The Game – Sleeping Gods

Let’s talk about the ending. This is something I can’t talk too much about in a review, but if you’re reading this, I hope that you’ve watched the video. Because I am going to talk about how the ending system worked in here, and what my expectations were going into the ending.

So, the game end triggers when you’ve gone through the event deck three times. And from there, the game isn’t over completely, you still need to do things. And I suspect that there are other ways to trigger end game as well, I just haven’t found them yet. There was a final battle, and then decisions, I wasn’t expecting it to be as much as there was.

But was the ending satisfying? I did a lot of work in the game, sailed around a lot and figured out a way to get to and through a lot of story. And was that enough so that when I got a less than ideal ending, it was still interesting? I think that the ending made sense. It really built, in the ending, to the conclusion, and I want to find more endings to see what I can do better.

Now, the scoring, and I talk about this in the video, I got a 92, which seemed solid to me. But why does this game need a scoring system? My one knock on some of the other Red Raven Games, Near and Far in particular, is what there is story but it is too mechanical. Adding in points at the end, it makes it feel more mechanical again. I think an ending could just be an ending.

The Drink

So to wrap up the streaming I ended with some more Scotch. It’s a blended Scotch this time, Monkey Shoulders. The name Monkey Shoulders stems from the workers who would be turning the peat on the Scotch. This was a lot of work, basically shoveling all day, so they became stooped with really built shoulders.

The Scotch itself is a little bit sweeter than some. A blended Scotch often lends itself to be a bit sweeter. But it still makes for good sipping. I would say that it is also one that does well by being let to breath more. I think the first drink is a bit sharp for it, but the more that you have, the better it gets. And that’s not just from the fact that you’re drinking, but as the fumes dissipate it makes it smoother.

Upcoming Streaming

You can see a bit a state of the channel address that I did last week here. It’s not an ominous thing, it’s just something that I want to focus on a bit more this year. My written content is in a good schedule, though, might be changing slightly. The 10 Minute Marvel Podcast is coming out every week. And I do put out content basically every Wednesday. But I want to add more. So vote in the poll for what board game I should play next and video game I should start.

Let me know which ones you want me to start playing. And does additional content, like video game content, interest you for Malts and Meeples? Should I do that on YouTube or play around with that on Twitch?

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

Join live every Wednesday in the chat, 8 PM Central time, to help me make these decisions.

The Game – Sleeping Gods

I could just talk about how the game works again, but I want to do a mini compare and contrast with another one of Red Raven Games, Near and Far. Near and Far is a game that I like, but also one I was really excited about and ready to play. And when I played it, it is a good game, but a bit of a letdown. Does Sleeping Gods fix that?

This really comes down to story. In Near and Far, there is a promise of this game with great story and great mechanics and great choices. For me, the game doesn’t manage to pull it off. There are fun little bits of story, but it’s like hopping around in tiny bits of the world. Really, though, the game is about getting as many points as you can.

On the flip side, Sleeping Gods is also just little vignettes of story. But the point of the game is the story. There are no points that you are going for. It is about the story, and the theming works well. The crew is lost in a mysterious world. You of course get random vignettes because you don’t know anything. And the more you play, the more you find out about the world.

The Drink

We were back to drinking Scotch Whisky again. This time it was a Highland Scotch which finished with a nice little hint of chocolate in the flavor. And I talked about how there are four different areas for Scotch. The two main ones that you’ll find will be Highland and Islay. And the main difference is how much peat something like Islay has compared to Highland. Highland is a cleaner taste profile, but often coming with more bite to it.

Upcoming Streams

As always, the next stream will be on Wednesday at 8 PM Central. And I will be playing some more Sleeping Gods.

And, my hope, is this weekend, or week to start filming my Crowdfunding content. If you have a good punny name, let me know. I am sure that I can come up with something as well. I don’t know when this will get released but the idea for it is that it isn’t live content.

Send an Email.
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

The Game – Sleeping Gods

So a quick recap of what Sleeping Gods is, and the story thus far. Sleeping Gods is a 1 to 4 player adventure game from Red Raven games. In this game you are the crew of the Manticore, a ship that sails from Hong Kong to New York, but one day you, the crew, see as the sun rises that you are not in a known area anymore. You transport to a new land where the old gods, not elder gods, are sleeping, and you are tasked with waking them.

The game consists of three parts. Every turn you take a ship action. This lets you heal crew members, gain cards, and take other actions. Then an event happens. Sometimes the event is a challenge, sometimes a merchant ship will appear, you don’t really know what it is going to be. And then you take two actions which can be sail, explore, go to port, or go to a market. And you are able to double up on actions.

In the end, you look for totems in the game. But to start, you don’t know where totems are. So you explore, talk to people, and get quests. And eventually that will point you towards some totems and who knows what else.

The Drink

Last night, I was drinking Islay Storm, a Trader Joe’s branded scotch, or at least one I only see there. It is an extremely reasonably prices Scotch, which is one of the reasons that I pick it up. But like most Islay, it is very peat forward, so it tastes great. That heavy smokey flavor is something that I really love. For some people, though, it will be overpowering. Islay Storm is definitely very peat forward so can be a little like drinking a camp fire, if you aren’t used to it.

Upcoming Streaming

Next Wednesday, I will play more Sleeping Gods. You can find that upcoming stream here. This past week I had a person in chat, thank you for joining live. And I will ask for help making decisions as I play. If you join in live you can help me make mistakes and go through vapors, or maybe make good choices, but you’ll never know unless you join in live.

Also, let me know your thoughts down below, I might be starting up new videos. As I get more Kickstarters in, and look at more Kickstarter and Gamefound games to support. I want to start covering them. I am thinking that I might start doing a weekly video about Crowdfunding. It might not be live, but a video where I look at two games on Crowdfunding right now. One is a big one that you probably know about and on is a smaller game. A test run likely will happen this week.

What do you think of Sleeping Gods so far?

Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.

The Games

Bloodborne

Bloodborne is a game that I’d glanced at on Kickstarter. However, like many CMON Kickstarters, there is a ton of stuff in it, and it’s kind of a risk backing it. Not that CMON won’t make a good game or that they won’t deliver, I’m confident on both them them. Instead, the concern is how expensive it gets and what expansions are needed. I held off on backing that Kickstarter, especially since it’s an IP (intellectual property) that I don’t know that well. Instead, I just grabbed the base game.

The base game comes with at least four different scenarios, I believe each in three parts. So that’s a good amount of content, especially since the game, while it has campaign aspects, isn’t a massive campaign. I can see playing it more than the twelve times to get through everything with different people and different characters. Add in things like different characters, and I’m assuming variety in how you progress a character, it’ll keep me busy for a long time.

Solomon Kane

Probably what everyone came for. Solomon Kane is a game that is just fulfilling it’s Kickstarter right now. So there are unboxing videos popping up all over the place. I decided to do my own because I am really excited for this game. The concept of this big adventure is interesting to me. Like Bloodborne, it gives you scenarios or stories to go through, but the stories don’t form one giant campaign. Instead, you can go through each story separately. While I love my campaign games, I have a lot coming in, games like Midarra and Oathsworn, plus ones I already have like Folklore: The Affliction, Reichbusters, Lord of the RIngs: Journeys in Middle Earth, and more. So I want some epic games that won’t be a year long campaign.

Plus, it has an interesting mechanic. All the players are controlling different virtues. Those virtues together control Solomon Kane. So it isn’t like one person gets to be the main character and everyone else is a supporting role. It reminds me a little bit of how that is one thing people didn’t love about Conan from Monolith, how the person playing Conan was just better. Thematically, it makes sense, game play wise, less fun. So this, I hope, keeps everything balanced in a cool way. And just the concept seems unique.

My only criticism is about how it was packed. The two boxes were packed vertically in the shipping box, on a side, and that makes sense because they are heavy. However, some of the minis shifted, and I had three that were off their bases and one that the staff was breaking. And apparently there is a sword issue as well for some people. That said, the minis look great, and I can glue the breaks and it’ll work just fine.

The Malt

So, Saturday was International Whiskey Day, so I wasn’t drinking a beer. Instead I poured myself some Talisker 10 year that I had picked up that day. From the Isle of Skye, the scotch had an amazing flavor. The peat was pretty strong in the flavor, but not as strong as some. Now, I like scotch that tastes like a campfire, but I don’t want that all the time. Sometimes I just want a better balance of some peat and picking up more whiskey flavor. This scotch gave me that.

Did you drink anything for International Whiskey Day? Which of those games sounds more interesting to you?

Email us at nerdologists@gmail.com
Message me directly on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here.
Support us on Patreon here.