A Wild Book Appears

 

Time flies, and it seems I hadn't updated my dear and undead blog in over two years. So, well, thought I'd drop by, say hi, and let my sole surviving reader know that Virtual Cities has finally been published. You can find all about that atlas and exploration of 45 iconic video game cities, and even purchase your copy, here.  

See you next year! Hopefully.

The Neverending Betrayal at House on the Hill

With the release of the Widow's Walk expansion I and my beloved boardgaming (also, you know, proper) friends decided to return to Betrayal at House on the Hill, only to discover we had never really left. We never actually stopped playing this game, and even though we were all busy appreciating what the expansion did for it, and how subtly Widow's Walk managed to integrate itself into the overall experience, I just couldn't help myself. I kept on wondering why on earth we were so happy with what essentially seemed like more of the same.

The obvious answer, of course, is that this was exactly what we all wanted. More of the same, only slightly better. More weird procedural buildings, and more weird stories to play through, even more variety, a few much needed clarifications, new cards, and an extra floor, and we'd be perfectly happy.

Then again, I do for a fact know just how easily I'm bored when it comes to playing the same boardgames over and over again. There are favourites of mine like Space Alert, Carcassone, and Ticket To Ride I haven't touched in ages, and I did notice three years separating my two latest Space Hulk campaigns. So, really, why have I/we stuck with Betrayal at House on the Hill?

Sadly, I haven't managed to come up with an incredibly elegant answer that will solve ancient game design problems and provide invaluable insights, but I have at least come to the realization that this game has a lot going for it, and it all starts with coming in a lovely box:

What's more, and beside those ominous greens, Betrayal is incredibly easy to explain to new players; even to complete boardgaming novices. The fact that it is played in two phases, with the first one being completely co-operative, further helps ease newbies into their first game, and makes sure they've got the game's simple set of rules all figured out before things heat up. When the haunting happens and the slightly more demanding and definitely more interesting second phase begins they are ready to enjoy the game.

Said second phase of the game where one (usually) player becomes the traitor and the rest work together to foil her/his satanic/silly plan is the meat of Betrayal, and sits comfortably at the core of what apparently makes me love it. There are, you see, 50 wildly different scenarios -- every haunting results in one being chosen -- offered in the base game, and another 50 in the expansion, and though not all are equally well designed or outlandish, they all come with their unique mechanics to play with and different stories to tell.

Things never get old. Never get boring or repetitive. The traitor might turn into a huge snake, the investigators might have to stop the mansion from flying away into space in true Rocky Horror fashion, horrible incantations might have to be chanted, a movie director might have to pick a suitable actor, and every scenario is so different on every level the game can never feel stale. Good writing, clear goals, dozens of counters for all sorts of monsters and items, and mechanics that change but remain familiar, certainly do more than merely help support things. They turn the game into a consistent canvas for the dozens of its scenarios to be played out.

Even if/when you get to run into the same scenario twice, chances are the role and condition of each player and the layout of the mansion will be different. Besides, knowing what to expect from the other side will allow Betrayal to become more strategic than usual. Oh, and did I mention how delightfully asymmetric the game is or how cunningly it disguises the goals of each side from the other? Well, it is and it does, and it's all the better for it. 

To the clever mechanics and the constant expectation of fresh stories, add the procedural nature of the game board and the Event and Omen cards that sometimes manage to construct brilliant micro narratives within the main stories. Simply exploring the mansion and expanding the board is a joy in and of itself. And I did once draw a card that had my future self appear and give me some rather handy weapons, only to draw another card 5 turns later that had me giving items back to my past self. 

Frankly, I can't help but enjoy each and every one of those delightful moments Betrayal at House on the Hill has to offer. I can't help but appreciate every weird new idea the game presents me with. And I frankly can't think of anything else to add, but suggest that you try Betrayal out at least once, and that you should feel free to make more games like it for me to enjoy. Oh, and have a look here to get an idea of how the thing plays.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• Ticket to Dixit: Tales of Arkham Hill
• On Dreadfleet
• Out of the blue, into the Basilica
• Urban Planning for Lovecraftian Horror

Reminder: I could really use your support via Patreon in order to survive long enough to make more words and, mostly, actual games and things. Thanks so muchly!

Ticket to Dixit: Tales of the Arkham Hill

Erik Zaring may currently be busy preparing the huge and beyond lovely fifth episode of The Dream Machine, but he's also a most generous Patreon supporter of mine and has mentioned he enjoys reading all about board games. Well, here's your patreon-powered feature article dear sir!

2014 has been a hellish year so far and one of the things that did actually help keep spirits up was playing board games with my wife and a selection of close friends. Now, don't get me wrong, I do love board games no matter what, but I just never really expected the enjoyment they provide to be this, well, this therapeutic.

What follows, then, is a piece on the five games we've played the most this year. Not my five favourite ones nor the best ones to be released during this year, just the five we played the most. And, yes, I too wished we gave Space Hulk or Space Alert more time, but was usually voted down. 

Betrayal At House On The Hill

Picture courtesy of Wired

Betrayal At House On The Hill is probably the most versatile game I have ever played and a rare game that balances cooperation with the chance to be incredibly nasty to other players. But that reads like a review, doesn't it? Well, I frankly wouldn't like to review anything here; merely let you know that despite having explored the halls of the spooky titular house a couple dozen times at least, I'm still nor bored of it.

The game, you see, always begins the same way. Each player chooses a character and goes around exploring the house by randomly revealing tile after tile of rather exotic rooms -- that may include an indoor graveyard and a conservatory--, picking up items, trying to improve their stats, discovering secret doors, gathering omens and running into events. These events usually require you make a skill check or decision and provide the plot bits for the first part of the game. 

Also, they can randomly create some lovely little stories. In one game, for example, my character run into his future self who kindly provided him with a truly handy item, only to eventually run into his past self and return said item.   

As for Omens, uncovering those usually provides with a powerful ally or artifact, but can also lead to a haunting, which signals the beginning of the second, main phase of the game. According to when, how and who ran into the Omen, one player (usually) gets turned into a traitor and a scenario is chosen that will determine whether said traitor or the rest of the investigators win the game. These scenarios also happen to be where Betrayal At House On The Hill truly, brilliantly shines.

They can be about anything from a witch trying to conclude a ritual and beating Death at chess to having the traitor turn into a huge serpent and stopping the whole house from lifting off into outer space. Impressively each scenario comes with drastically different rules and condition and even a well written bit of plot to round things up.

So, yes, that's hours upon hours of fun exploring all kinds of B-movie horrors, scheming and manipulating opponents and comrades.  

Dixit

Image stolen from Shut Up & Sit Down

Dixit is my main board gaming recruiting tool. It is, after all, absolutely beautiful to look at, extremely easy to get into and (with the expansion we grabbed) can easily accommodate up to 12 players. Hell, even my mother tried it and almost enjoyed it, which should probably classify as a miracle.

And it helps break the (non-existent) ice at (small) parties, as people are bound to say ridiculously outrageous thing when playing it. 

Playing, in case you are wondering, consists of picking a card from your hand and describing it to the rest of the players. This description could be anything: a single word, a movie title, a little story, an obscure reference only a few will pick up, anything at all, as long as it ensures that at least one of the others figures out which card you've described. Make the description too blatant for everyone to guess right though and you'll lose. 

Intrigued? Good. Moving on then to...

Arkham Horror

Straight from the now defunct GameSetWatch

Fantasy Flight's definitive classic, Arkham Horror, is as close to a full blown, strategic, narrative heavy RPG as a board game can ever get while still remaining a proper board game and I love it for this and a million other reasons. It may also be a game that tends to last for several hours and one which comes with a brutal, built-in, analog, wise yet bonkers A.I. that controls them roaming monsters and keeps opening inter-dimensional gates at the most inappropriate of places, but still, and despite the initial complexity, everyone seems to, handily, love it too.

I suspect this could either be due to Arkham Horror being a stunning game that captures Lovecraft's desperate style of cosmic horror or to the fact that us humans simply enjoy attempting to banish Nyarlathotep from 1920s New England towns. Or, if we are really lucky, Hastur.

In case you've been wondering how the game actually plays, well, you can always read this little PDF instructions booklet or bare with me for a few more words while keeping in mind this is a game I quite adore. And have been doing so for almost five years now.

Arkham Horror is a collaborative affair in which 1 to 8 investigators run around Arkham trying to close dimensional gates, travel to such places as the Plateau of Leng or the Dreamlands and battle a huge menagerie of lovecraftian beasties. Oh, yes, and have dozens upon dozens of mini encounters while trying to gather clues (the game's most important resource), keep their sanity, learn spells, recruit allies and possibly becoming the town sheriff. Sounds overwhelming? It really isn't. It's quality time in a box.   

Tales Of The Arabian Nights

An image from Stargazer's World

Did you know that I'm working on a CRPG of epic proportions with Kyttaro Games and a team of amazing writers, designers and artists? Well,  I am, and the Tales Of The Arabian Nights game was my initial inspiration for it. A game that's been doing demented storylets for ages and the only board game to ever have me change sex, spend years in jail trying to fast-talk my way to freedom, cajole me into making a powerful djinn enemy and allow me to attempt to enter a camel and drink the rain.

Yes, it's all about crafting wonderful, absolutely weird and brilliantly written stories in the world of Sinbad and Sheherazade; the world of One Thousand And One Nights.

Tales Of The Arabian Nights comes with a huge book sporting literally thousands of stories and variations. Every round you will draw an encounter card, say a lion or a princess or even a storm, and then you'll have a set of action-verbs (determined each time) to chose from: pray, drink, enter, hide, fight etc. Your response will lead to a bit of story and you losing or gaining something and, quite frequently, to increasingly surreal other stories. Much hilarity ensues, though, admittedly, what with each character having skills, you could also attempt to play sensibly; tactically even.

Am I making sense? No? Okay, then do please have a look at this and all shall be clear. 

Ticket To Ride

Image slightly borrowed from Blog, She Wrote 

This one I stopped playing. Yes, I did and I know it's considered to be a masterpiece of elegant design, but I think it simply overstayed its welcome especially after I won 10 or so games in three days; in a row.  

Still, Ticket To Ride, even though slightly on the more casual side of gaming, is a beautiful game played on a beautiful board with tons of plastic little train wagons. It can get quite tactical too and is not as random as it looks, but it's definitely not something to be played each and every day. And, yes, I do know that the satisfaction of connecting Madrid with Kiev can be immense.

Besides, building your railroad empire will definitely help you get European geography if you are in need of a reminder. Should also work on children if you are training them to be travel agents. 

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• Analog Investigations in Arkham
• Dreadfleet: Not A Review
• Glorious, glorious Space Hulk
• An intro to RPG gaming

Crowdfunding the sad and brutal story of Oleg

It might be missing a political prisoners group, but that doesn't really matter when we are talking about board games, does it? Well, I frankly do not know. Also, I digress already.

What matters is that The Oleg Story is looking like an incredibly ambitious board game, in which players will get to control rival prison gangs, forge unsteady alliances, pummel inmates to death, strategize, invade cell blocks, manage contacts, plot and hopefully survive in a hellish prison. Also, it needs you to help it reach its kickstarter goal and here's a video to hopefully convince you:

The game, a miniatures-sporting tabletop affair, will come with its own, free The Oleg Story: Survival app for all mobile/tablet platforms, an interesting back-story and a PDF guide book you can already read and see what it's all really about. Yes, this is exciting!

Analog Investigations in Arkham

Deduction, despite what Sherlock Holmes would have you believe, is not a science. It's a method. A method that could arguably make the life of all fictional investigators much easier and can definitely be applied to board-games as the classic Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective so effortlessly proved over 30 years ago. What's more, deduction is what you'll be using when playing the freshly released and rather excellent Arkham Investigator.

Designed by Hal Eccles, Arkham Investigator is a board game you can download, print and play for free, either solo or with up to 9 more people (preferably friends or at the very least attractive members of whichever sex/sexes you find attractive). Heavily inspired by the Sherlock Holmes game, Arkham Investigator is all about gathering clues and piecing together what happened in each of its cases; a process that requires quite a bit of thought, patience and no luck whatsoever. 

You'll get to explore Lovecraft's Arkham, read newspapers, contact allies, dive into directories and try to prove yourself to Dr. Armitage by solving cases and figuring out mysteries, all the while trying to avoid shanity-shattering dangers and limiting the resources used.

The first (and currently only) case released, A Grain of Evil, is a fine and engrossing showcase of what Arkham Investigator is all about. It comes with an investigation book and an edition of fictional newspaper Arkham Advertiser and managed to provide me and a couple of friends with roughly two hours of excellent gaming time.

Oh, and the closest thing to an official website I managed to come across was the Arkham Investigator facebook page, which is where news and whatnot get posted.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• Not a review of Dreadfleet
• GW's Space Hulk
• Maziacs: The Boardgame
• Steal Away Jordan

The Updated Three Plains Rulebook

I already have written about the ever-evolving and already pretty excellent free-to-grab fantasy wargame that is Three Plains. Well, time then to let you know that the updated version of the Three Plains Rulebook (that would be version 2.3) has been released and that you can grab its 87-pages long PDF over at Epicwargaming. Then grab all those lovely army books and ready-to-print figures and start gaming.

Now, instead of describing the game myself, I thought I'd ask its creator to enlighten us. He kindly agreed and here's what David L. Sholes has to say:

Epicwargaming.com is my attempt at earning some money and doing what I love at the same time. Or, in other words, Epicwargaming.com is a private company, which is based on the internet.

So far I have achieved the fun side hands down, but the making money side... well... the wargaming market is not a very big pond and there are already plenty of big fishes in there. I started Epic because I love wargaming, but I’m not a fan of painting and the cost of it. So, that left me with print-and-play wargaming, but I soon found there isn't that much of it out there and thus decided to write my own game: Three Plains. 

Three Plains is an old-world fantasy setting with Orcs, Elves and Goblins all fighting it out. Why? Because that’s my thing. 

Three Plains is game not too different from Warhammer Fantasy Battles, but has more depth and realism than WFB, or so I believe. Characters and elite troops in Warhammer just dominated the field and as I got older I wanted to see more realistic games, where troops get tired and characters can be slain by the hands of commoners, and that’s what Three Plains is  all about really. I know that mixing the words realistic and fantasy together sounds silly, but that's what Three Plains is. For instance, take the 'March Over Rule': it means you can march straight over characters which would otherwise hold up entire units of men.

Reading this you might think it’s all my own work, but you would be wrong, as many people have put something in the game over the years now; far too many to mention. Then again, the game testers Tom, Alex, Matty and Trish have really shaped the game and brought it on. 

At the moment I would say the game is half finished, as I have some massive plans for it next year, like adding 3 more armies and adding a siege game on to it as well. So, we have our work cut out for us and, eh, better get back to it.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• Space Hulks and the joys of murdering Tyranids
• A session of Chill
• Dreadfleet: Not a Review
• Little Wars by H.G. Wells

Continue & the Quest for the Perfect Online Mag

I always loved reading quality gaming mags and, ignoring the Greek atrocities I was exposed to during my tenderer years, I frankly can't complain. I have enjoyed such brilliant publications as PC Zone, Zero and C+VG for many years and even managed to overcome the current mag crisis and subsequent drop in quality with the help of Retro Gamer and a variety of online offerings ranging from Adventure Lantern to the now defunct Retroaction.

Happily, things are about to get better. Much better actually, as a team of game journalism veterans have joined  former PC Zoner Paul Presley (who incidentally wrote the funniest Total Carnage review possible a mere 15 or so years ago) in creating the wildly ambitious Continue mag. It will be a (mostly) online magazine covering all kinds of gaming via the excellent medium of lengthy and well-written features. It will not sport any reviews -a brave and wise choice- and will be published four times a year. Apparently a limited print version will also be made available.

You can already download the excellent and impressively hefty preview/demo issue over at the Continue site and get a taste of things to come. Then again, you can find out more about the mag by reading the words of its esteemed editor: Mr. Paul Presley. Interview right after this logo:

So, a new, ambitious, online gaming magazine. Why?

Continue is basically the gaming magazine I've always wanted to both make and read. It's always frustrated me as a games journalist that by and large, and for all the fancy frills and bows we'd put on top of them, that pretty much every games magazine out there was little more than a glorified product catalogue. The magazines I'd actually pay for and read were those that celebrated the subject matter they covered, that told interesting stories about their chosen fields. Magazines like Wired, Rolling Stone, Hotdog and the long-departed Neon (UK film mags). I always felt there was room for a magazine to try this about the entirety of gaming culture, rather than just append the odd feature to a review/preview-heavy publication to fill some sort of perceived remit or to simply dress game previews up as 'features'.

And one with no reviews at all. That's a most definitely brave choice. Care to elaborate?

There will always be a place for reviews, but unfortunately for traditional print (and print-style) magazines, that place is increasingly on the web. Magazines can't hope to compete with the immediacy of a review site that puts its opinions out the same day the game is released. On top of that, 'professional' reviews are becoming ever more obsolete. A triple-A title will sell through the roof regardless of reviews simply down to hype and brand recognition. Equally, niche titles such as all those European street cleaning simulators and whatnot all find an audience too, regardless of the slating they might get from jaded journalists. With Continue being quarterly, we'd rather sit back and write interesting features about the games we're already playing. We're more relaxed about it all. I care less about what exciting new thing is coming half a year down the line and more about the games I've already bought and am playing right now. That's where Continue's focus is. The best kind of magazine, I've always felt, is the one that makes you feel like you're all part of the same club, rather than one that dictates to the reader what to do.

What aspects of gaming will Continue cover?

All gaming! By which I mean videogames, PC games, board games, pen and paper RPGs, card games (CCGs, traditional, whatever), ARGs, reality games, social games, etc. etc. For a long time we've been seeing the boundaries between gaming 'sub-cultures' breaking down. Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition has seen an incredible renaissance in tabletop RPGs over the last couple of years, board game clubs are springing up everywhere. I know that I love gaming in all its forms, I'm not solely a videogamer, or a PC gamer and so on. I just love games, full stop. Gaming has always been relegated as a non-serious pastime by the wider world, hopefully we can start to show that gaming is as important a leisure activity to our generation as music, film, TV, theatre, books and so on are to previous generations.

You've been writing for PC Zone and a for quite a few of the truly great gaming mags. Could you kindly -and briefly- talk a bit about the rest of the team?

We're small. We're a start-up and looking to grow. Continue's core is essentially a three-man/woman team working virtually (i.e. from our homes), backed up by some of the best freelance writers and artists working today. We're all professionals mind you, all of us have extensive magazine publishing and game industry experience and we're not setting out with a 'fanzine' mentality. Basically, I like to think of myself as Jim Phelps at the start of every episode of Mission: Impossible, sitting in my swanky apartment, thumbing through my IMF folder, picking the right team for the right job.

What would you say distinguishes Continue from other gaming publications?

We're any good? <Joke> We've mentioned earlier the whole 'no reviews' thing, but really it's just the whole approach. We're text-heavy, we're not scared of words, we're not filling every page with screenshots of the latest, greatest thing. We're more relaxed, a magazine you can dip in and out of. We're quarterly so we can take the time to really go deeply into our subjects rather than scrambling to meet impossibly tight deadlines every other week. We're digital, so you can read us on just about any mobile platform or desktop screen around (and we will be producing dedicated tablet/mobile versions post-launch of the first issue proper). We're globally-focused, so just as we're all used to playing games virtually across the world, so Continue brings you stories from all corners of the Earth. 

Any idea of when the first full issue will be available? 

Soon. Very, very soon. Unless you're reading this after our launch in which case, then. Very, very then. 

Could you kindly describe the print version of the magazine? 

First and foremost, Continue is a digital title. However, we are looking to produce a (very) limited, some say 'collectible' run of print copies for those that still love the feel of ink on their hands and paper cuts on their fingers (hmm, free plasters with issue 1? Hey marketing, look into that will you). The website (www.continuemag.com) will have details up soon on how to go about pre-ordering copies of the print version, which will basically be the same magazine as the digital version, but more useful as an impromptu fly swatter than your desktop PC.

And after we thank the kind Paul (thanks!) for taking the time to answer the above questions, on to an even shorter interview -the aptly named interview no.2 of this post- with Richard Cobbett; a brilliant writer who will also be contributing to Continue:

Why did you decide to join the Continue writing team?

Paul asked me a few months ago, when the mag was being designed. We've both been around the UK games journalism scene for... uh... a fair while, and he thought it would be good to have a column taking an old-school look at current trends. The first one is in the preview issue, looking at how gaming's barriers of entry have changed over the years. Seemed like a good intro. 

Do you believe that such a unique mag will manage to find its audience?

Hopefully, though right now the whole industry is in a pretty hefty state of flux that makes predicting anything more than a little tricky. The idea though is solid. As I've said many times, the main advantage of the web is that you can find more or less whatever you want about anything you care to look for. Magazines, in print or otherwise, have the edge when it comes to presenting the cool things you *didn't* know you want to read - like Chris Donlan's feature about his grandfather surviving WW2 with Monopoly - which can be so easily drowned out by the ever-increasing pace of the daily news churn. 

What interests me about it specifically is that while Continue is for gamers, it casts a much wider net than simply computer games, consoles, and generic things like reviews. I've never played a P&P RPG for instance, and I don't play board games. Why would I actively search for news about either? I wouldn't. And I don't. Something like this can put the awesome stories from those worlds right in front of me though, and hopefully open whole new avenues of interest and intrigue I never knew I was missing out on. A truly great writer might even persuade me to finally stop making fun of bards, though I doubt I ever will. Bards are rubbish.

What can we expect from you on Continue? 

At the moment, I'm just doing a column. As a freelance writer type though, I'm surprisingly open to writing more...

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• Vintage and Retro Gaming Magazines - the archive
• The Gnome's Lair Interview (yes, really)
• Abandoned Times Magazine: the second coming
• The Indie Game Magazine

Dreadfleet: Not a Review

I was actually thinking of writing a review of Dreadfleet, the latest limited edition (was that really necessary?) board game by Games Workshop, but, thing is, I really can't. It's not a board game; it's a miniature wargame that comes in a box, and miniature wargames cannot be judged after one game. Nor after two for that matter. They really should be deeply explored and played to exhaustion till a concrete conclusion can be reached, and that, dear reader, is why I will not review Dreadfleet. I'm out of time and by the time I've fully made up my mind, chances are, the game will already have sold out. That's why I'll simply write down my impressions on the thing instead.

So, let's get the basic and pretty obvious stuff out of the way first. Dreadfleet is a fantasy, naval wargame set in the world of Warhammer that has been designed for two players, but can apparently be played by up to ten. It pits the Dreadfleet, five monstrous ships crewed by a variety undead captains and their minions, against the Grand Alliance, a five pirate ships fleet of men, elves and dwarfs. Everything comes in a lavish box, that you can grab over at the Games Workshop site for the not so modest price of £70.

Then again said box is indeed filled to the brim with 10 extremely detailed and downright stunning miniature ships, a selection of smaller vessels and sea monsters, dice, some beautiful islands and shipwrecks, a full-colour 98-pages long manual, rulers, quite a few extras and a truly stunning seascape - the board of sorts on which the two fleets get to battle it out.

Besides the obvious quality of the miniatures and seascape and the fact that the box contains everything you need to play -it really is a wargame in a box, and that does suit us time- and money-poor, former  Warhammer gamers- the setting is also very well written and thoroughly presented. It's a battle between all sorts of undead characters (and, yes, that does include both Skaven and an almost chaotic, but not Chaos, dwarf) under the command of a powerful Tomb King against a vengeful pirate and his unstable alliance, taking place on the waters of a turbulent, extra-dimensional, aquatic graveyard where everything that dies in the ocean ends up in. Each ship and captain are thoroughly detailed, and even the twelve available scenarios and the rules are compatible with the overall plot.

This does of course lead to some problems; the chaotic nature of the graveyard's winds for example makes for an overtly randomized wind direction, that definitely doesn't help with strategic planning. Then again the rules are incredibly easy to grasp and almost intuitive, especially for those that have already had some experience with either naval or miniature wargames. Also, and not unlike Warhammer, it's a game that's based on movement and -despite its strong random elements- ultimately relies on each player's tactical and strategic decisions.

Oh, and assembling the ships and islands is a pretty straightforward and relatively fast procedure. Properly painting and gluing them together is -as is customary- another matter entirely. 

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• Space Hulk: a Games Workshop board game review
• Guillotine - off with their heads!
• Warhammer 40000: Fire Warrior
• The Battles of the Three Plains

Space Hulk and the joys of murdering Tyranids

I have been forming a pretty wild theory (which belongs to me and is mine) recently and it more or less goes a bit like this: The deepening of the economic crisis will lead to increased socialization, that will in turn lead to an increase in the popularity of board gaming; even more so if the required board games have already been bought. And, uhm, that's about it I suppose. Besides, that was the theorem I went on and empirically (successfully too) tested last night with the help of Space Hulk.

Interestingly it wasn't the second edition of the game I cracked open and hauled over to a friend's place; it was the third and latest version of Space Hulk. The one Games Workshop cunningly released in limited numbers. The same game I hadn't played since 2009 even though I most definitely enjoyed it. Actually, I was most impressed by it, but apparently was the only one in the Lair that appreciated it. The kind lady was mostly indifferent to its many charms and exquisite production values.

Now, as I was emphatically reminded yesterday, Space Hulk comes in a particularly impressive, big, heavy and beautiful box, that's filled to the brim with miniatures, dice, tiles, rulebooks, counters, an hourglass and everything one might need to play. And though I did remember that them Space Marines and Tyranids (nasty Alien-like nasties) were some of the best Warhammer 40,000 miniatures ever, I had completely forgotten just how fantastic the game tiles were in all their embossed, beautifully painted, dark glory. Well, apparently, they still are and everything looks excellent to the point that the table we set up to play, impressively made the good ladies present take notice. I mean, really, who could have the willpower to resist the evolved aesthetics of everyone's favourite totalitarian sci-fi army?

Not that the bugs look much worse of course...

Anyway. That's enough with the fanboy drooling and gawking at tiny plastic skulls. Time to completely ignore the quality of the rule- and mission books too, and briefly describe how the thing plays. Well, Space Hulk is a two-players only game in which one player controls the Space Marine and the other the Genestealers side, each taking turns to move on the board and performing actions like opening doors, shooting, attacking the close combat way, moving artifacts, burning rooms, reloading weapons and further things of the sort, while trying to achieve each mission's objectives. Interestingly the game does come with 12 built-in  missions - every single one of them featuring new objectives, weapons, miniatures, special rules, board layouts and even a bit of backstory (fluff, I believe some would call it) to help with the atmosphere. Every game usually takes around 60 minutes.

Gameplay-wise though, what really stands out are the action-points mechanics (they should be familiar to people who have enjoyed turn-based strategic games like X-Com or Laser Squad) and the fact that Space Marines only see the aliens as blips on a radar, up to the point they come face-to-face with them and their true numbers are revealed. As each of these blips could conceal up to three Genestealers, things can get both strategic and very tense indeed. Oh, and good poker players will definitely be at an advantage here...

Thankfully, neither me nor the friend I played Space Hulk with are terribly good at card games, yet I must admit we really enjoyed the game in its initial simplicity, apparent balance and revealed depth. After finishing the first mission we were both craving for more and coming up with strategic principles and tactical responses. Yes, it was this good.

Closing bit: This article might have felt like a review, which it partly is, but sadly it's a review of something you can't easily buy unless you head off to places like eBay. On the other hand you can get a very good idea of how Space Hulk plays and what it looks like over at the Games Workshop and Board Game Geek sites. And you can always play the excellent and freeware Alien Assault on your PC; it's the closest you will ever get to a digital version of the game and a fantastic strategic offering in its own right.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• Off with their heads: A Guillotine review
• Maziacs - the boardgame
• Class Struggle!
• A RPG session of Chill 

The Battles of the Three Plains

Seeing that this blog's favourite elderly person has escaped the terrible (yet oddly wine-filled) dungeons of the Lair  and is back in the land of the blogging, I thought I'd celebrate by writing something about wargames, thus reviving an almost forgotten Gnome's Lair tradition. Handily, it was only (very) recently that I ran into the pretty impressive and impressively free to grab Three Plains fantasy wargame too, which you dear and above all cunning reader can also grab by visiting the previous link and providing the site with your email. Haven't received any sort of spam myself just yet, so I do believe it's pretty safe.

Then again, such a tiny risk is definitely worth the enjoyment you'll be getting, especially considering this is a pretty lovely and obviously Warhammer inspired game that doesn't require miniatures, but appropriately demands a table to game on. Three Plains comes complete with all the soldiers, heroes, monsters, war machines, counters and bits of terrain required to play out some glorious battles in equally glorious PDF; all you have to do is print them, stick 'em to paper bases and avoid paying the exorbitant prices miniature manufacturers have been asking those past few years. Not that you -or for that matter I- can't use proper fantasy gaming miniatures should you so wish, but the papery ones do look surprisingly nice...

As for the game itself, well, it really feels quite a bit like Warhammer, meaning you'll have units (complete with flanks and rears) charging each other, heroes tipping the balance and a variety of magic users, fantasy races, mercenaries, magic items, exotic poisons and catapults to spice things up. Three Plains, you see, is already quite a rich game; the well-written main rulebook and more than a few expansions/armybooks such as the Orcs of the Blank Lands one are already available to download and are all that you'll need to start playing. Well, okay, some dice too.

Now, have a look, will you? I'll wait and open a champagne to further celebrate Elderly's return while you're reading and playing with them scissors.  

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• A glimpse at a gnomic train
• H.G. Wells: Little Wars
• Brikwars!
• Maziacs: The Boardgame

It's not Warhammer, it's the gnomic model train!

Time for another picture heavy post it seems, but this time it's something I with the lovely lady of the lair have constructed. Yes, what you see above is indeed a detail from that toy train modelling project I've been mentioning for quite some time now, and what follows is a selection of work in progress pictures. It's been incredibly time-consuming, yet equally satisfying mind.

The first version of the final build...

...was hiding those lovely holes, that provide access to the diorama's lighting.

Looking nice already.

It's fully working too. Look at those lovely cables!

And a word of promise: the next -and finally final- post on the gnomic train project will let you see the finished thing and its lovely lights. Oh, and quite a few detailed pics.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• A session of Chill
• Warhammer retrospective
• Brikwars!
• A fantastic RPG table

Toy Train Tycoon (Analog Version)

As promised some time ago, here I am letting you know all about the progress of the model/electric train diorama, that will hopefully sometime evolve into the official coffee table of the non-virtual, strictly analog and rather comfy version of Gnome's Lair. Well, progress has been made. The wooden basis of the thing has already arrived, the table's frame has been designed and ordered, a ton of miscellaneous stuff has been bought, ideas have been discussed and -finally- its actual construction has began. Things initially looked like this:

Slightly chaotic, but -trust me- it could have been worse. Anyway, after deciding that using all those train pieces would simply be over the top, the very WIP diorama has been arranged into what can only be described as a first draft:

And here's a zoomed in look at the station. Nice, innit? Watch this space for further developments. They wont be shocking or anything, but I sincerely do hope they'll be quite interesting for you game-loving people.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• LEGO Brikwars
• Steal Away Jackson
• Chronicles from the Warzone #1
• An intro to RPGs

A session of Chill

I hadn't played a proper roleplaying game for so long, I had almost forgotten what it feels like, which is kind of a shame as it feels pretty much brilliant; a fact of life I was reminded of a couple of days ago when I, the lady of the lair and my best friend went over to another friend's place for a few hours of Chill. A few hours that turned out to be, well, quite a bit more than a few and were even enjoyed by said lady who had -interestingly- never experienced an RPG before.

After all, we did get back home both slightly tipsy and at 4 o' clock in the morning, which made this feel like a most proper and mainstream of Saturday nights. Of course it wasn't. It was a night when we got recruited by SAVE (the Societas Argenti Viae Eternitata) to combat the Unknown somewhere in the snowy parts of northwestern USA, got to think, scheme, strategize, solve puzzles and combat a most disturbing entity with a taste for cannibals, while rolling dice, listening to atmospheric music, chatting (or, well, strongly disagreeing) about art and drinking a truly fine single malt whiskey. Yes, it was a fun, rewarding and most invigorating night, that reminded me that making time for the odd RPG session should become a priority. I was even reminded of what a great system and game world Chill has to offer.

Chill, you see, is a rather obscure, d100 based, tabletop RPG system that was published by Pacesetter and then Mayfair Games and has been out of print for over a decade. The game sports simple to learn core mechanics and focuses on what it does best: horror and intricate monsters, that each need to be killed in a particular nasty way, the discovery of which is always half the fun. A zombie for example has to be shot in the head, whereas a rakshasa can only be destroyed by any wound inflicted with an iron blowgun dart, that is fired from a blowgun made of bamboo that is at least 15 years old.

Intrigued? Good. You can (and frankly should) find out more about Chill via this RPGnet review, its Wikipedia page and this handy Chill FAQ. Better yet, why not grab the Chill books themselves? Mayfair Games is still selling a vastly discounted bundle of books and you can find everything you'll ever need to enjoy the game on either Amazon or eBay.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• An introduction to pen & paper RPGs
• Maziacs: The Boardgame
• The first issue of Dragon magazine
• Walker & Silhouette

Märklin HO and toy trains

Now, I'm not quite sure if most of the Gnome's Lair readers will be interested in little electrical models of trains and tiny model breweries, but, well, I thought that model-making is closely related to Warhammer and playing with toys is a sort of gaming too, so, uhm, please bare with me. After all, it's not everyday one discovers a forgotten hobby and this is exactly what happened to me yesterday, when me and the lady of the lair decided to unpack my ancient Märklin sets in order to design a coffee-table/diorama hybrid.

Yes, indeed. We'll be creative in a very hands-on way and hopefully come up with something beautiful, unique and very retro, as the origins of this very train-set are almost lost in antiquity. Or at least trace back to a few months after I was born...

The good news is, everything seems to work fine (yes, the trains, the crossings, the lamps, everything) and we'll start working immediately. Oh, and I'll be posting pictures and updates as regularly as possible. Hope you luvs enjoy this one too.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• The War on Terror
• Chronicles from the Warzone PDF
• Classic videogame Monopoly
• The Chaos Dwarfs

The War on Terror: The Auctions

I'll be honest and say I've never played The War on Terror board-game and haven't really been following TerrorBull Games. Apparently that's been quite a mistake of mine as a) The War on Terror seems like a truly great and impressively illustrated satirical game, and b) as TerrorBull definitely has a taste for the weird, the humorous, the political and the downright odd. In a nutshell? Well, I'll have to do my research or most probably grab a new board game and let you know what the fuss is all about.

After all, the second edition of The War on Terror will soon be released. And -according to its publishers- it will be great. Spectacularly so. Oh, and yes, you can also get your cute little faces on the game's money via one, two, three, four, five, six outrageous auctions. It's all part of the aptly (let alone, cunningly) named Get Your Face on Money craze funded by the ever-popular World Bank of Capitalism. Or -of course- not.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• Maziacs: The Boardgame
• Chronicles from the Warzone
• Open Rpg: a virtual tabletop
• It's Alive interview

Maziacs: The Boardgame

First, there was Mazogs on the Sinclair ZX81. It was a dungeon crawler and it was great. Then, there was Maziacs for the ZX Spectrum. It was a dungeon crawler and it was great. Now, there is Maziacs: The Boardgame. It is a dungeon crawler and it is great. It also is absolutely free, provided of course you have a printer and some dice, and can be played with purely analog means.

The question though is whether Maziacs: The Boardgame, a boardgame based on a rather ancient and definitely simple CRPG, is worth your time, effort and paper. Well, I'm pretty sure it is. The rules are incredibly simple, smart, fun and versatile, and the game can be played both in its standard single-player mode and cooperatively. I'm actually pretty sure it could be run with a Game Master too. As for its aesthetics, simple as they are, they remain true to the original source and evoke a certain retro feel. Definitely worth a try. Download your PDF copies here.

Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• Play Brikwars!
• Proletariat: The Uprising
• An intro to RPGs
• It's Alive! The interview

2009 and a happy Game of Thrones

Well, happy 2009 everyone and lets all hope this one turns out better than the previous one. Not that the mass murder of the Palestinian people leaves much room for actual hope, mind, but still. Things can always change for the best.

Anyway, it's obvious I digress. Let's -for now- talk about things sillier and happier. Like The Game of Thrones for example; a luxuriant board game based on G.R.R. Martin's fantasy epic and a brilliant gift I very recently received. Now, I may well be past my obsession with all things fantasy, but I really love the still unfinished literary work of Mr. Martin and I'd even go as far as saying that, despite lacking professor Tolkien's prose, imaginary languages and incredibly detailed setting, The Game of Thrones is storywise the better book . It's brutal, gripping, unexpected, at times brilliantly smart, often sarcastic and features interesting characters (with excellent dialog) that are way more complex and realistic than genre stereotypes. Also it has apparently got itself the afforementioned board game. By Fantasy Flight no less.

Truth be said, I haven't played the Game of Thrones game just yet, but judging by what I've read in its rulebook, I'm pretty sure this will definitely turn out to be a deep and highly enjoyable strategic offering. Seems like an expanded version of Risk with added strategic and tactical elements, a bit of Diplomacy (yes!), a bidding part, some cards and no dice. It also -quite impressively- looks like this when posing in its full glory:

Look at all those tokens... Wonderful aren't they? And have I mentioned the pieces are actually made of wood? No? Well, I will do so in the forthcoming review. Cheers!


Related @ Gnome's Lair:

• Warhammer Mighty Empires for free
• Off with their heads!
• Vintage Board Game Dwarfs
• Zombies!!! 2: A review.

Warhammer: the 25 years video retrospective

Amazingly it has already been 25 years since Warhammer started destroying lives, wallets, relationships etc and yet we still love it. Apparently the excellent people of the Miniatures Wargaming Union love it quite a bit more and to the extent of actually producing the above -frankly amazing- videos. Watch and learn kids, watch and learn. Then click here.

Related @ Gnome's Lair: re: WHFB & 40 Bitz, 7th edition FAQs, The Chaos Dwarfs, Brickwars LEGO wargaming

Some excellent, free, fetish-free Role Playing Tools

Think we all got to thank Trevor, an apparently knowledgeable RPG gamer and a rather generous reader of Gnome's Lair, for pointing me (us) towards the excellent and very freeware RPTools collection, for quite frankly it does feature some of the best RPG tools available. By following the link you'll be able to grab a pretty sophisticated dice-rolling tool, a fantastic online-enabled map tool with its TokenTool add-on and the always handy InitTool, that helps GMs/DMs keep track of initiative orders. Lovely, innit?

Now, should you care for more helpful goblin-managing software, you could also have a look at the PCGen character generator and the aptly named RPG Manager. Lovely indeed.

Related @ Gnome's Lair: Instant World Builder, Sadistic DMing, Open RPG, 1000s of free character sheets