How to Learn a New Board Game in The World of The Future: 2015

The Future is Now, so Why Not Play More Games?

Games. I need lots of games.

My recent trip to Gen Con confirmed one thing: the board game industry is thriving. It continues to expand at a fantastic rate. If you’re like me, you have a (not so) small collection of board games, some of which you have kept in shrink wrap, the ultimate board game sin.

Yes, I know your mint copy of Space Hulk, still in shrink wrap is worth quite a bit (he says, checking eBay…) but the purpose of a board game is to play it. To have fun with it. To cause angry arguments that end friendships! Ahem, okay, we’re talking about games other than Diplomacy here. That's what this column is about.

I was recently talking with my fellow blogger over at the Vorpal Chainsword, and lamenting the games we both have yet haven’t played yet, and we started to discuss the best way of changing this. Since it’s 2015, and we’re technology nerds, we thought there had to be a better way to learn to play, since we’re in the year of Back to the Future II, which is definitely the future. So re-hydrate a Pizza Hut pizza with me, and take your fax machine off the hook for a few minutes, and let’s talk about learning a new game you own.

Whither Dungeons and Dragons?

...Or Where is the Game Heading?

If you’re reading this blog and you haven’t been living under a very sturdy rock, you know that Dungeons and Dragons has released a new edition.

D&D is the flagship of role-playing games, and when a new edition is in the works it is one of the few games in the hobby that makes the news. A reboot of an edition is a great opportunity: people who've only heard about the game or who last played it many years ago are reminded that it still exists, and as it launches, they have an opportunity to get into it in an easy way.

All of that makes the recent launch the most excitement that fans of the game have seen since, well, the last launch. The launch is over now, and so the question I’d like to raise is: “where do we go from here?”

Well to answer that, we have to talk about where “here” is, and how we got there. Buckle up, it's going to get bumpy.

13th Age Campaign Session V: That is not Dead Which can Eternal lie

13 Age Campaign Session V -- That is not Dead Which can Eternal lie

When we last left our heroes, a priest of Dagon had just plunged his ensorcelled blade deep into his chest.

You fools! Dagon will not be denied this night! She will not be denied!

Something was coming.

13th Age Campaign Session IV: Shadows Over Eldolan

13 Age Campaign Session IV -- Shadows Over Eldolan

Editor's Note: Many of you have noted the use of puns in the session titles. Even though it may not look like it, this one is a pun as well. Take ye heed!

Last session the group had defeated the Dream Master. This session began with the spoils of that victory. In other words, there was loot.

The group pored over what they presumed was the Dream Master’s workshop. They found a ledger  that went back just over two months. About a month ago, new line items for bodies both live and dead started to show up.

There were two names associated with it who were taking the supplies: Landon, with a notation about the Dead Vaults, and Aerto, a “broker” in the docks.

The group additionally found a large amount of coins (the Dream Master’s ill-gotten gains) and quite a bit of Dream Leaf. They quickly put everything together and left, planning a discussion on what to do next for tomorrow. The Dream Master had taxed them to their limits, and the only thing to do was get a night’s sleep.

As they left the building they were met by Kalia, the girl they had spoken with earlier in the day, and who had told them how to find the theater.

“Wicked! That was absolutely incredible, what did you do there?”

13th Age Campaign Session III: Dream Master: a Love Story

13 Age Campaign Session III -- Dream Master: a Love Story

Note: sadly, Teri Hatcher will not be appearing in this session.

The group, in possession of a cart, and twelve rapidly cooling bodies of the Ratsmashers considered how they were going to make their move against the Dream Master.

Dragur’s shadow had done a thorough reconnaissance of the theater and the group knew there were a dozen gang members inside, along with the mysterious Dream Master. A frontal assault seemed unlikely to succeed, especially considering how hurt they were at the moment.

It was at that moment that Alarendel calmly walked up to them “hey guys, wha’d I miss?” And then he saw the bodies. “a lot, apparently.”

“So where were you?” asked Dragur.

“Attending to an important … ritual ... forgive me.”

13th Age Campaign Session II: The Ratsmashers Very. Bad. Day.

13th Age Session II -- The Ratsmashers Have a Very Bad Day

… or “Watch out for the Purple Haze”

Note: this entry is going to be a long one, but we had a fun session, and I’d love to hear what you think about the direction of the game.

The second session picked up right where we left off: in the middle of Hawk’s Square. One of the survivors who had witnessed the fight, Elsa Whiterose, gave Alarendel quite a bit of information about what had happened. Elsa is a priestess of the Lady of Light, a member of the God’s of Light Pantheon, who runs the Lost Hope Mission in Eldolan’s Warrens or tenement district. Elsa thanked Alarendel for his quick work, as it had doubtless saved the two student’s lives who were initially attacked by the zombies. She also told Alarendel that the bite of a zombie might require attention from a priest of the light to avoid a terrible transformation into undeath and a fall into darkness.

Alarendel was greatly upset by this, and fled the area.

13th Age Campaign Session I: Arrival at Eldolan

13 Age Campaign Session I -- Arrival at Endolan

I just started a new 13th Age game that will be running every other Sunday for my Pegasus Games group. I like 13th Age a lot, and as of now it’s going to be my go-to replacement game for Dungeons and Dragons. I’m working on a review of what’s available for the new 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons at the moment, and you’ll see why I’m not going with it at that point. It’s going to be much like the new edition’s artwork: not very pretty.

If you’d like to see a much more positive review for 5E, head over to Vorpal Chainsword, where Cory may ask you to get off of his lawn.

But let’s keep things light and positive. I’m not sure how many of you out there are familiar with 13th Age: it’s an OGL game (which I like very much) and it’s written by Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet, who worked on Fourth Edition Dungeons and Dragons. That means there’s more than a little influence from the “indie” and “story games” movements, but also without the grid and miniatures.

I’m going to do a separate review of the game itself, after I finish with the one for 5E, so you can directly see the differences between the two games.

But, let’s talk about my actual game here since that’s the point of this blog post. When I specifically talk mechanics, I'll format things like so.

Shadows of Brimstone II: this time with 1000% more review action

The Shadows of Brimstone Review

Shadows of Brimstone is a new boardgame that (as of this review) is just on the cusp of being released. Since the game has a lot of similarities to Warhammer Quest, I’m going to be making a few call-outs in this review. They’ll look like this.

Shadows comes from a little company called Flying Frog Productions. FFP makes some great, highly thematic games like Last Night on Earth, A Touch of Evil, and (Vorpal Chainsword Favorite) Fortune and Glory.

Shadows of Brimstone part I: Warhammer Quest

I want to talk today about the new game Shadows of Brimstone, but in order for me to do that I really need to talk about another game first, and that’s Warhammer Quest.

(Because this post actually turned out to be so long, and have so little to do with Shadows, I’m actually going to break it into two sub-entries. Not what you were looking for? Well … it is my blog after all. Tune in tomorrow for the actual Shadows review.)

We need to step into the WABAC Machine and set our course for 1995. I remember it as if it were yesterday: meeting with my fellow Sith every Wednesday for Shipwrecks and to talk about this new show called Babylon 5… it was a golden age,

It was the year that Games Workshop released this amazing game to the world that pretty much took over our gaming group for the summer. So what was it?