Episode 24 – CON-versations
Jul 26
In this episode, we discuss how to navigate the wonderful world of game conventions, especially Gen Con, the “best 4 days in gaming”. And in Buy, Try, or Deny, we look at Wealth of Nations from Tablestar Games. We also review board games Ruin and Word on the Street.
Click on the link below to listen to the episode in streaming format.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Click here for a direct download of this episode.
Don’t forget, we’re a proud member of the Pulp Gamer Media Network! Check us out at http://www.pulpgamer.com.
Dice Town
Jul 23Ah, dice games. There’s something about rolling dice that immediately makes a game seem more accessible and more “fair”, just because of the way dice tend to balance out differences in skill by way of simple probability. In a way, it’s an excuse for people to not have to make optimal decisions in a game, because a lucky dice roll could still turn the tide in their favor. There’s no doubt that rolling a natural 20 in a game of D&D is a truly exciting event, but when a game has too much of a luck element, many people just stop caring about the outcome, because they feel they have very little control over it. Recent game designs have sought to mitigate this problem by combining dice rolling with bluffing elements (a la Liar’s Dice), or by making all (or most) rolls of the dice have some sort of intrinsic value, regardless of whether the roll is low or high (To Court the King, Kingsburg, Yspahan). In Dice Town, Ludovic Maublanc and Bruno Cathala have combined all of these mechanics together to create a very enjoyable dice rolling game with a fun Old West theme laid nicely over it.
In Dice Town, you are attempting to gain victory points and other resources by creating particular “hands” of special poker dice. These special dice have playing card symbols and denominations on them – 9, 10, Jack ,Queen, King, and Ace (the faces have different colors to differentiate them, but there are no “suits” in the game). By having the best hand of dice in one or more of several different categories, you’ll be able to acquire money, gold nuggets, cards, and other resources that will gain you points and help you during the game. You start the game with 8 dollars, 5 dice, and a neat bullet-shaped dice cup. The youngest player is assigned the role of Sheriff and given the sheriff card. On your turn you, all of the players will simultaneously roll their 5 dice onto the table, keeping them hidden from the other players. After rolling, you secretly look at your dice and decide which of the 5 you would like to keep. You put the other dice back into your hand, and then everyone reveals the die that they’ve kept. You may keep more than one die, but you have to pay a dollar for every additional die that you keep. After the dice are revealed and payments made, the players roll again, repeating this process until each player has built a 5-die poker hand from their dice.
The second part of the game is the distribution of resources, or as I like to call it, the “cash and prizes” step. The board in the game depicts several typical Old West locations, including the gold mine, the saloon, and the general store. Each location will give out a certain reward to the player who has the “best” hand in a certain catergory. For example, the player who has the most 9’s in their poker hand is rewarded with gold nuggets from the gold mine, one for each 9 that’s in their hand. In the event of a tie, the Sheriff decides who wins, and it’s perfectly acceptable (if not ethical) to bribe the Sheriff!
So, the rewards are as follows:
Gold mine (player with the most 9’s) – winner gets one gold nugget per 9 in their hand
Bank (player with the most 10’s) – winner will get all the money from the bank. After that money is taken, the bank is resupplied with all the money that was paid for extra dice this round.
General Store (player with the most Jacks) – winner gets to draw one General Store card for each Jack. Then, they get to keep one and discard the rest. Some of these cards are worth victory points, some are rulebreaking cards for certain situations in the game.
Saloon (player with the most Queens) – winner gets to steal from one card for each Queen in their hand from opponents. They can keep one and return the rest to their owners.
Sheriff (player with the most Kings ) – winner will be the Sheriff for the next round
Town Hall (player with the best poker hand) – at the beginning of the game, 3 property cards are laid out on the board next to the town hall space. The player who puts together the best poker hand will get the bottom property card (worth between 1 and 5 victory points), but a bonus card for every Ace that’s in their hand, up to a total of 3 cards. If you’re not familiar with poker hands, don’t worry. The order of winning hands is listed on the back of the property cards.
If, after all of that, you still haven’t received a reward during the round, you can visit “Doc Badluck”, who will let you choose from one of several consolation prizes (which are actually pretty good).
After that, a new round begins. The game continues until the property card deck is exhausted, or until the gold nugget pile is depleted. Then, you add up your score. You get the points on your property and general store cards, 1 point for every gold nugget, and 1 point for every $2 you have at the end of the game. If you’re the sheriff at the end of the game, you get 5 points. Highest point total wins.
This game, for me, is a perfect combination of dice rolling, very light strategy, and a clever theme. The artwork is cartoony and fun, and the component quality is excellent. The game is easy to teach, and I believe will interest gamers and non-gamers alike. I had the opportunity to play this with some family members, and I was amused by the metagaming (in the form of good-natured ribbing) that occurred, especially when it came to the Sheriff’s reasoning in their tiebreaking decisions!
As a gamer, I’m not really interested in playing a game that is pure luck and no strategy. Dice Town is a refreshing mix, and the fact that it’s accessible to non-gamers makes it even more appealing. Overall, a very enjoyable game, and a most definite and emphatic “Buy”!
Timestreams
Jul 18From the rulebook: “In Timestreams, you take the role of an inventor of the time machine, traveling the timelines to ensure that your own time remains dominant, seeding the ages with inventions that favor your era while trying to thwart other time travelers from relegating you to the dustbin of history!” Sounds exciting, eh? Well, I’d love to say that the game creates a theme-y feel of time travel, but it doesn’t. However, it’s a very clever, interactive card game, and that fact that it has a time travel theme pasted over top of it in no way detracts from the gameplay.
Timestreams is a non-collectible card game from Bucephalus Games. The game is sold in pairs of decks, each deck representing a different era in history. There are six time periods – Stone Age, Medieval Era, Renaissance, Industrial Revolution, Modren Day, and Future Tech . The box says that the game takes 45-60 minutes to play, and I think that’s pretty accurate. Out of the box, the game is for 2 players, although you can play with up to 6 people if each player has a different deck.
Each player will get a pre-constructed deck that represents a particular era in history. In each deck there are 2 main types of cards: Inventions and Actions. The goal of the game is to lay down invention cards in each of six “eras” that will gain you the most points. But, each era only has six scoring slots, even though it’s possible to play more that six cards under each era.
You’ll begin the game by laying out the six era cards in a row on the table in chronological order, from Stone Age to Future Tech. These are mainly just placeholder cards to keep the rows of cards organized. Each player will draw a certain number of cards based upon the number of players (6 cards for a 2-player game). The player who has the deck that represents the earliest period in history (in this case, Stone Age) will go first. On your turn, you’ll play an invention onto the current era, or an action card. An invention card will have a specific points value, which may score at the end of the game. The invention may also have either a “Play” ability or a “Score” ability. A “Play” ability will activate immediately, while a “Score” ability will not activate until the scoring phase of the game, after all the cards have been played to the table. The “Play” ability might allow you to draw more cards, switch the position of cards, prevent the invention from being affected by Action cards, etc. If you choose not to play an invention card, you can instead play an Action card. Action cards are effects that happen immediately, which do various things to positively impact you and negatively impact your opponent. Of note, there are Action cards that add or remove scoring slots from an era, which can drastically mess with your opponent’s strategy.
Players will take turns playing cards on an era until both players pass. Then, you draw 6 more cards (plus, you keep any cards left over from the previous round – there’s no maximum hand size), move to the next era and begin another round.
This continues for 6 rounds, after which you begin the “Score” phase. Start at the left-most era, you resolve all of the “Score” effects for the cards in the scoring slots, top to bottom. Once all the “Score” effects have been resolved, all of the cards that fall below the scoring threshold are discarded. Then, the players take the remaining cards and place them in their score pile. You continue this process until all eras have been scored, add up the points and determine your winner.
This game surprised me – when I read the rulebook I thought it might end up being kind of a dry exercise, a “who cares?” sort of game. But, it’s actually a really clever back-and-forth struggle to claim those valuable scoring slots. The cards interact nicely with one another, although you’re not going to see the big CCG-style card combos in Timestreams. In a way, that’s a strength of the game, because the decks seem to be pretty balanced.
My only big criticism of the game is the complexity of the scoring phase. When there are multiple scoring effects in an era, it can get a little confusing to figure out which cards are in the scoring slots. This is probably an issue that would get easier with repeated plays. There are some cards that offer bonus points, and since there are no tokens included in the game, you might need a piece of paper and a pen when scoring. And, I guess I’m not a huge fan of the card artwork, which seems a bit of a mishmash of blurry watercolors.
But, overall, Timestreams is a really fun card little card game that I’d definitely recommend. It’s a “Buy”!
Episode 23 – Origins 2009
Jul 04
In this episode, we bring you our coverage from the 2009 Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio! Interviews, commentary, and lots of other great stuff! And, in Buy, Try, or Deny, we attempt to subvert treachery as we look at Are You the Traitor from Looney Labs. Enjoy!
Bonus Episode 1 – Origins Podcasting Panel
Jul 02
In this bonus episode, we present the audio from the “Meet the Podcasters” panel at the 2009 Origins Game Fair in Columbus, Ohio. This audio was recorded on June 26, 2009. Enjoy!
