Day 3: Party Games

     There are three types or categories of games that are generally accepted. They are party games, gateway games, and strategic games. Today we will discuss party games. Party!!! Who doesn't like a party? Parties are a time to connect with friends and family, watch a football game, celebrate birthdays and special occasions, and eat! Party games are games that can be played with a group of five or more, have minimal set-up and rules, and usually have a quick playing time. Basically, you can pull out a party game at any get together.  You can play during half-time of a football game or during the game depending on your team!

     Here are some party games you are probably already familiar with Pictionary, Scattergories, Cranium, and Charades. You can probably think of many more. For this post I would like to introduce you to a few party games that you  may not be familiar with:

     Apples to Apples: Apples to Apples was released in 1999 by Out of the Box Publishing (it is now published by Mattel). It is designed for four to ten players and play time last for 30-60 minutes. Players are dealt red apples (cards) with nouns written on them.  Each player has a turn being judge who turns over a green apple (adjective card). Players choose a noun card to best match the adjective and the judge chooses the best card. This is a subjective game that can turn very silly and very funny very fast! There have been expansions and a junior version released.



     Dixit:  Dixit is a beautifully illustrated party game. It was published in 2008 by Asmodee. It is played with 3-6 players and last about 30-45 minutes. The cards are miniature pieces of artwork. Each player has a turn being the storyteller. As storyteller you choose a card (not seen by others) and make up a word or short story describing the card. Everyone else chooses one of their cards to match the word or story. The cards are shuffled and everyone guesses if they can determine the storyteller's card. Given the beautiful and unusual artwork, sometimes the stories are very creative! There are also Dixit expansions for even more play!


     And now for the Halloween portion of this post! It is October after all! A must play game this Halloween is Werewolf! Please play Werewolf! Everyone who has played Werewolf has enjoyed it. We have played this game with our family aged 6-74 and everyone likes it! Ultimate Werewolf was published in 2008 by Bezier Games. Werewolf is a card game for several people. The more the better. Players are either villagers or a werewolf. The game is trying to figure out who are the werewolves while the werewolves try to bluff the villagers. Every night the werewolves come out and eat a villager. There is a moderator who "controls" the game. This game would be fun to play outside around a firepit. There are additional characters to play if you have a really large crowd.
 
   These are just a few party games to try. We have played all of these and enjoy them for a fun quick game. We have played Werewolf with our families and with large groups at conventions. If there are some party games you enjoy please leave a comment and tell us! Tomorrow we will look at some gateway games! See you then!

Day 2: Why Tabletop Gaming

Hello everyone! Welcome back to our gaming journey! I would like to start by thanking Rolling Dice & Taking Names for allowing me to use their blog site. I am not a blogger but I have followed TheNester for several years. One thing I have learned through the 31 Days series is to write about your passion. I am passionate about my family and the opportunities gaming has brought us!  So I have a passion but no blog site! RDTN to the rescue.

First of all gaming is a hobby. It is an outlet for fun and enjoyment. There are different types of games. Video games are played on a PC or TV. Guild Wars, Minecraft, and League of Legends are popular PC games. Halo, Call of Duty, and Zelda are well known console games. Mobile gaming has exploded over the past couple of years. Farmville, Candy Crush, Angry Birds, and Fruit Ninja are examples of mobile gaming. While I admit to slashing a little fruit now and then, I do not video game. I can't seem to get the eye/hand coordination going (perhaps that is why I couldn't play basketball). However, my children could manipulate a  mouse or controller before they could walk! So with the popularity of video gaming why do we like tabletop gaming?

Tabletop games are played with a group of two or more people generally around a table. Games have different levels of components, set-up and rules. There is a theme and purpose to the game. Gaming involves interaction with others. We talk face to face and make eye contact. Social skills are learned through taking turns, following rules, accepting a loss, and winning graciously. These are some reasons we like to play games. The main reason we enjoy tabletop gaming is the story or content of the game we are playing and because we spending time together. Tomorrow we will begin talking about three types of games and examples of each.

5 Minute Initiative: Rise of Augustus

Marty and I got to play a game that surprised the both of us called Rise of Augustus (Asmodee) or just Augustus (Hurrican) depending on the publisher. The game was designed by Paolo Mori who is also known for Batman: Gotham City Strategy Game (Wizkids), Pocket Battles (Zman), and Libertalia (Asmodee). Augustus sales roughly for $27 online with a MSRP of $39.99. In the box you will find:

• 88 Objective Cards
• 50 Wooden Legions                            
• 23 Mobilisation Tokens
• 12 Reward Tiles
• 1 Cloth Bag
• 1 Scorepad

The objective of the game is to have the most points when a seventh objective is collected by a player. Each player starts with three objectives and as they complete one, they get to pick from five that are laying out on the board.You complete an objective by covering up the icons with your legion meeples. To cover up an icon, it must be drawn from the bag by the town crier. That is the basics of the game and Marty goes into more detail in the show. Overall, Marty and I really did like the simplicity of the game but there is enough strategy that would make even the hard core gamer enjoy it. This is actually one that I am looking to add to my collection because it would work well with my gaming group. There is enough suspense from the drawing of the tokens and enough strategy to keep everyone engaged. And with 88 objective cards, this game offers a considerable amount of replay-ability.

Download the English rules here


Download

The Making of a Dice Tray

I was asked to post some pics of my attempts at making a dice tray, so here they are with some quick comments. But first, why use a dice tray or what good is one? Well, both Marty and I use it to pass the dice around the table for games like Elder Signs, King of Tokyo, and Zombie Dice. I use my small hexagon as a way to contain my dice during our RPG sessions. They also keep the dice on the table for those zealous rollers that you might have in your gaming group.

I started off with an octagon, tried the hexagon, and went back to octagon. An octagon requires a miter cut of 22.5 degrees, and that is a challenge to find that .5 degrees on the table. That is why I tried the hexagon, but I didn't like how the dice reacted when they hit the sides. From the picture below, you can see the various sizes and heights that I have attempted. I also tried numerous stains and I think the Golden Oak has been my favorite so far.

I have tried numerous ways to attach the bottom with rabbet cuts and groove cuts. I was using rabbet cuts at first, but when I inherited the Shopsmith Mark V, grooves become very easy to do with a dado blade. The picture below shows the cut, but unfortunately it is hard to see. (Also, when you type in Google rabbit cuts, you get a whole different set of webpages and you learn Zombie survival tactics). Now that I got the process down, I will start upgrading the wood so they sides are much nicer and will require less sanding.

As already stated, the right tools are a key and the strap clamp that you see below helps me get the pieces in place and then I can either glue them with the base board in place, or I will then put a rubber band around the trays to get everything in place, glue (Titebond is the stuff) and then air nail the whole project. I use a heavy foam template for marking the thin plywood veneer to cut out for the base (white board marked 1)

The finish product is below, but this did not stain as well as I wanted. I found some Rustoleum Stains marked way down at Lowes and while they looked good going on, they didn't cover very well. Not sure what happened there. The base is covered in a foam piece to help deaden the dice and then the fabric so it feels good on your fingers when you pick up the dice. I will use any material to cover the base because when I am at Walmart, I go through the scrap fabrics and pick up cheap leftover pieces. Overall, the inside dimension of the tray is 9 inches and that seems to be a good working size.

Well, that is about all there is to the making of the dice tray and I will say that a table saw really has made a huge difference since I started playing with this. I am going to start on the towers next and I promised a friend a Warmachine carrying tray which is going to be done next weekend I hope. I will post pictures of those projects as well.

I hope to have a bunch made by MACE and sell them at the show so I can upgrade some equipment for doing the podcast and of course pick up a few new games so we can get the reviews out to you guys.

Good luck if you decide to make a tray.

Day 1: Introduction

Hello! My name is Vanessa Connell and I live in Waxhaw, North Carolina with my husband and three sons. We enjoy many family activities such as sporting events, going to movies, and traveling. However, our favorite hobby is tabletop gaming! It is a time when electronics are turned off and we connect with each other and our friends. I would like to invite you to join me this month as I share our experience with tabletop gaming and how it has enriched our lives!

Kickstarter: Kromore 2145 RPG

We were contacted by some local gentlemen about a Kickstarter Project they have going on and they gave us the opportunity to preview their new RGP called Kromore 2145. Created by T. Julian Bell at R.A.EX Games, Kromore is a RPG based on a system (AKA RAEX system) that Julian started to design in 2007. At the basic level, it uses three combat open actions during a players turn. The actions may be to move, cover, attack and so on. And based on my reading of the manual, what you do determines the number of actions needed. For example, you want to walk, that might be one action leaving you with two more to use, but say you want to pull out a massive gun to destroy your enemy, that could cost you 3 actions thus ending you turn. Either way, how you spend those actions is the strategy of the game and in a way doesn't tie you down to a system that gives you a quick action and a normal action in a turn. In my simple mind based on the RPGs I have played or currently play, this mimics really how we do things and provides some structure.

Here is what I am talking about, say in one RPG you want to throw a knife. The first quick action you have is to pull out the knife, and then the second action which is an attack, would be throwing the knife. In the RAEX system, the manual may define that pulling the weapon is an action, throwing the knife is an action, leaving you with one action which could be take cover. Or say you want to pull out a knife, take aim and then throw, thus not letting you take cover, your choice. One could argue that other games allow for this as well and I am sure they do, but Kromore details this out for a whole bunch of stuff.

The book they are producing has a ton of detail and information in it, more than I expected when I first began to read it, so much so that I was a bit overwhelmed. This is definitely a thinking person's RPG. The character creation is very deep, the weapons are fully detailed, and the skills/professions/etc give you a very open system. For example in the current RPG that we play, we needed to figure out the damage that was caused by a door being splintered due to an explosion. It wasn't really defined like we wanted and we made due by using other concepts from the book. In Kromore, it is defined nicely on page 145 of the promo pdf rule book. Also, how much damage could the door take, is the wood treated or not? That determined how much damage the door could take. I liked that and it was easy to find.

Like I stated, I am sure other RPGs have all this in them, but I don't play theseRPGs, so I appreciate that RAEX Games included it in their first attempt.

So, if you are in the mood to try a different RPG than maybe the one you are doing that is heavier than maybe consider checking out Kromore 2145 out and for $20, pick up the pdf copy. Unfortunately, this game is way to in-depth for me and would require a lot more attention than I am able to provide. The game will close on Kickstarter on 10/4 and is just over 50%. If it doesn't make it, RAEX states they will relaunch if it doesn't get funded.

Wow - I never knew our shirts had style

Do you remember me telling you about Gene and his wife. I met them at Gen Con 2013 at the Dice Tower live podcast. And do you also remember how I gave her the RDTN shirt I had been carrying around for a day because it just seemed like the nice thing to do for people who listen to the show (see Episode 21). Well, she said that she was going to modify it a bit to give it a more style than our regular T-shirt. Today we heard from Gene and he sent us a picture of his lovely wife in her masterpiece. Thanks guys, it looks great!

And not being wasteful, she made a dice bag out of the leftovers, so she can carry them and be ready to take some names. Now, she was able to make our shirt look this good, just imagine the costumes they were wearing at Gen Con and you know how good they were.