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Monthly Archives: November 2016

Avalon Game 2

Though Arthur had loyal servants, Clumsy Ninja felt they needed to increase their numbers to help battle the dangers of the realm. She called a meeting and proposed sending Professor and Shutter out to gather new allies.
 
“I’m not sure that’s the best pairing,” President Gamer said.
 
“Why?” Clumsy Ninja asked.
 
“Professor will probably recruit people who share his anti-pants position.”
 
The rest of the group gave President Gamer a few weird looks.
 
“I think I can handle that,” Shutter replied, and the pairing was approved.
 
They set out at once, but despite their best efforts, they couldn’t convince anyone to join the cause. They returned in defeat without any clear idea why they had failed.
 
Despite this setback, Shutter was determined to make progress for King Arthur. She knew the Saxons were threatening to move farther inland, and proposed President Gamer, Chubby Unicorn, and Space Cat go fight them off.
 
“I feel like I should go on this one,” Clumsy Ninja said. “I’m itching to swing my sword.”
 
Professor also objected. “I want a chance to redeem myself and fight.”
 
Shutter would not be swayed and sent the team off.
 
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Tokaido

This was another game we learned about from TableTop, but we kept getting it confused with Takenoko because the names are so similar. We finally had an opportunity to play this at a convention we went to. There was a little confusion when we were organizing the pieces because the person who owned it also had some sort of expansion for it. We had extra character cards and pieces that were not explained in the rules. We set those aside and focused on what was in the rules.

Game play is fairly simple. Whoever is last on the road moves even if this means they take several turns in a row, so one strategy is to always try to be behind the other players on the road. You choose the space you want to move to and take the appropriate action (drawing a card, taking money, donating money, etc). There are a lot of ways to get points and different achievements to focus on. It can be easy either to spread yourself too thin by trying to get everything, or to be too focused on one goal. The key is balance and flexibility. For example, I may want to collect all the panorama cards, but I’m not going to pass up an opportunity to go to the hot spring. At the same time, it might be unrealistic to buy items from the village, donate to the temple, and buy food, especially if someone else is on that farm space, and you can’t replenish your money supply.
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Avalon Play by Play

This is the play by play of the previously posted story mode.
This is a game we’d had for a while but hadn’t played. Since I’m a big fan of Arthurian legend, I decided it was time to try it.
For the first game we decided not to use any of the special character cards.

Cast of Characters:

  • Space Cat – Assassin
  • Chubby Unicorn – Minion of Mordred
  • Clumsy Ninja – Merlin
  • Professor, Shutter, and President Gamer – Loyal Servants of Arthur

Since I had suggested the game, I had the Leader token first. I chose Space Cat and The Professor for the quest. Clumsy Ninja was the only one who rejected the proposed team, and when she was asked why, she replied, “Reasons.” This immediately tipped me off that she was Merlin, so I wasn’t as concerned with making quests fail. Despite the first quest failing, the Loyal Servants of Arthur quickly succeeded at three quests.

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Avalon

Chubby Unicorn, a Minion of Mordred, had been plotting with Space Cat, the Assassin, to sabotage Arthur’s quests and discover Merlin’s identity. The quest meeting was coming to order, and Chubby Unicorn was put in charge of the first quest: gathering new allies. She knew she would have to play this very carefully. If she decided to go on the quest herself with Space Cat, the others might uncover their evil intentions. Instead, she chose Space Cat and Professor for the quest. The approval of this pairing was put to a vote.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Clumsy Ninja said.

“Why not?” President Gamer asked.

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Walk the Plank x2


The Professor and I have had Walk the Plank for some time (we backed it on Kickstarter), but we’ve never had the opportunity to play it.

We were at a gaming event and wanted a quick game we could play before we had to leave, so it seemed like a good opportunity to try this one out.

  • Space Cat – yellow
  • Clumsy Ninja – Blue
  • Chubby Unicorn – green
  • The Professor – Red.
  • Cowboy – Orange

Walk the Plank box

Game play is pretty simple. You select three cards and lay them face down in order in front of you. The idea is to try to anticipate what the other players are going to do and choose your cards based on that. This means that there’s an element of unpredictability to the game.

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Mister X Play by Play

This is a play by play of the previously posted story mode.
I remember playing Scotland Yard a lot when I was younger.  It was probably one of the first games I played that had a cooperative aspect.  I like being able to talk out my moves and get advice.  Mister X is very similar to Scotland Yard – one player is the criminal while the rest are detectives trying to catch him, and tokens are used to make moves.  When we first started playing Mister X, President Gamer volunteered to be Mister X.  This meant his wife was one of the detectives.  Other than the one time The Professor has been Mister X, this is how we played the game, probably because President Gamer was determined to outsmart his wife and win the game!
mister-x-1

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Mister X


Mister X was on the run again! His rap sheet continues to grow. At this point, he is wanted for questioning related to the following:

  1. Possession of irrefutable evidence that Jar Jar Binks is in fact a Sith Lord
  2. Papers proving that the commercial airline industry is purposefully blocking the development of jet packs
  3. Possession of a map with the whereabouts of the world’s missing socks

Mister X box
We had already discovered this criminal mastermind’s true identity, President Gamer, and felt we had an advantage with expert profiler Detective Shutter on the case.

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Smash Up with Pretty Pretty Smash Up, Awesome Level 9000, and the Big Geeky Box

Technically you aren’t supposed to play Smash Up with more than four people, but if you have expansions you can make it work. We recently acquired the Pretty Pretty Smash Up expansion; we felt it had groups that members of our gaming group would like (Space Cat – Kittens, Chubby Unicorn – Mythic Horses, Shutter – Princesses, etc.). Unfortunately Space Cat’s calendar had a catastrophic failure and didn’t tell her it was game night, so she missed out on this game.

Groups Chosen:

  • Chubby Unicorn: Mythic Horses and Steampunks
  • Shutter: Bear Calvary and Fairies
  • Clumsy Ninja: Ninjas and Zombies
  • Professor: Princesses and Wizards
  • President Gamer: Dinosaurs and Pirates

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Dead Panic: Part 6 of 6: Play by Play

This is part 6 in the Play-by-Play version of a Dead Panic play through. If that all sounds strange, head to the intro post

Space Cat (Father Michael) was bait.

Space Cat gave an action to Clumsy Ninja (Sandra), and she got into the van.

The Professor (David) moved to arc 5, so Chubby Unicorn (Julie) drove over there.

Clumsy Ninja shot from the van and killed a zombie.

Shutter (Ray) moved to the van and President Gamer made it to the clearing in arc 5.

The event Gun Jam did nothing because no one had any shots left.

The Professor damaged one zombie and killed another.

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Dead Panic: Part 6 of 6

This is part 6 in the story mode of a Dead Panic play through. If that all sounds strange, head to the intro post

Watching from the cabin, Father Michael prayed for Sandra’s safety. He rejoiced as she dove into the van.

Julie maneuvered the van around to get David, Ray, and Al. Sandra happily discovered a weapon supply (and a plethora ammo) in the back of the van and shot a zombie.

On his way to the van, David killed a zombie and wounded another.

David jumped into the van. “They were really after me,” he said a little breathlessly.

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