new games we bought at the con

[salamanca]

Ok, I shall start. One I did not buy but pointed out to Steve was "Good Help". (mostly as his character spent the con ranting about the subject). It is a game where you are a mad scientist sending minions to gather body parts for your monster. Then you trash the town. It is published by Baksha Games.

[smafdi]

Sunday I looked up Good Help and I'm going to make sure I pick it up. Just the premise sounds hilarious. On the pickup side I picked up Dreadfleet cheap, though I was a little disappointed that I need to paint those awesome miniatures (stupid painting). I also picked up the 2 penny arcade deck building games which have been alot of fun for my group.

My gf picked up 4 Taverns by Rather Dashing Games, with art by Grant from Ghost Hunters for those of you who watch that. Impression for 4 Taverns has been mixed so far, it's really easy to get behind quickly and almost impossible to recover from. Other than that I enjoy it, it's a nice filler game imo.

Does anyone have any recommendations for other deckbuilding games? I may have caught a bug...

[Black Jack Rackham]

I bought two new board games, Crappy Birthday (an Apples to Apples variant where you pick the worst birthday present based on what the players hand you) and Faux-cabulary (roll a series of dice with different prefixes, suffixes, etc. and invent the definition of the 'word' you roll).

As for RPGs, I picked up Arcanis (to see what all the fuss was about), Legends of the Burning Sands (cause I vowed I'd never spend more than $5 on it just to satisfy my curiousity, and surprise of surprises, it was going for $5 at one of the vendors), and Outbreak: Undead a zombie survival game.

I would have picked up Rotted Capes, but speaking with the writer, he'd just finished the rough draft of the book on Tues, so nothing yet...

[salamanca]

Deckbuilding: You need Dominion and possibly the intrigue expansion. I also like the Miskatonic School for Girls based solely on subject and humor value. After that, I think they are all about the same.

Other buys: Finally got myself a copy of "Red November" where you play Gnomes trying to save a sinking sub (or escape it)

I got En Garde a reiner Knizia two player duel game that looks interesting.

And I picked up Letters of Marque which after reading the rules looks to be a stel for the 5 bucks they were charging. It involves sending ships full of treasure out to sea and raiding your opponents. the game is in guessing if your opponent opted to send a ship full of cannons or an undefended ship.

And I sprung for the new Airship Pirates RPG. when I get around to reading it this weekend, I will update on my first impressions.

[Black Jack Rackham]

Oop forgot to add in the latest Victoriana book (Magic and Steampunk) and my attempts to find Unhallowed Metropolis (which I eventually got via their website).

[spizio]

I would pass on Dominion Intrigue and get Seaside instead.

[smafdi]

Why would you pass on Dominion Intrigue and get Seaside? Knowing next to nothing about either I'm interested in why.

[spizio]

You mean aside from the fact it is more piratical?

Seaside introduces the first new mechanics in Dominion rather than just different cards. It has enduring cards that stay around and generate effects on the turn after you play them. I also think it is a little more interactive,

Personally the cards in Intrigue left me feeling flat. I wasn't really interested in the set. I found seaside much more interesting.

Seaside is not a standalone expansion like Intrigue though. It is a full expansion not one of the half size ones that have come out recently. You will need either the base game or Intrigue to play it as there are no treasure or points cards.

[Black Jack Rackham]

I'd just buy them all after playing the first Dominion and becoming addicted...

[salamanca]

Yes, Mark. We know you would buy them all, you are an obsessive completist. The rest of us need enough to play the game and that's it. By the by, Victoriana and Airship Pirates are mechanically compatable systems. But yours has elves and mine has automatons and zeppelins.

[Black Jack Rackham]

Problem is I've yet to find a single steampunk game that doesn't have magic. I know magic sells better but geez, not a single hardcore steampunk world!?!

[DrKwang]

First, a couple remarks:

1. Just released (either just before or at GenCon) is the Dominion Base Set. This gives you just the base cards (basic money, basic land, etc), which you could then combine with an expansion like Seaside. Base Set is not playable on its own.

2. At PAX East this year, one of the panels Jen and I attended was the "Steampunk Worldbuilding Workshop and Exhibition". The three presenters gave a basic skeleton for a steampunk setting and then split us into groups to each brainstorm and develop specific areas. Recently, they set up a blog site with the collected results: http://steampunkexoplanet.blogspot.com/. It's not a full game, but it is a Steampunk setting with no magic.

Now, my Origins haul:

Arcanis RPG. I want to re-read the rules section again, 'cause I was pretty tired when I read it, but I have some thoughts about the rest. I felt the book was more written for fans of the Arcanis setting published for d20 than it was for completely new players. There's no overview of the setting and (more critical in a game that's supposed to be all about the awesome setting) no map. The setting section is a gazetteer of 15 nations, followed by a discussion of the various religions and deities. By the time I was done, I had a vague idea of how it all went together, but it didn't really draw me in.

The Arcanis rules look decent. If you like the feel of how d20 plays, you'll probably like this too. It's more skill-focused than D&D, but it still has classes (archetypes) and levels (tiers and ranks). The tiers and ranks only drive character advancement, not character ability directly like D&D (that is, there's nothing like Base Attack Bonus tied directly to your tier or rank). Instead, when you gain a new rank, you can improve skills and talents and such.

I still need to really read the combat system to have a proper impression of the system, but that's what I've got so far.

This is the only one I've read so far, so the rest of these will be shorter.

Witch Hunter: This is from the same company as Arcanis, but the publisher appears to be all they share. It's set in 17th century Earth and was described to me as "swashbuckling horror".

Caravan: Danger Lurks at Every Oasis: This is a multi-system adventure (d20, Savage Worlds) set in Mesopotamia in 3000 BCE. The setting is what got me here -- I'm interested in Bronze Age stuff.

Dragon Storm (2nd Edition): The original Dragon Storm came out during the CCG craze of the mid-nineties. It was a Collectible Card RPG. Your character and his abilities are based on cards. As you gain experience, you earn card points, and can use them to add more cards to your character. The original version was done as collectible card sets with random distribution and different rarities. The new version is done much more sensibly -- you buy packs of cards that go together in some way, and you know exactly what each pack has in it. I spent entirely too much money on this game, but I had a lot of fun playing it throughout Origins (it was my first game on Wednesday and my last one on Sunday, along with one in the middle).

The basic setting is that the player characters all have the ability to shape shift into some creature. There are werewolves, dragons, unicorns, phoenixes, and I think a couple of others. Unfortunately, everybody thinks shifters are evil monsters because of the necromancers that want to capture them and drain their magical energy. There are a few secret groups dedicated to helping shifters and fighting necromancers that your characters can become involved with.

Part-Time Gods: You play a character who is an ordinary person imbued with the powers of a god, set in the modern day. I heard about this a while ago and picked it up when I saw it. I need to read it soon.

The Day After Ragnarok: In 1944, the Nazis summon Jormungandr and kick off the Norse end of the world. Wacky hijinks ensue. It's now 1948. (that's all I know 'cause this is still on the to-read pile). It's a Heroic-level setting for the Hero System.

Bulldogs! Sci-fi That Kicks Ass: "a tabletop role-playing game of interstellar action adventure" using the FATE system.

TL;DR version: DrKwang bought too much stuff

[salamanca]

Thanks for reminding me to get my copy of witchhunter back from jeremy. He has had it for like 3 years now. And Airship Pirates has NO sorcery or magic. It also has minimal organization of mechanical rules. (the dice resolution is seperated from the combat section and the drama dice rules are hidden in a couple of areas and... Well, just don't let musicians layout your game book. The important thing is it looks solid for high action/low realism game play.

[Black Jack Rackham]

And Airship Pirates has NO sorcery or magic.

Oh SURE the ONE rpg I DIDN'T buy...

[spizio]

The Day After Ragnarok: In 1944, the Nazis summon Jormungandr and kick off the Norse end of the world. Wacky hijinks ensue. It's now 1948. (that's all I know 'cause this is still on the to-read pile). It's a Heroic-level setting for the Hero System.

So much for that end of the world scenario.