HokieStone

Ah...I didn't get the organizer, my plan was to try and recycle my Gloomhaven organizer. But who knows now. As I recall they changed mid-stream on the organizer because of some controversy with Broken Token, who was going to supply the wood organizer. This thing is so heavy already, adding another few pound of wood organizer may result in a hernia.

Which extras did you get? Mine came with the solo scenarios and reusable stickers in the box. Well, in the giant box that held those and the slightly less giant Frosthaven packing box...which held the actual giant Frosthaven box. So many boxes.

My Frosthaven arrived over the weekend. It is...large...and very heavy. In fact, we were out of town, and my 80 year old mother-in-law was house and cat-sitting for us. I saw on my doorbell, her struggling to drag a giant box into the house, and I figured it had arrived. Now I just need to decide if we're going to play it, or if I'm going to sell it.

They just waited for Fear the Walking Dead for that...

Evel Knievel's son, Robbie - a daredevil in his own right, dead at age 60 from pancreatic cancer https://apnews.com/article/sports-accidents-evel-knievel-las-vegas-reno-bdc7c49dc0ebf815d99fb0a61b77bfb3

Yep, the artwork is significantly improved. The whole ordeal with art and graphic design on the original is a bit of a story - basically I ended up being project manager and art director...and the artist got grumpy with me. On this one, Elf Creek hired more accomplished artists, and a separate person to do graphic design. There's been a few decisions I haven't totally agreed with, but in the end, they get to make the call - and overall it's a significant improvement.

Played a few games this past weekend: Darwin's Choice - In which the conceit is to make "franken-animals" out of cards, combining traits of different animals, and then they have to survive in their environments (or migrate). Interesting concept, but I found it to be way too fiddly. Horrified (The American Monsters) - First time playing this game system, of which I'd heard good things. A co-op game where you are looking to defeat various monsters (in our case, the Chupacabra and Badlands Banshee - the original has Dracula, Frankenstein's Monster, etc.) I found it enjoyable, but I probable wouldn't go out of my way to play it again. Oceans - The sequel to Evolution. I had played it once a while back, but had to re-learn it. It's ok...but I can't shake the feeling we were playing wrong, as we barely ever had any species go extinct. I like Evolution better. Paint the Roses - An "Alice in Wonderland" themed co-op, where you are trying to deduce the card that other players have by the tokens they place on the board - very much logical deduction. I absolutely loved this game. So much so that it may be a late addition to my Xmas list, even though I don't like to put games on there. Really really enjoyed this one a lot. Lastly...and I'll delete this part if I'm out of line to tout my own stuff...Elf Creek Games has the new edition of my Santa's Workshop up for pre-order. We had to delay to 2023, but development is done, and we'll be demoing at all the major conventions in 2023. https://www.elfcreekgames.com/products/santa-s-workshop-pre-order

Kirstie Alley, of "Cheers" fame, has died of cancer at age 71 https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/05/entertainment/kirstie-alley-obit/index.html

See...I actually think the ridiculous production will keep it from getting to the table as much as it could. It is a pretty straightforward game - but the giant box, and the ridiculous amount of table space needed is sort of a hindrance for having it in a regular rotation. I almost think they should make a smaller $40 version with just punchboard tiles...and I bet they'd sell a ton. I will likely flip my Frosthaven when it comes in. I ordered it when my son was really into Gloomhaven...but we sort of stopped playing, and never picked it back up. I ask him now and again if we're going to continue, and he's kind of meh about it. I think he got the digital version on Steam and played through it that way. So, if we're not going to play Frosthaven, I'll at least make some money on it...

Got a chance to play Foundations of Rome (https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/284189/foundations-rome) last night. There is a decent game in there, besides just being an overproduced mini-fest. The game is actually quite simple - buy lots (like in Acquire), build buildings once you have enough connected lots to have the right footprint, get money/population/points based on the buildings you have built. There are a number of optional modules you can include to vary the gameplay. We played with "stealing", where twice during the game you can steal lots from other players (but they end up with points for your theft), and "monuments", which add a bunch of neutral buildings. I would never shell out the $200+ for the game, but I'm happy to play my buddy's copy.

I have to admit, I'm not a college basketball die-hard, so I haven't been paying attention to closely. But man...what happened to Louisville? 0-6 with losses to Bellarmine (who?!), Wright State & App State. And then 19+ point losses to Arkansas, Texas Tech and Cincy. Yeesh. I'm sure they'll play their best game of the year against VT, though... And similarly...FSU...yowza

I've known Max Jamelli, designer of Lords of Baseball (along with his dad) for quite a while now, and been following the LoB saga since the early days. It's been quite a ride to get the game published - nearly 10 years. They've been through a number of publishers. It's really a labor of love for them, and I'm glad to see it finally having success. I paid the extra to have my picture on one of the cards - first time I've ever done anything like that! Ark Nova is an interesting game - the comparisons to Terraforming Mars are apt - although I know some folks who don't like TM that did enjoy AN. Generally they feel that the card luck is less swingy in AN, although it's still there. I had one game where I played some cards at the very beginning of the game that would get me discounts or bonuses on animals from Asia...only to have no Asia animals come up in the deck until 3/4 of the way through the game. That was frustrating. Generally I've enjoyed my 3 or 4 plays...but I haven't played it enough to really know the rules well, and it's a dense game, so relearning the rules each time is a bit of a pain...

Your watermelons are now safe. Gallagher has passed away at the age of 76. https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/11/entertainment/gallagher-comic-dead/index.html No word on his brother, who tried to steal his act.

Got an old favorite - The New Science - to the table this week. It's theme is that you are all 17th Century scientists vying to discover - and publish - the latest scientific discoveries. The main part of the board is sort of a flow chart that shows how you have to research and experiment on certain discoveries before you can start on more advanced topics. The interesting mechanic is that if you're the person that published a discovery, you get points...but that opens that knowledge to everyone as far as pre-requisites for more advanced studies. It's been years since I played, and there are some things that could probably use some tweaking in the game (and perhaps some improved art) - but I still quite enjoy it.

Well, it's CMON...that's kind of what they do. But yeah...it's absurd. Still, they're over $800K - I guess they're debacle with the pricing of Marvel Zombicide didn't hurt them much.

The old thread only came up once in a while, but when I went to look for it, I found that it had been closed...so new thread time. Tuesday night I had the chance to play the published version of "My Father's Work" from Renegade Games, by designer TC Petty III. I had played this in a prototype form several years ago, so I was eager to play the final product. As a disclaimer, I know TC personally, and this was certainly a monumental project for him to undertake - and Renegade certainly went over the top with production values. The conceit of the game is that the players are the sons/daughters of a "mad scientist" in the 1800s, who were bequeathed an estate, and some knowledge of the "masterwork" he was working on. The game goes three generations, so by the end, you will be portraying a great-grandchild of the original mad scientist. Players are dealt randomly a "masterwork" at the start of the game - things like a time machine, the "monster" (i.e. Frankenstein's monster), etc. You will want to try to complete that by the end of the game to gain the points associated with it - other things during the game will gain you points, but the masterwork is by far the highest value thing to complete. During the game, you will complete other experiments of various difficulties, and there is sort of a tech tree of experiments you must complete - you have to complete 1 "A" level experiment to complete a "B" level experiment, 2 "Bs" to complete a "C", etc. You do this by a fairly standard worker placement mechanism, in which you will collect things like chemicals, animals and bodies. You also collect "knowledge" in different areas, which you can use for experiments, but also record in your journal (which gives you permanent knowledge in that area, and bonuses as you advance along knowledge tracks). Your workers consist of you (the scientist), your spouse, servants, and caretakers (think Igor). There are worker placement spots both in town, and in your estate - and some workers can only go to certain locations (or risk penalties). The miniatures a cleverly made, where you snap them into different shaped bases which determines who they are. That gives players maximum flexibility on which miniature to use as themselves, as their spouse, etc. During the course of the game, your actions could drive up your insanity, as well as your "creepy" level, and also affect the anger level of the townsfolk, who may eventually decide to pick up their torches and pitchforks and come after you. The game leans heavily into Victorian horror tropes...up to the point of being almost tongue-in-cheek about it. Between each generation, players reset different tracks like insanity, and will start over with resources. Now...the thing that really sets this game apart is that it is partially app-driven. There are three scenarios in the game, each of which has their own little box with secret components that you don't open until the app tells you to. The app also drives the story of the game, and each scenario has 8 different endings. The board - or at least the portion displaying the town, is actually a binder full of maps, and as you make decisions during the game, some buildings may come and go, and the app will tell you which page to turn to for the new map. There are also times where players will read portions of the story to just themselves based on decisions they make, and that information may (or may not) help them in the future. My understanding is that the different branching storylines can be wildly different even withing the same scenario. We played a scenario about disease, where at the beginning of the game, the town is suffering a yellow fever epidemic. Our choices caused the storyline to branch into the supernatural, but I think there are some versions of the story that will be more "realistic". Note, this is not a "legacy" game, per se - nothing is permanently altered with the game pieces. I enjoyed the game quite a bit, though I'm not without a few criticisms. The actual gameplay is pretty straightforward, but games are a lengthy affair - on the order of 3 hours. This is primarily due to all the story-telling. The app reads the beginning of each generation to you, but after that there is a fair amount of reading the players must do. A lot of it is public, so having someone who has a flair for the dramatic to read it out loud is helpful - it is certainly written with that Victorian era feel. Again, I've only been through one branch of one scenario - and the story held together..."OK", I would say. There certainly seemed a few times that it was just a little bit disjointed, but not enough to really affect the feel. I ended up winning by a fair margin, and I think it was because I just picked a certain path based on some of my specific readings, and just leaned into our story a bit more, but it was surprising when I was awarded some significant bonus points that the other two players did not get. Note, my friend who had brought the game had already played 4 or 5 times, and it had all been the same scenario - this did not seem to afford him any kind of advantage. I'm hoping to convince my son to play this weekend. I may try one of the other scenarios. They did have some delay in getting the app out, and it doesn't seem to work on all devices yet. Unfortunately it doesn't work on my iPad, so we had to play using a phone. But, this is certainly a pretty unique game, and I look forward to digging into the storylines deeper.

Bill Russel - NBA legend - has died. In his 13 year career, be brought the Celtics to the NBA finals 12 times...winning 11 of them. Unbelievable. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/34323568/boston-celtics-great-bill-russell-11-nba-champion-dies-88

Interesting...I read all of these a while ago, but I think my first Kay book was Lions of Al-Rassan, and then Sarantine Mosaic. I didn't pick up the Fionovar trilogy until after I'd read those (and maybe Tigana as well). But I distinctly remember struggling through Fionovar because it felt much more "young adult" than the book by Kay I'd already read. Also, one of my favorite series when I was younger was "Guardians of the Flame", so I thought the whole "students from the real world transported to a fantasy world" thing was already covered. (Note...I wonder what I'd think about Guardians of the Flame these days...I'm guessing I'd cringe...)

Well...yeah. I just read his update, and this: "I know, I know, for many of you out there, only one of those projects matters. I am sorry for you. They ALL matter to me." ...and this: "Yes, of course I am still working on THE WINDS OF WINTER. I have stated that a hundred times in a hundred venues, having to restate it endlessly is just wearisome." ...come across as particularly bitter and resentful towards fans. I found those comments to be in pretty poor form. Considering the fact that many people found the last season of the TV show to be a let-down, the fact that he's going on and on about MORE TV shows...and lashing out about the book that everyone has been waiting 10+ years for...yeah, no surprise there's some backlash.

HOW ABOUT THOSE HOKIES!!

Finished late last week. Glad this thread was here...I think I got a better understanding of the Goths/Romans from reading here than in the book itself. The epilogue I found simultaneously interesting/disappointing. I would have liked a quick note on what happened to all of the major characters. Are Cara and Xan alive as 1000 year old children? I'm curious how Amos is viewed by everyone else on Earth - as some sort of quasi-diety? Does Amos even remember much of his time on the Roci at this point - it's been 1000 years since then!

Does Amazon really have a motive to use time on their TV show to push people to the books? Do they think they'll make a ton of money on people buying the books through Amazon?

When they showed the screen of Bobbie's assault team - everyone catch all the names? It was Bobbie, Amos...and then a ton of names from other sci-fi shows/movies - Hicks, Hudson, Vasquez and Ripley from Aliens, Riker from Star Trek, Ackbar from Star Wars, Connor from Terminator, K. Thrace from Battlestar Galactica, Deckard from Blade Runner, D. Idaho from Dune, O'Neil from Stargate, Flynn from Tron...and a bunch of others that I'm not placing right away, but I'm guessing they're from something...

So...we're introducing Duarte...with 2 episodes left to go. I really have not idea where they're trying to go with that. I mean, I assume we'll see the resurrection of the boy...but then what? I guess they're hoping to get picked up by someone else?

That was pretty much confirmed a few seasons ago when he had his sit-down with Bran....