this game, I don’t know that I would put it in a category that I love the game. Some of that is because I think the game works best as a two player game, each player controlling one character. And I find this to be the case with a log of games that can be played solo. If I can directly help you a lot in a game, well, then it means playing solo you always need to know what everyone is doing.

Now, if you watched my play through of Sleeping Gods, you know that didn’t bother me there. But it does here, and I think it’s because that was always finding story, versus the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game being more bookended by story. So when you compare the amount you keep track of in both games, it seems like less work for Sleeping Gods. Or something like Aeon’s End solo is more enjoyable because there is less interaction or can be.

All of that said, I still do enjoy the game. I like the progression. I like figuring out how to make everything work. How do I pull of closing a location when I might not have the best skills to do that? How do I keep my characters alive long enough to get to everything. There are a lot of good decisions in the game. And I give it a solid B grade for me. I will do a full review or maybe a comparison review between 1st and 2nd Editions later.

Upcoming Streams

On Monday I am going to be sitting back, maybe unboxing a game, depends on what I have come in. And then chat about GenCon which will be coming up shortly. The GenCon chat will mainly be about what to expect at GenCon, if you haven’t been before. What events I’m going to, and what I enjoy or maybe enjoy less about GenCon in general.

On Wednesday there is going to be some game play. My plan is either to do Black Sonata, or play Final Girl. If you have a preference, let me know that in the comments below. Right now I am leaning towards Black Sonata just because there are more game plays of Final Girl out there already.

And then the following Monday, before I’m off to GenCon, I will be doing more GenCon coverage. A few more games might show up on the Board Game Geek preview after that Monday, but I hit the road on Wednesday so I can’t cover it then. It might be a longer stream going through all the games for sale or demo at GenCon, at least in theory. There most likely will be more.

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Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

How much does game play change replaying a scenario? That’s the question that I want to tackle today. And you can see some of how much it does or doesn’t change. I’ve ran into the issue of, well, needing to replay the scenarios.

The downside to replaying is that scenarios don’t change a ton. The boss and the henchman are still going to be the same. Your characters don’t change up as you go. So most of the things feel the same as you play through it again. When you tackle the same scenario, you just know more, or a little bit more. You still don’t know a ton more because of where variability does come in.

Mainly, variability is in the cards added to the locations. It is a different set of cards each time you play. So the items, monsters, weapons, armor, barriers, allies, blessings, and spells. So that seems like a lot of things to change up the game. And I do think it does change up the game. But in terms of story in terms of what you really focus on, those tend to stay more static.

How do you beat the main villain and their henchmen? How do you close the locations? That is the core loop of the game. And you do that once, or twice and it starts to feel very similar. Why, because it really is. The main thing I feel like that changes is now, the second time through, I know how I want to tackle those things. Granted, I generally know that the first time around as well. Seoni is better at closing locations that don’t need strengh. Amiri is better with strength. So I wish it could change up more. And I think swapping locations could make a difference. But that isn’t rules as written.

Upcoming Streams

So Monday, I think I will be doing a Top 10 list. Though, that might change. We are getting close to GenCon and I think I want to do some more coverage on that leading into it. I want to cover the games going to be there. I want to talk about my experience from 2019 and what I learned. And I want to cover some things that I think maybe viewers would be interested in checking out.

And then next Wednesday, my hope is that I wrap up the third scenario in the first chapter of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. When I do that, the next game that is going to be up is Stars of Akarios. You can see my unboxing of that here. But that is going to be starting after GenCon that I’ll start playing that, no matter what happens next week.

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Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Characters

Let’s talk a bit about the characters and picking characters. What we’ve seen in these few scenarios thus far is that I maybe am not going with the most ideal team of characters. Why, because we are seeing a lot of things that are looking for diplomacy, crafting, acrobatics, things along those lines. But, that isn’t an issue with the game.

Yes, it seems like there are certain skills are a bit more prevalent in what I am doing. But I do not mind it. Why, because it is a challenge for me to beat. It means that I have a different puzzle to figure out than a higher player count game. If I play with four characters, I probably have someone who is good at a skill. So I send them to a specific location to deal with it. Now, instead, I need to figure out how to deal with it in a creative way.

For example, closing or guarding a location. Seoni carries a blessing and an ally that allow her to close things easier. I believe it is a bless, so 2 of the skill die, and an extra D8 from her ally. And the boots she got allow her to gain even more dice at certain types of locations. So I keep those cards with her as much as I can. However, she is not the best at attacking, which means they often can get lost when she takes damage. It is a fun balancing act, puzzle, that between her and Amiri I need to figure out.

Upcoming Streams

So let’s talk about what we are streaming next week. On Monday my plan is to stream an unboxing, or a first look at Stars of Akarios from OOMM Games. It is coming tomorrow, so I might look at it before then, but plan will be the show off some stuff from the game and talk about it. Plus, I might have other packages coming in to look at as well. And I will pick a topic to chat about as well, in the style of BoardGameCo.

Wednesday is going to be another game of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. I will, of course, need to play through the scenario again. Hopefully it’ll go better this time and I will know what I am doing more so. I do have my plan, which I lay out above, for Seoni for that one location.

And I plan on streaming on Thursday as well. I keep on teasing it, but Crowdfunding BIG and little. Right now there isn’t much that is too big, but I’m sure there will be more interesting things coming to crowdfunding next Tuesday. That is a lot of content and I hope to get Crowdfunding BIG and little done. Though, it might not end up being a live show, if it looks like it doesn’t fit into my schedule. I might record it and then release it on Thursday.

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Miniature Market Orders

Yes, it is plural. Though two of them are closely tied together. And the latest one was because they had a very nice sale for the 4th of July week, or the week leading into it.

Massive Darkness and Expansions

This one you’ve already seen on the website because I did an unboxing of it on Malts and Meeples. You can checkout that video below. I didn’t get this one on Kickstarter but I was very interested in it. Any game with a campaign mode is going to interest me. Plus this is generally a pretty well rated game, even the original version. So it is one that has been on my radar for a little while. And I want everything for it, but I know I don’t need it. So I got two character expansions and then the core box and the campaign box because of course I want a campaign game.

Fireball Island: Wreck of the Crimson Cutlass and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bees

This is part of the sale. I want to say that they were 33-50% off so a good amount. And this is just going to add in more content for Fireball Island. The Wreck of the Crimson Cutlass actually adds to the board this ship wreck area that is cool. And the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bees is an expansion that adds a tiger that you launch as well as then a lot of bee marbles.

Once it is in, I am going to make it a priority to table Fireball Island. I think it’s going to be a fun one for a number of groups. Plus it looks great on the table and is a simple enough game for almost any group. That combination is always a good way to get a game played.

The Quacks of Quedlinburg: Herb Witches

I enjoy The Quacks of Quedlinburg a good amount, I think that the game play is simple and fun. And while you can plan, you are really just pushing your luck, which is fun. I do think that out of the box, since they want you to play specific combinations, it might end up being a bit limited. That is where the Herb Witches expansion comes in.

The Herb Witches is going to be an expansion that adds in two more ingredients, I believe, that you can use, plus more scoring combinations. And while the new ingredients will change up the game play. I don’t know how much I really need more of those. But more ways to score is interesting to me.

All Systems Go

All Systems Go, as a reminder, is my preferred FLGS (Friendly Local Game Store) though not the only one that I go to, as you’ll see. But I currently have had a bunch of store credit there, so it is a good spot to get some games.

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

You know that I am playing the 2nd edition over on Malts and Meeples. But while I am getting into that, I bought up the first edition stuff. Someone had traded in the Mummy core box and the Wrath core box, including the Wrath with all the story expansions for it. So I grabbed that to go along with my Skulls and Shackles core box. Now I have basically all of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game that is out there. There is a 2nd Edition expansion that I kind of want to get.

Ra

Ra is a game that flirts with my Top 100 often. Why, because it’s such a simple game but with a good auctioning mechanic. I really like how there is a closed market and a loop to it. I bid, I win the bid, I get the bid token in the middle, mine goes into the middle. So if I bid with the 16, I think that’s the highest, now the next person to win a big will end up with a 16 to use the next round. It’s clever and it works well.

Zoo-ography

This is one that I don’t know too much about. It plays from 1-4 players and 15 minutes per player. So the game is going to be on the lighter end of things. But it looks like it comes with a lot of cool animal meeples, always a good thing. And it is a drafting game. I really enjoy drafting, see games like Draftosaurus, Sushi Go! Party, or drafting in Blood Rage. So this one with a lot of cute components really interested me.

New York Zoo

And sticking to the zoo theme and animal meeples, we have New York Zoo. This is a polyominal game where you are getting tiles to put into your zoo. Then getting animals and breeding more animals until you get enough to put in attractions. It seems like a pretty straightforward game like Zoo-ography, but one that will also get played. Plus much like drafting, I enjoy tile placement, and New York Zoo seems like a fun theme for that mechanic.

Target

So, every July, at some point in the month, Target rolls out some Target exclusive games. Most notably in that was Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion a few years ago and then Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition last year. I don’t know when that is happening this year or what the games are. But I do know that they often do clearance on games right before. So I picked up one new, and one clearance.

My Hero Academia: Plus Ultra!

I don’t actually know anything about this game. My Hero Academia is an anime that I enjoy but I struggle to watch consistently. Mainly the main character gets way to emotional way to often. But when they have action sequences it is good. Plus there is a really good story with it. I don’t know if this board game is going to be good. It looks like it just came out, but I figured I’d give it a whirl just for the theme.

Summer Camp

And from the clearance side of things there is Summer Camp. This is a deck building game about Summer Camp, oddly enough. You are trying to go up on three different tracks. From what I know of this game, it is a pretty light game but I figured I’d give it a go. Plus it was 50% off, so the price wasn’t bad at all.

The Source

This is the other local game store. But really it’s games, comics, manga, nerdy things store. And I mainly go there to pick up manga, which I’ll be writing sometime soon about the ones that I’m reading.

Dungeon Party: Starter Pack

This is a dungeon questing, monster fighting board game where you are bouncing a quarter onto a coaster. It is purely silly but I am down for that. I might even work it into my Thursday D&D game. Make that be part of what we are doing for fighting a monster this week. Bring the characters to another dimension or something like that. I haven’t worked it all out.

But this is a game that I want to own just for the goofy nature. You probably know by now that I like my dexterity games. And I’d love to find an evening to just have some beers and play this game coming up here. I think it’ll provide a lot of laughs and a good time.

Half Priced Books

HPB is a book store mainly for used books. I’ve picked up some fun series there. And they have a game section. That is where I’ve gotten games like Tannhauser before. This time only one game caught my eye.

Periodic

This is going to be a game about the Periodic table. I know of someone who might like the game better, they have Genotype as well from Genius Games. I’ve heard good things about Periodic, so when was used there, I figured that I’d grab it. I’m not sure it’s a game for me, but we’ll see. And like I said, I think I know someone who would like the game if it isn’t for me.

eBay

Stars of Akarios

I blame the GloryHoundd discord server for this. You can join me on that discord server here. But one of their members found it on eBay with a listing that had a number of the game as a slightly better price than going through the store.

But Stars of Akarios is going to be a game of fighting and exploring on the fringes of space. But it hits so many of the words that I look for in a game. This is a narrative-driven, cooperative, campaign game that can be plays solo. I don’t know why I missed this one on Kickstarter, but I’m glad to have grabbed it now.

Amazon

Yup, Amazon has gotten a little love too. Mainly I’ll toss on a cheap game from time to time. Or sometimes Amazon is the only spot I can find something.

Skull and Shackles Expansions

This is again more Pathfinder Adventure Card game stuff. The story expansions and I think two character expansions for Skulls and Shackles. The name might not imply it, but this is the pirate base game for Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. And that is a theme that I really like. So I am curious to see how they will make that game and story work. I always want to run a pirate D&D campaign, maybe this will inspire me.

Crowdfunding

Marvel Dice Throne

This is one that came in. And it’s already gotten to the table 3 times. The downside of it being 3 times is that I still have two characters I need to play. Black Panther and Captain Marvel are waiting for their shot in the sun. I’ll have a whole lot more on this probably around the end of the week.

Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread

This is one that I just late pledged. My curiosity for the game got the better of me. I again, am a sucker for a cooperative, solo playable, narrative-driven campaign game. And Arydia promises that for me, plus some cool minis that you can customize.

Overall, this is just one of those big box games that I’m going to have to start playing as a campaign. I really want to figure out some game to play as a campaign on my own, not stream. Or maybe one that my wife is interested in, and do that once a week just for a little time. I have half of the gaming table that should be free to play on a lot of the time.

Aeon’s End: Past and Future

More Aeon’s End, I am of course going to back this. It is an interesting project though, and it is available for late pledge. But Aeon’s End Past and Future is not a big box expansion like they normally do. Normally it is the next part of the story that they are going through. This actually goes back to the past and looks to the future and you need specific sets already to be able to play it. Of course it’s mainly just more content, so I am down for that.

Deathly Thrones

Deathly Thrones is the only print and play game on the list. This one is interesting, though because it’s not a roll and write game. It’s a solo print and play roguelike game where you use a deck of cards. I didn’t look into it too much, again it is one that was shared to me via the GloryHoundd Discord server. But I think it looks really interesting and unique. If it can pull off a fun game, I could see having this a smaller sized game to pull out and play.

GameNerdz

I said it was a big list and a lot of it is that it has been a while since I’ve done one of these. I don’t believe that I’ve written about this one.

Vampire the Masquerade – Chapters

This is another one of those games where I wish that I’d backed it on Kickstarter. The Kickstarter hasn’t even fulfilled yet and the regret got me, especially since I found it too late to late pledge. Or found it again too late to late pledge. This is going to be another one of those big story driven cooperative solo campaign games set in the world of Vampire the Masquerade.

What intrigues me so much about this one is that it has story and the story from Vampire the Masquerade where it isn’t just vampires chomping necks and sucking blood. But there’s this whole code of what you do. And then you get down to a tactical level map where you can interactions with people and battles that happen which is really interesting. I like that variety in what it does.

GameZenter

Another LGS (local game store) to go along with All Systems Go and The Source. All of them are very nice, I am lucky to have so many around me. And I like to buy something every time I go somewhere and play. And the GameZenter is my favorite spot to play out of the two that you can play at, GameZenter and The Source.

Spirit Island

Spirit Island is a game that I should have played sooner. And in all fairness I have yet to play it now. But it is a cooperative or solo game that has great puzzle elements to it. And it’s complex enough in what your spirit is doing to fight off the colonizers that are coming to the island. So I really want to give it a go and see how it plays. I suspect it’s going to be a game that is bigger that I really like to play solo or at two players.

Final Thoughts

That’s it, I think, that I haven’t talked about. It’s been a busy time getting in games, or getting them in soon. I need to start playing them. But I am close, still to that 100 game total which I wanted to get under for unplayed games. Granted, that number will go up a bit again soon with a few more big box games coming in. I know that Oathsworn is getting close, so I’m sure I’ll write about that in the next Point of Order.

And then other Kickstarters and Gamefound games are starting to get produced. There is a production copy that was unboxed for ISS Vanguard, so I expect that to show up October or November. And Grove is getting close as well as Tiny Turbo Cars. And I think even Spire’s End Hildegard just locked in it’s shipping addresses, though I might be off on that one. Oh, and Chronicles of Drunagor. So expect another big one coming, likely post GenCon.

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The Game – Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

Let’s talk this time about some things that I really like in the game. I’ve talked enough about the rule book, and even looked up one thing again with healing because I feel like I’m doing it wrong still. But there is a ton I love about the game.

Firstly, I really like the characters and their skills. Mainly because with a two player game, like I’m playing, I am missing out on things. Some people might get frustrated being deficient at skills are seek to optimize, but I prefer it when I’m weak at some things. It makes planning more of a challenge versus move the one character who is good over to a location to pass the check. It means that my resources matter more.

I also like the variety in stuff. I haven’t dug into the items, weapons, spells, monsters, for stories 2 and 3, but for the first story there’s plenty. Which means I can customize the way I want. I keep on getting weapons that aren’t ideal for Amiri, but when I get a good weapon for her, it allows me to swap stuff out and improve her character. Or with Seoni, to customize if I want to be more offensive or defensive with her spells.

Finally, though this isn’t all, I like the play time of the game. When I get into the swing of it, turns are pretty straightforward as to what to do. I flip that hour and explore. I can quickly tell by looking at a card what I need to know and if I can make it or not. So last nights game was under an hour plus I was chatting. There are a lot of bigger story driven games that take two plus hours a session. Getting through this in 45 minutes or so is nice. It’d likely be longer multiplayer, but probably not a ton.

Upcoming Streams

So, tonight was supposed to be a stream but I’ll be gaming instead. I don’t know for sure, because Stranger Things comes out on Friday, but my hope is to stream for a hour that evening while the toddler is being put to bed. If I can do that, then I’ll be doing Crowdfunding BIG and little. That series is supposed to be tonight, but again, gaming.

As for Monday, it is a holiday. I will not be streaming then. But on Wednesday I will play more Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. I plan on going through the first story and see where I am at with it. I might leave it set-up, as I said, to play myself but switch to streaming a new game. We’ll see in a few weeks most likely.

Would you like to see a different game after I get through the first story? Or do you want all three story parts?

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Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

So I could come back and talk about the rules again. And in all fairness, we saw me struggle with them a little bit. But I did that last week already and you can listen to the end of the video for me to talk about it some more.

Instead, let’s talk about the story of the game thus far. Pathfinder Adventure Card game is not the most full of story game out there. There is some interesting story to what is happening between. But when you get down to the game play it is very mechanical.

It reminds me of the Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game in some ways. By that I mean that the story is there. In that game you have the story of the Dresden Files series. But unless you know the story or what you are looking for, it is hard to find. In the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, I feel like it is similar. You can see the story that is created by the card play. But it isn’t a story heavy game.

I wish that there were more elements, maybe specific cards for each deck, that were just story cards. Where they try and tell the tale is with the use of the minion and boss monsters. As well as with the danger card that is added. But again, that is not that much story. It would do well to make more of each deck specific to the story, versus the random collection.

Upcoming Streams

So next Wednesday we have game 4. You saw how it ended, so you know that we’ll be replaying the scenario. I don’t mind doing that too much because the game play is pretty fast. And now that I feel like I’ve figured out my few questions, it should go even faster. You can click the notification bell here to know when we go live next time.

And on Monday, I am not sure what that stream is gong to be yet. It might be another Top 10 List, this one borrowing from Foster the Meeple. They did a list of 5 IP’s that they’d like to see have a board game made about. I did a little list, I think 5, a few months ago on this site, but let’s see what I can come up with for 10.

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Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Rules

So, I talked about this a bit at the end of the stream because that play was very fast. How easy is it to learn the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game? My answer would be that it is okay. It is not the easiest game to learn, but it is also not the hardest.

It helps, in some ways that there is a tutorial scenario that you play through. And that it generally walks you through your first turn. But what I wish there was more of, in the rules, were examples on the pages. You get a lot of text, but more examples as you go along. What does a specific action look like. When you fight a monster, write a step by step of how it works. Then the same with acquiring a boon. And then the same with coming up against a barrier.

The rules are just fine. But they could be made great by more examples. Now there is a big example at the end, but I prefer examples throughout. I like it when they show me how to do something, in an example, when I learn it. Not when I am trying to remember everything and might be wondering why they didn’t do a particular step because I’m putting monster combat rules into my check for a boon.

Upcoming Streams

So, two streams for sure coming up. The first being on next Monday. Borrowing from a topic that BoardGameCo did a Top 10 on. I present my Top 10 Crowdfunding that I’d back again. Or, in other words, I can only back 10 Crowdfunding campaigns, which 10 would they be? And come prepared, if you want, with your 10 as well.

And then on Wednesday, game 3 of Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. It’ll be a new scenario this time as I got the win. So new scenario, new location, and some new story to go along with it. Join me at 8 PM on Wednesday for that one.

But I want to talk about an upcoming video(s) that I want to do. I want to start covering more crowdfunding. As I said in the video with Backerkit coming into the mix, it’s going to be easier to miss campaigns. You need to go to Gamefound, Backerkit and Kickstarter to see everything. There are other channels that cover it all, but I want to start doing more coverage as well. I think I know what I want it to be.

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The Game -Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

So let’s talk about this game. I consider this to be in the same family of games as something like Arkham Horror The Card Game. Though, Arkham Horror builds on what is done with the cards for the locations. And it can change up more based upon that. But Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, on the flip side, I think has more robust characters for me, or at least characters that I’d consider more fun.

But, the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, generally, is a card game where you take heroes out on missions, fight bad guys, find loot, and generally build up your characters deck of cards until you face off against the big bad guy. All of the adventures are connected by a little bit of story that you can read as you go and then randomized locations.

You explore at those locations looking to corner the bad guy for that mission and closing locations based off of the cards that you have. However, as you go and spend cards to get boons and defeat banes, you sometimes spend cards discarding them. And when you run out of cards and need to draw more, you die in the scenario. Now, the other characters can still complete it, but all the while, time is running out as well.

Overall, a fun game for me. I like the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game and there is a decent app for it that is based more off of the first game than the newest edition. I’ll be talking about the differences between the two once I play this new one a little bit more.

The Drink

Old Fashioned again last night. This time with lemon bitters. A good old fashioned is just enjoyable to drink and my normal way to change it up is different types of bitters. Lemon, I like, though lemon bitters can, with too much, taste a bit like cleaner, or lemon pledge. Do you have a favorite bitters to use in a cocktail?

Upcoming Streams

On Monday, I am going to be doing an unboxing of Massive Darkness 2. My collection for that is going to be the core box, the campaign expansion, and then two more expansions to add in more heroes and villains.

And on Wednesday, more Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. How will it go this time? I have improved characters, will I be able to defeat it, though now it’ll be on normal mode which means more time, but also more cards to get through, more monsters, potentially to fight, and all of that could spell more trouble.

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