June is going to be a screwy month and our game nights will not follow our usual pattern. The board game night will be June 11th at 6 PM at the Derby Line Village Hall. This was changed so anyone from Border Board Games could attend our regular game night as well as attend the Green Mountain Gamers, Game 'n Grill on June 18th in Norwich, VT.
Our new D&D 3.5 campaign was scheduled for the 4th Saturday but one of the players will be gone that weekend so we are in the process of rescheduling that date. The new date will be posted on the website once it has been settled.
We are also starting a discussion to begin A Song of Ice and Fire RPG. If joining Ice and Fire and/or D&D interest you, please let us know. We have room for new players.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Ghosts of failures past
Border Board Games welcomed its newest guest Jason on Saturday night. It was a small group of seven but it afforded us sufficient players to engage in a couple of seven player games before dividing up for two tables to end the evening.
Seven Wonders was first to hit the table. It was the first time for both Jason and Shannon but the game play is fairly intuitive and easy to pick up.Zeke's military might and a good collection of non-scientific cards enabled him to build a strong foundation in spite of the lack of paper. Shannon's military might also peaked enabling him to score consistent victories against both Homer and Jason. In the end Shannon claimed victory by a single point outscoring Zeke 51-50.
We next moved on to Citadels. As is often the case, I floundered ineffectually watching as thieves made off with my hard earned butterscotch (or is that supposed to be gold or buttons?)and my thieves routinely returned empty handed. Jason made good use of the warlord early to build up his stockpile of butterscotch but cleverly avoided choosing the role in the late game thereby avoiding assault from both the Assassin and Thief. He quickly rushed ahead and completed his eight districts. Though I, as Warlord, could have destroyed one of his districts, it simply would have prolonged the game without giving me any real advantage. Jason's advantage in districts and bonus points enabled him to handily win the game.
To finish off the evening we split into two tables for games of Ghost Stories and Cargo Noir. Beth, Jason, Homer and Shannon tackled the world of seedy dealings on the docks. Though unable to watch much of the game save for the last round, one glance at Shannon's tableau to spy the Cronies told me all I needed to know. In our, albeit limited experience, the Cronies seems to end up in the winning players hand every time. His collection of goods in the final rounds further allowed him to purchase the militia and guide him to a convincing victory.
Rob brought along Ghost Stories and, for whatever reason, I was feeling masochistic that night. I've never won at Ghost Stories before and had never actually lived long enough to see Wu-Feng either. Despite being uncommonly difficult it is one of those peculiar games that makes you want to play one more time to see if things might turn out differently. We played the three-player option with Zeke using Yellow, Rob was red and I was blue. The fourth player was green which gave us special tokens allowing us to use green's curse die denial or bonus fourth fight die. It would prove to be pivotal.
We managed quite well at first despite the blue board filling up with alarming speed. I lost a few Qi but I was able to recover somewhat by defeating Qi/Yin-Yang token ghosts later on. To start the game Zeke and Rob moved to battle the surprisingly weak ghosts that first emerged. Meanwhile i sat in the Buddha shrine dropping Buddha bombs from the corner of Yellow and Green. Some quick steps over to the move player/move ghost village square helped send some of the nastiest ghosts screaming into hell without triggering their defeat conditions (though forgoing the spoils as well).
The stack of dead ghosts that accumulated off board was reminiscent of the results from Pac Man's stomach pumping. An impressive collection of ghost meat attested to our fighting prowess (though luck probably played a major role as well) though we burned through tokens at an alarming rate. Suddenly haunter ghosts started coming out in rapid succession. The fact that they followed ghost-calling cards didn't help our situation. We suddenly went from reasonably clear boards to overflowing and taking damage.
With the Buddha bombs no longer a viable tactic (there were no empty spaces to place them), it came down to hard grinds and picking off ghosts that threatened the next Taoist in line. Just as the Wu-Feng card appeared it looked like we had things well in hand. Zeke's special token knocked Wu-Feng down a peg and our Zen color token was black. Rob had two black tokens already in hand so it looked like all he needed was to roll a single black to secure the win. Suddenly a haunter wiped out the Zen token (and our second village square). Rob needed to roll three black for the win. Using his Green power token he added the fourth die. If he failed, he would die on his next turn. If he failed, neither Zeke nor I stood a chance as I did have my Green power token, and neither of us had any fight tokens or our Yin-Yang tokens to fall back on. Zeke would have needed to roll four black to win and I would have needed to roll four black on only three dice.
Rob did it and we won. It was Rob's second ever victory and the first for Zeke and I. As Rob said during the post victory lull, it was a cinematic victory of the highest order. One last, desperate battle before the forces of evil destroyed the village. There is a certain satisfaction that comes from finally winning at a game you've never ever been able to even see victory in before.
Seven Wonders was first to hit the table. It was the first time for both Jason and Shannon but the game play is fairly intuitive and easy to pick up.Zeke's military might and a good collection of non-scientific cards enabled him to build a strong foundation in spite of the lack of paper. Shannon's military might also peaked enabling him to score consistent victories against both Homer and Jason. In the end Shannon claimed victory by a single point outscoring Zeke 51-50.
We next moved on to Citadels. As is often the case, I floundered ineffectually watching as thieves made off with my hard earned butterscotch (or is that supposed to be gold or buttons?)and my thieves routinely returned empty handed. Jason made good use of the warlord early to build up his stockpile of butterscotch but cleverly avoided choosing the role in the late game thereby avoiding assault from both the Assassin and Thief. He quickly rushed ahead and completed his eight districts. Though I, as Warlord, could have destroyed one of his districts, it simply would have prolonged the game without giving me any real advantage. Jason's advantage in districts and bonus points enabled him to handily win the game.
To finish off the evening we split into two tables for games of Ghost Stories and Cargo Noir. Beth, Jason, Homer and Shannon tackled the world of seedy dealings on the docks. Though unable to watch much of the game save for the last round, one glance at Shannon's tableau to spy the Cronies told me all I needed to know. In our, albeit limited experience, the Cronies seems to end up in the winning players hand every time. His collection of goods in the final rounds further allowed him to purchase the militia and guide him to a convincing victory.
Rob brought along Ghost Stories and, for whatever reason, I was feeling masochistic that night. I've never won at Ghost Stories before and had never actually lived long enough to see Wu-Feng either. Despite being uncommonly difficult it is one of those peculiar games that makes you want to play one more time to see if things might turn out differently. We played the three-player option with Zeke using Yellow, Rob was red and I was blue. The fourth player was green which gave us special tokens allowing us to use green's curse die denial or bonus fourth fight die. It would prove to be pivotal.
We managed quite well at first despite the blue board filling up with alarming speed. I lost a few Qi but I was able to recover somewhat by defeating Qi/Yin-Yang token ghosts later on. To start the game Zeke and Rob moved to battle the surprisingly weak ghosts that first emerged. Meanwhile i sat in the Buddha shrine dropping Buddha bombs from the corner of Yellow and Green. Some quick steps over to the move player/move ghost village square helped send some of the nastiest ghosts screaming into hell without triggering their defeat conditions (though forgoing the spoils as well).
The stack of dead ghosts that accumulated off board was reminiscent of the results from Pac Man's stomach pumping. An impressive collection of ghost meat attested to our fighting prowess (though luck probably played a major role as well) though we burned through tokens at an alarming rate. Suddenly haunter ghosts started coming out in rapid succession. The fact that they followed ghost-calling cards didn't help our situation. We suddenly went from reasonably clear boards to overflowing and taking damage.
With the Buddha bombs no longer a viable tactic (there were no empty spaces to place them), it came down to hard grinds and picking off ghosts that threatened the next Taoist in line. Just as the Wu-Feng card appeared it looked like we had things well in hand. Zeke's special token knocked Wu-Feng down a peg and our Zen color token was black. Rob had two black tokens already in hand so it looked like all he needed was to roll a single black to secure the win. Suddenly a haunter wiped out the Zen token (and our second village square). Rob needed to roll three black for the win. Using his Green power token he added the fourth die. If he failed, he would die on his next turn. If he failed, neither Zeke nor I stood a chance as I did have my Green power token, and neither of us had any fight tokens or our Yin-Yang tokens to fall back on. Zeke would have needed to roll four black to win and I would have needed to roll four black on only three dice.
Rob did it and we won. It was Rob's second ever victory and the first for Zeke and I. As Rob said during the post victory lull, it was a cinematic victory of the highest order. One last, desperate battle before the forces of evil destroyed the village. There is a certain satisfaction that comes from finally winning at a game you've never ever been able to even see victory in before.
Monday, May 2, 2011
May's Game Nights
Our D&D 3.5 game will begin anew with a new campaign. We will be playing in Eberron and if you are interested in joining the new campaign, contact us. The date hasn't been finalized yet but tentatively, we will begin on May 13th or May 14th. Keep checking the website for the final date.
Our next board game night will be on May 21st. Nothing has been planned as of yet but if there are any games you wish to play, please let us know. We'll stuff the Big Frakkin' Bag full of whatever we can.
Our next board game night will be on May 21st. Nothing has been planned as of yet but if there are any games you wish to play, please let us know. We'll stuff the Big Frakkin' Bag full of whatever we can.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
April Game Nights
March's D&D got cancelled so there is no session report. The next scheduled game nights are:
Regular board game night: April 16th at 6 PM at the Derby Line Village Hall. For April, we are planning on playing nothing but card games. That means we will have Dominion, Race for the Galaxy, Bohnanza, Bang!, plus we're getting four more card games through a game sale. And, as always, bring along your favorites too!
Dungeons and Dragons: April 23rd at 6:30 at Richard and Bethany's house in Derby Line. Come at 6 PM to play a board game or two before DM Rob arrives.
Regular board game night: April 16th at 6 PM at the Derby Line Village Hall. For April, we are planning on playing nothing but card games. That means we will have Dominion, Race for the Galaxy, Bohnanza, Bang!, plus we're getting four more card games through a game sale. And, as always, bring along your favorites too!
Dungeons and Dragons: April 23rd at 6:30 at Richard and Bethany's house in Derby Line. Come at 6 PM to play a board game or two before DM Rob arrives.
Monday, March 21, 2011
I fought the law, and the law won
Saturday, March 19th, brought us another edition of Border Board Games. The night started off quietly and while waiting for anyone to show up, Richard and I played Race for the Galaxy. For those who haven't played Race for the Galaxy, it is a card game where you try to play cards in your tableau to try to maximize the cards to yield you the most victory points at the end. Once you get used to the game, it is easy and quick. You'd think we'd have had our fill of RFTG wince we've been playing on our computers, but I guess not. BTW, I think the computers cheat in the computer version. I ended up winning against Richard but I don't recall what the exact scores were.
Near the end of our game, Homer and Alexis showed up. We decided to break out Homer's copy of Agricola. Agricola is definitely not a game to introduce a new gamer to. It's a worker placement game on steroids and can be overwhelming. We've all played a few times before so play was quite quick and smooth. I just couldn't get the synergy of placing my 'people' and my board was very weak. Homer and Richard on the other hand managed to pull ahead of Alexis and myself in the end. I had thought Alexis was going to give Homer a run for his money since she was filling up her board quite nicely but she didn't manage to diversify enough and fell into third place.
Near the end of Agricola, Shannon showed up and then while we were picking up Agricola, Amos and Ivy stopped by. We broke out Betrayal at House on the Hill so we could try out our new non-warped tiles. Betrayal is a very simple game to learn and is all about what players put into it. It's definitely more fun if players give their own spooky edge. Exploring the house was moving along quite nicely until I opened up a room in the basement and triggered the haunt. I ended up getting caught in the massive spider web and having spider eggs laid inside of my character and Homer, playing the big brute who just happened to have the spear, was the traitor. We should have known things would go badly while Homer went off into the kitchen of the hall to read his part of the scenario, we heard him cackle evilly.
I spent the remainder of the game trying to break free from the web while Homer went around with his brute and started killing everyone, starting with the little children first (isn't he a loving dad?). Amos decided to stay on the ground floor while the brute stayed in the basement with the spider. Shannon made a valiant effort and managed to heal my character of the spider eggs but between dynamite and the brute's spear, all characters except Amos' ended up dead. This scenario seemed to have a piece missing. We had to heal the spider eggs from the haunt revealer and then free the haunt revealer from the web and then if at least one character exited the house, we won. For the traitor, if he managed to kill all remaining characters, he wins. The thing was, the traitor was stuck in the basement as no way out had been found yet. We realized that Homer could have explored the basement until he found the way out and then head up and take care of Amos' character but this felt weird and would drag on. It just seemed odd that you'd think that Amos' character could have tried to leave anyway because why would you stay in a house if all your friends ended up brutalized by the brute? I dunno, we figured we'd just end as evil prevailed.In the meantime, Rob arrived to join the games.
We then moved onto Blokus. Amos had two copies so we broke off into two groups. Blokus is a great, fun, quick game and very easy to learn and explain. On one board was Alexis, Rob, Homer and Shannon and on the other board was myself, Richard, Ivy and Amos. I'm not sure how many games the other board got in. I do know that Alexis won one game and Shannon another. The board I was playing at played two games. Ivy won the first and Amos won the second.
At the end of the night, we decided to play some 8-player Bang!. Bang! is another card game that we have been enjoying a lot of lately. For 8 players, you have your Sheriff (Homer), 2 deputies, 2 renegades, and 3 outlaws. Homer was not able to figure who was who and ended up with a fistful of cards for the whole game and no idea who to target. I was an outlaw and got some bad cards (no way to defend myself) and after Alexis beat me down and then Rob played an Indians card, I was dead. Alexis made the blunder of exclaiming, 'I knew you weren't on my side!' after I kicked the bucket and revealed myself as an outlaw. The outlaws just couldn't get it together though and eventually, they ended up getting offed too (that would be Amos and Ivy). Then Shannon the renegade and Alexis the deputy got picked off and it was down to Sheriff Homer, Rob and Richard. The thing was, who was the renegade and who was the deputy? Richard and Rob picked away at each other while Homer sat with his fistful of cards. Richard prevailed and picked off Rob who then revealed himself as the last renegade. The law won!
It's kind of funny that Homer goes from being the traitor to the sheriff.
That concludes the March session of Border Board Games. Our next board game night is scheduled for April 16th, same time, same place. We think that perhaps April will be the game day where we will play nothing but card games. Hope to see you there!
Near the end of our game, Homer and Alexis showed up. We decided to break out Homer's copy of Agricola. Agricola is definitely not a game to introduce a new gamer to. It's a worker placement game on steroids and can be overwhelming. We've all played a few times before so play was quite quick and smooth. I just couldn't get the synergy of placing my 'people' and my board was very weak. Homer and Richard on the other hand managed to pull ahead of Alexis and myself in the end. I had thought Alexis was going to give Homer a run for his money since she was filling up her board quite nicely but she didn't manage to diversify enough and fell into third place.
Near the end of Agricola, Shannon showed up and then while we were picking up Agricola, Amos and Ivy stopped by. We broke out Betrayal at House on the Hill so we could try out our new non-warped tiles. Betrayal is a very simple game to learn and is all about what players put into it. It's definitely more fun if players give their own spooky edge. Exploring the house was moving along quite nicely until I opened up a room in the basement and triggered the haunt. I ended up getting caught in the massive spider web and having spider eggs laid inside of my character and Homer, playing the big brute who just happened to have the spear, was the traitor. We should have known things would go badly while Homer went off into the kitchen of the hall to read his part of the scenario, we heard him cackle evilly.
I spent the remainder of the game trying to break free from the web while Homer went around with his brute and started killing everyone, starting with the little children first (isn't he a loving dad?). Amos decided to stay on the ground floor while the brute stayed in the basement with the spider. Shannon made a valiant effort and managed to heal my character of the spider eggs but between dynamite and the brute's spear, all characters except Amos' ended up dead. This scenario seemed to have a piece missing. We had to heal the spider eggs from the haunt revealer and then free the haunt revealer from the web and then if at least one character exited the house, we won. For the traitor, if he managed to kill all remaining characters, he wins. The thing was, the traitor was stuck in the basement as no way out had been found yet. We realized that Homer could have explored the basement until he found the way out and then head up and take care of Amos' character but this felt weird and would drag on. It just seemed odd that you'd think that Amos' character could have tried to leave anyway because why would you stay in a house if all your friends ended up brutalized by the brute? I dunno, we figured we'd just end as evil prevailed.In the meantime, Rob arrived to join the games.
We then moved onto Blokus. Amos had two copies so we broke off into two groups. Blokus is a great, fun, quick game and very easy to learn and explain. On one board was Alexis, Rob, Homer and Shannon and on the other board was myself, Richard, Ivy and Amos. I'm not sure how many games the other board got in. I do know that Alexis won one game and Shannon another. The board I was playing at played two games. Ivy won the first and Amos won the second.
At the end of the night, we decided to play some 8-player Bang!. Bang! is another card game that we have been enjoying a lot of lately. For 8 players, you have your Sheriff (Homer), 2 deputies, 2 renegades, and 3 outlaws. Homer was not able to figure who was who and ended up with a fistful of cards for the whole game and no idea who to target. I was an outlaw and got some bad cards (no way to defend myself) and after Alexis beat me down and then Rob played an Indians card, I was dead. Alexis made the blunder of exclaiming, 'I knew you weren't on my side!' after I kicked the bucket and revealed myself as an outlaw. The outlaws just couldn't get it together though and eventually, they ended up getting offed too (that would be Amos and Ivy). Then Shannon the renegade and Alexis the deputy got picked off and it was down to Sheriff Homer, Rob and Richard. The thing was, who was the renegade and who was the deputy? Richard and Rob picked away at each other while Homer sat with his fistful of cards. Richard prevailed and picked off Rob who then revealed himself as the last renegade. The law won!
It's kind of funny that Homer goes from being the traitor to the sheriff.
That concludes the March session of Border Board Games. Our next board game night is scheduled for April 16th, same time, same place. We think that perhaps April will be the game day where we will play nothing but card games. Hope to see you there!
Monday, March 7, 2011
March Game Nights
For March, we will meet for our regularly scheduled board game night at the Derby Line Village Hall at 6 PM on March 19th. Not sure what we plan to bring for games yet but we'll have our usual bagfull.
Our next D&D night will be on March 26th starting whenever DM Rob arrives. We play at Beth and Richard's house in Derby Line. We could us a new player or two and if you are interested, please contact us at trashvacuum@hotmail.com. The first people to actually commit to showing up, will make the group.
Our next D&D night will be on March 26th starting whenever DM Rob arrives. We play at Beth and Richard's house in Derby Line. We could us a new player or two and if you are interested, please contact us at trashvacuum@hotmail.com. The first people to actually commit to showing up, will make the group.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Oh the insanity!
Last Saturday, Carlo brought his coveted game of Mansions of Madness down across the border to run a session with Homer and me. Mansions of Madness reminded me of a combination of Betrayal at House on the Hill and Arkham Horror except Mansions has the difference in that it has a GM or Keeper running the game.
Homer and I decided to each run two investigators. The rules of the game are quite simple so we found it not difficult to control to characters at the same time. I chose the Tommy Gun wielding brute, Michael and the brain, Kate. Homer chose his favorite Arkham character, the nun, and well balanced Jenny.
Like in Arkham, each character has stamina (health) and sanity as well as skill points. The skill points are similar to Arkham Horror's clue tokens where you can use them to help your die rolls. Although, unlike the clue tokens, the skill points are only for trying to help your die roll. In Mansions, you roll a d8. Low is good, high is bad.
The scenario Carlo chose was one involving the monastary. Our characters had received a letter from a friend, Marie, asking for help and that is what led us inside the monastary. I suppose we should have found something fishy when in the chapel there was a big hole in the floor with a ladder leading down into it. Big holes in chapel floors with ladders can never be good.
The objective of the game is unknown to the players until after some investigating, it is revealed. On each character's turn, s/he can move 2 spaces and do an action. Actions include: exploring a room, picking up an item, running (move one more space), using a special ability etc... Each turn, characters can go in any order they decide so the player order can change from turn to turn. Once the characters have made their moves and actions, the Keeper releases what evil he wishes.
Carlo as the Keeper was focusing on Michael the brute and tried successfully to make him insane. Michael seems to be able to go insane at the sight of himself in a mirror. His tommy gun proved to be useful only once. After that one initial success on causing damage to Roger the Shoggoth, Carlo played numerous cards on Michael that made him drop the gun, made the ammo low, and at some point, made Michael blind. We did eventually take down Roger the Shoggoth although he was followed by his friend the 2nd Shoggoth (he wasn't named as the first).
Luckily, or maybe not so much, it was Kate the brain who ended up finding all the of the clues that lead to revealing the objective. Kate's special ability is to make a luck roll once per game to try to get the objective revealed. Her luck is only two but she gets to add +2 to her roll for each clue that she has. Since she had 3 clues in possession, I only needed to roll an 8 or less to succeed. I rolled a 10 :/
Homer and I were chugging right along even with an insane Michael. We managed to figure all of the puzzles revealed to us and even opened some whoop ass on some dog like creature and Roger. Kate ended up finding the final clue which revealed that our objective was to carry a collapsed Marie out of the monastary. Kate was still doing quite well in stamina and sanity so it seemed entirely possible except the objective condition involved that all characters had to remain alive. It seemed our nun was going to be the thorn in our sides since she was down to one hit point left (and almost died earlier when Carlo played a broken leg card on her which said the next time she moved, she'd take a hit point of damage. Luckily Homer had a sedative that negated any trauma card played). But it wasn't the nun who was our ruin, it was that damn, insane Michael. Because he was insane, Carlo could play trauma cards on him at anytime and once the objective was revealed, Carlo played a card on Michael that made Michael die immeditately. And, so, evil triumphed over the monastary on that day. But next time, Carlo better watch out!
Homer and I decided to each run two investigators. The rules of the game are quite simple so we found it not difficult to control to characters at the same time. I chose the Tommy Gun wielding brute, Michael and the brain, Kate. Homer chose his favorite Arkham character, the nun, and well balanced Jenny.
Like in Arkham, each character has stamina (health) and sanity as well as skill points. The skill points are similar to Arkham Horror's clue tokens where you can use them to help your die rolls. Although, unlike the clue tokens, the skill points are only for trying to help your die roll. In Mansions, you roll a d8. Low is good, high is bad.
The scenario Carlo chose was one involving the monastary. Our characters had received a letter from a friend, Marie, asking for help and that is what led us inside the monastary. I suppose we should have found something fishy when in the chapel there was a big hole in the floor with a ladder leading down into it. Big holes in chapel floors with ladders can never be good.
The objective of the game is unknown to the players until after some investigating, it is revealed. On each character's turn, s/he can move 2 spaces and do an action. Actions include: exploring a room, picking up an item, running (move one more space), using a special ability etc... Each turn, characters can go in any order they decide so the player order can change from turn to turn. Once the characters have made their moves and actions, the Keeper releases what evil he wishes.
Carlo as the Keeper was focusing on Michael the brute and tried successfully to make him insane. Michael seems to be able to go insane at the sight of himself in a mirror. His tommy gun proved to be useful only once. After that one initial success on causing damage to Roger the Shoggoth, Carlo played numerous cards on Michael that made him drop the gun, made the ammo low, and at some point, made Michael blind. We did eventually take down Roger the Shoggoth although he was followed by his friend the 2nd Shoggoth (he wasn't named as the first).
Luckily, or maybe not so much, it was Kate the brain who ended up finding all the of the clues that lead to revealing the objective. Kate's special ability is to make a luck roll once per game to try to get the objective revealed. Her luck is only two but she gets to add +2 to her roll for each clue that she has. Since she had 3 clues in possession, I only needed to roll an 8 or less to succeed. I rolled a 10 :/
Homer and I were chugging right along even with an insane Michael. We managed to figure all of the puzzles revealed to us and even opened some whoop ass on some dog like creature and Roger. Kate ended up finding the final clue which revealed that our objective was to carry a collapsed Marie out of the monastary. Kate was still doing quite well in stamina and sanity so it seemed entirely possible except the objective condition involved that all characters had to remain alive. It seemed our nun was going to be the thorn in our sides since she was down to one hit point left (and almost died earlier when Carlo played a broken leg card on her which said the next time she moved, she'd take a hit point of damage. Luckily Homer had a sedative that negated any trauma card played). But it wasn't the nun who was our ruin, it was that damn, insane Michael. Because he was insane, Carlo could play trauma cards on him at anytime and once the objective was revealed, Carlo played a card on Michael that made Michael die immeditately. And, so, evil triumphed over the monastary on that day. But next time, Carlo better watch out!
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