Five by Five

4:54 PM | Labels: , , , ,

To date, the third party supplements published for Call of Cthulhu have been scenario or scenario anthologies, but the latest from Super Genius Games is actually a sourcebook. In fact, A Peculiar Pentad is only a mini sourcebook, but one whose contents can be used not only in the game’s classic period of the 1920s, but also in the 1890s of Cthulhu  by Gaslight and in the 21st century of Cthulhu Now. It is a collection – five in number as the title suggests – of weird establishments. Not so weird that they stand out, but weird enough that the services that these establishments offer are spoken of in hushed tones. That is, if they are known about, for while each outlet outwardly offers a specialised if mundane service, they also offer something more outré. Of course, learning about this outré knowledge or facility will prove to be something of a challenge for the investigators. It is all a matter of gaining the proprietors’ trust, which means that A Peculiar Pentad is anything other than a supplement to take down off the shelf, read, run, and put back on the shelf. Thus, each of the places described in this supplement is intended primarily for campaign use, but that is not the only thing that sets A Peculiar Pentad apart from its ilk. That is the fact that each of the establishments described within its pages has been created and written up by a different author.


The quintet opens with a Call of Cthulhu standby, a rare book dealer. “The Biblioporium” by Thomas M. Reid sells exactly what you would expect, books old and valuable, but it also sells fine stationery. The proprietor, Doctor Alfred Granger, is a true bibliophile and likes to preserve and repair the tomes that pass through his hands. His interest extends into the esoteric and the occult, though this is not something that he likes to advertise. Eventually the investigators will learn of this interest, probably after making inquiries about certain obscure tomes themselves, which if Granger can obtain them, will probably cost the investigators thousands of dollars. Continued custom in this fashion might result in Granger employing the investigators and eventually in finding who he really works with. “The Biblioporium” is one of the more low key establishments described in A Peculiar Pentad and as such will have relatively little impact upon a campaign.

“The Biblioporium” is followed by Jeff Grubb’s “Fixx’s Fixxit,” a veritable cornucopia of mechanical knickknacks and gewgaws owned and run by Simon Fixx, a dwarf with a flair for mechanical repair. Beyond his ability to repair various items, Fixx might be able to sell black market items – including reconditioned weaponry – and just like Doctor Alfred Granger, Fixx has his own fascination, though with the mechanical rather the bibliographical. Given that Fixx is a fine mechanic, it is no surprise that this entry veers just a little into Science Fiction.

The third entry is “Healing Herbs” by Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel. While most customers will be purchasing culinary ingredients or medicinal remedies, the Chinese and Italian married couple that own “Healing Herbs” are capable of mixing some very interesting concoctions. These are as a result of their combined knowledge of herbs and the Mythos, resulting in elixirs that heal the body and the mind; that provide a defence against certain creatures – such as vampires, werewolves, and zombies; and even replicate the effects of certain Mythos spells. This replication of Mythos spell effects is an interesting idea, but this is tempered by the inclusion of potions that effect non-Mythos creatures. For the Purist Keeper this is likely to be at odds with his game, and the likelihood is that the Keeper will need to prune some of the entries accordingly.

John D. Rateliff’s “Húbert’s Fine Arts” is the penultimate establishment described in A Peculiar Pentad. This art gallery sells and showcases both sculpture and paintings, with a sideline speciality in outré object d’art, including the works of Richard Upton Pickman. “Húbert’s Fine Arts” is even more low key than “The Biblioporium” and suffers for it. In comparison with the other entries the Keeper is given little in the way of advice on how to use “Húbert’s Fine Arts” and he will probably have to work hard to bring it into his game.

The supplement is rounded out with “The Sleipnir Club” by Jeff Quick, a old fashioned European style gentleman’s club. There is almost nothing out of the ordinary about the “The Sleipnir Club,” and if its members know anything more about the occult or cults in the city at large, they do not bring this knowledge or any associated practices to the Club. In fact, technically no-one at the Club knows anything about the occult and that is a problem because one major NPC happens to know an incredible amount about the Mythos. In fact, he knows more Mythos than he has Sanity and more Mythos than he had Sanity to begin with, both near impossible feats for an investigator to achieve and survive. When the improbability of this Mythos-Sanity perfect balance is combined with the NPC’s complete lack of the Occult skill the result is incongruous at best, preposterous at worst. What “The Sleipnir Club” is meant to do is provide a place of rest for the investigators, but it is too quiet and thus too uninteresting.

The supplement comes with decent general advice on using each location, on how the investigators might learn of each establishment; place their custom there, from first time shopper to regular customer and beyond; and eventually, gain the trust of the proprietor in question. All five entries are primarily written for the game’s Classic period of the 1920s, but each comes with advice on how to set the store in either the modern period of Cthulhu Now or in the 1890s of Cthulhu by Gaslight. Lastly, the description of each business is rounded out with several adventure seeds.

In addition to discussing where any one of these businesses might be located, A Peculiar Pentad also provides a single location where all five emporia described can be found together. Continuing the pentamerous nature of the book, this is a cul-de-sac of canting buildings known as Pentagon Place, once the home of the well to do, but now forgotten and ignored by the urban decay beyond its dimly lit recesses... In addition to the businesses described, there is room enough for the Keeper to add others to Pentagon Place, and so make it not just the city’s occult quarter, but also its esoteric quarter too. The exact nature of Pentagon Place is up to the Keeper to decide, whether that be mostly retailers of the esoteric with one or two places run by persons with actual knowledge of the Mythos, or the Mythos equivalent of “Diagon Alley.”

A Peculiar Pentad needs a little editing here and there, but in terms of production, the book is very readable. Unfortunately, in terms of presentation, it suffers from the problem that has blighted previous products from Super Genius Games – a lack of maps. The issue here is that the book presents five different places intended to be used by a Keeper again and again, who will have his player characters visit the place over and over. This makes the book almost a reference work, and if a Keeper is going to be referring to it with any regularity, he will want plans of each building not just for easy reference, but also to help him visualise the inside of each establishment and so convey this information to his players. The lack of maps does anything other than make this easy.

This lack of maps is compounded by the book’s poor handling of its interior art. Only one illustration is given per location, each a black and white reproduction of each establishment’s owner or owners which has been reproduced from Aaron Acevedo’s full colour cover. In colour each piece is dark and moody, but in black and white, they are dark, muddy, and a waste of space – space that of course, could have been devoted instead to providing useful items such as maps.

Despite its cartographic inadequacies – and how often am I going to have keep mentioning such inadequacies when it comes to books from Super Genius Games? -- A Peculiar Pentad is actually a decent sourcebook. It tends towards the Pulp in tone, a that tone is understandably uneven given its quintet of authors, but which means that the likelihood is that a Keeper will not find every entry to be to his liking. Certainly one of the entries happens to be preposterous in terms of Call of Cthulhu, let alone in terms of game tone, and suspect that it like several of the other entries will be modified by a Keeper to fit his campaign. This is no bad thing, as the contents of this supplement are geared towards the Keeper building a world, an aim that is rarely addressed in Call of Cthulhu, but is possible for example, in a Lovecraft Country or Miskatonic University based campaign. Uneven, but still interesting, A Peculiar Pentad is something for the Keeper and his players to invest in if they are to get the fullest out of its pages. 

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Erect Your Own Palace

4:09 PM | Labels: , , , , ,

Alhambra is a game that regularly ends up on our table, especially if my daughter is visiting. The 2003 winner of the “Spiel des Jahres,” Germany’s top gaming award, and based on the designer’s previous Stimmt So, it is a tile-laying game with resource management aspects and a simple theme. In Granada, 1278, each player directs a team of European and Arabic craftsmen to build the finest and largest version of the Alhambra, Spain’s most beautiful palace. Naturally, each artisan wants to be paid in his native currency.

Designed for two to six players aged eight and up and published by Queen Games, Alhambra’s components are all high quality, just as you would expect for any good Euro game with everything in full colour and done on hard wearing cardboard. This includes each player’s Starter Tile – marked with the famous Lion Fountain, and his Tile Reserve board marked with the game’s scoring information and a space to hold tiles in reserve. The Building Tiles are marked with various gardens, manors, mezzanines, pavilions, royal chambers, and towers, plus a number indicating their cost. Some tiles have walls along one or more of their edges. The Money Deck is divided between four colour-coded currencies in various values: blue coloured Denars, green Dirhams, orange Ducats, and yellow Florins. The Building Market board is the game’s heart and is marked with four spaces to hold tiles, each adjacent to a symbol for one of the four currencies. Also included is a bag to hold the building tiles.

Game set up is slightly complex. The Building Market is seeded with four new Building Tiles and each player receives a handful of Money. Several Money Cards are laid out face up besides the Building Market with the remaining Money Deck being seeded with two Scoring Cards, one about a third of the way through the deck, the second two thirds of the way. Play then begins.

A player can do one of three things on a turn. He can take Money Cards from the face up cards to spend later. He can buy a Building Tile, paying with the correct Money Cards – both in terms of currency and value, indicated by the symbol on the Building Market. A purchased tile can be added to the player’s Alhambra, or placed on the Reserve Board. The third thing that a player can do on his turn is redesign his Alhambra using his tiles in reserve.

The “exact” price does not have to be paid when purchasing a Building Tile – a player can pay more and often will if it gains him a Building Tile that will make a fine addition to his Alhambra. If the “exact” amount is paid for the Building Tile, another turn is gained! This extra allows the player to buy another Building Tile, take more Money Cards, or rearrange the tiles in his Alhambra. If the player uses this extra turn to buy another Building Tile and pays the “exact” amount, then again, he receives another turn. He can only do this as long as he has the exact amounts each time and until the fourth Building Tile on the Market has been bought.

Tiles are placed to according to simple, but strict rules. They must align correctly, and adjoining sides must match, including those tiles with walls. An Alhambra’s design can be as sprawling or as compact as a player wants. In general, cheaper tiles are more difficult to add to an Alhambra, while Building Tiles types that are worth more during the scoring rounds, such as the towers and gardens are more expensive. Scoring takes place when each of the two Scoring Cards are drawn and then at a game’s end. Points are awarded for having the most of each building type, plus the longest wall. The player with the most points is the winner and thus has the finest Alhambra.

Alhambra offers simple tactics, but difficult decisions. Does a player buy and lay the Building Tiles needed to score, paying over their value in the process? Does he take Money Cards to have the exact amount needed to gain those oh so important extra actions, and for how long does he keep taking Money Cards when his rivals could be snapping up decent Building Tiles? Of course, buying up a Building Tile denies it to a rival player, but sometimes a Building Tile will remain on the Building Market as no one wants it. In this way, it also prevents other – hopefully better Building Tiles from being pulled from the bag and added to the Building Market.

Dominated by the strong random elements of Building Tile and Money Card drawing, Alhambra lacks any real interactive element, participants almost playing self-contained puzzle games and coming together only at the Building Market. Yet the wait between turns is never very long even if they can be frustrating as other players grab better Building Tiles and Money Cards before you can, though one of the several expansions for the game – The Vizier’s Favour – adds a means by which a player can interrupt play to take his turn out of order. One potential issue with the game is with number of players. With just two players the rules recommend that a third dummy player be added, but in our experience this added a degree of the cumbrous to play; while game play is a little slow with five players.

Alhambra is a good family game, but it is not quite the gateway game, the type of game that you would get out to introduce new players to the hobby. It sits somewhere slightly beyond such entry level games as Carcassonne and Ticket to Ride, mainly because it moves player interaction away from any kind of a board in the traditional sense.

Despite a lack an interactive element, Alhambra is still pleasing to play, in turns frustrating and gratifying as fortunes can change within a turn or two. The nicely spaced scoring rounds also allow players to catch up with their rivals. Beautifully and cleverly designed, Alhambra is a light and enjoyable game that is easy to learn and a pleasure to play. 

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Posted by Unknown

Long Before Liberty

7:06 AM | Labels: , , , , , , ,

With Northern Crown, Atlas Games returns to the world first portrayed in 2003's well received treatment of African adventures, Nyambe. Published in 2005, the focus of this d20 System setting though is not upon the Dark Continent and how the Europeans or Uropeans interact with, and impact upon her inhabitants, but rather it takes them both across the Great Western Sea to the rich, verdant continent of Northern Crown in the late 17th century. A myriad of cultures have settled on her shores and established colonies and even new nations, some in exile, some to trade, some to spread the good word, and some for the prestige it brings the home nation. And whilst they retain all of the rivalries brought from the East, the Uropeans must also interact with the many nations and tribes of the First Ones, the true natives of Northern Crown.

Consisting of two volumes – Northern Crown Adventures: New World Adventures, the equivalent of its Player's Handbook and the Northern Crown: The Gazetteer, the setting and source book, Northern Crown presents a fantasy version of Colonial era North America, heavily influenced by the period's history, legends, myths, and folk tales, and all given the slight twist of alternate history. Thus Charles I escaped the chopping block to maintain the English crown in Carolingia, his son Charles II still reigns, whilst Gloriana, the half-Fey daughter of Elizabeth I took the throne of Albion following the fall of Richard Cromwell. Vinlanders, descendants of Norsk settlers, still raid along the coast of Northern Crown as Puritans in Boston uphold the Dissenter faith against the Witches enclave of Naumkeag. The Kelts find refuge on the frontiers to the West, as the Cimarron, descendents of slaves bought over from Nyambe campaign to stamp the practice of human servitude. Vampires are said to influence the affairs of the Français colony of Nouvelle Orleans, whilst the state of Sophia under First Lord of the Republic, Philathelias Jefferson, is dedicated to freedom from absolute monarchism, the rights of man, and the pursuit of the sciences of Natural Philosphie. Beyond the frontier in the West exit the great and varied nations of the First Ones, primarily the Cherokee, the Mohawk, the Ojibwa, and the Shawnee, who live in harmony with the land and try to protect it from the expansionist predations of the Uropans, even as they trade with the new comers.

In addition, living legends walk the lands of Northern Crown – Johnny Appleseed is a powerful Sower, planting trees, healing, and preaching; Paul Bunyon is a mighty lumberjack, loathed by the first ones for the forests he has felled; and Chiron Franklyn, Lord Magus of Sophia, is diplomat, natural philosopher, and leading figure in the Solomonic Order. There are opportunities aplenty for the player characters to meet these mighty men and others, but in the long term they might well come to rival them in stature and attainment. The new lands are rife with adventure possibilities: exploration – discover the Northwest Passage, King Arthur’s final rest place, or the Fountain of Youth; go to war for the crown, faith, or frontier; face the supernatural, either to understand it, or to stamp it out; or enter into intrigues, at kingly courts, between rival nations, or between the many cults, orders, or secret societies found in Northern Crown.

Northern Crown is a human centric setting, but with a host of classes and character options. What this means is that instead of races, Northern Crown has Cultures, each one representing one of the peoples living on the Eastern half of the continent. Each Culture is described in detail, including an explanation why someone of that background would become an adventurer, along with which classes are favored. Not only does each Culture give bonuses in terms of skills and feats, additional bonuses come from selecting one of the favored classes, and these are different from one Culture to the next. The range of Cultures available present a wide choice and take in centuries of early American history, from Viking settlers and the Dutch merchants of New Amsterdam, through the Puritans and the Salem Witch Trials, to post-Revolutionary War United States of America. All this and that is before you take into account the presence of the American Natives.

In terms of classes, Northern Crown keeps most of the core classes, though with a few minor changes. The role played by each class in Northern Crown is nicely explained. Gone though, are the Barbarian, the Fighter, the Monk, and the Rogue. They are replaced by the spy-like Agent, the Raider, a warrior at home fighting either in the forests, mountains, or at sea, and the obvious Rake, Scout, and Soldier. Of particular note are two classes, the first being Natural Philosopher, a delver into the laws of nature whose scientific learning and method grants him the ability to build fantastic devices, duplicate the effects of spell casters from the past age, and even counter such effects. A Natural Philosopher studies degrees in Anti-Magic, Life and Death, Magnetism, Matter, and Mentalism to gain these abilities and build the devices. Rules are given for creating inventions with the long list found in the Gazetteer including the flying Aerostatic Ship, Automaton Horses, Servants, and Soldiers, the Dupligraphic Pen for perfect copying, and the Lazarus Box, capable of restoring life to a corpse. The other is the Witch, who though not necessarily evil, is an arcane spell caster who gains her spells through a constant companion, a Lawful Evil Imp. He will do the witch’s bidding much of the time, but will tempt her to commit evil acts, so is an NPC controlled by the GM.

Likewise, many of the core Prestige Classes are retained, with Northern Crown adding more. Several model the setting’s Living Legends, including the Firebrand, the living symbol of a noble cause, the Frontier Legend, the Sower, the Tall Tale Hero, who is of great stature and capable of mighty feats, and the Wild Brawler. Others include the Falstaff, who personifies bad behavior, indulgence, and disrespect to anything honorable, the Fencing Master, the Officer, and the Sea Captain.

The most notable addition for any character will be his Social Rank. Initially determined randomly by culture and class, this is a measure of how NPCs will react to a character and how in turn, he should respond. Although a character will rise by one Social Rank per level gained, in Uropan Culture he will be unable to rise beyond a certain level without gaining a knighthood. A First One character has a greater degree of social mobility, and although he can rise higher, beyond that, he must marry into royalty. The basics of both Uropan and First One daily life are well-explained, also covering attitudes and religions. Besides all this, Northern Crown: New World Adventures lists and explains the setting's arms and equipment, feats, skills, combat, and spells. One curious addition is that of Psionic Knacks, limited to a trio of minor powers – Evil Eye, Firebug, and Second Sight. All three are Feat rather than class based, and allow a character to have abilities in-keeping with the feel of the setting, but without the need for them to take a spell casting class. Perhaps a little too powerful, they might be best kept for NPC use.

The sample character is a Witch of mixed parentage, who grew up amongst the Shawnee people of her mother. When she left to find her Keltic father, his family rejected her and she fled to the witch haven of Naumkeag. They have accepted and trained her as a Witch and now she serves the Coven. She is known for her healing hands and her beguiling looks that begin with her green eyes.

Hesther Argent (Wabethe), 1st Level Witch
Culture: Witchling Social Rank: 17
Str 15 Dex 11 Con 15 Int 12 Wis 17 Chr 16
Armour Class: 10 HP: 6 Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Feats: Second Sight, Two Worlds (Shawnee)
Skills: Concentration +4, Craft (Tailor) +2, Disguise +4, Heal +6, Hide +1, Knowledge (Nature) +2, Move Silently +1, Sense Motive +7, Spellcraft +5, Survival +4
Languages: English, Keltic, Shawnee
Special Abilities: Summon Imp, Black Garb (+1 AC), +2 Saves versus Fear; Low Light Vision (60 feet), Unholy Senses (+1 Sense Motive); Healing Hands (+2 Heal), Pawawka, Wildshield, Wildborn (+1 Survival)
Spells: 0-Level – detect magic, detect poison, read magic; 1st Level – bless, charm person
Favoured Weapons: Dagger (+1), Longbow (+1)

As good as Northern Crown: New World Adventures is, it really needs a companion volume to fully work. Northern Crown: Gazetteer is that volume, primarily a background sourcebook that describes each of the colonies and their notable locations, as well as discussing reasons to adventure, giving a full set of encounter and treasure tables, and monsters to go with the tables. Although plenty of core monsters are appropriate to Northern Crown, the new creatures have either an American flavor, like the Headless Rider or Lanternjack, or a native one, such as the Misig'nwa, a bear-like spirit that ensures the forests are hunted correctly. There is also a guide to magical items and inventions found in Northern Crown, and her most notable figures, but primarily, the Gazetteer is devoted to describing the state of the New World in more detail, and this it does well.

Physically, both books are slim hardbacks written in an engaging fashion, but what really stand out are the illustrations and the cartography. Done wholly by the author, Doug Anderson, both feel a little rough at first, but they grow upon you and only add to the feel of the game. Both books include the same bibliography, which whilst useful, is a little dry.

If there is a downside to Northern Crown, it is the price and format – two not inexpensive books. That though, is the only downside. If you consider its use of the d20 System to be a second downside, then to be blunt, you are wrong. What matters is the setting, which achieves several things. First, it employs the familiarity of both fantasy and history to make the unfamiliar both accessible and playable – the familiarity of Dungeons & Dragons, some Colonial American history, and its myths being used as gateway to explore the worlds and cultures of the Native Americans most obviously, but also the less well known aspects of the many colonies. Second it provides scope for a GM to run no two games alike within its near continental expanse, perhaps one focusing on the First Ones, another on the Uropans, and yet a third of mixed characters, and that is before you get to the actual options it discusses. Third it presents a setting between two ages: at the end of the medievalism represented by classic Dungeons & Dragons, and on the cusp of the age of reason, best represented here by the Natural Philosopher.

The most obvious thing that Northern Crown does is open up (and make accessible to the non-American) a period of history that has for the most part, has been wholly ignored by the hobby. Moreover, as a setting, Northern Crown: New World Adventures is rich, verdant, and full of gaming and roleplaying potential. It just begs to be played.

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Posted by Unknown

Look at the Pretty Camels

5:14 AM | Labels: , , ,

Originally published in 1998, Reiner Knizia’s Through the Desert: A Game of Caravans and Desert Oases has recently been reprinted by Fantasy Flight Games. This is tile placing, route building, area control game, with the tiles being camels instead of camels. Designed for two to five players aged ten and up, it can be played within about thirty minutes. Its theme has nomadic tribes competing to become the most powerful in the desert by taking control of oases and establishing long caravan routes. In the game this is done by placing not just camels, but pretty camels in pastel colours.

The game consists of a board marked with a hex grid over a desert dotted with water holes and palm trees. Along the edges are several mountain ranges, with an additional impenetrable range in the middle of the board. One side of the board is marked with a bold line which marks the limit of the two to three player game. In a four or five player game, the whole of the board is used. There are also one hundred and seventy five plastic camels, comprised of thirty four camels in each of the five colours (lilac, mint, pale lemon, pastel green, and salmon pink), plus five in grey – though these look more brown than grey. For each player there is a set of six Riders (blue, cerise, green, orange, and red) that sit easily on the camels. In addition, there are five palm tree is dark green plastic. These come in two pieces and are easily assembled.

The other components consist of the Water Hole Markers, worth either one, two, or three points; Oasis Scoring Markers, worth five points and awarded whenever a caravan reaches an oasis; the Area Scoring Markers, awarded for the number of hexes enclosed by a caravan; and the Caravan Scoring Markers, awarded for the longest caravans in each colour, worth either ten points for the longest, or five points if there is a tie.

Game set up is relatively quick and simple. The palm trees are placed on any of the palm tree or oasis hexes – there being more than five palm tree hexes, and the Water Hole Markers are placed randomly on the water hole hexes face down. They are then turned over and their values revealed. Each player receives one camel of each colour, including a grey one, and places a Rider onto each of these to turn them into his Caravan Leaders. The grey Camel Leader is not played in the game, and only serves to remind the player of the colour of his Camel Leaders.  The players then take it in turns to place their Caravan Leaders anywhere on the board so long as they are not placed on a water hole or next to another Caravan Leader or a palm tree. Play then proceeds normally.

On his turn, player places two camels – these can be of any colour, the same or different – on the board. Each camel must be placed adjacent to a camel of the same that is connected to the Caravan Leader of your colour. It cannot be placed next to a caravan of the same colour which connected to a Caravan Leader of a different colour that belongs to another player. For example, Louise could put down a lilac camel next to her lilac caravan that is being led by one of her cerise Caravan Leaders, but not next to Dave’s lilac caravan which is being led by one of his orange Leaders. Keeping caravans separate in this way serves to make scoring easier for each caravan and it adds a tactical element in placing – it is possible to block another caravan of the same colour because it can only come within one hex of it.

When placing camels, a player will score points for most of the time. If he places a camel on a water hole, the player receives its Water Hole Token and adds its value to his score. If he places a camel next to an oasis – indicated by the presence of a palm tree – the player receives five points. This can only be done once per caravan per oasis, so a player will have to send that caravan to another oasis if he wants to score more points with it, or one of his other caravans to the first oasis to score points by reaching that one. In general, a player will try to reach as many oases as possible with each of his caravans, but will find himself blocked by caravans belonging to the other players.

Lastly, a player can score points by enclosing an entire area with a caravan of a single colour, claiming the points for any unclaimed Water Hole Markers and oases inside the enclosed area. He will also be awarded points for the enclosed area at the end of the game, at a rate of a single point per hex enclosed.

Game play continues until the players run out of camels to place of a single colour. Each player adds up his score so far and adds to this the points for any enclosed areas that he has created and if he has managed to create the longest caravan for any of the caravan colours, he receives points for that too. It is possible to tie for the longest caravan in a colour, in which case the points are split. The player with the highest score is of course, the winner.

Through the Desert is a simple game to play. You just put down two camels per turn. Where you put them though, is where the game gets interesting. There are multiple means of scoring of course, so as a player do you try and grab as many Water Hole Markers as possible, reach as many oases as possible, build the longest caravans, or enclose as much territory as you can? Invariably, you will try and do all of these, but there is usually never enough time, enough space, or enough camels. Game play tends to consist of two phases. In the first, players try and connect to as many water holes and oases as possible, preventing in the process other players from doing so. In the second phase, the game becomes more complex as each player builds longer caravans, tries to reach more distant oases, and enclose whole areas. At the same time, he should also be watching his fellow players looking for opportunities to block their caravans, so preventing them from reaching other oases and water holes as well as reducing the area that they can enclose. With so many options available a player has to make choices, sometimes to his benefit, other times to a rival’s detriment, and this really does force a player to think about he is going to put his camels.

Physically, Through the Desert is well presented, but then you would expect nothing less of a game from Fantasy Flight Games. Its rules are very clear and easy to read, being just four pages long. Unlike earlier editions, only the English rules are included. The game is also rather attractive and looks good when being played. That though, is all down to the pretty little camels.

Through the Desert has three main problems. The first is one of cost. This is an expensive game for what it is, and this is only exacerbated in regions where games are subject to tax (which includes the United Kingdom).  The other two problems have to do with the components. The first of these is that with as many components as Through the Desert has, it does not come with any means of storing everything separately. This is a constant issue with products from Fantasy Flight Games and given just how much the customer is being asked to pay for this game, it seems a little rich not to include some decent ziplock bags. The second issue with the components is the choice of colours for the camels. In particular, the mint and pastel green camels are not always the easiest to tell apart and a better choice of colours would have made play just that little easier.

In the past I had read reviews of this game and scratched my head at how exactly it was played, but Dave – whose copy I am reviewing, thank you very much – quickly ran us through the rules. So having played it, I have found myself enjoying it very much. How to play proved easy to grasp and we were busy blocking each other on the second game, with everyone’s score being quite tight at game’s end despite our not knowing how well the other players were doing. We went from draw between myself and Dave in the first game to both myself and Louise beating Dave in the second game which I won, but only just. This is a game that I would appreciate having on the shelf ready to play.

Through the Desert is not quite a gateway game, a game that you use to introduce others to the hobby. In part this is because it is ever so slightly more abstract than other games that are described as being gateway games, such as Carcassonne or Ticket to Ride, but also because perhaps its theme is not quite as strong as it should be and because it is just slightly too easy for one player to block another, making game play ever so frustrating for the neophyte. So perhaps it best to introduce this game after other gateway games have been tried and enjoyed. Probably a little overpriced, Reiner Knizia’s Through the Desert: A Game of Caravans and Desert Oases is nevertheless a game that manages to be both pretty and thoughtful, and not just enjoyable.

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Posted by Unknown

It's a Girly Game

10:11 AM | Labels: , , , ,

What are the boundaries when it comes to roleplaying? Is there anything that you consider as going too far and just will not play? It is very much a given that the one role that most gamers will not play is that of a Nazi – though John Wick has crossed that line with Curse of the Yellow Sign, Act I: Digging for a Dead God,a one-shot for Call of Cthulhu. Then again, for most gamers who we can safely assume to be male, playing a female character is a step too far. Which is going to be something of an issue for Hellcats and Hockeysticks: A Role-Playing Game of chaos, anarchy, and unladylike behaviour. What the title of this small press release from Corone Design hints at, is that this is an RPG in which the players are not only required to engage in some crossgender roleplay, but in which they are required to play schoolgirls. Which when combined with the fact that the inspiration for this game is the St. Trinian’s cartoons and film series, the result is an RPG that is danger of tripping over into prurience. The good news is that Hellcats and Hockeysticks does not go as far as that, but it does skirt the issue...

The setting for Hellcats and Hockeysticks is not the infamous St. Trinian’s, but at St. Erisian’s, a similar girls only educational establishment with an unorthodox approach to both learning and discipline. As long as the girls impose some semblance of self-discipline and a much stronger sense of self-education with the staff there to guide and inspire rather than to teach and to impose discipline, then each pupil is free to pursue whatever line of study that she wishes, whether that be Explosives: from Chemicals to Demolition, Advanced Statistical Analysis of the Sport of Kings, or Combined English/Ninjitsu Studies (Exchange Students Only). Just do not expect your daughter to receive anything in the way of recognised qualifications when she leaves school, just a strong sense of independence. The result is a school in which the younger girls run wild in tribes almost at the direction of the older girls, and the older girls each alter their uniforms to best, not to say risqué, effect, and get involved in all sorts of schemes, pranks, and capers.

Any school is full of Cliques large and small, and this is the starting point for a character in Hellcats and Hockeysticks. These are Coquette, Emo/Goth, Exchange Student, Fixer, Hockey Girl, Nerd/Geek, Prefect, Scientist, and Sweetheart. Each Clique provides a Special Ability, such as “Butter wouldn’t melt” for the Sweetheart and “Family Jutsu” for the Exchange Student, along with five points to assign to a set of Clique skills. A further fifteen points can be assigned to any skills, including those listed under a character’s Clique skills. Skills are rated between one and five.

Each girl starts with ten points of Willpower, and while a Personality Trait is optional, choosing a Best Friend and a Rival is not. These must be chosen from amongst the player characters – which together form their own sub-clique, and the particular relationship need not be reciprocated. A girl also has to describe why she loathes her Rival and why she likes her Best Friend. This establishment of relationships within the mini-clique comes from another RPG – with acknowledgement – the Panty Explosion RPG from Atarashi Games, which covers the same genre, but with an emphasis upon horror rather than humour. The last thing that a girl needs to do is describe her Secret Fear and decide on her name, though this is has probably already been done. Here is a sample character:

Alex
Clique: Goth/Emo Special Ability: Visage of Terror
Trait: Bookish Fear: Arachnophobia
Best Friend: Jess Rival: Emma
Skills: Art 4, Craft, Design and Technology 3, Economics 3, English 2, Games (Track and Field) 1, Home Economics 1, Observation 3, Religious Studies 2, Music 2
Willpower: 10

Hellcats and Hockeysticks only uses six-sided dice. No matter what the task, a schoolgirl always has one base die to roll against a task, with the difficulty for Easy tasks being four, five for Tricky, six for Hard, seven for Absurd, and eight for Impossible. If she has an appropriate skill, a girl can add more dice to the base die, creating a dice pool. For most tasks, a girl will need just a single success, but for opposed tasks, such as those rolled in combat, multiple successes will be required. Of course, success rolls of seven and eight on six-sided dice are unattainable, but if they are needed, a girl can trade in three dice to gain a +1 bonus or six dice for a +2 bonus. If more dice are needed, then Willpower can be traded in to add more dice to the pool, up to a total of three dice.

Combat uses the same mechanics, with Games (Team Sports) and Games (Marksmanship) being the most frequently used skills. One interesting optional rule allows a schoolgirl to increase the size of her dice pool by suggesting or bidding bonuses for her situation or her means of entering the fray and conversely, for the Headmistress to suggest or bid against her, so reducing her dice pool. Either way, combat is resolved as a series of opposed rolls with damage suffered in terms of a schoolgirl being Slapped, Battered, or Trashed. In other words, whatever the cause of the damage – and several types are discussed, it is very difficult for a girl to be killed, though not utterly impossible.

The other form of combat in Hellcats and Hockeysticks is social, and usually revolves around the control or leadership of the little clique that a schoolgirl and her friends – that is, the player characters – are in. The aim of such combat is to either gain control of the sub-clique or to exclude another schoolgirl from the clique and if battle ensues, it comes down to a battle of wills between the two opponents that can also draw in the other members of the clique. The losers of any such battles must not only apologise to the winner, but will often have to perform a forfeit – decided by the winner – if they want to remain in the group. For the winner, there is not only the sweet taste of victory and the aforementioned setting of forfeits to savour, but she also gains a permanent increase in her Willpower! Her supporters gain a point of Willpower rather than a permanent increase in the rating.

It is obvious that the economy underpinning Hellcats and Hockeysticks is fuelled by Willpower, which raises one or two issues. The primary one is that it is easier to lose Willpower – from spending on skills and challenges and from being Battered or Trashed in combat – than it is to gain it. Then again, it needs to be spent if the schoolgirls of St. Erisian’s are to defeat their foes, not necessarily through combat, but by carrying out schemes and plans that will defeat said foes by reducing their Willpower. The given means of gaining Willpower include resting between adventures, but only a single point is gained this way; succeeding, though this requires another dice roll, which seems laborious; by being consoled by your friends; from schadenfreude, or from seeing others fail; and in an emergency, by a girl galvanising herself when she is in the tightest of spots, which requires another die roll, though a more understandable one. A more secondary issue is that while there is a way for a pupil to increase her Willpower permanently, there seems no way in which she can suffer a permanent loss.

Despite the fact that the relationship between the Headmistress and her pupils is meant to be adversarial – whether in the optional rule of bidding against her pupils in combat as described above or in openly questioning how a girl did today when it comes to determining experience  (“Now what have you learned from all this young lady?”) – if I was to run a game of Hellcats and Hockeysticks, then I would be more generous with the handing out of Willpower, rewarding good play and good ideas on the spot. What direct advice there is for the Headmistress on running the game devotes itself to the tone of her game, essentially how bizarre or weird the school, that is, whether or not it includes weird science or magic. Both of these elements are supported with rules for weird science, magic, potions, necromancy, and demonology, enabling the Headmistress to run the sort of girls’ school of magic that Hermione Granger would never have imagined going to.

St. Erisian’s is itself described in some detail, including its staff plus nearby locations and a pair of rival schools, and while the possibility of playing Hellcats and Hockeysticks as a sort of “anti-Hogwarts” is hinted at, it is not one of the alternative settings discussed. They include resetting the game in an all boys’ school, in other countries, and even reformatting it to the fashion or beauty world – perfect for those gamers who want to play out their own version of X’s Next Model or Miss Congeniality. Besides a quick scenario generator and several adventure seeds, Hellcats and Hockeysticks comes with its own scenario, “Annabel’s Gold – A short adventure,” that has various groups rushing to locate some stolen bullion. The scenario nicely captures the frantic nature of the films that are the game’s inspiration, and which are listed in its comprehensive bibliography which covers film, books, manga, and other RPGs.

Physically, Hellcats and Hockeysticks is decently presented with excellent artwork and when not dealing with the rules, the author nicely captures the voice of Alistair Sim as the Headmistress in the original St. Trinian’s films. One amusing touch is the inclusion of inspirational anecdotes from real girls that add just a little touch of verisimilitude to the game. If the game is lacking, it is in terms of advice for the Headmistress beyond that of tone. It could certainly have done with advice on running a longer game since the term structure of a school year lends itself to that.

What Hellcats and Hockeysticks does very well though, is capture the flavour and feel of its genre and inspiration. This shows in the in-game voice of the Headmistress, the different cliques – though these have a more modern sensibility than the schoolgirls of the St. Trinian’s films of the 1950s, and in the emphasis upon the girls pulling off schemes, plans, and capers. That modern sensibility is also evident in the author’s decision to include options beyond the basics of an unruly girls’ school, and while the inclusion of rules for weird science, magic, potions, demonology, and necromancy can be seen as just trappings, they do add flavour, they can spur adventure ideas, and they might serve to attract players who have no interest in playing a game involving schoolgirls without the inclusion of another genre.

Ultimately, attracting players to this game is going to be its biggest problem, as Hellcats and Hockeysticks is a game of playing girls, written with girls in mind, but released into a market that is dominated by men. There is no way around this, but for one exception. Gentlemen, put your preconceptions aside and be prepared to cross this self imposed boundary – cross gender roleplaying in tabletop gaming is no different from playing a Dwarf or a Wookie. The point is, Hellcats and Hockeysticks is a game in which the player characters – all girls – can be as strong as any other, as clever as any other, and as scheming – though the game does emphasis this – as any other.

If you can overcome your preconceptions, then Hellcats and Hockeysticks: A Role-Playing Game of chaos, anarchy, and unladylike behaviour might just prove that playing both its genre and thus a schoolgirl can be fun.

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Unlucky Kobold #13

1:13 PM | Labels: , , , ,

The passing of Dungeon and Dragon magazines as artefacts to buy at your local news agents or from your local gaming store has left a big hole on their shelves. At least as far as us gamers are concerned, for while it has been nearly decade since we have had a general hobby magazine available to the public at large, we can still at least buy a regular magazine devoted to Dungeons & Dragons. It may not be monthly, it may not be available at your local news agents, but it comes out four times a year, it is in full colour, it is available direct in print or PDF format, or at your local games store. Kobold Quarterly is not just devoted to Dungeons & Dragons, describing itself as it does as being “The Switzerland of the Edition Wars” (so why I have to ask, did my latest copy not come with excellent chocolate, a cuckoo clock, and a secretive banking service run by the Gnomes in Zurich?) and being devoted to all of the currently available major variations upon that game. Which in the latest issue includes the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition, but that is not all, oh no... I shall come to that though.

Once past the cover of Kobold Quarterly #13 – said cover not being the most enticing affair, though not necessarily bad – and what strikes you about this latest issue and many other issues is how much the magazine apes the style and layout of Dragon magazine in decades past. This is no bad thing, nor a criticism. Simple black text on white pages makes everything easy to read with the use of colour primarily confined either to the adverts – and you know what is so great about magazine adverts? They force the advertisers to work to sell you their products, to tell you how good their latest book is, to make you want them, and boy do they work. At least enough for this reader to go and check out some of the products advertised herein. Colour is also used in some of the feature articles for particular pieces of artwork and to good effect. A nice touch is the use of small icons to indicate the game system that any one article is intended for. Barring an odd error here and there, the magazine itself is well written, and overall in physical terms, this is a pleasingly unfussy magazine.

For fans of the Cthulhu Mythos, Kobold Quarterly #13 provides two articles. The first is Phillip Larwood’s “Ecology of the Shoggoth” for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. It ties the malleable monstrosities – as detailed in the Pathfinder Bestiary – in with the same origins as other Oozes and with the history of the Aboleth and so in with Sunken Empires, a forthcoming supplement for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game that deals with the aquatic world. Besides describing the Shoggoth’s maddening mentality, plastic physiology, and vast vocal range, it gives variants of the primordial creature, new abilities, discusses cults devoted to them – an excellent basis for a mini campaign there, and suggests what an adventurer might know about them. Which is not very much... This develops a great creature very nicely, laying the groundwork for it to become a suitable threat for campaign set in the dark below.

The second article, “Lovecraftian Gods” is by Aeryn Rudel and complements his Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition supplement, Critter Cache 6: Lovecraftian Bestiary from Goodman Games. It details three gods in particular, not in terms of numbers as once was fashionable in Deities & Demigods, but in terms of how each can be used in a game, specifically each god’s role, his basic teachings, how each is worshipped, and various abilities granted to the most ardent and highly favoured of said worshippers. The three entities in question are Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, and Yog-Sothoth, the first and the latter linked via Nyarlathotep. The pleasure of both these articles is not just seeing entities of the Cthulhu Mythos outside of the 1920s – wherein we are so used to encountering them, but also in that they highlight the flexibility of the Cthulhu Mythos and its various entities.

For the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Dave Mallon offers us “The Arquebusier,” a new twenty level base class. Essentially this a Fighter variant that specialises in the use of early black powder firearms such as the hand-cannon, the musket, and the blunderbuss, all the way up to the rifle. Not only that, but the Arquebusier is also capable of crafting his own firearms and his own ammunition, with the class abilities balanced between being able to make better and better shots and being able to make better and better ammunition. So for example, at second level he gains Called Shot (minus four to hit, but grants an additional six-sided die’s worth of damage) and at twentieth level, Deadly Shot (critical shots kill the target unless a Fortitude save is made), whereas he can create Enhanced Ammunition at third level (ammunition is of Masterwork quality and gains a bonus to hit) and Seeking Ammunition at ninth (it gains the seeking quality – how reminiscent of the Hunter from World of Warcraft!). The class is accompanied with notes on using firearms, a list of firearms, notes on how the class is balanced versus a bow wielding Fighter, and descriptions of how it fits into the worlds of Golarion (the default setting for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game) and Zobeck (Open Design LLC’s house world). The class looks like it would be fun to play as it manages to provide a fantastic version of a gun wielding Fighter, but without overpowering the use of the gun to the detriment of a Fighter or Ranger using a bow. One thing that the class description fails to do is explain how an Arquebusier is meant to afford his first gun – even the cheapest blunderbuss is 200GP!

Author and head of Green Ronin Publishing Chris Pramas makes two appearances in this issue. The first is as an interviewee, but the second is an author himself, contributing a set of Backgrounds for the publisher’s highly popular Freeport setting using the Age: Adventure Game Engine. This is the same set of mechanics as used in Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying, so opens up the possibility of running a game in Green Ronin’s not only piratical but Lovecraftian setting using those rules. The nine new Backgrounds will be familiar to anyone who knows the Freeport setting or has seen any of the Companion volumes for it, including Dwarf Tradesman, Gnome Artisan, and Orc Raider. Most of them would also find a place in a standard fantasy world if the GM wanted to run that world using the Age: Adventure Game Engine, but some would also find their back into the world described in Dragon Age itself. Here I am thinking of the Dwarf Tradesman, the Human Burgher and the Human Mariner. This I hope will be the first of many articles, because while the magic described in Dragon Age needs a little effort to work in Freeport, the slightly cinematic nature of the game’s mechanics fit easily with Freeport’s swashbuckling feel.

The issue is rounded out with a short scenario, “The Wreck of the Goodwife.” Written by Jonathan McAnulty with Brandon Hodge and designed for sixth level characters, it as much an adventure as it is a piece of advertising for Sunken Empires. In the adventure the heroes are hired to salvage a wreck, but find themselves in competition with the widow of the man who captained the sunken ship. It comes with various magical items of a nautical and sub-nautical nature, plus a new monster. It is more of extended encounter, but fulfils in part, Kobold Quarterly’s need for more scenarios.

All magazines come with their own regular features, and Kobold Quarterly is no exception. It has of course an editorial, a letters page – “From the Mines” (where else would you find a Kobold?), a Book Reviews section, while in “Free City of Zobeck” editor Wolfgang Bauer deals with another aspect of Zobeck (Open Design LLC’s house world), specifically what lies to the East of the Free City. Several other articles look like regular features, but since they vary from issue to issue, I will deal with those on a case by case basis. Matthew Hanson’s Encounter Design is “Alternative Objectives: Capture the Flag,” which turns the “capture the flag” multi-player games seen in first person shooter computer games into an encounter for Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition, enforcing the need for the player characters to keep moving, but not make it easy for them to get away. It comes with a sample encounter for eighth level, in which the heroes need to enter a crypt and recover the Shadow Orb. With “The Thrill of the Unknown” for Games Theories, Monte Cook explores how a book or film can leave something unknown, whereas an RPG demands that everything be defined, a subject rather in keeping with the magazine’s earlier exploratory dabbling in the Cthulhu Mythos.

For “Better Gameplay” Mario Podeschi offers the reader “The Heart of a Hero: A Guide to Sex and Romantic Subplots in Fantasy Adventure Gaming.” While many gaming groups ignore this subject, even for those that add elements of romance to their campaigns, it can still be a thorny issue. The article takes the GM through the delicate process of adding a romantic subplot to his game and then how to present it dramatically as part of the game. It is written with most fantasy RPGs in mind unlike “Scions of Shadow” by Maurice de Mare. For the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game it gives us a short description of shadow magic and those that attempt to control it, including the Shadow Bloodline for Sorcerers and the School of Shadow for Wizards. This adds a nice variation to those already available in the core book. One last pleasing article is “Destined Weapons” by Hank Woon. Written for Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition, it allows a character – with the selection of the Destined Weapon Feat – to own and wield a weapon that he can infuse his spirit into. In essence, a character has to wield the weapon effectively before he takes this Feat and so gain the Destiny Points with which to design the weapon’s special abilities. For example, Munga the Orc’s axe was given to him by his mother and after inflicting much hacking and hacking, including ten confirmed critical hits, twenty five Cleave attempts, and twenty strikes against foes with attacks of opportunity, the axe, now known as “Mother’s Teeth” gains the powers of Keen, Mighty Cleaving, and Vicious. The rules feel a little clumsy, but they do allow a player to create and own a weapon of his design for his character and in a manner much simpler and infinitely less expensive than going to a Wizard for it.

With roughly thirteen or articles in the pages of Kobold Quarterly #13 that have some direct application to gaming, there has to be at least one of them that will find a use in a DM or GM’s game, whether that be Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition or the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The likelihood is that more than one of them will do so, and as for the rest, they are at least readable, interesting, and potential nudges for the GM’s own imagination. If I have a grumble about this issue or any issue, it is that (a) it would be nice have a fuller scenario in each issue, and (b) its price is not given in sterling as opposed to the dollar, the Canadian dollar, and the Euro (it cannot be an exchange rate issue, otherwise why include the price in Euros?). Grumbles aside, Kobold Quarterly #13 represents good value for money, primarily for Dungeons & Dragons, but also for this issue, for fans of the Lovecraftian. As ever, Kobold Quarterly #13 maintains it reputation for high quality, high imagination, high application articles for your favourite fantasy RPG.

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A Century For Your Family

11:55 AM | Labels: , , , , , , ,

If you are gamer the likelihood is that you have more than a few gaming books on your shelf. The likelihood is that you will have few books if any about gaming itself on your shelf. There are any number of good reasons for this, but it can be put down to the fact that few such books have been written and to the other fact that most gamers prefer to buy a book about or for their favourite RPG rather than some generic book about various games or gaming in general. I do not fall under the category of “most gamers” in that I have more than a few gaming books on my shelves and elsewhere – in fact I have hundreds. I also have a few books about gaming itself on my shelves – there not being enough to occupy more than the single, quite small shelf – and most of them have been enjoyable reads and some of them have been useful. So I do have copies of Fantasy Roleplaying Games by Doctor J. Eric Holmes and Ian Livingstone’s Dicing with Dragons as well as Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games by Lawrence Schick and Will Hindmarch and Jeff Tidball’s Things We Think About Games. Each in their own way is a product of their times, but still a good book nevertheless. The latest addition to limited selection is Family Games: The 100 Best from Green Ronin Publishing.

As the title suggests, Family Games: The 100 Best is sequel to the Origins Award winning Hobby Games: The 100 Best, a collection of essays in which the hobby’s crème de la crème – designers, authors, and publishers had the chance to write about the games that they liked, the games that they thought to be clever, and the games that inspired them. The games discussed included RPGs, CCGs, miniatures, wargames, and board games, with contributions from luminaries such as Gary Gygax, Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson, Monte Cook, Greg Costikyan, Marc W. Miller, Alan R. Moon, Sandy Petersen, Greg Stafford, and Martin Wallace amongst many, many others.

Family Games: The 100 Best does exactly the same with many of the authors returning, except that whereas Hobby Games: The 100 Best only delved back fifty years into the history of our hobby – back to the start of our hobby with games such as Gettysburg and Diplomacy, both from Avalon Hill and both dating from the late 1950s – the new volume goes back almost another sixty years to discuss some of the earliest commercially available board games on a widespread basis. Thus we start chronologically with John Wick writing about Pit, released in 1904 by Parker Brothers, before going over many of the great games that have figured in the contributors and readers’ childhoods and beyond to come right up to date with Rob Heinsoo’s contribution about Small World, published by Days of Wonder in 2009. In between appear short essays about a further ninety-eight games, bringing the total to one hundred, though a whole lot more are discussed if you take into account the foreword by Mike Gray (designer of Fortress America and Shogun); the introduction by the book’s editor, James Lowder; Wil Wheaton’s Afterword; and the two appendices. All of the entries though, describe games that can be played and enjoyed by children, by the family, and by non-gamers without the need to memorise lengthy books of rules, without the need to analyse every move in detail, and without too outré a theme.

The same format as Hobby Games: The 100 Best is retained for Family Games: The 100 Best though. Arranged in alphabetical order, each entry is comprised of its name, designer, publisher and year of publication, plus its suggested number of players and age range, followed by the essay itself before ending with a short biography of the essay’s author. Each essay itself includes the background and history for each game, a description of how it is played, suggests some tactics, and gives a chance for each writer to tell you why he thinks his choice of game is worthy of its inclusion here. Rather than tell you in laborious detail what exactly is in Family Games: The 100 Best, I can show you. Or rather Matthew Tarbit can.

What is readily apparent about the selection given in Family Games: The 100 Best is that it is much broader in scope than was Hobby Games: The 100 Best. As its title suggests the majority of its entries are written with the family in mind rather the hobbyist gamer, which means fewer Euro style games and even fewer RPGs. In fact, only three RPGs make an appearance – John Wick’s Cat, Green Ronin Publishing/Firefly Games’ Faery’s Tale Deluxe, and Chaosium, Inc.’s Prince Valiant. All three are very light, and can easily be run with or for older children, hence their inclusion.

The selection is also more American. Titles such as Candy Land, Fortress America, and Game of Life (all three from Milton Bradley), plus the Stat-O-Matic Game Company’s Stat-O-Matic Baseball all point to that. Many children’s classics are included too, such as Battleship (Milton Bradley), the aforementioned Candy Land, Connect Four (Milton Bradley), Mouse Trap (Ideal), Sorry! (Parker Brothers), and Uno (Uno Games/International Games), as are some very traditional classic family games like Clue(do) (Parker Brothers), Monopoly (Parker Brothers), Scrabble (Selchow & Righter), and Yahtzee (E. S. Lowe). These are joined by the adult games Cranium (Cranium, Inc.), Pictionary (Western Publishing Company), Trivial Pursuit (Parker Brothers), and Wits & Wagers (North Star Games LLC). There are of course lots of essays about other games that from the rail game Eurorails (Mayfair Games) and the abstract Blokus (Educational Insights) to the card driven wargame Memoir ‘44 (Days of Wonder) and the modern co-operative Pandemic (Z-man Games).

What is so interesting about Family Games: The 100 Best is that it includes many games that unless I have more children I am unlikely to ever play again, such as Mouse Trap. Similarly, I have no plans to play Trivial Pursuit again either. Yet I read the essays on all of these games, and the others, with interest, because each shed new light on said game such that I might, just might play these games again. Well, maybe not Mouse Trap. Even where I might disagree with the author of essay or with the inclusion of a particular game – and such occurrences were far and few between, the actual essay was itself at least worth reading.

Once all of the essays are out of the way, our dork and everyone’s dork gets to extol the virtues of being a gamer and in particular, a gamer-dad. Wil Wheaton’s afterword sort of dovetails (in the same way that the dovetail you made back in woodwork class at thirteen sort of dovetails) into the first of the appendices, of which Family Games: The 100 Best is rounded out with two. The first, “Games and Education” by David Millians provides an introduction to using games as part of the education process and to that end comes with several pages of useful references. The second appendix is “Family Games in Hobby Games: The 100 Best” and gives short descriptions of the twenty entries in that volume that can be considered to be family games.

Family Games: The 100 Best is about celebrating not just our hobby, but about celebrating what got you into the hobby. It is about the games that you played as children, that almost every gamer played as a child, and in many cases still does, whether that be with his children or because they are still good games. It is also a book of reviews – and as a reviewer, some day I would love to be able to contribute to a future volume – telling you how good the games you like are and how good the games you liked were, and if enjoyed reading about one game, then the opportunity to read about another game is just two or three pages away. It is also a book to dip into or to pick up, read, and then put down again – it does not need to be read a single sitting. All good reasons why someone who read and liked Hobby Games: The 100 Best will equally enjoy Family Games: The 100 Best.

When Hobby Games: The 100 Best came out, I gave it as a gift, and in all likelihood, I will give this new book as a gift too, but in that there is a difference between the two. I would not give Hobby Games: The 100 Best to a non-gamer as a gift, but I would with Family Games: The 100 Best. The reason being that a non-gamer is more likely to recognise the titles of the games being written about and once he has read about the games that he heard of or played, the likelihood is that he will be curious enough to read about the other games described. Whether that curiosity is enough for him to look for or try those other games is another matter, but in its own way, Family Games: The 100 Best is an excellent primer for playing games, and a potential stepping stone into the hobby.

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