Enchanted Quill Writes

My Advenutre Dice and Card Dungeon Crawl game the idea

2012-02-15T01:42:00.001-08:00

My adventure game Dice and Cards in in out of solo play test I think it has something but not everything just yet or maybe in to close to the subject

Concept is a living dungeon randomly generated by cards and fought though by using dice

Whys it living?
Well its not just wandering monsters, monsters have type
So its not just a case of draw 1 monster per room,
Monsters also have random features. Eg. Stealthy, intelligent, mutated which will giv them quirky powers beyond the normal
Back to the type thing, monsters may submit to larger monsters, or wander in packs, favour a terrain type, use or build traps, seek out others of there kind, or just be minions,

The keyword types are tiggers in a race for the galaxy scout style, e.g draw x number of cards if more of that type are found add them to the battle, discard the rest, this can also be used as increase or lower difficulty by the number you generically draw.
Not evey monster will have this
Rooms will have similar features to see if they have a specific feature, trap or treasure,

Currently it’s a slightly abstracted combat using dice pools,
Green dice, stealth, manoeuvrability
Red Dice, stamina, combat
Blue Dice, Knowledge, lore, magic

Each combat starts with a minimum of 5 dice of you choice
Green will help you get more dice for the next round by focusing on manoeuvring to get better advantage
Red is general out right need for the kill or stamina for dangerous locations
Blue, is for magic kills, or lore to avoid nasty special monster skills, also helps gain victory points,

One other major thing about the dice they are you hit points take a wound potentially lose a dice.

It goes to a wound board locked on its value, each turn the value drops down 1 e.g 4 to 3 when it get to Zero roll it if it’s a 123 its ok over this its lost permanently

So far I’ve been trying to balance dice use and monsters and possible monster over spawn!
I love the choice of tactic, green ,red, blue
I’m trying to work in a Stealth past or talk to factor with some success
You could talk to the thief and he may possibly ally, or the ranger skill will allow you to charm 1 animal for a possible ally animals don’t normally talk.

Its will have levels, currently deck 1 I’m aiming for a base deck of 52 cards so it can be easy artscowed. Will be Villagers investigating a Animal cave to see why they are getting attacked, (generic fantasy 1st quest)
So its will be normal natural cave environment, roots, steams, tunnels, fungus etc. the cave maybe just an animal cave, theifs den, or goblin hideout and possible a entrance to the under dark or further adventures,

I’ll try and speck out a simple deck soon I keep tweeking so have not done this yet. But i’m sure I need general feed back now.

I’d love a flee factor to move back in the dungeon to a better room to fight.
Ideally I wanted few tokens mainly card and dice
Dice combat wise its D&D like or Kingsburg like, aiming to roll a high value on X dice, simple creatures may just need a value regardless of dice colour
More difficult creatures may need 7+ on a pair of dice green or blue and future decks will need 13+ with one dice being a blue 6 and the dice other being a combo of red and green so the total beats 13.. very simple but took some deign work to make to easily visible

burnout n a cosmic encounter

2012-02-13T01:22:00.000-08:00

Another week another game night this week, the biker bluff game skull and roses epic 9 player!
And also cosmic encounter almost epic 5 player!

Lots of players meant both games ran longer then normal but no overly so.

Skull and roses gives each player 4 beer mats, 3 the same and one with a skull on the opposite side, each turn you play a mat down or guess how many mats you can turn over with out revealing a skull,

I did an epic fail. As you always have to reveal yours 1st, I made a guess and forgot I put down a skull hey there was 9 players! My mind wandered

Cosmic encounters was incredibly random, where race changing and swopping powers, which mixed things up, it ended in a situation where everyone was on 4 planets, 5 need to win, so it was a cosmic wuss out as we went for a group win , I think that group win might need a house rule, tie e.g number of colonies on the last defeated system? Might make people think twice about a group win, on certain systems at least.

I’ve down loaded D&D minis beta test, freely available only read it so far and matched some minis from my collect so I can demo it.
I looks fast and fun I don’t see any need of dice… its just pure damage,
You start with 7 levels of pieces less then level 3 each and each turn you gain 1 point, so by turn 3 to 7 you should be able to play a random selection of 3 other characters on your side.
I see this as scout force vs main force, seem quite a nice idea.
I hope I get some to play it with me next game session and see if it plays well its meant t be a quick 20 mins , I see it being on a par with nexus ops and a minis version of magic the gathering

the reason im interested in D&D minis is they say its compatable with the D&D system board game ,
ravenloft ashardalon and drizzt, so more more monsters is cool and more tiles maybe? to soon to know.

Skulls & Roses Card Game (Red)

Freaky dream last night,

2012-02-09T05:03:00.000-08:00

I was ghost at my own funeral which was in a school class room, with people from work there, I was doing poltergeist type things to let them know I was ok and there,

I just looked up the key features and got this:-

Dream Definition

Ghost
In general, seeing ghosts in your dreams symbolizes aspects of yourself that you fear. This may involve a painful memory, guilt, or some repressed thoughts. You may be anxious about your ability to achieve something in real life. Or, you may be afraid of death and dying.
Funeral
If you dream of your own funeral, you are giving up a part of yourself or an old way of acting. This dream often means that you are trying to ignore a situation that needs to be confronted and dealt with directly. To dream that you are at somebody else's funeral means you are burying an old relationship and closing the lid on the past. You may be letting go of old feelings you've been clinging onto. If you dream you are attending a funeral for a parent who is still living in real life, you need to separate yourself from your parents' restrictions. The symbolic death may give you the courage you need to take the next step toward your independence.
School
Dreams about being at school often mean you are feeling insecure about your social status, your abilities or your performance in a situation. A dream that takes place in school may also be a metaphor for the lessons you are learning in your life.
Freaked me right out..
Yesterday I struggled with some Corp tax calls, due to lack of knowledge in this area, it started to make me feel sick, constantly have to ask questions to confirm queries, Odd thing was in the afternoon I aced the Corp tax calls, and it was shown in a recent Corp tax test, questions I didn’t think I knew I know, they say you brain makes sense of the day when you sleep at night to better prepare you for the next day

What do you dream?

I did a bit of further investigation I went a bit further in this dream my poltergeist tricks
I spun some rocks on a table at the front on the guests
A friend wanted to do tarot to see how I was but they argued about the devil card and not putting it in the deck.
I also chalked my outline on the blackboard
The outcome there are some serious EGO issues going on in my mind.. surprisingly I feel quite peaceful after this dream!

Star Trek Expeditions solo 4 crew

2012-02-05T14:16:00.000-08:00

Captains log we arrived in orbit of nibia to sign a peace accord and offer help with a energy crisis however on arrival we where attacked by a klingon vessel and its evident the klingons are try to distrupt our peace effortas and are inciting a rebel civil war

our beam down location was fortold and instead on an emisary we are greeted with a kinglon raider party im pinned down and await the arrive of futher crew

after spock and mccoy assist in repleing the klingons on the planet we recived a decoder and interecepted a rebel attack coordinates

as team wihth mccoy in commend we are able to rescue and revive important senators and staff

in orbit Uhura lead the klingship in a merry chase but suffers gevious wounds needing a tearm in sickbay

not letting this lie and deaming the kling and civil war theart more immidiate we arm the crew and locate the klingon base of opperatations the intial away team again i take charge and lead astealth attack where we learn the the precise location of there next target and plans

the rebal are quashed though the klingon still persist , our ship in orbit is taking a batterign with out much counter attack , the nibians push us for assisance with the energy crisis so we beam back to enerterprise to debrief make plans to continue

spock stay behind to anyalise the plant but is locked down then the presidents wife make amorous advances toward him we need to maintaine compsosue as shes has vital supplies of dilitium , i kirck beam down and distract the wife while spock finishs his work

by this point its evident the klingons have disrupted our peace negotiations, key members of the goverment continue to refute kingon involment but we have ample evidence now , Uhura beam down the the planet nd take care of perations when the klingon attempt power disruption to vital nimbian inferstructure ,

meanwhile Mccoys test the dilithium samples and declares he need to visit the mine to be ceratin

during this time I kirk lead a large away team to the final rebel base to end the civil war and kinglon involvment once and for all

Uhura follows investigations to find religious artifacts stolen by the kllingons and returns them in time for a ceromany

the Enterprise is in full retreat with major power flux dispite new technologies installed to increase sheilds and weapons

the team descovers the source of the planets engery crisis a dilitium impurity

dispite a festival of unity between our races we wher eunable to avert a planet wide ecological disaster

the klingons blow the enterprise away

final score

13 16 4

the planet sided with the federation
civial war was averted
however the impurty wreacked havoc and many died

game played with 4 characters on amber level

im realy not sure how to do better at this point, get the enterpise weapons and sheild addons maybe but that means your on a lower victory level due to time constraints

any way enjoyable romp,

defniatly a diffrent feeling to Lord of the rings
feels more involved due to exploration and action points,
the 2 action point cards are a real killer to tactics

next time game tactis go for maxmimun reveal over pick up and completion

Lord of the Rings R.Knizia (parker version)

2012-02-04T14:32:00.000-08:00

Ihad the game for a whilebut it look quite complicated lots of lines and symbols and a large rule book,

as today the uk is gripped with snow i decided to sit by the fire and play this and its much more simipler then it 1st looks

basicaly there are 4 main story board , Moria , helms deep, shelob and mount doom these
boards have at least 3 tracks corrisponding game progress and represent progression via a symbol type corrisponding to a hobbit card type...
which are Tree, legs, hands and fight.. im sure they have a sutible story name too..

im confused writing the last paragraph but layed out in front of you its easy..

1 track the fight track is the game timer and progression track.
the other two or 3 represnt the hobbits kind side questing

each track gives benifits again more symbols.. ring, heart and light and also special cards
the aim is before the hobbits end the main track they have earned at least 3 of each symbol so they dont suffer penalties oh you also pick up sheilds here too i'll mention theses latter

there are 2 other tracks.. a special event track which is normal bad and represents group challanges which mean the as a group of players you decid who suffers or has to discard cards these events follow the book in title some what and get progessively worse..

the other track is hobbits vs the big eye .. the hobbit and the eye start 13 spaces away from eacy other and if they cross the hobbits lose..again another thing to balance the game speed
on each turn you draw from some tiles which show one of the tracks or a task wich may trigger an event or move the ring bearer closer to the big eye

each turn you play 1 or 2 cards the garys come in grey and white you must play one of each colour or just one colour or draw up 2 more cards or move back on the summo hobbit vs eye track.

and thats its the basic game simples.. progress on a main track trying to keep your hobbits not moving on the summo corruption track.. play card to hasten your progressin but also keep enougth back to abide by events track.

the art wrok is awsome and epic, the right creative brain will fit in the story but other wise it quite absract card play, ive not played alot yet but the choice dont seem that major, but the choice are subtle in there effect i can see lots more plays inthe future

so far as a newbie the game my best score is only 41n just into shelobs lair which i dont think is very good at all!

im seeing the play of a moving a hobbit back over card draw being an important choice..

so any way this post is in summary saying the lord of the rings coop game by R.K is cool and hope for more plays soon

in ending i have played R.K star trek expidtions.. it does have similarites.. it seems to fo mixed the up the event track with card reveal exploration and a branching story while the summo hobbit vs eye has become Enterprise vs Warbird and a timetrack

at this early stage with Lotr im not sure which i like better lotr seems more random at this stage..

as its so abstract i dont see many session reports its hard to explain away the story playing card toadvance ontracks even if the track are named after book chapters..

I never mentioned the sheilds these are spent during events, but they give a special call Gandalf action, theres also a use the ring action of and an evil dice to roll :-)

I know there are exspansions and theres and FFG version too i've not read up on these yet

any how tomany words for me so signing off :-)

Games night 001

2012-02-03T01:18:00.000-08:00

Feb the 2nd Game night at the Doffcocker pub Bolton, games with Simon, Ben, Catlyn and my self

Played 3 games last night

The Epic Cosmic encounter 4 players

Followed by the filler No Thanks which was played 4 times while we waited for the other table of game players to finish

No Thanks is one of my top 10 games, I love its because its simple to teach quick (under 20 mins) and players up to 5 players and is a super small foot print / game play area as well as finally being cheap! And obviously being a lot of fun packed into a few cards and chips.

A perfect stocking filler, add on gift great, ideal for pub university of collage room play, its got a simple design so does not alienate non gamer and is easily approach able.

Cosmic Encounter, wow and wow, I don’t that the words or skills to describe the game except that its awesome, but its also out of print only the add on seem available 
Basically is a face to build 5 colonies on other planets, its so simple its about negotiation and bluff , games can be short or long but are always fun!

Last night I pulled off a win, I had the awesome brain race which could look at players hands before attacks which was a game winner I could almost always judge what level of card to play in attach defence and influence allies to join or use skills.

I hope the base game gets a reprint soon!

Oh I fogot a 3rd game we played at the start of the night escape the aliens

This is a Hidden movement game, I described as blind mans buff the card game!

Basically there a 2 teams hungry aliens and fleeing humans, stumbling around a pitch black space station when you move you draw a card and see if you make a noise which alerts people to your location, or your silent or you make a bluff sound

It was fun id like to play a again, a bit daft, id also like to try panic stations and played the resistance which are similar sci-games

End that’s the 1st blog of the 1st games night of the new tax year!

new wake up time planned

2012-01-24T05:16:00.001-08:00

I have my morning free, so I've been reading up on tips on how to get up earlier as as fallen in a a a bit of 10 mins more trap recently probably a x-mas holiday routine disruption

2 I think I like and will try

1) Duel alarm clock.. set 1 alarm to be quite music 30 mins before my new wake up time.
this is meant to be more healthy then an abrupt wake up and you meant to be able to turn the abrupt buzz of the 2nd alarm of before it rings! but its there as a barrier

2) something to look forward too, well i've lots to look but what i'm most looking forward to is time extras 30 to 60 mins to do this stuff! get cracking at art work, a few book chapters in.

ha games reviews coming soon with the new time I have

Testing affliate of amazon., I love amazon, my fav shop

2012-01-24T01:23:00.000-08:00

Games, books, DVDs, what more can you want.. well more and amazon has it!

Amazon.co.uk Widgets

Focus

2012-01-20T08:14:00.000-08:00

Hello Blog and world I'm trying you out again, and I have a plan , prepare your self for focus!

to long I have been stuck in the ideas phase, I love ideas, they are warm and fluffy and have no consequences , they are life and light a dream a future but be warned they are dangerous, they have a chaos about them that fights order, what having ideas think of the literary classics imagine the poppy field that Ulysses faces or even the Dorothy in Wizard of Oz, the heros drift off and forget there quests lured by dreams that will no come to fruition, they capture you in there dream world and keep you, if you try to leave the dream they give you another more tempting and beatify

focus, will power, a to do list , a vision what you do not deviate from is need to combat this dream haze of ideas,

so this year when proposed with a problem or an idea, i'll brain storm, make mind pictures and words list and sketch the heck out of blank piece of paper but limit all this to 30 mins, and then Settle on my best idea and Focus until i've completed that idea, over come that problem or completed that project ,

this is my promise, and i report the results and the end of March see if I remain true to this course and i have the willpower to get the quest of life under way!