Technology | Nerdologists https://nerdologists.com Where to jump in on board games, anime, books, and movies as a Nerd Tue, 19 Aug 2025 15:13:38 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.2 https://nerdologists.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/nerdologists-favicon.png Technology | Nerdologists https://nerdologists.com 32 32 Jump Drive – Fast Planetary Empires https://nerdologists.com/2025/08/jump-drive-fast-planetary-empires/ https://nerdologists.com/2025/08/jump-drive-fast-planetary-empires/#respond Tue, 19 Aug 2025 15:09:50 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=9768 Who is the greatest space empire builder? Take to the stars in Jump Drive a Roll for the Galaxy game from Rio Grande.

The post Jump Drive – Fast Planetary Empires first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
Sometimes you just want to create your own planetary empire. Jump Drive kind of gives you that in a game where you race to build up a points engine as fast as you can. Jump Drive is a game in the Race for the Galaxy line of games from Rio Grande. And this one is the smallest out of all of them and only one of two that I’ve played. If you get the expansion for the game, you can play it solo. Or you can play it solo on Board Game Area, like I did last night. So let’s watch how it’s played and review Jump Drive.

How To Play Jump Drive

In Jump Drive you are racing to a point total, generally 50 points, in your empire. Each round you are gaining cards and then playing out cards to build out your space empire. These cards are split into two categories, planets and technologies. Both of them are going to give you more income, cards, and points possibly from playing them. And all of this is done simultaneously.

Turns

On your turn you pick up to two cards to play from your hand. You play either a technology or planet card or you play both. But to play a card you need to have enough other cards in your hand to discard to play them. If you play one card, either a technology or a planet and not two, you draw a card to add to your hand.

If you don’t have enough cards in hand to play a card you can choose instead of explore. When you explore you draw a number of cards to your hand and then discard so you add two new cards to your hand. The number of cards you draw varies depending on how many eye symbols, explore symbols, you have on your cards already in play.

One last thing about the rounds is military. There are military planets that you can conqueror with your military force in the game. Unlike planets where you gain them peacefully, you don’t need to discard cards are for gaining a military planet. Instead, you need to have enough strength in military in play to conqueror them.

Between Turns

Once you play out your planet and technology two things happen. Firstly, you gain points. You gain points for the total number of points that your empire is generating. That means points that you gained from this round and previous rounds.

The other thing is that you gain cards. Like I said, each planet and technology has two main stats. One being your victory points mentioned above. The other is your card draw. Like victory points, you look at your total card draw and draw that many cards into hand. Now, you only are allowed to have 10 cards in your hand at the start of your turn. So if you draw a greater number than that, you discard down to 10 cards.

You continue with this loop of turn and between turn until someone reaches or surpasses the point goal for the game. If multiple players pass on the same turn, which can happen with the simultaneous play, the player with the most points is the winner of the game.

What Doesn’t Work

There is a decent chunk of luck in the game. Now I say that, I think there are some ways that you can work around it and you always have something to do. But if you don’t draw planets and technology that work with the engine that you started, you might need to pivot hard and fast. And even if you do that, it might be too late in the game as the game normally lasts between 6-8 rounds.

The amount of satisfaction from building up your engine is sometimes cut short as well. You might be looking at building out a great engine, but because of the point total is not that high, your engine might just start really working and then the game ends. I think if you want you can play higher, but it still is going to go by very quickly.

What Works

The speed of the game is impressive. Each turn and decision is meaningful. But because of how it limits the number of cards you have in hand, it is limited in what you can do. So I like that the game is very fast. Now that is a negative if you want to build up a great engine. But I like that you play once and it is very easy to shuffle up and play again.

I like set-up for the game. It is just cards and some tokens for points. So it is super fast to the table. And that is going to make it easier to keep around. Now it is even faster on BGA with your turns and figuring everything out. But it is not a game where BGA is doing a ton of heavy lifting getting it to the table, like some others. But instead, this is a very easy and fast game to table in person.

Engine Building

The engine building element is solid in Jump Drive as well. Now, that is the whole game, you build up your engine. And you decide how quickly you pivot from cards/income to points in the game. And you need to do so quite quickly. But if you want to play a game that is just engine building, this is going to work really well for you.

I also like the early game in this a lot. That is where the biggest strength and decision space for the engine building comes in. You need to figure out how to get your engine up and running extremely quickly. If you need to explore a round, it should be in the first two rounds. If you explore after the first two rounds, you might find that you fall too far behind.

Solo Campaign

Finally, I like the solo campaign. Mainly because it is giving you different goals to shoot for in each version of the campaign. It is not super complex, everything you do is pretty easy to keep track of, but it is different each game. Is it much of a campaign, no. But it is a good way to make it into a solo game versus just see how high a score you end up with in seven rounds. It is fun to add just a little bit of extra to what you are doing.

Who Is Jump Drive For?

This is a good filler engine building game. I don’t think it is going to be a game to build your game night around. But I think it is a solid game for when you want a filler game that does a bit more. Often times with a filler game the decision space is very limited. Here is it is pretty limited but not completely limited and what you decide matters. And because it is so fast, it fits in as a filler or a game you play two times in a night. So if you want a filler game with a bit more to it, I think that is a game that can work well.

Final Thoughts and Grade on Jump Drive

Now, I say it in the video, I might sell my physical copy. That is not because I don’t like the game, I think it is fun. But it is so fast solo and asynchronously on BGA, that I might just play it there. But I also think I have a few people I game with who might enjoy the game. So that might keep it around. And I like that even with the expansion is fits in a small box so that means that it takes up less shelf space.

Now, the downside to the game is that sometimes you just end up with a bad game. I mentioned it in what doesn’t work. And it is generally the combination of two things. It is that you have a bad game. But it is also then that someone has a great game. So while you end up with 10 points after six rounds, someone else is past 50 because they got what they needed. This is sometimes frustrating, in a BGA tournament for example, but generally I find it okay because it is so fast to play that I just play again. So for that reason, that luck is a not a big deal to me.

My Grade: B-
Gamer Grade: C+
Casual Grade: B+
Strategy (out of 10): 5
Luck (out of 10): 6

Now, just a note on luck. I mention twice how it can bite you. Once in my thoughts and once in what doesn’t work. But I only give it a 6 out of 10 for luck. The reason is you need to pivot and sometimes it won’t work. But the option to pivot helps negate some of that luck.

Send an Email
Message me on X at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

The post Jump Drive – Fast Planetary Empires first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2025/08/jump-drive-fast-planetary-empires/feed/ 0
World Building for my D&D Campaign https://nerdologists.com/2025/07/world-building-for-my-dd-campaign/ https://nerdologists.com/2025/07/world-building-for-my-dd-campaign/#comments Fri, 25 Jul 2025 15:15:46 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=9719 How much world building am I going to do for my new Dungeons and Dragons campaign? It might be less than you think.

The post World Building for my D&D Campaign first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
So we’re started creating a few hooks and plots for a possible D&D campaign. From that, I let my players pick an option. Then the next step was to create a first story arc that the players are going to be dealing with. That is all stuff that I did before I went ahead and created the world. Why, because I think all of that shapes the world that you create, not the other way around. So now it is time to start world building.

How Much World Building Will I Do?

The answer to that is way less than you might think. With world building the question is always, how much do you need for that first session. And in this case there are a few more things to consider as well. It is how much world building do you need for that first session but also how much world building do I need to do for character creation?

Reminders

This is the hook that we are going with.

No one would mistake you for the heroes of old. They are now something of legend as were the monsters they faced. The demons of old were locked away. How do you know, because you live right outside one of those dungeons. Something strong is starting to happen around the dungeon though. The terrain is changing and you don’t know why. Some thing it is a sign that the seals are weakening. But if that’s the case, who is supposed to stop them. You are tasked to find those heroes from one of the larger towns and are sent out with provisions, a map, a well wishes.

And our first arc is going to be what I dubbed The Realization Arc which is going to be focused on understanding that things breaking down. That is it, and for the first session it is all about the inciting incident. What is going to draw the players to even investigate or understand that something might be happening?

What The Players Need To Know

Let’s start out with this to understand what the players are going to need to know. A lot of it is going to be pretty general, and some of it is going to overlap with what I need to know, as the Dungeon Master for my first session.

Let’s start with the big picture items, the starting location in general terms. And any particular details about the world, magic level for example, that players might need to know.

The Starting Location – Tennoch

Tennoch is a small agrarian town. It hasn’t grown that much because it’s not on any major trade routes but it is one of the larger towns in the area, maybe a thousand people. You are in this town or from this town because of connections to it.

General World Knowledge

This is a world where magic is a thing but not common place. Most people know of magic as something that happens in large cities or something that the gods bestow upon the people. For a small town, a wizard, sorcerer, or warlock would be unique. But a druid, cleric, or paladin might be more common.

It’s also a world where technology is fairly limited. Things like explosives might exist but are known in whispers and are rare and considered extremely dangerous.

Finally, while Tennoch is technically part of the kingdom of Meldros, Tennoch doesn’t have much to do with Meldros. Maybe every couple of years an official accompanied by a knight will show up and ask for some taxes, but there is no set schedule it just seems to be whenever the Queen needs more funds. At least you assume it’s still the Queen.

Why These Details for the Players?

So first it is a little bit about the starting location. It let’s the players know what type of setting there are in and what sort of background they could be picking. It’s a small but larger town for there area. But at only a thousand people at most, it isn’t going to be that much. The outlying villages near them probably come there for trading when a merchant shows up twice a year to restock some goods.

As for the more general knowledge. By naming the land, it lets the players know a little bit more in case they wanted to have moved in. It also sets what sort of rule it is and sets how little characters might know about the lands.

The other two give the players an idea of the sort of world it is in general. Low technology and medium magic. Magic is something that exists and people know about in a town. In fact, they probably have a temple to some god or gods in this town. So there is a cleric, possibly, but it would be a low level cleric at best with probably works more off of knowledge of medicine to heal than magic.

Dungeons and Dragons Paladin
Image Source: D&D Beyond

Session One World Building

So as I create for myself I am going to go with a more standardized way of doing it. That is going to be using namedefining featurebrief description which I lay out in my Dungeon Master Tools World Building article.

The Town – Tennoch

Defining Feature: Agrarian town, largest in probably 100-150 miles
Brief Description: While the town seems bustling compared to others in the area, it is very small. Most of the trade in the town comes from neighboring villages and farmers who dot across the land. They hold a market once a week. And twice a year a traveling merchant comes through whom they know by name.

The Mayor – Wilfred Brumble

Defining Feature: Stout man with a large belly who came from out of town
Brief Description: He’s from out of town but he has been in Tennoch for years at this point. But his house stands out as being a slightly different style. But he fits into the town now and has married someone from the town, Madeline.

Shopkeeper – Denny and Olive Ansen

Defining Feature: Gnomes who love to gossip
Brief Description: They are very busy folks running their shop. While most people do their shopping at the market, Denny and Olive are the ones who have a shop that is always open. So when you need something you come to them. And the shop, Thimble Trades and Goods, is always open because they live in the back, so a loud knock will get them scurrying up front to help you no matter the hour.

The Shop – Thimble Trades and Goods

Defining Feature: Jam packed with odds and ends.
Brief Description: How Denny and Olive know where everything is is a great question. There are boxes and shelves crammed full of everything. Often times their shoppers will wait outside and the gnomes will scurry around finding things. That’s because it’s hard to get through spots for the dwarves and humans who live in the area. Thimble Trades and Goods is the only spot to get merchant goods when the merchant isn’t around because the owners send orders with the merchant every time to keep necessities stocked. And they prefer to trade than get coin at the shop.

Notable Farmer – Maggie Fern

Defining Feature: Strong halfling who loves to cook and drink
Brief Description: She’s short, strong, and won’t let anything stop her. But while she is bullheaded when it comes to getting work done and dealing with problems she is also caring. When someone is sick and they need help on their farm, she is the first to bring food and help. She also always will tell you to stop and have a drink if you happen to come by her farm. While you won’t gossip with her, it’ll be a good relaxing time.

Why Only These Things?

Firstly, I could fill out the town more. But if we go back to that first arc article I talked about how one of the things I want is for my players to help with the world building. In particular with this first town, I want them to have connections. So while I could certainly talk more about maybe who has an inn which would be small with a couple of sleeping rooms, a stable, and a larger room for eating, for example, I think that might be something that is defined by the players.

So I want to keep it simple at this point. And I have plans in particular for the mayor and farmer in the first session or two so I want them defined. And a shop and shopkeepers are also good to have defined. You may not need them defined for your first session. I suspect that my players might want to shop because I know my players.

Final Thoughts on My World Building

You can see how simple I kept it. There is only a little bit of detail for the players and only a little bit for me. But now I know what I want my players to know going into character creation. And I know where I’m going to start my story and who I can work with as characters. Is there going to be more that I flesh out, yes. But some of that is going to be as I flesh out my session one. And I plan on doing that some next week so you can see how I lay out that session for the players.

Do you think that I need more world building done before I start the campaign? Or is this going to be enough to keep me going?

Send an Email
Message me on X at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

The post World Building for my D&D Campaign first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2025/07/world-building-for-my-dd-campaign/feed/ 1
Ironheart Episode 4-6 and Series Thoughts – 10MinMarvel S3E127 https://nerdologists.com/2025/07/ironheart-episode-4-6-and-series-thoughts-10minmarvel-s3e127/ https://nerdologists.com/2025/07/ironheart-episode-4-6-and-series-thoughts-10minmarvel-s3e127/#respond Tue, 08 Jul 2025 14:17:44 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=9676 Is Ironheart a show worth watching? We talk about that, what worked, and what didn't for the whole series on this weeks #10MinMarvel.

The post Ironheart Episode 4-6 and Series Thoughts – 10MinMarvel S3E127 first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
Ironheart is all out there now. And is the show worth watching? We break that down on this weeks #10MinMarvel podcast episode. And we dive into some of what works, what was lacking, and what more we maybe wanted from the show. Plus a Marvel actor who is retiring, sadly one who passed away and more rumors for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Catch Up On Videos

Ironheart Episodes 4 through 6 Review and Thoughts

Eyes of Wakanda Teaser

Thanks for Listening

I hope that you are enjoying the podcast. If you are, there are a few ways that I always talk about that you can support 10 Minute Marvel. Firstly, please consider sharing it with your friends as word of mouth really is a great way to help more people find the podcast, and personal recommendations are always great. As well as then subscribing or leaving a rating and review. Both of those make the podcast easier to find for people looking for a fun Marvel podcast. You can find the podcast on iTunes, Google Podcast, and Spotify or wherever you get your friendly neighborhood podcasts.

We also run a Patreon and that is another way you can help support. The Patreon, found here, goes to help improve the quality of the 10 Minute Marvel Podcast, pay for advertising and more. It also helps improve the Malts and Meeples YouTube Channel and Nerdologists.com website. Thank you, again, for listening and for considering supporting us financially.

Comments or Questions: Thoughts on Ironheart ?

What did you think of Ironheart? Would you want another season of it? Let us know in the comment section over on YouTube.

You can let us know all of those things down in the comment section below, or tweet them to me @TheScando or by using #10MinMarvel. And there is now the Facebook page, as well, where you can join in the conversation here. And follow us on YouTube for more content here.

Send an Email
Message me on X at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

The post Ironheart Episode 4-6 and Series Thoughts – 10MinMarvel S3E127 first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2025/07/ironheart-episode-4-6-and-series-thoughts-10minmarvel-s3e127/feed/ 0
Lands of Galzyr – Game 2 https://nerdologists.com/2023/01/lands-of-galzyr-game-2/ https://nerdologists.com/2023/01/lands-of-galzyr-game-2/#respond Thu, 19 Jan 2023 12:29:49 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=7711 Join me back in the Lands of Galzyr by Snowdale Design. I take on more quests as I tackle September and new story over on Malts and Meeples.

The post Lands of Galzyr – Game 2 first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
Bumir is back at it, going on adventures, completing quests, and maybe doing a bit better this time. September is happening in Lands of Galzyr this week and what sort of adventures will Bumir end up having. Join me over on Malts and Meeples as I dive into another game play of this game from Snowdale Design.

The Game – Lands of Galzyr

Let’s tackle maybe the more controversial part of Lands of Galzyr. Or really the controversial part of any board game, the app or website. And let me say, I’m not here to sway your mind on if you want technology at the table. I understand that some people want it to be complete analog and a way to decouple from a phone, tablet, or computer completely. I want that as well, sometimes.

But let’s instead tackle if Lands of Galzyr is that possible without a computer. Is it reasonable to assume that you could, with a book, get in all of this text and all of these options? It’s possible, yes, but it is reasonable? I tend to think the answer to that question is no. And while you might think you’d be fine reading that much, you still do, would you be fine at the speed it would work?

The Downside of Physical

For some games, like Roll Player Adventures, there is some story. And each part of that story might branch, but it might branch a little. I make two choices and those are my branching paths. In Lands of Galzyr, I have seen a check occur and that branches into 3 paths, or 5 paths and that can lead to additional story as well. So, the branching in Lands of Galzyr is much more extensive.

What does that mean for game play? Well, it means that if it were just a book, and it could be, that you’d be finding different passages very often. And you would need to understand how it branches, which is why the app can handle it so well. What an app or website can do that a book can’t is provide the logic to instantly pull up the next section. The story is loaded into the memory of your device and you can access that very quickly.

On the flip side, all puns intended, you’d be flipping through pages trying to find the next passage constantly. And that branching structure would become very hard to follow. I think, and you might disagree, Lands of Galzyr would be considerably less favorably reviewed if it didn’t have the website. Mainly because I play an hour and a half game, and that would become two and a half hours or more with a book.

Upcoming Streams

So, next Wednesday at 8 PM central time, I will be back streaming more Lands of Galzyr. And I should have the game sleeved and a playmat instead of the board by that point in time. I am excited to get that to add to the game. Just know that it is totally not needed if you get the game, but I wanted to add in that little extra bit.

Before that on Monday, I am going to be streaming a new game. For those of you who don’t like roll and write games, I’m sorry. It is likely going to be 18 Holes Course Architect that I am playing. 18 Holes Course Architect is a game about building a golf course, and of course, done through a roll and write. It does make me want to play the regular 18 Holes board game as well. But I don’t own that one, yet.

And as always, if you want to know when I go live, you can subscribe and click the notification bell.

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

The post Lands of Galzyr – Game 2 first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2023/01/lands-of-galzyr-game-2/feed/ 0
Back or Brick: Teburu https://nerdologists.com/2022/03/back-or-brick-teburu/ https://nerdologists.com/2022/03/back-or-brick-teburu/#respond Wed, 16 Mar 2022 16:08:47 +0000 https://nerdologists.com/?p=6807 Teburu, a gaming system for board games is on Kickstarter. This system and it's game, are they something that you'd back or want?

The post Back or Brick: Teburu first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
New to board games is the Teburu system which is not going to be the the normal back or brick for me. We’re not going to breakdown the game that comes with it, how the page looks, anything like that. Mainly, the Teburu system is technology in board gaming and I know it won’t be for some. I also think that it is worth talking about, because of what it might mean for board games.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/xplored/the-bad-karmas?ref=profile_saved_projects_live

What Is the Teburu System?

So, this I originally saw, through a window, at GenCon 2019. Basically it is a gaming system where the bases of characters, dice, possibly even cards, though The Bad Karmas and The Curse of the Zodiac, the first game, uses digital cards. I will talk about the game in a little bit.

The board is a pad that you can overlay other boards on, I’m guessing chipped so it knows which board it is. Then when you move pieces around, it knows where you moved and lets you know if it’s a legal move or not. When you roll dice, it knows what you roll and automatically applies damage. Basically, it is a system meant to take away from the house keeping of what the game needs to know or you normally tell the game.

What Interests Me?

So, I know for some of you, you heard technology and were immediately out. That is fine, this article is meant more for the people who are interested in how technology can assist your game. There are a few things about this that interest me for sure. Mainly games that are heavy on house keeping, how this might improve the experience with them. I don’t know that a Gloomhaven would be feasible, but something like Zombicide, I could see it helping.

The first thing I want to know is how consistent the software is. I am always hesitant to back something that is technology because, the consistency of new technology is suspect. The company was planning on launching I believe in 2019 or 2020 and held off until now. Some of that might be because of COVID for sure, but late 2019 was before that, so they clearly wanted the technology right. And how much of a drain the technology is. Will I need to plug in my phone for my character, how fast does it burn the charge?

I also want to know what other games are coming to the system. I know that Sword & Sorcery is being developed by the company and Ares Games. And they have their own game, The Bad Karmas and The Curse of the Zodiac. And I know Sword & Sorcery has a fair amount of bookkeeping that you need to do as you play. So I think it could help with that, but the sprawling map, I wonder how that would work, I have some questions. And I want to know what else might be coming.

I do like that they have an SDK. For non-programmers, that basically means that people will be able to develop for it. It isn’t something that only Xplored will develop for. They might have their own team that does a lot of it to start, but more developers will come over time. And more companies can do it themselves for a launch of a game. Or offering two versions, a Teburu version of the game that comes with fewer components but requires you have the system.

What Concerns Me?

It’s new technology and new technology needs to be adopted to be useful. The stuff that interests me, the whole idea of less bookkeeping, games maybe with fewer components, that’s great. But will there be games for it? I am glad to see them working with Ares Games on Sword & Sorcery, but I wish they had 10 or 15 games right now that they could say would be coming to the system. Maybe as the campaign goes they will announce more.

I am also always very wary of new technology. It’s great that it is coming out. I think that it’s a way that companies could possibly save on number of components and maybe even cost of components. But will the technology be able to handle a wide variety of games. Or is this something that is meant only for a few games. And how long will it last. If I buy a Teburu I want to know it’ll last for 10 years, minimum. But will it travel well? Will it charge well and hold that charge in two years? It’s things that can only be tested so much.

Is Teburu A Back or Brick?

It is a brick for me, and I am excited about the system. I do not buy first editions of new technology. I haven’t with video gaming systems, phones, anything, it’s not worth spending to be on the cutting edge. Plus I want to see that the technology works like they say it will in the wild. Game plays by content creators are great, they help me know what it is, but that is still less than in the wild.

If they are still running fine after a year and they do another crowdfunding campaign, I might be interested in it then. Plus, by then I hope to know more games that they might have on the system. Because The Bad Karmas and The Curse of the Zodiac looks like a fun game, but one game, and not that complex a game isn’t enough for me to buy it right now. And Vampire: The Masquerade and Sword & Sorcery, I am less than excited right now with what’s been announced. Not to knock those games, but it won’t get me to back it.

How about for you, is Teburu and The Bad Karmas and The Curse of the Zodiac something you’ll be backing? Does the system interest you if it had other games on it?

You can find out more on the system here.

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

The post Back or Brick: Teburu first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2022/03/back-or-brick-teburu/feed/ 0
TableTopTakes: Not Alone https://nerdologists.com/2020/01/tabletoptakes-not-alone/ https://nerdologists.com/2020/01/tabletoptakes-not-alone/#respond Thu, 16 Jan 2020 14:19:07 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=3978 One of the harder genres of games to get to the table tend to be one versus all games. Fairly often these games are bigger

The post TableTopTakes: Not Alone first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
One of the harder genres of games to get to the table tend to be one versus all games. Fairly often these games are bigger dungeon crawls and they take time to set-up and teach. Not Alone is a small game where one person can take on a crew of a crashed spaceship in this quick cat and mouse game.

In Not Alone one person plays as the planet and the monster on it where a space ship has crash landed, stranding it’s crew. The crew needs to explore the planet and survive until they can get off of it, but the monster doesn’t want that. On each turn, all plays can discuss where they want to go and will play cards face down for the location that they are going to go, they can split up however they want. However, all discussions need to be able to be heard by the person playing the monster. Then the monster will pick a location as to where they are going to go, blocking off and hurting the people who went to that location, but everyone else gets to take the actions of their locations. However, the monster, when they select has ways to manipulate where they are, where people are actually going, or to cause more places to be bad spots for the players to go. As the monsters get crew members, they progress on their track, while the players are trying out last and do a few things to speed up how fast their rescue ship is coming.

Image Source: Board Game Geek

This game is a clever cat and mouse game where the players don’t want to accidentally all end up going to the same place and getting caught by the monster, but talking about it and planning can mean that the monster will better understand the strategy. So how much information do you talk around the table is an interesting piece to the game. Plus, cards being discarded and the monster being able to see what starting cards might be left for the crew, it means that sometimes it’s fairly obvious where someone is going to go. The best example of this is the beach as to why you want to discuss. At the beach, you can either light a beacon or use the lit beacon to help speed up the ship, but only one of those actions can be taken on a given turn. So if three crew members go to the beach, you’re wasting two peoples actions there.

Another piece of this game that I like is that the monster can get the crew, but when a crew member dies, that doesn’t mean the person is out of the game. Think of it as Star Trek with their seemingly unlimited number of red shirts. They are getting sent out of the crashed ship every time another crew member dies, so there is no player elimination in the game. However, dying is still bad, not surprisingly, because that means that the monster is getting closer to their goal which is based off of hurting crew members and killing crew members. So, if you aren’t careful, even though you won’t be out of the game, you can be speeding the monster on their way to victory.

Final piece that I want to talk about is the monster cards and ability cards. The game gives everyone a chance to feel unique. There is technology and things that can be scavenged from ship, so that means that as a crew member you’ll be able to be unique. But the monster definitely has more fun cards. There are a number of different things, where a monster can force people to discard cards, or maybe the monster can go to two locations or do something to make the planet block off a spot for players for a round. But the players might not know where that’s going to be, as the monster gets to place after everyone has picked their locations. The cards do interesting things, and you won’t ever go through all the monster cards in a single game, so even if you have played a lot before, the monster is going to feel different depending on the cards drawn, when they are drawn and the strategy of the person playing the monster.

Image Source: Board Game Geek

This is a really enjoyable game for me. I like the cat and mouse nature from both sides of the game. I think I’ve played it six or seven times at this point, and about half of them I’ve been the monster, and generally, since I’ll be teaching it as well, once we’ve played once with myself as the monster, someone else will want to play again and try being the monster themselves. I also have the expansion for this, but I haven’t played that yet, but I’m excited to try it soon. When a one versus all game can make it fun to play both sides, I think that’s a good thing for the game, and because Not Alone is a pretty straight forward game as to how it works, after a play, people can figure out how to play the monster, and I think, if someone wanted to be the monster on their first play, it wouldn’t be hard to teach them that as well.

Now, if there were a downside for the game, and I do know people who don’t like it nearly as much as I do, it’s that the game is stressful, and that’s intentional for the game. As the crew, you are worried about the monster catching you and dying, and even though you come back, if the monster is on the same wavelength that you are, you can feel like your letting down the team. I think for some people that is going to turn them off from the game, and the fact that it is only a card game, so it might feel like it’s heavier than the components suggest, though, I would not call it a heavy game.

Finally, let’s quickly mention the theme. I think that the theme is a lot of fun. People know the concept of being stranded on a planet or an island, so there is something for them to grasp onto. If someone has seen Predator, they can get even more into the theme, because that’s a lot what the game feels like, someone has crashed on the Predator planet, because there isn’t much that the crew can do to the monster. Is it a massively thematic game, I think that it’s more thematic than not, and while you can definitely get into the strategy and count cards, the game works best when people are enjoying the theme.

Overall, I really do enjoy this game. I like how much it packs in, in terms of tension , for the small package that the game has. I like the them, those survival on an alien world movies and shows are fun for me. I also like that it’s a larger group game without it being a party game or social deduction game. The cat and mouse feel of the game definitely sets it a part and definitely makes it seem heavier than most games of that it’s size.

Overall Grade: A
Gamer Grade: B+
Casual Grade: B

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

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

The post TableTopTakes: Not Alone first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2020/01/tabletoptakes-not-alone/feed/ 0
Can a Board Game by Scary? https://nerdologists.com/2019/10/can-a-board-game-by-scary/ https://nerdologists.com/2019/10/can-a-board-game-by-scary/#respond Tue, 15 Oct 2019 16:45:31 +0000 http://nerdologists.com/?p=3690 This was a topic that they talked about on a Backtalk on The Dice Tower, or more specifically, board games causing emotions. They spent a

The post Can a Board Game by Scary? first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
This was a topic that they talked about on a Backtalk on The Dice Tower, or more specifically, board games causing emotions. They spent a bunch of time talking about it in terms of horror though. So that got me thinking, one of my favorite games, Betrayal at House on the Hill has a horror theme, but does it bring in the feeling of horror, and thinking about it, I don’t think that it does.

So can a board game bring in a feeling of horror or can a board game be scary?

Obligatory joke, if the rules are bad it can be scary.

But the game itself can a board game be scary, possibly, and it elicit a sense of horror in a game? I don’t think that they can.

Image Source; Geek Alert

Board game are inherently social by nature. Sure, there is a huge push towards solo gaming, but with the exception of a few games, they aren’t only built for a solo audience. So you are experiencing something as a group. When you do that, things are generally less horrifying. Even when something scares you, you can talk about it and joke about it with the group. In fact, this is why when I go into haunted houses, I tend not to interact with my group or at least speak. I want the more immersive experience, but in a board game, it’s not built to work that way. Board games, in cooperative ones that could really draw out the most horror for the group, have you planning and discussing.

But board games can do a few other emotions that you can experience that get close to horror. Good board games should have a feeling of tension. Again, going to cooperative games, you can have a game where you are looking for that one card before a timer runs out. Or in Pandemic, you know that an epidemic is probably going to be coming up shortly and you hope that you get what you need or you can abate a situation before it happens in what could be that next card flip. You can also have a sense of dread. I think that Arkham Horror does a decent job of this as does the card game, you are pulling a chit from a bag and you are worrying that it is going to be something that makes the situation much worse. Or you are pulling a card and you know that there is something that might cause the big bad guy to win or at least show up and make the game way more difficult. And you know that it’s going to happen eventually and as you pull more good cards, the closer you are to that very bad thing happening and the more likely it is that the next pull is going to be that bad one. I think that Betrayal at House on the Hill does a solid job of this as you roll for the haunt after every omen.

Betrayal At House On The Hill
Image Source: Wizards of the Coast

What are board games missing, then, to keep them from feeling horrifying and can they get there?

This actually goes back to my apps in games or technology in games. Something like Chronicles of Crime isn’t horrifying with it’s VR technology as you look at a crime scene. Yes, it is a crime scene and they could make it easily horrifying if they wanted to, but they haven’t. Plus, that asks the question, is that part of the board game. You can look back into the archives and find that article if you want to discuss that more. But I think that’s an obvious way that you could create a jump scare, but I’m not sure that it would be a lasting sense of horror still.

Again, board games are such as social experience for me, and even when I solo game, that is basically always done on the stream, so I feel like I’m still engaged with an audience. So you’d have to get the whole group feeling horrified at the same time. I think another thing that is often missing that really can create a sense or horror and might work for a group is the ambiance. So you could turn down the lights, add in some spooky noise or music in the background and I think that would help create a bit more of a sense or horror, but I feel like it is still going to fall short. I feel like dread is the best word to describe it as you worry about the bad thing that is going to happen.

Now, it’s hard to say that dread is horror though, it might touch on that because you are getting a sense of fear from the card pull, but I think with horror, most of the time you are having fear but you don’t know of what. With dread, you are fearing what is inevitably going to happen. And again, with an app, you might be able to create more fear because you don’t know what is going to happen as you unfold a story.

I think that’s the final way that you can help create a sense of horror. I think with a good story that you can get a sense of horror in a game. Again, I’m going to say that an app is going to be helpful. A good narrator in the app is going to be able to read some part of the story in the right tone with the right background noises to make it feel more horrifying. If I were to read it myself, and I didn’t want to spoil what is coming up, I wouldn’t be able to intone correctly to create that sense of building tension and dread that you’d want. Even with that, I feel like it’s less horrifying, because you are still part of that group.

So, no, I’m not sure that a board game could ever truly be horrifying by itself. I think even with an app that is playing the right music and telling the right story that are part of the game, you are still part of the group. The other things, like dimming lights and creating a spooky feel, those are outside of the game that you can use to enhance a feeling of horror. Now, I think that’s probably a fine thing, I think the tension of a roll or a card draw and the sense of impending doom, those can be enough for a board game, because you don’t always want to be terrified. But because you can’t really do a jump scare, unless you are adding in VR to the mix, the game feels like it’s never going to be truly horrifying because you’re never truly afraid of what is around the next corner.

What do you think, can a game be horrifying or scary? What is the game that gets the closest for you?

Share questions, ideas for articles, or comments with us!

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

The post Can a Board Game by Scary? first appeared on Nerdologists.]]>
https://nerdologists.com/2019/10/can-a-board-game-by-scary/feed/ 0