Team Sidequest Shenanigans

Team Sidequest is the informal name applied to our gaming group. This group has been in existence since Summer 2000. It started with my husband, his good friend, and myself. When we started, we played 2nd Edition Dungeons and Dragons. My husband ran the games. His friend played a Dragon Knight (original class we designed for the world my husband and I created) named Theorne--this is the same friend who got the awesome Legendary Play Mats I shared the other day. I played a Dwarf Cleric named Grushenka--bonus points if you catch the reference without using Google. =P

At some point we switched to 3rd Edition Dungeons and Dragons. It was a slow transitions. Being the old fogies that we are, we felt that system was very overpowered and ruined the role playing side of it. We played 3rd Edition for many years. We've also played 4th Edition and Pathfinder. We have played Star Wars D20. We are currently playing Pathfinder and Marvel -- the really old version from when I was in high school. We're also threatening to start a MLP campaign.

I've been through lots of characters over the years. I tend to figure out what my character looks like and then build it up from there. If I don't do that, I usually take a vague concept (like one of my archetypes) and then try and find a class that fits. I think, by far, one of my favorite characters to play was Magic, where I played my Magic Girl archetype named. I used the Pathfinder rules for the Magic Girl class published by my husband and another friend of ours. I totally played up the Intelligence score of 7 (out of 18 for those who don't play D&D). This did happen. DM: "You see a dragon." Magic: "I want to make friends with it. I'll bet it's just lonely and misunderstood." FYI, it worked.

My current Pathfinder character is a bit subdued compared to my usual character. She's an Elf Monk who owns only the clothes on back, doesn't bathe, and seeks Nirvana. I'm playing her as an ultra-conservative Buddhist crossed with the Prince of Persia with less sarcasm--gave people a break since my Halfling Druid who I played before Sangye had a mouth that got our party in way more trouble than was probably necessary. (My poor druid died. It was tragic.)

In our Marvel campaign, I'm playing a 3rd generation Greek immigrant living in New York. She lives with her grandmother, but spends most of her time at her guardian's house--her guardian is a Social Services worker (played by my husband) assigned specifically to her case because of the fact that she tends to set fire to thinks when she gets emotional--which is often. She is 17 (super young by my standards), is incredibly impulsive, has fire powers, and has spent most of her life in and out of trouble with law enforcement. She spent a lot of time in centers for juvenile delinquents. This makes her good with misunderstood kids, and she has an interest in child psychology and lots of contacts within NYPD. She's generally better behaved now--she's one of the good guys after all--but she does not think about consequences of her actions before she does them. This means lots of collateral damage. She also tends to destroy her guardian's toasters and has difficulty maintaining a job (since saving the world is more of a side gig).

I'm really big on character creation--looks, personality, back story... all of it. Love it. It's one of my favorite aspects of games--table top and video game (it legitimately took me 2 hours to design my first Guild Wars 2 character). Feel free to comment and tell me about your characters (yes, I opened that can of worms). I like this kind of thing though. Once I get caught up with some of my current art projects (mostly revamping and updating my inventory for any 2018 conventions I might get into, and really just the badges and ties), I plan on opening a special section of commissions just for OCs for games because this is one of my favorite things to draw.

That was rambling... I need to stop writing these things between 3am and 5am after staying up all night. XD

Pokemon GO

I don't know if anyone here plays Pokemon GO, but I do... admittedly only half-heartedly.

It does help that lots of Pokemon show up where I work now, and I have access to a Pokestop from my basement cubicle. Beyond casual play, though, I don't think the game has much appeal. I like collecting things, so I do enjoy playing. It spices up (somewhat) the usually dull walks around my neighborhood, which I take on days when it's not hot. I admit that my courage fails when it comes to warm weather. Over 80 degrees, and I melt. Sadly that's a good bit of the year where I live. This week I've been looking at temperatures in the upper 90s. Dying...

Back on topic. So, I play on Team Mystic because I like what it stands for, plus blue is my other favorite color. My husband and eldest son play (all Team Mystic). My mom and brother play--also Team Mystic. So clearly, Team Mystic is the most awesome team -- because I'm there... Just kidding.

The new mechanics for the gyms look fun. I haven't really played with it as I don't live near any gyms. From what I have seen, it does seem more engaging than the previous system. Maybe I'll get a chance to play around with the new mechanics some time soon.

Anyways, anyone else here still play Pokemon GO? What team are you on? Just curious.

Kingdom Building

This past Monday was our 13th anniversary--it honestly feels like much longer than that. Anyways, for our anniversary, my mom got us two new boardgames, and I will be spending this post talking about one of them: Dominion. When I was at Magfest I saw dozens of boxes of this game hanging around the tabletop gaming area. The only game close to rivaling the number of Dominion games was Settlers of Catan. Magfest ran tournaments with both of these games. Intrigued, my husband and I snagged a copy on Sunday morning to give it a try. Sadly, we only got the game roughly set up and got to play through maybe two rounds before we had to pack up because of a panel I wanted to attend. I had hoped we could sneak back down to tabletop and play through it after the panel, but that didn't end up happening.

Victory Cards

What little we got to sample of Dominion of Magfest was enough to sell us on the game. My mom likes tabletop games so I shared info on the game with her, and that's how we ended up with it for our anniversary. Dominion is a deck building card game, and it has nothing to do with armies and destroying the other players. Looking at the box, I'd honestly expected a card game variation of Risk or something like that. Rather than build armies, your goal is to build a kingdom made out of Estates, Duchies, and Provinces. You use money in the form of Copper, Silver, and Gold Treasure Cards to purchase the kingdom building cards (called Victory Cards in the game), more Treasure Cards, and Kingdom Cards. Buying the Victory Cards and Treasure Cards have obvious value--you need one to win the game and the other increases your purchasing power.

Treasure Cards

The Kingdom Cards are where the game gets really interesting in my opinion. There are 25 different Kingdom Cards that come with Dominion. For each game, you get to pick 10 Kingdom Cards to play with. Most of the Kingdom Cards allow you to perform actions on your turn--I think the Gardens are the only exception to this (Gardens add to your Victory Point pool). Some cards allow you to "attack" other players, and there is one card that functions as a defensive reaction and will protect you from "attacks" (the Moat card). I put attack in quotes because you don't attack other players in Dominion directly. Most attack cards give you a bonus of some kind and then have a side effect that adversely affects the other players. For instance, the Bureaucrat is an attack action card. If you play this card on your turn, you get to place an extra silver card on top of your deck. For the attack part of the card, other players have to take a Victory card (an Estate, Duchy, or Province card) and put it on top of their deck if they have one in their hand. In this case, you're just guaranteeing at least one card in your next draw will be a Silver and other players' next draw a Victory card in their next draw--Victory cards are pretty useless during actual game play.

25 Kingdom Cards--Pick 10 to play with

Another thing I found interesting about Dominion is the game mechanics. I've played other deck building games before, but this was the first where you build your deck as you play. Each player starts the game with a deck of 10 cards: 3 Estates and 7 Copper. On their turn, each player then plays actions to theoretically gain some advantage in the game and purchases cards (their choice of Victory cards, Treasure cards, or any one of the 10 Kingdom Cards selected for that game) to add to their deck. All players gain cards from a shared pool which include all the Victory cards, Treasure cards, and Kingdom cards used in that game. The game ends when all Province cards are purchased or when any three Kingdom cards are bought out. Once the game ends, all players pull the Victory cards out of their deck and count up the points. The one with the most points wins.

I absolutely love this game. With all the different Kingdom cards to choose from there are tons of different game combinations you can put together to play with. I really like games that have high replayability like that. It's worth noting that I usually lose this game; out of the nearly 20 times I've played it in the last week, I've only won once. My kids kick the snot out of me at this game most of the time. I still love it. =P

Munchkin: Board Game Style

Munchkin Quest is Steve Jackson Game's board game version of their awesome Munchkin card game series. We picked this up a while ago for my husband. However, right after purchasing the game, we moved, and did not find the box we packed it in until our move the end of last month. I'm glad we found it; I'd honestly thought we'd lost it permanently.

On that note, I thought it'd be worth posting a review of some kind on the game. The game features a lot of the same kind of humor and play style that you can find in the card games. Beyond the basic concepts behind Munchkin, art design, and some of the classic items and monsters, not much remains from the original card game.

The first thing you'll notice upon opening this box is that this game has *a lot* of pieces. This is also the first significant deviation from the card game which contained two decks of cards and a dice. This game has dungeon tiles, door tiles, monster tiles, level counters, 10 dice, colored stands, monster tiles, and three decks of cards--I might be missing something there, but you get the idea.

Of course, with all these new pieces, the game got more complicated. The basic goal of the game is very similar to the original card game. Be the first to get to level 10. This version adds the additional condition of "escaping" the dungeon--this involves getting back to the entrance and fighting a boss monster. Not too bad so far, but once you get into the actual game play, you'll see where things can get a little more convoluted. First each player has movement tiles--you start with three. With those movements you can explore a new room, search the room you are in, or activate the special "deal" associated with the room you are in. Also, you have to keep in mind that there are door tiles for each side of the room which can include open hallways, regular doors, locked doors, and hidden doors, and to move through the latter two, you have to spend three movement. Ok, still not that bad. Let's keep going.

Let's go into a little more detail. When you explore, you open up a new dungeon tile. Each tile has something special about it. Some allow for "deals" where you can trade items, money, or cards in your hand for various things. Many rooms also have symbols on them that correspond with the races and classes of the game--we'll get back to this point later. So, you place the new dungeon tile on the board. What's next? First, you draw a card from the Deus ex Machina deck--this deck contains a mix of old treasure cards and door cards from the old deck. Basically it's any card that doesn't count as an item or a monster, so this would include "Go Up a Level" cards and cards that enhance monsters. Next you draw a monster card from the Monster Deck; yes, in this game, monsters get their own deck and you will never have monsters in your hand--another big deviation from the card game. (They still have wandering monster cards and other such cards, but those involve moving monsters on the board or simply drawing a new monster instead of playing monsters from your hand.)

Here's where things get a little crazy: you've got your monster for your room. Now you find the monster tile, and then you role a 6-sided dice with colors on each side: purple, orange, red, green, blue and yellow. If the color matches a player color, that player draws a Deus ex Machina card. If it doesn't, you get to pick the color, but you can't draw a card if you choose your own color. Get a stand of the appropriate color and stick the monster tile on it. Next you compare levels and play any items or effects you or other players want. Now in the card game, that was the end of combat. Not so here. Next you and whatever player "owns" (matches the color for) the monster role one d6 (or more in some cases). Add the role to your level and the monster's level respectively. Resolve combat. If you win, yah; draw treasure, gain a level, and if the monster had the same color stand as your player color, you draw a Deus ex Machina card. If you lose, take a hit and then try and run away; failing to run away still results in bad stuff. The "take a hit" part is another new addition to the board game. All players start with three health tiles. When you "take a hit" you flip a health tile from red to black. When all your health tiles are black, you die. There are slight differences with death that I won't go in to here. I did learn this evening that you can commit suicide if it is to your benefit to do so. XD

So that should give you a brief idea of how much more complicated the board game is than the card game. That was just a basic combat. I haven't gone into searching, which can lead to more combat, the drawing of treasure cards, or gold tiles (yes, the board game gives you money). So, each player can explore, search, move, or deal on their turn until they run out of movement tiles. After that, the colored d6 is rolled again, and the monsters move based on the color rolled and colored arrows on the dungeon tiles (and don't forget that monster movement can be influenced by symbols that appear on certain monsters). 

When all is said and done, the game is still fairly fun. It has a really high learning curve, but if you can get a good group together that has a handle on the game play, it's really not too bad. Learning to play, or playing with people unfamiliar with all the rules and nuances of the game, is tedious at best. Turns can take up to 30 minutes, and that's for just one player. There are enough new rules and new mechanics to the game that even with a seasoned group, it's easy to get bogged down. My opinion on the game: I won't say it's spectacular, but it's still a pretty good game; just make sure you have a lot of time if you sit down to play this one.