Checkout the campaign page here. And sneak a peek at the website here.

What Is Tabletop Recorder

The best way I can put what Tabletop Recorder is, is it’s that it’s like the AI note taking technology you see for work meetings. But, it’s specifically tailored to working with RPG’s. You give it an audio file of your D&D or other RPG campaign and it is going to spit out the session notes and give you an interface where you can query what has happened.

The creators of Tabletop Recorder reached out to me to see if I wanted to give it a try before the campaign went live. And I love to see tech integrated well into something, and with my podcast equipment, it made it easy to record, though, it’d also be easy to record on a phone as well. So I got to play around with it and get early access, which I’m much appreciative for, and use it for a couple D&D sessions and a couple of dummy sessions.

Let’s talk quickly about how it works. Right now the system is record an audio file, upload that audio file and it processes it giving you some outputs and letting you query against it. There are plans depending on how the crowdfunding campaign does to let you record to the website, or with enough time and money possibly native apps for iOS and Android. But right now it’s record a file, upload, and let it do it’s thing. But let’s talk about how well it does it’s thing.

How Well Does It Work at Transcribing?

The starting thing that I wanted to know was how it worked when it came to catching everything for a full campaign. The campaign that I’m running has time travel and is reaching end game so there are a lot of already established NPC’s, locations, and lore within the game. It’s not a simple setting and series of events at this point. In fact, the players had just managed to screw up the timeline really badly with some created paradoxes via time travel.

And it does a good job with the transcription. It actually gives you four different ways that you can look at your session. There is the full transcription which is a transcription as you would expect. But there is also the long, medium, and short recaps. I think that all of them are solid and they all serve a different purpose. But for really getting all the information, the transcript and the long are going to be your best bet. The medium is great for that quick recap of what happened, and the short is a slightly too long description that I’d use for a podcast if I recorded for a podcast as well.

Short Description

The short, to it’s credit does try and be a narrative telling of what happened. And it does a pretty solid job of that. I might use it for kind of a quick check on what happened previously as I plan a next session, but it’s going to be light on details.

Cleaning It Up

And if you think it missed something, or you want to correct something you can. For example, you’ll see it below, we have a PC named Barai in our game. It learned it as Bry, so it classified Barai as an NPC. But I can go in and edit that to help it learn and connect things. And I can do that really easily. One feature that I’d love to see in their editor is a bit more of a robust find and replace feature. But I clicked edit, copy and pasted to Notepad and did it there, which is easy.

What Else Does It Do?

The other big feature is that you get a Q&A tool. This tool is going to query either a specific session or a specific campaign for you. And you get back details about what happened in a session, or in a moment. Let me give a few examples of what I’ve used it for.

Asking for NPC’s

If I want a list of NPC’s, I can ask it for a list of NPC’s. And it is going to give me that list with a little description, or I can ask for a list without a description just so I can get as many NPC names as I can. I can do that for the whole campaign if I want, and it’ll give me a solid list.

Character names won’t make any sense, but it does a very good job. I will call out that Kip and Barai are both player characters, but you can go in and tweak that.

Asking for Plot

That is a relatively easy request. So let’s give it a more open prompt. And this is a prompt that I think a lot of Dungeon Masters would like. What is the players plan?

That isn’t even everything. But it does a solid job of splitting things out. And it is going back not only across the latest session, but the multiple sessions to pull out details. I can select only the last session if I wanted to get exactly where we are out. Or I can go across everything, I like I did, and review where the players are at to help me plan my next session.

And More

And you can query more as well. These are just two examples that I think highlight a very practical side of using it. But more than that, also a very useful side in terms of gathering narrative points. But you can really ask to your hearts content with it and create queries to get the answers you need.

Who is Tabletop Recorder For?

Before we get to if I’d use it or not, let’s talk about who it’s going to benefit the most. To me this is a Dungeon Master tool. Yes, I think there are things that the players will like about it too, but the strength is going to be for a dungeon master.

Why is that? Do players want to know everything in the campaign, sure. It can replace note taking. But that’s the big benefit for the players. For the Dungeon Master it is going to be a tool that helps with that note taking but also planning sessions and keeping track of all those loose ends. And I think even worldbuilding it’s going to be a dynamic tool for the Dungeon Master.

So, while everyone will get a benefit from it, there are some people it’ll benefit more. And some will depend on how you can access it. If everyone needs a subscription to access it, I don’t know that it’s worth it. But if there’s a dungeon master level to pledge and access and then lesser licenses, or links that can be shared to the campaign, it’ll be a good tool for everyone. It’ll depend on the access model to determine how much value it will hold.

Would I Use Tabletop Recorder?

So first, off, this is a preview. I was not paid for the preview, but I did get early access to the system. So, I give my honest opinion on it, but it is a preview. I want you to take what I say with a grain of salt.

I want to use this in my next campaign. It is something that I already found useful. But I think for a new campaign it is going to be very useful for me. Your mileage might vary depending on how you run your game. But for how I play Dungeons and Dragons, in my case, it is great. Let’s talk about why.

Note Taking

I am not the best at taking notes. I play theater of the mind and improv a ton in my games. That means that we go in unexpected directions a lot. And we tend to be a narrative heavy campaign and interaction heavy campaign versus a combat heavy campaign. In two sessions, I already like the ability to recap things and help me remember what happened last session. Whether it being me querying specific things or reading the short or medium recap to remember what is going on.

This is a great replacement for note taking for me. And it’s unobtrusive. I just stick my microphone in the middle of the table, hit record and we start playing. And, I think we did a good job of actually playing a real session. By that I mean tangents happened. We got sidetracked, we made references to things, and it was still useful for me.

Worldbuilding

This is an element that I think is going to be useful, but I haven’t done yet. I mainly think of it for a new campaign, but to prime for a session as well it would be good. What am I talking about?

So, I start a new game and I jot down some notes for a new world. They could offer me a way to enter them into the system, which I wouldn’t mind. But I can also record those notes, who are NPC’s that the players are going to meet. What is the end goal situation of the campaign and things like that. I can prime the system to know NPC names and all of that jazz. Then I can use a tablet, laptop, or phone, behind the DM’s screen to look those things up. It already has my planning notes in there for me.

Now not everything should go in there. If I plan to have a combat, don’t add those to the system ahead of time. That’s part of the active story. But I easy can see myself using it to prep a new campaign with some town names, NPC names, and history of the world so I can easily query it in the moment.

Final Thoughts

Tabletop Recorder is a luxury RPG add-on. Let’s be clear about that. Is it something that you need for your campaign, no. Is it something that is going to make your life easier, yes. To me that is what a good product for an RPG should be. If it claims it’s needed, I get really suspicious. But let me say, I find this nice already. I see the value already for keeping my planning time shorter and note taking easier.

You might not find that value. You might already have a way that you like to prepare for your campaign. But if that is a burden on you, I think that Tabletop Recorder is worth looking into. And for me, I see the value of it. It all comes down to how much it costs though, because there is a value of time versus the value of money that you need to make a decision on. But this is true with everything from the new version of Dungeons and Dragons to miniatures to the snacks you have while you game.

For me, I think it could very well be worth it though. I value that time that I can quickly prepare in versus the time that I spend flipping through the light notes that I have. And from what I’ve seen the technology is working well. And as a software engineer and a manager who has looked at Teams tools and Microsoft Co-Pilot, this is a nice system that is specifically for what I’d want for D&D.

So one last plug to checkout the Tabletop Recorder campaign coming soon to see if it’s for you.

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Dungeon Master Tools – The Campaign

Let’s start out with the big thing, the campaign. This is what you’re going to be playing for weeks, months, or even years of time. My current campaign started in 2020, I believe, and it’ll probably be wrapping up late spring/early summer. That is a long time so the question is how do you create a campaign that goes that long?

The Scary Part

That is the scary part. And the intimidating part that I want to help people get past when being a Dungeon Master. There is this idea that you need to know your campaign before going into it. You pick what you want to run, you spend time studying up, if it’s homebrew, you create the setting, you create towns, and you come up with NPC’s and once you do all of that, you are ready to start your campaign. But I think it’s way simpler than that. So let’s talk about how it is easier to implement.

How To Break It Down

There are two things that you need to start your campaign. One is going to be for you as the Dungeon Master, and one is going to be for your group or prospective players.

• An Elevator Pitch
• An Idea of the End

Let’s start with the Elevator Pitch. This is going to be that get the players interested in your idea pitch. It is going to give them a little bit of an idea of how the campaign is going to start. And some elements of the setting, mainly, is this high fantasy or low fantasy, a lot of magic, or a little magic. It’s not going to explain the whole setting to them or anything like that. It’s just going to be that one paragraph of three or four sentences and that’s it. It could even be as simple as a movie tagline to get them interested.

The other thing that you want to know is loosely how the story is going to end. Why, because you want to keep that in you mind as you plan out the sessions. And we will cover planning out your first game play session in an article soon. But I do want to emphasize to hold onto it loosely. Players might get creative and take the plot in a different way. Or you might come up with a better idea. So don’t hold onto it too tightly.

Examples

So, let’s look at what this can look like, and I’ll give you a couple of examples for it.

Example 1

Elevator Pitch

The party is facing off against the final boss, a terrible Lich who has caused destruction and been a scourge on the lands. You are unprepared for the bosses power and then you wake up. You find yourself back in your home town but you remember the Lich and all the destruction that he caused upon the land. Can you stop it this time around?

Ending

Defeat the Lich.

Example 2

Elevator Pitch

Mysterious towers appeared across the lands. They brought forth monsters into the world but also gave the average person powers to defeat those monsters. Now they are just a part of life, but something seems to be stirring. And there are rumors that if you make it to the top, you find out why these towers appeared. But is that true or is it just a legend?

Ending

Find out what is at the top of the tower.

Dungeon Master Tools Final Thoughts

So let’s wrap up this creating a campaign. Why not put more effort into it? You could, but always first get that buy-in from the players. And we’ll be talking about working with the players in a future article. When you come up with an idea, it’s as simple as starting out with those two things, and they will get built upon as you go.

So what are going to be the next Dungeon Master Tools?

• Session 0
• Session 1
• Story Arcs
• World Building
• Combat
• Exploration
• NPCs/Social Interactions
• Meta Game and Players at the Table

And let me know if there are other things to cover as well that you want to know more about, or help with. I think that there are a ton of different things that new Dungeon Masters are curious about or that feel intimidating. So I hope that I can help make them clearer and simpler for you. And this one is really that first step that you can take before you even start to think about the other elements.

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Checkout 100 through 91 first here.

Checkout 90 through 81 here.

Top 100 Games 2022 Edition – 80-71

80 – Star Wars: Rebellion

Star Wars: Rebellion is a big Star Wars game with lots of fighting, dice chucking, but is really a game of cat and mouse. The empire is trying to find out where the rebel base is. The rebels are trying to complete missions and get the support of the people and undermine the empire. It really is a big game of cat and mouse which feels like the original trilogy.

The one downside to this game is how long it is. I do not mind that it’s two player only, you can play on teams but it’s two player only. But it’s a three hour game, now, that can be awesome a lot of the time. But you need to plan when you want to play Star Wars Rebellion.

Buy from Cool Stuff Inc

79 – Say Bye to the Villains

Say Bye to the Villains is an extremely tricky cooperative game. Players take on the roles of different Samurai who are preparing to takeout Yakuza. The plan is simple, but the game is tricky. It’s all about optimizing your character so that you can be the villain that you end up with. But you only have a limited amount of time and everything you do takes up time. Can you balance it building up your character, supporting the other players, and figuring out what the villains are up to. It almost comes down to the last villain and samurai being a coin flip as you just don’t know.

Buy from Amazon

78 – The Quacks of Quedlinburg

I like deck building and The Quacks of Quedlinburg gives some of that feel. But it is really a push your luck bag building game. You start out with your potion that you’re trying to make and it’s mainly lousy ingredients. You can’t push too far because you’ll bust. Of course, busting isn’t the end of the world, it gives you either money or points, you just can’t get both. As you get money you spend it to get even more ingredients to your bag which means that you can push even farther.

The strategy in this game is surprisingly good. And I really appreciate that about it because there is a lot of luck. But you can build up your bag so that it combos off each other. Where you can score more points if you don’t push your luck, just in case you bust.

Buy from Cool Stuff Inc

77 – Point Salad

Point Salad is another game that is pretty simple, you either take two veggies or a scoring card, but has good strategy. You need to pay attention to what everyone else is doing around you. Because as vegetables are taken, that flips cards off the decks. But on the back of those cards are scoring cards. It’s easy to play, but gives you that good decision of not knowing if you should risk leaving a scoring card, or will get get flipped. A nice filler length game at lower player counts. I think I prefer it at 2-4 and less often 4 because it makes the game longer and more random.

Buy from Miniature Market

76 – Metro X

I actually stayed at the table, after my stream last night, and played some Metro X. This is a roll and write game where you are filling in bus routes. But the bus routes cross each other, and that can be great. It means that you might fill in multiple spots on a route. Or it can be lousy, because you might want to put a big number onto a route, but you can’t as it’s been split.

Metro X is a good example of a puzzle roll and write. You need to figure out the optimal way to fill in everything. But also a roll and write that limits the complexity. You just fill in spots on the routes. Each bus can have a limited number of numbers used on that route. Because of the randomness it can be frustrating sometimes, but everyone is dealing with that.

Not Available

75 – Kohaku

Kohaku is a relaxing game of building out your Koi pond to score as many points as possible. You draft or select tiles form a pool of koi and scoring tiles taking adjacent ones. And then you add them anywhere to your koi pond. The only thing is koi can’t be by koi and scoring can’t be by scoring. I find this game to be relaxing. The tiles are beautiful dual layer that gives it that watery depth. And while I try and win, it isn’t a game that is so intense that it feels like everything is pressure filled each decision.

Buy on Miniature Market

74 – Calico

Another pretty game, Calico is not as calm as Kohaku. In fact, the puzzle of trying to play everything in is stressful. You need to think about scoring for buttons, cats, and your own objectives. And you really want whatever patch you’re adding to your calico quilt to help you in multiple ways. But as you play down and fill in your quilt, your options become less and less. And I like that tension of can you get the right tile to complete maybe two of your scoring objectives. Or will you need to settle or less?

The game is simple though. You play one of two tiles to your quilt. Then you replenish with one of three tiles, that is it. But each decision you make matters a ton in the scoring of the game.

Buy on Cool Stuff Inc

73 – My City

We’ll see how long My City sticks on this list, mainly because it’s a legacy game. And legacy games slowly drift down over time, I’ve found, the further I get away from playing them. But right now, I’m still in the midst of My City and it is great.

My City is a tile laying game where everyone is putting down the same shaped tile every turn. But there are new rules each time that come up. And you want to cover up open areas the best you can, but also build up groups of buildings that are the same type. And it adds more and more to the game without making it longer than a 15-20 minute game. Highly recommend this one as a light legacy experience.

Buy on GameNerdz

72 – Roll Player

Roll Player is another drafting game on the list. This one is dice drafting. And you are picking the dice to get them for your RPG character. The concept of the game takes one fun part of role playing games, building a character, and really focuses in on that.

Each attribute, standard ones for Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder, has a power that goes with it. It might make it cheaper to buy equipment. Or it might let you flip a die in order to push your stats higher. It’s a really fun game that I need to get around to building my insert for it. Because once you have everything, it is a bit difficult to get it to the table.

Buy on GameNerdz

71 – Battlestar Galactica: The Board Game

Wrapping up this section is technically two games. I went with my favorite/harder to find of the two in Battlestar Galactica, but this is also Unfathomable. Both of them are big hidden traitor, social deduction games of trying to get to some final location.

I do not like social deduction. In fact, I’d say with high confidence that there is only one other one on the list. But BSG and Unfathomable work because there is so much more game going on. You are fighting off monsters, whether it’s deep ones or Cylons. And there is just a lot going on with a lot of challenges that happen in the game. All the while trying to figure out who might be the one(s) who are traitors. And at the start of the game, it might be someone, but by the end, there will be for sure.

Buy Unfathomable on Miniature Market

Upcoming Streams

First off, reminder that there is no stream tomorrow. I am out of town so no stream happening. I think the following Wednesday will be the finale of my Stars of Akarios live streaming. With likely Chronicles of Drunagor hitting the table next.

And next Monday, the Top 100 games are going to continue. 70 through 61 in my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2022 Edition. You can find the link to that video below. Join me live, chat about the games hitting the list, which are your favorites, or which you want to try.

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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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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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Fortunately there are board games that can give that feel or smaller pen and paper experiences that might offer more of a one off game play. And you can do a one off game play with Dungeons and Dragons as well a one shot, but that might not be what you are looking for.

Fiasco

Fiasco is a pen and paper RPG, but it is one that is meant to be played in a single sitting. It is also one that you are meant to play with everyone as a player. So you lose the need for someone to be leading the story and basically having a different experience than everyone else.

Fiasco leans into the roll playing side of an RPG with impro focused prompts and collaborative story telling. It is also a game where things aren’t supposed to go that great. As the same, Fiasco, would suggest, the situations you are in and the story that is generated generally aren’t the best for the characters.

Spire’s End

Spire’s End is going to offer you more of a mechanical combat in a game though very luck heavy. In this, you and another person, or just playing solo, delve into a spire that has appeared in your town. Of course it isn’t full of nice things. In fact, it is where almost everyone in the town is being held. So can you explore, fight monsters, and find an end where you save the day?

Thus far, that is beyond what I’ve been able to do, But if you want to see how it plays, you can watch my game play below.

Legacy of Dragonholt

One that I had in my collection for a while, Legacy of Dragonholt is a choose your own adventure story combined with some character building. And I think out of all of these, it might be the most RPG like well, after Fiasco, but Legacy of Dragon holt has more of a standard feel to it.

Now, my one knock on it is that the writing is just okay. It toes a line where it seems like it should be more serious in it’s story. And sometimes it is serious, but it is meant for families to be able to play. Mom, Dad, a kid, and you can pass around the book and let people read passages. You spend tokens and players take turns making decisions. But one that I think is pretty solid. I’d love to see a new version or a new setting just with better quality writing.

Destinies

Now for something with very good writing, we have Destinies or soon coming out The Dark Quarter. You can still late pledge that one. But Destinies is a competitive game where each player is trying to fulfill their destiny. You explore the world, unlocking more of the map, rolling dice to complete challenges, and interacting with story.

Destinies uses an app to tell the story. Now you might not like apps at the table, but it does a great job. Mainly, it can keep answers to the story hidden while you play. And it can be played solo, that you can play without spoiling yourself. The app also allows for simpler interactions with items. You don’t need a massive book to cover every combination, just the data in the app.

Clank Legacy

Next up is the most board game out of all of them. Clank Legacy is going to be a game built upon the Acquisitions Incorporated crew from Penny Arcade and elsewhere. But this is a legacy style game which means to get the full story you and a group need to play it several times. However, it isn’t as long as playing a campaign of Dungeons and Dragons or something like that.

At the heart of it, Clank Legacy is a game where you build out a deck of cards as you play. Using those cards you are going on quests, maybe, I don’t know all the details for Legacy. But in the regular version you delve into a dungeon trying not to make too much noise. But the legacy version adds on to that.

Dungeon Party

Finally, if you want something silly, and a number of these are silly, Dungeon Party is a great option. It is a dungeon crawling game where you just get to go in and beat up monsters. But you do that by playing quarters. You bounce your token, though recommend you use actual quarters, to get to land on monsters and defeat them.

As you defeat them you get treasures that give you new abilities that you can use. This is not a drinking game, but it could easily be made into one. And that is kind of the point of it. A chance to just be goofy and have a good time around the table with that fantasy theme.

Final Thoughts

RPG’s are hard to emulate the whole experience outside of a big game. And I kept games like Gloomhaven, Folklore The Affliction, Tainted Grail, and Sword & Sorcery off the list because they are all games that require more commitment.

But I think that they are good options. And even the longer ones here, Legacy or Dragonholt, Destinies, and Clank Legacy are all shorter than your standard campaign. Plus, there is some level with them that they are easy to get to the table. For someone who wants that feel but doesn’t want to remember a plethora of stats and abilities, these attempt to make it easier.

What are some experiences that feel like an RPG without that big time commitment. Let me know your favorites in the comments below.

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