Since my character in Ruthless Heavens, Boundless Fate died, I am thinking I am gonna do a short adventure in NoteQuest, and then maybe Kal Arath.
1 Like
Been playing a zombie survival game called Outbreak this week. It was recommended by someone who claimed it was very similar to Uprising: Curse of the Last Emperor (which I love). But I didn’t find the comparison to be as strong as they did.
Also, it’s another town defense game and we just played a great one with Fate: Defenders of Grimheim. So I think maybe that made this one harder to get into.
It’s not a bad game though. And there’s plenty of variety. Settlement hexes all give different bonuses. Individual zombie hordes are all different with a handful of flavors about them and various difficulty tiers. Lots of ways to modify the difficulty.
But it always felt a bit slow to us. There’s a lot of little things to track all the time, and it’s a bit visually messy so remembering it all can get difficult. There’s a lot of opportunity for planning and strategy to better your odds, but after Fate: DoG it felt kind of dry and lacking in fun. After a win and a loss I think we’ll be passing this one on.
5 Likes
Just tried this with the kids. Very lightweight game, but only costs a fiver. It has kept them occupied for two hours so far so has already paid it’s way
It’s a two player game where you have to complete a tableau of seven cards and tally the scores at the end. With a bit of “take that” on your opponent via special abilities.
There are others in the series: dogs, cats, dinos, pirates, etc. but I went with the dungeon theme because dragons > dogs
6 Likes
That Outbreak game looks pretty cool. Haven’t heard of it.
I definitely think the right players will enjoy it. Just didn’t turn out to be us.
1 Like
Heroquest Quest Report ‘SundayQuest Vol 8’: “Crypt of the Orc Warlord”. Ulag Shozbog lives! With the previously obtained map of the Crypt the heroes start of with an advantage knowing the layout of rooms and the likely location of the Orc Warlord’s burial mound. Nez (Dwarf), Ser Lichen (Knight), Jacobus (Wizard), Lynx (Elf) and Ithil Anar (Elf) head straight for the center room to find Ulag resurrected once again! An epic battle is engaged with Ulag unleashing powerful new magic in the form of Lightning Bolt and Summon Undead. Just when they believe they have defeated him and begin to head to the exit, he rises again! The heroes fight through the undead hordes surrounding Ulag and once again slay their necromantic foe. Ulag’s body falls to the floor. Dead. His lifeless corpse begins to glow and then it disappears; the heroes suspect some foul Dread sorcery is afoot.
9 Likes
Game: Land of Eem
I have to give big props to Daniel for helping me find that perfect RPG that fits all my tastes. I watched his video covering Land of Eem and was instantly hooked. I’ve been trying my best to get into solo roleplaying, but have struggled to find a very specific style of game. This game is a perfect blend of everything I’ve ever wanted. Especially, in combination with the Game Master’s Apprentice deck.
My drean checklist was:
- Sandbox
- Hex crawl and dungeon diving
- Not have to resolve every encounter with fighting
- Fantasy
- No journaling
- Use all dice types (d4, d6, d10, d12, d20, d100)
I wish Daniel would’ve followed up with a playthrough of Land of Eem, but I understand it may not have been popular enough. It would be nice if there were more playthrough sessions in general. I went back and watched his Cymbaline Isle sessions last week and it helped me tremendously with understanding how to solo role play. The tip of throwing the adventurers into situations instead of making things up was a game-changer.
Spoilers below the image from an optional intro quest (Wally’s Waffles and Weorgs Rats!).
The goal was to find the deed for Wally’s Waffles & Weorgs due to a property dispute with Subterranean Pits and Lairs LLC. Broke and running out of food, my adventurers decided to accept this quest. Wally explains the deed is down in the basement, but it has been infested with KiloRats. This infestation was caused by Wally deciding to substitute his Weorg meet with a cheaper alternative (KiloRats)… A KiloRat happened to get into a glowing Bogril Cheese wheel that increased it’s intelligence. This caused the rats to organize and revolt against Wally. They also formed a colony with the ambition to take over the word inside his basement.
The adventurers entered the basement quietly and manage to find a jar of Super Secret Spicy Mustard. Which they knew KiloRats despise. They decide to coat their crowbars (current weapons) with in hopes to deter them. After coating their weapons, the Dungeoneer accidently tripped on a harp and attracted a SkurpWorm. The Bard quickly used their lute to play a horrible melody that was so bad it scared the SlurmWorm away.
They proceed to get lost in a maze and then stuck in an InkSpider’s web once they navigated their way out. They spoke with the spider (Bartlebee) and asked what can be done so we can be set free. The spider became skeptical of the Bard, and asked the Dungeoneer (these spiders admire Dungeoneers) if the Bard can be trusted to be let go. The Dungeoneer failed to convince the spider of the Bard’s innocence, causing further distrust.
In one last attempt, the Dungeoneer asked if there’s ANYTHING else they can do. The spider explained he has been bored down in the dungeon and would like to see the two adventurers spar with each other. The duo figured this was a better deal than actually having to fight the spider directly. They performed a show barely worth watching, and the Bard actually ended up scratching the Dungeoneer in the process. The unimpressed spider decided to let them go just to get them to go away, and gave them a small hoard for the entertainment.
I didn’t finish the quest because it had already been a couple hours of playing. Oddly enough, I ended up journaling a lot of the game to ensure my details stay intact. It’s astounding how much I’ve played already compared to how much more there is. There are hours and hours of things to do and locations to explore. I’m looking forward to seeing what other shenanigans my adventurers will get be getting into!
11 Likes
I’ve heard that Land of Eem really lends itself to solo/GM-less play with just some oracle tables or card decks. Are you finding that to be the case? Is there a lot of emergent narrative as you play just from regular dice rolls/systems rules, or are you pushing things to force events to happen?
I guess what I’m asking is how much time are you spending on playing your characters versus simulating the GM aspects? And whether or not you find that LoE’s regular systems are doing the heavy lifting for generating adventure.
2 Likes
Played our first game of Heroes of Barcadia by Rollacrit with newly acquired expansions last night: Heroes for Hire, House Rules deck, Die of Barcane Chaos and Booze Ooze Invasion.
New expansions really elevate this game. It was fun before. Even more so now.
5 Likes
Gonna try that out with a bunch of friends at a board game retreat we do every year in Oct. Looking forward to it.
1 Like
It does a great job of GM-less playing and is a reason why it clicked so well for me. The dungeons in Land of Eem are randomly generated with D100 tables which means there’s plenty to explore and it won’t get repetitive. They are a dungeon of the mind, so you’re not drawing maps (unless you want to). I’ve played games like Ironsworn and immediately bounced off of them because it felt like I was just writing a book and rolling dice.
For my spider encounter in my original post, I simply read the excerpt from the quest for the room. I asked myself “What would I do in this situation?” after my heroes were stuck in the web. So, I asked the spider (most creatures are sentient) what we could do in order to persuade them to let us go. I pulled a card from the Game Master’s Apprentice deck which read “Sparring for Sport or competition”. This lead me to the idea of the spider being bored down in the dungeon and would like some entertainment. He let the adventurers out of the web and I rolled combat stats as if the characters were attacking each other. One of them ended up slightly damaged.
I will say The Mucklands Sandbox Campaign Setting book is a must have along with the core rulebook. This book provides everything you need (the book is 425 pages) for each location and 4-5 quests per location. It allows you to have plenty to do while not having to make-up quests (you can still create your own quests of course). I personally went all in, since it gives you the map board and an additional bestiary book. If you hang out on their webstore for a second, a 10% off offer will appear. You can also download their QuickStart guide for free which gives you an example quest and how things are laid out.
2 Likes
Been reading about it all morning.
I think I might just get in as a late pledge on their expansion content campaign. Looks like they added another way to generate dungeons too, or an expanded way.
We have a GM running games for us right now, but you never know how long that’ll last… And I think I like this (and an oracle deck) better as a GM-less starting point for us than Ironsworn/Starforged.
Thanks for the insights!
2 Likes
I’ve heard this is good.
1 Like
Been playing Tainted Grail: Kings of Ruin. So far it’s a much more refined and tightened experience than the original games. A lot less grind, though we haven’t played the 2.0 version of the original games yet. The only thing that really threw us for a loop so far was the first encounter with a King of Ruin, as it seems like it could just crush you into a corner and end your campaign if your party isn’t capable. And we maybe cheated just a little bit to eke our way past it. And then oddly, his next level of diplomatic encounter was easier… Go figure. The combat encounter didn’t even seem worth trying yet.
Otherwise it’s been great fun and we’re enjoying the world and story. Similar grimdark Arthurian-legend inspired narrative. Taking place an age before the other games. Same level of writing, so if you liked the others you should enjoy this. And (at least so far) the open world isn’t so vastly open. Which I think is working better than how the first game allowed us to stretch a chapter for 12 hours as we traversed our way across the continent 3 times, unsure of how to complete our primary goal.
7 Likes
Excellent! Looks like a lot of fun!
I’ve got the 2nd edition of X-ODUS set up to learn. Seems like a super cool space adventure game. It’s ticking a lot of boxes for me right now, especially since I just recently started my 3rd rewatch of Battlestar Galactica.
7 Likes
Looks pretty fun. Let us know how it goes. I might have to go find a copy.
1 Like
This edition will be hitting crowdfunding next month!
2 Likes
I play at the moment The City of the Dancing Carp (or Carp City, which is the German name). It is a mix between Wimmelbook and Choose Your Own Adventure, including 250 stickers to mark changes in this gigantic world, which has over 30 pages. And the paragraph book has nearly 1000 entries.
6 Likes
Oh wow! That looks super interesting.
1 Like