A Place For My Thoughts on Gaming

[dinogamer]

Betrayal at the House on the Hill Is Finally Getting Its First Ever Expansion

Betrayal at the House on the Hill has been an icon of board games for over a decade now. But despite having reprints and new editions, the game has never officially been expanded beyond its original scope. That is until now: a whole new series of horrifying new haunts are on the way, and we have the first look.

FINALLY. This is good news.

[dinogamer]

Once Upon a Fable

I haven't posted here in a while, but due to my new Kickstarter obsession, a whole group of new games have recently come into my possession. They have been stacking up quite high, and I've only recently gotten around to trying new ones out. I'll try to write reviews on them when I can now, partially to share my experiences of great and horrible games. But let me be honest, its mostly just so I can remember whether or not I hated a game after I go through a bunch of new ones. A lot of them have similar themes and my brain doesn't want to remind me which ones I actually liked.

Once Upon a Fable

The art on this game attracted me more to it than anything. And the fact that it comes with meeples. (And also that it can be played solo.) My standards might be low, but I'm glad I took a chance on this game.

1-6 Players (1-8 with expansion)Ages 10+ 10-20 minutes per player

"A murder has been committed in the Victorian Steampunk city of St. Sebastian. You have made the short list of Police suspects and the only way to retain your freedom is to prove that one of the others on the list is, in fact, the murderous culprit."

(via Ruse)

I had my suspicions going into the game. After reading the rules, I thought it was going to be too easy to kill someone off, and too hard to get enough alibi cards. Also, since it was designed from a 52 card deck, I thought it was going to have to force the mechanics for the bonus convenience of being able to be played anywhere.

  What I liked:

-The storytelling! You don’t have to be the best at telling stories, and indeed I’m horrible at being creative with storytelling themed games. The themed cards in Ruse actually go together so well they help tell the story themselves! You can just get a little in character to help embellish the mood. Just the attempt makes all the difference

-It is based of a standard 52 card deck, so you can play anywhere and with other decks. Other decks just won’t have the awesome steampunk story themes that really makes the game.

-Despite what I originally thought would happen, the game always found ways to last as long as the 30-45 minutes stated.

-This game is simple and rich, and therefore very non-gamer friendly. My non-gamer friend was able to jump right in and understand everything.

-One thing I hate hate hate about games is when someone dies and has to sit out the rest of the game watching everyone else have fun. Because that person is usually me. In Ruse, once someone dies, the murderer is revealed so there is no waiting for everyone else to finish.

What I didn’t like

-All cards on a person have to be of the same suit. Since two suits are all alibi cards, there are only two suits you can play on other players. In a 3 player game, that means there is a very strong possibility one player will be the odd color out. That makes it slightly harder to play, and Joker’s lose all of their saving ability.

-It didn’t happen in any game I played, but because a lot of the game is based on what cards are pulled when, the game could screw you quickly and easily.

-There were times when there was 2 cards on each player, and no one was drawing a card they could play, so we’d have to draw and discard for a few minutes before breaking the nothing to do cycle.

Overall Impression

Ruse is a very fun game which transforms a standard deck of cards into a simplistic yet fulfilling game that’s perfect for all types of game players. The stories are different each game, so you’ll find yourself playing more than once to see other stories of murder mystery unfold. Rating: 8/10

[dinogamer]

Get Blue!

So I think I have a problem, going on Kickstarter binges. I want to assemble a few print and play versions of games I've gotten recently, but my printer access has been cut off. I have to figure out how to print, then how to play, then how to put it up on here.

I feel the need to share this exciting new game I came across this week while going through all the Kickstarter games. Not because I've played this yet, but because I'm so darn excited for the opportunity to get to play it.

The game is called Get Blue! With Magno Force Battle Action!

So this is more of a dexterity oriented game, unlike the strategy games I tend to gravitate towards. You have these disks, and you flick them at these standing tiles. There is metal in the disks, and magnets in the standing tiles which help them find each other, and hopefully knock the stands down.

The idea is wonderful in it's simplicity. It reminds me a lot of jungle speed, in that you can play it with any amount of people of any age, and it's still just as fun. I know I'm going to be introducing this to my 5 year old niece and my 7 year old nephew as well as some of my friends from college.

I have to admit, I also love that they let you get blank tiles and will come with instructions on how to adhere your own images onto them. There are many funny ideas I can come up with doing that that would make some pretty neat birthday gifts.

[dinogamer]

Ruse

I recently found all the wonderful gaming goodies Kickstarter has to offer. Naturally, I went a little crazy funding all of them that I could, including this gem. After funding, the makers of Ruse offered a print and play version to test out the game before shipping.

Ruse

"A Steampunk Murder Mystery Card Game" 

3-5 Players Ages 12+ 30-45 Minutes 

"A murder has been committed in the Victorian Steampunk city of St. Sebastian. You have made the short list of Police suspects and the only way to retain your freedom is to prove that one of the others on the list is, in fact, the murderous culprit."

(via Ruse)

I had my suspicions going into the game. After reading the rules, I thought it was going to be too easy to kill someone off, and too hard to get enough alibi cards. Also, since it was designed from a 52 card deck, I thought it was going to have to force the mechanics for the bonus convenience of being able to be played anywhere.

What I liked:

-The storytelling! You don't have to be the best at telling stories, and indeed I'm horrible at being creative with storytelling themed games. The themed cards in Ruse actually go together so well they help tell the story themselves! You can just get a little in character to help embellish the mood. Just the attempt makes all the difference

-It is based of a standard 52 card deck, so you can play anywhere and with other decks. Other decks just won't have the awesome steampunk story themes that really makes the game.

-Despite what I originally thought would happen, the game always found ways to last as long as the 30-45 minutes stated.

-This game is simple and rich, and therefore very non-gamer friendly. My non-gamer friend was able to jump right in and understand everything.

-One thing I hate hate hate about games is when someone dies and has to sit out the rest of the game watching everyone else have fun. Because that person is usually me. In Ruse, once someone dies, the murderer is revealed so there is no waiting for everyone else to finish.

What I didn't like

-All cards on a person have to be of the same suit. Since two suits are all alibi cards, there are only two suits you can play on other players. In a 3 player game, that means there is a very strong possibility one player will be the odd color out. That makes it slightly harder to play, and Joker's lose all of their saving ability.

-It didn't happen in any game I played, but because a lot of the game is based on what cards are pulled when, the game could screw you quickly and easily.

-There were times when there was 2 cards on each player, and no one was drawing a card they could play, so we'd have to draw and discard for a few minutes before breaking the nothing to do cycle.

Overall Impression

Ruse is a very fun game which transforms a standard deck of cards into a simplistic yet fulfilling game that's perfect for all types of game players. The stories are different each game, so you'll find yourself playing more than once to see other stories of murder mystery unfold. Rating: 8/10